1951 Pontiac Chieftain

[DodgeRover]

Could you spin it in a lathe and fine polish it to get a good finish?

[PhilA]

Could you spin it in a lathe and fine polish it to get a good finish?

That would involve having a lathe; the problem is mostly the casting not the valves. The valves are really hard, the body is some aluminum alloy.

Phil

[DodgeRover]

Bugger it doesn't take much for things to get hung up, any chance you could have the body sleeved then reem it to suit?

[PhilA]

Bugger it doesn't take much for things to get hung up, any chance you could have the body sleeved then reem it to suit?

It really doesn't- the valves operate at about 15psi so they can get stuck fairly easily.
More modern systems operate at much higher pressure so the valves move with a more positive action.

However, I took it for a drive today to get groceries and it only got hung up one time and it wasn't bad so it's definitely made an improvement.

I'm going to look for a brake cylinder hone and try clean up the valve body a little.

Phil

[PhilA]

[youtube][/youtube]
You can see it getting hung up a little when I pull out of the drive, then at the bottom of the street it works perfectly.

[PhilA]

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Put the second coat of black paint on the horn last night.

I'll wait for that to harden and flat it back again. Might do another coat, depending on how that one sits.

Phil

[AMCrebel]

Like the video - are the headlamps original? They seem bright for 7" sealed beams - the ones in my Chevy were 45/60 watt but those seem to have superseded by 55/60 an eve more powerful units.

[PhilA]

Like the video - are the headlamps original? They seem bright for 7" sealed beams - the ones in my Chevy were 45/60 watt but those seem to have superseded by 55/60 an eve more powerful units.

Yup, they're real old-school non-halogen-capsule genuine 45/60 sealed beams.

They seem bright because they're being fed with 10ga wire all the way from the main busbar. No appreciable voltage drop across the wiring.

Phil

[AMCrebel]

Tidy

[PhilA]

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Finished the paint on the horns. Gotta make a bracket for them now.

Phil