Will Our 1939 Ford Convertible Run After Sitting Abandoned For Years??

hey guys Matt iron trap garage and today we're going to do a little video on a little Discovery video on this 39 Ford Deluxe convertible sedan that we pulled out of uh the New England area so we got this off the trailer unloaded um it fought us a little bit getting it out of the the property where it was sitting but we got it back home and like we always do we're going to kind of dig into this car a little further show you what we can find about the car what's here what's missing um we might be able to get the engine to run we don't know I do know that the engine spun over when we were pulling it out of the building it was stuck in gear cuz we couldn't get to the gear shifter um and the engine did spin over while we were dragging it out which is a good sign so first thing we're going to do try and get these wheels and tires off um try and swap some better tires onto the wheels and try and get the wheels all spinning so that we can actually push this sting around and not have to use the tractor to drag it around the property and then we'll dig in a little further and see what the engine is like I didn't really check this car out too much because it was in a building where I had to purchase it kind of as is and I made a a deal on it where I was like we'll pull it out and if it breaks in half I'll pay the same price if it's better than expected pay the same price so so far there's some stuff that's worse than expected some stuff that's better um and we'll really just see what we can do with this thing and how far we can get it this uh this little video so it'll be like a will it will it run and all all of those types of videos combined in one it's going to be a lot of fun so let's get [Music] started all right that thing's practically falling off the wheel hopefully that means it'll be easier you got to love it when the wheel comes off e ew that's slimy oh man [Music] restoration guys are already yelling cuz I'm putting staggered tires on we got a wet beautiful original car could you uh can you go up like a pump or two just a little keep going that's good so we got to get this Dash in so you can stand over there and reach your hand in just to help support it we're going to hang it sits right B up a little bit we get three in I think we'll be good here then we can steer the car cuz we'll have a dashboard that's actually boled in you want to work the Jack Steve mhm oh no moon Moon's on the leash what an insult what a degradation ooh I was going to make sure it's spun okay but that's fine a littlee of you we are neutral ready oh man like nothing yeah considering what an hour ago we wereing with the TR D that's freaking awesome all right so we got the car rolling while we're moving along uh the hood is not boled down I noticed so I just had set oh I got to there we go okay over this way around the dog dog yeah now the Ender Bay does not look good oh that's a lot of poop it's a lot of everything it's not look friendly nope it is a three bolt distributor mhm this was Chrome that's very nice yeah it's got a chrome lid on the oil cover on the oil filter let's take a look it has oil plenty of oil yep how is it's got truck pumps on it yeah it's got the double pulley water pump move everything's turning and it's got the carburetor we have for the Run stand on it mhm let's make it run yay flipping oh that looks sketchy the wiring for the coil was just oh yeah it just Twisted together there it's like all these pieces Daisy chained together yep oh no look it's a jumper wire oh even better well that's that that's that's a little better than just twisting them together I guess so somebody was probably running this thing with like we do uh-huh but we were not using is there a there's a fire brick holding that uh holding that battery there sure is oh there sure is custom yeah well Safety First Custom Custom I guess we will our we have wires on our setup I guess yeah yeah we can use our plug wires now if you think these plugs would even did we just see what happens with him I would just see what happens as little effort as possible exactly yeah came it was loose is there gasket on there kind of kind of you know it's good with her spider webs down the quarts M long as there's no mouse Nest I feel good about it yeah that's that's the that's the worry the coin system's all hooked up so hopefully no mice got in there yeah right [Applause] yeah and it's got a button in it get the heck out so this must be a lader engine mhm maybe it's a 59ab and they you put the early can back in it right but yeah it's button was half falling out oh baby it did it hold on it was even sucking the cap down all right it's got It's got at least some compression so spark you want to check for spark quick with your inline thing yeah and then then we'll do the fuel thing mhm oh it's drawing power should have spark ready ready when you are yep it just started it just been started it drew fuel through the carburetor all right fuel tank do you want to try the the um nurse tank it it yeah yeah yeah [Applause] yeah good try get there you [Applause] go close [Applause] [Music] good good we're getting so close yep that's probably about the right spot for the choke mhm can you hold the throttle just open a tiny bit yeah that's what I'm doing now come on baby [Applause] damn get so close all right so we got a little optimistic and tried to get this thing running the other day and uh while it did cough and try to run and ran even for a split second um I think that there's we're going to check it out in a little bit