Classic Car Air Conditioning

Before air conditioning became a complex pressurized system, there was the Swamp Cooler that hung on the top of the passengers door. This system was very simple and quite effective. It wasn't the most attractive thing to have that bulky unit hanging on your door and it does interfere with your vision out the right side.

The swamp cooler or evaporative cooler functioned by collecting air in the front and passing it through a saturated drum that was constructed of wire mesh and filled with fiber material that would suspend water. The mesh drum is rotated through the water in the bottom of the unit with a pull cord in order to saturate the fiber as it dried. The outlet for this would be set to enter through the top of your door window.

These coolers bring a pretty good premium now. You can usually find a few to choose from on internet auction sites.

1928 Chevrolet Roadster Restoration

1928 Chevrolet Roadster Restoration starts with complete disassembling and cleaning to bare metal. The metal is then acid etched and primered with epoxy primer. The rust is cut out, patch panels formed and tig welded into place. All the sheet metal repair panels are butt welded unless they are at an original joint. Usually, in that case, they are lapped and spot welded
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All Chevrolets were wood structure with sheet metal skins until 1937. We contracted out the wood kit manufacture to a local talent, who has much experience with wood, including boat building. Although fitting wood inside automobile sheet metal is more difficult than building boats, there are a lot of similar processes and skills required for both.

After we got the new wood structure, we went about the process of final trimming and fitting of the wood to the metal. Paying close attention to the fitting of doors, trunk lid, body lines etc. is very important in this process. You cannot bend wood to compensate for misjudged fit like you can metal.

Do it yourself Mechanics or Front Room Mechanics

Mechanical repairs just should not be performed in the front room of your house. I have heard of people doing this sort of thing from time to time. Normally because it is just too cold out in the garage. When I lived in Anchorage, I would drive past a house that had an airplane restoration being performed inside. Naturally when the project was completed, the wall would have had to be torn out, in order to get the plane out.
Here in this article below are a couple tips on what not to do if you feel a need to perform mechanical restoration in your front room.

1930 1931 Cadillac V-16 Engine

GM built multiple cylinder engines for the Cadillac line in the early 1930's and unlike the Ford Flatheads, these were in head valve engines. It's true that Ford built a very inexpensive and relatively fast vehicle, starting in 1932. Which is one of the main reasons Ford became so popular. To this day, the 32 is still a popular car, and only a very small fraction of the 32s that you see are actually real 32 Fords. Most are plastic replicas and now they are reproducing them in metal.
Believe it or not. You can most likely own a very nice early Cadillac for the same money you'd have to pay for a real 1932 Ford. Am I painting a clear picture here yet?  I'm sure that there isn't a guy out there, that hasn't seen plenty of the Ford Flatheads. How many of you have seen the V-16 Cadillac engine from prior to the first Ford V-8? Well here is a nice example of that beautiful V-16 Cadillac engine. They also built a V-12 in the same time period. I found this example on an auction site that deals in Vintage Cars and parts

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Chevrolet Mechanic Pin 1930's

These pins were issued to the mechanics in the Chevrolet dealerships in the late 1930's. They pop up on the big auction site from time to time and the pins that are marked 1/10th 10k can fetch a pretty good sum. I don't know if there is any difference between the pins that are market opposed to the pins that aren't other than the fact that the marked pins will bring a lot more at auction.

Here's what one reader recently wrote to me.

Hey Doug, I have one of the pins pictured on you web site.  It belonged to my dad, who began his mechanic career at McInnis Chevrolet in Baton Rouge, La., somewhere around 1937-38. I was just searching for info about the pin when I saw yours on your web site.  Thanks for helping me identify it.   Ed , Dallas, TX

Doug   to Ed
  
Ed,
Glad to have been a help. Some of them were marked on the back 1/10th 10K gold. Does yours have that marking?
Doug

1937 Chevrolet Pickup Truck AAA Road Test Original Report

1937 Chevrolet 1/2 ton Pickup Truck hauls 1000 pound load for 10,224 miles around the nation. Detroit to Detroit in 1937. Gas was relatively expensive in 1937. At 20.5 cents a gallon, it was comparable to the price today if you figure overall inflation. The total cost to haul the 1000 pound load was less than 1 cent per mile, and the total cost of repair parts for the trip was 73 cents.

This truck had the accessory, tandem wiper assembly like the one on my 1937 Chevy Truck. It also sports the single fog light like I did on mine. I know my trip around the nation in my 37 Chevy cost a lot more in 2007 but I averaged a lot higher speed as well. Their speed in 1937 was 31.18 miles per hour, but then the roads were nothing like they are today. I maintained 70 miles per hour most of the way across on the return trip.

Hot Rod Fever

Hot Rod Fever is cool presentation of hot rods and cool cars.