Talk about presents! Oh, it certainly does and that's what the previous owner did. They just kept it in a museum, presenting it to people and it really hasn't moved much in 20 years. It looks presidential, something that would be like top level government in some country I Don't know about that, but yeah, can I please touch your wood? Oh By all means please welcome to H Garage The dumbest Automotive channel in all of YouTube And this is my latest purchase: a 1946 Chrysler Town and Country Woody convertible the king of the Woodies What once was a total blue chip collector car selling for over six figures. but as interest has died down in these antique cars, prices have come down and I bought this for only $58,000 Now the big butt with this is it had been sitting in a museum.

it was part of a museum collection I Got the title for almost 20 years when they purchased it so it really hasn't moved since I Graduated high school basically and today is going to be a pretty stupid video because despite that information, I am going to try and drive it 30 Mi up to The Car Wizard so we can start the recommissioning process. Now it still does run and drive very nice. but I haven't tried to drive at any kind of distance and the tires are old and blocked off so it does shake at highway speeds. It also has some leaks and other issues so I'm sure The Car Wizard will have an absolute field day.

But not only that, my other car from the 1940s, a 1949 Cadillac Fastback also broke down on me I was trying to move it out of my storage building that I was finally giving up. put it in the hanger here and it refused to start. it was getting no fuel. it would run on starting fluid but then, uh, just refused to run on its own.

so I had to have it towed up to the car Wizards as well. And apparently there is some good news on the Cadillac El Dorado which I did try to bring home from the car wiards, but it had a big failure. It threw off its main belt shortly after leaving the parking lot and I had to limp it back and take something else home. but apparently it was something stupid simple there.

so we'll find that out at the car Wizards as well. But first, well, let's see if this old Woody can still do it. So starting procedure on the New Yorker there's a battery cut off right down there by my backpack I turn that on, turn the key, we have fuel pump and then we have a start button over here underneath the spotlight and battery's low but before we hit the road I Would like to thank betterhelp for sponsoring this video. It's the new year and a great time to work on yourself.

Personally, I'm trying to plow through all these expenses with the new garage and Farmhouse Renovations then sit back and take a hard look at my work life balance which hasn't been very well balanced. I've had a lot of anger lately also over something totally out of my control that I wish I could let go of and this is where therapy can help me achieve these goals better. Help make starting therapy easier and much less intimidating for a lot of people. You can check it out yourself at the link below or at betterhelp.com Hoovies betterhelp lets you have therapy sessions as a phone call, as a video chat, or even messaging whatever the most comfortable version of therapy is for you.

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You can switch therapists with a click of a button in your settings at no additional cost. So join over 4 million people who've used better help to start living a healthier, happier life. Click the link in the description or visit betterhelp.com Hoovies there we go. Here goes: nothing going down the taxiway.

You would never think this car has been sitting for 20 years, but we're only going 20 or 30 mes milph uh but you can still notice some weird things like the brakes when you hit the brakes they pull hard run way and somebody coming through way too fast in their Honda as you saw. they still work though. but as you get up to speed, things get a lot more sketchy and I haven't gone much faster than 55 I Probably won't dare going up to the Car Wizard so it'll be a long, hopefully relaxing Drive where there's no incidents. The one thing that's working perfectly is this fluid Drive semi-automatic transmission which is so cool.

Here's the shift to one two. did that without the clutch without changing gear. but then if I want to go into the high gears 34 I put the clutch in, put the lever down to the bottom and now I'm in third and soon I Let off there we are. Top Gear This is a very Innovative system for the time that made cars much easier to drive, especially on busy city streets.

and that extra gear gave you some Highway leg legs. So these things can go 80, 85 M hour as a top speed I dare won't do that but it still has that old school straight A under the hood which I'm sure the car wizard will love if he sees it about the halfway mark and other than impeding traffic a little bit. I'm doing pretty good sorry sorry. What a good car.

Good car Yes. and the other 40s car. Well, bad car. Very very naughty wizard.

It made it wizard. It made it. Talk about presents. Oh, it certainly does.

and that's what the previous owner did. They just kept it in a museum, presenting it to people and it really hasn't moved much in 20 years. It looks presidential, something that would be like top level government in some country I don't know about that, but yeah, can I Please touch your wood Oh By all means, please rub it. It's actually in really nice shape.

