Take Your Seat
Some of you may recognize the name Mike Chiavetta, he of home-built woody with a Dodge cowl and Model A fenders fame. Mike has the ability to fabricate virtually anything, and has an uncanny ability to spot parts that can be adapted for use on a street rod. An example follows.
I had to do some minor maintenance on the woodmobile recently and I used my mother-in-law's 1990 Toyota Camry for a few days while my car was down. Imagine me using a conventional car.
Although the Model A Tudor front seats in my woody are satisfactory on long trips, I discovered the Toyota seats are much more comfortable. They have remarkable mechanical adjustments and are very similar in size to my woody seats. The seat bases are simply bolted to the floor. In the front of the Toyota seat is the standard front-to-back adjustment lever, but on the sides are found 3 knobs that adjust the seat bottom angle, a lumbar adjustment, and a seat back recline. No electric motors, all knobs easy to move, allowing many ways to adjust for comfort. Maybe discard the removable head rests for a more authentic look and you have a very comfortable, easy-to-install, inexpensive seat idea for your next project. I love stuff like this. For now my mother-in-law can keep her seats, but if I were to find a salvageable '30-31 Model A coupe body "for my grandkids."Mike ChiavettaHuntington Beach, CA
It's A Matter Of Timing
Q.I recently bought a '50 Ford sedan with a bone stock big-block 429 Ford and C6. The engine is in good shape; it has good compression, and doesn't burn oil, but the performance isn't what it should be. Specifically I'm having a difficult time with the ignition system. It has the original point-style distributor and if I set the timing according to what the shop manual says the engine doesn't have the low-end power something that big that uses that much gas should have. If I advance the timing it has much better low-end power but the top-end suffers and it pings like crazy. Got any ideas on a fix?Bill UnderwoodVia the Internet
A.Our guess would be the problem comes from a combination of the engine's 1970s ignition advance curve and the fuel available today. Contemporary gasoline is vastly different from what your big Ford was intended to run on, but there are some adjustments that can be made.
According to our buddy Henry Olsen (Ole's Carburetor & Electric, (650) 589-7377) the burn rate of contemporary fuels and the advance curves in the distributors of most older distributors is anything but a match made in heaven. In most cases, Henry has found more initial advance may be needed than the original factory specifications call for, but that often results in too much total advance.
Although your stock distributor could have the advance curve altered, why bother when there are much better alternatives available. MSD offers several distributors for your 429, including the Pro-Billet (PN 8350) and Street Pro Billet (PN 8477), which are ready-to-run designs with vacuum advance units, or the Billet Ford (PN 8550), which requires an MSD box and has no vacuum advance.
Regardless of the design you choose, all the MSD distributors mentioned offer the advantages of electronic triggering so you can say so long to the points. In addition, altering the advance curve on any of them is simple.
To understand ignition timing there are some terms the folks at MSD suggest you know.
Initial Timing: This is the base timing of the engine before the centrifugal advance begins.
Centrifugal Advance: The centrifugal (or mechanical) advance mechanism is made up of weights, springs, advance cams, and an advance stop bushing. The amount and rate of advance that the distributor is capable of is determined by the centrifugal timing.
Total Timing: This is the total of the initial timing plus the centrifugal advance added together.
Vacuum Advance: The vacuum advance will advance the timing up to 10 degrees during part throttle operation.
Here are some tips on selecting an advance curve from MSD.
- Use as much initial advance as possible without encountering excessive starter load.
- Start the centrifugal advance just above the idle rpm.
- The starting point of the centrifugal advance curve is controlled by the installed length and tension of the spring.
- How quickly the centrifugal advance (slope) comes in is controlled by the spring stiffness. The stiffer the spring, the slower the advance curve.
- The amount of advance is controlled by the advance bushing. The bigger the bushing, the smaller the amount of advance. Try 34 to 36 degrees total for your Ford.