Projects Olds Rocket 324 in a 32 Ford; "trying to finish it thread"..

Glad you got a secomd opinion i didnt want toget into why i dont like a brake machine doing them may turn into a debate and i dint want that. I can do it while you waite too. but there close so I understand. I would put a stop aswell we do that with the race cars and most cras actually have one built in but not many people know that. It looks good from here and i wish you would use the master, should work then you will know. Or you could mount a set up in the vice? I need to get my butt in gear got alot of things to do before spring.

 

Nice job frank, looks like that should work well!

 

I had an idea last night on how to do the hole in the bell for the 1st-rev shift rail that sticks forward in first gear..

I used a copper water pipe end cap like a freeze plug. A freeze plug would be too shallow, and the end plug is longer.

Drilled a 1" hole on the drillpress and I figured the bit would walk as it went through the very uneven inside of the bell, which it did do. So I dressed the hole round again with a die grinding bit.

I used gasket sealer and it went in real tight, so it should be fine.

I can't go any further on this till I get a better pressure plate which is pitted on one area, just like the flywheel is. I hope Pease has a rebuilt in stock.

I guess I'll work on the firewall; trimming the lower edges, mounting the master correctly on a new flat plate welded in, then try to prep for paint. I sure wish I had sandblasted it, but......

 

Small stuff eats a lot of time. I cut out behind the master cylinder to weld in a new 3/16" plate so that the cylinder can sit flat, instead of sitting on the firewall beads.

Ran into some old brazing when I was welding, as this firewall came from an old hotrod 3w that had holes for two seperate masters that were brazed back up.

I am working the last of the mods to the 60/62 truck pedal cluster brackets to tie into the 40 dash. It all is fitting ok, but I need the 2 special Chevy pedal return springs so that I can make pedal return stops. I might have some in the barn. I hate looking for stuff.

there won't be any firewall flex with this pedal cluster, compared to Ansen pedals.

 

wow, that really reminds me of my car. only real difference is I didn't have a windshield at all, the suicide doors and the fact that my channel was done with plywood floor fiberglassed to the inside of the body panels

you've done great job with putting it back how it should be. I originally got a 54 olds 324 to put in mine as well but it was stuck pretty tight and I didn't have the cash to rebuild it.

 

The Olds V8s I've seen that were bolted to '37 Cadillac floor shift transmissions just had a hole drilled through the bell housing with no cap or seal. Of course, they had a full gasket between the trans and bell housing.

 

The 51-up bell also needs the full gasket due to the slip-in front bearing retainer. I figured the shift rail is so high up, that it might not need to be capped off, but it did not take long to do it.

 

You do anything today Frank ?? I`m waiting Patiently..

 

Yes, Dave..sheesh. I work 7 days per week on it. No lunch break either.

Welded spare holes in firewall yesterday, tried to sand/grind firewall but I need to blast it on the car in a couple of days. Need to finish some frame welding first while it's up on blocks ...I forget what else because that was yesterday.

Today, I straightened out the lower firewall where someone patched an old cut-out for a distributor. It was all stretched outwards and hidden with genuine "bondo" which was peeling. I was going to cut it out, but used the torch and hammer to mash it all nice and flat. Less mud that way, you know It's just a hot rod.

There are strange openings at the lower firewall, right behind the "feet". that go right into the car. I have no idea what was supposed to fill those, so I made good fitting patches and welded them in.

I also went through some boxes of 60-66 Chev truck parts in the barn to maybe find the correct pedal return springs. Wow, I found one and did not recognize it being correct, but found another in the next box and also the TOB fork arm longer return spring. So, then I could fab a pedal stop thing. Need to cut corners for time, so it's just a 3/4" angle iron with welded nuts for the adjustable stop screws.

Put a froze up master on to see if the pushrods can reach, etc. They do.

Now I need to drill the 40 dash bottom edge for the pedal cluster bracket. The cluster ass'y length was perfect to reach from firewall to dash.

