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Old 16th June 2010, 22:31   #16
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Amazingly detailed restoration. Hats off DKG!
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Old 16th June 2010, 23:28   #17
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Great explanation DKG sir, it is kind of Pictorial restoration lesson for newbies like me.

Looking forward for more pictures

Regards

Last edited by girishpv : 16th June 2010 at 23:31.
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Old 17th June 2010, 09:15   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ladak.imran View Post
Beautiful car, and wonderful restoration thread Deepak!
Quote:
Originally Posted by wbd8779 View Post
Amazingly detailed Restoration DKG ! waiting for more pics , your attention to detail is just amazing
Quote:
Originally Posted by President View Post
Amazingly detailed restoration. Hats off DKG!
Quote:
Originally Posted by girishpv View Post
Great explanation DKG sir, it is kind of Pictorial restoration lesson for newbies like me
Thanks, glad you are enjoying this as much as I did
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Old 17th June 2010, 09:24   #19
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Very early on I had decided that the entire car will be dismantled, wear measured and corrected if beyond specified tolerance levels and the mechanicals assembled back. I am glad I took that call because with the exception of the steering box every other component needed attention in terms of renewal.

The engine required a complete overhaul. New liners were put in, new valve seats and guides were installed, all bearings were remetalled, crank pins ground to next size, new valves, pistons, rings, cam bearings, new timing gear (its a fibre gear, had a few teeth broken). Basically nothing was left to chance.

Once the machining work was complete, including a light surfacing of the block and head we painted the block and head in enamel that was matched to old original paint spots found on the engine. Its a light grey with a tinge of green and blue

Restoring a 1933 Chevrolet Master Phaeton-img_0399.jpg

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Crank goes in

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New timing gear

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oil pump, the con rods with pistons and rings assembled. Care was taken to ensure the ring gaps were aligned as per mfg specs

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New valve springs installed. This is one area where I see a majority of mechanics bungle. The valve spring is the most worked in an engine and invariably over the years they lose their strength and properties. This leads to uneven pressures on cam to operate valves and sets off vibrations. Further the valves don't seal as well either. New springs had to go in with new valves.

Further you don't want any of the lift to get lost in rocker arm/shaft play. New rocker shafts and bushes were installed. Surprisingly the valve lifters and tappets showed no wear that warranted changing. I had a new set ready but like they say "don't fix what's not broken !!"

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I was particular to take the exhaust manifold apart. I was aware of a system in these cars where there is a butterfly valve that is meant to close when cold directing hot exhaust to heat the underside of the inlet manifold. This enhances atomisation of fuel in cold weather. These usually get jammed and in this car it was completely corroded. I wanted it to work, so had a new shaft machined and installed with the thermo coil cpring so that the valve worked. Not that we need this in India, but just for my satisfaction that nothing on the car was left unattended

Had the manifold coated with a heat resistant furnace grade paint. (I have my doubts if it will last long though)

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The engine all assembled and ready to go into the car

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Last edited by DKG : 17th June 2010 at 09:42.
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Old 17th June 2010, 09:54   #20
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One of the greatest pleaures of my automotive journey is to meticulously rebuild an engine, paint it, detailing it, and reassemble it with care. What a joy. Oh and to hear it fire the first time is pure nirvana !!

More pictures of this wonderful engine

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Engine assembly all set to go into the car

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Restoring a 1933 Chevrolet Master Phaeton-img_0498.jpg  

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Old 17th June 2010, 11:22   #21
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Wow, this is how we should restore all our cars, or get them done. But many of us do not have the space, and the manpower.
The only thing I am not so keen about is the colour, but reading that this is original, and seeing the effort which has gone into getting the original shade, you are doing the right thing. Lucky to have such premises.
Keep the story rolling.

Cheers harit
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Old 17th June 2010, 12:28   #22
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What an amazing restoration. This much detail, by the way this shade of green is my favourite too and I am painting my car the same. though not particular as your are but something similar will do.

