As a NASCAR fan I think this build is awsome! I drew up a cartoon Eye Mechanic style for inspiration. Thanks for posting I will be watching to see the final outcome... drop me a line if you are interested in the original and check out my HAMB ad www.eyemechanic.webs.com
"eye mechanic" I dig the picture that is so cool. Well some new images from Wednesday nights activity so I could not help my self and I had to install the wheel & tires on the car hoping the rear wheels and tire size would clear. After removing the rear shocks (shot got new ones on order) I lowered the axle (frame was on jack stands), but even with that the tire height would not tuck in the fender /or clear the drum so what do you do to fix this pull out the valve stem let the tire air bleed out and they tucked right in. Added the 35PSI and bolted up the factory lugs. The are about 1/2" clearance on the inside from the leaf springs and about a 1/2" from the front wheel wel lower corner but height and width to the inner fender and wheel lip are great. The fronts where fine so now she has new shoes. Still have some black spray paint cover up over spray on the frame and other areas then on to hooking up the taillights, cleaning up the bumper brackets and installing the bumpers then the doors, grille, tail section trim. Got to pull the headlight switch the factory one is not working no parking lights, no dash ligths, turn signals on the dash on all the time. 20 dollar part be in next week. I will roll it out this weekend if it dont rain for some more pictures. I hope you enjoy the build so far I am in the home stretch of my assembly then the last event will be the hand painted graphics got to save up the Cash, been doing this on a very tight shoe string budget most of the big stuff and funds where spent months ago but the little nickle and dime stuff is adding up. Would have been nice to have a sponsored build would helped offset some of the cost but I am keeping the faith that I can get it on the road by May, hope you enjoy the build so far
Looking good! I'm going to do a '65 Galaxie using Junior Johnson's colors/graphics, starting summer of 2014. I have only mocked up Wheels, tires and suspension so far. From this: To this:
Fordy Acres I was going to build my 65 Galaxie into a Fred Lorenzen model but the funds to convert it to a four speed and parts were not in the budget. I traded her a few years back but the 65 model was my first choice. Got lucky with mine it had the right motor and factory four speed and manual brakes and steering. The body and interior was rough but I still paid $$$ for the car due to drive train.
Nice project,I have always loved mid 60s Galaxies done up as Nascars. I think your tailpipes would trip up pedestrians,might want to cut them back a few inches.
Busy weekend, got a lot of little stuff done Saturday including cleaning up the shop. Lets see got the trunk rear trim installed, taillights wired up and installed with trim covers. Measured and cut out aluminum panels for the trunk for the trunk pins. Of course measure three time then drilled the holes in the trunk for the pins and chrome covers, then mounted the cables and locking pins so they are part of the car and do not get lost. Drille and pop riveted one of the hood pin cables to the gas cap looks cool. Got the wiper moving arms into the cowl area but lost the center nut and clip for the arms so I could not install the wiper cowl. Added the rear stone guard rubber so I can get ready to mount the bumper. Did some more wiring and loom wrap for the horns and new sending units for the gauges. Today some more misc. stuff then my buddy showed up so we could install the doors. Then started cleaning the overspray on the glass pretty much done for today I am beat. But I got her out in the sun so you can see the wheels and tires. Hope you enjoy the build so far
Looking Good! Bring it by the house so I can go for a ride, have sat on the passenger side in dirt cars many times in the past
Looks good. Just got my 60 Thunderbird which I plan to NASCAR-ize. Here is a pic of a 62 Ford 'Starlift' I owned. It got a ton of a attention. Keep up the good work! It's now in George Poteets Collection.
Hey AmericanPinups, hope you are going to do a build thread on the Thunderbird, so we can watch it like Stacked65's. Big FoRDs with round tail lights rock!
Busy few days took Friday off to work on the car and it carried over to today and will go into tomorrow. Got the new headlamps, grille, front bumper, door handles , locks, pop riveted the door panels and isntalled door trim, interior window crank handles, replaced the headlight switch still no dash trun signal flash constant on still troubleshooting. Installed new shifter boot and chrome cover, installed five point harness, will install the rear bumper and move to the motor to install new fuel pump, oil filter relocation kit, new sending unit sensors, fan blade, belt, fuel lines etc, Its coming along.
Sweet build... I never was much of a Nascar fan, but I always thought the stock cars of the 60's looked badass... can't wait to see it lettered...
I'm loving this thread. I found some pics of Dale Earnhardt's early days driving Falcons that put evil thoughts in my head. If I were to start a build of this sort though I'd have to make ten year old me happy and make it a non-HAMB car. Mid-eighties #9 T-Bird, Awesome Bill from Dawsonville! Whoo whoop!