but I think that one of maybe the spark PL one of the cylinders or two of the cylinders or three of the cylinders might have some valves hung open or something's going on we're going to have to do a compression check to be completely honest we were just for fun I mean we didn't even pull the spark plugs out you can see how dirty this is so the fact that it even tried to start and run with it looking like it does is pretty incredible so we're going to pull the spark plugs check compression see if the spark plugs are even usable best case scenario maybe one or two of the spark plugs are all crappy looking and that's what was going on and then we'll kind of go uh try and get it running again or at least diagnose it but I really jumped ahead cuz we were just excited pulling it off the trailer um I think what we're going to do is uh I'm going to work on cleaning this thing out it's a total disgusting mess in really even working around this Engine with all this crap literal crap like raccoon poop and mold and all this insulation that was left in the car and on and on and on and then I I also want to go through all these extra parts this was all the parts that we found like in the car this was an extra dashboard that I bought I threw a gutted dashboard empty that we had bought that's for a closed car but it still fits tell it's a closed car one cuz it's got the hole for the wind out uh windows but uh for the windshield but uh it got it in there it got the steering column so we could Bol it in and it's sturdy and now we could steer it um and I want to get all the stuff out get it cleaned out get all the insulation blown out cleaned out and get it a little more sanitary to work with and then we can kind of uh evaluate the car a little closer and maybe see if we can get this engine um running or at least diagnose what's up with it but already big progress just having some wheels and tires on it we can roll it in and out of the shop we could steer it you know that's that's big progress already today over the past couple days and surprisingly all of the doors seem to work pretty well found some of the old horns some of this stuff is like so rough from sitting in the trunk that it's probably ended up being scrap metal this one the horn the Bell part of the horn actually just rotted right off so this one's obviously Just Junk this one is so pitted and rusted here I don't think this one's really worth saving either so these are probably going in scrap bin sadly on the way don't need anything you know it stinks it smells so did find the air cleaner so we'll keep that around has an old Champion sparks plug sticker still on it surprisingly we'll keep that in case we do get it running put that back on some brand new brake shoes which are pretty decent looks like maybe a little animal nibbled on the corner of that one but might be good who knows for a beater piece of an original radio which I think is Just Junk I'm not sure what this is but I want to keep it in case it's specific for convertible sedan I don't know so even to copy it would be nice and I found some of these These are the armrests again I think these are convertible sedan or convertible specific so we want to keep these even if they're wrecked the metal structure inside is good if it gets reupholstered so learned over the years anything even though it looks rough just for myself or the next person um it's good to have that stuff so think we'll clean out this side of all the grossness insulation and then we'll move to the other side so we've already taken I think we took 10 Mike was counting it was 10 or 12 like trash cans like standup I don't know how many gallon trash cans but you know waist height type trash cans we took like 10 I think it was of of insulation and junk at his thing just to get it good enough to put it in the trailer so and there's still a lot of junk in here I want to get get the big pieces out before I get the vacuum and W it all over the driveway it's like a cruel joke a car filled with packing peanuts and insulation like everybody hates when they get a package in the mail with packing peanuts nonetheless oo that's cool old Chrome shift ball nonetheless a whole car filled with it this is like one of my worst nightmares for sure so this is part of the process not like those fancy TV guys that just buy it and then send it to their uh send it to a shop and have them clean it out and then they come back and just drive it a few months later a year later I got to clean up the turn the wrenches write the checks do everything so I gave Steve the easier more fun job of uh changing the Jets and the tea today while I'm doing this so I want Steve to come back so I avoid giving him some of this work all the time actually you want to run the air thing near where I'm blowing I might catch some of it [Music] like [Music] all right so now that we got the engine bay at least cleaned out enough that we can see what's going on um we're going to pull each of the plugs check them out do a compression test see what we got and uh hopefully diagn know uh what was going on there with the no or or not wouldn't stay running oh wow that plug was loose maybe that's why it wouldn't run what maybe that's why it wouldn't run I mean it was it wasn't like finger loose but it was snug it wasn't tight definitely wasn't cranked down plug is a little rusty oh wow it might just be really bad plugs who [Applause] knows all right well that one was about zero oh boy so that is not good just watch that you can see it right there right at the top yep all right got one stuck valve right validated that theory