Projects 1957 Hillman Husky 392 hemi build thread

Have a headliner for the car. Ordered it from Bob at ACME Headliners. This one is a little different than most as it has nylon strips sewn in to hold in place above the doors. Hope to get it installed soon.



The headliner attaches above the door with these strips. There are clips that hold the rest in place other than the front bow that gets some staples. No glue required

This is material for the sunvisors. Visors were always white even though the headliner is a different color.

 

The hemi looks like it belongs there. Headliner is pretty spiffy too.

 

Yeah, for being such a small car it has a long hood and a big engine compartment. The engine compartment on the later Husky (58 on) had much less room. I tried to make it work but the flat frame and bigger engine space of the earlier Husky (54-57) just made so much more sense.

 

this thing is just too cool
nice work
love the semi stock motor look
very impressive

 

Thanks. I like the stock look too. Have the original intake I could have thrown on but I wanted to shave a little weight off. Same with the valley pan and timing cover. Was trying to keep a little weight off that front end.

 

Just went through this for the first time. Pretty damn impressive! That hemi fits great and you have given me a few ideas for a 392 going into my 40. Cool build!

 

Glad to hear you got a few ideas. I go to the car shows for inspiration and always walk away with new ideas. Just went to the Good-Guys a couple of weeks ago in search of gas pedal ideas. Still looking though....

 

Had a friend come over and help with the headliner. When I say help I mean he installed it. He's a pro and it even took him a while to do it.

In this shot we just have the header and first bow in place. The front bow was a little bit of a nightmare. The original wooden one was weak and snapped in two when we tried to put it in place. I had some ABS left over from the door panels so we made a new one.

Another two bows in place so just the rear one left.


You can see the plastic strip that holds it in place above the door.

 

A few more shots with it closer to being done.




Furflex piping is dark red. I chose to use vinyl instead of the cloth type that was original.

Most of these cars just had a visor on the driver's side but you could get an optional visor on the passenger side too. Visors were always white even though headliners were tan.

Didn't have good lighting for photos but the headliner came out very nice. No wrinkles and it looks nice and tight.

 

A few more with a little better lighting.

Colors look great together and the burgundy/dark red ties in with the seats and door panels.





Last thing to do is punch a hole for the dome light. The wire is run and ready to go.

 

Headliner installation is always a pain in the butt LOL. But the results speak for themselves.

 

Great job on the headliner. I've only put one in, a 70 VW bug.....with roll cage. PITA.

 

I'm going to farm out the HL in my Ford, too much like hard work for my already hurt neck. Yours came out great.. do you make house calls to Long Island?

 

Thanks. Ask around and you should be able to find someone that can come and help you out. Some are easier than others. I'm glad windows didn't have to come out to do mine.

 

I have a few shops in mind when I get to that. The rear glass may have to come out. I have all the bows for it too.

 

Some exciting progress. Last Sunday we gathered up a few remaining items in an effort to fire this up for the first time. Needed 5 gallons of gas, two gallons of coolant, and some oil. We added the gas first and then turned the key to get the pump going. Found a few leaks so we fixed those. Then we made sure it was TDC on #1 and turned the key. It fired right up. It's alive!

We ran it for a total of about 20 minutes hovering in the 1,800-2,500 RPM range. Oil pressure was just above 50 psi until the very end and then it started to go down to just above 10 psi. We shut it down. Hoping it's just a clogged oil filter. Drained the oil and it looked good....no visible chunks or metal. Sent the oil in for analysis and I think it looks pretty good (PDF attached). From what they say the metals counts would be much higher if a bearing toasted....at least that's what I'm telling myself. My engine builder uses a moly lube that is pretty thick. Past experience with it shows it doesn't break down much when it gets hot. Had a similar loss of oil pressure which was resolved by an oil and filter change. I cut the filter open and it looked ok. I couldn't tell if it was clogged or not. I use Wix filters and I think what makes them good (filtration) can also result in getting clogged with moly. Was really pleased so see that the zinc numbers were good at 1,547. I've got another oil sample out to Wix to see if they come up with similar findings.