Yeah, some of these I Think you've mentioned to me before where they're just they're like overly shiny or yeah, over restored to where they look beautiful. but it looks, uh, way too shiny. This one I believe is the original wood that has been refinished. This car was a red car when it left the factory.

it's been repainted black, but a lot of it is. I think original I Don't think it's ever been fully restored and I see little touches of this thing. maybe being original? like the finish here on the top of the door, the wear on it, it's it's just right to sort of look like it's never been redone. the seats obviously redone.

and then the inside of this door has the original color. I Think: But yeah, take a look under the hood, the acres and Acres of chrome. There boom that stood at attention really well, didn't it did. Yes.

Straight eight, Straight eight. Nice gigantic R radiator and then the air intake. Rather simple. Now this should be an oil bath, but I haven't looked inside.

You want to take a peek and see if there's still some oil in there. There should be engine oil in the bottom of it. The oil actually does the filtering. The engine looks industrial like on a steam ship or something.

Mhm. Is there oil floating around in there? Yeah, there. actually. Sure enough.

yeah, it is. So a nice simple: Flathead Straight eight. But look at the carburetor. you see the little extra stuff on it.

So this is like a switch. yes, wiring or something. There's two switches and it's for shifting on the semi-automatic fluid drive. so one is a kick down.

When you floor it, it wants to detect that the throttle is opening up to do a kick down on the transmission and the other one is to detect when it goes all the way flat to say, like an idle. So it shifts for you. so it's a throttle position sensor. Basically pretty much yeah.

Looks like the wire is resting on the exhaust. We'll fix that up for you. Looks like it's melted a little bit. Oh okay yeah, definitely fix that because if I lose it, then I only have first and third gear as far as shifting.

and when I first got it, they had the idle set so high that it wouldn't shift because it wouldn't go down low enough in the RPMs for it to detect the shift. I can tell you don't have any heat. uh no unfortunately. yeah, that' be the the heater core lines and uh, there's no hoses going to them.

No yeah. so something to look into there cuz heat would be nice on this car. and I know it is leaking a little bit. It doesn't have a valve cover gasket so I that actually it does.

it does. It's right here. Oh right, that's probably where it could be leaking. they coming up from the bottom there.

Yeah, it's Side Access on there and the other side. It still retains its original 6vt system. that is so cool It all the battery has been replaced recently, but it all looks ancient. Look at that coil there.

it says solar something? Yeah, do you think it's actually old or just made to look old? I think it's actually old. Still working great. The idol on this thing is fantastic. and uh, oil filter? well that looks a little wet down there.

huh? Mhm. that might be leaking a little bit. So this has a foot starter. We actually push a button on the floor.

No, No, it's a push button on the dash. But yeah, you got to hear this thing. make sure it's out of gear. Ah, there.

There's one issue I'm having. So when it clicked there, it's like the 6vt doesn't get enough volt to the starter and acts like the battery's dead when it's not. Yeah. I Know that the grounds are very sensitive on these.

You see how thick it is. MHM This is the ground here, so it must be. Let me take a look here so it's positive ground. see it says.

a plus Mhm Plus goes to grounds. It's backward from the Nor part, which is what they did back then. This is awfully light cable for a sixf system so we can put a heavier heavier cable. That makes all okay.

It sounds slow cranking, but that's the way they were back then. Sounds nice, huh? Sounds really good? Yeah, yeah. mechanically. it doesn't seem like it needs much.

Um, it's a lot of the electrical stuff inside here, so the heater, the fan. none of that comes on the radio. I'll give up on that. It actually turns on and makes some noise, but uh, doesn't work.

There's a few lights that don't work, but amazingly, the power top does work. It actually works. It actually works. Wow.

It's electric. It's electric. Yep, wow. And just driving it.

The speedometer does work, but the cable. It needs to be lubed. Really really bad. Just indicted to sitting for such a long time.

and I have to do tires obviously. and the brakes. They kind of pull in one way when I hit the brakes, but the more I drove it, the better it got. So it's probably just from sitting a long time.

Yeah, well, while it's running, want me to pull it onto the lift? Sure. but I Want to check? Check out this hinge. Yeah, is that wild. That is all wood, the structure of this trunk, and the doors like a bank.

Bol Hinge. All right? Well, I hope you get on the lift. Well, it hasn't bent itself apart on the lift, so the structure must be pretty good. huh? Yeah, it must be this.

This car is in the area where cars were long and skinny? Yes, yeah. yep. much like me, long skinny. Woody I see some uh, antifreeze leaking there? So this is all recent for my road trip up today, huh? Yeah.

And then there's some here. H Let me see. well, it's bright neon green. You don't need to take it.

