The 80's and the 90's

This is a time span that is hard to recall many events, apart from some of the improvements that I mentioned in previous postings. There were several weddings will I will cover in a later section, and of course the Pharlap movie, also covered in a previous posting.

For most of this time 84 to 96, I worked for Stem Industries in Bayswater, and the Chev was used on an infrequent basis to drive to work. The other item of interest relating to Stem was the great workshop that I had access to after hours and on weekends. Many an hour was spent repairing and or making parts, and you would be surprised how good a fire hose is for cleaning radiators.

There were many drives with the kids and numerous outings during this period, and the Chev always managed to get to the destination and back home under its own power, no matter how bad the weather conditions may have been.

Mind you it can be pretty hairy in pouring rain with just 1 six inch wiper blade moving across the screen.

The following are a series of pictures taken during 1994, which were sent to the insurance company in support of my application to increase the cover.

The Chev has been continuously insured since 1975, and always with the same company.

The late 70's and the 80's

The eighties was the time the Chev became part of my children's early years, and hopefully the memories will remain with them for many years to come. However I think the first child I took for a ride in the car was my niece Kristen. As I recall she was very young and was in a very primitive Kids car seat that hooked in between the seat and the back cushion. Very very primitive by today's standards, but in those days, well. Would you believe I constantly remember that occasion as the metal frame of the seat made a mark on the vinyl seat back, and every time when I clean the seat, the memory comes back as if it was yesterday. Pretty proud moment when an Uncle takes his niece for a ride in his pride and joy.

The following 2 pictures were taken in the winter of 1979 and are of my 2 nieces, Kristen and Michelle, who also accompanied me in a couple of the Boronia Lions Xmas parades. There was even a picture of them both taken for the local paper on each side of the Chev radiator, which sadly I did not keep a copy of, but I have the memory.

I cant recall how my name was given to a member of the Boronia Lions Club, but I received a call early in December one year, asking me to drive the Chev in the Lions Xmas parade. This lead to the Chev being in at least 4 parades that I can remember. The first was at the head of the parade, and I had the Olympic diver Valerie Beddoe as my passenger. The second was completed with the Mayor of  Knox in the car, fully suited out in the mayoral robes, and it was during this parade the Chev displayed how tough the motor was, while at the same time giving me a big scare.

Half way through the parade the engine boiled completely dry, and by the time I got to the end there was not a drop of water left in the radiator, and all this happened while I was struggling not to to run down the group of local scouts with a banner that were walking the entire route about 10 feet in front of me.

Any way managed to get to the end, which in those days was behind the old fire station, without taking out any scouts. Parked the car, joined in the celebrations, came back in an hour or so, completely refilled the cooling system and drove home, no worse for wear. Try doing that with your modern car.

The next parade was with a clown in the back, which my children enjoyed immensely. Not sure what happened with the Lions but the Xmas parade was dropped a year or so later, never to be run again.

       

 The following photo has a young Kristen in the back seat, with an even younger Ross in the front.

This photo shows my son Ross in the front, and my very young daughter Melanie in the back seat with her Auntie Kay.

The eighties was when the Chev did its biggest trip so far, to Healsville and back. The occasion was an outing for my daughter Melanie's play group. As I recall it was a shocking day, pouring rain, howling wind etc. Blankets and rugs were in full supply, more to keep the rain out than the cold. We made it up to Healsville ok, but after filling up with petrol on the way back, the car would not start for a few minutes, which I now believe was the faulty ignition switch that I mentioned in the posting on breakdowns.

The Chev was used as a transport car for Santa at a Xmas party in the 80's at Stem Industries where I was working at the time. The following 2 pictures show Santa arriving and the kids receiving presents from Santa.

The eighties was also the only time the Chev struck a blow in anger. Jan and I were inside one Sunday afternoon, when Ross came running in, very distressed saying Melanie was hurt and there was blood every where. Running out to the garage we find Melanie screaming, bleeding from the mouth.

