Service station.

A good friend of of mine just bought a service station. Not a functional, operating garage, but the kind of place that had once been an actual business, where people bought gas, got their tires rotated, chassis lubed, brakes done or a transmission rebuilt things got really bad, but now was a place fir the elderly owner and his even more elderly buddies to come hang out and drink coffee all day. Built in the 40’s, it’s the typical two bay shop with a separate office place that stood on every city corner . Now, a place for its owner to hang out, a place to keep that car that, if it were in good nick, would be desirable and have some value, but mostly a place to disappear for a few hours, to watch “I Love Lucy” reruns, and tell lies.

He bought it for a song, maybe because it’s in a “ depressed” neighborhood, or maybe because it was weeks away from a back taxes sale, but it came with all the contents, some of which are very collectible, tools and equipment. He spent a week or so lately scraping and painting, cleaning out trash, and finding a home for the shop cat that kept coming back after being relocated,not realizing his home had been sold and he had to find somewhere else to go. Much like the former owners 50-something year old, never-employed son, who, when my buddy showed me the place, like the cat, had come back, and was just hanging out, oblivious to the fact that the place was no longer theirs.

Happily, the tanks have been pulled, documented, and there’s a gas station across the street that’s open 24 a hours a day, who’s owners my buddy has befriended. They assured him they’ll continue to keep an eye out, like they did for the previous owner. There’s a house across the street, that has what seems to be a 24 hour a day party going on, but they too assured my buddy they’d be on g TV he lookout for the place too.

While I was there, a guy pulled up in a new Lincoln, and the driver asked my buddy if he would do some work on his truck, which he said his kids had let go to seed while he was incarcerated.

“Money ain’t no problem”. The guy said, and also offered to keep an eye on the place, and seemed to appreciate it when my buddy told him he wasn’t going to open a repair facility, but was going to store his cars there.

The strip club down the street offers a lunch buffet and discreet parking in the rear, so there’s a place to go for entertainment for gentlemen nearby when hanging out at the garage gets old, and we get thirsty and hungry.

It’s the kind of place that lots of guys my age would love to have. A place to keep our toys, a place our friends can come and hang out, a place to keep our stuff. a garage, a museum, a gathering place.

I admit, I’m bit jealous.

Well, this isn’t working…

I’ve tried multiple times to update my little blog, and have been locked out. I found an end run by using my phone, so forgive the (assured MULTIPLE typos), we’ll try to catch up…

I believe we left off last fall with the DeSoto wagon running with its new Hemi, so first, an update on that.

It’s now painted, a beautiful dark garnet and pearl white, of course done here at Cool McCool’s Garage.

The interior is also done, farmed out (the first time EVER), and it’s been a frustrating and disappointing experience. All of my worst fears about hiring work out came true.

We were lied to, put off, got material we did not select, and put off for six months. The end result is good, not great, but it’s done and we’re going to live with it.

That’s be pjs, and we’re moving forward. Today I started on replacing the cargo floor and side panels in birch, made good progress. Stain and varnish will complete that part, then I need to repaint the garnish molding and the interior will be complete.

The headliner was made by the guy who did the rest of the interior, I installed it, in spite of his promise to, and I’m glad to add that to my skill set. I’m proud of how it looks,

We’d hoped to be using it by now, but being retired, I now have no deadlines, so it’ll be done when it’s done. Now that can once again post, I’ll try to keep the page updated with progress on this and all the other fun stuff happening here at Coll McCool’s Garage.

We have upholstery!

On Building.

I’ve been busy if late building another roadster, this time a ‘29, after selling the ‘34 a year ago in a moment of weakness.

Summer’s End.

What a long, strange trip this summer has been. Certainly when I retired a year ago, I didn’t foresee anything like this. We’ve been busy yes, but not busy the way we anticipated. Travel plans cancelled, no dining out, very limited visits with our beautiful grandson, but everyone is healthy, we got a lot done, so it’s OK.

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated my blog, so here’s a quick recap of all the fun we’ve had not doing the things we’d planned…

We got to watch Milo play ball before one of the kids in his Little League tested positive for Covid.

