1936 Ford Five Window Coupe Street Rod Restoration 2016
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June - July Flexplate Replacement Two days before one of the biggest car shows in western Pennsylvania, "You know the show that I broke down going to last time". I went to start the ford and the starter made a horrible grinding noise, and the engine would not turn over. Thinking my new starter went bad I removed it, and to my horror I discovered the Flexplate teeth were damaged beyond use.
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My cars are like my kids, and I just don't like trying new auto service places you never know what you will get, and how honest they will be with you. When I was at a car show last year just talking about cars as car guys do, I remembered one guy recommending Ryan and at M&M Auto Service in Koppel Pa. So I took a chance and contacted Ryan, he looked at my car and made recommendations on how to proceed with the flex ring replacement, without removing the engine and tranmission. I asked him for an estimate, and hoped for the best. I dropped the car off at 10:30am and when I stopped in to pickup a part I left in the car on the way to work to my surprise less than three hours later my car was done. Ryan took the time to correct my timing, adjust my carburetor, and choke at no additional cost to me, in fact he was way under his original estimate. Now I am not easily impressed, however I must say, I was very impressed.
Rear Panhard Bar Upgrade
When Ryan was working on my Flexplate replacement he noticed the main rear-end mount was suffering from metal fatigue. He then discovered the rear-end had way to much side to side movement, and the car was actually unsafe to drive. I asked him if this was the reason why my rear tiers were rubbing the inner fender wells when I would make a hard turn? Yes he said, we can remove the diagonal link bar, and replace it with a Panhard bar that should solve your problem. You can see from the fist photo when I acquired the car, the mount was at a 90 degree angle, however in the second photo the mount is shown bent down. The third photo is of the Panhard bar that Ryan and Dan installed. The other consideration was my straight duel exhaust had to be rerouted to the side of the car to make room for the new Panhard bar. To be honest I was not a big fan of having side exhaust pipes, I told Ryan I did not want the loud engine nose below my door. However Ryan said just find some exhaust tips and we will install them, it should not be that much of a noise difference, and he was right. I am not going to lie it is difficult to buy some car parts on-line and picture what they will look like on you car. When the UPS driver gave me a huge box I took it straight to Ryan, and when we opened it, both Ryan's and my eyes got real big like holy #### these exhaust tips are way to big! Then Dan walk in the office and said well lets see what they look like on the car. Taking Dan's advice we did just that. What can I say the large exhaust tips just match the attitude of the car. See photo Again to my surprise Ryan gave me an estimate for the Panhard Bar upgrade, and came in way below his estimate again. The best part my car was not in his shop for more that two days total for all this work, If you a car guy in the middle of summer you cant ask for much more that that.
Click any picture to enlarge.
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Contact Bob Capo at bob@bobcapo.com for further information
on any of our restorations.Thank You.