GreaseMonkey

Well, took the '64 for it's first long drive since having it back on the road. I was a little concerned Saturday morning though as to whether it was going to happen yesterday or not.

There was a car show at the local Chevy dealer Saturday which I partcipated in. On the way there (5 miles max) the temp guage was reading 220-230.. Thought WTF.. I was at the show until about 3:00 and kept my eye on the temp guage. 180 degrees home. Put the car in the garage and IR'd the engine. 168-172 degrees in various locations. I was thinking maybe the thermostat stuck. I did notice a few leak marks around the top radiator hose so I tightened the clamp.

Sunday morning threw some tools in the car and off we went. It was a little brisk without a top but a nice drive. The drive was 4 hours round trip with about a 2 hour break in between (family wienie roast). Temp stayed at 180 degrees or less the whole trip. Oil pressure was a constant 60 psi while cruising. Rough estimate was that I was getting around 14 mpg on the trip.

Overall reaction to how the car handled: Steers very nicely without any rattles at all. It lets you know when you are on a rough stretch of road. Vibrates quite a bit, but once your through the rough spots it smooths right out. Throttle is very responsive. I still need to change the accelerator lever seeing how I am using a low horse model from the car and the Holley does nto get an opportunity to open completely, but I went to pass a truck pulling a trailer, and the car went to 95 mph in a shot. I can't imagine whenthe Holley can open completely up. Car brakes well with the drums. Does have a tendencyt to pull right if the brakes are applied hard. I'm going to monitor it.

That's about it. I guess I will keep it

Mike Smith

Congrats!

Frankie the Fink

Great story - always nice when you 'run them out some' and they play nice. I took my newly acquired '63 SWC to Old Town last Saturday (about 25 miles each way). As soon as I pulled in the old gal that always registers your car says, "Ooo...this is new...wow!".
So an hour later I'm sitting with my 'posse'; Mike Coletta & Co. and two Old Town reps come up and tell me, "Congratulations, you've been selected as 'Cruiser of the Month'!"

So I get a parking spot right at the front all thru October, a blurb in the Cruiser News and I'm first leading the parade of cars through the old brick street.

Funny, been going to Old Town for 10 years; I drive the SWC one time and next thing you know "Cruiser of the Month". Hmmm..

Drove the car home at 60mph on interstate with the funky 50 year old radio playing and the old girl did just fine on her first night time jaunt!

SDVette

Good story.. I took my recently refurb'd '61 on a 50 mile shakedown trip this weekend. Highlites:

- Motor ran like a top - not even a burp. Never above 180 degrees
- Oil pressure rock solid @ 60 psi
- Passed a radar "watch your speed" sign and speedo is dead-on accurate!

Lost track of time and the last 15 minutes were in the dark! Only "bug" was that when I turned on the headlights, I showed a big discharge... for about 2 minutes, then went to a charge, then slowly back to neutral... Might have a ghost in the generator/regulator to sort out.

67's

Mike, did you try to re-calculate your MPG on the trip?

Tracy64

>>Car brakes well with the drums. Does have a tendencyt to pull right if the brakes are applied hard. I'm going to monitor it.

One thing I've been telling my daughter about these old cars is that you don't ride in them - you DRIVE them!

Nothing like braking hard and having no idea which way it'll dart.

/Tracy

OC-1

Probably dart when braking until shoes wear in to fit the drims. Drums are accumulating a lot of shoe dust and a periodic shot with a the garden hose to wash off the dust after removing a drum will straigten out the pulling.

In the old days the shoes were mated to the drums.

kenmo

Congrats. Glad everything went OK for you....

Frankie the Fink

I've been told by an "old school" mechanic that the shoes have to be mated to the drums on these cars for the best fit. The off-the-shelf shoes are not 'plug-and-play'.

Not sure what that means but I'll be doing some more investigating. I don't remember every doing that on my muscle cars tho.

oldsarge

Glad you had a good ride, I had my 64 out on Sunday, put on a few miles, went to a car show and there were about 1000 cars, it was huge, probably the last for the year up here, not much more going on now it's October. Winter comes early, but I am going to get out some more hopefully before the snow falls.

kingwoodvette

I remember a gadget at the parts house that they would mount your new shoes to and swing them in an arc past a rotary grinder to triim the shoes to the radius or the freshly turned drums. Bet this is what he was talking about.

midyearvette

that is called cam grinding the shoes after the drums were turned...made for better braking with a new brake job back in the day and went longer before the brakes needed their first adjusting before they were self adjusting.
i always thought it a waste of time and brake shoe material. sometimes more than a third of the lining was gone in the air depending on how much had to come out of the drums. a good slow break in was better i thought and got more miles out of a new brake job.....those were the days
i doubt it legal in this day and age if we are talking some nos asbestos linings??.......

Bluestripe67

Congrats Mike, keep it up! That girl loves exercise. MPG calculation is best done by filling on a very level surface up to the back of the fill neck. Record the miles, drive at least 40 miles at a steady rpm, return and refill at the same exact location, calculate. NO more guessing. Dennis

KC John

When I replaced my shoes last year I drove the car for about a week before I pulled the drums and checked the wear pattern. There wasn't full contact touching the drums, maybe 40% but the car still stopped well. I used a belt sander to alter the pads a little and waited around a month to check again and they had a pretty good wear pattern but still not 100% complete.

I'm sure by now they are getting full contact, but there isn't a major difference that I can tell between when they had less contact. I never really did a panic stop though. I wouldn't do a thing unless the brakes don't hold like you expect them to.

GreaseMonkey

Tom, the 14 is my best guesstamate at this time. I've driven the same pth for the past 30 years and can safely assume the distance. I still ahve an issue with the tripometer/odometer that when it gets to a certain point it stops rolling.

Fuel guage is off about a 1/4 of a tank light but I didn't pull any punches when it read 1/4 tank

Damn Hookers sound nice coming on off ramps frm 70 mph w/o the down shift...

GreaseMonkey

Not many miles on the shoes. I did not replace the drums, but will probably be replacing them next Spring and throwing another set of shoes on it. She's going to be on jack stands this Winter. I have a broken bolt in the carrier supprt that needs to be replaced, and I'm going to replace them both at once. The drums were questionable but passed State inspection (don't go there) in August

GreaseMonkey

Nope John, they stop the car and I know what what the car will do under certain circumstances. I will be going over the underside this Winter for sure. The car is too much fun to drive. Miles of smiles