Projects '63 Falcon, and '39 Chev gassers

Thanks Chuckles! Your '62 build inspired me to do this car!

 

Got talked into uncapping for the "Best Pipes" competition at the local trade school show today! I was pleased to win when I saw this great looking hand built trophy one of the guys made!
Thanks for the help uncapping "fordman1"! Met several great HAMB guys at the show today!

 

Uncorked this thing sounds awesome. Looking forward to Toutle!

 

Me too! It's such a great event every year!

 

Went over to the local sheet metal shop today, and had him bend me up a fan shroud for the Falcon. He does nice work, and at $20 I sure can't complain. I mounted it, and marked out the center hole; then cut it out and drilled the 4 mounting holes for the fan, and 4 more for the shroud to radiator.

Just 3/8" clearance now with the shroud added, but should be enough with solid mounts!

 

The shroud didn't work out. Ran even hotter, so removed it, and also did some reworking on the auxiliary coolers I had in front of the radiator. I relocated them horizontally below the radiator, and that did the trick! Runs about 175-180 without the shroud, and even stuck in traffic I don't get barely over 200 degrees.
Had another setback today while getting ready for the Billetproof drags this Sunday! Took it over to top off with fuel, and it tossed the gilmer belt. The chrome bracket cracked at the holes, and lost tension. It started screeching when it broke, as the alternator fan touched the bracket and made a horrible noise!
I limped home after putting some washers around the cracks and snugging it down. Then took it all apart and saw there's less than 1/8" of metal around the mounting holes! Piss poor design, so I welded 3/8" washers to both sides of the bracket to give it more surface strength. Got it all back together, and ready to load on the trailer in the morning!
Hope the weather holds out, and we don't get rained out up there! They're talking a.m. sprinkles Sunday, and we might either start late, or get a rain out! That would be a big pain after a 2 hr. drive there, and an overnight stay Saturday; not to mention the guys who are coming from way out of town!

 

So where are these drags this weekend you speak of? I'm in seattle and am not aware of anything up here.

 

Riverdale Racepark. 3 mi. East of Toutle, Wa. on Spirit Lake Hwy. Take the Castle Rock exit. You wont regret going! It's a lot of fun racing, at a small outlaw track!
Check this link:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=815837&highlight=eruption+drags

 

Thanks Chuck!

 

A key to making a shroud work is that the fan has to be inside the shroud about 1/2 the thickness of the fan blades.

 

True, but this is an electric fan. An electric fan has it's own shroud/guard, so it's already halfway inside that, and is mounted on the surface of a shroud, not inside the shroud.
The problem with my situation is clearance. I needed more clearance to allow the air at the corners to make a smooth transition, and I don't have that. It works better without a shroud in my case.

 

Oh yeah!!!!!

 

Just got in from the Billetproof Drags at Toutle. Riverdale Raceway is a great venue, although I'll be spending days cleaning up all the Mt St Helens ash from my Falcon, and my '69 Burb tow vehicle!
Had a lot of fun, and it didn't rain until about 1:00 om today, and we were loading anyway, so no biggie. Made 8-10 passes Sat., but only 3-4 today. The engine is running way lean from the spark plugs I looked at, and I was afraid I might burn a piston if I kept up the runs. I had no luck getting the Hurst slicks to hook up. I don't have a line lock, but I did big smoky 60' burnouts, and after staging I was still spinning my tires constantly through 1st, 2nd, and part of 3rd! Tried all sorts of different shift points, and tire pressures, but still the 464 Chevy just over powers the tires. Even bogging it off the line with a 1500 rpm launch, and rolling into the throttle simply broke the tires loose later. Lots of fun to pedal it down the 1/8 mile, shifting gears, but not conducive to good ET's or 60' times! I was consistently around low 9 sec. ET and 2 sec. 60 ft. times.
Last year my Austin with it's little 327 ran low 7 sec. ET and had 1.5 sec 60 ft. times. The Falcon feels much faster on the street, but the times sure show it needs some real wrinkle walls, or drag radials to hook it up, and get better times.
I'll find another pair of 9"-10" rims and put my Goodyear Eagle 11.5x29.5x15 slicks on them. Then take it back out and see how it hooks up. I love the looks and ride with the Hurst for the street, so I'll use them for street driving.

 

Thanks for the performance update.

You'll get it hooked!

 

Thanks! I sure hope so! Smoky runs are fun, but I really want to get it to hook, so I can see how it really does!

 

Man that thing is awesome, I hope to have the old Dart up to par here soon, I owe you a lot of thanks for all your good advice you have giving me so far.. Keep up the good fight with the falcon, love it!

 

Thanks! I love your Dart, and am enjoying your progress thread! Glad some of my input could help you!

 

Man oh man, that thing is badazz. You do some great work for sure.......

 

Thanks pug man!

 

Got tired of looking at the centers of my ET spokes. The previous owner had made a decent attempt at trying to take the as cast gray finish off, but couldn't get it all off down around the hubs and lug nut area, so they always looked dirty there. So today I pulled all 4 wheels off and sanded the centers. Then cleaned them good with brake cleaner and let them sit while I adjusted the front brakes. Then I masked off the outer rims and gave them several coats of VHT graphite colored wheel paint.
I like the dark centers much better than what was there. I saw Rocky had done this with his spokes when he brought the Evil Twin FED to Riverdale last month, and it looked great, so figured I'd copy his.

 

Turned out great!


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Thanks! Cheap upgrade!

 

Looks awesome! Great job.

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Thanks much!

 

I second the atta' boy on the paint job on the wheels, Big Block....

 

Thanks BOOM!

 

Got my wipers working. Gave up on the original two speed wiper motor. Not sure if it was just junk, or what, but couldn't get it to budge. I got a two speed wiper motor and switch assembly from a '73 F150 truck, and after swapping into the '63 bracket, and replacing the '63 arm on the '73 motor, I got it installed.
Went to the parts store and picked up the Trico Classic wiper blades, so I could get rid of the fugly black blades the previous owner had put on. It's all working great now, and I have wipers in case I get caught out in the rain. I plan to drive the Falcon more all year round than I do the Austin gasser, so wipers are a must.

 

Still waiting on videos of it gittin it!

 

I may be doing a video soon. I had troubles at Billetproof trying to get it hooked up. It spun the tires the whole 1/8th mile. I recently found an old pair of Centerline 10"x15" wheels, and had the old Goodyear Eagle 10.5"x15" wrinkle walls I ran on my BBC Camaro mounted on the rims.
So if I do some "testing" at one of the local industrial areas in the evening, I may take a buddy along and get some video, so I can see how it launches with some sticky tires under it.

 

Gee why in the world would you need wipers in OreeGone???