Topping off the 4 speed overdrive transmission.
After I got my NP 833 transmission installed in the ‘55, I needed a shifter knob; the 3/8″-16 threads were pretty sharp. I went to the flea market and some yard sales looking for some likely canidates, I even eyed some of the kid’s toy’s. Then I found a nice antique glass doorknob at the flea market, it even had the right threads in the shank (some older door knobs used threaded shafts). I used it for a while, but the glass was a bit loose, so I removed the nut I had below it lock it in place and ran it down until the threaded end the the shifter touched the glass, thereby imobilizing it. Then one day I found that the top part of the glass had popped off from the pressure.
It was disapointing to wreck something like that, but I found an almost identical one at a yard sale. Mean while I had settled on green for the interior color (see here for the construction of the door panels) and had found some green glass knobs for the window winders. I would have loved to have had a matching green glass shifter knob, but I came close by painting the underside of the glass green with model paint.
So what’s next for the ‘55? Finishing the rust repair in the floor so I can put the carpet in, maybe giving it a new coat of flat black on the exterior (or maybe flat green). Modern suspension and brakes would be nice… and sensible… and responsible, but let me just say that in my garage there is something on an engine stand with nice, fresh crosshatching on its cylinder walls just waiting for assembly.
