VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION What did you do with your vehicle today? 41 Chevy Father Son Project Progress

My son took the old ‘for storage’ tire off and put on the good ones. Will keep the old ones so in the winter the good ones do not get flat sided.

Looks like it is going to be safer for us to replace the tank. Cleaned it out with vinegar etc. and now there is a lot of loose sludge. Last thing we want is issues with rust in the fuel system. The sending unit is shot anyways and I wanted to replace the straps since I have to drop the tank to change the sending unit. Will run the car off of a boat tank for the time being.

Washed the car today. What a difference it makes to get the dust from sitting all this time off of it. The car passed the NYS inspection today. Unfortunately the water pump’s main seal let go when I got to the mechanics. Added water and drove home. The water pump has less than 15 miles on it and under an hour or idle time on it. We saw the coolant gushing out from behind the pulley. Will need to change that out.

Looks great ! Regarding the tank issue. Be sure to ask whoever you buy from if the tank has internal baffles to keep the gas from sloshing around which drives the gas gage crazy (also the driver). I made that mistake & got one with no baffles.

Dick

I ordered one from Chevs of The 40s. They had one that works with fuel injection or carburetors cheaper than the original. It includes all of the straps, seals etc. needed to mount in. Other bonus was they discounted the sending unit for me with this tank.

No pics this time, just updates.

Took the car out to a few events in the last couple weeks. Each time went well.

Developed an issue starting when hot and stalling at idle. Found that the coil had a crack in the porcelain on the bottom and it was weeping fluid. I had never seen one made like the one on the car. The wire to the coil came out of the bottom and the + and - were on the top. It had porcelain on the bottom like a spark plug has on top. Car was last on the road in 69 from what we have been able to find so this coil may be really old. Also the resistance on the secondary was out of spec. Replaced the coil with a new one and the car starts and runs better than it ever has.

We mounted the new gas tank. Also connected the fuel gauge. It appears to be accurate but time will tell. Took us a while to figure out how best to mount the tank but it is now in. The poly tank fits tight but it fits. Issue we had was that this new tank requires a vent and the old one did not. We had to find a way to run a line for the vent and have it higher than the tank. Also had to ground this tank unlike the old one. Good side is that it has baffles in it and that it will not rust.

Seals around the u joint on the torque tube are leaking a lot. Was hoping to make it through the season just topping it off. Unfortunately each drive accelerates the leak. Having to refill the transmission after each drive. And we are not going more than 15 miles in a trip. This is the next item to be fixed.

Thank you for the well described updates. In my opinion too many ask for advice or recommendation and we never hear of the outcome. Again, thanks.

I posted updates in the wrong thread. Will catch this one up and then add todays updates

Looks like I have been falling behind on the updates to this post. Been keeping a book on to track the progress for my records since the start. Will post from that to get this up to date.

July 2022

Looks like it is going to be safer for us to replace the tank. Cleaned it out with vinegar etc. and now there is a lot of loose sludge. Last thing we want is issues with rust in the fuel system. The sending unit is shot anyways and I wanted to replace the straps since I have to drop the tank to change the sending unit. Will run the car off of a boat tank for the time being.

Washed the car today. What a difference it makes to get the dust from sitting all this time off of it. The car passed the NYS inspection today. Unfortunately the water pump’s main seal let go when I got to the mechanics. Added water and drove home. The water pump has less than 15 miles on it and under an hour or idle time on it. We saw the coolant gushing out from behind the pulley. Will need to change that out.

Took the car out to a few events in the last couple weeks. Each time went well.

Developed an issue starting when hot and stalling at idle. Found that the coil had a crack in the porcelain on the bottom and it was weeping fluid. I had never seen one made like the one on this car. The wire to the coil came out of the bottom and the + and - were on the top. It had porcelain on the bottom like a spark plug has on top. Car was last on the road in 69 from what we have been able to find so this coil may be really old. Also the resistance on the secondary was out of spec. Replaced the coil with a new one and the car starts and runs better than it ever has.

We mounted the new gas tank. Also connected the fuel gauge. It appears to be accurate but time will tell. Took us a while to figure out how best to mount the tank but it is now in. The poly tank fits tight but it fits. Issue we had was that this new tank requires a vent and the old one did not. We had to find a way to run a line for the vent and have it higher than the tank. Also had to ground this tank unlike the old one. Good side is that it has baffles in it and that it will not rust.

