Joey had a great story of buddies building a 55 Chevy in a week. I thought it might generate some similar stories. I was part of these types of shenanigans fifty years ago. Lets hear some of them. Here is one of mine. My best buddy invited me out one Friday night for a few adult beverages. On about the third round, he says, my new camshaft arrived today. It was early Spring and had been a long winter. The local Drag track had opening day planned for Sunday and he said I want to race. He then layed out the plan, not content to just slide the new cam in, he said the motor should be freshened, be at my house at 9:00. He would be at the parts house at 8:00 for rings, bearings and gaskets. I was there by 9 and we got started. We pulled the engine out and hauled it into the ba*****t of his house (our clean room). Broke the short block down and rebuilt the bottom end including file fitting the rings and checking all the clearances. The new Lunati cam went in and was then degreed in. The heads had been freshened the previous year, but the new cam dictated different valve springs, so they came apart. Then re***emble everything and haul the motor back to the garage to reinstall it. We get it back in, filled with oil, set the valve lash. Fire it up, and break the cam in and check for leaks. The city we lived in then, was surrounded by three Interstate highways. About 30 miles once around. One trip around, varying the speed and load to help seat the rings. I made it home by 1:00 AM and was back at his house by 6 to leave for the track. We got to the track and he made his best p***es up to that point. If anybody is curious, it ran a 12.20 E.T. @ 108. I know that is not impressive today, but this was 1974. The car was a 64 Chevelle with a 11:1 327, 4 speed with 5:13's on an 8" slick. OK, you have read mine, I want to read your stories.
Best I have is changed rear end in my buddies driveway. I brought the other one with me in the trunk. Along with all the stuff needed. Took 2 hours by my self. It was a 67 Chevelle. I used to street race outside of town on weekends. I got used to doing it because it was my daily driver. Race gear in one rear and street gears in another. Changed transmission at 2 a m one night. I would pull whole front clip off to do stuff like change heads or cam. Early twenties and single. Sometimes I miss those days. Working on gravel floor with jacks and blocks.
We swapped in a 428 in an off topic 68 mustang, about a month later it needed new header gaskets. Puller it my parents garage under the house. had to raise the engine to get the headers off, used a bottle jack to do one side at a time. Dad kicked us out at about 1 am as we made to much noise and my sisters bedrooms were above us. My buddy left, drove home. He had a work truck so it was 3 days before he drove the car, realized the bottle jack was still holding the motor.
A funny story. It wasn't late night. But it was all done in one day. My younger brother had this beat up 1970? Chevy Vega. This was on a Saturday morning. I had a couple old beat up model A pickup bodies fenders and other junk behind my dads HVAC shop. So we got this crazy idea to mate the two together, and build a hot rod pickup in just one day. We torched everything off that we didn't need. We never intended to make it roadworthy. But just to drive it off road and around the shop. Well we did it, and before night fall we had it going. I even added some old beat up front fenders, a 30 grill shell, hood, and made a plywood bed. Then I brush painted it black. We had a blast with it. Fun Fun Fun....
$400 pinto. $500 roll cage and framerails. 354 hemi with hilborns, 4 sticking out of the hood area, the other 4 sticking out of the cowl area. Lift off front end. Full aluminum interior. All built late at night after wrenching all day, 6 days a week. Ended up running tens once we got it working right. Tech tip, when using a nibbler to make panels, grab a big chunk of carpet, lay it out under the car, do the work then toss the carpet which is now full of the sharp little fingernail clippings and rivet centers.
When I was 14/15 I spent a LOT of late light thrashes in the garage working on various aspects of the "restoration" of my '28 Model A Closed Cab. The standard routine was working until midnight or so, reaching a good stopping point, then going to bed. My folks knew where I was and what I was doing, so they just let me be and trundled off to bed. One night I was soooo close to firing up the 4 banger that I just stuck with it until it was ready. Got it ready and fired it up and just about blew my nut with the excitement! This was about 1:30 in the morning, on a school night!! About 1 1/2 minutes later my folks were in the garage with me, almost as happy as I was, and congratulating me on my progress. After spending a few minutes with me they trotted off to bed and left me to "moment of glory". What great parents to be so supportive and tolerant!! I wonder if my Dad tried the old "Since we're awake and he's still in the garage...." line on my Mom???
