36 Ford truck on Ranger

[MercuryMac]

Hi Tripper. I agree with you about not being cheap. You usually will lose any good will that could have come your way, when you beat someone down on any deal. It was the colour of paper that the mechanical inspection was written on that caused the grief. That baffled me at first, why it had to be on green paper. My mechanical inspection was on white paper [garden variety inspection] not green [provincial]. I was branded a criminal for trying to pull such horribleness.
Our terminology is slightly different. I was trying to get registration---which is probably title and licence plates.
I should have started sooner but in order to pass the inspection I had to have the truck in order, and that didn't happen quickly.

[MercuryMac]

Hi guys. Well I went to the show on Friday evening,---- in my '55 Merc, boring, right. I came back home late Friday night and worked on the '36 all day Saturday while the car show guys were playing poker rally and other games. There were a bunch of little niggeley things in the ignition to fix. Point to file, coil to change, Distributer cap to change, but finally I unplugged my voltage reducer in the ignition and fed 12 volts to the coil, all the time. Whoa, blue spark across the plugs. Now, my electric gas pump wasn't putting gas in the carb. It turned out the mechanical fuel pump had gummed up valves so they were freed up. Now the electric pump could force gas through the mechanical one and on to the carb. This engine had possibly run for two minutes in the last 40 years. I pushed the starter button and it fired right up and ran quietly and smoothly. Without messing with the choke or footfeed the motor idled nicely. I got out and walked around the back to listen to the exhaust note, very nice. I looked at my watch and figured out time lines. Just enough time to make it back to Dawson Creek for the big supper and cruise. With the shop door open I jumped in to the truck and stuffed it into first gear, NO first gear, well second then, NO second either, so I went for a test drive in 3rd gear and made the painful decision to take the '55 Merc to the car show again this year.

[rex1927]

Tripper-I wish every state had a title service like yours.The reason I have quit buying many cars is the paperwork mess that goes with it.Just not worth the trouble,so I don`t buy much anymore.
If we had a title service here I would sure use it.That would be great!

[MercuryMac]

Hi Tripper and Rex, How I wish we had a private licence service too. Our licence offices were semi privatized a few years ago and they are better than they used to be. It was the way I was treated[like a violent criminal] that bothered me so much, when I had not enough paperwork and some wrong paperwork[pretty small crimes]. I had been arrogant enough to think that Alberta would be nice enough to deal with, seeing that I've been buying seven or eight licences there every year since they opened, and I don't look very criminal.

[MercuryMac]

My daughter got a photo of me whizzing by the house on my test drive. It's been too small to send to you, but now she reE-mailed it to me and I think it will work. The first picture is me changing the solenoid [a steel one, era correct looking, brand new] for an old used plastic one, that works right. The second one is the test drive, in third gear of course.

[earthman]

Somehow this is the first time i have read thru this thread . But while there are not many comments there are 3400 veiws! Love the truck but not much else to contribute because it looks like you have it all under control. My favoritest thing is to see pix and vids of members completed projects out and about in their natural habitat. Kind of like putting a face to a name. Hmmmm....what a good idea for another contest.

[MercuryMac]

Hi earthman. Thanks for the thumbs up and the acknowledgement of finishing a hotrod, a bigger feat than I expected. You must make the thumbs up symbols. You know, you're hotrodding this forum when you add coolness to the words and pictures. Right on.
I purposely submitted the picture of me changing the solenoid so I could get in the limelight and the guys could see if I measured up to their expectations. I know I sure like to see the builders sometimes in the pictures.

[GJunktionMike]

Driving with one gear is still driving

[MercuryMac]

Whoa GJ, double the fun, I had to use reverse too, so two gears. Anyhow, I was dreading the taking apart of all the sound deadener, gaskets, flooring, and homemade seals that I had so fussily installed. The gearshift and mounting base turned out to be a way worse than I'd imagined and it looks like putting it together will be even worse. I lifted the top off the transmission easily but couldn't tell if the forks were in there right or wrong, so my guess that I had missed the shift collar with one fork could be right, or not.

[Sam_Fear]

I wanna know how that hat is staying on your head?! Congrats on the test run.... but that sucks about having to tear back into the trans.