Also yesterday I was at the jay leno's website looking at his car. One of his chevy chassis was restored to as it came from the assembly line.

It had yellow paint marking on matching parts and tightened nuts (the way it is marked in assembly line after tightening or after assembly). How about that?

Restoring a 1933 Chevrolet Master Phaeton-corvette.jpg
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Old 17th June 2010, 14:40   #23
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@DKG: Simply awesome. I cannot stop myself from pressing F5 again & again to see the photos & narration. This is EXACTLY how a car should be restored.. Pls keep our eyeballs well fed.

Raab Rakha.
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Old 17th June 2010, 14:55   #24
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It would be fair to say that the gearbox was anything but crisp and healthy. Many parts had been worn beyond repair. The input drive gear had many teeth broken, many teeth on the cluster gear were broken, both synchroniser drums were worn out, there was play in the countergear shaft and the idler gear, and the main shaft was badly worn. The speedo gear seemed like it was ready to break if used anymore !

My biggest headache was making sure I had all the parts to rebuild the gearbox. It took me several months to get all that I needed together

The free wheeling assembly was okay (considering it may have rarely been used) so once all the parts were in we assembled the gearbox and free wheeling unit

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With the gearbox mated to the engine its time to install it into the car

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Here I must relate an interesting episode relating to the engine and transmission mounts. While I could have sent them to the US to be recast I opted to have these moulded myself. So I traced a local friendly rubber moulder. One look at the peculiar mount and he said " I can attempt this only if you have a mould and it will be impossible and prohibitively expensive to make one"

I asked him for some time and disappeared to return a few days later with a mould I had fabricated myself. The moulder was totally zapped. He had never ever seen someone make a mould the way we did (basically welding plates together in an intricate manner). The mould cost us less than Rs 1500 and when I reasoned it should and must work he complied and voila we were able to brilliantly remould fresh rubber into the original casings.

The moral of the story is, the word "no" can never exist in the restorer's dictionary. You simply have to find a way regardless of how monumental the task may seem.

Restoring a 1933 Chevrolet Master Phaeton-img_0500.jpg

As the engine and gearbox rested on the new mounts we could tell we got it right spot on. This was an interesting aspect of the work we did

Last edited by DKG : 17th June 2010 at 15:08.
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Old 17th June 2010, 15:28   #25
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Traditionally mechanics who could overhaul differentials and got them to run silent were actually revered by their fraternity. I have heard so many horror stories of botched differential repairs

Since I was being stubborn about ensuring all aspects of the car should be addressed I decided to open it up completely. Ofcourse I knew what were the key elements that enabled a quiet run. So in a way I was prepared to address these as we reassembled it back. Further I had the manual to give me the tolerances in backlash and pinion placement.

Here we are listening in to fine differences in carrier bearing sounds with a mechanical stethoscope. Both were shot and these bearings are not available in India so I had to import them from the US. Meanwhile I had some bushes recut for the prop shaft. The Chev diff is a bit different. The entire prop shaft remains mated to the diff assemble in one casing. I think RR's also had something similar if I remember correctly. The problem with these is usually sometimes the rear gearbox oil seal would rupture and the oil would flow into the diff assembly. You won't notice any oil spils and end up driving the gearbox without oil. Which explains why the gearbox was buggered completely in this car. So its imperative the bushing and oil seals at the front end of the diff assembly are okay.

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Old 17th June 2010, 15:49   #26
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When the engine was all assembled and our guys tried to spin it with a handle it seemed like we were trying to shift mount everest. Things seemed too tight. I could see the look on their faces that spelt a foreboding of doom as they feared the worst. Somehow, somewhere at the back of their minds they knew their mad boss would sort things out.

I decided to manually crank the engine to free it up before its first fireup. We filled in some oil down the plug holes for positive lube and cranked it over and over with a handle. One could tell things were easing up. Then I had a brainwave. We have these large HP electric motors that run our borewell pump and other hoist mechanisms. I asked my electrician to get me a motor and he said "I have one just for you in spare" and brought the motor out.