I'm not pulling the body off, screw it. I'll weld/paint the frame as best as I can. I don't give a S... right now...I want it yard drivable no later than March 1st....of 2012

 

Just giving you a hard time.. Your doing great!! I like it alot. Did you make doubles of the pieces you made i need them for my car too i cant believ you havent seen my car guys say to me all the time you drive that with no lower half of firewall?? REmember when you said just rebuild that 4bbl and drive the car lol i know what ya mean about yard driving i pushed mine in and out of my shop...

 

Todays adventures;

This frame was an old rod frame I found in CT. When I first got it home, I had to cut out the driver side frame boxing plate, because the rail was bent down swaybacked, and they boxed it bent. Back then I straightened the rail with a rosebud, a big beam, chains and a jack, but never reboxed as I needed to do a cross steer box mounts.

The steering box is a very low mile early 50s Ross fast ratio with 2-3/4 turns. It never steered right. Today I had to find out why, because I wanted to box the rail. The box steered nice before I shortened the mast jacket and inner shaft.

So I pulled the homemade steel upper mast bushing out again, and saw that the shaft was not in the center. I took the worm gear and shaft assy out, put it in dead centers on the lathe to find out that the worm was welded wrong at the factory. The shaft does not press into the worm like a Ford, it's buttwelded.

It felt OK before I shortened it because with a very long column before, the misalignment was taken care of by a gradual flex over a long distance, and that the upper bushing was a rubber deal that had some give.

I thought it was doomed because I did not want to cut the worm off and reweld such a critical spot. I finally found a way to straighten the inner shaft so it ran true in the mast bushing. It feels perfect now, I can't wait to try it with the heavy motor back in.


Made the front boxing plate out of 3/16 so that I'd have a solid place to weld the other steering mounting braces to. The back brace runs right though the plates and is welded to the side rail itself.

It's all rock solid.

Need to weld a bit on the front legs of the center frame X member, Then I can get it outside to blast the firewall.

 

Looks good to me, glad you got that sorted out, steering is good!

 

Another good anount of work done today frank thats greati wish i was retired i could play more lol But ik you bust arse when the work comes in. Thanks for the pics and post!

 

Short day, but I did the finish work on one front leg of the center frame X member.

Some of you know that I used a 2 foot long section of 35 Ford center X that was cut out by a streetrodder redoing his 35. I turned it backwards so that the wishbone ball socket could be used for my 35/36 rear trailing arms that are now a true wishbone.

So I needed to make 4 legs to hook to that center X. The Ford channel has a rounded radius, and I ended up cutting pieces from 4" square tube I had. That left a long tapered gap between the 2 pieces on each leg. It looked real hokey, so I've never shown a pic before. But now I have filled that gap on the right front leg, and I think it looks great, being that it's all scrap metal. I left the one big round hole at the back because 3/4 of it was still there on the center piece.

The left side still has that gap, so you can see how bad it looked before. That leg is getting a second hole for the clutch fork, that might get close when pushed back.

You can also see the floor mods for the Olds rear half bell extension on the motor. I fit it all close to get some room for a gas pedal.

2nd pic shows where the old rod frame had front split bone mounts at the outer rail, but with backwards tapers, so that the bone tie rod end was coming in from the back. That pulls the bone in, away from the tire.

But I moved the new horizontal bone mounting plates up higher and and under more. They are welded to the front legs and the outer framerail.

That really gets the bones tucked way under, but as HammeredT noticed in person here, that the bone gets close to the bottom rail with the engine in. I doubt it would hit, but I already had taken a mint set of 42-48 S-bent bones in trade from a Fordbarner. I will just use the bent tubing and weld those to my slimmed/trimmed 35/36 front bone yokes. I want to try running the caster real light just for grins. I hope it works ok.

I will show a pic of the rear Olds bellhousing crossmember Sat. I need to do some trimming. It spans in the same line from those two new bone plates, and sits on 2 long pads bolted to the legs' lower flanges.