I got enough done on the DeSoto to be able to pull it out the shop under its own power and drive around the yard.

I spent the last two months on a HUGE remodeling project on the house. Beautiful new front porch, new roof, sidewalk, siding, and windows in the house.

The (almost) finished project.

After a winter open, I realized we needed an overhead door for the barn I built last fall. After that, we realized the shop looked awful and put matching steel on that, and new tinted glass doors.

Shop doors…

I treated myself and got something I’ve always wanted.

We went camping a couple of times…

…even if it was sometimes in our own backyard.

I got something I’ve always needed.

Regretting selling the ‘34 roadster, I filled that void with a ‘29 Model A roadster. Good home for the Hemi from the wagon.

All in all, we’ve had a good year, we’re grateful for what have, for our family, and looking forward to next year.

New Project!

The abandoned ’63 Riviera project has left the building! As soon as we bought the ’52 DeSoto wagon I knew I wasn’t going to have time, or interest, to work on it, and sold it early in March. With the pandemic the buyer couldn’t get over here to pick it up until last weekend, but he finally could, it’s gone. Like any hot-rodder worth his salt, I immediately filled the project void with another car.

This is a ’28/’29 Model A roadster body, fiberglass, that has bounced around West Michigan for several years. A buddy of mine offered it to me as a roller on a TCI Model A chassis a couple of months ago, but I passed as I didn’t want the A chassis, but a ’32. In the meantime, he sold the chassis, and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, happily, almost the same time the Riviera left the building.

It’s a ‘glass body with an original steel firewall, and steel inner fender wells, a buck for a Hallock style split windshield, which I’m going to have cast in aluminum at a local foundry, and have a couple more made to sell. The doors are extended, although the jambs on this body are not, inspired by (supposedly) a famous Model A roadster built in the ’50’s.

I have not been able to find any photos or information on that car, but somebody knows or remembers a purple A roadster with extended doors and I’ll have another piece of the puzzle.

I have the fresh 276 DeSoto Hemi that the wagon gave up for it’s 5.7b swap, and will need a late model transmission, probably a 700R4, and an adaptor from “Hot Heads”. At this time I’m thinking to leave the engine completely stock, although Hot Heads does have 4 bbl intakes for this DeSoto engine.

For a chassis I’ve been looking at “builder” ’32 frames, available as a “you-weld” package for less than $1000, buggy spring front and rear suspension with stuff available from Speedway or other vendors. Of course, I now could use the Ford 8 ” rear I sold a year ago, or even the DeSoto rear I just scrapped, but, there’ll be something out there.

So, the latest distraction at Cool McCool’s Garage is on deck!

Musings.

It’s over 90 degrees, I just got back from the local O’Rielley’s with some heater hose, antifreeze and miscellaneous bits for the DeSoto, and putting off going to the shop. It’s 78 inside the shop, not bad, and better than the 92 outside, but not very inviting, so I’m taking a minute and reflecting on my ’52 DeSoto wagon project a bit to kill some time.

A brief recap: Back in August, our beautiful ’51 Pontiac wagon was rear-ended by some brain-dead local yokel in a Ford F150 while we waited for traffic to clear for a left turn, and totaled. We had what I thought was adequate insurance coverage through Hagerty collector car insurance, but, when I started searching for a wagon from the same era, finished to a level we would be happy with both cosmetically and mechanically (we tow a 25′ Spartan Manor trailer), we quickly found that the field was pretty narrow.

Nonexistent really.

I’d have settled for any one of the cars I found, and presented for my wife approval, a ’48 Buick Sedanette, a ’55 Olds Holiday 4 door hardtop, a ’48 Chrysler “Traveller” sedan with a wagon-like roof rack, but she was insistent on a wagon. I of course was trying to come out of the deal with some cash in hand, but it was quickly apparent it was going to take all we got from the insurance, and a lot more to get anything even close to the Pontiac.

