1938 Cadillac: A big hole

I managed to cut about 3/4 of the required opening in the ceiling yesterday.  I realized that I already have a hole big enough to feed the conduit through for the width of the garage. That means that I only have to open half the length to finish it. If I can get another hour or so to finish the cuts, drill the holes and run the cable, I should be up and running. I would say that I would have it working by the end of the weekend, but I can't readily drill holes right below my sleeping baby, so I have to find some time to do it when she is awake. Maybe I can convince my smart, wonderful, attractive and loving wife to give me an insignificant amount garage time. :)

1938 Cadillac: I really want to work!

I was able to get a small bit of time this past weekend to try to wire up my compressor. When we first moved in, I thought the drywalled garage was a feature. Now, I can't stand it! For starters, it would have taken me 15 minutes to run a 220 V line in my garage for the oven and compressor. Now, instead, I am trying to figure out a clean and safe way of running it behind the drywall. First though was to run it in conduit on top of the drywall. I changed my mind because I would have to punch a hole in the wall to mate up to the breaker box anyway. Next, I decided to run the conduit inside the wall with a few small access holes. The problem here is that the ceiling is dropped with 2"x3" lumber which line up with the cross blocking. The only way I could manage that is to drill through every cross piece. That, in turn, would require access holes every 16". In other words, I would have to make a very large hole in the ceiling. If I'm going to do that, it isn't even worth using conduit.

At this point, I am thinking I will cut a hole in the drywall over the entire run and just install it without conduit. What that means is that I have to find my keyhole saw (unlikely), or buy a new one. I had been using a very flexible shark saw which makes nice clean cuts that arc and snake as the saw bends. That would be a fun patch to explain to people.

In any case, I now am planning to cut a hole from midway up my wall where the outlet will be mounted, up to the ceiling, 25 feet across the garage, 12 feet down the side of the garage, 3 feet around the corned and down into the 2 foot wide cavity I already opened up above the breaker box. If I'm lucky I will get most/all the pieces out intact so I can patch the holes. If I'm not lucky, I will have to buy new drywall, cut patch panels and fit them in. I suppose I could also take care of the section under the master bath that was missing due to a leak from the cracked shower base that the previous owners ignored while I am at it.

So, now that I have vented, I have to summarize. I really want to work on the car. I am eager to try out the compressor, blaster, and powder coating equipment. I could actually make real progress on the car even if I only get small amounts of time because the tools would quickly do the work that I do slowly. Also, I would have the ability to refinish something that I can only clean at this point.

1938 Cadillac: New Parts, Disassembly, and Cleaning

If you've been reading my other posts, you will know that I have been cleaning out my garage. In reality, I haven't really gained much space, but I have gained a bit of organization. That improvement has motivated me to get some things done on the car.

My first efforts come from ordering/winning parts for the car. I found that you can still purchase (through Amazon) new Stant gas and radiator caps. While these are not original or reproduction parts, I felt the $10 was worth it. The gas cap looks beautiful, other than the fact that it is missing the ridges around the edge of the cap. It is so bright and shinny that it gives you an idea, however slight, of how the car will look when it's finished. Don't you think?



Other than that, I have been removing parts from the engine. I don't know if I've said this before, but I figure that I will restore the car mechanically first so that I can drive it and enjoy it (to a degree). This will move it from the category of rolling restoration instead of a multi-decade body-off full restoration that I will probably never finish until I retire. So, to that end, I figure that the engine is probably pretty important so I have to get it out of the car for machine work and rebuilding. I am considering pulling the engine and putting it in a corner while I save for the machine work. That will give me full open access to the front end to restore that. It would also shave 1000 pounds off the weight of the car which will make it easier to push outside, should I need/want to do that. So, here is a shot of the results of the disassembly.



One of the things not pictured in this photograph was the fuel pump. This is because, when removing it for the first time in 40+ years, it still had liquid gas in the settling bowl. It must have had enough of a seal to keep it from evaporating/oxidizing. I found a place that will rebuild it for $60 or I can buy a kit for $50. The knowledge gained by doing it myself would be great, but it's pretty tough to beat a professional rebuild for $10. In one of my recent eBay auction wins, I purchased an original fuel pump. While considering whether to do it or not, I figured I would degrease them a bit. Here is a 'before' shot of the original and an 'after' shot of both of them much cleaner than they have been in 40+ years.



