OK, I guess I shouldn't have drawn attention to it since it's so "new." I just hardly ever see one any more.
Got a fair amount done today. Fixed both motor mounts too.These pics are before final tweaking and paint. The right front mount plate will have to be heated and "tweaked" so that it lies flat against the frame mount.
Started plumbing the exhaust today.Naturally the stock exh pipe hole in the crossmember is on the wrong side.I have a set of nice,clean headpipes from another car that used those same style headers,but the bends are pretty wrong.I reckon I will cut them up and weld them back together.I have one of those orange HF tubing benders.Anyone know a way to get them to bend exh tubing without flattening it out??
One trick is to fill the pipe with fine sand that is wet and then seal the pipe ends by welding them shut before the bending.
Thank you both.I had heard that too but never tried it.I reckon I will. Choptop40 I will take a couple of pics and post them so we can all see what happens.
Well,you can get a slight bend before it starts to buckle,maybe 10-15 degrees.Enough to be useful.I am going to try putting a load on the tube and heating it at the outside center of the bend point.I did get headpipes built and on the chassis.That will do for the moment.Tomorrow I will get to the radiator mount.
Hey, there, Late to the Party and fellow Veteran, I wonder if you could line me up with one of those t-shirts in your avatar? I'm just one state away. My cell is 210-414-4831. I'm retired so feel free to call anytime.
Thank you,grinding and paint help How is your shoebox coming? I got the radiator mounted today.That radiator looks HUGE on that car,but it was the smallest one I had.Since I will be using a "flip" front end with none of the stock internal structure it will not be in the way of anything.First pic is the lower radiator mounts.The rubber is glued into the mount now.
And this is a view of the radiator in place.Anyone who wishes to make fun of the radiator mount is free to do so.I have done it this was on several cars and it works fine,never any problem.
Looks fine to me as long as you have a rubber washer in the mounting bolt(s) somewhere for motor movement. Even with the solid motor mounts the top of that motor will move.
Yes,the radiator is rubber mounted.I got the whole thing finalized today.The only thing I had to change was to raise the top mount a bit for fan clearance.Tomorrow I will start working on a driveshaft.
It sure fits nicely in there.Just wondering,do you have to put an electric fan or is there enought clearance for the OEM fan?
I finished the radiator install up today.As you can see the mechanical fan clears ,but not by a lot! I was glad it did,I hate electric fans.I got the driveshaft about half done,will try and finish it up tomorrow.At that point I can wire a lawn chair to it and go for a test drive! Somewhere in here I am going to have to decide if I want to run a generator or alternator.I have a number of both.Not sure if I have a good regulator.
You did.I have a bunch of front sheet metal and I believe I can make one that doesn't look the part.I am getting to where service accessibility is pretty important and thought that might work for me.If I cant come up with one that looks right from the outside I wont do it. I have a not much good hood and two badly butchered front fenders I am going to use experiment on.
Guess I'll just sit back and watch. I know what you mean about bending over a fender. I chose to make it so I wouldn't have to do much of that. So far in 10 years is just Oil Changes and a fuel and air filter. Lucky me. Oh ya, my diver door selonoid went on the fritz but that don't really count. The Wizzard
I reckon a chev 6 and aluminum PG is a pretty maintenance free combo too,but IME ozymadius Murphy is always with us.Besides I really want to see if I can pull this off.
Rebuilt both carbs today and got the engine running properly,easier to do when you have coolant in it and can run t for awhile.I got the new rear U joint and have the driveshaft length established.Trouble is all the GM shafts I have are too short and ,due to the short tailshaft on the aluminum powerglide the Ford shaft is too short.Ended up cutting the front yoke off the ford shaft and trimming a gm shaft and yoke to come up with the right length.Trouble is anytime I ever did this before I used about a 6" or so internal sleeve turned to fit the shaft id snugly.Shaft id on both is 2 5\8".I cant find a piece of 2 3\4" heavy wall tubing or solid stock in this county.Reckon I will have to go hunting again tomorrow!
I got the driveshaft together today.I tack welded it,checked it for runout and put it in the car.All seems well,so I will pull it out and finish weld it tomorrow.One of the last big things to do on the chassis.Antti,that 51 frame has the sway bar on it.Let me know if you need it.
Driveshaft is in and done.Not sure how far out of balance it is,reckon I will find out.I finally remembered to make and install the top steering box mount! I had a stock one on the extra frame section,but I thought I would make a nice,stout one.There had been a couple of different steering box mounts on the frame before I got it,by the time I got them cut off and leveled out I had plenty of thickness to drill and tap for the mount bolts.
Test drive today! I mounted an old seat on the chassis,rigged a temp fuel tank,made a steering column support and drove the thing up and down the (private) dirt road I live on .Nothing really to report,no funny noises,brakes and steering work fine etc.I am reasonably pleased.Pulling out of the yard here.
The Jalopy Journal
