Projects My 26t Project

Well after 25 hours of smoothing the block is finally done I did it in bursts of 3 or 4 hours over a few days as its a bit of a soul destroying job.
Tools used were a 80 grit flap wheel in a 4" grinder, a power file and various shaped tungsten burrs in a die grinder. The sides were pretty easy to do as you can get in everywhere easily but the front and back easily took twice as long due to the many nooks and crannys. Its a lot smoother than it looks in the pics, the various scratches will be filled in nicely by the epoxy primer.












While i was there i removed all the flashing in the lifter gallery so the oil had a quicker route back to the sump.






All the gallery pipe plugs were removed ready for when the block gets hot tanked and drilled & tapped to recieve NPT pipe plugs, Only one plug came out easily with the rest being drilled out.












While the grinding tools were out i removed the various sticky out bits from the Edelbrock inlet manifold and polished the Edelbrock lettering so it would look good with the inlet painted.







Because the Cadillac was originally filled with oil through the rocker covers and I'm using early covers without holes i needed to add a filler to the inlet, there was a flat area on the front of the inlet so a 1" holes was put in with a holesaw and a flange made from a scrap of 6mm stainless and fitted with a stainless tube, This was then capped off with a chrome breather cap.






I recently did a polished exhaust system for a customer and had a few offcuts that were left over and after looking at them for a while i decided to use them to make some tailpipes, I had always intended to have 4 pipes at the rear, very 60's. They are over length at the moment so they can be trimmed when fitted.

 

A wedding, change of jobs and a new house purchase all within 12 months have taken a bit of my time! Also been spannering the Chevy to get back on the road after all the trouble I've had.

Nice to see you're still churning your good stuff out!

Is this the car that 'my' 9" is going into?

Mark.

 

Yes mate, I rebuilt your LSD with some nice new bits and its fine again and sitting in a narrowed round back case waiting for its turn for paint.

Thanks for the compliments, Its appreciated.

 

I have always been in the habit of polishing the valley of engines I build, but I have never polished the OUTSIDE of a block. Lotta work. Guess now that I am moving towards building a rod, I will be taking on this daunting task!

 

Craziness, you are possessed, you have the patience of a monk.

 

Yes George i usually use Rustolem in the valley and timing chest but this time i'm gonna try epoxy primer. I think its worth the effort once painted.

 

I will never be as mad as you mate, or as funny either

 

Popped in the chromers today to pick up other peoples stuff and my axle and spring was back
So i did the same as every other hotrodder and rushed home to throw it together to how it looked, I'm a happy bunny can you tell i'm pleased with it









.

 

Ha. Is that a magnetic polished stainless steel ash tray?
It all looks Jewler quality!!

 

What did you expect i would have !!!

 

and you expect to drive this on the street, I can already se a few problems.
1. to much shinny chrome, if you drive in sunlight you'll go blind.
2. like #1 its to shinny and will catch attention from all sorts of people
3. finally, I don't know about you but if that was all my work I wouldn't want anything touching it.
but as usual its amazing. Question, what type of white is that on the brakes?

 

It will definitly get driven, no problem.

The white is is a custom mix that i put together, its a sort of creamy off white but not too creamy if you know what i mean. all the paint on the car is 2 pack.

 

I know LOTS of guys paint the inside, I am always scared it is gonna come off. I just grind everything smooth and polish it. The main thing is to release any remaining casting sand trapped in flash or porous areas, I guess it probably aids drainback a bit. I just do it because I am a fussy sob.

 

I'd never even thought about painting the inside of my valley pan either! I am polishing the outside of the block and wasn't planning on using any primer. What do you use?

 

George it sticks real good as long as you get the surface as clean as, I was taught to do it years ago when i was an apprentice as it aids the return of the oil to the sump.

 

You definitely need to use a primer, the best to use is 2pack Epoxy primer, I've done this job many times and the only thing guaranteed to stay on is the epoxy, I usually put 2 or 3 coats on and then 45 mins later go wet on wet with the 2 or 3 topcoats.
I did it this way on my T bucket 10 years ago and its still perfect.

 

I was going to paint my engine in a Gold Metal flake,having not painting metal flake before can you tell me how you do it Steve.

I have been painting for 20 years but just havent used this product.Do you have to use a large Fluid Tip in you gun to get the flakes out.

