When you’re trying to control the metal shavings like that, fill the tap flutes up with heavy grease. Most of the shavings will stick in the grease. Great build!!!!!
Been a Minute since I updated here. I have been hitting the Car and hope to get it to LSRU this year, fingers crossed. I have been really busy with work and a large screened porch project and a car meet I put on here twice a month here in Austin TX. Enough with the excuses. Here is a photo of the tank mounted in the trunk. I plan on running lines as soon as I get the exhaust planned more.
After I got the body back on the car I noticed a few issues from moving this jalopy roadster around that it wasn't fitting back on the frame as well as it had been sitting. I have a buddy who used some boat trailer roller rubber guides as shims and ill say it worked really well for the areas i needed more shim than i was getting from just the stock wood blocks. They also worked really well for under the cowl instead of buying the stock rubber ones. I also noticed the back of the car was not sitting correctly. I realized with I put on the fish plates to strengthen up the step in the frame it added some width to the frame which was not sitting square under the boxing I put in for the trunk floor raise for the rear end to come up through. Once i realized i was able to take the body back up and shave down the plates to make room and it was fine. Being new as building a car in this fashion i have made so many steps forward with out thinking of how it was going to fit on the car.
Another issue i was having once i got the body back on the frame was that both of my doors were slightly out and were not closing correctly. the gap was out maybe 1/4" give or take. I struggled with this because the doors were closing really well prior to taking the body off to run brakes and paint the underside of the car. After talking to a few friends it was recommended that i cut the sub rails just at the a pillar all the way through, unbolt the back of the car and ratchet strap the car together and then weld back where the doors are sitting correct and ill be damned if it didn't work perfectly. they are closing now better than they did before. I have to assume that when i took the body off it tweaked the car just a little. I braced the hell out of that body too, but roadsters are floppy. Couple photos to show where i cut and tacked back.
Next up was tackling the rough motor I have that is a runner but still rough. When I bought this motor a few years ago I started it on the ground and it was running pretty well. With this purchase I was able to get a good bare block but I don't have the money to dump into that block yet so I am going to overhaul the runner. This is a 8RT motor from what I can tell. When I took the intake off and found how crusty the valley was I was struggling to keep moving forward with this motor but like I said finances kept me hoping for a win here with this one. I broke two head bolts of course taking them off. I tried all the methods of removing the broken bolt, but had to end up drilling it out. Extractors and welding on a nut were useless attempts. I followed one of the tricks I saw in a book where you put the head back on and buy a drilling sleeve and insert it in the head bolt hole and use a vice grips and make a punch then drill it out. I was unable to find the sleep I needed so I had to buy a larger size and shrink it some which I don't have a lathe so I used my bench grinder. I tapped and amazingly it seems great. Now once I get this running I assume they may weep. Sadly I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it.
After I was able to retrieved the broken bolts and felt that the taps were good enough I moved forward with cleaning the block the best I could with out taking it completely apart. I used compressed air to do a lot of the coolant lines and diesel fuel in the valley and a mix of acetone and auto trans fluid as well. It is far from perfect, but it came out ok.
Being my first flathead to pull apart seemed as if there was some repairs, but nothing was jumping out at me so I continued to move forward with the overhaul just cleaning and re gasketing basically. When I had done a compression test when I had it together all cylinders were coming back about 90 to 100 aside from number 1 which came back 80. I got a kit from Best Gasket and cleaned and installed and all went well. Cleaning that old dog got me dirty as hell many times.
After I got it all back together, figuring out how to run a pulley mounted fan off the generator is my next task. When I had mocked everything up before, mounting the fan in this way was my only option. So I got a '36 generator with the fan mounted pulley and shaved off the mounting ears and used the 8BA strap. I had to drill a small hole in the generator for the nipple in the 8ba strap to sit on, but other than that it was easy. The earlier generator was also smaller in size so I cut back that strap and welded it back together. All in all it worked great. This generator has been rebuilt for a 12 volt, but its untested till I get it running. Alot of fingers crossed here, if you have been following along I've been doing that the entire build.
Next I never liked the look of the full height of the upper F1 shock mounts i was using. I cut and welded them to mount easier but always knew id cut a chunk out of them. Mental mathing out the light bar, I was hoping the upper shocks would disappear behind the headlights. To make this happen I needed to cut a small maybe 1.5" bit out.
I was dreading taking the wood kit back out of the car to seal and stain it, but now is a good a time as any. I used the Osmo Polyx Oil. Worked so well and came out great. I brushed it on, let it sit then scuffed then added another coat and scuffed.
I realized I had not thought threw battery placement and knew i wanted to run a box. I found a box from maybe a tractor or a utility vehicle from the 50s give or take. I had to make a couple of relief cuts to make it fit, then welded in some of the left of sheet from when i built the trunk floor. Highly recommend that Eastwood Extend cut tool.
Will need to make a vent out for the off gassing or get a gel battery i guess, but its looks neat and tidy.
I used one of the rubber host style gaskets for the clamshell install instead of the cork one I had used in the past. Many its alot easier, I have not started the motor but I highly recommend this route. you can find them on Ebay from seller Century Hotrod. Then I was able to put the motor back in place so I can start on the grille/radiator install and get a mock up for my light bar.
The Jalopy Journal
