Hot Rods Save of the day!!(single seater)

Big progress today afterwork!
Got three of my four new wheel cylinders in(last one still has to be ordered) and i got my mechanical brake light switch mounted. Baby steps!

 

Nice job on those lines. What kind of tubing bender did you use?

 

Thanks,I just have the standard el cheapo bender. It certainly doesn't make tight bends. I had a cast iron 3/4 "union fitting that worked really good to get a tighter bend, I test it on a piece of scrap tubing and it worked without the tubing collapsing. If I would have known the union worked so well I would have left the bender in the tool box.

 

Mocked up a drive shaft gaurd this afternoon. I didnt think I wanted to put one on but the more I looked at the driveshaft so close to ones feet I thought I had better build something to keep a shoelace from wrapping around a spinning driveshaft. Im already gippy but dont want to lose a foot!

 

Safety first! Bout time we fire this thing don’t ya say...


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Yes sir, just a few motor parts to source and reconfigure the upper radiator inlet to clear the fan. And of course all the little crap like fluids,belts ,hot wire wiring ect,ect.

 

Have my driveshaft foot gaurd built. Threw some farm-all red paint on it, so it says stay away from spinning parts! Probably premature on the paint , it will be all chipped up before I get this turd pile on the road.

 

No Jackets or anything with draw-strings allowed...

 

Shortly after high school I was driving an old pickup with a 3 speed that I had converted to a floor shift with the cheapest aftermarket shifter J. C. Whitney had. I didn't have a boot over the hole, but had stuffed a rag in there to keep the cold wind out.
On my way to work one morning going about 40 one end of the rag managed to shake down to where the front u-joint could grab it. I heard it get jerked through the hole as it wound around the driveshaft about the same time as the rear wheels locked up and started skidding and howling. I was able to keep it out of the ditch and got stopped on the shoulder to clean my pants and assess the problem.
The rag had grabbed the parking brake cable and found enough slack in it to make about half a turn around the driveshaft, thereby locking the rear wheels. When I had hacked the rag off the driveshaft with my dull pocket knife the cable was slack again, although the spiral cable housing was stretched to about a foot longer and the whole works was just hanging there. I was pretty glad the rag hadn't been something I was wearing at the time.

 

Yes you aren't a shitn!!

 

Nice job on the guard. Why not bend some 18 or 20 gauge over it then you know nothing can get caught in there

 

Yes that would be the thing to do. I sort of dig the scare factor though.

 

Just don’t let someone like the late John Holmes drive that thing!

 

Took a few more baby steps today after work. I mounted the -neg battery cable and made a battery hold down. I also started making a to do list, stopped around number 20 because it got to overwhelming!

 

I havent worked on the car for a good five or six weeks being that i have been rebuilding our deck on the house and clean up after we had a spring snowstorm that dropped 26" of heavy snow that broke around 20 of our pondarosa pine trees.
In April we lost a good hotrod friend Billy Martin. Billy helped me along the way from the time in the 80s when i built my first hotrod to the single seater and cars in between.The tail section sheetmetal on the single seater were Billys spare 46 ford fenders that we dug out from his garage attic.
Billy didnt want a funeral so yesterday his wife and children had a celebration of life. What an awesome day to see all his hotrod friends. My wife and I loaded up the car and took it to the celebration so people could see that billys parts were used(hopefully in a good way) I love ya Billy, thanks for everything you did for me over the years!

 

My condolences RR.

Nice tribute to Billy on the tail sheetmetal. Can/will you leave that on when the car is finished?

 

No atch, my plan is to do minimal body work and roll on rustoiulm oil based paint. I want to capture the ole school race car vibe.

 

So sorry to hear this Rusty. At least you now have many great memories to remember your friend. May he rest in peace.

 

Remembering the greatness of those lost helps lessen the void where they were but its still a time to shed a tear...ruff start to the year @rusty rocket...thoughts your way...

The Hotrod/Racer looks fantastic...

 

I actually got down to the shop and did some things. Got a new fuel pump and ran all my fuel lines.

 

If your new fuel pump is an Airtech, check the cam lever pivot pin. They have a nasty habit of being poor interference push in fit with no staking allowing the pin to walk out with use. This causes the lever to loose its fulcrum leading to failure to pump or in some cases I have seen two, the lever falls into the oil pan. In one case it was hit by the crank counter weight and spit out through the side of the oil pan. Was behind the car, saw the spark, puff of smoke, and the oil trail on the road. Airtech denies the problem.

Check the pin, stake if necessary, fabricate a clamp of sheetmetal so it can't back out or replace the pin with one with a small clevis and hair pin or c clip retainer

 

Ok thanks, how does a guy know if it's an airtech?

 

Two other things from your pictures. The rearmost curbside head bolt doesn't appear to be seated, and the carb space and gaskets need to provide a intake manifold vacuum path for a holein the carb base. This provides high vacuum to the step up jet at idle at cruise and idle. If this signal is not provided for, the valve default is fully open. This causes an over rich condition except at wide open throttle.

 

Just carefully inspect the lever pin to assure it is properly staked so it can't move in either direction. Or put a visual check of the pin on your pre drive or shut down check list.

 

Have a friend who used a small one of these to keep his in place.

 

Plym 46 thanks for you help. Good eyes on the head bolt, when I pulled the motor from the mail van it lived in I had to pull it out thru the the drivers door. We had bolted an angle iron to the back of the head so it wouldn't fall thru the hole onto the ground since it was sort of a sketchy motor pull.

 

Hey @rusty rocket it's really coming together...great vintage vibe bigtime...

 

Thanks again for the pat on the back, really haven't got shit done on it the last few months. I guess if I still keep on kicking it will get done sometime in the near future.

 

So the only afforable radiator i could find for the car that would fit was an alum. Honda civic tuner rad. The fan was running into the upper inlet. Today my buddy welded a new upper inlet patched the old hole and welded on a bigger bottom outlet since the honda had small hose connections. I think it came out great.

 

Scuffed and shot a few light coats of john deere muffler paint on my radiator yesterday. Now it doesnt look so ofensive.