Hot Rods Bringing my 39 back to life

Not even gonna polish them. They earned this look.

 

Jason, you might want to get the rockers first and install one here and there on int.& exh then pick out a couple of the best and least worn of the current pushrods and do a check on pushrod length before ordering the new ones.
After almost 24 years in an airline mach. shop, and seeing all the aluminum parts that had bearings pressed in for use in linkage, etc, I bought Comp Cam moly steel roller rockers for heads I've done lately.. Saw too many parts where long term use had pounded out the hole where the bearing was pressed in to the point the hole had to be set up in a mill, proper center distances located, hole bored oversize and then sleeved or back to size, or either welded up and rebored. Steel is much more resistant to getting swedged out so bearings don't fit.

 

I had thought of doing that exact thing. But today I pulled all the rockers and used my comp cams pushrod length tool to measure them. I did it before when I ordered these. For the life of me I can’t remember what brand or where I got them from, but they were stock length at 7.8 inches. After measuring today they were 7.8 again. Did it on all the valves to make sure there was no weird cam wear. But after marking all the valves tips with layout fluid and turning the motor over they wore dead center.

 

But I'm talking about if you change to any roller rockers.

 

good point. I’ll get rockers first then measure again.

 

Not much in the 39 today but I’m nearing the finish of the latest yard art. Don’t know what I’m gonna do with this yet but it ain’t going to the scrapper. The front sheet metal is pretty much wasted so I just welded it together and set it on the car today. Mom wants to use it for Christmas card pictures and family Christmas pictures this year. So I need to make it look a little cooler.

 

Dad pointed out that with the front clip on the lawn trailer it looked sorta like a gasser with tiny wheels!

 

Awesomely Kool! Exactly (almost what I am trying to accomplish) Especially love the DK shirt! I’ll have to whip out my old Vandals Shirt! I do have a great old-school punk list that I listen to when I am working on the car in the garage!

 

Cool as Heck!
what Grit did you sand before.... just using the...Meguiars?
You showed earlier.

 

anything that got wet sanded was sanded with 1200 grit wet paper on a soft foam 3m sanding block. I used Meguiars 105 cutting compound on a wool pad at around 3000 RPM. Followed up with Meguiars 205 ultra finishing compound on a black foam polishing pad at 2500 Rpm. Then 4 coats of Meguiars gold class wax. For tight area I used a Meguiars yellow foam wheel polishing cone in a drill for both the cut and polish compounds. I just washed the foam out between compounds.

 

Not much progress lately. Had hernia surgery at thanksgiving and that really kicked my ass. Now another kidney stone the size of Texas. Surgery for that in Feb. but I have managed to gather just about all the remaining parts for the rear swap. Picked up near new Trac Loc and a pumpkin to build for the nine inch. Just need bearings and a set of 3:50 gears to put in it.

 

Also picked up a 65 327 365hp short block for my 54 f100. That will be my new daily once on the road. Also picked up a sweet speed gems bell housing for the F100 to put a Ford trans behind a small block. Going to adapt a mustang T5 to it. I’ll start a new thread for that in a few months when I get to putting that together.

 

Sorry to hear about your health issues, Jason. I thought maybe you would put a 401 in that F100!

 

Jason, @mongo4u2 over in TN has a ton of 9 inch gears. I spoke with him this week on a set of 3.18 for my project. Might be able to help you out.

 

Sounds like my 2019-2020 era! Building my '39 Chev coupe during the shutdown was great! But fall of 2019 I got a hernia, and shortly after I began to have extreme upper stomach pain. By spring I lost 35 lbs. in 6 weeks and couldn't keep food down. Trips to ER discovered a 1"x1.5" gallstone, but they wouldn't operate! And they wouldn't do my hernia repair either! So I worked through both until I ended up in emergency again for the gallstone, and they were forced to do surgery because they couldn't stop the pain, or get my blood pressure down low enough. 113/215!!
They did the gallbladder removal, and 3 weeks later the hernia repair. Both went excellent, and I was back on the car in a couple weeks after the hernia repair. My previous hernia repair was open incision, and it put me out of car work for almost 9 months! This closed arthroscopic repair was a huge difference in recovery!

 

That sounds familiar. Had my Gal Bladder removed last June as well!!

 

I had planned on putting a 425 in it. But this small block came along and well you can’t beat a small block for a daily. Saving the 425 for a future project.

 

IIRC, that high on the left side starter is also a problem?

 

it may have been tight but we put in an off topic front end from No Limit engineering.

 

Jeez! 2020 Just freaking sucked!!!
I had my appendix removed in June!
They found a Hernia while they had the CT scan, just had that surgery 3 weeks ago! For the Hernia!!!
21 is looking iffy already too!
Damn I miss the old days!!!

 

On the Buick you can relocate the solenoid and make a dog leg connecter to get more clearance. I had to do that on my 50 chevy.

 

Jason, I got a great place to store that 425.

 

Today must be my for catching missed build threads? Cool ride, nice work. I like that fuse panel and the copper color

 

Love the 36’ passenger front on there!
My Pops and I Always wanted to do the same thing with a 37’ car Front!
Looks Cool! Man!

 

Cory does NICE work and he's a heck of a great guy.

 

No major updates but I was able to score a decent bumper to replace the old nasty one that the chrome was peeling off of. Yeah it’s a 40 bumper but looks way better.

 

Also I needed I larger air cleaner. That little one was restricting it with its size. So I found a super cheap early vette air cleaner that was all dented up. It was a learning experience for sure working aluminum sheet. First time I ever have. And this thing was soft. Had a big egg shaped dent right in the middle and about 60 tiny ones all over it. So I roughed it out using a shot bag and plastic hammers and then worked the small stuff out with a hammer and dolly while giving it a little crown at the same time to stop the oil canning. Then sanded it up to from 320 to 1200 grit, then 30 min on the buffer followed up with a hand polish. Looks pretty good for me. Not perfect but matches the rest of the worn car.

 

Just to save time I’m taking the 3rd member for the nine inch and my top loader 3 speed trans to a buddy of mine In Fredericksburg to rebuild the 3rd member with a set of 3.50 gears and to convert the trans to a Jeep shifter top and reseal it. I wanted to do it, but time is running out quick and I want to get the trans and rear swapped out before I head out to Bonneville with my pals @hotrodderhaag and @hotdamn

 

Air cleaner looks good.

 

The nine inch and ladder bar swap has begun. Got the car up in the air and the banjo out. The housing is prepped for the ladder bar and spring mount brackets. Working on a slick way of locating everything fir the install. I’ll post that up next weekend after I get the rear housing and ladder bars set up and installed.