Technical What did you do with your car today? * NEW*

I built a seat.

 

Today I found the sweet spot for the Vintage Air evaporator under the dash of my '60 Falcon.

Now, on to cramming in the condenser up front.

 

I gave my block it's final wash. So this block was cleaned at home and it did take some time but I am happy with the results. I now have a nice seasoned 040 over 4 bolt block. All the internals are used parts from a no longer legal round track motor. I have been getting all the parts together and gathering up all the bolts and bits and pieces to put this thing together. In the theme of keeping this low budget to no budget project going forward I am doing all I can at home. I found a young guy who is setting up a machine shop at home so I let him bore/hone and take a clean up cut on the deck for $285.00 (cash) with a five day turn around time. One shop wanted $660.00 for the same job. So I opted for the cheaper route. I checked all the main cap journals and they all measured the same with no taper except the rear which was a little smaller. ( I have read that is pretty common) I have about .0025 of clearance on the mains which I am good with. But the crank has a little tight spot on each revolution. Anyhow long story short, after looking everything over the thrust journal of the crank has a little egg shape and taper on the front of that journal (blue tape in photo) hopefully my new found young machinist can help me correct this. The oil

 

Went to the Bronco swap meet yesterday picked up a Duraspark box and a double V water pump pulley. Then I saw a set of 50's Merc hubcaps at a booth I almost snagged them but there was one in there that was pretty rough. It looked like someone used it set heavy parts on it and slid it across the cement floor.

 

Me my brother and 2 uncles cruised to a parade a town over from us. Had a blast .

 

Finally got around to testing some cleanser on the 'barn find' that accumulated over the last 45 years. I had washed it once with Dawn, this stuff is stuck on there. Came out pretty good though, there's hope.

 

I took my ‘31 roadster body off of its original frame and put it on its new pinched and bobbed ‘32 frame for the first time. Now it’s time to tackle getting that Steadfast rear subrail kit installed…

 

Drove that bitch…the car..not the Wife haha….running great..my dance to the break in Gods must have worked…just keep doing my shake down runs…so far , so good…
Oh yeah I did get my kick panels dyed and put back in today..also got the hose clamp on the puke tank to work and hold fluid.

 

nice ride

 

From the BillyBob Shop log

July 19th 2021 Nailhead piston assembly operations continue. This is cleaned assembly two compared to untouched assembly three. Something else to observe about these two assemblies is that the "ears" just above the crankshaft end of rod three are almost ground away whereas there is still plenty of meat in the ears of rod two. Rod three also has a beefier cap than two which might account for some of this. I'll weigh things down the road to see what's what.

I've got three and a half assemblies cleaned at this point and I've modified the procedure as well. The procedure was revised to clean the piston top carbon. Scotchbrite cookies were too aggressive and Dremel buffs didn't cut it alone. A brass wire wheel in an electric die grinder did the trick. Dad's ancient groove cleaning tool tortured me more than it tortured the ring grooves. I got better results with using a broken ring as a cleaning tool. The ultrasonic cleaning session leaves aluminum dull and ferrous metal slightly rusty so Evapo-Rust dip was moved to the last step before lightly oiling with Marvel Mystery oil. and the piston gets a shine up with wire wheel again. Background music was Steve Miller Band's Sailor.

 

Back in the day we used to call that a 'BAB-O bath', after BAB-O cleanser, no matter what cleanser we had used.

 

Picked up my starter for my 56 after a rebuild. Pretty sure it hadn’t ever been off the car until I pulled it. Thinking of trying to get it back on and get the car going again this evening. A buddy told me about an event Wednesday evening at a retirement home nearby where they want old cars to show up. Seems like a good opportunity to get it back together and go see some folks that can’t get out and see stuff like this anymore.

 

Painted the cab yesterday.... Turned out really nice... Color is Dodge destroyer gray..

 

I picked up this double v water pump pulley for my 351w. I put it on and it's about a half V's off. The pic with the fan and the serpentine pulley is what came with it

 

Drove it out in the yard and took some Pics with the new wheels.

 

1. did nothing !it was too hot outside ,inside the house and in the garage.took it easy ,a good day to do nothing

 

Time to have a chat with the folks at March. I'm going to have to do the same thing pretty soon, whenever my machinist is done doing his thing. Ford engineers: Chevy had a better idea, you schmucks!

 

later on in the cool evening went for some beer and watched the sun set

 

my 71 vette was hard on fan belts .a 10mm spacer behind the power steering pump bkt had it running true.had to file out a slot on the engine bkt way out of tolerance .runs true now.(no photo to hand)

 

Gave it a complete Comet scrub down. Still stains, chips, wear, and it's flat orange, or red I guess it's supposed to be, Venetian red. Anyway definitely a 20 footer at least but good enough for me .

 

following a complete rebuild (bushes) on front end
had mate do a wheel alignment ,all cool now

 

Changed the voltage regulator in the Montclair,took off a modern solid state version and put on a old school mechanical version I had in stock. Tried two others and they were bad and now in the scrap pile.

 

Got the starter put back on my 56 and went for a drive... I think it is ready to go hang out at the retirement home Wednesday evening now.

 

Just got done painting the doors and dash and tailgate

 

Laying down real nice. What are you using for paint and equipment?

 

finally cleaned the wide whites on the rear, one more thing off the list

 

I jumped in he Stude, drove a few miles for a haircut this morning and then this afternoon about a 60 mile round trip to see a doctor, old age ain't for everyone The Stude runs about 2200 RPM at 75, easy to keep up with traffic on the interstate all the help on got on this forum helped make it happen!!!!

 

I using PPG Nason single stage urethane... I used urethane primer and sealer... with 3 coats of color...the last coat has another part of reducer.... I'm using a LPHV harbor freight gun... I put up a portable shelter and wet down the gravel ... keeps down the dust...lol. paint has flowed very well and has great gloss..

 

I worked on my 47 ford truck bed, trying to get it squared up. Ifs a slow process, but it will be worth the effort.

 

Found out I am getting power to the a/c clutch and working so time to get it working.