Yep, it's antifreeze. Okay, so my radiator needs to be. We need to find it. Could be a hose or something.

we'll have to take a look. Old drum braks all around yes and they do feel a lot better now that I've driven it a little bit. but I wouldn't mind you going through it since it's been sitting for so long. Yeah, these are easy to adjust.

It just has these little adjustments here. It's pretty easy to do. Yeah, you did a great job on my old 68 Charger doing that with the four-wheel drum. So I thought you'd convert it to traditional disc brakes or up Moniz it.

and I didn't need to. No, you didn't need to. Yeah, the shocks are good. It look like maybe 1990 shocks or something.

It rides really nice. has a spacer here. Maybe just to help with ride height. It was probably getting from age.

It was probably sagging. Oh the Springs Yeah, and there's one there. Okay, that just helps bring it back up to stock ride heights. And here's some oil.

Mhm: Looks like the valve cover is leaking over here. The side mount? Yeah, okay. Valve cover. Nice.

Mhm. Nothing serious. That's what all this is. Okay, this transmission uses.

like it says, 10 we motor oil only. you don't put transmission fluid in this. Interesting and it is. Well, it looks a little bit more like an automatic than it does a manual I suppose.

But what's this apparatus on the back here? This is your parking brake. Oh okay. so you and it clamps around drum and keeps it from moving. Okay, cool.

These are probably like servos electronic or something that P move Forks inside the transmission Mhm. It actually has a clutch. It does here. It is right here.

Yep, Okay, this side looks more like a manual and the other side looks like an automatic. So and it is both. They call it a semi-automatic fluid Drive Mhm. Interesting, It probably has a uh, some sort of a torque converter or a Taurus or something like that up front.

And here's that X frame, which which uh Mopar is kind of famous for in the' 60s they were banned from Demolition Derbies with the Imperials because of the very sturdy frames on their cars. Strong? Yeah, yeah, it's got a little bit of play in the diff just from age, but I wouldn't I probably wouldn't mess with it. Doesn't seem too bad when I drive it. Yeah.

I do notice an exhaust leak though. Uhoh, looks like it's been crushed or hit. How does that happened? I don't know, but it's coming from more in the back. Oh yeah, there it is.

Yeah, we can probably put in a muffler here. just a muffler right there. Put something. Either that or we can have our exhaust guy just go from here back.

Yeah, I can hear a little bit of an exhaust leak. and then when I'm outside in the cold, you can see smoke coming from around here and out the back. I'm curious what this is. That's a heavy duty cable.

That's the that's the cut off in the seat. Okay, so it's a battery cut off. so a battery cut off switch. Okay, I hit that every time I want to start the car? or leave it I turn it on off.

Okay, what do they call these? a pan? Ard bar. yeah, just for stabilization. or yeah, it keeps the axle from shifting this way. okay.

and leaf springs. Mhm. Leaf springs in the back, coils in the front. There's a fuel tank.

Yeah, as far as the underc carriage, it looks like it's had a rattle can restoration. M at some point. Uh, little bit of rust proofing on this side, but everything looks really solid. You can see there's some wood right there.

Really impressive. Yeah, and you think the fluid Drive is okay. You think that's all oil from Aire Well, like there's something leaking here. Maybe this copper washer or a gasket or something right there.

Nothing serious. Yeah, all this under here is from your valve cover. Okay, well, it'll be nice to clean it up to where it doesn't drip too much on the ground. so look into that if you will.

And uh I know the 49 Cadillac Unfortunately wouldn't start because of no fuel. so this was my daily driver 40s car. but at the new Farm I don't have a place to put it. So it's been sitting in storage for 6 months and when it came time to move it, that's why all this dust is on it.

U No start, no fuel. it run on starting fluid I Cranked it forever and it just never got fuel. So did you look at it yet? y it's already fixed I'll show you actually what it was. You can see it.

There's a little filter on these old Quadro carbur you can actually see it says stamped on there. it says filter M and you unscrew this large nut here and there's an actual filter. It was just plugged in there. Interesting.

So for people screaming, what is that engine doing on a 49 Cadillac This is sort of a Resto mod. It has a 500 cubic inch uh uh, Cadillac V8 from maybe 1970 or so from the 70s so it's sort of been Resto moded. This was the first year of overhead valve V8 the first Motor Trend Car of the Year the body a Fastback really cool, uh, but not original like the Uh 46. So this thing I could cruise on the Highway 80 90 mph, no problem.

and the aerodynamic shape. It's actually pretty quiet, comfy inside, modern seats and everything. Air conditioning heating everything you'd ever want. So a really neat car that just it sat and now it's punishing me for sitting.

