Projects An Amateur Chops a Brookville Coupe & More

That shroud came up slick! Nice job!

 

When I was measuring for the fan shroud I had a feeling that the lower corners would be real close to touching the front cross member. There is a slight interference at the corners where the cross member angles up. I made a small cut at the corners and welded in a filler piece. I think it looks better now that the corner angle matches the cross member.

Finding a hose to connect the lower radiator outlet to the water pump was going to be tricky. There is no hose made to fit a custom application like this, and I needed to get around the motor mount that was directly below the water pump inlet and not much space to do it.

My first plan was to fabricate an odd angle hose barb fitting and connect it to the radiator outlet with a short length of straight hose. Then use a section of angled hose to connect the fitting up to the water pump.
I went to a NAPA store with a piece of a smaller diameter hose that matched the angle I needed and ask the employee if they could find a 1 3/4" hose that had an angled and straight section that I needed. He brought back a hose that had a section that matched the angled part perfectly, it also had a straight section and a short double bend near the end.
I cut the angled section out of the hose and put it on the water pump. While I was deciding what to do with the radiator outlet I noticed that the short double bend on the hose might clear the motor mount and line up with the water pump hose section. I cut that part out and was surprised at how well it fit.
Here are the two pieces I used.

Since the pieces lined up straight with each other, I no longer needed an odd angle fitting to clear the motor mount. I used the hose fittings I made to make a straight coupling with a spacer ring in the center.


Here it is installed. I couldn't be happier with the fit. A total stroke of luck that the NAPA employee picked out a hose that just happened to have the bends that I needed.

 

Amazing work Thank you for the thread

 

Now that the lower radiator hose problem has been solved, it's time to connect the upper radiator inlet to the thermostat housing. I started with a stock upper radiator hose for a 54 Olds since the angle of it seemed close to what I needed. I tried to make it work with the stock thermostat housing, but the angle of the hose neck on the housing wasn't in the best location. The hose started to kink when I tried to make the connection.

I didn't feel like running back and forth to the auto parts store to try and find a hose or hoses that might work, so I decided to make a new thermostat housing that lines up with the hose I had.
Here are the raw materials I used to make it. I chose to use 304 stainless steel so that I could polish it to look like chrome.

I started with the base plate that gets bolted to the intake. I cut a piece of the 3/4" plate and milled it down to 5/8" thick.

I set the piece up in a four jaw chuck in the lathe and drilled and bored a thru hole and recess for the main body part.

I cut off the excess material on the corners with a bandsaw and trued the edges up in my mill. I rounded the corners on my belt sander and wound up with this.

I tried to find a piece of tubing to use for the hose neck but couldn't find anything that would work, so I had to start with a piece of solid bar stock. I machined the outside first then drilled and bored the inner diameter. The angled cut will match the inner bore of the next piece.

Here is the main body part. I used the ball turning tool on my lathe to form a dome on the end of the 2 1/2" diameter stainless piece.

I cut off the length needed and faced off the end and bored a recess in the bottom.

I used an indexing head in the mill to hold the part at a 30 degree angle to drill and bore the hole for the hose neck.

Here is the finished part.

Here are the parts put together.

Compare it to the stock Olds housing, you can see the steeper angle of the new hose neck. Since the center part can be rotated for now, I can line up the outlet to match the hose. After I polish the parts I will weld them together from the inside so that the outside will look like a one piece casting.

The hose fits much better now, no kinks.

This was a fun project, I really like the way it looks and I was able to use a one piece hose for a cleaner look. I'm kinda glad the stock thermostat housing didn't work out, because I never liked the way it looked. I'm much happier with the new one.

 

Nice job! You have great machining skills!

 

Thanks Chief

 

Really good work Wish I had your skills

 

Wow real nice job.

 

Thank you for sharing all the details of your project. Very educational. I need to make a fan shroud and your pictures will be very helpful.

 

I started on building a set of headers for the coupe, since this will be a highboy style build I decided to go with lake headers. I looked for header kits for the Olds engine, but all the kits I found came with 30" long megaphone sections. I felt that these would be to long because the turnouts would be passed the door opening. I had to do a lot of searching, but I found a lake header kit from Patriot Exhaust for a sbc that had 22 1/2" megaphones with 1 5/8" inlets and 3 1/2" outlets that I thought would work.

Since the exhaust ports on the Olds are square and the header flanges I'll be using have square ports, I needed to find a way to form the round tube ends into squares. I made an internal die with a tapered starter section and the finish size square at the top. I rounded the corners to a 1/4" radius.