Friends quickly started sending me links to wagons for sale on FB marketplace, Craig’s List, Auto-Trader, and I searched the H.A.M.B classifieds every day, to no avail. A couple of mid 50’s Fords that were in the price range on the West Coast, but with original Y-blocks and 3 speeds I passed on, and some really sketchy looking “Street-Roddish” ones, with cosmetics I couldn’t live with were passed over as well.

In December, a friend sent me a Craig’s List ad from New-Ulm MN for this ’52 Desoto. It looked promising, if one looked past the brindle and beige color and spray bomb silver on all the chrome, but the price was appealing, so I called.

After several attempts, I finally got of the guy who owned it, who was as vague on the phone as his print ad, and TERRIBLE photos were. He didn’t seem to know anything about it, despite having owned for 10 years, he didn’t know if ran or not, though MAYBE the brakes were up, couldn’t say anything about the condition of the body under the hideous paint was, so I gave up on it, being 7 hours away.

Several weeks later, after finding NOTHING, I called him again, wrung a little more information from him, and decided we’d take a chance and drive to scenic western central Minnesota at the end of January to look it over. If it was what he said, I’d load it on the U-Haul trailer I received in the little town there, and if not, we’d turn right around and head home with the cashiers check for $1500 less than he was asking in my wallet and keep looking.

Turned out, when we got there (he never showed up from his home in Milwaukee but had his brothers who live on the property help us), it was much better in some most ways, the chrome was terrible, but the body was rust free, mostly intact original interior and a 276 Hemi and Fluid Drive. We loaded it up, handed over the check and headed home.

He said he’d never been able to get it running, and added another gem of information when he called the Saturday morning we were to meet him to say he wasn’t coming, and oh-by-the-way the engine was missing the exhaust manifolds.

Really?

I wasn’t going to use the original engine anyway, so that was no big deal. When we got home, and the car was unloaded in my garage, I had it running in about 20 minutes. The dual points in the distributor weren’t set properly. And, it DID have exhaust manifolds, they are invisible from the topside, and the brakes were up, with all new lines, and hoses. The engine appeared to have fresh gaskets, carb, distributor and generator look new, there was a new Rhode Island Wiring harness in the back seat in a box with a receipt for $900 and a better steering wheel and column from a ’53 with an automatic instead of the “Gyro-Matic” this car had, and a complete ’53 dash.

It was getting better, and in fact, was REALLY good when I looked underneath. The body had been off, the frame cleaned and painted, and underside undercoated, which was now peeling off from setting on concrete, but no rust anywhere. The spots that looked sketchy were plastic filler applied poorly over some dents with no prep, the original beige paint was still shiny under the plastic when I popped it off.

So, here I am 6 months later. I have a 2018 Chrysler 5.7 Hemi in it that starts and runs great. Stainless exhaust all the way back, 2 1/4″ mandrel bends I did myself. Mustang II style front suspension with GM rotors and calipers, a Ford 8.8, 3.73 limited slip rear, disc brakes at all 4 corners. Right now the left front fender is back off as I discovered the engine’s A/C compressor, a variable displacement one, wasn’t compatible with the Vintage Air system I bought, and had to remove it for access.

The new one is in, which of course has slightly different locations for the hose ports, which meant I had to get a couple of different fittings with service ports, which means I can’t finish the lines until they get here, but the system is done other than that.

The brakes need to be bled (I’m waiting for a pressure bleeder so I can do that by myself), the dash has to be painted and wood grained, then it can go back in, the newly painted steering column can go back in and the car should be able to move under it’s own power for the first time in over a decade.

It feels good to flex my muscles a bit as a builder, and it’s nice to have the funds available to be able to build it exactly how we want, although I admit it’s daunting for me to accept that I’m spending as much money as I have on it so far. I feel sort of guilty about it, since I’ve always built cars on a shoestring budget, scrimped and scrounged and (usually) settled for something less than what I really wanted because of that.