Seals around the u joint on the torque tube are leaking a lot. Was hoping to make it through the season just topping it off. Unfortunately each drive accelerates the leak. Having to refill the transmission after each drive. And we are not going more than 15 miles in a trip. This is the next item to be fixed.

August 2022

Losing fluid too quickly out of the seals on the torque tube to safely drive the car without risking damage. Time to replace the seals on the torque tube. Have to take the end off where it meets the transmission to get at the seals.

Though this would be a 1 afternoon job, we were wrong on that. Took the seat out to have more room to work. Took the top two bolts out of the collar holding the torque tube ball on. My son under the car then stated that there was only one bolt. It appears the prior owner broke a bolt off in the transmission and tightened the remaining three and called it a day. Spent the next 1.5 hours teaching my son to drill out the bolt. He learned a new skill and lots of patients. Finally have everything disassembled and cleaned up.

Torque tube is back together. My youngest did all of the work. I only checked that the bolts were tight and watched that things went together properly. Good learning experience for him. It did not leak overnight but we have not driven the car yet either.

The parking brake has not been connected since we received the car. Since we have the transmission tunnel cover is off and the seat is out we are going to do this next. Able to access the linkage from the top and bottom. Found a NOS rod to connect the bar under where the u-joint to the front of the linkage.

The part we ordered for the parking brake linkage was the incorrect part. We decided to put the transmission cover back on, install the carpet and reinstall the seat. We do not want to lose any more drive time this year. The parking brake will need to be done later from underneath. Carpet we used my oldest son saw on sale at Runnings for $24.99. The piece may not be car carpet but it worked out well. We decided to install it in two sections so that if we needed to get at the transmission we could remove the front section without the need to remove the front seat. Cut holes for all of the pedals so the carpet slips over the top of them. Also placed reproduction rubber covers over the brake and clutch pedals. Placed the starter pedal back on too. This little change made quite a difference to the interior look.

Back to the parking brake. Thanks to a VCCA member we were able to get the correct linkage to go from under the car to under the hood. My youngest son was able to hook everything up under the car to match the pictures supplied by VCCA members. Unfortunately the linkage does not line up with the part coming from under the hood. Still looking into if the part under the hood is correct or not. This is attached to the frame and was hooked up when we bought it. Due to the parking brake issues to have some success during the day we installed the ashtray in the interior. That was a 100% success. Calling the day 50% successful since the packaging brake, job 1 failed but the ashtray, job 2 passed. We are thinking of adding a small job each time something does not work so we can point to that little thing and say progress was made, something is completed.

September 2022

Out to another drive in show. On the way there we could tell the recently installed carpet made a difference in the amount of noise in the car. Also the transmission is shifting better and not leaking since replacing the seals. The drive-in was lots of fun. We have found the local drive-in ones to be the most fun. Just show up, park the car and walk around.

Finally have all the materials to start making the interior panels and upholstery. Kids watched YouTube on how it was supposed to be done and wanted to try it another way without buying everything pre made. I am all for supporting doing it our way. Bought 3mm hardboard from Lowes for the door and kick panels. Oldest son chose a brown canvas that is similar to the dash color for the doors. We left the dash with the original paint. A lighter tan for the upper areas of the pillars and around the window areas was chosen. For the door pulls my oldest had the idea to go to Good Will and get brown leather belts. He wants to make pull straps like the 87 Monte Carlo has out of the leather belts. For a headliner we have a 48 star flag. Plan for the flag is to take all of the bows out of the roof and paint them black. Then run the flag from the front to the rear of the car above all of the bows. The stars are placed above the driver's seat. The headliner may take a few revisions to get right.

The youngest started to cut panels. Made a few templates for the doors and kick panels. Has a roughly cut panel for the driver’s door. It needs holes cut for the window cranks and door handle. He cut it slightly large so it can be trimmed just right. His thought process was to get the driver's side just right then copy it for the passenger. Started in the front since he thinks it looks easier than the rear. He also attempted to make a kick panel. Unfortunately that one was a lesson in why to measure twice cut once. Not a big deal. Better to learn with something simple like that.

Not a big thing but we bought floor mats. Now that there is a carpet that is a light color kept getting asked how are you going to keep it clean. Bought some CAT brand tan floor mats. Cut to size ones that will do the job when needed. Have them in my truck and they work well there.

