Projects Late 60's Vintage Modified

Too Kool Shaun, thanks for taking the time!

 

Good stuff Shaun. Now we just need some sunshine.

 

Definately looking better! Sorry the pics look so old... They've been looked at/handled alot, and the scanner lost alot of the quality too...

Forgot my camera tonight, but I got the transmission cover pretty much done, and have been getting in a ton of parts, hopefully this weekend I'll be able to do my exhaust.

 

Open drive transmission behind flathead? Yep. '49-'52 Ford F-1 pickup.

 

Yup, that's the plan! Going to have some silver "trim" in areas as well... Kinda hard to notice in the pictures, but it was around the windows and such (actually the whole frame/roll cage were painted silver originally).

 

Silver ? Shawn check some of the new chrome rattle can paint. I found a picture. looks like your car,

 

Is it possible this could be Shaun's car? I saw the 2?? on the door. No sissy bar = added later .....

 

I doubt this was Shaun's car as his body was in a LOT better shape than the one in the pic.

 

Sorry Bill, don't think my car is in those photos... Older vintage then my car...

Camera didn't seem to want to work today, so I'll have to take some pictures tomorrow of this weekends progress...

 

This weekend was overall pretty productive, though the pictures don't show it much...

I ordered up a pre-bent kit for 1-3/4" exhaust tubing, a pair of glasspacks, and then picked up a length of straight pipe to build my exhaust. I used a plasma cutter on some think plate steel I had to make the flanges, and welded the pipe to that.

I thought it was going to take quite a while, but I got most of it done in one day...

All said and done though, I got an all new, all made in the USA, custom exhaust for a little under $150... Can't beat that!

It's kinda hard to see in the photos, but they turn out right in front of the rear wheels (just like how the original builder had them back in the day).. At idle it's pretty quiet- you can almost hear the rotor inside the distributor more then the exhaust, but when you get on it, well, you can still tell it's a race car....



This was the hardest place to get around (and not interfere with the pitman arm):



Started making the pieces to go underneath where the side bar braces connect to the frame... Going to pop rivet them in, so I've been using some clekos to hold them in place:



Also went and dragged out my gauge cluster I bought over the summer for $3 at a tractor swap meet... I think the gauges are pretty cool looking. There was a non-matching amp meter in the empty hole (which is now missing for some reason?) but I was planning on welding a piece into that hole, and then mounting all of my switches for the lights, turn signals, wiper, etc. I think it'll look pretty clean that way.

 

Good job ,,, hmm pressure gauge goes only to 30

 

Good observation there! Hadn't even really noticed that before you said something.... Wonder if the (kinda) tired flathead would get high above 30 PSI?

 

It better or be changing to 50-50 W ,It was prolly used in a oil dipper bolts to rod cap,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 53 Chevy or back farther.30 pounds went to the mains and valve train .The rods picked up on the bottom .

 

Just thought I'd give an update for Easter...

Finally got my gas tank yesterday (out of a 50-55 VW Bug), and it was in real good shape, so I started making my brackets to old it.

I cut the original ones off a while ago, but thankfully I managed to keep them. They were in real bad shape, but they were good patterns to at least give me some ideas on how to create the brackets. So it ended up like this... (Kinda seemed like I was going backwards when I had to prime stuff again!)



As you can see I also got a chance to paint the rear bumper....



Fits in there good! That's the original VW cap that was on the car when I got it, it cleaned up pretty good.... Oughta make a few people wonder at cars shows eh??



I also painted the nerf bars and the front bumper silver, so I had to see what things would look like with that done. I think with the red and black body, along with silver numbers and trim will look pretty sharp... Just couldn't paint the entire frame silver like they did back in the day, so I think this was a good compromise.

Also managed to get my Model A taillights mounted the other day... I think they look alright in there:

 

The lights look great Shaun! I found an interesting picture of an interior and transmission .also I'm sending you a pic of a Radio Flyer Wheelbarrow. Some day you will do a project and want to dish the firewall and a little wheelbarrow will fit the bill.

 

Shaun, I found this really cool thread info on old Chevy 6s. Info /need to know. Who knows your next project may be a Chevy 6 .Go figure they have been around and raced for many years, successfully. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=8782564#post8782564 A thing I found most interesting was their 30psi oiling dipper system was very good. The old 216 Chevy 6 engine became super reliable when a set of aluminum pistons(stockers are cast iron) is installed and a set of rods with insert bearings for easy maintenance .Back in the day late 50s -60s, I remember a old guy Pappy Zent , ran a garage that serviced the city's garbage trucks. His sons raced. Pappy built race engines from Chevy garbage trucks. They ran well. The business latter evolved into National-Serve-All. Developed by the youngest son. Garbage ,dumpsters, those big 60 foot trash boxes. The youngest son ran a car in ARCA for a while. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=8782564#post8782564

 

Nice oval window!

 

Shawn has a 5 window, Which one are you referring to?

 

Haha, why thank you!

Thanks Bill for that picture and the different links... That shifter pictured it probably how I'll have to end up bending mine so its gives a reference. Have to keep that in mind about Chevy 6's... I have a truck with a 250, my Dad has a truck with a 250, a race car with a 250, and a spare 292, plus a ton of parts for 250/292's we got from a family friend

 

Hi! Shaun , got sun , it s warming up !

