Took advantage of the warm day yesterday before the rain and cold came in to get the engine bay painted. At first I had planned to just paint the parts of the frame I had to rework to get the hemi in there since the black wasn't too bad, but after the work I've put in to the engine I decided I'd be better off the spruce up the whole engine bay. I wish the truck had still had the original steering and suspension when I got it as it was the main hindrance to getting the engine in. I taped up all the wiring harness and got rid of all the zip ties that have cut me on more than one occasion, taped everything off and got to painting. Hope to get the engine and transmission in tomorrow or Friday.
The secret to sharp zip ties, if you have to use them, is to take a disclosable lighter and put the flame to the sharp cut off end for a couple seconds then take the body of the lighter and mash down the still molten stub of the sharp part. I learned this the hard way LOL AFTER they cool check and see if it is still sharp. Repeat as necessary.
Regarding the clock, there was a recent thread about using 6v Clocks on 12 volts. I learned in that thread the points close for just a real short time that drives the motor 12 volts works fine. Now the positive v negative ground wasn’t brought up, but I’d suspect that won’t be an issue either. I think @squirrel explained it.
Looks bad in the picture but it takes a lot straighter path when everything's hooked up! Thanks for the tip @loudbang I'll definitely be using that as there's still at least a thousand more throughout the truck! @Budget36 I was curious as to how the electric clocks in these cars worked. I enjoy tinkering around with antique mechanical pocket watches so any kind of old timepiece interests me. I figure for the time period that it probably has a mainspring that is wound whenever it is needed by the electric motor and not a continuous electric draw to run it? Anyways it doesn't work. The rubber gasket in the back is falling apart so maybe it has a short in it somewhere or the movement has just set up. I tried to get it apart just to see how it worked but couldn't figure it out and didn't want to break it. Might end up sending it off to an instrument specialist or something.
It’s too bad somewhere along the line it lost the original suspension, mine rides/drives awesome with the straight axle and leaf springs in the front. Dear goodness I love your truck though. Only way it would be better is if it was a ‘57!!
Thanks @57 Fargo! I hate that the original suspension is gone too. Looking at pictures it looks like it would be a good system. I'm ditching the power steering that was on it and going with manual so it's less noticeable and because I didn't want a pump on the engine.
I do have power steering on mine, I have a later gm box and a Chrysler pump on it. Still four wheel drum brakes and the original master cylinder.
Or use a tool made for the job. I have an old one made by panduit I think. Tensions and cuts, flush. No exposed sharp edge
The REAL Pro secret is to not cut them. Instead, twist the tail off by gripping it as close as you can to the catch with pliers and twisting until it breaks... no sharp ends. This only works if you're using a quality zip tie; the cheapies will just break.
I'm a little late to this MoParty, but I'm watching this closely from here on out! I love all the cool details and of course the hemi. I vote you stick with the original tailgate. Seems like if you go through the trouble to make a wagon gate function on there, you'd have to get rid of those boxy bed side rails too. That'd be great if you're heading in the custom direction. Keep up the good work!
Make that 3 of us! My 56 is in pieces right now. Every piece has needed rust repair and/or dent removal and/or redoing old body work. But I resolved to fix everything as it was removed so as not to have a pile of damaged parts stacked up when it was torn down. As I pull a part it gets repaired to the point of epoxy primer ready for filler primer and blocking. Except for the inner panels on the front clip, they got painted with black Rustoleum, ready for re-installation.Front clip and doors are done to that point, Cab is stripped, floors repaired and rear fenders in work. Once those are done the cab gets lifted and the frame cleaned and painted. engine is a 230, milled head (a lot), two bbl carb on a homemade adapter, duals and an A833OD.. It is going to get painted in pieces, single stage red urethane. Cab and doors first. Then install the engine/trans, paint and install the front end pieces. Hoping for a late spring startup.
Thanks @60Pioneer! I was actually looking at your Dodge earlier today. Very cool and unique body style. Looks like it wont be long and you'll be cruising down the road.
I seem to recall that at least some clocks of this era used a small solenoid that wound the mainspring. It would cycle the solenoid when it detected that the mainspring had unwound below a certain amount of tension. In near total silence you could hear a faint tick or "ping" maybe every 10 or 20 minutes.
I thought maybe it would be something like this because from the little inspection hole in the case it looks like any old mechanical movement to me. When I hooked it up to power I didn't hear anything so I didn't hold it long but it still started to get a little hot and when I shined a light in the case there was a little smoke so I hope I didn't burn up anything worse than it was.
