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Progress Report and Tech Articles - 1954 Pontiac

Progress Report and Tech Articles - 1954 Pontiac

This webpage is divided into two sections. The first section consists of progress reports that summarize the ongoing work and some info that just isn't enough to make a complete webpage on. The second section consists of technical articles that detail the work that has been done to my 1954 Pontiac Tempest. There's lots of good and bad ideas that are documented. Learn from my experience and mistakes...

Progress Report

July 4, 2008 - The car runs fantastic - I've got pretty well all of the noises eliminated. The engine has tremendous amounts of power. It's not broke in yet, but I just have to touch the gas and I'm gone! It steers perfectly straight and handles most excellently. It was hitting bumps hard until I checked the tire air pressure and found that they were all too high. Adjusted them lower to 30 psi and now she's a cruisin. The brakes stop fast and straight also. I've taken it to its first show n shine: the 4th Annual Diablos Greaseball Bash. It was great but I was so worried about making it there in one piece, I forgot my camera!

I installed a 4 point roll cage so that I could have something to attach shoulder belts for the driver and front passenger. Also installed retractable seat belts for the rear passengers. In the middle of installing a tranny cooler as the engine was running just a tad hot. Haven't tested it yet.

Took a while but figured out where the chatter was coming from whenever I turned right. I have a good set of used brake rotors (4 wheel disk) from the local wreckers and brand new pads. On several of the rotors, there was a tiny 1/8" ring of rust on the inner or outer edge where the original pad didn't touch. The new pads completely cover the rotor surface including the ring of rust (wasn't that a Johnny Cash song?). I used my grinder with a wire brush to remove the rust and it worked great except for one of the rear brakes. I just drove for about two minutes with the parking brake on and it machined off the problem!

June 30, 2008 - Now that the Pontiac is on the road, there were a LOT of interesting noises coming from it. The front wheel wells were banging against the frame rails and the passenger side wheel well was resting on the top of the shock absorber! Also all of the junk not bolted down or stored in the car was rattling. Took about a week to clean all those noises up.

The brake pads were not installed properly and needed the mounting tabs to be physically bent for proper installation. I've installed a 4 point roll cage with padded foam as an attachment point for the front seats's shoulder seat belts. It took two tries to get the steering wheel on straight. I've been trying to calibrate the speedometer as it was out big time and with the new gears, it still feels about 15% reading too fast. The car is driving better and better each day. I've got about 120 km on it and the engine is starting to break in nicely. I do have a problem with a strange noise on right hand turns that I believe is brake related. That's next on the to do list.

June 10, 2008 - The Pontiac has been safetied, insuranced and licensed as a 1954 Pontiac Tempest - Wahoo! I've been working on the details needed to get it safetied the last couple of months: installing a rear view mirror, sunvisors, windshield defrosters, fabricating a rear license plate light, fabricating a heater control valve from a 90s Toyota as the original two that I had both leaked and also getting the horn to work.

Before it was safetied, I was looking at the front end and realized that it had settled more than I expected over the past couple of years. The front tires were rubbing against the wheel wells on end of limit turns. I ended up putting a 1.5" rubber donut spring spacer in the top of the spring tower. I figure that with the lever action, I should get about 2 to 3" lift at the wheels. That took a while as I had to disconnect the lower ball joint to release the spring - that's always scary! Then cut the rubber donut spring spacer to form fit. It worked out quite well and the car's stance looks a lot better.

The other issue was the 1.5" drop I added to the lower control arm (which as I found out, I didn't need), it placed the spring mounting plate flanges dangerously close to the same level as the bottom of the rim. You can't have any suspension components lower than the bottom of the rim. The idea is that if your tire should blow out, you can still drive on the rim safely and not have any suspension components dig into the road surface. I was able to cut off about 1" of the bottom of the spring flange to provide reasonable clearance without affecting the strength of the piece.

In 8 years, I've driven the Pontiac around the block twice and up and down the back alley a dozen times. The shop that was safetying the car, lent me his dealer plates so that I could drive across the city (population over 1 million) and of course it was during rush-hour! The drive was nerve racking as I wasn't sure if parts were going to fall off or what. I noticed that the steering wheel was off by about 20 degrees when driving straight ahead. I had installed it crooked after I had worked on the horn button! It steered straight so the shop was not too concerned and accepted my explanation. The Pontiac made it safe and sound and passed with flying colors.

When I picked up the car, the battery barely turned over the engine but it fired right away. The new 850 amp 84 month warranty battery bought 4 1/2 years ago was shot and wouldn't hold a charge! And it was rush hour on the way home but this time I felt more comfortable. Although there was a lot of sheetmetal banging noise coming from the front of the car and also occasionally what sounded like bottoming out of the suspension. And the exhaust is LOUD exiting just ahead of the rear tires! When I returned the battery, I found out that model was discontinued and the only battery that would fit was a 500 amp 18 month warranty post battery. :-(

This past week, I finally got the chance to take a good look at the front end. The bottom of the inner fender wells were slapping against the frame, so they needed to be mounted firmly. The passenger side upper control arm pivot was rubbing against the fender well and I also needed to make a heat deflector between the same pivot point and the exhaust manifold as they were about 1" apart. Didn't want to melt the pivot rubber bushings!