What happened was the kids were bouncing around on the seats, Melanie had fallen and struck her mouth on the gear stick. When we cleaned her up and checked her mouth we originally thought she had knocked a front tooth out, but the tooth had been driven completely back into the gum. A call to the dental hospital was followed by a trip into their casualty to make sure there was no other damage.
Apart from numerous skinned knuckles, cuts, abrasions and minor injuries to the owner over the years, I am very pleased that Melanie's injury, as distressing as it was to all of us at the time, was and has been the only accident the Chev has been involved in during its 38 years.

The final shot is of the Dean clan in the Chev, some time in the late eighties.

1983 - My Part in Pharlap the movie

Its a Saturday morning and 50 Vintage cars were paid $75 each to drive around Flemington race course for about 3 hours. Seemed like a good deal, covered the cost of gas and a good feed on the way home. Around and around we went, sometimes the different way, sometimes with actors in the back, sometimes on our own. Any scenes that may have shown my car were never in the film, but hey what a great day. To see the amount of money and time spent for what was only about 20 seconds in the movie. Cant remember if I had the roof down or not, but it was a very warm day, I remember that much.

That's about as close to achieving fame as the Chev ever got, apart from leading the Boronia Lions Xmas parade in the 80's with the Mayor of Knox one year, the Olympic Diver Valerie Beddo the next year, a clown the next, and my kids in a couple. But that's another story for later.

See the link on Pharlap below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKVod_-fnl4&feature=related

The only 2 times the Chev broke down, including its first wedding

There have been only 2 times that the car had to be towed home, the first in 1979, and the second in the late 80's. On both occasions my wife Jan drove the towing car.

1st Breakdown

The event took place very close to home when we lived in Boronia, and it was on the way home after a drive around the mountains. All of a sudden the engine dies about 400 metres from home. Did not want to fire, no sign of life. Did all the usual checks and tricks. It was not going any where. Not wanting to abandon the car and walk home, noticed one of the neighbours kids walking past and bribed him with 50 cents to sit on the running board and wait for my return, with car, rope and most importantly wife. The car was towed home, pushed into the garage and left till the next morning.

Next day I checked fuel, no dramas. Checked for spark and found it was either weak, intermittent or just plain not there. Checked  wire to the coil, wire to the dizzy and checked points, all seemed ok, but was still getting intermittent spark across the points. Only test instrument I had in those days was a circuit tester, globe on, globe off. Pretty simple, but I didn't know too much myself back then. Any way, after cleaning out the inside of the dizzy, checking points and insulator for shorting, put everything back together, kicked it in the guts and she fired. Job done, no sweat, and thought that was the end of it.

How wrong can one be?

2nd Breakdown (The Chevs First Wedding)

Lets skip forward to the late eighties. It was a Saturday, and I was returning home from doing a wedding over the other side of town, Essendon or some where over that way. I wont even try to tell you about the wedding, but lets just say that Vintage cars and a traditional Lebanese wedding don't really go together. But hey, I made $100 bucks for day and got a free feed out of it. Time to leave as the boys outside were getting a little bit out of hand, and they were too close to the car.

Off home I go, no freeway driving in those days, so its about an hour later and I am coming down the Canterbury Road hill from Heathmont heading towards Bayswater Road, where Anaconda, Red Rooster and McDonalds are now. But not then. As soon as I cross over Bayswater Road, engine dies and I roll to a stop right out the front of the old Fibre Makers factory .Its dark, its cold and its about 10.30 at night. Did I have a torch. Well, lets not worry about minor details. What ever shops were nearby were long closed, no ones around and what ever few cars went by were not in stop mode. Only thing was to turn off the petrol, take off the radiator cap so no one would pinch it and walk to a phone box, call my dear wife and ask her to tow me home. You remember phone boxes don't you? That was back in the old days when we owned the telephone system, not some multinational.