This one is different. I had a conversation with a friend in Oregon who just bought a beautiful ’55 Ford wagon, all restored, to replace his ’55 Ford sedan, totaled, like our Pontiac, in a traffic mishap. I was a bit jealous at first, since he’s driving his, but I know that in the end, if I’d bought one like his, I’d now have it spread all over the garage just like the DeSoto is, because it wouldn’t have been quite what we wanted, and one thing leads to another.

And, they buy-in would have 4 times where we started. We’ll end up with a car done to our wants and needs, for the same or less money, minus of course the labor, but, I’m retired, so…

So, I’ve waited long enough, back out the shop now to get the heater hoses on, maybe the brake bleeder and A/C fittings will come yet today and I can get those at least started as well. Or not, it’s pretty hot outside…

Cool McCool’s Garage gets a makeover!

We’ve almost completed our spring cleanup and makeover here at HQ. And couldn’t be happier!

New tempered, tinted glass in the doors, a dumpster load of junk gone, and the coup de gras’, new steel siding to match the new storage barn. That will be getting a 10×16 overhead door and a service door, I quickly realized having the front open was a mistake. Probably wait for next year for cement, the renovation budget is strained.

When I dropped the original radiator in the DeSoto last week, I wasn’t surprised to find that it wouldn’t work.  The lower hose outlet was smack in front of the A/C compressor pulley.   A quick trip to eBay with the dimensions revealed that a ’47 Chevy truck radiator is almost exactly the same size, and, bonus, the outlets are the correct size and in the correct location, i.e., not in front of an engine driven accessory.

This was $300, it came with a beautifully fabricated aluminum shroud and electric fan, with the temp sending unit and relay kit.  It turned out I had to trim the bottom of the core support, as this has squared corners and the original had radiused corners, but it’s a good fit.  I’ll have to weld some tabs on the core support to mount it, as it’s an inch narrower, but otherwise, perfect.  I calculated, looking at the photos on the eBay sellers ad, that it’d just barely clear the water pump pulley, and, I was right.  Half an inch.

The past couple of days I’ve been working on the exhaust system.  I’ve always taken my projects to “Maxi-Muffler” in Kalamazoo and had them bend pipes for me, but this car I wanted to try my hand at it myself.  I ordered from “Summit Racing” a U-weld-it dual exhaust kit, hangers, clams, and mufflers.  When I called the order in, the sales rep asked if I would like to upgrade to stainless steel pipes.  In the catalogue that kit was almost twice as much, but he said for just $30 more I could get stainless 2 1/4″ pipe.  I didn’t hesitate.

I was disappointed when the parts arrived that the Thrush stainless glass pack mufflers I’d ordered came in the familiar red powder coat.  I called, and that rep told me they weren’t available in stainless, despite the catalogue listing them.  Rather than send back two $28 mufflers for $30 shipping, I kept them and found stainless “Turbo” style mufflers from Jegs very inexpensively, and ordered them.  I’ll use the glass packs some day, maybe behind the Hemi that came out of the wagon…

The kit came with 4 each of 90 degree bends, 45’s, some tight “U” bends, and 4 48″ straight sections.  Because the car is so long, had ordered 2 extra 4′ straight pipes, and it’s a good thing I did.  I had a hard time figuring out how to get the pipes over the axle and around the gas tank, but I managed, and today have it all pretty much wrapped up.  I did have to lose the Explorer rear ends factory sway bar, and the massive counter weight on the right side, but the pipes are tucked neatly around all the obstacles, and look pretty good.

After I got started, it wasn’t as difficult as I first thought to mount the hanger rods and insulators to keep the system from wiggling around.  For some reason, Summit sent some 5/15″ diameter hanger rods, which weren’t usable with the rubber insulators I’d ordered.  I do remember the rep saying that some of the ones I wanted were out of stock, these may have been the substitutes.  No big deal, I had saved a couple of 3/8″ stainless rod sections that Kim’s dad Bob had brought home from Kellogg’s when he worked there.  I cut them up and made the hangers I needed from them, they are actually better than the ones I bought.

I’d have gotten finished up today, but ran out of .024 welding wire, but it’s done enough to set it back on the floor on it’s wheels and admire my work.  The pipes look cool exiting the back of the car under the bumper, they’re straight and symmetrical, I’m proud of the job I did.