In order to form the ends on the curved tubes, I needed to have a way to hold them upright in my press. I used a piece of 1" x 3" tube steel to make a clamp. I bored a hole the same size as the tubing diameter and split it in half.

Here is the piece in the press. I used some high pressure lube on the die to help it go in easy and hopefully come out.

The clamp worked, it held the tubing tight with no slippage.

This die worked out better than expected. Starting with 1 5/8" od x 16 ga. tubing I ended up with a final size of 1 1/2" square on the outside. This is the exact size I was looking for. I'm really happy with the way the tubing conformed to the flat sides of the die, I thought I would have to work those areas flat.


More work to do, stay tuned.

 

I don't know how I missed this but WOW! There is NOTHING about this build that says amateur! Well done! Subscribed!

 

Awesome job and love to see a real craftsman , thanks for sharing your info and pictures

 

While I was waiting for the header flanges to arrive, I did a test mockup to establish the angle of the megaphone and primary tubes. I used pieces of 1 1/4" PVC pipe to find the right length of the primary tubes.

I ordered the flanges from Hells Gate Hot Rods. They sell flanges for 1 3/4" od tubing, but I am using 1 5/8" od. So I ordered the flanges with custom size holes. I wanted the squared section of the tubes to have a nice fit in the header flanges, so I ordered them with undersize holes (1 3/8" x 1 3/8" on the ends and 1 3/8" x 2 1/2" for the center holes ). I planned on machining the openings to fit the squared ends on the primary tubes.
I made this fixture to hold the flanges on the mill and cut them to size ( 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" on the end ports, and 1 1/2" x 2 5/8" for the centers).

One thing I found out after the flanges were on the motor is that I would not be able to come straight out of the exhaust ports on the same angle as the cylinder heads with the primary tubes. At that angle the rear cylinder tubes on both sides would hit the top of the frame rail. I found if the tubes were angled up 10 degrees coming out of the flanges, they would clear the frame and I would still be able to just get the top header flange bolts in. So back to the mill. I angled the fixture plate and cut the top and bottom of the ports to the 10 degree angle that I needed.

I also cut the squared tube ends to 10 degrees.

There isn't enough room at the center ports for two full sized tubes to fit, so I trimmed a little bit off one side of each tube and made a splitter plate to go between them. The splitter plate has an extension on the end to fit up inside the shared center exhaust port on the heads to separate it into two ports into the header.

Even though the header kit came with swept tubes, I decided to go with straight tubes for ease of installation and I also like the looks of the straight tubes.
That's all for now, I'll finish the headers over the holiday weekend and have more progress pics next week.

 

Great idea on the die & clamp for the tube clamp. Thanks for posting the pictures. Looking forward to seeing the finished headers.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

They die worked really well. I was afraid that it would split the tubing open at the corners from all the stretching. Not a lot of force was needed on the press to push the die in. I put a bolt in the threaded hole and used a slide hammer puller to get it out of the curved piece, I just used a punch to drive the die out of the straight pieces.

 

I did a mockup to check the fit, everything looked good so I traced around the tubes where they meet the megaphone to mark the location of the holes.

Here is a shot of the center ports tacked up showing how the divider piece will fit up into the exhaust port.





I used a 1 1/2" hole saw that matched the tubing id for the holes.

Here are the finished parts all welded up, real happy with they way they turned out. I added 3 1/2" stubby turnouts on the ends.

Ordering the flanges with undersize holes was the way to go. Being able to machine the openings for an exact match with the squared ends of the tubes really paid off with a nice fit up.

Here you can see how the tubes are angled up the 10 degrees from the head ports, and the frame clearance that this gave at the rear header tubes.

One more step complete, many more to go.
I'll be working on getting a steering column installed and the u-joints and shafts to the steering box next. First I have to figure out what length column I'll need and get that ordered.
Stay tuned.

 

Very nicely done, but LOUD?

 

I'll be installing a set of internal baffle mufflers in the megaphone section and a bottom outlet to run underneath the car to a real muffler, but that will be done later.

 

Headers came out great.

 

The Olds engine I have is a 1949 model, this year block used a unique distributor hold down clamp that had two mounting bolts instead of the usual one. My motor was missing the clamp and since they are impossible to find and I will also be using a distributor from a 54 Olds, I decided to just make a new clamp.
I'm making the clamp out of stainless steel so that it can be polished to look like chrome.
Started of by squaring the piece and hole sawing the notch to fit the distributor.

I milled of the underside and left a step to act as a fulcrum point and cut a slot for the mounting stud.

I used a hold down clamp from Billet Specialties on the BBC in my 55 Belair and I liked the pivot ball washer they use under the nut on the stud, so I decided to use this feature for the Olds. I used a ball end mill and made a rounded slot on top.

