When you work all those hours and long nights just to feel like a 5 year old on christmas morning when you hear your engine fire for the first time. Thats how i felt today, and hopefully tomorrow after finishing my throttle linkage and a few other things im going for a drive. I have the biggest smile on my face. Travis, i just had to share that. P.S. Dan (flatshoebox) Im gonna do a burnout on your lawn ****er.
Congrat's........know the feeling well...............don't forget to take some pic's of that lawn burnout!!
Even if just a few hours ago that motor was running in something else, there is no better thrill than the first time it fires up in your project....cept maybe for the first burn-out....Fido
first time you fire the motor..first time it moves under it's own power.....first time you take it for a cruise...it is always a thrill i know it has always been for me...many,many,many times i hope you get to do it many more times too congradulations! you are now officailly a REAL hot rodder.....not just a guy who wants to , or talks about it..no one can take that away from you....you created a working/running hot rod with your own hands
For me, it's the smell of engine paint and new exhaust "burning in" for the first time. Once that goes away, the first burnout brings the feeling right back.
First time my Grandpa saw my 51 he said "I hope you didn't pay more than s**** value for it!" a week later I got the old 216 running, I had a gutteral roar come from somewhere deep inside me that only the car gods could have created. I'm pretty sure I scared the neighbors two houses down! The first time you bring an old engine back to life is a pretty special feeling to me, be it car, motorcycle, boat, hell even a 60's briggs and straton that sat at my dad's for 15 years!
Oh... Man you just brought a tear to my eye... The coolest thing about that is that it dosn't mater how many times you do it, if it's your fist car or your 100th car it alway the same, Thanks for that thought i,ll smile the rest of the day for ya. Louver Dude.
Ive always been a "real hot rodder" This is just my first project that i started with nothing and did everything myself, all of my other cars have run on some sort of way when i bought them. Just thought id clarify. Thanks Travis
hey travis .. i didn't mean to imply you weren't with my drunken ramblings , just that rebuilding and firing the motor for the first time is kinda special to us all good luck with your project
For,what seems to be my whole life,I've built motors and driven cars all over the world.Big and small. Complicated or simple. IT ALWAYS FEELS GOOD...... And even better when you can see it hook-up and kick*** When people ask "Why??" I always tell'em "I live for NOISE!!" I hope you all have many many more of 'These moments'
What up with all these "feeling" threads? This one and the **** thread... This place is starting to look like a ******** "chick flick". I can almost hear the squacky shrill British womens voices of a Jane Austin book/PBS movie coming out of the computer fan's hum... Just kidding... (and no I don't watch them, but I end up getting to listen to that **** when Wife watches them, if it's too cold or late to go out to the garage and make man-noises.) Oh on the subect. When I rebuilt the engine in my '55 Olds I had before the blue truck, I put it all together, filled the float bowl with a prime bottle of gas and fired it right up. It fired up just as if it had been started 20 minutes ago, but then it died. And it continued to start and die just like that for the better part of an hour while I tried to figure out why, and then it dawned on me. I had had the car parked out in the open lot at the Olds dealer I worked at and all the gas in the tank had "disappeared." It was bone dry! So a cuople gallons out of the 55 gallon drum we kept in the shop and it ran like it should, and continued to run, daily, for 12 years till I traded it for the 40 GMC that is now my blue truck.
P.S. Dan (flatshoebox) Im gonna do a burnout on your lawn ****er I'd return the favor if you had a lawn! Did you get all three carbs runnin yet??... hurry the **** up and lets race!! you really should lower that thing!!!!!!!!hahahahaha
More carbs will be here on wednesday and i would have done a lawn job if your damn kids bikes werent in the way.
Congratulations! Nothing like the roar of raw horsepow.... Who are we kidding, it's a 215! do you have an exhaust system on it? Mine sounded like a sewing machine with a muffler on it. Post some pics of the linkage, I'll be setting up a 2x1 on my 223 pretty soon.
I did the same thing yesterday and man, what a rush! I was grinnin' like a possum eatin' poop! I posted about mine yesterday. Those two buddies that play with late model cars kept talking about how "raw" it is and how that is the way it supposed to be. Mind you, they play with new Mustangs and Camaros....I think they're believers now. One has been asking many, many questions and doing some reading. When I read 4t64rd's post about it being "raw", it reminded me of our conversation last night. It's a pure as the morning sunshine.......oh, just doesn't fit with flames coming of of 6" long pipes, and the beautiful rumble of a flatty at idle.....huh? ....I'm still grinning. I wanted to tell everyone at work but they're all a bunch of straight laced.......
The Jalopy Journal
