Hot Rods 32 roadster…rebuild & shakedown

@RockyMtnWay
Neat Vortec covers
Never see thoes ,
@ least they are large all the way around
Most Vortec to small @ base .
Would been neat to have a flush plug
To screw down just top .
With just like .003-.005 crack & half moon arch like a true Zeus notch .
Or a few 15 pond pull magnets on the inside top cover .
Just asking the openings on top cover
Look to be for plug wires to drop down to spark plugs ?

 

great build thread, clear detailed photos and info, no one who actually builds cars would find it boring.
Threads like yours give the HAMB life (imo)

 

Plumbing…oh joy…
Not a ***y element to building a hot rod, but a necessary evil . Especially for some of us up here in the great white north.
Had a question earlier and as I haven’t seen too many threads where guys share their heater solutions, I thought I would this time in case it helps anyone pondering the ‘to heat or not to heat’ question.

How I do it:
Once I know where the heater is going inside, I try to devise a way to run the hoses so the cabin hoses and the engine bay hoses don’t look too offensive.
Function over form, but not too ugly is the goal.



I’ll hang the heater on the mounts so you can see how the lines will go up behind it and once the upholstery is in, you will only see the shut off knob.
Going to re-do the shut-off control, and I’ll post some pics when done, but here’s the basic idea and some numbers of the stuff I use.
Note: I like to use a return valve instead of a shut off valve to keep the hot antifreeze out of the cabin when the heater is not in use, and I find this doubles as the recommended byp*** line for the zips water pump riser for ‘non-heater use’ cars.

*** FYI: 4th time using a zips and running the lines this way.
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Look around the 57 and 210 freeway in San Dimas or by the Grand Ave exit in West Covina. Pomona is sketchy. Glendora has some along Route 66 and Covina has a couple. These are all are decent areas. There is a newer Holiday Inn on Eucla in San Dimas 1/2 block south of SoCal Speed - their open house is on Thursday. You'll also want to hit Casa Del Rey on Bonita for great Mexican Food.

 

Stayed at the Lemon Tree a few times a number of years ago..............I don't recommend it.

 

What can I say - it's in Pomona.......

 

Thanks for the tips gentlemen. Appreciate it.

 

Another sad update from my sad little garage. And yup, still avoiding that wiring job…

Got pissed off at the pedals and decided to make a big hole in the firewall so I could work on them more easily. I’ll just use a stainless cover like I did on the Tudor (when I decided to tweak the steering column location/lower mount).

New taller/longer pedals:

S/S cover will be something like this:


What drove this madness?
Why go backwards?

Well as I’m gettin older and I have nothing better to do now that I cancelled my LARS trip (again), I thought I’d waste some time and effort to get some (even if just slightly) easier pedal pressure on both my clutch and brake pedals, kinda been stewin on it for a bit, so i went nuts and started modding up a new set with some added swing (boosted pedal ratio a smidge) and added a little extra length (travel). Still need to trim, drill, tap, finish and paint em but hoping to make my driving miles a smidge easier/happier for my old OG knees.
Should probably do like the m***es and switch to hydraulic stuff, but can’t go there (yet).

Always amazes me when working on these little cars where a 1/4” to 1/2” change here or there just cascades into more work/tweaks elsewhere. Easy couple hour job turned into a full +8 hours. Good thing I only charge myself whiskey.

Today was supposed to be a nice easy day, just bending up some fuel lines and finalizing the fuel system, and then maybe finalize the cooling and heating hoses. Oh well.
Guess it’ll be the fuel lines and gates hoses tomorrow…

Cheat sheet:


Another nit to address:
Didn’t notice when I mocked up this wanna be SoCal frame that the brake master cylinder mount didn’t line up the way it should for a clutch/brake combo set up (likely everyone just uses em for automatics I guess). So let’s cut that off and remount it so **** lines up better. I’m such a dumb***. But to me that 1/2” means everything (and no, that’s not what she said, ha).


The new pedal length will work so … so far so good…



And here’s the end of day pic. Sure doesn’t look like anything moved forward… but maybe a little … and I did get most of my mess cleaned up. Oh yeah, was supposed to do plug wires today too.



Just another sad day in the sad life of a sad wanna be hot rodder.
…

 

Too dang funny…
Was routing around in one of my cupboards and trying to sort and/or clean stuff up.
Guess what I found in one of my swap meet bins?
Looks like more OTB product but no idea where it came from or what pressure cap is under it. I’ll have too take it apart before I use it to see.



Good reminder to do a major round up and clean out when this roadster is done (and before the good lord calls me) or my wife is gonna be pissed if she has to clean out my stashed junk.
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Still trying to avoid the wiring job so decided to finalize pedal setup and start painting the bits. Musta bonked my head cause I decided to start cutting the inner door structures up so I could lay some dynamat inside them. The really tin sound these brookville cars/doors make kinda bugs me so decided to do something about it. Had already done the cowl space and part of the rear quarters, easy access. Doors are another story.

Little wrinkley, but I’ll do better on the p***enger door.

 

When I was digging through stuff I also found some roadster outer door handles.
I’ve had them on my swap meet tables, on and off again for over ten years with no takers. Good thing I guess, because another nit that has been developing in my brain is needing to reach into the car to open the doors. Kinda need two hands that way. Hard not to spill my beverage that may or may not be in my hand.
Haven’t committed and drilled the holes yet, but wife has green lit the idea. Bonus.