now could you tap on it from right there is it going to doesn't doesn't look just look at it I can't see it no it's not mov all right so that one's the problem number one mhm y 100 lb wow it's even got decent compression that's that's pretty crazy so we know that one's good we don't have to check the valve moving we know it's doing it thing we'll just wire brush the pluging take care that was one of the ones that was making noise yeah that was that was one of the ones that was popping for us oh boy about 75 that's good enough yeah not perfect enough yeah good enough to make a good enough to make combustion I I think I got it okay that's the best one got 120 on that one 125 so we figured out that we have one stuck valve on the number one cylinder and that's it every other one was we had number six was a little low it was like 60 or 65 that was the lowest one but I don't think that's enough to keep it from running so right it should still fire so I think that number one being stuck all the way over it's it was just keeping it from continuing to run and the plugs were freaking really dirty yeah good but really dirty yep so other than my one casualty of breaking the plug being a being a dummy we're good to go so we're going to I tried tapping on that one valve a little bit with a brass punch very lightly and it didn't seem to move so think we're going to need to uh think we're going to start by pulling the intake see if we can uh get some heat on that seat or I mean a guide and see if we can get it to break loose I was a naysayer Steve was like before we pull the intake Let's uh let's try it again with some Cy I tried hammering with a little brass punch yeah and Steve sprayed some Cy tapped it just a little bit and I know it's probably almost impossible to see but that valve is now shut so um let's compression tester see if we got compress we crank it over a couple times get it to move on its own just crank the engine over for a second see if the valve will go up and down okay go ahead yep you're the battery man there ready [Applause] yep it was moving up and down I don't know if it was going all the way or not okay but it was moving up and down so give it another tap see if it well it might be it's not all the way up it's almost shut all the way there it was going up and down I don't know if it was shutting all the way it was hard to tell right nope now it's closed hit home yeah yep all right let's take a look at that again I still don't know if it was closing all the way it's hard to see but it looks like there's try it again it's a it looks like it's up just a tiny bit yeah it does yep now it's closed yeah but it's closed more that time yeah yeah it's it's just going to take that to clean up a little bit of the whatever's on the stem there all right go [Applause] ahead there we go nice yeah cuz before I could see compression leaking around the valve and that time I could hear going thk thk nice that would be freaking awesome and we forgot to mention this thing has the coolant is basically like right at the perfect level it's like right just here so with these tanks non pressurized I don't know how this thing hasn't leaked Co in all these years somewhere so it even has in it that's crazy now I it I'm hoping it's not water but right yeah I'm thinking it is because the radiator would be all cracked it smells like colon the radiator would be all cracked here from freezing I would think but right it it would have cracked and leaked out yeah you're right so all right that's what we're hoping that's our that's our next so many levels of disappointment with a flathead we right all right go [Applause] ahead don't we get anything there yeah maybe it's still sticking yep probably still sticking a little bit bit there feels like it's on to C ready yep yep I got 50 there so I'll take it that means it's at least partially maybe some more coil down in there or something we yeah get it open again is it open yet um no it's closed at the [Applause] moment real close can't tell if I'm flooding it or what's going on right go [Applause] ahead Come on B that was that was that was running running our problem is our battery's getting a little yeah batter starting I think it's just not getting the fuel down it does yeah that's what it seems I saw I did that and it started to fire yep all right go ahead going to have to go get the jump pack this battery's been Beat to Death mhm and we just cranked it for compression how many times let me choke it full go ahead all right I just open the throttle all the way and it tried a lot more go ahead [Applause] [Music] okay clue we definitely run cars on this distributor right oh yeah with that remote coil thing mhm well not with the remote coil it's the first time we're doing that well that's what I'm asking is there a condenser that's not giving a good spark or something when we checked the spark the other day spark was really good I mean it was ready [Applause] [Applause] yep are we filming yeah okay I don't know what happened is that the oil running over there right here oh yeah it's pouring now we need a drain pan okay I don't know what that was but it just randomly started and ran on its own it said just leave me alone pretty much yeah and I'll run yeah that actually idled yeah I mean that that CL that qualifies his running yeah absolutely might lose all our oil by the end of this but yes we will we are going to pump it dry yeah I would love to get it to run a little bit more and then yep but then again that was enough to say that it probably will run we just got to get everything right M we could put plugs in