Technical What did you do today?

Well... Let's see..... Hey, I woke up!

 

today I got up ,had coffee , and watched the trump show while hambing it up .but yesterday I color sanded the cheap enamel I sprayed on my hood last week.should stop rust this winter and sprayed pretty good at 40 deg.. winter sucks!! but summer was good , and no fires this year , at least near me !

 

Seen every day on the way to take the kids to school.

 

Love those Continentals. Hard to find a good sedan because restorers will junk a driveable sedan to restore a shit convertible.

 

Not sure how solid this one really is, I've not been any closer than the picture, but the window has been down for at least the year I've been aware of the car.

 

We are up in Thunder Bay helping our son pack up for an employment move. Met HAMBer hapydz for morning coffee and discussed his trip to roadster show in Pomona this winter. Got me thinking that I should escape the snow for a bit and check out the show too.

 

Spent most of the night with my head and ass in the toilet, laying on that wonderful cold bathroom floor....Caught some kind of stomach bug....Just coming out of it now, but feel like someone worked me over with a baseball bat! The package even hurts! Haven’t been that sick in a long time.

 

Visited H & H Flatheads, had a nice chat with Mike, also visited Hollywood Hotrods and reviewed upcoming projects. Always visit these shops and more on my visits to Calif. The projects are INCREDIBLE. Can't wait to see the contenders for AMBR NEXT YEAR.H & H has the v12 Ardun under way. Can't wait to see this engine.

 

Today [12/4] was a beautiful 55 degree winter day so naturally I leaped into my coupe and went visiting my buddies. Stopped by Paul's shop when I saw his trusty 41 chevy pu parked outside. He was working on a customer's car so I didn't distract him very long...slid by my buddy, Byron's vacuum cleaner repair shop to see if he was ready to sell me his 48 Stude bidness coupe.....his wife said he was 1& 1/2 houirs late coming back to the shop...I didn't wait so I went by Dar's place to find him stripping out the back half of his 61 catalina in anticipation of the new trunk floor another buddy is going to install for him.....then over to Jaimie's.
Wow. Jaimie comes up with the nicest stuff sometimes. This time he's bought a 56 chevy bel air hardtop. Not just any 56 chevy. It's my dream car. Factory bronze and cream! Right now it's got a funky 307, 2 barrel with a 350 turbo and has a side motor mount kit, soon to be replaced with a fresh 350/4 speed. It's a diamond in the rough right now but it's gonna be epic! Was a great day!

 

^^^ Fun day

 

Got the Cobra's front end aligned! Finally!








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Washed the Cad 390 block , checked the bearing clearances on the mains and installed the crank. Also installed the new Schneider cam and the timing chain

 

How's your Dad doing, Lumpy?

 

Took my headers back to the chrome shop and pointed out the problem, he’ll redo them-no problem. They are good people, I was sure they would.
Got home to find my used Ebay Corvette expansion tank arrived. It looks great! Our 215 powered Morris Minor needs the tank because the radiator cap is below the thermostat housing. It’ll look much better than the fabricated one I was considering.


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Checking the valves on the Jimmy 302 head.

Proceeded to check the valve springs. Measured the free height to be 1.993 inches with vernier calipers. Installed valve #2 with a generic spring just strong enuf to hold the valve assembly at its closed height and measured it with a telescoping gauge to be 1.809 inches. From Tony's writings at Oldgmctrucks.com, I believe the valve lift to be 0.425 inches. This subtracted from the valve closed height equals an open height of 1.384 inches.

With the vernier calipers locked at 1.993 inches, each valve was checked in turn for free height. They were all equal in height. Next, the vernier calipers were set at the closed height of 1.809 inches and the telescoping gauge locked at that setting also. The springs were checked in turn with the spring tester. Using the telescoping gauge as a stopping point for the tester, all springs showed a closed spring to be exerting 50 lbs pressure. variations were too small for me to detect with my original equipment eyes. Finally, the vernier calipers and telescoping gauge were set at 1.384 inches and the process was repeated for open valve pressure which turned out to be 180 lbs. A few times, I got readings of 185 lbs but, I re-calibrated the telescoping gauge against the vernier calipers and reran the test to get 180 lbs, The gauge had slipped.

I don't consider this test precise due to my inexperience and old eyes but I am confident that all the springs are within a RCP or two of being the same.

 

That’s gonna run real good.. thanks for sharing and nice pics

 

Been side tracked working on a newly acquired "non Hamb friendly car" for the last couple weeks. It came full circle back to me after 25 years. A 67 SS Camaro..
Anyone ever get side tracked?

 

Finished up my headers on the big block powered Plymouth Sedan.

 

Alternator brackets arrived to the 235 today so I will be painting them tonight,they look better then anything I could make and were half the price of others I have found

 

Today, just a bit more to finish up on the A after fixing the leak from the cam hole and rebuilding the steering box.

 

Went Prestige Thunderbird in Santa Fe Springs and bought a pair of door lock keepers for my 56. Stopped at Mooneyes in and checked on 16” Moon discs for the wheels Wheelsmith is making for the rear of our LSR roadster and finished up with taking the Howard 5-2 intake I’m using on my sons 302 to get polished at a local shop. Yes the intake elbows need to be finished.

 

F**cked up.

 

Finished the conversion to a flatbed on a diecast truck tonight,after I got the racks painted decided to make some changes and make gates for the rear which will require a trip to the hobby shop tomorrow.

 

And while I was removing the lettering on this one removed it on another too.

 

Ouch...... but I can’t say that has not happened to me

 

I use the same spring tester now. I've made about 20 PVC tubes at different lengths to check springs. From 2" down taking off .010". It's the only way I can get it to repeat and set the on seat tension pressure the same. Can't tell you how many hours I've spend doing what your doing on GMC head assembly for our racing over the years starting with a much more primitive tool. I like following your work.

 

Spent the morning straightening trim and detail painting some. Not going to post pictures because my hands and eyes don't seem to communicate well anymore... I will clean up the oops later. Waiting for some parts to arrive in the mail, so I can get the Galaxie fully lockable.... and heated, got a new heater core on the way.

 

Went to look at a C-4 tranny today. I was able to turn the input shaft by hand and shift the gears by hand. They guy said it probably just needs a once over and should be good to go. Tranny flex plate and torque converter for $200.

 

Bent up inner and outer rocker panels for a friends '62 Tbird

 

If that's the worst you can do you're having a good day.