Edit: June 26,2013. Putting up 4 new pics for a hamber. 2 are pics of my front bone mounts, and 2 are another 32 in my shop with a modern frame with a tubular center X. On my car, my front legs of the X go way forward, so the bone mount plates sit in back of the front X leg. On that other car with tube X, those front legs stop way short, so the plates must go in front of the legs. Note that there are no bungs yet, on that modern chassis one yet, and when those get welded in, I will weld in the 45 degree gusset plates to support the plates. My car does not need those gussets, but the other car will benifit from them IMO

 

Looks awesome thanks for the time you put into sharing. Looks like you are going to make your March deadline. I love the 303 olds great looking engine.

 

The weather was too good to pass up on blasting the firewall, so I got all the welding done to the other X member leg, and some other spots.

I also remembered to build a small rectangular 18ga mount for the dual carb fuel block that is going on the firewall. It's a hollow box, so I welded machine screws in from behind, before welding it on. So now I have 4 studs for chrome acorn nuts.

I do recall some old local builds that used chrome acorns all over, and at the scrap yard, I found many boxes of new-old high quality chrome acorn nuts in several sizes. I think I will like it

Then towed the friends 23 Dodge out, and got the Ford out to sandblast right in the mud

I am leaving the Dodge outside and the 32 is now in the good work bay with a bit more room to work. Next task is body filler and paint on the firewall.

 

The frame looks good .Keep pluggin Frank it`s coming together nicely, It looks really good out there in the yard I am invisioning it done I better get to work or you will be on the road and i wont be.

 

Yes, it was so dam_ good to get it outside for a look. It was jambed into the tight spot of the shop and very bitchy to work on.

today I did some heat shrinking on lower firewall, and then body filler all over in spots. It's looking real good, so maybe i will have a shiny white firewall by Tues or so.

 

Frank,
Great to see it out in the light of day! I'm looking forward to seeing her done.

I also took advantage of the nice weather and got the T going on Sat and drove around a bit today. Took my girl's son out for his first ride in a hot rod. I think he had a great time.

J-

 

That`s great Frank progress is progress Ik what you mean in my shop there packed in like sardines aswell I`m sure you could see in my pics. I like you went with the white firewall. Is the color going to be maroon on the body??

 

No, that's primer.


The color I saw that I thought looks like a good 55/62 hotrod color was the metallic blue on the front wheel of the middle car in the first pic. Almost looks like a hint of red/purple in it.

I am a little ahead of schedule with the firewall, I am now doing final primer and blocking each coat.

I am doing things my way, so this is acrylic laquer hi-build put on with a 1" brush. Then I roll the front of the car right up to the wood stove which has upper blower vents...for a force dry I can't get near epoxy primer, and I hate the way it sands, and this old stuff sands so nice. I love working with it.

Here is the first coat sanded. I just brushed the 2nd coat and will sand it in 2 hrs, and then a 3rd tonight to dry solid overnight.

They claim we have a warm day for Wed, so I will use the extra day to keep blocking. I have the complete PPG paint stock from a closed auto parts place. I will look to see if I have pure white in urethane which would be better for brake fluid spills...but if I don't have that, I know I saw acry enamel DAR8000 base white..then add a bit more hardener I guess.

 

Frank I thought i read you wanted a maroon my bad... Thats a nice blue will look killer IMO. Thats plain bitchin` on how your forcing your way along thats just plain old school right there. I really need to find the time and get working on mine. Thanks for the updates!

 

Tues was warm, I thought it would be a good day to paint the firewall...Warmed the car and paint, rolled it out quick, sprayed a coat, then roll it in to warm it again. 4 times! Took way to long to flow and tack, I think because a little too much hardener and the temps. Acry enamel PPG 8000 pure white. Not a very perfect outcome, but the honey bees were out today, so it could have been worse if I waited.

Started bolting parts on...parts that can stay on, not just mocked up...what a concept

I didn't feel like rebuilding the dual master, and then get brake fluid on the still uncured paint....so look at what's on the floor in front...a pressure plate all apart..


Pics might be delayed during the server repair on hamb.

