I accidentally entered a car show and got 3rd place. That story began when I woke up Saturday morning and had something in my eye. It hurt terribly bad, so bad in fact that I decided rather quickly I needed medical attention, but I wasn't able to go to the doctor immediately. My neighbor from two doors down bought a 1929 Model A roadster pickup at a yard sale. The problem is that he is 80 years old and he didn't tell his wife he bought it and needed my help taking it across town to store in a barn he has so she wouldn't find out. He showed up before my alarm went off so I went and borrowed my dad's trailer and we went to pick it up. He was very proud of it.
After we got his Model A tucked away we went home and I went to the eye doctor across town. There was a car show in town that day I had planned to go to but since I needed to get to the doctor we just took The Caprice, which hadn't been washed and had grass still on the carpet from Jacob's donut lessons several weeks ago in the field. As we were leaving Jacob called to see if he could ride with us to the car show so he hopped in and we headed out. After having my eye tended to and getting some drops to numb my ailing eyeball, we headed to the show. When we pulled up Jacob said he saw a sign that said "Free Admittance" so we pulled in, thinking we could park with the cars in the show and not have to walk as far. The next thing I know I'm in line with people asking me to fill out paper work and then pay $15.00 to enter the car show. It was too late to turn back and so we parked, got lunch and walked around. At the end, The Caprice ended up winning 3rd place, though I have to admit I don't think there could have been more than 3 or 4 cars in our category. Jacob seemed pretty proud of the trophy so I gave it to him. Woodson is visible in the background in the orange shirt. He won first place with his '56 Chevrolet.
I had previously mentioned that I was having trouble with the rear window sealing on the driver side of The Clam and it turned out that the window would not roll down far enough on that side. I did some investigation and after extensive reading of some complicated portions of the shop manual and exploring around the mechanicals of the window I found that there is a cam on the top, passenger side of the window that is held tight by a bolt. This cam allows the window to be moved and adjusted. I eventually found that the bolt that was supposed to hold the window in place was missing. In this picture I'm pointing to the location of the missing bolt.
I had no way of knowing what size bolt was supposed to go in the location and feared I could possibly crack the glass if I got a bolt that was too long. I used a tap to find the correct threads and measured the depth using a small screwdriver. Once installed and tightened, the window rolled down far enough on both sides to seal against the new weatherstripping.
Today I began work on making the crossmember fit. I was able to slide the crossmember forward from its original location but still needed an extra 1/2-1/4". It turned out to be a very long 1/2-1/4". I ended up trimming the crossmember 3 times and then found that the exhaust humps interfered with the floorboard on the passenger side. After this I realized that the transmission mount did not have enough room to fit between the 700R4 and the crossmember, even when the transmission was raised far enough up to make contact with the floorboard. After realizing this I determined I would have to change my game plan, and that meant modifying the old mount by adding a new mounting pad onto the front. I began by welding back all the pieces I had just trimmed away, which I had saved for just such a situation. I then found a suitable piece of steel in my scrap pile. This particular piece is actually the first thing I ever welded. I picked it up at the scrap yard, cut it apart, flipped the ends and welded it back together for practice when I very first got my welder.
After reinstalling the crossmember several times for measurements I had a general idea of what I needed.
Unfortunately, since my welder still isn't acting right, I'm not able to make good looking welds, but I think at least they will hold. I laid the crossmember on the desk and used a piece of scrap metal to gain the correct height I needed for the new mounting pad.
A few more measurements, cuts and grinding wheels used up and I had this.
The process of putting the crossmember back under the car for more measuring seemed to be endless. Here I have it sitting on jackstands just under the framerails to get some general measurements for the bottom transmission mount stud hole. I used phillip head screwdrivers inserted into the crossmember and frame bolt holes to locate the correct positioning. In its correct orientation, the crossmember goes in at an angle and then slides on top of the frame rails.
After almost an entire day I finally have this ugly, yet hopefully functional crossmember. The test fit seemed to work. I hope nothing magically changes between now and tomorrow that would cause it to suddenly not line up again.
