Put a Hemi and a blower in the Plymouth

I can't ever leave well enough alone so after doing alot of work on my 1949 Plymouth I decided it needed a little more. Now I can take it from a Non HAMB friendly Chevy to BLOWN HEMI in under 30 seconds! Follow along and I will show you how I did it.

 

It all starts with a pair of crusty small block Chevy valve covers and a few pieces of sheet metal. Save your self some time in the long run and prep these pieces beforehand. I did this with some and not with others. It pays off big in the long run to wipe it down and pre-sand to at least 80 grit while its a nice flat sheet and easy to work with. You will spend hours trying to get into little spaces later that could have been done in seconds now.

The second photo shows the piece I will be using down the center of the split covers to widen them. I have already stepped both edges here in my bead roller. While putting the step in it will make any warping harder to work out later I felt it was worth it. The valve covers are pretty thin metal so anything I could do to beef up the center was going to offset any other issues.

Photo 3 shows the piece that will be used on the ends. I made one piece big enough to do both covers and then split it into 4. Its much easier to make one long piece instead of having to do it 4 times! I used a small air saw to cut it up because it creates less warping compared to a pair of snips. The bottom flange was bent in my brake and the other was clamped in my brake and bent by hand.

Photo 4 shows the next step in the top center piece. You will soon see why it got so much attention!

 

I not only wanted a cover of sorts over what would have been the holes for the spark plugs in a Hemi cover but I wanted a peak as well. By bending the W shape in the photo before I was able to do that. With a little bit of luck, alot of thought, and some muscle I ended up with a nice formed piece that would have been hard to do any other way.
Basically I guessed at what width everything needed to be to end up where I wanted it, I did make a small template about 1/2 inch wide to see if this would even come close. With a piece of C channel and a bit of pipe I had laying around I headed to the press. It took pressing down on each end and once in the center to end up with the shape I was looking for. As you can see its not a perfectly flat piece like I needed so it went back in the brake for a quick clamp and tweek before moving on.
I have read about everything I can find written by Ron Covell as well as having been to a couple of his classes. One of his pointers is that it may not look perfect at every step! Keep working at it and if you see a mistake along the way correct it now before going on to the next one. You will see me do that throughout this project when it comes to warpage.

 

I will be the first to say that is horrible....

 

I can appreciated the work that you put into your project,

but like the saying goes.... Just because you can......

As a side note, you'll be the hit of the party at an NSRA event

 

I now pretty much have all the main pieces ready to go together.

In photo 2 you can see how I stepped the flat portions of the end caps to overlap with the cover again. I choose to cut away the lower lip and the curved portion just for ease of forming.

Now comes welding what I have into the main frame. I went slow so as not to warp the metal and it turned out great! They may not be perfectly square or identical to one another but for this project they will work out just fine!

 

Now when it comes to the ends of that center ridge things get more fun! I will be the first to tell you that I am no expert! In fact I would say this may be about the most challenging thing I have ever done from basically scratch! This was a great project that stretched my ability all the way around and from start to finish.
I did not want to just end that beautiful rolling top in a wall so out came more tools. First some small triangles were cut about the right size. After using a shrinker around 2 of the sides they looked pretty messed up but were getting some shape. I choose the closed mallet I had to the shape I was working with, it actually is closer to right then this photo makes it look. After beating on them for a few minutes and some careful trimming they were getting pretty close! A little welding and wallah!

 

I have to tell on myself just a bit here. My triangle end piece came up just a little bit short! As I said this was a stretch of skill and some of it was a guess. Thankfully with a little strip of metal formed to the right shape and a couple of welds if you didn't see it you won't know it!

 

Apparently at this point my camera missed a step or 2! Its pretty self explanatory in that I fit the top piece to the bottom piece and did alot of welding!

I did however get in a hurry on the second cover and created myself a little extra work. I was trying to hurry up and get it welded and it warped from side to side.
The alternator was going to be right in the way unless I moved things way up. I chose instead to trim around it. Seemed like a simple task but ended up taking about an hour and a half to end up with a nice cut that also made it fit where I wanted it. This however did allow me access to the area that was warped.

By carefully guessing where to place a couple of chunks of 6x6 and using my weight as a body dolly it only took a few minutes to "press" most of the warpage out of the cover.

 

*sigh*

 

We now have a pair of covers but no way to hold them to anything. I did not want to have these bolted down in any way. If and when I need access to check/change oil etc I didn't want to have to fumbling with some crazy latch or even bolts. What I came up with was a tab and slot on the back and a pair of pipes that fit inside one another on the front. After 200 miles they haven't moved and inch so I think was successful! To put them in you simply line up the tab with the slot in the back and then drop the front down and into the lower pipe. I have to admit the first side was totally trial and error guessing but I realized on the second one that if I did it before I welded the center piece in that I would have pretty easy access to see how tall things needed to be and where. While this is a simple system it seems to be working pretty well.

 

Thats it for today, try to get the blower posted up tomorrow.

There are already lovers and haters of this on the board! Out in the real world I have yet to meet a person that didn't find it at least amusing if nothing else. It was a challenge to build which sometimes is more important then the end result. While it didn't turn out perfect I am happy with what I did and achieved what I set out to do! NOBODY can argue with that!

 

x2!

 

Is the blower gonna be fake too?

 

I can appreciate the fab work you put into it but you could have just slapped some Olds Rocket covers on it and come out with the same results.

 

Yeah, check the pic in the first post

 

compare the second and third pictures in the first post. thatll answer your question. still dont know why

 

lol, I didn't blow the pics up, now I can't stop laughing...

 

...I just threw up a little in the back of my mouth........

.

 

admire the balls the guy has posting this and respect the metal work, remove it and use it for a mailbox and then you'll be on the right track. just keep your hood shut because your mopar looks like a great project so far.....

 

As my wife says "just cause you can buy it does not mean you should wear it' Sorry dude, expect no love here. Let the flaming begin.

 

I agree. That would make a very awesome mailbox. I dont want to be a put down because he is trying to improve his car.

 

Well. I waited all night Friday and didn't see one. Waited all night Saturday and still nothing. Now here it is Sunday night and........ FINALLY! A POPCORN THREAD!

Break out the Jiffy Pop!

 

Building shit is fun. Don't let the checkbook guys bother you. Its your car