The antique NOS/NORS place is closed on Weds, so I can't call on a new pressure plate availability, so I wanted to try to reface this badly pitted one. Wow, cast iron, but work hardened? surface. It would dull a high speed steel bit in 2 seconds. Then I tried a new carbide, and it would hold an edge longer but sparks were flying!

So then my hotrod friend shows up; a lifetime tool/die machinist for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. He tried all sorts of things to get it to get a bite, but then had to get to work.

I kept trying different cutting angles, and finally ran the lathe backwards and cut on the far side. I ended up with a better bit angle, and tightened the drive belt, and forced the bit under the pits or hard layer, I guess.

I gave a quick measure after it was done; maybe 11 to 12 thou.

I wonder if it will work

 

Frank,
Firewall looks great, keep up the good work. I got a nice mallory dual point dist with the old school oiler cap to lube dist shaft for 327 for 26.00 hope I did not pay to much. Ray

 

I have 2 questions for the 2 auto machine shop owners, Dave and the hamber from NJ who also is a machinist.. I would like to know about the hard spots on flywheel surfaces; If you use the proper grinder, do the hard spots blend in or are you positive that they are gone?

The reason I ask is that I did turn my flywheel on the Ammco setup today. I thought there were no hard spots because I had thought that they all looked the same: "those wavy choppy blued spots" you see on hard use clutches. But yesterdays cutting of the pressure plate, ended up with massive hard spots that could not be seen before cutting.

So, I expected the same with the flywheel and even though none were showing before cutting, it did have quite a bit in the inner 1/3rd of the face to maybe half way out. I kept cutting on slow feed till I got every last one completely gone. It took 70 thou to make them gone, and then I did a light slow clean after that.

80 thou, but I wish I could take way more to make it look like the Olds 6 cyl wheel that is very light, and very dished in the center...but then the TOB won't reach I assume.

So, I know mine are gone, but how can you tell if they are gone with a flywheel grinder? These spots were the same color as the flywheel in good spots.

2nd question; I have .003 runout at the face I just cut when torqued to the crank, and 1.5 thou of that is because the flywheel itself has runout. I checked the uncut outer edge as well as the cut surface. I say 3 thou is fine, but I can't find a general spec in Motors. I could get it to 1 thou or so by dressing the mating surfaces.

I had to do that once on one that was .016 out, due to a bent crank flange on a sbc, I got that one to 1.5


Well, the cutting went really good, but the set up to get it to run true on the Ammco was frustrating. First pic shows checking hub runout and I also was doing face runout as well.

I made my parts list while waiting on the lathe cycles,.. I need to go to Mass tommorrow to the old parts warehouse. I hope he's open.

Well look what the cat dragged in... Finding your way around the hamb I see.

 

Yesterday morning, I called in a huge order of all the parts needed to finish the build; all NOS/NORS parts made in USA. Waiting for a call today for when I can pick them up in Mass.

Stuff like all the brake rebuild parts, front end, rear shackles, old style hose clamps, gaskets, seals, tons more, and maybe even some colored see through gas line..There goes my build fund, this bill will be huge.

Yesterday was the first time that I realized the car will be on the road this year. It's going to happen; maybe not finished vinyl roof cover, but at least in paint, not primer. Getting closer to a color choice...Ice blue with a lot of fine poly.


...and I am thinking about putting the 41-48 chevy tail lights back on the rear fenders like they were when I got them??? What do tou think? It's a piece of the old ways I guess, even if a bit odd. I will get Charlie "one armed bandit" to do the old classic "fine line" striping on the car


edit; just got the call to pick up the parts at 11am...woo hoo

 

The colored see-through gas line is Not Safe as it cracks :-( Modern gas doesn't help much either.

You can run a (polished?) stainless line inside it if you want the color. They don't sell the see-through line anymore for a reason, and any old stock is, well, old and may already be on its way to cracking.

 

Ditto here on the t-lights; the Chevys were an occasional alternative to the usual Ford & Pontiac lenses.