Hill Climb for Hunger

Parts and Things - Team 37 Race Team

Team 37 is a group of Friends that have traveled together through out the years. While we just like to have fun because of the hard economic times we have decided to make a trip with a purpose. We are doing the HILL CLIMB FOR HUNGER. at the Newport Hill Climb Oct. 2nd - 4th, 2009 in Newport, Indiana

We ask that you visit us at the Memories Car Club Cruises. Our race Car will be there in some form of readiness. For a $1.00 donation you can sign our car and your generosity will be displayed from here to Newport, Indiana & hopefully back.

All donations will go to the local food pantries in the area. We will try to make as many area cruises as we can to get donations. We hope our fun with a purpose, along with the generosity of those that have been blessed we will have a large donation for the area food pantries. Looking forward to seeing you.

Follow along as we build our 1937 Chevy Sedan for the hill climb

You can double click any of these images and see the larger version

Work Day Sunday March 8, 2009

The boys (pit crew) started showing up about 7:45 am, I think it was still dark. Somewhere around 8:00 am Mr. T showed up with the race car in-toe. Oh yea all this is taking place at the world renoun O'Donnell's Garage in Murphy, Mo. We would have taken pictures of all this but 8:00 am on a Sunday when I already lost an hour which means that it was really 7:00 am and dark. I guess it was about 8:30 when I finally got there, it's a long trip for me, got to be at least 3 houses to the west. When I arrived they had the 37 up on jack stands & taking the wheels and tires off. By this time they had also unloaded all the parts that had been stored in the interior. The main goal for the day was to have working brakes, with Mr. T being the goal setter aka crew chief.

The brake shoes were in good condition and usable & Dennis had already rebuilt some wheel cylinders. Mr. T brought some new brake line so we were good to go until it came time to pack the front wheel bearings. Anybody think to get new wheel seals, I don't think so? Off to Beier's Auto Supply went Shawn, if anybody would have wheel seals for a '37 Chevy Beier's would have it or know where to get it. Minor set back no seals until Monday afternoon. Besides brakes the tail lights got mounted and wired. We were going to mount the gas tank but it was decided that it would be best if it was boiled out first. The grill shell was assembled with out the mounting blocks for the headlight, they were MIA for most of the day. No biggie we have time to get that straightened out. So by days end we had a race car with brakes, tail light, with new wiring, seats mounted and the tire patched, oh did I forget to mention that one of the tires had a small split in the inner sidewall nothing that some 200 mph duct tape wouldn't take care of. I guess it was around 3:30 when the work subsided and the day was called a success. Thanks to the pit crew for all their hard work, Dennis, Kirk, Dale, Al, Shawn, Mike & of course our crew chief Mr. T.

Work Evening March 16, 2009

A little work did get done in the last week. The grill shell is sitting in position with the radiator installed. Still waiting for the front grease seals and the gas tank to get boiled out. We met around 4:00 PM to do a little work. Along with the crew chief Mr. T there was Big Al & Denny. Wired the head lights and managed to get the tail lights and stop lights working. Put a door panel on one rear door. Oh yea we also got the dome light working after rebuilding the switch. We finally wrapped it up about 8:00 PM when we called it quits.

Good news & more good news.

We have good news & more good news. The engine has been removed from the dyno room & is ready for installation. It was them put in climate controlled storage & will be delivered 8:30 am 3-22-09 to the Murphy flats location. After fine tuning, time trails should start mid afternoon.

. Mr. T
I- Car Certified Chief

Work Day Sunday March 22

The official start time was 8:30 am but I guess everyone had a late night. The 1st to show up was Mr. T to find the Murphy Flats location void of workers. I had been there at the scheduled starting time but no one was around so I returned to the house. At 8:41 Mr. T called looking for the crew. It was around 9:00 when the crew finally all showed up and began work. Denny, Big Al, & Dale are in a different time zone than Mr. T.

T., Denny, & Dale proceeded to get the engine compartment ready to receive the new engine. Parts and Things dropped by to donate some ignition parts and bushing for the project. Big Al opened the upholstery shop and began making a backing board for the left rear quarter panel to be upholstered. Upon completing this job he then went to making replacement mounting nails for the right rear door panel. Now the whole time he was doing this the engine guys kept getting stuck and Big Al had to stop and go get them back on track. By lunch time the engine was sitting in the engine bay and the door panel was just about complete.

After pizza and salad we all returned to work. The engine crew proceeded to get all the lines and wiring hooked up. Big Al finished up the upholstery. Somewhere around 2:30 the engine was ready to crank. Mr. T had the honor of making the 1st crank to see if ole Betsy would fire. On the 3rd crank it fired up and ran for several seconds til it ran out of gas. You see she doesn't have a gas tank per say. The beer can that was being used didn't hold enough high octane to sustain life for very long. I think for the race they are going to need to use a large juice can. While all this was going on Big Al got out the rattle can spray gun and did a little touch up on the paint work. The roof and the right rear door needed a little paint work. The final task for the day was to load Team Betsy back on the trailer so she could go to T's. A little after 3:00 every one started heading back home.

Work Day/Evening - Mon March 30th

T.A.D all met at Afton Muffler to unload Betsy off the trailer onto the rack so that the boys there could install a muffler and tailpipe. After lunch we returned to load her back up for the trip home. All was done without incident, no one drove off the rack or trailer.

Now it's 6 pm and Denny & Big Al report back to work after doing some important personal chores. When we arrived "T" was replacing the old generator with the recently rebuilt one. Denny went straight to work getting the new fuel cell installed. After many hours of computer time it was determined that the amount of fuel in a large juice can would not sustain life for the engine long enough to make the climb, so a fuel cell was needed. Big Al started replacing the Euro tail light lenses with ones that are more period correct. After that was complete he went to work on the front door panels. Denny got the fuel cell mounted and proceeded to clean the fuel line between the fuel cell and pump. After making a gasket for the glass bowl on the fuel pump he proceeded to try and get fuel to the carb with a little help from Big Al who was pressurizing the tank to push fuel through the lines. All the time "T" was still working on the generator. Fuel system all ready to go Denny & Big Al mounted the front seat. "T" still working on the generator. Denny installed the battery, yes you can still buy 6 volt batteries, "T" still working on the generator.

Finally it was time to crank her over and let her purr off the fuel from the cell. What was that noise? Could it be the fan blades hitting the generator? Yes it could. Denny took over the job of remounting the generator to clear the fan blade. 45 minutes later we were ready to try it again. After a few tries the ole girl fired up and sat there just purring. Checked the output of the generator, installed a new temp gauge. By now it was after 9 PM so we called it quits and picked up the tools.

Remember you can check the ole girl in person at the Memories Car Club Cruise on April 3rd.

News Flash

At 9:28 PM March 31, 2009 Ol' Betsy fired up and pulled herself off the trailer under her own power. The rehab is working...

Continued

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