Never a engine builder, but many valve jobs, clutches, oil pump, O/T van interior, tune up, trans swaps, camshaft. The clutches taught me a valuable tip. If you have no pilotshaft guide, find a flashlight you can grip in your teeth. Run the Pp bolts in 'til the disc is held in place. You can play with the bolts tension, finding just enough grip of the Pp against the friction plate to hold it in place; and yet it can be moved using thumbs and fingers, and make the perimeter edges line up with the Pp edges. Now stuffing your head up into the trans tunnel with flashlight in teeth you can double check the centering of the friction plate hub agains the center hole of the pilot bushing. Then gradually tighten the Pp bolts evenly. Final look see, and while it may seem like a lot of tedium, there will be NO wiggle wiggle, grunt grunt trying for the last inch. Like when a dummy shaft is used. Hold trans level and BOONK, it's in. One orange small block into a Jaguar ( I was accused of using speed ) All these 'cause come daylight I had to get to my job.
Hello, Our experience with late night builds goes back to 1960. All of our teenage group was gathered at the local drive-in restaurant for our weekly Friday-Saturday night gatherings. Teenage banter, cool cars, old cars and even family cars. All out for an evening of fun. When we were all having our normal fun bantering, we all heard this rumbling sound coming into the driveway of the parking lot. It was what I thought was an orange colored 1940 Ford. It was not a sedan, as we had a bright red one with a Buick motor sitting three cars away, but an unusual 40 Ford. We got over the confusion as the hot rod came rumbling up into to the parking lot. All eyes stared and were flabbergasted. The sound, the new look and cool 40 Ford Sedan Delivery was one for the books. No one had ever seen a sedan delivery hot rod. As it rumbled across the pathway in front of the back row hot rods, we figured out it was an old friend of ours from the junior high school/early high school days. The teen had just finished building his new creation and as it rumbled into the parking lot, we all wondered what was under the hood. A big 348 motor and LaSalle transmission were the main ingredients. Jnaki Everyone was amazed at the new creation. The paint was glistening under the drive-in parking lights. As he pulled into one of the back row spots, everyone gathered to check out the “new build.” He had literally lifted the plastic cover off of the surrounding car port, where he had just painted it in the late night/early morning hours. This was his first time on the road. The color was in the orange category. But, everyone had their own name for the color. I wanted to call it red/orange, but it was slightly lighter. Others began to call it salmon as we all liked grilled salmon. So, one name stuck, a girl called it “Salmon Pink.” Now, everyone thought it was the best description of the color under the parking lot lights. The owner said it was Racer Orange. But, somewhere in the late evening color mixing arena, some drops got added or subtracted to give off this color, late in the early morning hours and so goes the Racer Orange color. Now, he was irritated that someone called his own color mixture “Salmon Pink.” For him, it was an all-business hot rod, painted orange. But, fumes, color drops, an old mixing stick, whatever it was, to all those present in the late evening parking lot, it was Salmon Pink, not Orange. So, a week later, the builder/painter decided to sell his latest creation. No one wanted a Salmon Pink hot rod. Girls would not like it because it was a sedan delivery. The guys did not like the connotation of “pink” ***ociated with hot rods for them. But, in my mind, it was the perfect private surf transportation and hot rod all rolled into one cool looking car. We bartered for weeks and finally, my price was met, but a Flathead motor was put in and the 348 motor was gone. The good thing was our friend was a good mechanic and the Flathead motor was perfect. It ran with no repairs for thousands of miles all up and down the coast of California for 5.5 years. An unusual photo popped up in a search one day and it certainly looked as if we were parked in the early San Onofre Surf Club parking lot (before it was changed over to the current designated, public, San Onofre State Beach) It must have been between surf sessions as I can see someone walking on the beach wearing what appears to be Everlast Boxing shorts. My brother was the first to try and find a pair of shorts that would dry fast between sessions. It was his first unusual thing to make people stay away from him in the water. Who knew he was a mild, gentle teenager. The image of the Everlast Boxing Trunks was ***ociated with violence and fighting. So, most folks tended to stay away on the sand and in the water. That was the point. Was that him in the early 60's photo at San Onofre Beach? My "Salmon Pink" sedan delivery enjoying a day at the famous surf spot? My first official hot rod/surf wagon purchase was Salmon Pink… who cares? It was, “My Own Private Idaho…” YRMV
My most memorable late night build came after I had blown up the engine in my Chevelle and wanted to make a car show coming up. On the Friday before, I found a short block (12:1 302) in the local shop and swap type paper and went and bought it after work. I borrowed a set of angle plug 58cc heads from a friend and pulled the cam out of the blown up engine. Anyway, me and a buddy started on it about 6:00 that Friday evening pulling the blown up engine, swapping all the parts over and stabbing it back in. We had it running again around 2 or 3:00 in the morning when we took it for a test drive down to the car wash. Pretty sure I got a couple hours sleep before driving it to the car show that day. Pretty sure that much work might take me a month now…
Probably been 5 years now. The old 302 sbf ****ted out on us, ive always had a stack of them. So a Friday after work we (Me and a few friends) yanked it out. Was a pain, we had put it in a BMW. So three in the morning comes around and 2 cases of beer later. Finally got it running, so how's a good way to break it in? We decided to drive a hour and half-ish over to Indiana. Wanted to take it on the dirt track. Dumb luck, the gate was unlocked. So we do a few laps at 5-6 in the morning and leave. Broke down not even a mile away and ended up on the side of the road. Took a bit but I think we got home around 8am.
