Technical What have you done on your ride lately?

How about a thread to just show off what you've done on your ride lately. There's one of these on another forum I frequent and it's always interesting to randomly see what folks are up to.

I'll kick it off with a removable transmission tunnel I build.

I wanted to make a transmission tunnel that was easily removable so I could access the transmission bolts, cooler lines, etc. easily. I started by making a perimeter frame out of 16 GA metal. Once I got the perimeter frame made I simply laid a piece of poster board in it to get a template for the tunnel. I found the easiest way to mark the template was to use spray paint so as to not disturb its position in the frame.

I then cut out the poster board and taped it in the frame. I also located the hole for the transmission shifter and got everything test fitted and in place. I then used the poster board template to mark a piece of 20 GA sheet metal and cut it out.

I used a propane tank to get a curve in the tunnel along with tweaking it by hand. The nice thing about the frame was that I was able to work on the tunnel on a bench rather than in the car. The 16 GA frame was stiff enough not to get tweaked out of shape while fitting the tunnel.

Below are some pics I took along the way.

 

I think this guy was starting the same type of thread ..... (Nice work by the way)
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-did-you-do-today.1025497/

 

heh...he was trying, but he asked what we did today. Not many of us worked on our cars.

 

Well that one got by me. That wasn't that long ago either, may bad.

 

I made and installed a removable roof insert for my A pickup:

 

This will be the 3rd one going around.

 

Havent done anything since last week, left for Deuce days on Friday, leaving the country for five weeks tonight, no time left to work on cars. The last thing I did was pound the dents out of these...

But I think I will have to replace about 6" of number 6, its pretty fugly...

 

Fugly
Must be a FFFFord word

 

Mmmmm 4 BBL Cleveland

 

yea, old timey solid lifter ford goodness... I got these used, pretty sure they are Kustom Headers PN#3305. The main companies that used the round 4 bolt collector flange were Douglas, JR and Kustom. The JR 1 7/8 Cleveland headers have a one and three split on the drivers side, and I don't hink Douglas made Cleveland headers, so process of elimination, I figure these are the Kustom pipes.
4v Cleveland is going in my '67 falcon coupe. These were on a '65 with un-notched shock towers, they aren't designed for the early engine bay, but instead of notching the towers, he just hammered the ever-loving shit out of them. Other than that, they are in pretty good shape for 40 yr old headers.

 

New heads shaved .035, 2 deuce weiand intake,touched up the valves,rebuilt steering box,fixed some little things and added some paint.


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Nothing,it's to darn hot!

102 degrees outside / 77 inside. HRP

 

Got a pretty solid ( but dinged up) '31 coupe body a couple of weeks ago, and have been soaking everything in penetrating oil, running a torch ( in a 6 day, over 90* heat wave), and pounding away. Got all the old wood out of it today so I can start "undenting" parts of it that had a hard life. ( it got the PU treatment during the war, and the back end is kinda funky!)
Hot and dirty!! ( but I love it). Pictures later. Forge On!

 

Vise grip and wire the body together the other day and put door hinge on so I can sit and enjoy a cold adult beverage, aaaahhhhh!

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the the rearend out and apart, in my Chevy II. Needs a leak fixed, pinion angle up a hair, and a few other little things. Getting ready for Drag Week, in September.

 

I like these kind of post to. For those that don't or think there is to many, Do Not look at them! Right now what I am working on in the shop is not HAMB friendly, { Dag nab muscle cars anyway!] lol Larry

 

Lately just been driven' it. Made a junkyard run a couple of weeks ago and scored some new comfortable seats, but haven't yet figured out how I'm going to make them fit, so they're just stuffed in my storage shed for now. Been working on the garage itself, got it rewired, and insulated, now I'm working on getting the walls closed up.

 

Ii worked on lawn....well almost counts...lawn mower is in the shop..so i worked around my 49...he he he

 

Installing sheetrock on the garage ceiling,, when that is done I can start on the rear wall repair and window installation. All this material has cluttered up the garage for almost a year now. Bob

 

Sanding between fins, on rocker cover, and manifold.
It's a prick of a job, a long, cheap way to do it, but quite therapeutic.

Bob, we want pics on yer thread when it's done...

 

Well, I didn't do it today ...but, the coupe in my avatar is a gloss hunter green now with a black frame, fenders, & top.
It has interior door panels now & I found some imitation leather couch cushions to make a bench seat.

 

Plugging away at the metalwork on the 54 Chevy.


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took a ride...

 

My friend would have bondoed them up, painted and sold at swap meet....Its a wonder that nobody came looking for him..

 

Its funny, I didnt really set out to be, I am ending up with a vintage header collection. It started with a cherry set of Doug Thorley fenderwell headers for my chevy II, then I got a drivers side Belond for my olds, and now these.

 

117harv's comment on the "how to participate in a thread" thread inspired me to re-visit this. I tend to take it for granted that everyone knows how to do basic stuff. Heres how I pound dents out of header tubes from the inside. I take the box end of a combination wrench that is just a little larger than the id of the collapsed area of the tube, push it down the tube to the inside of the dented area, and pound it past the dent with a hammer. Then I just move up to the next larger wrench size, until I get the dented area back to its original id. If the area is really hammered, I will used a little heat witha rosebud tip to help it along.
If the area is way down the tube in an area I cant access, then I use a steel ball the size of the tube id with a hole drilled in it, pass a cable through the hole, and weld a washer on the end of the cable. Then I feed the cable down the header tube until the ball comes up against the dent, heat the dent with a rosebud, and yank the ball past the dent by attaching the free end of the cable to a slide hammer.

 

Got my whole front end bolted together and secured. Now I'll be able to unbolt everything and it should line back up..right? Hah

Good is still tweaked a little. Gotta tackle that next.

 

Put a new starter in my Bug...couldn't believe it when NAPA actually had a Bosch SR17X in stock, thought I would have to order one. About 45 minutes to swap it out; a little tough to work on it in a 10' X 20' storage unit.

 

Got some work done on my dash. I had to enlarge and center the cut out for the steering column. Shot it with some primer, sanded with 600, then shot it with Rustoleum Professional, it comes in the larger silver cans at Home Depot and Lowe's. I was really impressed with the paint, it actually looks better in person, on the final coat I was able to lay it on really wet. Dried with very little orange peel and a good shine. One if these day's I'll learn to paint with a gun but for now this is working.

 

Been a good productive week on my '48 Austin. I got a hood scoop from Speedway and installed it, looks like an unblown gasser (B/G or C/G) might have looked in 1966. Not sure what to do about the white gel-coat though.
Way back in May I asked about converting the full manual shift TH350 in my Austin back to automatic function. After lots of helpful suggestions I finally ordered a TCI Streetfighter valve body. Then life interrupted work on the fun cars. So yesterday I finally put it up on the hoist and pulled it apart. I got it all back together today and took a test ride - Yeah Baby! Just exactly what I was hoping for. The car is so much better to drive on the street. I need to mess with the shift points just a little, but that's easy.
It gets a steering box adjustment and a bath tomorrow - gonna shine up the Halibrands and debut it at our local cruise night - finally.