Anyway, about half an later Jan turns up with the car, the rope and this time, two young children whose mother was not happy bringing them out so late. For some reason though, Ross aged about 9, and Melanie about 6 thought it was great fun, as they both made faces through the back window of the car all the way home. Car and kids were both put to bed as quickly as possible.

In the morning I am in the garage trying to get the dam thing started. Remembering what happened last time, and with a few more testing devices, I discover fairly quick that there is not a consistent current going to the coil, and when I jiggle the wire its constant current. So I run a fresh wire from the ignition switch to the coil, fires up, no problem. So this I say to myself is what the problem was way back then and now it is fixed, done, never to bother me again.

And you know it never did happen again, but.

Some 19 years later, when I stripped out the steering column to polish up the casing and replace a few bushes etc, I thought I would recondition the ignition switch. Pulled it apart gave it a bit of a clean up, polished the contacts and re soldered the wires after I put a current across it and using a Multimeter, was not satisfied that it was passing a full current, and further more if moved a few thou in either direction would cut out. Sound familiar. I thought so too. Under the dash I found and uncoiled the "offending" wire that originally ran from the ignition switch to the coil, and found the other end that I had coiled up under the bonnet. I probably did not remove it back in 79 as it was part of the woven wiring harness, but cant remember. Any way, just for fun thought I would reconnect it and see what happened, as it was a nicer looking wire than the modern red plastic one I had installed in 79.

Funny thing happened, car started, ran perfectly with no problems. Isolated the "offending" wire and ran a load test with 24 volts. No drop in the current or amperage. So there was nothing else to do but reconnect the said "offending " wire and let it redeem its self after being carted around coiled up under the dash for 19 years. Well what do you know, that wire has behaved perfectly since then, and could even be almost be forgiven. Was it a faulty ignition switch or a faulty wire that was born again after being out of work for 19 years? I have my opinion, but I will let you make your own decision.

Seriously though, I am extremly proud that a car I built with my own hands from a heap of parts, some good, some bad has only let me down twice in 38 years, and on both occassions was a fairly simple electrical problem. Apart from the fitting of 2 replacement exhaust systems, no other person apart from myself has ever worked on that car since it first turned a wheel in anger back in 1975. Do I worry now about a mechanical break down? Not in the slighest. Mobile phones have been invented, and as a member of the RACV, they care. More importantly, they tow.

Two Major Repairs. 1981 and 1986

Apart from a mini restoration that I did in 2007 for my daughters wedding, which I will cover later in a dedicated posting, the car has undergone two substantial repairs. The first being universal joint housing / gear box main shaft in 1981 and a replacement set of gears in 1986.

Universal Joint Housing / Gear Box Main Shaft. 1981

In early 1981, I became aware of a noise and vibration coming from the gearbox and universal joint area. I went through all the normal checks, such as making sure the uni was lubricated, checked the uni housing, then the uni joint itself for any loose nuts, all seemed ok. The only hint to what was
causing the noise was in the beginning it would change pitch and sometimes momentarily disappear when the car went over bumps or was loaded up with passengers. Unfortunately I was not in touch with the car enough to realize the clue that was right in front of my nose. Anyway I pushed on regardless and was determined to fix the bloody thing.

I then decided that it must be the uni joint. I did not really know, but it seemed like a good place to start. There were slight scars on the uni joint body and inside the torque tube bell that may have been recently made, or could have been there for years. I replaced joint after joint one, two, three and four in quick succession. Each test drive ended in frustration as things were quiet for a mile or two, then the noise and vibration started again. That was the second clue that I did not recognize. I then got a
 bee in my bonnet that the uni body was hitting the inside of the torque tube bell, so I ground down the uni body, re-assembled, went for a test drive, perfect, then the same problem, same noise.

So, no machine is going to beat me. It was time to get serious.

God I wish there had of been a Chev web site back then.

