Projects 1934 3 window HighBoy Build Begins

This frame was so overbuilt, that it looked industrial. Rex and I discussed replacing the x member with a tube section, but decided it was a waste of both time and money. IE: Add some big oval holes and it will be just fine. It was still a pretty big job to lay them out and then do the "demo" work on all of the ovals. None the less, they are complete and the master cylinder added as well. Thank you Rex. Now time to "c" notch the rear axle.
regards,
George

ps: UPS is dropping off the wheels this morning.

 

Love the 33-34 fords , I have a33 5 W .Neat build up you are doing .

 

Rex and some help ( smile) put the body back on today to see what she looks like with her new prom shoes? ....you make the call?
Regards,
George

 

George, glad you got your coupe. That was an easier drive, wasn't it?

It looks bitchin already, I'll be following along.

Donny

 

Hey Donny,
an hour and 20 min....whewie. smile.
Trust you are well...Nice to hear from you,
George

 

George,
Our mutual friend, Dan Shady, told me about this build. I'm subscribed. Can't wait to see how this coupe comes out.

Bob Mead

 

the front frame horns are now a 1 1/2" higher than stock the frame area in the front has been straightened out and the sharp kink by the a pillar in the frame has been re worked here is a pic of a stock frame.

 

Nice build, that is going to have a nice stance. Windowing the X member really helps the function and the look.

 

Looks great and I like the frame modifications, especially the holes in the x member.

 

Thanks guys for answering my questions...this thread is a real inspiration. Please keep those updates coming!
Sam

 

Bob,
And such a great friend Dan is! smile. Thank you for the note. Also, thank you so much for the time you have afforded Daniel with his speedster project. Please accept my feedback that your roadster makes me JEALOUS! What an awesome, AWESOME car you have.
Warm Regards,
George

 

Spent the afternoon playing in the shop. Chased each thread with a tap for the 20 each ARP studs before applying anti-seize and running them in with an Allen head on a ratchet. I removed the sand core plugs ( freeze plugs) lubricated the o-rings with silicone and put them back in. I have ordered the last plug that goes in the block....an 1/8" pipe plus 2 each drain babcocks for each side of the block. (from McMaster-Carr ) and will add them upon receipt. There isn't much else I can do on the engine until the heads show up from R and R speed shop. I did get my sample ram tube from Hilborn this week and will need to use slip adapters to allow a straight tube for my filters instead of the bolt on version.

While I was in the wrench mode, I removed each bolt from the oil pump and added lock-tite before re installing!

I have spent more time than you can imaging sanding the cast aluminum wire loom covers. I started at 120 grit and stepped to 180, 220 , 320 , 400, 600,800,1000 and finally 1500 before polishing on my buffing wheel. I will add pictures tomorrow.

Merry Christmas,
George

 

Ok, Sanding / Polishing is finished and it is time to paint the loom covers. I masked off the large polished surfaces and then shot the entire rib section with primer. Then I cleaned the primer off the top of the ribs with thinner. I then painted the whole top with black paint to match the engine (low gloss black). Then FINALLY ...time to remove the paint on the ribs AGAIN, Finished!

 

Nice details. Great car!

 

A little progress this week...please find the below pictures of the front shock mounts added by Custom Auto's "Fred" and the Deck lid separated inner / outer skins for the up coming louver lay out and punching by Rex. A few items were ordered: A roof insert from Waldens,...a Hemi to 700R4 tranny adapter from Hot Heads + a few odds and ends. I met with Neal at Parker Transmission and we worked on the details for the build of the 700R4. Most had to do with how the coupe will be driven to match up with the build specs for HP and Torque with is anticipated to be 375 HP and 450 ft lbs. Fred got the great task of removing tar from sheet metal as well. The progress was slow as the media blaster was closed this week and the engine mount with tranny cross member could not be done without the adapter we ordered after the need arose. oops. I asked Dan Shady if he has a model "A" head light bar to help with the build as he might have one? I need a bad one for Rex to cut off the headlight mounts to weld to the shock mounts at the lower radiator area. We have decided on 34 commercial lights . LOW and WIDE. smile.
regards,
george

 

I thought I had lost this picture of the before frame rail 1.5 inch massage. The straight edge shows where the frame is going as the final straight "frame" is pictured in a previous post. Sorry to not have put this up earlier to show the before.
regards,
George

 

Super nice quality and fast to boot. Nice build!