Neat truck you have there, definitely unique and cool. I am fixing up a 56 step side for a friend and I noticed your 59 shares alot of same parts. I will be intently watching. . .
Thank you for the tip @junkyardjeff but I've already purchased one off of a '59 Plymouth from a junkyard in California. Was supposed to have been shipped out on Wednesday I believe. Shipping would've surely been less if I had got the one you're talking about out of Ohio! Progress has been slower than I expected (no surprise) on getting the engine and trans in the truck. Been disassembling everything off the stand and draining all the fluids. Got the clutch installed today. I ran into a problem with the flywheel when I was getting ready to start it on the stand. I was wiring everything up and was fixing to bolt up the starter when I looked inside the bellhousing. I knew there was no way the starter was going to engage the flywheel but I finished wiring everything up and touched the starter off just so I could hear the high pitched whining confirmation I needed. The flywheel that came with the Hot Heads trans adapter was the smaller 130 tooth for a 10.5" clutch. The bolt holes were clearance holes for 7/16" bolts which I drilled out for 1/2" bolts because I tapped the crank flange. The transmission and bellhousing is a late '80's A833OD out of a truck. I kind of figured at that time all the manual trans would've been using the smaller flywheel but I was wrong. I had already bought a 10.5" Borg and Beck clutch for it and was luckily able to find a McLeod 143 tooth flywheel that had bolt patterns for both 10.5" and 11" clutches so I can use the clutch I already have. Plus the bolts holes were for 1/2" bolts so I didn't even have to drill this one out. Aside from a few more finishing touches I'm about ready to get it dropped in there.
When I was bolting the transmission up today it started to get tight when there was still about a 1/4" to go so I decided I better take it back off to see what the hold up was. I had already mocked everything up with another block and crank so I thought I was good to go but turns out the input shaft was too long. Even though I didn't get crazy the first time when the bolts started getting tight it was enough to get things in a bind where I had to fight like hell to get the trans back off to measure everything. After I figured out what was going on I cut off the end of the input shaft and it bolted right up. At this point I was very irritated and probably should have walked away for a while but I was determined to get it in the truck. After a whole lot of cussing I finally managed to get it shoehorned in there. There ain't room to cuss a cat in there now but I'm sure glad to have it in (as long as it's the last time)!
Thanks @bobbytnm! My '59 Plymouth wagon tailgate showed up today as well. I took some pictures with it just leaning on the regular tailgate. Here's a couple with it right side up. I also took a few of it upside down because the curve at the top of the tailgate matched the side panels a little better just sitting there. The width of the wagon tailgate is the same as the truck tailgate so I'm going to take off the flat tailgate tomorrow so the top can go into the bed to better see what it will look like. This also makes me think it might end up being easier to extend the side panels to the tailgate instead of widening the tailgate as @Crazy Steve mentioned in an earlier post.
Thank you @pwschuh! I always liked the gold 300 engines so I used the Duplicolor 1604 gold engine enamel with ceramic. I don't know what other's experience with Duplicolor ceramic engine enamel has been, but for me it's shoots very thin and is easy to run. It also tends to flake real easy. I don't know if this is because of the supposed ceramic in it that makes it brittle or what but I had to go back and repaint a few things after I found that out. It seems to be better now after a few heat cycles so maybe it just needed to bake in a little but it doesn't act like the normal thicker engine enamels I'm used to.
I looks like its going to take some doing to get that wagon tailgate to work. I think you might be onto something with turning it upside down. It really seems to match up better that way. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on your progress as we'll probably try to do something similar on my buddy's truck.
Just have to say I love, love, love your truck. A sweptside is something I have always wanted but never found in my area/price range. I would have been one to say don't change the tailgate, it's a part of being a sweptside. But then the last couple of pictures when you flipped the tailgate upside down I'm thinking, damn that's pretty sweet. Keep at it 1994 and thank you for allowing me to tag along. Rick
Thank you and thanks to everyone for all the great ideas and advice so far. I had used the HAMB for a long time for all kinds of information but up until I joined last month I had never posted anything anywhere on the internet. I've always been bad about just jumping in to a project without taking pictures and when it turns out looking good I wish I had taken some before pictures, so doing the build thread has been good for that. I've really enjoyed everyone's input and looking at other's build threads for ideas and inspiration. I didn't work on the tailgate today like I planned but I did get my new driveshaft hooked up. Here's some shots from underneath. The driveshaft that was on it when I got it was marked as being out of a 90's Chevrolet and was too long so that when the truck was in the air the slip yoke bottomed out against the output shaft. I also had to mock up the carb and cleaner to see it all together.
The Jalopy Journal