Dropped the tail shaft , checked the bushing, all was ok. took the top off the transmission, and after a lot of cleaning and de-greasing, discovered play between the input and lay shafts. Removed the uni joint, stripped the uni housing from the back of the transmission, and was able to pull out the lay shaft through the rear of the box, and the sliding gears through the top. Unfortunately for me I would become an expert at this as I did it many times over the next few weeks. Replaced the bushing between the input and lay shaft, re-assembled, test drive, same again, again and again. I reckon I must have replaced that input shaft bushing 3 times before I said enough, walked away, locked the bloody thing in the garage and got involved with my new baby son Ross, who was about 8 months old. At the same time we were in the process of building a new home in The Basin, so it was convenient to forget about the car for a few months. During the process of selling the old house, renting for a few months, and building a new house, the Chev was banished to where I worked in Cheltenham, on the back of a  a tow truck  I should mention. It was quite handy, being indoor storage in a publishers warehouse, right in the middle of the car section. Became a talking point, but to me at the time, I was over it.

So let's skip forward about 6 months, the house is finished, the garage is ready for the car, and I have finally got the motivation to bring it home. This time on the back of a tandem trailer. A burn up and down the street, noise is still there of course, so lock it in the garage and get on with the new house.

We must now be getting into early 1982 when I raise the motivation level enough to tackle the beast one more time. At the same time I was also seeking advice from others about changing the whole gearbox and tail shaft to a more modern configuration, as I could not see any light at the end of the tunnel. Luckily someone, cant remember who it was, talked me out of it.

So it's here we go again, strip out the box, change the bush, and the rear bearing for good measure, reassemble and go for a test drive, this time up to see my friend Les in The Basin. Half way up the mountain, bloody hell, noise, vibration, you know the story by now. Pull up at Les's place muttering obscenities and both shaking our heads from side to side like a pair of puppets. We are both standing at the rear of the car, with one leg on the back of the tank. No, we were not going to push it into the creek next to Les's place, but who knows? I made some comment about getting this heap of crap home and for reasons unknown climbed on to the back of the petrol tank holding on to the spare tyre, and began bouncing up and down. There was only one problem, the bugger was not bouncing up and down.

                                          ***********  BINGO  ***********

The first thing I did was to loosen off the uni joint bell housing retainer from the rear of the gear box. This got me home and for several test drives with no noise or vibration.

The problem was caused by two things.

Firstly there was a scar on the torque tube where it goes into the uni joint bell housing. This was fouling with the housing and preventing the torque tube sliding in and out when the rear axle moved up and down over bumps.

The end result of the two causes was that when the car went over a bump and the rear axle moved up and down, the torque tube was pushing upwards on the rear of the gear box.

The problem was easily fixed by welding and grinding the scar on the torque tube back to a smooth finish and fitting the right thickness of gasket to allow the bell to move freely.

Was the problem fixed forever? YES.

Did I learn something from it? YES. Look for clues as to whats causing the problem.

The first clue was -  "In the beginning the noise would change pitch and sometimes momentarily disappear when the car went over bumps or was loaded up with passengers"

The second clue was - "Things were quiet for a mile or two, then the noise and vibration started again".

Replacement Transmission Gears - 1986

So here we are in 1986, give or take a year. Hey, I can't remember all the dates. Anyway, when the car was restored, I took 2 calculated risks. The first was a mix matched crown wheel and pinion in the differential. The pinion was from an Adelaide 28 car, and the crown wheel was from the 27 wreck, that my brother in law Colin Bright and I pulled out of a creek at Avonsleigh. Well,we didn't really pull it out, as we watched a farmer do it with a tractor. But we watched and money changed hands, so that's close enough. The crown wheel was actually under water, but with enough greasy oil and muck on it to be fully protected, except a couple of pitted teeth. Put it back together, new bearings etc. Set it up as good as I could and ran the bloody thing untouched from 1972 up to 2007 with out even an oil change. All the old timers said the chance of a non-matched crown wheel and pinion working was very, very slim, and that any noise would gradually get worse and ka boom. Well there was no ka boom, and the noise gradually faded away, or did it blur into all the other noises? Guess that's one for me.