In the final chapter of this post, I accomplished one last thing. I removed one of the cylinder heads. I would have removed both, but the front section of the exhaust is in the way and I have to cut/break the bolts to remove it. Anyway, I only broke two head bolts on the passenger side, but I had broken one those a couple months ago. I still have three bolts to remove on the driver side and have only broken one bolt there. All said, assuming I don't break any of those three bolts, that shouldn't be too bad for the machine shop to remove them. My theory, it turns out, was correct in assuming that I had a stuck valve. In fact, from what I can see on the passenger side, I have several stuck valves. Three of the eight were moving. The rest were nice and stubborn. To my surprise though, the cylinder walls were coated with a nice light coating of carbon with no visible scoring or cracks. I was quite certain it was going to be a horror show, given the condition of the water passages, but I now have renewed faith that my block will be salvageable. Here is one more picture to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Random Thoughts: What's up with this?

I started getting an unending onslaught of spam comments recently. I gotta wonder if it is something that I posted that links here. Doesn't matter all that much because I cranked up the moderation keywords to include most of these new spam comments. The first day, I had 78 new comments. Last night, I only had 2. A couple more days and I should have them all blocked. Of course, you can never truly stop them without cutting comments off entirely. Even though I only have a couple of comments, I don't really want to do that.

By the way, if you didn't notice, I did not successfully migrate my site to another server. It failed miserably several times before I gave up and went on to something else. Maybe I'll try it this weekend. I have my doubts though. I have too much to do now that it is spring.

Our new garden shed is being built. I believe it will be done within a week, but who knows when it will be delivered. After that, I need to put in some shelving and probably a loft. Some pegboard is probably in my future too. After that, I'll move everything in and clean up the crap that's left. After that I'm getting my air compressor. A quick run of wire and outlets should put me into the up-and-running category for media blasting, powder coating and general automotive repair.

Of course, some of that may have to wait because I really want to build at least one raised bed this year, plus I need to add compost to the flower and herb beds. I will also probably expand my bird bath flower bed slightly so I can add a few more types of flowers. At this rate, it will be mid-summer before I start my perimeter drain, front fence and walk. That makes sense, right? Hard manual labor is best done under the mid-summer sun. Right?

Random Thoughts: Cleaning up my life...

or, at least, cleaning up my garage. For a while now I have been really motivated to work on the Cadillac. I haven't worked on it in the slightest, though, due to a bunch of things. A lot of times, there is something that is more important that must take priority. Usually, though, it is just that I spend free time on the computer instead of in the garage.

Much of my problem is the work environment. To describe my garage with simple words doesn't really do it justice. Think about a 25 foot by 25 foot by 8 foot tall space neatly lined on all sides with stacks of miscellaneous stuff.  Then, turn the room upside down and inside out. Toss in a hand grenade to "neatly" push everything back to the outside walls so that you can fit a 1938 Cadillac on one side. Finally, just for fun, pile scrap lumber and hand tools on every surface that is flat or somewhat flat and you've got my garage.

Would you want to perform a long-term car restoration (or any project) in that environment? I thought not.

Enter, my super smart wife... She pointed out that I wake up early and go on the internet or watch TV. Instead, I could go work in the garage. (Didn't I say she was super smart?) So, this morning, that is just what I did. I started the long slow process of cleaning up the garage. After 2.5 hours of work, I managed to clear a 6' by 6' space of floor. Hopefully, I will be able to do some more work on over the next couple weeks. If I'm efficient, I could probably clear out enough space to work comfortably.

After that, I'll take a short hiatus while I spend all my free time pruning the trees and brambles. With any luck, I'll spend my free time in April making some progress on the car. I have to get my oven installed so I can powdercoat things. I think I will wire up a second outlet at the same time so I will be able to plug in an air compressor, which will be my next big purchase.

Of course, once May rolls around, I will have to plant, mow, pick and other miscellaneous chores. My other outdoor projects this year include a french drain on the high side of the house, a front path/stair landing, rebuild the front steps, install a fence along the road and landscape the whole front yard. Needless to say, I probably won't have much free time until September when I will start all over again.