that so that it's not weak and everywhere and then right yeah we'll have to plug that off then we can run it for a little while I'd like to hear it run a little better [Applause] but come on baby come on [Applause] baby ni ni I don't know what happened but it just decided to run yep listen to how quiet that is holy crap yeah good holy listen to how quiet that is I bet that the valves still sticking and they finally just freed up listen that yep that easily could be it oh my god listen to that it's like amaz got a nicee headed mil over back here well basically 2 or 3 days sits pulled out of a barn sitting forever with raccoon poop and everything inside of it and the thing is literally we just got to run in after some [Music] fighting it's amazing [Applause] amazing he's [Applause] dying something happened again that's weird yeah cuz once I got it to clear up it was great yep so something okay well that was fantastic that was freaking cool as out and we got plenty of fuel we swapped out the distributor cuz we had a feeling that our test distri distributor was giving some issues so we just got out the fire and it ran beautifully I just had the idle too high so we're going to try and do this again that was almost too easy yeah see if it'll do it twice in a row ready yep okay now we got ignition wow that's great okay our our distributor was a problem yeah definitely that's nuts listen to that thing like straight away that's nuts right off the sh I had it that's incredibly well there that's crazy that's just crazy all right so it just goes to show that if you let something sit for the weekend and you think on it sometimes stuff works out out so at the end of Friday Steve and I were super psyched cuz we got the thing to run for uh you know a couple of minutes and all a sudden it just started running like crap it was like a like a switch went off where it was it was firing on like six cylinders it would barely stay running and we couldn't get it to stay running and then all a sudden like a switch it started running beautifully and you guys heard it was like the engine was quiet it idled it was like insane and all a sudden it went back to what it was doing before and we spent the rest of Friday fighting ourselves and we kind of just gave up and then over the weekend and I was sort of thinking about it I'm like well it was either sticky valves which seems unlikely cuz if once you get the valves freed up pretty good it's usually okay um or was it something where it was dropping out cylinders in the ignition system and it's just dumb luuck we've used that distributor it's a three bolt so this engine I think it's like a 59ab a 46 to8 engine potentially um when we took the distributor off we noticed that it had a three-bolt distributor like an earlier like this car would had a 39 but it had a little button in it that's used to adapt a early distributor to a later engine and the 3 bolt timing cover so we already know that this engine's out of like a truck by the by the um pulley and stuff that's on it so we're guessing it's a later truck engine they put the earlier distributor on just so they didn't have to change anything um so we put our three bolt distributor on and something must have went bad since the last time we ran it on an engine on the engine stand so um I I was thinking that there we put a 59 may be on with a bolt pattern adapter from Harmon Collins and the thing you guys saw it it just fired up like this morning we were like we're like let's just give it a try it's Monday maybe something got better change the distributor and see what happens and it fired so fast we were like we didn't even know what to do what the heck so started it again for you guys on camera and turn the thr the idle down a little bit and the thing runs beautifully so um something we'll have to take a look at that other distributor but now it's running awesome so super excited what we're going to do for the next video if you stick around um in the next video what we're going to do is try and make this thing a lot drivable we're using big red as a service vehicle we got some lugs that we put in the truck that we can jump start with now we're going to work on getting a battery that will sit in this car maybe hook up some kind of ignition switch that we can shut the car on and off and maybe use the starter switch or something in the car which would be crazy and uh I want to take it around the yard we got to do that and it's got cool in it so unlike a lot of these cars where we start them and they have no coolant and we run it for like 3 seconds we could actually take this around the yard so next year is going to be super fun we're going put on the lift try and get it to drive around the yard and maybe even Road Drive we will see I don't know yet but at the very least we're going to do something sketchy in the next video and it'll be a huge hurdle uh gone over so thank you guys for following really appreciate it I hope you had as much fun watching this as we do resurrecting these old garage and barn find type Vehicles thanks guys catch you later [Music]

Channel: IronTrap Garage

Views: 198,768

Keywords: irontrap, iron trap, iron trap garage, irontrap garage, matt murray, hot rod, street rod, rat rod, traditional hot rod, barn find, barn find hunters, kustom, trog, the race of gentleman, vlog, the hamb, jalopy journal, model a, model t, roadster, coupe, picking, american pickers, early ford, ford, will it run, first start, 1939, flathead, convertible, engine

Id: bBewvlHV5-A

Length: 35min 42sec (2142 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 10 2023