I am going to go through the entire brake system. I have had brake failure before, and I will not chance it. When I was in high school., I worked at a Mobil gas station, full serve. It was summer and I went in @ 6 am when the station opened. Had a 1970 LeMans Sport (damn I wish I still had that car!). I went whipping into the parking lot, hit the brakes, the pedal went to the floor and the big old front grill of the car ended up in the owners office. He was sitting in there drinking coffee, and needless to say, he was a bit surprised. He was a hotrodder, and didn't get too pissed. He came out asking WTH happened. We checked out the damage to the building and the car, and the car was just fine, a few scratches on the bumper/grill but nothing too bad. He was leasing the building, so he said "pull that car into the bay and fix the 'effing brakes! And don't tell ANYONE what happened or that you ran through the building!!". He helped me go all the way through the brake system, and called the landlord and told him someone tried to run through the building the night before. All Good! So yeah....after finding that nail, I will be checking the entire brake system out thoroughly for sure! I have to disassemble the passengers side to do the kingpin as well, so I will just repeat the process on that side as well. PNB, as a side note, I did some checking with a reputable auto glass company in Dallas, they do a lot of custom stuff, have a video on YouTube of one of their guy's cutting a windshield. I called over there and spoke to the office girl yesterday, and left my name and number with her as she said the guy I needed to talk to was busy and would call me back. He called this morning, and after he tried to buy the sedan delivery, (LOL!) he told me he has a supplier that makes the rear window in a laminated glass, and that it would be no problem at all to cut the glass to fit the window. He was even gracious enough to log on here and look at the pics I have posted of the rear door. Really nice guy and seemed to know his stuff. I am still making the plan to clean up the chop, and I'm not sure the direction I am going with the rear door yet, but it's good to know that I at least have options for the rear glass! Thanks for your input as always!
A few pics of the work done this week.... Below is where I found the nail..... And the offending nail.....
Being able to get a real piece of Glass for the back window maybe just working with the back door as is is your best move. Personally I might still look into lowering the bottom edge of the window to balance out better with the side Door windows. That's just me looking at photos though. The Wizzard
nail- someone had the flex line off to do some type of service work. They put the nail in the line to keep it from leaking so much while the flex line was off. Reassembled without remembering to take the nail out. Good job trying to save the SD.
The front end is back together. New Kingpins and bushings on both sides. Front brakes gone through and work amazingly well for not being power brakes. Took her for a spin earlier and actually got up on the highway and aired her out a bit.....60 mph was fast enough, not knowing what all could be wrong with the car and not having any history. I only have a 1.5 gallon gas can tie-wrapped behind the grill in front, and can't get too far from home with only that much fuel. There seems to be an issue where it doesn't want to turn as sharp to the left as it does to the right. I am going to look into that next. All in all, pleased with the results so far!
Went through the rebuild on the third arm....piece of cake if you take it slow and don't get in a hurry. I rebuilt it, painted it, and put it back on. Everyone has seen those pics so I didn't take any. I also took the connecting rod totally apart and cleaned it out, mic'ed the ball bearing looking connectors, and they were worn, but not bad enough to warrant changing. I adjusted the connecting rod with both ends all the way screwed in, centered the steering wheel at what should have been 12:00, and the connecting rod just fit over the balls with a little push. Tightened everything up, greased everything up and took her for a test drive. Need to do just a tad bit of centering, and I am sure a front end alighnment needs to be done before I try to dial it in. All is well....Brakes, check.....Kingpins, check, Third Arm, check.....onto something else now....probably some wiring.....need to gets light working to get a state inspection....
Well it is time to find a wiring harness for the 52 4door. All the new wiring will be transferred into the SD once I get to that point. The only wiring that is "live" right now is the ignition/starter circuit, and the PO had used some trailer light wiring harness leftover stuff to do that with. The lengths of the new taillight/rear wiring should be pretty much the same when transferred to the SD. Everything up front will be the same for sure. I was hoping to get some input on some of the wiring harnesses used by some of you that have undertaken this task. The original wiring is still in the 52, but it has to be replaced as it is brittle and most of the cloth covering is cracking off. A lot of it has been cut off and I will be replacing all the switches etc. The Good Guys show in D/FW is in a few weeks, and I am hoping to pick up a wiring harness there if there are any vendors at the show. Got a few $$$ tucked back for just that purpose. I have developed a fluid leak from somewhere underneath towards the rear. I haven't crawled under there yet, but I am sure it will be from something in the closed driveline. I guess driving the car has got the juices flowing again, and all the leaks will be showing up. There is a very loud howling while decelerating, and I would guess the rear end is probably pretty used up. I have never dealt with a closed driveline like this before, so it will be a learning experience for me. I have been making a plan to straighten out the chopped mess on the SD, and it is coming together pretty good. I am not in a huge hurry to start cutting yet. When the time does come, it is going to be a combination of both cars being cut to create one car. I got the trunk all cleaned out on the 4 door, and the floorboards in the 4door are in really good shape I think. The only real problem I have seen so far is the drivers side floorboard. It needs to be replaced. The rest of the floors seem to be solid, but I haven't stripped off the layers of paint and undercoating (or whatever that rubbery stuff is!) to see. From underneath, everything looks pretty solid.