Next week I hope to be able to wire it up enough to fire the Hemi.  I’m going to send the dashboard gauges out to be converted to electronic sending units, so we’re getting close. The A/C system from “Vintage Air” is here, the evaporator is mounted under and behind the dash, running the hoses and wiring it up will be the next project after firing the engine.

It’s coming along.

Thank goodness I have a hobby.

It’s now March 41st, our 98th day of state mandated “shelter-in-place” here in Michigan, after a month of self imposed sequestration.  (Only kidding, it’s really some day in April, or maybe May, I’m no longer sure).  What I know, and appreciate more than anything right now, is the fact that auto repair has been deemed an “essential” activity, I have a Visa card, Speedway, Jegs, Summit Racing and even Amazon Prime have warehouses stocked up with ’52 DeSoto parts I need and UPS and  FedEx trucks are making deliveries.

Many of you know that our ’51 Pontiac wagon was totaled last August by some knuckle-dragger who rear-ended it while our son Craig was turning left into his grandmothers driveway.  The car wasn’t repairable (even if it had been, I wouldn’t have wanted it after that), Craig was injured, requiring surgery and the young woman he was pushed into was also hospitalized. When the dust settled and we began the search for a replacement it turned out to be more difficult than I t though.  I found lots of cool old cars that I would have bought, but Kim, rightfully, insisted on another station wagon.

We began looking at CraigsList ads, eBay, Hemmings, Bring a Trailer, FB marketplace, the HAMB classifieds, and FB friends joined in, sending me links to cool wagons they found from all over.  One of the ones a friend sent was this, a CraigsList ad from Minnesota for this ’52 DeSoto wagon.   This is the best photo the guy had on the ad, the description was vague, he didn’t respond to the first couple of messages I sent, and never sent any more photos when I asked.

The story was sketchy as well, he’d had the car for 10 years, never had it running, had gotten it from someone who’d done some work but he was unsure, or unwilling, to say what had been done, what the condition was now, and, to top it off, he had moved and the car was 5 hours away from him, in the very western part of Minnesota at his brothers place.  Who wanted it gone.

After a couple of weeks of trying to get more info and photos, continuing the search, I finally got a little response, still not what I was very comfortable with, but we decided we’d make the 660 mile trip to get it, and if it wasn’t worth bringing home, we’d simply not pick up the U-Haul trailer I rented in that MN town, come home and keep looking for the right car.

What’s a couple of days when you’re retired, right?

When we got to New Ulm, the owner got ahold of me and said he wasn’t going to be able to drive from Madison WI, but to go ahead and meet his brothers at the property, and they’d have it ready.  Evidently his communication with them wasn’t any better, they were surprised that he didn’t make it too, but had gotten the car out of the shed it was in, washed it, replaced a flat tire that wouldn’t hold air, and helped get it up onto the trailer.

It was better in many ways than I’d anticipated, the body looked amazingly rust free, although it sports what has to be one of the worst home-grown paint jobs I’ve ever seen.  The color, brindle brown and tan, is the best part of it, and even that is awful.  Whoever did it went to a staggering amount of  work to do the worst paint job in the world, the engine had been out, and looked like it had new gaskets, everything clean and detailed but dirty from setting, and it has the original interior.  The chrome is as bad as the photos hinted, none of the die-cast, pot-metal trim is repairable, and the huge bumpers are dull under the spray bomb silver.  It had all been removed, painted and replaced though, I admired the effort if not the end result.

I got busy as soon as it was off the trailer, and got the 276 running by simply adjusting the dual points in the dual point distributor.  They were set incorrectly, it had no spark, which is why the guy never could get it running.  I believe the engine was rebuilt, it has a new carb, starter, generator, fuel pump, all the ignition wires, coil, etc., are all new, and the engine does have new gaskets, even head gaskets, that are not painted over.  It was never run, but it fired up instantly after 20 minutes of tinkering.

