I am on my annual road trip from Austin to the West Coast Cruisin Nationals(Paso/Santa Maria) and rollin in my newly redone '51 Merc. It's the first custom I ever put together about 18 years ago and it's been on hiatus for about the last 9 years after being in service for about 10 years. Well Gary Howard freshen her up for me and did a typical outstanding job when it comes to body and paint. Also did some updated suspension work in the rear incl bags and a new rear end. Well, I had a week to get the bugs out before taking off and got it all together and tightened up before leaving Sunday morning. Sunday was flawless, doing about 660 miles from Austin to Las Cruces NM. Weather was great. Car ran cool. Good times....Got up early Mon morn and left Las Cruces, 50 degrees outside heading toward Palm Springs.....well by the time I got to Tucson for lunch and gassed up, by 1pm in the Arizona desert, it was approaching about 110......Car was still running pretty cool considering it all, but in spite of that, that's when the problems started w/ the fuel system and the dreaded Vapor Lock. I was able to make it to Eloy, Ariz and found a dollar store and grabbed some wooden clothes pins, but the heat was still too much. Even though I was running an electric fuel pump, the fuel was still boiling. Thought maybe the pump was going bad since it had sat around on the car for so long not being in operation and found a Napa in Eloy and replaced the fuel pump. By the time I was done replacing the pump and got back on the road, the engine compartment had cooled down enough and everything seemed ok, until about 30 minute later while back on the hwy.......things heated up again and the problem returned. Found myself in some noname town at the one RV park w/ a store about an hour out of Phoenix. Well after talking to Reggie back home, talking about different solution, he found me Steve(Elpolacko)'s number in Phoenix. I hobbled into Phoenix after about 5 hours of stopping and starting and heating up and cooling down and pulled into Industrial Chassis about 9pm to fine Steve and Gary waiting for me to tear into the fuel delivery system and come up w/ a solution. You see it get's hot in Texas, but nothing like I experienced in the desert the last couple of day. Well Steve and Gary decide we are going to install a return system for my fuel to keep it from getting cooked while waiting it's turn to head into the multi carb setup. It's after 10pm at night.....no stores open, but who needs them when you can make/manufacture everything you need. These two cats at IC machined, bent, flared, ran, reduced and checked and double checked that everything was working as designed. At 12:30 am I drove out of the shop w/ a fuel delivery system that would not fail no matter how hot it got in that engine compartment.....and it certainly got tested yesterday in Palm Desert driving around in the day time being over 110 degrees outside in stop and go traffic. No more vapor lock !!! Anyone having these problems, should certainly consider the fuel return setup if your car doesn't have it. I just wanted to say thanks to Steve and Gary at Industrial Chassis. We had a great time bullshittin' while getting things back on track. Their work is flawless and super clean and their shop is incredible. Steve has every tool known to mankind and it was certainly impressive watching those two work their magic. Thanks again guys. I am now in cool Santa Barbara enjoying not being in the desert. Rulers !!!
Atta Boyz! Now Steve, where are the pics? We want the tech documentary. Surely you had time to snap a few pics, maybe a little HD video, while you watched these fine craftsmen weave their web. Right? And you can swill a couple of beers for us while you're out West, too!
Too Cool!!!!! This is what the Hamb is all about. Helping each other. Cudos to Steve. Great job guys. Would love to see what was done on the return system Rusty
Steve played guardian angel when I tore a sweet-ass hole in my F100's radiator on the return leg from the Roundup... definitely a phone # to keep handy!
Great story - Steve seems like a great guy and that twin-turbo truck of his is absolutely killer! Malcolm
Yeah seems all the stuff Ive read by him is knowledgable. ElJefe, post a pic of your Merc. Is it the really straight 4 dr on the other post? That thing is real nice looking.
If you ever have to trust a Polack on a Triumph steve is yer man! He knows his way around a fab shop as well.
Yep, Steve is a little bit of ALRIGHT. ...but dude, you need to feed those dogs, they look like they're starvin'.....ha
Cool, I'll look for your car when I am at the show and maybe check out what they did. Glad to hear it worked out and you made it.
Steve is doing a '37 Ford truck frame for me now, can't wait to see the finished product, I know it'll be artwork. I don't know if he's ever posted pics of the engine in the TT unibody, but let me tell you, it stops you in your tracks and you can't think of anything to say. The plumbing couldn't be nicer, and he told me it was the first turbo system he had ever done. Talent like that is rare. And on his last name, Szymanski, it's pronounced "sim-an-sky" accent on the second syllable. Those Polish names can be a bit tricky, but being half Polish, I've got a decent handle on them. Trivia: In Polish, the suffix "ski" means "son", so any name you see with ski at the end is the equivalent of a more common name with son at the end, like Johnson or Ericson. Szyman is Polish for Simon, so Szymanski literally means "Son of Simon". -KK
Did`G-man show his flamed teeth to you or his special tatoo? In any event these guys are true rulers.
other miracles Steve has done include: Curing Ham Healing a Dog shaking exactly three aspirins out of an aspirin bottle he also brewed a mead drink called SickDog and He is really good on the computer too.
I'll post some pics and do a full tech post when I return and get if front of a computer. All I have is a phone out her
I'll start a thread on it in the next coupla days. Nothing much to look at now but a bare cab, but I do have a few "before I took it apart with a plasma cutter" shots. Next week I begin replacing the rotty cab metal, just got a nice care package of tin in from Dick Spadaro. -KK
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