Motor sounded great and ran cool, the whole time only getting as high as 170. I think the exhaust will sound great. Can't wait to get it to idle to hear ho that will sound. Had a small coolant leak through one exhaust bolt and a valve cover bolt so I need to switch to studs. Placed an order with Summit so now have an assortment of studs to to fix that problem. No coolant or water showed up in the oil report so that was good.

Completely overlooked breathers and a PCV. Need to figure that out. I don't want to drill holes in the stock valve covers so I'll look at doing something in the valley pan. Was thinking of either breathers in the front or pulling air from the air cleaner in to the front of the valley pan and then the pcv valve would be off the rear of the valley and then in to the base of the carb. Will need to figure out a baffle to keep from sucking oil.

Hope to take care of all these issues soon so I can see if we're back at reasonable oil pressure. The wait is killing me and it's already been 8 days since I fired it. I did a search on "assembly lube clogging filters" and was amazed at how many people out there have that problem. Crossing my fingers that's all I'm dealing with here and not something more serious. Another thing I thought of was that my oil gauge could also be clogged with assembly lube so I'll take the line to it off and make sure it's ok and will likely run a gauge right on the motor next time I fire it up..

 

PCV: Forgetting what you've changed, but on the OEM valley cover you replace the draft tube with a PCV valve to the carb & air come in through the oil fill cap. I replaced the steel wood in the cap with a cut down lawn mower air filter.

 

I've got an aluminum valley pan with the oil cap on the back. I may add the pcv on the back and may also try to add the air input in the back but have it route under the valley pan to the front area of the lifter valley. Looking for ideas if anybody has them. Worst case I'll drill the valley pan up front and run a hose to the carb for air intake.......so fresh air will be provided in the front via filtered air cleaner air and then it will exit out the back off the valley pan into a pcv that dumps in to the base of the carb.

 

Early to mid 60's GM used a PVC threaded into the oil filler tube. I have used this system and it worked quite well.

 

Thanks for the info. My valley pan looks like this. The cap is in the rear. I could add a fill tube to the front. Trying to avoid that as I like the clean look but I may have to do something like your picture.

 

Wow I would be biting my nails waiting to see what is up with that oil pressure. fingers crossed for you.

 

What weight oil was used, on mine it starts around 50 and drops down close to that when hot.

 

Thank you for taking us along with you on this spectacular build. I wish you the best of luck with the oil pressure 'issue'.

 

I'm using Kendall 20W-50. So your car gets to close 10 psi hot? Is that at idle or at speed? It should be higher than that at speed. What type of filter are you using?

The Hot Heads guys told me many people call them reporting the same thing with lower oil pressure. After they switch to Fram they get 10+ psi better. I'm still not going to a Fram filter. I'm staying with with Wix.

 

Thanks. I'll take the luck.

I've also ordered a set of these so I have options.

These go on the valve cover and have a built in PCV. This would be an open PCV system.



Also have these. These would also be an open system but I'd also add a PCV at the back which would route to the carb base.


Last and best option would use none of these parts and would have the fresh air intake at the front of the valley pan from the filterd air cleaner and then a PCV out the bacck in to the carb base.

 

What nails? I have no nails left to bite.

 

At idle when good & hot with 10W-40 & Wix filter. Un-moded 340 HV O/P. On a different engine a K&N seemed to give higher pressure.

 

Some of my Hillman motors run less than 5 at idle.

I've got the 340 HP pump too on my 392. Hopefully soon I'll be reporting better numbers for oil pressure.

 

New Melling M-50 392 oil pumps are available. If your's is the HH moded 340 O/P, there have been a few disgruntled users...

 

I talked with Hot Heads about that before buying. From what I understand the supposed issue that was experienced led to a total loss of pressure. Still, would feel more comfortable if I had a 392 pump. When my motor was built in 2007 the 392 pumps weren't around. I could be remembering that wrong but I think that's the only reason I would have gone with a 340 pump.