Steering wheel is out and mocked up in the 36. Looks like to me it will work. Do need to remove the airbag still.
Now the front seats have a mount. When I was taking out the front seats from the donor the rear mounting platform for the seat was a structural cross beam that attached to either side of the car and into the body. I decided that that was the way to go with the install of the seats in the 36. I cut that cross beam out and modified it to work for the seat mounts. The feet are 1/4 inch steel with 1/4 inch steel gussets added for more strength. The feet are bolted through the floor and into the frame, both perimeter and x cross frame. Very solid mounting for the seats. This serves several functions, adds more stiffness to the frame, gives a solid support for the seats, safety wise, the seat belts connectors in the seats are supported. I will be using the seat belt system out of the donor. The transmission mount spans and mounts the same way except it mounts across the bottom of the frame rail about 2 and a half feet in front of the seat mount. On to the back seats. Oh, one more thing, please don't look too closely at my welds, they're solid welds, just look nasty.
Finally got the rear seats installed. Was an interesting engineering issue but I believe it worked out well. The seats are comfortable and the headrests are functional. And yes they afford relaxing arm resting out the window. They are setup exactly as if they were in the donor car. They are removable as they were in the donor car. Cut out the slot bar for the front of the seats out of the donor, welded it up, reinforced it and welded into the 36. The rear connection brackets were another story. In the donor car they were recessed into the floor, unfortunately there's a hump for the rear axle pumpkin in the floor of the 36 and of course the rear of the seats intersected right in the middle of the hump. So, I built blocks to mount the brackets to and allow the brackets to set just above the hump, worked out great and the seats just misses the top of the hump and doesn't raise the back of the seats so much that when you set in them that you feel as if you're sliding forward out of them. What was really perfect was where the upper back latch brackets wanted to be right at the inter bracing for the sides of the interior sheet metal. I do believe I will be reinforcing those bracings just to be sure. As they are mounted now, the seats are solidly installed. They don't move around or feel loose as you set in them. And there seems to be enough space behind the seats that I'll be able to use the space for some of the electrical and electronics. Now on to the steering column mounting.
lol, yep, these retro production vehicles have the right measurement to fit prewar vehicles. Whole lot cheaper than buying new seats and try to make them fit or doing custom seats. I'll be using lots of stuff off this donor car.
I've been thinking the past day or two of doing a Push me-Pull you out of a couple of them, since they can be had so cheap, but the wheelbase would have to be stretched unless you actually used the front complete and locked out the steering, rather than just hang the (front) sheetmetal over the original (rear) floor. They were popular in the 60s for older stuff that wasn't valuable, but haven't seen anything newer done this way.
While I was waiting for the steering column parts I did some rough in body work on the rear fenders, lower rear body panel and the trunk lid . I gave them another coat of epoxy primer today so they can be fine tuned a bit more. Black always shows all the dinks and bumps a whole lot better than trying to feel them with your hands.
Thank you, was very challenging, turned out better than I had hoped. I've turned my attention to freshening up the 426, have started to polish out the Eldebrock 440 intake manifold while I wait on parts.
Yelp it is, thought I was good at this. Have done this before on another ride. But it was on rather flat pieces. This is going to take some time to get it looking high end and it's a good challenge. Have logged in another 6 hours and it's about 2/3 'd done. Will post pic's when I get it where I want it. Can't really find these manifolds polished out and the price on them are a bit prohibitive when you do find them. The engine compartment wants a lot of bling. Will be doing the same on the aluminum water pump housing as well. Will keep me busy until all the rest of the engine stuff gets here.
Ok the polishing is done and we now have functional bling for the jewelry box. So there is 71 hours in doing the polishing. A lot of trial and error with the process, the casting isn't as tight as it should be (lots of pits and flaws) and there are still some tool marks that just couldn't be taken out from mounting process. On the plus side I had a good excuse to expand my tool inventory. I still might hit the high spots with some 1200 grit.
Now on to the next polishing project. Lots of aluminum going on this engine. It should help a little bit with the heating problem I'm pretty sure I'm going to have. We'll just have to see.
Some more bling, didn't keep track of the hours but I think it took as long to do the three pieces as it did to do the manifold. Now that is done I'll begin to freshen up the engine. I'll do a before and after on that.