 

Well,...this isn't much progress, but still fun to share. The satin spinners came in as well as the 34 commercial headlights. I found a Model A headlight bar at the "special " salvage yard this morning. ($53 including tax) I hate that it is a good one that we will cut up. Oh Well! I put it in the blast cabinet to get the small amount of rust off as well as all paint on the forged end pieces with sockets. I will drive them up to Custom Auto Monday morning so that the headlight mounts can be fabricated from the head light bar.
regards,
George

 

Nothing happening at Custom Auto this week as the next step is to media blast the body. This will be done at Blast Tech in Denver. It looks like a full load will be on its way tomorrow. fingers crossed!

I would like to share the FIRST PROTOTYPE for my filter housing bases from Bill Lathrop at OTB Gear. Bill has been absolutely awesome in helping me get his induction filter bases modified to fit my Hilborn Ram Tube stacks. Actually not modified, but custom machined from scratch!

The picture of the stack below has a 4 bolt 90 degree flange at the bottom . This is what normally goes on the early Hemi set up from Hilborn. This will be replaced with a "slip on tube" ( 2 3/16 diameter) with slip on adapters that bolt on the injector/ intake casting. Using this set up will allow the OTB custom base shown below to slip up the tube. You can see that the flare will nest into the base and be captured by the tri-star clamp with 3 screws. The center threaded hole will house the threaded rod to add the finned aluminum cap which will house/ hold or clamp the filter element. Bill will be sending this new set up to me (a set of eight )over the next few weeks. I will update a completed stack picture at that time. This is way cool as no one else has these...YET! smile. I can not say enough kind words about Bill and his marvelous spirit.
regards,
George
Here is the link to the set up. Obviously just these filters and caps on the new bases. smile!
http://www.otbgear.com/50mm-Fuel-Induction-Air-Cleaners-P149.aspx

 

No new pictures to share today....but a really good story about "Edris" @ Hilborn Fuel Injection. My Early Hemi EFI set up arrived with 8 inch steel ram tubes. They were not to be shipped as I did not want them. I had requested 12 inch aluminum slip in stacks to enable the custom bases from Bill at OTB Gear to be utilized. The Hilborn Rep advised me that the tubes I requested are no longer available. I tried a few stocking distributors for existing stock and got no where. Mike ( Alkydigger) suggested I call Hilborn to speak with Edris. Ok, will do, thanks. I explained to Edris why I needed the aluminum slip ins' and that I could deviate from the original tube specification to allow a substitute as the extra horse power or maybe even a loss of horse power wasn't important to me. She took down my contact information and promised to try to resolve the issue. WOW is all I can say. Edris phoned the aluminum tubing mill and worked the issue to find a slightly thicker wall with the same 2.250 O.D. that was needed for the pinch clamps. The original spec. was for an I.D. of 2.187 and now my tubes will have an I.D. of 2.150. Can you say who cares? Yippie...It will not make a bit of difference accept to make the ram tubes a little more robust for my application. Thank you to Hilborn for having a can do employee that made the effort to solve a customers request. I called Edris to thank her profusely this afternoon and let her know how appreciative I am for her wonderful attitude. She shared with me that they would add it back to their offering and that they believed there would be no impact to performance. Maybe a little better on the top end.

I have to admit I have always wanted an 8 stack for its cool looks and that great customer service has made this an excellent experience.