After that long winded explanation of my first calculated risk, let me tell you about the second, which did not work. In 1972, being very green and not having unlimited funds for the project, I rebuilt the gearbox with all new bearings and selected the best, or should I say the least worn gears from the 5 boxes I had. Although I ran this box from 72 until 86, it was obvious that the gears were never going to "bed in" and over this period the gear noise steadily increased. What did I know about case hardening? Not much, but once it,s gone, well, speak up a bit, what's that, I cant hear you!

So I got around it by doing what a few more guys are doing now, short shift the bugger. Get out of first as quick as you can, don't over rev it in second, and again get into top as soon as you can, as that's a direct drive. Well this worked fine for many years until the short shifting was wearing me out more than the gears.

The series of events that happened next are a bit blurry, but it went something like this. I was talking to a truck driver at work one day, who knew a mate from Sydney who knew a Chev parts dealer in Sydney that had a compete set of Chev 4 gears (1916 - 1928). No e-mail in those days just word of mouth and Telecom. Believing this would not have legs I ring the Chev parts guy, and bingo, he does have them.Within the hour I am at the bank withdrawing $550 to give to the mate of a mate who was driving to Sydney that night and would pick them up for me on the way back. Very trusting of me, don't you think?

The next afternoon, Friday, the word comes through from one truckie to another that the gears are on board, and will be back in the morning, Saturday. The driver lived in Tecoma, up in the Dandenongs, and it was a cold frosty morning with me pacing up and down the street as he pulled up. I grab my gears, give him about $30 for his trouble and I'm on my way home.

That set of gears, complete, still had the GMH stamp on the lead seal that secured the wire strapping. To me it was like digging up buried treasure, and even though I have since sourced nearly another complete set on eBay, plus several very good used sets, there was nothing like the feeling of satisfaction that weekend after putting a brand new set of gears into what was then a 58 year old gear box.

Needless to say, no more short shifting, first gear a lot quieter, second gear still a bit noisy as they all are, and top gear fine. I can even rev it out to about 30 to 35mph these days if I'm feeling lucky.

That's enough about repairs, we won't talk about them again until 2007. Let me tell you in the next posting about the only 2 times in 38 years that the car broke down and had to be towed home.

1985 - The Fifth Improvement - Engine Mounts

I am not sure how this improvement came about, and also not sure who put me onto it. It may have been Bill Eldridge.

Chev 4's are pretty noisy and transmit engine noise and vibration through the car, as the engine is bolted directly to the chassis, metal to metal.

The idea was to insulate the motor and transmission on rubber mountings, hard rubber, but rubber never the less. At this time I was working at a furniture company in Bayswater, and had after hours access to not only the workshop, but also overhead cranes, forklifts and other great toys for boys to play with. So it was a Sunday afternoon, and I had done the preliminary stripping of engine bay components in my garage at home. Why there and not in the factory, I can't answer, but then I had to ask my wife to tow the car from The Basin to Bayswater. The car was safely stowed away in the factory and after work the next night I pulled out the engine and trans with the overhead crane. Every workshop should have one.

The process consisted of three stages:

1. Reduced the front engine mount the thickness of a sandwich mount, approx 7/8 inch. That was pretty easy, cut and welded the reduced original mount, fitted the rubber mount and bolted the whole thing back together.

2. The transmission mounts on the cross member were also pretty simple. I threw away the metal spacers that fit between the cross member and the chassis mount, and replaced with approx 1/4 inch hard rubber, which I had drilled holes in to match the chassis mount. I then replaced the bolts with longer ones and fitted a 1/4 rubber pad to go under the bolt head and in between the chassis mount. On the transmission side, I fitted another 1/4 rubber pad to go under the nut and in between the cross member bracket.

Once bolted up the assembly consisted of the following:
* Bolt head
* Large washer
* Rubber pad 1/4 thick
* Chassis mount
* 3/16 rubber pad
* Transmission cross member
* 1/4 rubber pad
* Large washer
* Nut
They key was to compress the rubber pads and inserts to half thickness, which eliminated any chance of engine rock. To achieve this I used very hard rubber to start off with.