Well yesteday was going well until i got theparst back together to start the car, appears our carb rebuild we have one of the butterfly valves not wanting to close all the way so we have to pull the carb and re-position it it is causing the carb to stay reving and wont idle. Also with my toggle/push button start I am missing the positive side to the coil so we had to jump the coil to the battery to get her to start. Pulled the dash apart and will review the Ford dash wiring again somehow my constant and Assessory on is missing the signal to the coil so I have to triage the wiring gremlins oh well at least she is running again.
Well good news /bad news day yesterday, worked all day on my new guage wiring and dash wiring gremlins. Sorted out the turn signal LED's, re-did most of my grounds and Accessory wire to guages. Alos I had to remove the PUSH button starter as the original Ignition switch as it would not work with all of the orignal wiring, if I was full race YES it would work but with all of the sources the ignition switch provided it was safer. The bad thing though when I removed the orginal ignition switch I did not know the instructions for removing the ignition key section first so the orignal bezel was beat up. Got a new one and installed it following some forum instructions and paper clip it went in and works. Figured out why the new light switch was not working I had the dimmer setting off turn it on and the lights work. The bad news, in my wiring haste on the TACH i reversed the top and bottom wires so I sent 12Volts to the signal and fried it, so now I got to spen another $109 bucks for a new one. Got a 90 degree fitting to adapt and install the oil pressure electric sending unit it works fine pushing 60-70 PSI at the gauge. Installd the rear KYB shocks, havent got to the fronts yet or the rear bumper been dealing with a cold since Thursday so I going a little slower this weekend. Going to start on the loom wrap of the interior wireing harness today. Took her down my driveway could not take it anymore she is loud and mean looking only got into second gear as the carb is still not fixed reving at 1000-1200 RPM at least but she shifted good. Thanks for following.
Looking damn good! I really like you're door panels. When you shaved you're tires you said you used 60 grit. Did you go back with a more fine grit or was that sufficient? Are they smooth now, or do they have sanding marks?
n847, as to the letter shaving, the 60 grit was sufficient it will shave it pretty smooth but you need to be careful not to go to deep as you may damage the inner layers of the sidewall. I think I touched them up with some 100 or 150 grit and its easier if the are on the rims already mine were not and it may take you less time. I spent an hour each with an electric palm sander and used about 30-40 sheets of velcro back peel and stick round sand paper disc (50 pack at Home Depot $20 per pack). Door panels and rear panel / rear seat cover panels were made from 4x8 sheet of Fiberglass paneling in white looks like gel coat on it. These are the panels used in bathrooms, its textured on one side and smooth on the other side about $30-35 a sheet at Lowes I used one sheet, for the package tray area I used some aluminum as I ran out of the above material. Using the smooth side up I layed the door cards / and rear panels on the panel in a way to get the max material usage, I got all four pieces drawn with a sharpie including the handle hole locations. Cut them out with a simple jig saw with a fine blade as to not damage the fiberglass. Then took a hole knock out with the drill bit included and cut out the holes for the window/door handles. Took the palm sander and some 220 grit and smoothed out the edges. Painted them (no primer) the paint adheres great. Layed it on the door checked my edges installed the window cranks first to hold the panel then started drilling holes and using large aluminum race style rivets mounted them. This materail works good on very FLAT surfaces if you have contours it may not as it will crack if you attempt to bend it, for the rear seat / roll bar area for any gaps I added a glob of "Siliconizer" its white and hardens nice and you can paint over it stuff works good "Home depot" 6-7 bucks a can and a cheap paint brush cures in a few days like a hard RTV sealer I used a whole pint on the floor boards for sound deading used a paint brush and primered / painted it this stuff is great. Good luck
Can never get enough photo's of old stock cars. These were the cars that help build Nascar to what it is today. Classic style and looks and most important was brand identity and that was what helped sell cars for the major manufactures. The hell with one template fits all cars because no one can tell what anyone is driving it it did not have a manufacturers name on it. Just my opinion. Jimbo
New pictures, took these after I got home this evening. Lots of things completed this weekend. - Oil filter relocation installed looks good (race vibe) - Oil pressure sending unit installed good pressure (70 psi) - BATWING air cleaner installed functions good pulls cool air from cowl as designed and clears hood just fine - Fixed carb, bad electric choke and moving parts so we decided it had to go so we removed it and the butterfly valve so its open like a race carb no biggie it dont get that cold and I can use my foot until it warms up. - Added the "Competition Engineering" Decal on the heater delete plate like the orginal race car. Took the car down my drive way and found out the tire is rubbing when turned on the wheel lips so its time to "old school roll the lip" with a wooden baseball bat and some people sitting on the fender. Autometer service says send the TACH back they can repair it hopefully, so I will send it back if its cheaper then $110 I am good with that. As requested an outside picture on the blacktop. Shes come a long way since the September project start "raw canvas" and an plan of attack, funds are super tight so race graphics "hand painted $500" will have to wait till I can save up the funds may take a few months may have to see if I can sell some misc stuff get some cash in the kitty jar. Hope you enjoy it
The Jalopy Journal
