My turn for a progress update. No new pics yet but the 51 F1 is a step closer to road worthy after 3 years of teardown. Spent most of the day Saturday trying to mount the vintage air heater. Finally got it done, and added antifreeze to the flathead. No leaks. Started fabbing up a battery mount. Had a beautiful stainless steel battery box I was going to use, but decided it was to big for my engine compartment (on ebay now if anyone is interested ). Instead, used a little shelf bracket I found at a military surplus store and mounted the battery pretty close to the stock location. Finished the mount Sunday morning, hooked the wires up, no smoke so that's good. Finished the fuel line from the frame to the carb. Added four gallons of gas, turned the key waited for the pump to quiet down so I knew it was primed, pumped the carb three times, hit the start button on the solenoid, and THE FREAKIN FLATHEAD FIRED RIGHT UP!! I mean, it barely cranked a second, and caught and went into that sweet "lub lub lub lub" that only a flatty can do. 390 4bbl carb, bought reconditioned off ebay and bolted straight on, Schneider 3/4 cam, offy heads, no timing checked or carb adjusted or anything, it's like she's been waiting patiently for me to hook her up so she can go!! Totally psyched now.

Having gauge problems though, not showing oil pressure, temp or fuel, so think I have ground problems. Only ran her for a few seconds at a time, I know oil moves because I tested it with a clear hose hooked up while cranking to make sure it was pumping, but without a pressure reading I'm not going to push my luck yet. So that will be the evening task tonight to get gauge readings, then I'm going to p*ss off the neighbors with some rev's!

Scott

 

Ah that first fire after a long rest is always gratifying. I doubt anything is more encouraging to a long running project. Kudos, Rich.

 

Flatmotor Life is a Beautiful Thing.

 

Holy Crap!!!

That is very cool, Dude. Congratulations. Maybe you're better at this stuff than you thought?

 

Congratulations Scott! That is such a great feeling. My 49 will not be a flatty but I have had several in the past and it is a great sound.

 

Scott, I am about a week behind you. Thanks for the encouragement, and congratulations on firin er' up!

Rich

 

Flatheads are sweet!
Jon

 

Way to go, the first time they fire is a real charge!

Go to love it!

 

Welcome to the club!!

 

I love it when a plan comes together!!! That is awesome news!!

I'll bet that big silly grin is still on your face

Good form!
Bobby

 

Scott123, Looking good, could you please post some pictures of the Vintage heater install. Did you/or will you have to remove all the glovebox

 

I'll get some pictures as soon as I can. I can't really get them to turn out decent in my basement garage, my hope is to get the gauges working well enough I can roll it outside and run the engine and have decent lighting for pics as well. My backyard slopes some, so without the engine running I can't roll the truck back in by myself without the engine helping.

The unit I bought is the vintage air heater/defroster combo. I actually mounted it rotated 90 degrees clockwise, so the heater door that would normally open towards the floor opens instead on the left side directing air to the center of the cab. The reason I did this, is with the "L" shaped heater pipes that screw into the side and exit out the firewall to attach the hoses -- the heater wouldn't fit conventionally because those pipes would be exiting out right on the seam between the firewall and the cowl. I couldn't mount it in the center "hump" of the firewall because I put a hanging gas pedal in and it would not work with that either. I did contact vintage air tech support and verified it could be mounted like I did so shouldn't be a problem.

I had my glove box out at the time, but I don't think it would have to come out to install. The unit isn't very big which makes it ideal for an F1 cab, it's just when those tubes were mounted to it they stick out an additional 4 inches or so. It'll be another week or so before I can get it outside for decent pics.

Scott