Even so, it wasn’t up to what we’re going to use the car for, particularly the awful Fluid Drive and 4 speed, vacuum shift “Gyro-Matic” transmission, so out it came, and I bought the 2018 Chrysler 345 (5.7) Hemi seen above, with it’s HP70 8 speed transmission from a Challenger.  I found out that I couldn’t use the factory wiring harness from the donor car, and bought a MOPAR Crate Hemi wiring harness, and a stand alone transmission controller.  That came from an aftermarket supplier, Chrysler doesn’t support this 8 speed transmission in non-factory applications.  The workaround is expensive, but it’s out there.

I’d initially thought I’d use the cars original front suspension, add disk brakes and dropped spindles, but the power steering was huge, bizarre linkage, and would have cost more than simply replacing it.  So, that’s what I did.  The new suspension is from “Speedway Motors”, a “Heidt’s” crossmember, tubular upper and lower control arms, Mustang II style spindles with GM style 11″ rotors and calipers, a T’bird power rack.  I made my own front frame stub, had had the car up on the Salt Flat wheels I’d bought for the ’59 T’bird and never used.

At the rear is a 2001 Ford Explorer 8.8″ rear, 3.73 gears, Limited Slip, and disk brakes.  I put it 2″ blocks, the ride height is just about perfect on the stock springs.  Those still have their factory sheet metal jackets, are greasy and look good to go as is.  The cardboard skirts are a nice touch too, don’t you think?

One of the first things I bought after getting the car home was this ’59 Imperial grill.  The original DeSoto grill teeth are, in my opinion, awful, and the chrome was gone.  I thought this echoed the “toothy” look, the chrome is pretty nice, I like the horizontal grill bars behind it, and it fits the opening perfectly.  I also bought the missing rocker moldings and a decent driver quality chrome gravel shield for the left rear fender.  I mocked up the front sheet metal the other day to fit the grill, and make sure inner fenders cleared the new engine.  They didn’t of course, but only needed some minor trimming to make it look like the 5.7 was made for a ’52 DeSoto.

The heavy stock bumpers are not going back on, I’m thinking ’49-’50 Chevy bumpers would look much lighter and won’t break the bank.

I picked a color called “Dark Garnet Pearl” from “Kirker” paints in single stage urethane, and got the firewall painted the other day.  The wiring is started, note the new PCM on the firewall.  The battery will move to the right front inner fender, behind the core support.  The car came with a new “Rhode Island Wire” wiring harness in the correct linen wrapping, so I’ll use that for the lighting and original parts of the car, the engine’s harness is self contained and you can see all that will show of it in this photo.  The PCM I think I’ll make a cover for to disguise it as maybe part of the original ventilation system, which actually was in the spot it now occupies.

I have a “Vintage Air” heat/cool/defrost unit that arrived yesterday, That fit up behind the dash with a little trim on the lower lip.  I’ll have to lose the factory lower dash valance panel, but the slim vent cover, seen here, occupies much of that space, and actually looks pretty good.  There’s a complete extra dash which has all the missing trim I need, a radio delete plate and prettier gauges, so it’ll all get nicely finished.

I’m very happy with the dial shifter, mounted on the dash here where the ashtray had been, and proud of the little fiberglass bezel I made for that.  I tried to make that mimic the instrument pod bezel, which will all be painted body color.  The steering column was an extra bit the guy had, it is from a ’54.  I think I’ll leave the shift lever on as a disguise.  The wheel is beautiful, translucent ivory plastic with just one minor crack.

This is how I’m dealing with my enforced social isolation.  I’d actually be doing much the same, but I am ordering things, parts, that I’d have simply run to the auto parts store for before.  I’m sure that when this Covid crisis is over, life will be different, drastically different for some, but we’ll adapt.  We’re fortunate (Kim just retired at the beginning of this crisis) to not have to worry about our jobs, financially we’re secure, but we do miss our friends and most of all, or family and grandson Milo.

This will pass, and when it’s all over, I’ll find some other project.  That Hemi under the bench is calling, it wants to be used in a hot rod, maybe a Model A couple on ’32 rails…