It's been awhile since I updated here. I picked up a 235 from a 1960 truck for a couple hundred bucks, 848 head, full pressure engine to rebuild for the Sedan Delivery, and I am trying to decide what cam to go with. Not so much the cam at the moment, but what valve springs to order to go with the cam I will eventually order. I want to build a nice hot little 6 cylinder, something reliable with a bit of muscle if I want it. I'm looking at running a dual carb setup with split exhaust. Anyone out there that can offer any suggestions on a good cam and springs for the valves? The head is at the machine shop now, and the guy is ready to start the machine work. Hardened seats, new guides and valves, and he is checking to see how much he can mill off the head to bump the compression up just a bit. Once I get that taken care of, the block goes in to be checked and bored if necessary, which I am sure it will, based on the wear on the valves in the head. I have located a couple of Sedan Delivery parts cars close enough to go take a look at, and they both seem pretty promising. If I can buy one of them right, I may not cut the 1952 4door up.
I think milling the head before you have new pistons in place is getting the cart in front of the horse. Plus the fact you can get pistons with different tops and wrist pin placement to add the Squeeze. The standard practice is to only surface the Head enough to get a flat surface, raise compression with rod length and piston height. The Wizzard
Good Call PNB. My machine shop guy and I discussed that and have decided to just surface the head. We got to talking about the geometry of the rockers and such and collectively decided to just clean it up and go with that. I am going to check with Patrick's, but my machine shop guy was talking about using Z28 valve springs as I am going to go with some sort of mild cam, and from what I've read, Patrick's is a good resource for tweaking these inline6's.
Barn Find, this thing needs a lot of something! Like...everything! But I do it because I enjoy it. Thanks for your comment!
This is a great drawing, my hat is off to you. I wonder what it would look like, since the vehicle is round around the corners, if 1958 Chevy Impala quarters could be installed.
Frank McGurk and Ed Iskanderian worked together researching the Chevy six, and found they work well with extra exhaust duration. These were called 'D.P.' (Dual Pattern) cams. Delta cams is your source for Chevy 6 cams. Their 254/264 dual pattern is a great choice. For valve springs, single units from a 455 Buick.
Thanks rob....I wish I was further along, but I know at some point things will pop and it will be Katie bar the door...I am still gathering this and that for the project, not getting in any big hurry as I don't like doing things twice!
Mo, I will look into Delta Cams. I am going to finish breaking down the 235 today, get the block over to the machine shop and make sure it will be ok to rebuild. I'm crossing my fingers that there is enough meat in the cylinders to bore it. I have no idea if it has been previously bored, but I have to believe that it has been at some point. The pistons don't have any type of markings on them except for a small notch on the edge on the forward facing side. Not sure if that has any significance or not.
Dropped the block off at the machine shop today, and lo and behold, the bore is standard on that old motor. We checked to see if it might have been sleeved at some point, but apparently not! So I think I scored well on the $200 engine.....good 848 head and a 100% virgin 1960 block with 56 years of wear on it. Time to gather pistons, rings, bearings, and other gizmos.....