You should have seen the look on the team's faces when I then asked them to attach a pulley to the motor and another to the crank's handle. They knew something bizarre was going to take place.

With some hits and misses I managed to get it going and like some steam engine running, with popping noises from the open plug holes, electrically, I managed to set the engine to a decent rpm. The effect on the engine was superb. It freed it up brilliantly. Zero risks of seizures !!

It was quite a scene the day I decided to fire her up. Since we didn't have a decent battery to fire up the starter I thought we'd push start it.

I got one of our technicians to sit at the wheel. I stood on the frame with some petrol and a screw driver to set the carb the moment it fired and had a dozen men push us within the workshop. A few missed runs and it sputtered. The next run it fired up. I was overjoyed. No smoke bellowing from the exhaust and what a sound. I wish we had taken a picture of that scene with me standing on the frame trying to choke the carb for fuel and start the engine as the car was pushed. It really looked like some mad scientist busy experimenting !!

My dad always told me about what a charming sound the 33 Chev sixes had. Its a odd sound, something like "khun khun khun". Gorgeous sound. The stainless steel brand new exhaust was crisp and every cylinder could be heard firing.

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We decided to run cool water continously as we bled the radiator of hot steaming water. There's enough hot water pumping back in to the upper radiator chamber to prevent the cool water from adversely affecting the block or head. This way we could run in the engine at cooler temps rather than risk having it run too hot and seize

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Like a patient hooked up to lifelines we must have burnt a good 60 litres of fuel till I was satisfied I could take her out for a drive

Restoring a 1933 Chevrolet Master Phaeton-img_0544.jpg

Last edited by DKG : 17th June 2010 at 16:03.
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Old 17th June 2010, 16:12   #27
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Now that the engine fired beautifully our focus shifted to fitting all the trim back on

Piece by peice things went back onto the car. Almost like a pheonix the gorgeous shape of a 33 Chevy in all her glory emerged slowly

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The car sports brand new Excelsior 5.25-5.50 x 18 size blackwall tyres imported from Coker

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Here we are giving the car a final water rub to eliminate any dust specks or runouts before the paint is polished to its final sheen

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Last edited by DKG : 17th June 2010 at 16:18.
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Old 17th June 2010, 16:16   #28
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Great stuff Deepak. A car with such provenance deserves nothing less than the best. I'm sure you had a ball!

Quote:
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With some hits and misses I managed to get it going and like some steam engine running, with popping noises from the open plug holes, electrically, I managed to set the engine to a decent rpm. The effect on the engine was superb. It freed it up brilliantly. Zero risks of seizures !!
You know many current manufacturers emply a very similar technique to 'cold run' new engines before actually firing up.
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Old 17th June 2010, 16:22   #29
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Great work done. Hopefully the one which we are doing should turn out similer to this one. Apart from this could you tell me the the source from where you got the engine parts from please.
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Old 17th June 2010, 16:38   #30
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MDR 200's dash was not exactly a sight for sore eyes I wanted it to go back to how it would have looked brand new.

Restoring a 1933 Chevrolet Master Phaeton-picture-005.jpg

That meant woodgraining and that is something of an art. I have no delusions as regards what I am good at so I wisely opted for a different solution

I imported some vinyl sticker which has a walnut finish. It could have been oak but the walnut took my fancy (usually its a British thing, but what the heck, the oak and mahogany stickers simply looked too bland)

Restoring a 1933 Chevrolet Master Phaeton-img_0519.jpg

Next we went about cutting out templates. We needed to be careful as its costly material and I couldn't risk errors

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When I was deciding on the leather for the upholstery I had a bit of a shock when I compared the contrast of the dash with the leather sample. It looked completely whacky. I told our guys if it meant we redo the dash we would. I simply cannot have any finish that doesn't blend in and jars.

When the upholstery went in it was a huge relief to notice the dash blended right in. Phew ! But I was prepared to redo it. Just that it would have been a drag to waste all the effort that had gone in. Glad I didn't need to !!
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