VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 My 41 Town Sedan is Finally Road Worthy!!

So after many setbacks, 17 years of work, and a lot of lost hair, I finally took my wife out on Saturday night for a long drive in my 1941 Special Deluxe Town Sedan to get Ice Cream. We had so much fun! It drives and rides like a dream. My father and I have actually been road testing it for the past week and are confident that it's road worthy now. July 4th will be the day that will decide where it stands. I'm entering it in the local 4th of July parade to start at 11am. If it can take the heat and idling that long, I think I'm there. I've still got some work to do with some stainless mouldings and grill chrome but at least it's road worthy now. Here's some pics:

Looking mighty fine! Seems strange that they called the 2 door a town sedan and the 4 door a sport sedan. Seems it should be opposite.

I'd like to have my '40 looking that good some day, but the current plan is to get it running and make it look nice after I get my rebuilder's title switched for the real thing.

That looks like one excellent restoration! Have fun with it... Billu38

Looks really nice !! Is that black or a dark blue color? Good luck on the 4th!!!! David

Congratulations, that is a real beauty! It almost looks too nice to drive.

Hi Brandon, Great looking car. Persistence does pay off.

I am always hesitant to put a new restoration in a parade. Not only are you risking overheating the car but other unforeseen problems can occur on vehicles of our age. I also do not like the candy throwing that goes on at many of the parades. The little ones get caught up in the excitement and can run out for candy getting to close to the cars. Ridding the clutch and having to be so attentive just takes the joy out of the experience for me. I don't multitask well so I am going to show my car by cruising around the town on daily errands.

Best of luck, Mike

Lookin' GOOD!!! Sharp '41!

'Glad you got things "going your way".

Nice job on your Town Sedan, it looks like you've got it spruced up and ready to show off. Enjoy the summer 'cruise' season and drive safe!

Sweet,great job

Brandon,

You got her looking right good. Enjoy and get to the minor stuff when you can.

Nice paint job.

Most important it doesn't have no stinkin Fulton on it and it is the RIGHT year. I had a 41 SD Town Sedan for many years back in the 70s.

Charlie

David,

It's dark blue metallic. I found near perfect original paint behind the gravel shields on the front of the back fenders. The paint shop scanned it and matched it as close as we possibly could to the original dark blue. It really was a metallic paint originally. As you can see from the pictures, the interior is various shades of gray. The original interior was striped Bedford Cord using browns and tans. The top of the dash was originally woodgrained and the bottom was pinkish tan. I wanted nothing to do with pinkish tan paint or browns. So, I painted the top of the dash dark gray and the bottom of the dash light gray. The window garnish mouldings match also. I ordered gray Bedford Cord from Hampton Coach and had a local shop to sew it. I read stories of guys that want their cars 110% original....if their car was pink...they'd put it back pink. I wanted my car to be original but I wanted it in the color that I wanted to be happy with. I stayed conservative on the colors. Most spectators at an event will never know what color the inside was originally.

Well Mike,

LOL! I see how you really feel about community events:)

I plan to drive my car long distances including across the Smoky Mountains. I know I'll find traffic jams and all sorts of unpredicted happenings while I'm out. If my car can stand a July parade, I feel I'm good to go. If it overheats, I probably need a new radiator. If it continues to overheat and I can't enjoy it, I don't want it. My goal with this car is to drive it...not just local through town...but to where ever I want to go. With almost every part in this car new...it should do it. After all, these cars used to be driven all the way across the country along route 66. You never know...I might just recreate a cross country drive.

Charlie,

I assure you it will never have a Fulton, fender skirts, or wash boards on the front fenders.

Brandon...I thought maybe it was the dark blue. Mine is the same on my`40 SD ....has the slight metallic in it . I hear ya on the pink !! Good luck with the cross country run (do it!)...love that run in AZ. David

Brandon,

You definitely have your car looking good! All your hard work has paid off. Thanks for sharing the photos!

Kevin, over here in beautiful Webb City, Missouri!!

Congratulations! It's always inspiring to see someone bring one back.

I have now driven my 41 around 100 miles. It's doing really well and doesn't have any problems at this point. It passed the test today with my hometown 4th of July Parade. It didn't overheat and it ran so smooth during the entire parade. So many people yelled positive comments at me. I was sitting on the side of the Hwy waiting on the parade to start and cars were pulling up beside me and stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures of my car. It was a great day to show off my car with so many positive comments. I am really happy with my car and it's a joy to drive!