Yes I would use an Epoxy primer I have got already,do you have to put down a ground coat colour.Does it have to be a high build clear or just 2 or 3 coats to bury the flakes.Do you put a coat of clear down first fo the flakes to sit on.?

What Company did you buy the flake from.What type of 2 pack do you use.

 

Enough with the shiny shit, what ever happened to rusty rat rods?!?!? HAHAHA, great work as usual, I always get a bit excited when I see a new post up on this thread.

 

Thanks Richard, glad your enjoying it.

 

Ok Tony pull up a chair

DISCLAIMER this is how i do it, there are other ways but this has worked fine for me many times.
First obviously get the engine super clean.
Then i get the workshop up to 75F
Then i apply 2 or 3 coats of epoxy primer, i tint mine to the colour of the flake.
Then after 1hr i lay on 2 coats of basecoat the same colour as the flake, some use a black base but i prefer coloured mettalic as it reflects better.
Then i mix up the flake in the lacquer and apply 1 dusty light coat.
Then i apply 1 full flake coat and if needed a 3rd coat but not usually.
Then i apply 3 coats of clear and let dry.

For mini flake i use a 1.6, for medium flake a 1.8 or 2.0, for the really big stuff i have a 2.2 drilled out to 2.5
I much prefer the mini flake as in my opinion its more sparkly due to more particles per square inch.

I stock flake so don't need to buy, I can always send you some over if you want, I can do you a litre tin of it or smaller amounts whatever you need.

I use Max Meyer Maxiclear HS, very good stuff and not super expensive.

Hope this helps ya

 

Thanks for the info. I have a 2.5 Sata Polyester gun it pushes out a shit load of high build polyester.So just a light coat to start and heavy it up as required to get coverage.

I can buy flake hear in Australia,just have to source it.Thanks anyway though.No point in posting it all over the world.

With the ground coat base coat I suppose I can put down any colour to change the affect.

A guy Brian I used to work with did some ORSOM Candy Apple Paint jobs.Brian based up the car with a Dark Bugandy base coat,then sprayed the silver base with only 70% coverage.This enabled the daker colour to show through from behind making the Candy darker.
Brian Kelly also used a suction fed gun with two brand new 5/16 nuts in the pot and shook up the gun with a quick roll of the rist,and the end of every pass.
Brian would walk steady down the car from one end to the other to maintain an even coat.Give it a shake and head off down the other end like clockwork not even missing a beat.Beautiful to watch,very skillful and focused.

This was 20 years ago back in the days of Acrylic Laquer.

 

Well Langy, I couldn't sleep this morning so I went on the HAMB. Found your build thread went through all 20 pages and am blown away. I will definitely be watching the rest of your build. Man you are awesome!!!!!!!!!

 

I forgot to mention Tony you need to use a suction gun and put a couple of marbles or ball bearings in the pot, The flake needs to be kept suspended in the clear, I also give the gun a shake after every pass.

Good luck, its not as difficult as some make out if you follow the rules.

 

Thanks dude, its appreciated.

 

Well with the block all smoothed and in bare metal i needed to stop it flash rusting, this was a bit of a predicament as i couldnt give it to the reborer as it would go rusty while it was waiting to be done and if i primed it he would probaly chip or scratch it, after a bit of thinking i decided to epoxy prime it and take a chance on scratches and chips

Firstly i went around the block again and sanded off any light rust that had formed, then i washed the block down with panelwipe to degrease it, next i put it in front of my blow heater to get the block nice and warm and dry, then applied 4 coats of black epoxy primer.
It came out real nice and smooth and should be even better when its flatted for the topcoat colour.

While the gun was full i decided to do the intake manifold as well, this got 3 coats of epoxy and 3 coats of green TI hi build as well as it wasn't as smooth as the block, this will enable me to flat it out and hopefully acheive a really nice finish on it

Here's the block masked up, to get a nice edge i put the masking tape over the shaped parts and gently tapped the sharp edge with a hammer so the sharp edge cuts the tape.

 

No dirt or oil will ever stick to that block.

 

I hope your right mate, thanks, I think it will look much better once its been wet flatted and top coated.

 

All I can say is wow!!! I didn't even know someone that could build something like this existed, wow!!! The T build to end all T builds!

 

Hey claymore i was there learning to cut gaskets too

 

First time i read this, i'm really diggin it, hopefully my t roadster should be some good competition, when i get it done