Hot Rods Olds Rocket 324 in a 32 Ford; "trying to finish it thread"..

[32-cabriolet]

Keep the updates coming! need to see another cabriolet on the road!!

[Dave50]

My .02 i like pic 4

[falcongeorge]

Originally Posted by Speedy Canuck

Damnit F&J. Why do you have so many cool Rocket related build threads going? It's hard for us little guys to keep up. I'll be following this one as well, but TORR is right, we need some more pictures!

X2. MAN, do you come up with the cool stuff!

[Speedy Canuck]

Originally Posted by F&J

I tried running a mock up piece of straight pipe, back under the firewall to see if a lakes type header would look OK tucked "inside" the firewall. I think it looks terrible. What do you think? in pic below with a blue colored steering column tube as a pipe..

I agree, it doesn't look to good running straight back and under the firewall.

Originally Posted by F&J

So, I have not cut the Ford shaft in half yet, but the other pic shows a white chalk mark at the middle, and the shaft is propped up where it will be. What do you think?

I'd need to poke a small exhaust pipe hole at the rear inside edge of the fenders, but I don't think it will look bad. Yes, or no?

I like this look better. Kinda neat being tucked between the cowl and the fenders. This plan would get my vote.

[koth]

I agree with Speedy's comments. Did you try the headers yet?

[F&J]

I cut up the old headers and torque tube shaft.

The front elbow is coming off 90 degrees from the face of the flange. But the header body is too close to the fender and cowl edge; I think paint would bubble?

If I were to rotate that front elbow up a little, which would also raise the entire header body up, it should gain more space at those bad spots...... but will that look strange?

What's the minimum clearance to not burn the body paint? I'm at 1/2" near the fender and the cowl front vertical bead.


EDIT: Added 2 pics of a Olds in a 32 Highboy with torque tube headers. What I meant about "rotating the front elbow upwards" is, if you were to kneel down low, in front of the motor, the front elbow points downwards to 7 O'clock. I would be rotating it up to 8 O'clock or so. Would that look bad? I also can shorten the nipple that is welded to the flange, by about 3/8" to bring the radius in tighter to the flange.

[Speedy Canuck]

Frank. I think I understand what you mean about rotating the header up... you're talking about making it sit more parallel with the ground.

I think if you were running the car fenderless, then you'd be right, it would look strange. However, I'm thinking that the fenders would distract from the angle change. I don't think it'd be very noticeable at all.

[F&J]

I hope you are right; I have one side completely fitted with all 4 tubes, and ready for finish weld in the AM

[Speedy Canuck]

Originally Posted by F&J

I hope you are right; I have one side completely fitted with all 4 tubes, and ready for finish weld in the AM

If you're really concerned about it, just remember that with that Rocket, you'll be motivating too fast for most people to get a good look at the angle anyways.

Post up some pics when you get it in place? Maybe from a standing point of view, and level with the headers, to see how much the fenders really block them?

[F&J]

Post up some pics when you get it in place? Maybe from a standing point of view, and level with the headers, to see how much the fenders really block them?

Here is the final height of the torque tube pipe taken yesterday afternoon before I made the 2 middle elbows. I can't pull up the back end any higher for fender paint clearance, because it looked bad if the pipe came uphill compared to the valve cover angle.


I might not be able to finish this header today, because a friend is bringing over 2 front fenders for my 40, and some other parts... But, part of the deal is he is bringing his rust free 39 Ford pickup cab for me to chop. He wants an "angle chop with windshied post leaned back" but also wants the w/s lowered into the cowl more, and also the w/s to go higher up into the roof crown...yikes..

[general gow]

wow, you are on fire with progress these days, huh?!

i love this car. hope i get to see it in person sometime soon.

[bchctybob]

Hey F&J, make yourself a set of "tubing manifolds". You know, inside the frame 3-into-1 headers along the lines of the ones Red's Headers makes for flatheads. No holes in the hood or fenders and they keep the old style look. You can add "cut-outs" down below when you hook up to the rest of the system if you wanna be able to run 'em open.

[bchctybob]

General Gow is right, man you are on fire with progress! Great to see you using the old header parts, that's what this hobby is supposed to be about. About the clearance for paint burning, my lakes headers started to burn the cowl paint on my '27 so I added a subtle stainless heat shield in between. No problem when the car was moving (air cooled) but it "softened" the paint pretty good if I had to idle for a long period. The heat shields fixed that.

[Speedy Canuck]

Originally Posted by F&J

Here is the final height of the torque tube pipe taken yesterday afternoon before I made the 2 middle elbows. I can't pull up the back end any higher for fender paint clearance, because it looked bad if the pipe came uphill compared to the valve cover angle.

If those pictures are of the final angle of the headers, then I think they're going to be just fine. They look pretty good to me!

[F&J]

I managed to get one side finished...this is a lot of effort. I left the old header nipples attached to the flanges because it would be way too much destruction to remove them to angle them better.

Ted had made the center port split with 2 pipes, so I had to work with that. My 2 center pipes have an even 1/8" gap from the flange nipples to the torque tube. Now think about that, and how the heck can you weld the two pipes to the big tube... I had to constantly tack it all together, then bolt it to the car or to the spare head on a table, to finish weld each joint. Then cut all the tacks to be able to grind that joint because you can't later. Then tack it all and rebolt to do the next joint, over and over.

It paid off with all the constant refit/rebolting, because the finished header fits right on without fighting the bolt alignment and no warped flange.

Friend Ray showed up with his truck full of 40 parts. He brought two nice fenders, 2 driver side inner fenders (I only had one, which was passenger side), a 39 deluxe grille, 2 old repro chrome headlight bezels, and the last headlight bucket I needed. He borrowed my trailer to bring the 39 cab back in the morning.

We built that Jeep about 5 years ago. Souped up 327 or 350, I forget. I am getting old because I "think" we put a Muncie or a T10 in there
We made the bed and painted it with what he calls "dumpster green" It came with a Dodge pickup rear with a different ratio than the front axle, so I changed the front gear set. He found old slotted mags and had them spun on a big lathe to clean them up. Sadly, it sits outside since built.

[koth]

Wow F&J that header you made came out neat! Man I like that

[F&J]

Originally Posted by koth

Wow F&J that header you made came out neat! Man I like that

Ok, but now I need to make the other one look exactly the same.... not easy, I bet.

I am not sure where the exhaust pipe will go from there to the muffler? I almost want to poke it through the frame rail. ANY opinions on where to go with the pipe?




Sidetracked with finding a voltage draw in my kids truck, which I did find this morning, but Ray showed up and we fought the door hinge screws off, so I can fix his bent hinges...before starting his 39 truck cab chop.

[Dave50]

sorry pic was over sized

[koth]

Exhaust path ideas.
1. Remove the fenders and duplicate the pic in #26 note.
2. Run the exhaust parallel to the running board, under the door and kick our before the rear fender or then 90 it down through the running board and dump straight down.
3. Put a hole in your nice fender to then sweep under the frame rail and out back.
4. Stuff the pipe on there now with baffling material and get fumigated when you sit in traffic.
This is a real stumper isn't it?

[Speedy Canuck]

I'm kinda digging the '90 degree it, straight down through the running board, and dump straight down' idea myself...