Great, that is what it is all about! Happy 4th of July!!!

So is the solution to replace all the parts that were line bored? Then re-shim and replace the rear seal? I still have 2 more cranks, and 3 sets of caps, and even a 47 and 49 block. Thanks, Mike

I'm not sure Mike. You'll have to find out exactly what they machined. I'm curious to know what they did to the groove that holds the rope seal.

When an engine is line-bored, they bolt the caps onto the block and bore the caps and the block to receive bearing. Simply changing the caps doesn't undo what was bored on the block half.
There is a slight chance that they might have cut the rope seal too short. I think I'd try to change the rope seal and see if that fixes it first.

Big name brand shops usually do great work on common engines. On this old stuff, I try to find an old good ol boy that's been around a long time. Unfortunately, we're losing the generation that knows how to work on old engines. I remember you commenting on how much your rebuild cost at one point. I'd be pissed to have my engine leaking that much oil. A few drips might me normal but your leak is far from normal. Them trying to get you to install a PVC valve etc is just crap. I'd pull the dog house and pull the motor and try to fix the rope seal first. Message me if you are unsure of how to pull the dog house off. I pulled mine not long ago and its really easy. I pulled the dog house and removed the engine in my car in 45 minutes...yes, I timed it.

As I said, I know nothing! However, FWIW there is no need to remove the engine to replace the rear main (rope) oil seal. Of course that is one way to do it.

A rack would make it a lot easier. Drain the oil, remove the oil pan, remove the rear main bearing cap, only loosen the other main caps, loosen the trans-to-bell bolts and slide the trans back just enough to clear the main drive bearing cover. This gives you enough room (with the proper tools) to replace the upper half of the new seal. Remove the current oil seal and replace it with a new rope seal. Put everything back like you found it, pour the oil in, start the engine and check for a leak. That is how we did my '41. It ain't fun but it's doable.

To each his own - - -

However you go about it, I hope you'll try a new rope seal before doing anything major.

I hate you're having this trouble after all of your expense.

Good luck!

Unfortunately, the Best Gasket graphite replacement kit included at least one roll pin which the machine shop installed to keep the gasket from moving. I think they may have intended it for use of the gasket for the early 8 cylinder Fords. If it was used on the block side of the seal it will make removing the seal and replacing it with a new one impossible with out removing the crank. The next step is to see what the machine shop decides to do to fix the problem? I need to find out exactly what was line bored? What was the effect of changing the depth of the gasket grove in the cap on the gasket? Was this what may be causing the leak? What will installing an original gasket do to stop the leak?

I have researched all "rear seal" posts back to 2002 and found a couple with the theory that it is the top seal that leaks (NOT maintaining contact with the surface of the crank), and it can be repaired by sliding a shim between the top gasket with the crank not removed. The shim being something like a wire from a coat hanger. I might think a coping saw blade might also work? But this is if there is no roller pin blocking its installation? I could try that on the current graphite seal, again if they didn't use the pin on the top.

In pass posts I have always said that I have installed 2 and 1/2 Best Graphite Gaskets. The last one was by leaving the engine in the car and just removing the cap's Best Gasket. On this installation I put a shim behind the gasket. I cut one out of the material the crank caps are shimmed with. I used the thickest material I had. This shim, which again was only on the cap was absolutely of no benefit in controlling my leak.

I think that the best practice would be to remove the engine, and then the crank. This would confirm the wear on the current seal and make installing a new NOS seal easiest. It would also make possible to easily install the pan gasket and to check the timing cover for an oil leak there? Which I think is the case?

Headed for a week of vacation will talk with the machine shop when I get back. Thanks, Mike

'Didn't know about the roll pin! 'Wish they hadn't done that.

Good luck (and, enjoy your vacation).

Brandon,
Congratulations, the car looks beautiful!

I'm working on a 41 Special Deluxe 5-pssenger coupe. I'm curious about the rear view mirror mounted on the passenger side door. I've had no success in finding one that could effectively be viewed without the driver leaning way over toward the passenger side, and even then I couldn't see much behind my vehicle. Does your mirror work well for you for a "quick, safe, glance" - without severely changing your driver position behind the wheel???

Regards, and enjoy your new ride,

Roy Lord

I have the same problem with the mirror mounted on the passenger side door of my '51 Chevrolet. The mirror is pretty much useless.