Projects 1934 3 window HighBoy Build Begins

David,
Nickle Copper Alloy ...Buy it at Advanced Auto "on line" and get a great discount.

NiCopp and Cunifer are different brand names.

When you get ready , I will send you really nice forming tools to use and return.

Best,
George

 

Thank you George!

 

I called David to let him know that the online sale at Advanced Auto Parts is 15% off 50 dollars PLUS a 25 dollar off coupon on your next purchase. PLUS free shipping on orders of 75 dollars or more.

His 25 foot roll of 1/4 inch NiCopp is 62 dollars so he is in for a great deal. Especially if he needs 2 rolls , smile

NOW for Josh's progress.... The auto glass fellow brought by the door glass today and Josh was able to complete the build of the drivers door.

See below pictures. One door ready to hang and add the interior aluminum panel, arm rest and handles. Josh is getting closer. When you look back at the huge effort of taking the door skin off to weld in the gi-normous inside brace... All I can say is " THANK goodness" . Having it potentially SAG over time would have been an absolute travesty. It was a slow labor intensive moral buster and Josh and I both managed to survive it.

Regards,
George

 

Mark,
I have been losing sleep over the wiring harness being way too long. While it isn't a show stopper...it just doesn't suit me to have the excess rolled up like a garden hose.

I called Hilborn and they are closed until Jan 2nd. After thinking about it, I called Holley Performance as it's their control system and harness. The nice fellow at Holley told me that's all they offer. I did finally manage to get him to advise that the harness is subcontracted to an outfit in Michigan.

Next step? I looked the company up on line and called them to find that they are also closed for the Holidays. Well geeze. I figured out how to send the plant manager an email and hope to speak with him next week about having a harness built from scratch that is shortened.

As a curiosity ,I started surfing through the Holley website. I have found that they offer a build your own harness kit. NOW, we are getting somewhere. I don't want to risk our schedule before the show, but now understand that I can, "at worst case", cut and re- terminate every wire that I need to. I might have to buy a custom crimper.( minor hurdle).

This will be a February project.

Regards,
George

 

New Years Eve Update with 3 weeks to go.
The dash is in with Roy still working on wiring. Hmmm...did he bring a sleeping bag?
Josh has the wiper motor/ blade installed complete as well as Roy having it wired to the dash knob.

OH boy...there's a key hanging there just waiting to be turned....

Dustin and Fred are still painting.


Regards,
George

 

Today's plan is to get the steering installed, complete the passenger door build and swap out the valve cover studs to accommodate the M/T covers that need 2 3/4 long studs. Heads up...the best way to get them is to just order 5/16 carb studs. PERFECT .
....and yes the wheel needs painting as well. smile

Regards,
George

 

Can hardly wait to see your car all done. I can imagine you are way beyond "anxious" to get done. Great work....Tim

 

Thank you Tim.

Pete and I braved the storm this morning and headed up to Custom Auto to help Josh prime the top end of the Hemi. We saw no fewer than 20 folks that had slid off the road. YIKES. I brought a little home made harness with a starter switch to hook up to the solenoid. It took less than 10 minutes to get ready. Josh put the long shaft through the disty bushing down to the oil pump and spun it with an electric drill. With the plugs out, I cranked on the starter motor at the same time. This is required to distribute oil to the top end via the cam shaft holes. We cranked, spun and inspected for oil a couple of times before the lifters pumped up. We could see oil start from underneath the rockers and gave the starter a rest before one more spin. That's all it took and we had good oil present through all four rocker shafts. Josh put the intermediate shaft back in (a few times) while manually adjusting the oil pump location. This allowed him to eventually get the rotor lined back to number one while at top dead center.

The entire effort went very smoothly and we have confidence that we are well prepared for our start up and run in next week.

I snapped a few pics to share. The head light harnesses are routed through the frame rails. Josh is scuffing aluminum panels and then a shot of completed ones. It's this last picture that might give you the best feel for how much effort Josh put into building the interior from scratch. Whewie!

Regards,
George

P.S. Thank you to Rex for treating us all to deli subs and chips for lunch.

 

Far far away....in Southern California

While Custom Auto continues forward with the build, Bill Latham of OTB Gear ( Only The Best ) has been working with his machinist to come up with a matching "theme" perimeter for the GNRS.

A whole lot of effort went into getting his induction filters on top of the Hilborn velocity stacks. We wanted to take advantage of this look and make the stanchions look like the velocity stacks.

Here's a sneak peek of the prototype. It stands at just under 12 inches tall and will utilize square chrome molly tubing between these to form a perimeter around the 10 x 20 foot space.

All of these parts will be polished and then chromed over the weeks to come.

Looking good Bill!

