Well I was going to wait for my two weeks to be over to post an over view of what got done but life kinda ramped up. So for the moment I figured I’d do a photo dump and get some of the stuff up to speed. One of the first things done I get my new master cylinders taped and painted and the holes to mount them drilled. well as much as I could, a few holes go into the plate behind the firewall where an existing hole doesn’t exist so I drilled threw the firewall and into the plate enough to be an easy spot to find when it lands in the drill press minuses centering lunches but where it wasn’t going to work with only two hands I made a cereal box template and used that
At the same time I drilled the holes and mounted the oil filter. The photo with the vice grips is there to show exactly why I’m welding nuts to the back side of the firewall. I hate having to figure out how to be in two places at once for bolts like that
Trimmed the air cleaner bottom and painted it. Also painted the rear lower shock mounts - cut and welded/ evened out 46 Ford pieces
Got my air cleaner top back from being brazed together and the spreader bar back welded. ended up using the stock ends of the spreader bar with new pipe in between. In retro spect a heavy wall pipe may have been better as it was difficult to weld the thunder tube to the very thick Ford ends painted them both random photo of knick knacks that belong to the project seems to got included. Oh well lol
No real photos after that point car has a killer rake in person. I’ve been cutting/ adjusting my tacked in sub frame getting it dialed in to have the rest of it final welded soon and working on drilling body mount holes. I spent for fucking ever marking them out and 5/6 top holes are dead on but the bottom holes- I’m drilling threw box tubing with a hand drill- drifted on a lot of them. I drilled the holes under sized for partially this reason. Current plan is to oval the holes to get everything lined up and then when we weld in crush tubes fill what ever gaps may exist going to try to get to oval-ing them this afternoon and then I think the spreader bar to frame irons will get cleaned up one way or another and the column drop mounting holes drilled. then I think I’ll pull the tank off and correct the misalignment in the firewall/cowl bracing and drill the master cylinder/ pedal box while it’s apart Anyhow. Plenty to come, stay tuned
Man that is a lot of component prep. I'm trying to do some of that too. Remind me why you went with a remote oil filter. I'm doing that too and in some ways it seems silly when the screw on is right there and is easy. Mine may interfere with the front mounts but I could change that. Mostly I'm doing it for looks.
Yup. I was contemplating doing it then I found this 40’s dodge unit for like $2 or something and when I bolted it on the shitty paint even matched! Figured it was a sign
You are doing a great job here and I am paying a lot of attention to how you are making this Chevy 4 an A engine.
Thanks man, a lot of this will get repainted but for now it’s helpful to keep it rust free, see where it needs some more work, and shoot it just looks cool back on the car!
Got the body mount holes 99% drilled tonight. Need a tiny bit more tweaking and they’ll be there. also mocked up my spreader bar with the plate mount dropping the light was worth it Doesn’t lay flat like I want it to get but it’s nothing a little fine tuning won’t take care of a lot of effort just to have that little webbed gusset lol oh well. Progress. gonna try to buy some bolts Wednesday. Thinking a trip to a tractor supply for some low grade bolts by the pound are in order. Not sure what size and length I’m really going to use so no since being bent over at ace for them. really need to find a spot to order good bolts at a bulk rate for when this goes together for the final time
I bought all the stainless bolts for the Chevy motor by the box from McMaster Carr. I thought they were real reasonable. Obviously, they have regular bolts as well. Been thinking about stocking myself with various sizes of regular as well as some grade 8’s just to have on hand. Exciting to see so many things coming together here all at once. Looking good!!!
@Six Ball just like the way the clamps look and they offer a lot of fine tuning should I want it to sit differently. But mostly I like the way they look
I bought a grade 8 lot from ebay that came in bags. I sorted them into Harbor Freight plastic bins and labeled them with a label maker. I hated running for bolts all the time and I figured that it wouldn't hurt to have them in stock.
There are sellers on Ebay that sell polished stainless bolt kits. For the price you could just buy a couple and use them as needed. I did one for my old 348
Not finding fault just think; what I'm going to do. I had a really nicely organized assortment of nuts, bolts & washers until the pack rats found them. It's hell carving an empire out of the wilderness.
Together apart together apart….. car is bolted to the frame. Updates in the next couple weeks should see it outside
Thought: my air cleaner has the “lid” on the bottom side so the wing it faces the ground. thinking I need a way to keep it on with out making it a pain in the ass to take off. thinking drill the stud for a cotter pin. It won’t let the wing nut loosen enough to do more than rattle and very easy to pull and replace with no tools to replace the filter. thoughts? sneak peek at progress. It’s got latches!
The Jalopy Journal