RMONTY, I had not seen this post before today and just read it through all the way. It looks like you've got top chopping advice from several folks who are waaaaaay more talented and experienced than me, but here's something to think about: NOTE: this only works if you have a donor top from another sedan delivery. ANOTHER NOTE: henceforth the donor top will be referred to as "new top" and your existing sedan delivery will be referred to as "SD". THIRD NOTE: keep in mind that from the top down your car gets wider and longer as you go down. Thus the chopped top will be wider and longer than it originally was, necessitating the side-to-side and lengthwise cutting mentioned below. Door tops get longer also. Cut the top of the donor car all the way around about mid-way down the curvature between the top and sides, creating the new top. Go ahead and slice and dice the SD top as necessary to get the shape correct. That would probably include cutting side to side (probably) twice; once over the doors and once behind the doors. Also cutting front to back at the centerline. From the pix it looks like the front to back and one side to side cut was made by the PO. If you don't like the shape as they left it, and it sounds and looks like you don't, cut it apart again. Once you have all the proportions correct and it looks like you want it to look, tack weld everything in place using spacers as necessary. Set the crown from the donor car (new top) on top of the SD. Mark around the new top on the SD. A Sharpie or anything similar will do. Exactness is not critical; closeness is. Lay the new top aside. Make another mark about one inch inside the previous line on the SD. With the SD sufficiently braced cut its top at the inside line. Lay the new top on the SD. Where the SD and the new top meet there should probably should be a slight "V" (if you were looking at a cross section) and they should not be perfectly tangential. Weld around the entire top using appropriate procedures to avoid warpage. There will be a one inch overlap of the new top over the SD which will stay in place. Now you have the original SD with a perfectly crowned top shape. If it's worked as I mentioned you should NOT have to do much grinding on your welds. A skim coat of filler should cover whatever weld is sticking up as the weld will be somewhat "down" in the "V". All bodywork is now reachable without six foot long arms which would have been necessary if doing bodywork in the center of the top. It's in the center of the curvature between the top and sides. Also there is no warpage out in the center of the top, which is almost inevitable if welding out there in the middle. This should not be considered advice to take the place of that from other posters, It's just something to think about. This method worked beautifully on Clarence (see my avatar) and another F-1 panel truck belonging to a friend that was similarly chopped. B-T-W; five inches was taken out of Clarence and my friend's truck. Fortunately for us we both had donor panel trucks. Ours are panel trucks but method applies to sedan deliveries just the same. Only difference is that panel trucks have two back doors to contend with whereas you have a single. Obviously this summary of my top chop does not include every minute detail, but if you're taking on a project of this magnitude you're smart enough to figure out those hundred and one details. One last thing: if you don't like the idea of having the one inch overlap left in place you could cut the SD at the line you traced around the new top and do butt welds, but life would get much more complicated in so doing for several reasons. This post was written as if you know nothing and are completely inexperienced. Please ignore anything herein that you already know. I just have no way of knowing your experience or competence level.
Thanks EZ Cool.....you probably don't remember, but I was looking your car over real good at the Decatur Swap meet back in March. You have a sweet ride and it gave me a lot of inspiration!
Interesting approach atch. My skill level would be what I call "NAC"....Not A Clue! All kidding aside, I think I am capable of this. Never chopped a car before, and this one has it challenges for sure. I have my eye on one of two donor SDs that I have located, and hoping bonuses at work are coming soon. I don't think I can make a definitive plan until I have the donor car sitting here in front of me. All interest, input and ideas are appreciated though for sure...keep those ideas and suggestions coming!
Scored what appears to be a nice T5 for the project today. Its out of a 1988 S10. 13-52-145. The guy threw in the drive shaft as well, and I have him on the hunt for a rear end. CL guy that parts out different vehicles and sells parts for a living I think.... I have the cylinder head back and it is all fixed up, some heavy duty springs for the cam I decided on installed, hardened seats, slightly milled to get it nice and flat. Pretty happy with it. I should have the block back in a few weeks. I am having the rotating assembly balanced, machine shop guy is going to drill and tap the crank snout for a bolt to put the harmonic balancer back on easily. He ended up having to punch it .060 over. The pistons that were in it had been knurled and he said the bores were all over the chart, and he had to cut it that much to get it all clean. Not that it is a lot more displacement, but it certainly wont hurt. He also cut about .015 off the deck to get it nice and flat. I have never used him before, but he has been really helpful and seems to be very competent. His shop is small, and very clean. He mainly builds roundy rounder motors. Haven't done much other than getting some metal work done on the front fenders, doing some de-rusting and all that boring stuff.
"Mo" is right to suggest Delta for your cam. But I have that 264 degree cam in a 320 ci Jimmy. I think it will be too much cam for the street with only 235+ ci. ( more ci make big cams smaller) And mine doesn't start to come on the cam until about 2800-3000 RPM. I would recommend that you ask them for a grind in the 224-242 degree range if you want it to be easy on the street. That will still be a lot of cam for your engine. Then ask them what valve springs to use, ~ seated pressure vs full lift pressure. The biggest boost to more power will be increasing compression on these old sixes. Ross advertises pop-up pistons for 235s that are recreations of the old Jahns units. Though not the best design it is about all that can be done with that 848 head for compression increase. Then its just 2 or 3 Carter/Webers and a set of Fentons. Best Regards and good luck with all your endeavors, KB.
Not much going on....just some sheetmetal work.....got one fender fixed up a little...needs a bit more work....but there is a long way to go before final paint....lots of bruises along the way I'm sure..At least it wont rust anymore!
The Jalopy Journal