Have come a ways with the 426, got some paint on it and mocked up the new parts. The pictures are the before and after, although the after isn't all that will be added but it's far enough to show what the direction is of the build. This has been an interesting journey with the freshening up. As the parts came off, things didn't really add up. There were some issue that after some spec'ing weren't right. There was some bearing metal in the bottom of the pan. Started checking rod play, 7 and 8 were way too loose. Pulled the caps and sure enough the bearings had span, checking further down the line, they all had spun. Bearings were standard size, didn't make any sense or reason for that. Started mic'ing rod journals and that they were all .010 undersize. Fortunately it hadn't run that way for long because there wasn't any damage to the rods or crank or the journals. Journals polished back up just fine. While we had to replace all the bearing, it was decided we might as well pull the pistons out and give them some new molleys. Also decided to bust the glaze in the cylinders, found 3 top rings that were busted and one rod that had been put on the piston backwards, as well as number 1 and 2 rods caps had been switched between the two. The pistons are .060 oversize so before the deglaze, they were mic'd and all were within tolerances, after doing the quick honing, they were all still in. Didn't trust the oil pump, so that's new. Some of the lifters were stuck, new ones also. The rocker arms were egged out, so have new shafts and rockers coming, everything is being replace with OEM parts. Will be using a new electronic distributor and probably a Holley carb. With the way it looks now, I'll have to go with more chrome, the alternator and power steering pump, haven't decided to go serpentine or the stock type v belts. Room is limited between the engine and radiator. So what has been learned from this rebuild freshening up? The engine was raced, there were three coats of paint, the butt ugly black that was on it when I got it. Under that was orange, the racers chose, I guess, and under that were traces of the original Chrysler blue, which it is back to now. The inside of the block was absolutely clean, almost spotless as though it had just come from the machine shop. The heads, no so much, pretty narly, word of caution here, when farming your stuff out, do some research on the shop you take them to. I didn't this time, and a month later they came back to my shop and they had to be finished out. I can do heads, just don't like to, in this case I should have. Moving on, all but one rod was numbered, stuff that is done to balance engines, timing chain was soo stretched out that the gears and chain were replaced with a new double roller set up. The pick up tube has been changed from the 3/8ths tube to the 1/2 inch tube. A racer's mod. The story I was told when I bought it back in the nineties was the guy had it in his truck and he couldn't keep the front wheels on the ground. With what I've seen and learned about it was the guy that was racing it, broke it, threw enough parts at it to make it seem to be a good motor and sold it to the guy that I bought from, saying it was a runner just as I was told. Not pissed, was fun getting into this Mopar, my first rebuild big R/B Mopar. Usually in a BBC. Anyway here's the pictures:
Update: Took my transmission to a local rebuilder here in my hometown, he did a great job considering this trans had set outside for a number of years. It was still tight and clean on the inside, pan was pretty much toast as was the valve body. Will be using a new chrome pan and he didn't have a problem finding a valve body. The rebuild took him a week and a half most of which was waiting for parts. Had to paint it up to make for a clean install in the car and match up with the paint job on the engine block. Made a mistake in ordering a cheap rattle can and got a mismatch to the engine paint so had to bite the bullet and get the more expensive paint, in the long run it was worth as the picture will show. A Pontiac or ford blue isn't the color that goes with this build. Had to mod up the firewall a bit so the engine and trans wouldn't rattle up against it. The way the heads are offset on the block put the right head almost touching the firewall. Couldn't get a credit card between the two, nor would it have been easy to get the valve cover off the head. Bolts were right up against it. Did a template, cut some sheet metal to the template, chamfered the sides up and inserted it the matching cut out in the firewall, moves it back about a half an inches. Won't really know if it's enough until the engine and trans are installed. The trans tunnel was pretty much dead on for clearance but the firewall still hit the very top of the trans(just barely). Took another inch out, then built a reinforcement piece and welded it in. Again won't really know until the engine and trans are installed in the car.
Hopefully this is the last time I'll need to mount the motor in the car. Not sure, might need to take it out again to get paint on the car, haven't decided yet, will see when that bridge comes up. Got the motor sealed up with all the bling and did a oil pressure prime. Got a 50 pound pressure reading using a tired old drill. Trans is installed, installed great, the mods that were made to the firewall gives the engine to firewall clearance and trans in tunnel clearance. Everything looks good to go. The serpentine conversion kit, alternator, and steering pump is on their way, hopefully by this Thursday. Tring a new style distributor, won't need a ballast or electronic regulator, keeps the firewall clean, distributor has all the electronics on board. It will also be here Thursday. Will shoot for the end of October for a fire up of the engine. Lots still to do, have to wire up the car, something I absolutely dread, don't like doing electrical.