Regards,
George

 

Paint update: Dustin and Fred are still hard at it with another batch ready to cut and buff. Please find attached pictures of their progress.

Regards,
George

 

Using the cast aluminum valve covers prevented my Honda wire boots from fitting due to the fact that the O.E.M. rubber seals on the spark plug tubes were pushed up tight under the tube lip. The solution was to use a razor blade and trim the flange before sanding the seal to reduce it's height.
The result leaves enough room to fit the boot over the lip and all is good!
Good Job Josh!

Regards,
George

 

Starting to get a little more exciting with the addition of the headers and side pipes. "IF" you look at the stud with nut on the header... we have ordered stainless long nuts to get the holding strength as well as look nicer. I am a big fan of using studs in the head and not header bolts.
As we haven't started her yet,... no clue on how well the inserted mufflers will work? Any required adjustment for noise level will have to wait.

Regards,
George

 

You mean pulling the inserts out, right?

 

Or maybe adding some in! smile. We went light with three on each side.

 

Here's an update to the display stanchion project. The coupler in the picture will be used to join the short pieces of tubing to span the perimeter of the 10 x 20 display space.

These are CNC machined leaving a internal stop for sliding the tubing against before tightening the set screws.

We are still keeping with the finned theme for the GNRS 2014 "the need for speed" display.

Regards,
George

 

The latest batch of parts was sprayed with blue paint Sunday. As such, Josh was able to pry completed panels away from Dustin and Fred today! Here's a few shots of the rear valance panel with my favorite tail lamp assemblies. (1937 Desoto).
We have already heard about blue dots from the peanut gallery! .....many times! ... Please try to hold the nasty comments. grin. I really like them with the blue paint... SO THERE! smile.

Josh also received the parts for the front and will be adding the grill parts and lights tonight or first thing in the morning.
Regards,
George

 

Hey George,

Car looks great. Saw some pictures at Dan Shady's shop in Oct.. Hope to see you and the car in a couple of weeks.

Keith Daleen

 

Hello Keith,
Thank you for the note.
I look forward to seeing you!
Warm Regards ,
George



QUOTE=southpaw-customs;9463700]Hey George,

Car looks great. Saw some pictures at Dan Shady's shop in Oct.. Hope to see you and the car in a couple of weeks.

Keith Daleen[/QUOTE]

 

Moving up to the front.....please find updated pics below.

Also: Roy is validating his wiring installation. Fred and Dustin are still painting. I ran down shorter double ended studs for the headers and they will be in Saturday. Josh still needs to get more assembly completed to include the steering.

What else: I will install a blue ox anti sway bar set up on the trailer Saturday to make the drive out to California a little less stressful.

The carpet goes in first of the week along with the bench seat.

Then add the doors and we will be complete.

We still need to decide when we will fire her up and run the cam in. ( VERY SOON!)

Regards,
George

 

Here's why I had to find shorter studs. Anything more than a single thread beyond the nut doesn't help and it looks bad.
Regards,
George

 

Hopefully ...no words are needed.
Regards,
George

 

Daddio,
Consider it done!..... We put a pint of Zinc additive in it and I bought second pint tonight as she has a 7 quart pan + the filter = concerned that one pint isn't enough. It's not like adding another will hurt anything and I will feel a whole lot better.

On a side note...Bill at OTB Gear got the last of the parts finished for the perimeter and sent to the polisher this afternoon.

regards,
George

 

Fantastic , I love it!!

 

This needs one word ........WOW!!

 

Beautiful car.

 

the color is perfect! really it fits the car great. i love how the aircleaners peak out of the hood. thats prefect to. its a gorgeous car.
who made the radiator that is it in?

 

Thank you all for the positive feedback,..it is very much appreciated.

The radiator was ordered from Walker via one of their distributors. It needed to be manufactured with a 2 inch chop to accommodate the frames rework. IE: This had to be done to maintain a straight belt line . One thing led to another and the grill had to be kicked out at the bottom to gain ground clearance on its chin.

When the radiator arrived, it was standard height. As such, there was a small skirmish with the distributor as they neglected to let Walker know that this was a custom order. They wanted a restocking charge and we lost a lot of time.

Needless to say, it was eventually all worked out and the custom "chopped" Walker radiator is very nice.

Regards,
George

 

Josh has the trunk's aluminum panels in. ( see below) Roy has been fighting the wiring debug process all day. One of the turn signals was shorted out with the spring/ contact against the housing. Easy fix to pull on the wire and insert the bulb again.
The Limeworks column mount turn signals will not stop flashing. It is a simple 7 wires and we have the schematic so it must be a simple fix??? smile. Roy will keep fighting it or we can call them to see if they are familiar with the issue.
regards,
George

Regards,
George