3. This is the tricky bit. I used something like a 1 inch round rubber mount, threaded bolt on both sides. Cutting a piece out the top of the cross member, approx 1 inch on each side of the hole where the engine originally sat. I then fitted the engine in place, securing the front and transmission mounts. With the rear engine mounts fitted, but hanging in space, I established the position where the lowered mounting point would be welded onto the cross member. I located the contact point 1/8 inch lower than required, as its easier to pack it up as opposed to being welded in too high. I then removed the engine and welded in the lowered mounting point into place.

The end result was reduced engine noise and vibration. There was and still is no sign of any engine rock or movement, and I tested to ensure there was no forward movement of the engine under heavy braking.

These two photos shows the original type front engine mount, and the sandwich mount that was adapted.The front engine mount was cut reduced by the thickness of the sandwich mount, and re- welded.

Now 25 years later this improvement is taken for granted, but I am glad it was done, even though it was a lot of work at the time.

After 1985 no further improvements (apart from repairs and or breakdowns) would be done on the car until 2009.

Foot note (1st May 2011)

I was prompted by this posting to check the engine mounts, which have remained undisturbed since 1985.

The engine mounts were installed 1984, and during the writing of this blog I decided to check their condition.

Originally thinking it was going to be a minor tidy up, it soon became a big job, taking 2 days and after removing the bonnet and radiator consisted of the following:

Front Engine Mount
I noticed this was a bit softer than it should be. Probably from being continually coated in oil for 26 years. Not a bad run all the same. When I removed the mount it was completely shot. I reinstalled the original full steel engine mount on the front of the engine, and later supplemented this with a 4 mm strip of neoprene rubber between the mount and the chassis, as engine noise increased with the metal to metal contact. After this the car was a lot smoother. As smooth as a 1928 Chev can be that is.

My conclusion is that the front mount had been soft for several years.

Rear Engine Mounts
These are still in good condition, but I will replace them next time the engine or transmission is removed. All I did to these mounts was to insert a 2 mm washer to level off the engine and to match the thickness of the rubber pad under the front mount.

Transmission Mount
The 2 bolts on either side required tightening and I then discovered the rubber pads had been compressed to where they were no longer effective.

The only solution was to replace them, which I did over 2 days. This time I used neoprene 6 mm rubber instead of Goodyear Tyre side wall for the outer pads, and 4mm neoprene rubber instead of 2 mm rubber sheet for the inner pad.

The end result is a smoother engine during acceleration, cruising, and most noticeably when backing off.

Let's hope I get another 20 odd years out of these mountings.

The only other comment of note is how times and things change, and how with modern tools at your disposal, jobs are so much easier. If only in the seventies my garage had contained the following:
Pedestal drill
Variable speed power drill
Bench grinder
Angle grinder
Dremmel
Bench press
Sand blast cabinet
Punches
Nut splitters
Cutting disks
Grinding disks
High speed wire brushes
Butane torch
Etc
Etc
Etc.

Progress is a wonderful thing, tool wise anyway.

1978 - The Fourth Improvement - Water Pump

By now I was keen to make minor changes to improve the overall running condition of the car and reduce a bit of the constant maintenance. Bill Eldridge suggested what turned out to be the second of three mods, that thanks to Bill, made the car run better. This time the target was the water pump. As I recall,the pump I had used to put the car back on the road needed some TLC. After calling Bill, who was not only a vast reservoir of Chev knowledge, but very close by, I was on the way to Noble Park again. Bill's mod consisted of replacing the front housing bush, which was bronze, and required constant oiling, with some needle bearings and an O ring on both sides to retain the grease that was forced into the original oil hole by hand. The modified water pump ran fine from 1978 right through to 2009, when after hearing about a modernised Chev water pump during the Chev 4 Castlemaine Tour, the pump was changed to a unit modified by Ray Hatcher in NSW, but that's another story to be told later.