Saturday took the 41 out for the longest drive we have done, about 50 miles. Shortly into the drive the speedometer started to make a screeching noise. Shortly after that the needle would jump from the 40 MPH we were doing to around 80 and then back down. (I am certain we did not do 80 at any point and that this car cannot accelerate that quickly ). Not certain about the cause for this but on the 87 Monte Carlo it did a similar thing when the speedometer cable started to bind. Fixed the Monte Carlo by disconnecting the cable and spraying lube into it. Hope this is a simple fix like that turned out to be. Guess that is the next thing on the list of to-dos for the car.

Thanks for the progress report.

Dick

Not much progress to report. Drove around a few times until today. We need to fix the parking brake, Speedometer and now the generator. Today the generator seized and had to get towed home. Kids and I all agreed it never left us stranded until now and we only have a few weeks left in the season to drive it anyways so not loosing much drive time.

November 2022
We opened up the generator and it looks like the felt oiler piece is missing or degrading to the point that it is no longer there. The ball bearing resembles shrapnel. Oiled it a week prior to it failing but the oil leaks out the bottom. The VCCA was a great help in identifying this issue. One of the members had a generator that they were able to sell to us.

December 2022
Christmas is past and we finally had time to get back to the generator. Lucky to have a rare 58 degree day in winter. My youngest son put the generator in. After that the car started up and we drove around the block without any issues. Gauge showed charging as it did with the last generator. Headlights did make it go into discharge at idle but with the slightest throttle they were charging.

January 2023

Back to wiring. Last year changed out what we had to do to get it on the road for the season. Now it is time to finish the job. Started by removing the original headlight switch. Son mounted a fuse box behind where the kick panel cover will go. Will run the items that normally receive constant power from the headlight switch from this location. Plan to connect the stop light, blinkers, lighter, fog lights and possibly the radio to this. Adds the advantage of not losing everything if one fuse goes out. Also it will be easier to access for troubleshooting.

So you will have to remove kick panel to access this fuse box? Not a big deal I guess! How many fuses in the box?

Kids thought it was out of sight and how often do you really need to get to it. It is easier to access than the one under the passenger dash in my wife's MINI.

There are 8 fuses in the box. It is actually one for a boat, for this reason it has 8 spots just for ground wires. There is a cover for it that fits nicely over the top and is clear. We do not plan to use the grounds but they are nice to clip a test light to or run a temporary ground wire from when checking for a bad ground.

Making more progress:

Youngest son has connected the horn to the horn button, wired the fog lights wired to the correct switch and has both front blinkers working. None of these items were connected last summer. He removed the spectrometer that stopped working last fall and all of the dash lights. While he was doing the wiring I cleaned and lubricated the workings of the speedometer to get it properly functioning again. Also made a new wiring harness or the dash lights. Before we reinstall the lights we are waiting for a package of new bulbs to arrive.

My youngest has done all the dash connections to date. He makes measurements and tells me to make any harnesses or parts he needs. For example, for the dash lights he measured the distance between each bulb, drew a diagram and handed me all the old sockets he removed. From his instructions I was able to make the harness. for him. He plans to take all of the wires when done and wrap them.

Winter break is over and we have completed rewiring the car. All of the new items function properly. The dimmer for the dash lights now works. Car now has blinkers and a horn. All of the dash lights were replaced with new bulbs. Started the car and drove it out into the driveway to test everything. The headlights, dash lights and especially the tail lights all appeared brighter after the rewiring. After this was completed we documented all of the new wire colors in the back of the 41 service manual. Also recorded the part numbers for the blinker kit and the flasher.

The chassis was lubricated today. First time they have used a grease gun. Found a diagram in the 41 maintenance manual showing all of the lubrication points. While they were working down there they adjusted the hangar for the tailpipe. It was too high in the rear and the pipe did not allow for much movement. Loosening the mount a little and lengthening it gave the pipe some give and allowed it to hang closer to the correct position.

We made an effort to get the radio working for the car. Using jumper wires with alligator clips on them we connected them to the car. Also connected an antenna. With the power on to the car we turned the dial on the radio to see what would happen. Then we waited hoping it just needed to warm up. Then we tuned it hoping something would happen. Finally we decided that since only one tube had a slight glow to it that the radio was not going to work without requiring repairs. We had already decided if it worked currently then we would put it in. If it did not then we were going to let it be. There are only a few talk radio AM channels left in the area and of these only two are powerful enough to receive regularly so there is not much benefit to us from an AM only radio unless it already worked. Going to go with a hidden Bluetooth speaker when we get to that point. Might still clean up the old radio and place it in the dash for looks. That is a decision for another time.

