Projects The Flathead Flathead

Got the tank done. May need another coat of paint at some point, but that can wait.

 

Very stylish

 

A bit of a teaser: Paid a visit to a local shop this morning to talk about plans for my Merc. Hope to get it up there in a month or so.

 

Thank you. I like it. Since it will be hidden in the trunk, nobody will see it, but that's fine with me. I'm like that.

 

Your fuel tank looks great!

 

Put the body back on to check steering column, pedals, and windshield chop. Also had the wife sit in it to verify steering wheel location and seat height. Seems to be all good. Chopping the windshield soon. Then the top.

 

I decided to go with headers inside the frame so I can later choose to run with or without a hood. They fit perfect. I’ll probably put them on my truck after the test fit, and buy another pair for the roadster once it’s rebuilt.
Speaking of rebuilt: I decided to hand the engine off to Vern Tardel for that task. I met with him last weekend and discussed the details. We’ll know more next month when he has time and we can open it up. Rough plans are .080-.125 bore, deck 3 sides, Isky 400 Jr., maybe Navarro heads and intake, dual 97’s, all new rotating assembly parts, etc.
I’m still trying to decide what to do with the BW R10.

 

While waiting on other parts and things, I decided to chop the windshield. You can see the tape in the previous pictures. That was a 3” haircut. I decided to go 2”. I like it.

 

very nice Jeff, looks spot on!!! and that tank is beautiful nice work!!

 

thanks B&S. I think it will look nice, even though it won’t be seen

Tanks, Carl!

 

killer! loving this build man.

 

2" looks great. Well done!! Enjoying the ride.

 

thanks, guys! A bit of a break due to work schedule and travel, but I hope to get cranking on it soon.

 

Been working on brakes this week. Noticed that I have at least one bad rear drum. Maybe both. Visual crack in one and dull bell sound on the other side. Fronts seem good. So now I join Joey in the hunt for ‘40 Ford drums. I’ll try to post a video later

 

Great build! Thanks for the updates.
BTW, who makes the headers? They look like they will clear the steering box great.

 

Thanks! Those are just the cheap Speedway headers. It was suggested that I use these so I wouldn't feel bad if I needed to mangle them to get them to fit. I got lucky with the clearance to the steering box. I welded the mount in before I had the headers, so it was just dumb luck that it clears (and only by a tiny bit!)

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Spee...thead-V8-Exhaust-Headers-Raw-Finish,1727.html

 

Thanks, Joey! I may take you up on that. I've got some time before I'm ready. I'm building up my backing plates now, but for that I can use these cracked drums until I find new ones.

 

Dropped off my Merc with Vern yesterday. He’s thinking 3 months to get it done.

 

And I got most of my brake lines made and temporarily installed.

 

Nice work, 3 months to get it ready to fit up for the final time?

 

thanks, @Outback Things are moving along, but Vern said 3-4 months for the engine

thanks, @J.Ukrop Getting lots of my inspiration and motivation from you and your build!

 

Got a text yesterday about some ‘40 drums. Went over today to pick them up. They are .01, .02, and .03 over. Should be enough meat to turn them! So happy to have these.

 

Quick Saturday afternoon update on the roadster. I went up to Vern’s place on Friday. He had the Merc torn down. He said it’s the best block he’s seen in a long time. No cracks, not even where we may have expected them. Stock bore. Everything was in great condition.
Vern did talk Mike Bishop into coming out of retirement to help do some porting work on a couple of flatheads, including mine. I met him yesterday while I was there. I couldn’t be more excited to have two Northern California legends building my flathead.
In the garage, I built my upper rear shock mounts based off what I saw on a chassis yesterday. I’m going to mount the lowers on the radius rod extensions. More on that later. I also figured out how I’m going to mount my front shocks. More on that later as well. Here’s a few pics from today.

 

Working on the upper front shock mount. Not sure how this will work out. May need a few revisions to get it right. I may need a bit more space to the front of the lower hole for a bolt

 

Planning to use the headlight mounting holes for the shock mount. Time will tell

 

Thanks, Joey! I had to go a bit of a different route. I wasn't really diggin' the way those were working out. I'll post pictures soon, but I ran out of Argon, so I couldn't finish welding them up. I'm bolting a mount to the three holes where the fender brace would have mounted.

 

Speedway Headers: You might want to look down the pipes and see how they cut the holes in the main tubes (for the middle and rear tubes). I saw a set where they just did a crude cutting torch hole that was nowhere near the size of the actual pipes. Caused a heck of a restriction for the rear 3 cylinders of each bank.