Regards,
George




Here is the link to the set up. Obviously just these filters and caps on the new bases. smile!
http://www.otbgear.com/50mm-Fuel-Induction-Air-Cleaners-P149.aspx[/QUOTE]

 

always heard Hilborn was a stand-up company,good to hear.keep-on keepin-on

 

I am so jazzed that OTB's Bill Latham sent the below picture tonight. He was able to get one of the prototypes polished and put together. All we need now is a set of tubes from Edris at Hilborn. This piece of bling is so exciting because the slip on filters were just not going to do it for me.
THANK YOU BILL!
Regards,
George

quote "I will update a completed stack picture at that time. This is way cool as no one else has these...YET! smile. I can not say enough kind words about Bill and his marvelous spirit.
regards,
George
Here is the link to the set up. Obviously just these filters and caps on the new bases. smile!
http://www.otbgear.com/50mm-Fuel-Induction-Air-Cleaners-P149.aspx[/QUOTE]

 

The project is still in "Wait Mode" as the sheet metal is in Denver at Blast Tech and they have been digging out from their holiday backlog. Gary thinks it will be ready for pick up Tuesday or Wednesday. My Winters quick change rear end has been a month since ordering and that is about normal. It may take a little longer as the holidays also backed them up a bit. I did get my "triple nickle" 1955 331 heads in Friday night from the speed shop and have spent today cleaning up casting knit lines, running taps through all the threaded holes and masking / painting them. I put the head for cylinder number one on, as I have to figure out what size push rods I need? I went ahead and put a couple of bolts in the EFI unit and then sat a stack on it for fun. I am expecting real stacks in the next couple of weeks. Neal at Parker transmission has ordered my heavy duty parts for the 700r4 build and I will get him to take some pictures of the differences in stock vs upgraded parts.
Click on the first picture a couple of times to enlarge the details of the rocker arms. These are standard arms that have been machined to add the adjusters. If I had to do it over again, i would leave the rockers alone and just use adjustable rods.( easier!)
regards,
george

 

Since your putting that big lump in there I take it you will not use side panels and inner splash aprons. Nice mods to the frame. Is that the plan or are you going to modify or fab something?

 

Currently....No hood sides or splash aprons!. I will not know if the stacks with filters will make it through the hood until mock up. If the ram tubes start looking like a giraffe? .....I'll have to cut them back so the filters will show without hood sides for sure. Anyway, just makes no sense trying to hide the big lump.

 

Mark,
I do not know whom Rex ordered the wood kit from. I do know that he expressed concern over the ability to get it timely.
Regards,
George

 

Following your build and it is looking nice. Smith Brothers adjustable pushrods are really nice and take a little longer to adjust than adjustable rocker arms not that you have to do it very often. If you ever have to lean over fenders to adjust your valves you would want the modified rocker arms. It has been said that there is not enough meat to do the mod that you had done to your rocker arms but I have also heard of people that are running them and never had a problem.

I have attached a couple of pictures of a friend of mines 392 with the Hilborn straight up fuel injection. He did not like the stamped steel stacks either so he ordered some Kinsler stacks and had the bases made to press the stacks in.

 

Thank you Bobby Socks! I notice that your friend has plugged the vacuum source ports by each injector, so he must be running a manual tranny. I think I will have to use the 8 hose vacuum gathering set up. The picture you posted above with the stainless plugs in the ports is very clean. sigh. I LIKE IT!

I have some good news to report on push rods. Guy and Pete dropped over tonight to play get the push rod length game figured out. Guy was armed with a BIG handful of different Hemi push rods. The factory 392 push rods with 1/4 inch ends are perfect without any need to order custom length rods. Can you say happy? Now I just need to order a set of copies from Smith Brothers or find a good used set from here on the HAMB. smile. We loaded up an exhaust as well as intake rod before tightening up the rocker/ head bolts without torque down. Pete backed off the adjusters until the push rods were just loose and then went back the other way 1 and a 1/4 turns to pre-load the lifters. We then disassembled an adjuster not being used for the trial and compared how much of the threads were protruding to insure the oil slot was lined up with the oil hole location in the rocker arm. Houston, we no longer have a problem. Now I just need to get a set of push rods and put the top end together. We had a nice evening after the 10 min. exercise in push rods. We sat in chairs around the engine stand and shot the breeze. If you want a good laugh, we could come up with 17 out of 23 NSRA safety inspections. We looked up the balance of them on my I Phone and decided life was too short and what we really wanted to do was show Guy the ZZ TOP " I gotz to get paid" video. I have my phone "blue tooth synced" to my shop amplifier and we ended the night with a good WOW. grin...
regards,
George