After supper one summer evening, driving a big old '59 Ford 4door. 292 and 3 speed out of a '55 Meteor. Threw a "speed shift" into 2nd gear and broke the transmission pretty good. Got the trans out and apart to see what was wrong and then went to my favorite auto wrecker, open late, and got the parts I needed to fix the trans. Put it back together and backed it out of the shop at about 11:30. Out of the shop was a little bit downhill. Put it in low gear to drive away and found that the rear end had also done it's last work. I guess there was some wheel hop when I shifted into 2nd and I broke the spider gears in the rear end. I pushed the car back into the shop and called it a day.
i was working in the local gm dealer parts dept in the early 80s. Friday after work using a buddies garage(18 and living at home yet) dropped a 327 in my 63 nova for the first time. couldnt get the dist to drop all of the way down on the intake. finally figured out that the oil pump drive was to long for the chevyII pump/pan setup. pulled motor back out and pulled pan. this was about 3am i waited until 7:30 went to the other gm dealer that handled chevy parts they had the pump drive in stock. bought it went back to the garage put in the parts in and the motor back in. finally had it running on sunday morning about 10am. went home and went to bed didnt wake up until it was time to go to work on monday morning. My mother asked me want in heck i had been doing all weekend because she couldnt wake me up for dinner on sunday night, but she could tell i was still breathing so she just left me alone.
Ron ********x a friend of mine owned mid 60’s Mustang notchback with a 289 hypo factory rated 271 HP four speed. However those engines were notorious for being underrated and a few changes and good tune up could make big horsepower. He and I later enlisted in the USMC together. Ron ******** “Karp” was also there, he and I were friends since childhood and he later was my best man when my wife and I were married. Unfortunately he is now deceased. It was in the early Spring probably March or April when it was decided to take the Mustang to opening day at Detroit Dragway which we had talked about before. After Saturday night dates we met at Karp’s Dads attached garage probably about midnight. There was a set of headers to install, new points and plugs, slicks to get on, cleaning out car, removing spare tire and a handful of other things to be done. It was cold outside and also in the garage. Someone had the idea that we should light a charcoal grill with a full bag of charcoal roll it into the garage to warm it up. The work began but all of us began getting drowsy with terrible headaches. After going outside we figured out it was carbon monoxide poisoning so we rolled the grill back outside and after opening the garage door which made it that much colder inside but at least the fresh cold air did clear our heads. To install the headers had to loosen the motor mounts and jack up engine to get clearance to get them in then put everything back in place. The other stuff went pretty well and then the tuneup started and we fired engine about 7:00am open headers and all. Needless to say it did not set well with Karp’s parents and probably the neighbors. Karp’s grandmother lived with them and was of Armenian decent spoke very little English opened the garage door rattled off I’m sure cuss words or worse with a few hand gestures and then slammed the door. Ron and I left and I dropped him off at home. I later picked him up again to retrieve the car and we made our way to the “Double D” went through tech, weigh in etc. That little Mustang was quick often pulling the drivers side front wheel off the ground on launch. That later proved to be a problem breaking the spot welds on floor pan from twisting. Ron would take it in and they would weld it back with an arc welder. It was a cool little car dark green, slicks and mags in the back and rather small front tires and mags in front. The front was jacked up with rubber coil spacers to just about level. Don’t exactly remember how we did that day other than making several p***es in eliminations before getting beat. Do remember being very tired but nothing that youth and a day or two couldn’t handle at that time.
The Jalopy Journal