April 2023

Carburetor has been leaking for some time. It needed a rebuild. Luckily I was able to find an already rebuilt one being sold for my car. We installed it today. At first was a little concerned when the one that we removed did not exactly match the one we had received. Found a web site that detailed the changes to the Carter W1 carburetor used by Chevrolet over the years. Turns out that my 41 had a carburetor for a 39 or 40 on it. The one I received was for a 41. We installed it and the car fired right up and idles smoothly. Unfortunately the gas line is leaking slightly where it connects to the carb. We will have to get a new fitting for it before we can really test drive it with the new to us carb. I do not want to have a leaking line over a hot engine, even with a very small leak.

You are wise to seal the fuel leak before hitting the road, I dont want to hear of you ruining all that hard work though no doubt the boys would enjoy the next project.
Tony

Installed the proper throttle return spring and the bracket to attach it too. The pedal has a stiffer feel to it now. My son did not want to remove the one that was on it. His thought was if one breaks what will return the throttle, I could not find any flaw with this idea so we left it.

We installed a glass bowl in-line fuel filter similar to what would have been on the car back in the day. Unfortunately the compression fittings leaked. We had not used any sealant on the threads. Took it all apart and applied some liquid sealant and no leaks. After this we checked all of the fluids. My youngest checks the transmission, he can do it without needing to lift up the car. Found it was down a little. We were not surprised. It is seeping out of the side of it. Since nothing was added since early last year we were actually impressed that was all that it lost. Oil was down, it burns a little and the valve cover leaks. In addition he found it was starting to drip around the drain plug, plan to change the oil this weekend so not worried about the plug since it was tight. All tires were up to the proper pressure. Plenty of coolant in the radiator.

After idling it in the driveway for a bit we took it out for the first ride of the season. Wow what a difference the replacement carb makes. Only issue was that when it first started it seemed to idle too low and die if I did not give it a slight amount of gas to keep it running. After a few minutes it was idling perfectly fine so I do not think I am going to make an adjustment for that. I will just give it a slight amount of gas, I can hear when it is ready to run. It was suggested we try giving it a little choke the first few minutes, might try that. Going down the road the throttle response was the best it has ever been. Not only that on a 90 degree curve in our road that we always had to downshift to second to accelerate out of before all that needed to be done now was to take my foot off entering the corner and put it back down coming out while leaving it in third. Biggest surprise was on a flat stretch when I gave it gas in third gear and we could feel it kick in accelerating from 30 mph up to 50 mph. Not something I would normally do but wanted to make sure the carb was performing properly. The old one would have required a downshift to perform in the same manner. Still going to run the car between 35 mph and 40 mph as a general rule.

Yes, you will need a bit of choke to keep things running smoothly for the first few miles/minutes.

Do you know which rear axle ratio is in your car? I know that 4.11 was standard. There was a 3.73 option.

I installed Ford umbrella style oil seals on the valves to reduce some of the oil burning. Those greatly reduce the blue smoke when leaving a stop light.

I do not know the ratio in the rear end. The way it drove yesterday I would have to think it is the 4.11. The car wants to cruise around 40 -45 mph. Is there a way I can easily tell what the rear end is? With the torque tube I cannot count the times the drive shaft turns verses the wheel like I have on other cars. The engine is not screaming at 50 in 3rd but it is up there.

My old carb did not need a choke but while it ran it was not responsive. The old one also seemed to have a fast idle. We will need to try using it next time.

I am sure that you have a 4.11 ratio. Only a handful of 1941 Chevrolets were ordered with the 3.73 ratio and tose cars were mainly in tthe great plaines area.
If all the noise insulation is in place the 50 and 60 will be quite bt 1941 standards.

It is also to have a little blue smoke after a long idle especially is the oil shields have bee removed from the intake valves.

Thanks, that is what I thought too. I have the insulation on the firewall and there is a carpet installed. Other than that the interior is still missing. I will say the carpet made a huge difference in the sound level once that was installed. It really did surprise me.