I am in Pasco, about 40 minutes from Oregon and just over an hour to Idaho. Any machine shops out here in the low desert that have V8 Flathead experience, knowledge and equipment? I intend on doing final assembly. Thanks!
If you don’t get somethings close here, try shooting an email to Rockets in Sunnyside . Not that far, and he’s likely to know if there’s someone in the valley to do that. Or Mr48chev in Yakima. https://www.rocketsgarage.com/contact
I don't know of any who I would say specialize in flatheads. I've been out of the loop on who does what for too long and am pretty well out of the loop on what machine shops are still in business that might be a go to. It's not that they are hard to work on as they are very easy to work on, it is having the patience to work on them and do it right. I can grind the valves and seats in a pair of small block Chevy or Ford heads in about 30 minutes after they are cleaned up. It would take a lot longer to do the valve seats on a flathead and if you don't have adjustable lifter each valve and seat have to be ground to get the right valve lash with the cam and lifters in the block. Again not a high degree of difficulty but tedious and time consuming. Plus you are going to want hard seats installed to handle the gas we have now. One of the go to guys retired a few years back and I think that even the building is gone now. If Riley at Rockets hot rod Garage doesn't know his dad either will know or know who to ask.
I can think of one. There is a guy in Pasco, about 40 minutes from Oregon and just over an hour from Idaho. He’s building a ‘53 Ford. In the not too distant future, he’s going to be an expert in flatheads mainly because he has no choice. The Flathead V8 is close to a century old. We are 50 years past a set of points. Some career mechanics have never seen a set of points much less repaired them. If you want to keep a 100 year old engine going, you have to be the expert. As a nod to my grandfather, when I started fooling with Flatheads, my dad said, “You know son, all the really good flathead mechanics are really dead mechanics.” It does not have to be this way. Those engines are fairly simple but complicated in their simplicity. What I’m saying is you have to be the man. You have to learn. You have to discern baloney from truth. Trust me here, I can’t think of any engine that has more baloney and wives tales than the Ford Flathead V8. BS # 1…. It cost 20K to build a decent Flathead. It’s just an engine like any other. Sometimes engines need machining to return to spec. It’s your job to know learn what it requires and find the right tradesmen for that specialized task. The days of dropping off a greasy engine to the machine shop next to the parts store are going away. They’re going away for any engine. Order the books, do the research. Boring blocks, turning cranks, find out who is good at that. I’ll be honest when someone claims….Flathead expert I think $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ with a slice of fried baloney. It’s your job to learn it and discern it.
For me, this is the truth. Haha! I did have the machine shop do the short block about 3-4 yrs ago, but I sourced the pistons, the lifters, the cam (orig re-ground), the new aluminum cam gear, seals/gaskets, etc. That shop is now closed There was only one machinist left at the time (he said back in the day they had 7-8 guys), and he knew flatheads. He now works at another local shop, but they specialize in modem head rebuilds. I rebuilt my rusty, punctured oil pan. I rebuilt my oil pump, fuel pump, carb, plug wires, and distributor. Just finished testing one of my crab distributors on my Allen Syncrograph for the first time. I prefer to do what I can myself. It’s all self-taught, and I enjoy it all (mostly), but I also understand there are lots of folks where doing all this kind of stuff isn’t really an option for numerous reasons, but it gives me satisfaction knowing I did it myself.
I got some info on a guy in the Yakima area from one of the other local car guys but I have to get his phone number an will pm that to you when I get it.
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