On the driver's side, I had to mount the bottom of the fender wells and make some clearance between the fender well and the top of the shock absorber as they were in contact. I suspect that the front suspension bump stops are too long and restricting travel of the lower control arm. The front suspension is rather stiff so I'll have to go for a drive again to let the front end settle to its normal ride height then measure the distance between the bump stop and the crossmember. While I was checking the front end out, I tested all of the nuts and bolts to make sure they were tight. The front crossmember bolts were snug and they all needed tightening! I still have the rear end to check out in the next few days.

The engine is brand new and needs to be broken in. I hope to make the maiden drive out to my parents place and brother-in-law's machine shop at the end of this week. It's been raining almost constantly for the past month which is quite abnormal for Calgary as it tends to be quite dry here. It's the most rain I've seen in 30 years of living here!

March 12, 2008 - Connected up the windshield washer reservoir, pump and sprayers.

March 1, 2008 - Added information on wiring up the headlight/parklight switch.

Feb 29, 2008 - Updated information on upgrading the wipers from vacuum motors to 12 V electric motors and wiring up the wiper/washer switch which is more difficult than expected.

Feb 21, 2008 - Wired up the third brake lights and they look fantastic when lit. I had second thoughts after I cut the holes but not anymore.

Feb 20, 2008 - Finished wiring up the trunk, came out pretty nice.

Feb 19, 2008 - Things are moving pretty fast now. It's taking longer to document the wiring then it is to actually wire it! Here's a page on wiring up the horns.

Feb 16, 2008 - Ran into some health problems in November. I was wrenching on my truck and tore something in between two ribs. When I heard the crunch sound, I knew I better take it easy for a while. So I took it easy for about 4 weeks. Then it was Christmas, flu season and -30 degC weather that seemed to last forever...

So far I've finished wiring up the complete front from the headlights to the dash and from the taillights to the dash. Right now I'm at the end of wiring up under the dash. This is taking way longer than I ever expected. I have four 11x17 sheets to document the wiring, location of relays, fuses, color codes, etc..

The dash lights worked for 5 years and now stopped so another problem to troubleshoot (sigh). I had to hunt down a LED flasher unit (Truck-lite 97283) to work with all the relays - regular flashers need way more current drain to operate properly. The LED flasher has 5 pins: Ignition, +12V hot, ground, hazard and turn signal lights. I'll post some pictures and updates in the next couple of days. It looks pretty nice with the headlights, park lights, turn signals and brake lights working. Just have to harness everything up. Horn, wiper motor, washer pump, trunk release and heater motor to go yet. Working upside down under the dash is no fun. I have way more respect for the ready made wiring harnesses.

Nov 17, 2007 - Started wiring up the headlights and front turn signals. Spent most of the time gathering parts and tools for wiring which lead to a new webpage about preparing for wiring. Updated my relay page with more information on how relays work and how to use them. Also made a couple of new pages discussing 3 wire alternators and HEI distributors and how to wire them up.

Oct 24, 2007 - A buddy of mine pointed out that I don't have any pictures of the dash on the website. Well I do, but they are scattered all over the other webpages. Here's a little page that discusses the work done on the dash

Oct 21, 2007 - I was cleaning the air filters on my air compressor and realized how pitiful they were. I happened to have an old set of tripower air filters and housings and one thing led to another and now I have hot rod air filters on my 5 hp air compressor (pictures at end of webpage).

Front bumper bolted on with the newly painted filler panel

Sept, 2007 - It's been a while since I updated the website. A few things have come up - I purchased a 1954 Corvette body out of New Mexico which entailed a 5000 km 4 day road trip. Sleeping in my little Ford Ranger was pretty uncomfortable. Seeing a herd of camels in middle of Wyoming was a pleasant surprise.

Selling the 57 Corvette body put some cash in my pocket for a short while and it was quickly spent on 12 new work bench and shelving units for the garage. After assembling them all, it took about a while to sort all my tools and junk and then came the task of putting them away. It took about a week to come up with the right places to store the tools, paint, bolts, etc.. in a logical place where I would go look for them! It sure is nice to have workbenches to work on - I have my tool wall back up! Wahoo!

The month of Sept was spent buying the 1954 Vette, selling the 57 Vette, storing the 54 Vette sideways against the wall, fighting the mouse infestation, cleaning up the garage from top to bottom and purchasing and installing 12 new workbench cabinets and shelving units. (I'll post some pictures)

Tech Articles

Here's the work and lots of DIY howto info that I have done to the car:

  1. Steering and Suspension

  2. Engine/Transmission

  3. Brakes

  4. Electrical

  5. Rust removal, Paint and Bodywork

  6. Interior Work

  7. Misc. Stuff

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Copyright Jan 2007
Eugene Blanchard

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