Love the look of the handles on the other 32s I’ve done. Black paint with chrome handles…very nice.

 

Decided I was gonna get’r done on Friday night so kept at it til finished.
Nice beautiful warm summer evening to work.
So both doors were cut, opened, dynamated, rewelded, semismoothed, and painted.
Door panels will hide my quickie job, so I didn’t worry too much about the looks.
Ting ting now sounds like thunk thunk and they close with a nice heavy sound instead of a high pitched (annoying) ting. Yeah baby.
Gonna be awesome when the ****ers tap on em and they sound more like fibregl*** than steel, f’em and I’ll enjoy not having to hear that sound any more.



Wife made fun of me saying that I’m running out of things to do before I have to wire the car. She may be right.
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Was painting some of the brake/clutch linkage pieces and started putting together some of the wiring pieces. Have stuff spread out all over the place and seem to have lost track of many bits.
As part of this little panel mock up, which is pretty much out of view unless you’re looking for it, I thought about repainting it, but decided to knock the paint off and give it a quick polish to see what it might look like. Don’t like it as is (it’s a little bush), but it’s given me an idea for something to fab up this week. Need to add a little more form over function or hide it a little more.



I greyed out the area (roughly) that the dash will cover..
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More little projects moving along.
Time to start the fab work on the cover to block in the pedals.
Don’t have a lot of stainless left so made a template from basic sheet s****.
Now I need to get motivated to cut and weld up the final version.
Trying to keep it simple but it looks like I’m gonna need to do a 2 piece thanks to the decision to keep the pedal arms/mounts standard (SoCal/Roadster Supply type).
Pissin rain today (and looks like a few days of **** ahead), so might do the outside door handles next. Anything to put off the wiring a few more days, right?

 

If anyone is interested in how a SoCal pedal set on a SoCal type frame, with their bell crank stuff works, here’s the final (maybe) version on the roadster project.
Will still need final adjustment, but it should work out now.
Had to make a ton of ‘tweaks’ and I did a few things that I think will make it work a lil better.
Ended up just using plain steel for the block in cover and made it two piece so it is easier to put the pedals in (and take em out I suppose).




Still need to create pedal travel stops and stick on the pedal pads .

 

I used these.

 

any more pics of that merc?

 

I asked before
What brand is the center bolt valve covers ?

 

Posted a few on here, but will do lots when I get to its ‘updates’.
Like this:

 

Sorry, musta missed the Q.
I think they were from Technostalgia (sp?), but cannot confirm.
Had a few sets and sold them at local swap meets.
Was told when I sold the last set that they are not made any more.
Cannot confirm or deny.

 

Today was a little progress day.
Just choke cable (another hole in the firewall ), throttle cable, and seat belts install.
Pitiful.
Oh, and I started sorting and stringing the wire out. .
I’ll do pics of the spaghetti work later this week.

 

@RockyMtnWay
Same with these's
Hard to find you can see look close to regular cover ,
1st picture I do not know the brand nor
Where I purchased.
Compared to 2nd picture that are common advertised

 

Great job on the doors, I dig it!

 

Thank's

 

After putting a quick polish on the cabin control panel and thinking I liked it, I thought I’d whip up a quick little panel for the trunk junction block. Don’t know why as it will never be seen, but I love wasting time (it seems). Had this old overhead cabin light kicking around so thought I’d put it in here. It’s kinda gay, but cost me nothing so…

So now the *** end wiring is done and tested and the upholstery panels are back in.
Time to move forward into the cabin. Pun intended.

Took a little wider angle pic so it includes the fuel tank loop and rollover valve in case folks are curious.


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Started piling up boxes and bags of old wiring bits and pieces weeks ago along with a 12 circuit ‘kit’ I had, and finally getting to the wiring job itself.
Spaghetti everywhere, but I think I have most of the pieces to get er done. I’d set another target date for completion, but then it would seem like work.

 

Wife said the trunk light looked like ****. The more I looked at it, the more I agreed. Color it gone…and replaced with ‘hidden’ source (just different lights high up where they can’t be seen). Pinned a hamb tag in place for ****s and giggles.



Wiring job is moving along slowly as I keep needing to find pieces as I go. I’ve been at this project too long and I seem to be getting better at misplacing stuff.
As I string the wires and cut to length, I use zip ties to keep things organized/tidy. Go through a lot of zip ties this way, but I like stringing the wires without twisting them all up. Once I have everything where I want it and it’s tidy, I replace the ties with tape and wiring loom/covers.



Sure is easier to sit on the patio in the sunshine with a beer or a whiskey than crawl all around the project organizing, stringing, cutting, crimping, and fastening wires.
Next pics will be of finished wiring job, but gonna bomb around in the Tudor with the wife this weekend so won’t be for a bit.
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I was going to ask about the trunk light, only because it looked like a 70's interior light but couldn't remember from what?

 

^^ Early 70's Cougar.

 

I'll have to go back to see if I missed something. Is the open end of the fuel tank vent line under the car?

Trying to figure out how to properly do that on one of mine.