Hemmings, Drag Racing and Pertronix

 Been a super long time (4+ years) but figured I would post an update of some type.  The car has been used very little and in I had decided to put it up for sale.  The part that stinks is that the bottom dropped out of the market and this isn't the most desirable car out there so I couldn't really sell it for what I would want to get out of it.  I had some interest but nothing solid.  The best interest I had one was a gentleman from Weare who came up with his wife one Sunday and it became one of the coolest encounters I've had.  

I get an initial call from a guy by the name of John Knox who explained that he has a goal of trying to have a Ford from every 1950's year and he was missing a 1952 and mine caught his eye.  He agrees to come up on a Sunday with his wife to take a look.  When he arrived, he had this calendar with him that looked like something made from Shutterfly but initially I didn't really understand why he brought it.  After looking over the car, he digs the calendar out and shows me that this is his collection of cars on the calendar. As he's thumbing the through the pages, and he shows me this car:

I immedately recognize this car because I knew I had seen it before at New England Dragway.  Come to find out, Country Girl was driven by his wife Rodalyn Knox who had an impressive racing career.  Take a look at this link to find out more about Rodalyn:  

http://horsepowerandheels.com/rodalyn-knox-the-country-girl/

Why I remembered this car so well is because I had pictures of it with my father and father-in-law when we took my oldest son to the drag races for the first time.  

This entire event, made my week even though he decided not to buy my car... :)

Fast forward to summer of 2020 - I burned up my coil and some other parts in the ignition so I got talked into converting the car to 12V and installing a Pertronix.  The summer of COVID kind of ruined everything else, so I now have a winter of 2020-2021 project in hopes of getting back on the road next spring!

Weird Bolts, Gas and JB Weld

So recently developed a gas leak.  When I crawled under the car, I found a large headed bolt that looked like a drain.  The bolt has a weird pattern and it is more like a female vs male bolt. I attempted JB Weld but that only slowed it down. This began my saga of trying to figure this thing out.  Here's what I found:

It wasn't a Torx - that's only six sides. 

It wasn't a triple square - that has 12 sides and is commonly found in German cars. 

It is called a double square - it has 8 sides and (apparently) was common in the 50's.  

I set out to find a double square wrench to try to tighten this drain plug up and found that (or didn't find) anybody who had it. I did get a suggestion that totally worked - a 1/2" ratchet seemed to fit like a glove.  I've snugged it up and so far so good.  Now to get the JB Weld off...

Another Gilmanton 4th of July Parade

We had another great time with the Ford being in the parade.  The kids absolutely have a blast doing this each year and I love how nostalgic and old school our town still is.  This parade is starting to get a draw from other communities as it feels very classic and nostalgic.  That's rare these days...

Jailbreak!!

The Ford came out of storage today and I'm totally excited!!!

...And then I realized that the inspection ran out and the first trip was to Alton Motorsports for a quick inspection and service!

So close and so far...

Fourth of July Parade in Gilmanton

We usually participate in the parade in our town.  Last year (2014) was the first year we had the Ford but the parade got rained out.  This year the Ford made it's debut in the parade and we had a blast.  I opted to take the skirts off to put the smooth chrome hubcaps on so I'm trying out a different look this summer...

Bike Week

We were cruising around during Bike Week and saw some signs for a website called Road Pics (www.roadpics.com).  I decided to check out their site and look for pictures taken around the time of day that we drove past the area in Gilford.  We liked the picture enough to buy it as it's not often we get an "action" shot with all five of us in the car.

Stuff Continues to "Break"

My day started out like any "normal" day in which I was completely lying to my wife to throw her off.  I was trying to surprise her for her birthday so I had an entire plan that was going to start the moment I left for work.  She didn't know I had taken the day off to surprise her but I had some stuff I needed to do before I let the cat out the bag (more on that in a moment).  That morning, the boys wanted to go to school in the Ford.  I really didn't want to run errands in the Ford but couldn't explain my aversion to taking it so off I went...

From there, I dropped the kids at school and headed to the party store where I got the balloons I ordered.  I dropped them at my parents house and they were going to sneak them into our house while we went to lunch.

 As I was heading between my parents and home, this happened.  I assumed the fuel pump was shot (see prior post) and didn't have time to diagnose it further.  Sent the car to my shop that I use and had to confess to my wife that I was not at work and that she needed to come get me.

The rest of the day went off without a hitch.  When I got a call from my mechanic (expecting "bad" news), he informed me that I had basically ran the car out of gas and on the hill I was on made the situation way worse.  Good outcome - Bad fuel gauge.  Time to go back to using mileage again...

The picture below is a random show we took the car to.  We got there late and didn't really participate in the show itself but I'm always thankful to park where I can see the car.