Pat Gr***** (Aeroform ind in Rome Ga. ) left with the 23T frame, hair pins and GMC radiator support, trans mount, inner fenders, hood hinges, chrome mounts for grille to blast clean and powder coat.. I told him I didn't need a SHOW finish.. ya know where they buff the pc till is looks like hand rubbed laquer.. I just need it baked hard and shiny black. I LOVE that stuff it seals the metal in where it does not need maintenance for a long long time. Grease and oil just hoses off the engine bay. WHEN and IF I do the clip job, I might do the whole frame over there on the GMC. He has a 18 foot deep oven that can do a whole car frame. I helped him wire in that big oven and made it work, and the second Smaller one there. He's a good friend, and why he is not on here I don't know.. he loves old cars too. Computer illiterate perhaps? I'm hunting a supplier for the window glasses.. that windshield needs company. The Hamb Glass man has not returned my pm.. I do have his 800 number tho.. Shipping from there to here SUCKS.. near $70.. on his ebay auction..
Of course I would not watch television while the truck is calling me. I sand blasted the passenger front fender, got it about 75% nickel finish when the sand pot locked up with water. (home made sand blaster made from old truck air-brake tank, welded to hand truck) I so want to add heaters to the bottom of it to "cook" the moisture off it.. As it is, I'll have to dig that "sand castle out" by hand. Both front fenders need lower corners, eyelid work.
or you could buy an air dryer for $11.00 at a hardware store like Lowe's that does the same thing except you put it in the line between the air compressor and the sand blaster and it collects the moisture for you. Just a thought
I have a 7 1/2 hp Vertical 80 gallon Air compressor, has valves to continuous run. Sand blaster has a water trap going into tank and around blow line. I had the timed purge valve on the bottom of the compressor tank on blowing. (mine is red) This has been the best investment for the shop in a long time. NO problems.. just runs and runs.. runs quiet too, you can talk on the phone with it running in the same room. I think it was Damp "free black jack" coal slag. My buddy bought a pallet at a auction and brought me a couple bags. I gotta dig it out of the blaster tank and put it into the powdercoat oven in the shop and dry it.. I am thinking right now I will buy a couple shower curtains and make a "big" blast cabinet to reuse the grit.. As it is now, it is all over the shop ramp. Years ago I was painting studebaker truck, I made me a pvc 3" vertical column and plumbed my compressor line through it.. everyone told me I was going to die a horrible death when it shattered, but my air was dry and it never did.. I am not real sure where it ended up.. A metal column would be much better. I made me a cab corner patch today on the helve.. needs some minor planishing..
This is another of them things it would be "cheaper" to buy than make.. except mine is steel. I still need to tig weld some nuts on the back side of plate #1, I think I'll make a tab to go up to the 5th bolt hole in the chevy bellhousing, and tig weld some 1/2 x 1/2 square bar around the ford transmission to back it up against the case.. center hole, I ended up plasma cutting it, then grinding it to fit the ford front bearing housing. Spacer for center will be made to fit around tig welded nuts.. and final overall length. THE cnc part is done.. that rascal can rest for a bit.. till I need the next series of holes drilled. Time to clean up the shop, yard, porch and Harley.. Last cook out of the year coming tonight.. and there is this big breasted friend of the wife's buyin the ribs.. (the lord did not blind me when I got married)
400 watt cartridge heater bought off ebay for $7-10.. was planned to use as plastic injection machine to make some "toys" for myself.. Clamped to square bar and inserted into "wet spot" there in the blaster.. I had to lay the blaster over on it's side to get to the G-spot. Steam is rising.. soon I will be blasting again.. Damp blast media has a fix. (new Hillbilly definition for "hot rod")
Still got water in the blast media.. I hung the tank I was saving to make a sand blaster with in the ceiling. Plumbed it with a valve on bottom and a take off on top.. ran the incoming air into the side.. (got a sand blaster borrowed) It seems to work.. yesterday it was raining here and I got water out of the glass blasting gun in the lil box.. Today, no water.. I also mounted the cheap HF water trap on the side of the blast cabinet. Back on track.. I need to make some dies to make that lip around the front fenders for that patch panel.. A pin gauge will get the profile real close.
Yeah, gotta love daylight savings time.. I forgot to reset my internal clock.. I was awake at 4:30am making coffee. Today.. got a pin gauge profile of front fender on the gmc, took it into the house, made a picture of it, took it and converted it to bmp, scaled it, converted it to dxf, took it into Lazycam (comes with Mach3 cnc software) and made a cnc file to "cut me" a front fender profile die for the Overhead helve. It'll spit that thing on the ancient bridgeport in ten minutes to try. Normally metal has a bit of "spring back" when it does not bend to the die, but this helve has such a "throw" it shapes it in one pass.. I can make a video if you like of the rear fender patches being made. (that's my lcd television used as a monitor) Tough to be losing clairity in my eyesight.. adapt and overcome.