I turned a pivot ball washer on the lathe and used a spare stainless stud I had left over from something. I milled the sides of the clamp at an angle to make it look less bulky.

Here it is doing it's job. It will look real nice after it's polished. You can see one of the two holes for the original clamp next to it. I did have to drill and tap a 3/8-16 hole in the block for the new stud.

 

Many very nice details on this build and all home cooking to boot. Kudos to you.

 

Thanks tudor. Fabbing one off pieces is my favorite part of the build. I like having the freedom to make the parts the way I want them to look.

 

Nice work.

 

Before I started on installing a steering column in the car, I wanted to have the brake and clutch pedals in place so that I can find the most comfortable spot for the seat to be. The motor bellhousing casting was in the way of the brake pedal travel, so I made a double bend in it to clear. I also ground away some of the casting to make more room.
I was worried that the pedal would interfere with the steering column, but turned out not to be a problem.



One thing I did not like about the frame mount for the pedal assemblies was the way the pivot bosses rubbed up against sharp edges of metal. I thought there should be something that made full contact with the pivot instead.

I made washers to go on the shaft and act as a shoulder for the bosses to turn against.

And tacked them in place. Not sure if this will make a difference on how the pedals operate, but I'm more confident having the washers in place. I also made some large washers to go on the outer faces and set everything up to have minimal clearance so that there is very little side to side movement.

 

Here is the steering mockup I used to find what length of column drop I needed and also to layout where the column would go through the firewall. I used scrap pieces of 1 1/4" PVC, a two hole pipe clamp some scrap angle iron clamped to the dash and a 59 Impala steering wheel I had laying around.

I cut a piece of the PVC to the same angle as the column and used that as a template to lay out the oval hole in the firewall. The 1 1/4" pipe makes a hole that is slightly larger than the 1 1/2" diameter column that I'll be using. I used a holesaw to start and finished with a die grinder.

I ordered a 30" column from Flaming River. I like this one because it has an integral turn signal lever rather than the clamp on type. I topped it off with a 16" Limeworks 40 Ford steering wheel. I also used a 4" 32 Ford style column drop from Limeworks.

I'm using Borgeson polished stainless steel splined u-joints. The u-joint on the column end came very close to hitting part of the block casting, so I ground some of it away for better clearance.

I used a wooden dowel to line up the upper and lower joints to check the angle and length of the splined shaft that connects the column to the steering box.

The input shaft on the steering box is horizontal to the ground at ride height. This caused a problem with my column angle. The angle of the lower u-joint wound up being 35 deg. This is right on the max allowable angle according to Borgeson. There was almost no clearance between the u-joint segments when it was turning.

I couldn't take a chance with the steering binding up while driving so something had to change. I could have maybe used a double u-joint on the column end to lessen the angle of the lower joint, but then I would have to add a shaft support to the frame.
The Borgeson catalog has good install tips, and one of them is to angle the steering box input up towards the column rather than have it horizontal to help reduce severe angles of the u-joints. I decided this would be a better way to fix the problem. I cut the steering box mount off the frame and made a new one that I installed at a 6 deg. up angle.

This changed the joint angle from 35 deg. to 32 deg. Doesn't seem like much, but the clearance between the joint segments changed a lot.

Here is the splined shaft from Borgeson, I ordered an 11 3/4" long piece.


Worked out nice. Good clearance with everything and turns easy and smooth.
I still have to decide on a lower column mount on the inside firewall. Not sure if I'll buy one or build one.

 

Nice work

 

Dude. You really need to modify the title to this thread. Clearly, you are no amateur. Just sayin.......

 

I like to think of the word "amateur" in its original meaning, which was "one who does something for love".

"Professional" means you do it for money.

 

Well I do feel like I'm getting better at it.

 

The Limeworks 40 Ford steering wheel is a nice piece, but it isn't a direct fit on the Flaming River column. The steering wheel comes with an adapter piece to fit the spline end on the column and a chrome sheet metal collar to transition between the wheel and upper mast on the column. I didn't like the fit of the collar piece, it didn't match the od of the upper mast section and left a gap between the two that I thought was to big.

I figured I could make my own filler piece to match the mast od and close up that gap.
Started with a hunk of aluminum and bored out the center to clear the adapter hub and other internal parts of the upper mast section. I also machined an inner lip section on the od to fit inside the mast to seal up the gap. I turned a taper on the part to transition from the wheel hub to the mast od.

This was a big improvement over the sheet metal collar. The od matches much better and the gap between the parts is more consistent and smaller, plus you can't see the insides of the upper mast anymore. A simple part to make that made a huge difference.