 

Anyone know where to get some parts for this style brake set-up? Think I managed to find some wheel cylinder rebuild kits, but I need to find another spreader bar for the other side, and need to find a pair of emergency brake cables- not having any luck finding those.

 

Shaun, It seems to me you need to know exactly model, approximate year , ask on Ford Barn Forum, are those Ford F1 truck, 40 ford , 48 ford, F100 ? You need only one? are right and left different? May find a backing plate with all the hardware attached. Tell me and I will search. Is there not a ''Break Materials Store/Shop'' in your area? Hmm ! Must be a ''racer's choice'' deal on using nails as cotter/hair pins ?. PB cables should be available ,and pretty much general as a parts. I recall some were one cable that hooked to both rear wheels , with a U shaped gimmick and an adjuster rod in the middle....

 

Shaun go to Martin's build http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=621405&page=39 he is installing a 37 Lincoln dash in his 32 coupe. I learned that Martin is the brother of Henrik Lundquist the goalie of the NY Rangers, and Martin's avatar is him in his former funny car.
Did you not wake up this morning thinking this was another opportunity to mess up some bad guy's day? I did. eputy United States Marshal Raylan Givens

 

Kick Ass thread! Keep working so I can keep reading!

 

Latest project has been tackling the windshield....

Didn't want to deal with finding all the brackets, hinges, etc. to make it swing out, so I decided to go ahead and mount it solid. Ended up using nutserts for the first time, worked out pretty well. Couple of them I had to re-do, but overall I'm pretty happy with it.

There were factory holes on the inside of the windshield lip along the bottom, so I just marked where they landed on the frame, drilled them out and put the nutserts in: (don't mind the dirty, cracked/broken glass... Got a new piece cut, just using this for mockup)



Also ended up putting the windshield wiper in, worked out pretty good. I ended up welding the stock hole for the windshield tonight, but didn't have time to do it when I took the pictures...

You can see the painted nerf bars/bumpers, painted headlights, the gas tank, and the Model A style taillights a little better now...











Digging through some parts I found these the other day, and figured I'd share.

The oil gauge on the left was the original one in the car... It broke when I was trying to take it out of the car, but I assume it was junk anyways. About 2 or 3 weeks later, I was sifting through a box of misc. parts at a local flea market, and found an exact NOS gauge, and bought it for a $1. Obviously not fancy, but a pretty weird coincidence huh??

Anybody know who made these gauges?? It's only marked "Made in the USA" on the back, and unfortunately the NOS one was missing most of the box... Would like to find a matching water temperature one, they built the gauge "cluster" to have 2, but it only had this one in it when I got it...

 

Looking good Shaun!

 

Man that thing looks just great Shaun!!! You are pulling off the streetable part perfectly.

PS....if you happen to find a water temp gauge with a similar needle sweep as that oil press gauge, you wont be the first person to ever so carefully uncrimp the matching chrome bezel from the backside and carefully recrimp it on the new gauge.

 

Kind of been thinking alot lately about taking out the flatty, and dropping a SBC in there...

My 8BA is smoking quite a bit now (mostly out of one cylinder- which has real low compression), and should really be bore out/completely rebuilt... Couple pistons have small chips out of them (probably from broken rings), there's almost no cross-hatching left, a ridge at the top of all cylinder, and some scoring on a couple of the cylinder walls...

Have a lead on a pair of supposedly decent 283's that the guy only wants $400 for the pair, both are missing the distributors but that's no big deal. Already have an original Hurst motor mount, would just need the adapter bellhousing along with the needed clutch/pressure plate/flywheel set-up.

I know the flatty will look alot better in there, but I really want to be able to drive this thing and not worry about overheating it etc. seeing how I've got 4.86 gears in the rear.... Wouldn't have to worry about that with a SBC.

Also my car MAY have actually had an OHV at some point- there were 6 or 7 old valve cover hold down handles/bolts inside the car... Seems a pretty funny place for those, unless someone threw them in there when pulling a motor.

Not to mention I bought a project that is all set-up for a flathead, and wouldn't have to worry about it smoking a little when its on the track playing....

 

Hasn't been a ton of (visible) progress, but I did manage to get the rear brakes rebuilt. Hopefully will get the brakes switched over this weekend, and then make up my parking brake set-up.



Oh... And I picked this little guy up (along with his twin brother):



Looks real clean under the valve covers (going to sandblast and paint those later). Original motor out of a guy's '62 Impala that he dropped a 327 in. Guy seemed pretty honest, and said that it ran good and didn't smoke, he just had a built 327 sitting on a stand. Figure this 283 will scoot this old heap around pretty good- and probably handle the higer RPM's of the rearend a little better then the flathead.

Got a Wilcap adapter coming, along with all the clutch/flywheel/pressure plate, etc. coming to bolt it up to the early Ford... Think the last thing I'll have to deal with is the carb.

What do you guys think... Keep the Rochester 2 barrel, or go for something else? Budget is tight right now, but I'm not really a fan of electric chokes, like the Rochester has on it. Pretty grody on the outside, but the inside is actually really clean. Trying to get half-way decent MPG on this thing, since it only has a 10~11 gallon fuel tank (not that I'm planning on going TOO far)...

 

Haha, not too worried about winning races! Just want something for a decent cruiser... Certainly will lug it around as good as the old flathead would have.

Plus now it won't take as much to get the car back running and driving!