Headers back off, old 882 heads off, 69 model 2.02's on. Got Snowflake intake sitting on it, but looking to make sure it all clears HEI and all that stuff. I remember them not fitting, but it dropped in the small block engine on the floor. Powdercoated MT valve covers, pulleys and brackets on front of motor.. makes that old alternator look like crap huh? Wanting to lift engine and pc the motor hoops.. but.. no hook in ceiling where it is parked.. I got a Ibeam in the middle of the room, none there. Shop is so crowded no room for that modded cherry picker either. More things going on here than this. Pat brought my 23T frame back nice black and shiny.. did all the underhood stuff.. hinges, rad support, inner fenders. Going to mount the Hamb plate there on a inner fender.
looking good so far! keep up the good work, you are making some pretty decent progress. When are you going to fire that badboy up?
I got the bellhousing off. THE rear transmission mount is powder coated by Pat. I need to complete that adapter to the mustang transmission and coat it. Not torqued the heads yet.. nor reset the intake.. I think.. it can stay together this time.. I'll probably shoot rustoleum onto them ugly motor mounts.. I got the front of the engine together then noticed the rusty water pump.. had to respray it. It'll come.. This engine looked pretty good inside considering I had it in my wrecker and did several hard pulls with it.. I slung the fan belt off once at 8 grand.. Valves on them 882 heads were a light chocolate brown.
It's all just some internet "talk Bull" till you see it slide into place and go THUNK... (sometimes them internet experts have never actually done what "they explain to you how to do", so much parrot talking) Had to use the 86 Mustang GT throw out bearing, the chevy would not slide up onto the tube, using a 11" dump truck clutch, pressure plate and flywheel. THE fork had to be Ground on the bench grinder to fit the larger throw out bearing, took off about 1/64th from each side. It fits, I am greasy and need to tig weld it up the rest of the way and powder coat it.. but am out of Argon, On Friday Afternoon..
Monday is a much better day. Adapter powder coat in gold, bell housing in red. Porous casting would not clean up completely.. needed a caustic bath. I dumped the parts washer out.. it was full of crud. Seemed the parts were getting greasier than cleaner. It is however hard as a coke bottle.
Clutch and Transmission in place, torqued the heads down, the snowflake intake, a demon carb I just traded for, HEI distributor timed in, Stuck the radiator in, gotta buy some big shank spark plugs (early closed chamber heads now) Got the driveshafts out of the corner and one just happens to fit. Plasma cut the new hole for the ford transmission. About two inches different than the chevy was.. now more holes to patch. THEN.. the rear brakes, (locked up) beat the heck out of me.. I hammered, beat, impact chiseled, beat, hammered for three hours.. one drum is toast but the drum was ground out anyways. Other one came off with just about ten minutes of aggravation.. The window regulators, out. Got them Autoloc electric window kits ready, laid in the drivers door. Bought the Autoloc window switches that a window crank slide on to make it look original, the timer box that one push brings it all the way down. Had to get into the shower with the orange-grease scrubber... Nasty.. Traded some harley parts for this 51 chevy chop top.. not real sure how I came out yet..
looks like there is a lot of bondo on that one, one test you can do is take a decent magnet and stick it on places you think there is bondo, if it doesnt stick its more than 1/8 of an inch thick.
(psst) it's gonna have more.. It's a "wal mart car.. the kind you can park there without sweating a whole lot" But fix one thing at a time, soon.. the ugly duckling is all grown up.
(snowflake GM intake problems) Typical project for me, got the intake down on fresh gaskets, set distributor in, got carburetor down tite, then broke a bolt off in the thermostat housing. Soaked it in Kroil oil for a couple of days hoping, but no.. I started to try to drill it in place but could not see, could not get a center. So it came back off and got "jigged" in the milling machine to drill square on. Tried to "reverse sharpen" a bit but I could not see well enough to get a good cutting edge (most times it will spin out as it drills). So, I chucked a regular bit in. Shot the hole, tapped it deeper than it was cause to top few threads looked like crap. There is one back hole that is 7/16ths in the head.. next to the distributor.. Also, the MT tall valve covers after the transmission mount is in would not come off easily, so I got to modify the firewall with a hammer a bit, needs paint again. That's kinda funny that they'd go on before the motor was leveled, but not now. Washed everything back down in the parts washer (one chip in the wrong place is also my luck) then the "water hose".. now drying. It's all good, the 100 amp alternator bolted right in place of the 55. It too is ugly. Needs tear down, brushes and PC.
Still moving forward, thou slow.. hand filed this lil keeper on the brake shaft today.. got it laid out so I can build the pusher rod for the master cylinder tomorrow. (that keeper has a flat on it to hold shaft from rotation or loss, pretty important, so I will loctite the bolt) Not made a fitting list to convert the single mc to the dual.. Thinking more than doing, I built a angle iron frame to sit the seats on.. now considering building tool trays to slide under it. I still want bomber style seats.. GOT a S10 bench seat thou to make it go..