So I noticed you have the radiator cap off. We found a couple pin holes in the bottom of the radiator. This is some kind of a custom radiator that was made specifically to work with this engine. Unfortunately, you can't just go buy another one so we're going to have to remove it, send it to a radiator shop and have them fix it.

Al So I'm potentially looking at two radiators because the 46 is leaking. Yes, we'll see from there. Uh, and that Mhm. All right.

Well shoot and the heads have come back on the Ferrari so that can start going back together. Yep, Uh, the Callaway I just dropped off right before Christmas and you shut down for the holidays. So the Opty spark stuff you haven't done yet haven't messed with it yet. Uh, but where we last left off? I Tried to take this guy home the ELO rod and she threw a belt.

So why did that happen? There was a defective belt that cords inside the belt. they actually a couple of them had broke and it was spongy stretchy. We just warrantied it and got a new belt and so you called it all these defective Parts knew out of the box and it was literally the belt, not one of the pulleys like you first suspected. Huh? There's a brand new belt and it was bad.

Unfortunately, that makes mechanics look bad when it's not their fault. it's just the quality. Parts have gone so downhill in recent years. they really have.

Yeah, so uh Daniel Sun's in Florida So I assume the Raptor uh was looks like it's getting closer though. Yep, it just has a transmission mount which is actually here. I'll show it to you cuz we went into sort of exhaust manifold. Hell with that and the wild, you're theirs.

with the mounts and everything else it turned into. yeah a thing. Shoot. So here's the uh.

this transmission mount was also see how it's ripped I can literally put my screwdriver through it. Yeah, so we didn't want to put that back on there. We had to wait for it. Finally, just showed up today.

Actually okay and that's why the engine still braced. Yep, all right, we just got to put that on and put the wheels on. It's pretty much done. A 300,000 mile raptor is getting basically a restoration.

So kind of kind of stupid. but uh. I guess good news there. the 46.

considering how original it is and how long it's been sitting. Not too bad, huh? Not too bad at all. All right. So I'm not looking at thousands and thousands of dollars like the Uh Raptor maybe a couple at the most.

All right. Fantastic. Well thank you wizard I guess I will try to take the ELO Rod home again again. I don't know as far as what they've done when they modified it.

if it's Highway happy I don't I have no clue. Well I have new tires on it cuz like that this thing had been sitting basically in a collection for 20 years so it has new rubber on it. Uh, you've gone through the air ride where it has the switch I have the cameras for the mirrors. You've done everything you can do all the pulley replaced.

You've done everything you can to get this thing uh Road worthy again and now we'll just see if it actually is I wouldn't drive it at night. it has a poor excuse for headlights. That is true. All right.

well. wish me luck again. Fingers crossed. and I'll cross something else too.

Yes, they got the poppers going for me. Oh yeah, start up my Straight piped caddy here. sounds so good. And there are my side view cameras.

each one right there so I can back out turn it off. I have the rear view as well. It's just so cool. There's Wizard.

It's it's wizard. Picture and picture. Picture and picture. Yeah, so you're letting me out the door.

That means no bill, right? Actually, this time there's no Bill I'm going to leave before he remembers one. All right. So 99 El Dorado with 8,000 original miles on it. It was probably a company car originally and hasn't been out on public roads in probably 25 years.

Probably the first time I've seen 60 in that period of time as well and it feels great. But now I'm going to find out if the head gasket is good or not because it's a notorious thing with these. Northstar V8s and that temp will start creeping up if the head gasket is bad and all boil over like a whistling teapot. and that's what total out most of the Northstar engines of this era.

so fingers crossed. But so far so good. Actually the suspension as we go into this turn feels pretty good. It doesn't feel unsteady or unsure of itself at all, and those new tires are certainly doing the job.

Just look to that exhaust that's great. Well it made it. and honestly I couldn't be happier with this thing. how well it drove considering what it is a concept car that was never meant to be driven daily ever again.

and that 8,000 original mile interior is so so nice. it takes you back to a day, well days that will never come again when it comes to seat comfort and such. And also it took me back to my dealer days when I was buying these at auction. Northstar V8 Cadillacs worrying about them overheating on the ride home from the auction hoping I didn't buy a lemon and this case, well I did not.

It is such a nice car! I'm just so pleasantly surprised with how nice it drives. But then you get out and look at this thing and it's just. it's absolutely wild. Thank you so much for watching.