Still working on it. Am having to rethink and rebuild rear diff. Have done a few things to get it up and running beside having to deal with a weird winter and life in general. Hadn't realized that it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I'll get some pictures up and a commentary about them this weekend. sorry.
Things that have been done over the winter. The heater lines have been install from the water pump to the firewall bulkhead connectors. Overflow bottle, transmission cooler lines, belts and radiator support and radiator have been installed. Very close measurements from accessories to radiator surface but it looks like they are far enough away that there should be good clearances. Unfortunately the alt and power steering pump stand out past the mounting area for the engine compartment side panels. Thinking maybe fabbed up a pair with bulges to clear them. Did a remote oil filter set up, never did like the Mopar stock placement. Worked out pretty good, used the place where the stock steering gear use to be mounted. Didn't have to drill any holes to mount the remote system. The inner splash shield was fabbed to clear the steering shaft, so no problem there. So there was an issue with rock and dirt hitting the filter canister so fabbed up a rock and debris shield. The upper rad hose was an interesting project. Went through several configurations before settled for the one you see. Give that aluminum tubing a good polish and it will look like it always belonged there. The radio bracket work was something else though. It took the better part of a month to get it where its at, still not to my liking yet. The kicker is that the interior heater and radio bracket are one in the same. You'd get one mounted up where you liked it but the other mount up wouldn't work, so apart it came. Like I said it took awhile to get there. So it's been busy this winter but should have done more. Catching up this spring and summer will be tough but gotten do those hours to catch up. want to have this project ready to paint by next spring.
Trying to put on my side panels of engine. One side fits, the other side is cock eyed. Ive loosened a bunch of bolts and tried to even things up a little. Dont want to force things. And hints? You have same car as me!
Is that meant for me, Maintain? If so, I've not reached that point yet. I think the best route would be to make a "bulge" to clear the alternator and PS pump as you mentioned. My Chrysler is quite different in the front sheet metal. However, a suggestion is to look at your radiator surround and how its mounted to make sure its even across the front. I see you have a non-stock radiator; what did you end up buying for the '36 ? Your car has rods of a sort connecting the surround to the firewall, right? Are these adjusted the same then? Mine only has a central rib from the top of the cowl to the top middle of the surround which I've altered somewhat to hold a non-stock radiator. The stock radiators for those years was not meant to run at the higher pressures that are needed to cool the engine - - in my case a '56 331 The side panels on mine are what establishes the alignment and evenness from side to side. It's where I'm at now...........checking to make sure all the sheet metal fits up properly.
Nice build! In your transmission information, you didn't mention anything about kickdown linkage, although your firewall room is limited you said. You have to have the kickdown linkage installed and functioning properly or your transmission will not last long. One of the other Mopar guys on here can explain it better that I can.
Yes, was meant for you......since your pic had the panels on, I figured it was done. Thanks for thr tips!
Catching up, answer to kick down, there is enough clearance under the floor to install the kick down cable, not an issue. Still not sure if i'm going to do a standard carb or go efi, just helped a friend install a Holley sniper efi on a BBC, went a whole lot easier than setting up a conventional carb. So now on to what's been done so far on my project. Took my third member into a shop to check clearances on the ring and pinion set. The mechanic told me that the gears wouldn't hold up long because of all the rust pitting on the teeth. Left with a chose, get new stock ring and pinion or new rear differential set up. Got on line and luckily found a new old stock 1936 ring and pinion, pretty much in pristine shape, new bearings, installed and set up. still stuck with 4:13 ratio though. Got the drive line built and installed. Got the electric fan mounted, had to fab up mounting brackets to get it mounted where it wants to be. It is a 3100 cfm fan, we'll see. Now i'm getting all the electrical mounted so i can start getting the wiring loom installed. Is a 21 circuit loom, needed the extra circuit for power windows(from donor car), the fan, and the driver's power and heated seats(both seats, also from donor car). Mocked up the side mirrors, they are directional turn signal mirrors. Also mocked in the ahoo ga horn, it's resting in the stock coil location in the firewall. The orignal horn was located on the top of the engine. Don't know if it wil clear the air cleaner. So that's all that i've done so far this summer. I did get the radio and heater bracket sorted out and they are all mounted as planned out. The glove box door has been fixed and now opens and closes as it did when it was a stock glove box door.
The Jalopy Journal