This morning.. Picture of the Engine with K&N tall air filter, alternator powder coated black with red pulley, and the insides, the seat frame I had to fabricate to hold the (temporary) seat. (Yeah, that's high tech rustoleum hammertone paint). I bent up them two toolboxes after "seeing" the wasted space under the seat. Mirror stainless.. and I guess it would take about 20 years of bending metal in a break to learn how right. Tab A does not always fold before Tab B to insert around corner C... The shifter tube made from Stainless instrument tube.. have to sit in seat to bend second bend.. I think I have it about the right first bend direction. 4th should allow me a "free grab on the girlfriends crotch"... 5th.. well that's why all us old guys loved 4 speeds.. (and yes, I am still married..) I could guess at the shifter, but like other things I have guessed at lately it'd be wrong. QUESTION, how do you run a mechanical tach off a engine without a distributor tach drive? All I can come up with is a servo motor and a small cpu reading the tach pulse electronic signal... Or simpler would be a small roller and pick up off the fan belt speed.. or?? I love the old S&W tach and speedo.. Hate to pull them because I can't get them to work with newer engine.
Watch your speakers volume level, open headers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQT-aXHePqs&feature=youtu.be Fired the 350 up today, typical problems, Holley vane pump is running gas out of gatorade bottle. Water leak on thermostat housing still, no 13/16ths wrench to tighten plugs.. No spark plug loom, hot wired, no fan, brake lines. No.. No.. (lots left to do) But she fired up.. Motor mounts are tacked together and need welding and spraying with paint, Then time to start bolting sheetmetal around front end now thou. Ran the whole gatorade bottle of gas out in about a minute.. thirsty baby. Problems here? GOUT has kept me from putting on shoes for 3 months. Danged liver or kidneys from having "too much fun" while I was younger.
Exhaust is "going to go" right under the master cylinder. Will have to fabricate some kinda heat shield under the MC and over the exhaust. Once collectors are hooked up, it will be "tight". Hunting fittings to re-run brake lines from MC.. Pedal, Mount, bolted to frame and it works in middle of floorboard hole for the pedal. I need to cut a access hole to put fluid in the double MC now. I have a roll of brake line tubing, a double flaring tool and I am hunting fittings. My desire this first build of this truck, probably enough to "make it to the end". A Nostalgic old truck, Ibeam axle (they are all clipped) through the floor pedals, FUN and Safe driver. Lot of sheet metal to repair. I am going to call in some favors for the hand sanding I think. If None of the Harley riders show up, well I am done working on bikes for less than a hundred a hour. Anyone ever notice them "titties" on the GMC front bumper? Our big chested Redheaded lady friend did.
Eric, Can't find the paper pad with the numbers, but it is a WC T5 from a 84? (I think) 4 or V6 mustang. Had a LOW first gear 3.9?? and a tall 5th gear.. As opposed to the Chevy transmission in the IROC T5 I had it was a 1x final and a stump puller 1st. There is more knowledge on them T-5s here than anywhere I have seen. I'll read that tag and update post later. What is amazing is that a V6 or 4cyl t5 can be a world class trans and a v8 might not. This motor would explode the 14 spline trans.
BIG CHANGES. She go, but no WHOA.. I got enough personality scars thank you.. Butchered like a hog. Measured 15" back from centerline of Axle, welded a 6 foot leveling, measuring cross bar in to keep 57 frame square then cut 57 frame at 45 degree point long on bottom, tuliped flats upward, butchered a 74 GMC 1/2 ton truck, laid flat edge on top rail next to aframes, measured back 15 inches, cut and tuliped the frame rails to overlap 57 frame, 57 frame on outside since it is 1/2" wider, Measuring, cutting, grinding, wire brushing weld joints. 74 frame is leveled in both ways like truck was on stands, notched to fit and set in place with three chain falls. Welded up with a 3/32nd 7018 Low hydrogen rod, about 110 amps from a Hobart dc welder. It was refreshing to "weld" some Structural steel instead of a sheetmetal "car" frame. GOT good penetration, laid on the rows of dimes as good as a old man can. It's once again a truck, sitting kinda high, the frame kick down was 2 1/2" lower than "level" with top high point in 74 frame.. so I was hoping to drop it 2 1/2" but it looks like a stock 57 chevy truck with them huge tall (farmer brown) tires on it. THE rear axle is now coming next.. replacing the car 12 bolt with the truck 12 bolt to get the big brakes and hopefully a posi.. both tires rotate in same direction when you spin them. SOON, I'll post the axle, the home made master cylinder mount, and other left over things on hamb classifieds.. This thing is headed toward tow vehicle for a car trailer. Got plenty of power, now will have plenty of brakes and suspension.
The Jalopy Journal
