Projects Hauled Home a Henry J Today

Thanks guys for all the positive comments. The car is really a rusty piece of junk and I'm sure I paid too much but it came with a ***le. It has all the usual floor and rocker rust on the driver's side, as well as rust through along the rain channel above the driver's door. The hood is full of bondo and weighs 3x what it should. Before I get to start building it for real I'm going to have to do some restoration to the rusted panels. I think I've talked myself into making my own fibergl*** 1 piece front end. Want fibergl*** doors and possibly rear quarters for weight savings purposes. I can't build doors due to their complex shapes, but I might try the rear fenders. I do need a driver's door due to rust anyway. I also am missing door gl*** for both doors and I think every other piece of gl*** in the thing is broken. I plan on using Plexigl*** to replace it since it's all flat. The only good window I have is the rear.

Right now I'm poor broke and have little time, but looking at what I have and making plans. The sooner I can get other projects out of the way the sooner I can get to starting on it.

Keep the comments coming!

Devin

 

These folks have the fibergl*** front end: http://scottrodscustom.com/henryj.html as well as several other parts.

 

I know they do and I'd like to buy them. I saw dragracer50 use them on his build and he seemed very happy with the results. When I'm ready I'm going to have to debate time vs. money. I have the skills and can buy the materials cheap to do it myself. But I'll openly admit it won't be as nice as store bought stuff.

Devin

 

Good to see another HJ project

 

It will probably be a good year before I get going on it in earnest, but I'm collecting pieces and making plans as I wait. Then again, my son is almost 14 and we have our eyes out for something for him so that may interrupt my progress also, but it WILL get done.

Devin

 

Your car doesn't look so bad in the pictures. Replacing the floor and rocker panels is pretty much standard practice for Henry Js. The fiberglas front won't be cheap, so don't give up so easy on the sheet metal you have.

 

I won't be starting on mine for a while either but have already collected a ton of parts and still collecting more for it. Will keep an eye on this build, nothing better than a Henry J!

 

Well, little bit of an update. Got a call on Sunday night, the friend's house where I had been storing it was no longer available, he had a week to move, so I had to round up a trailer in a hurry. Good thing my previous long term project was just about to leave. I planned on storing it a few more months, but it's here now.

I left it on the trailer from Monday til today in order to get it to the DMV for VIN verification. It's now ***led in my name, finally.

Took a few shots this afternoon. It's really rough, but it doesn't hurt my feelings to cut it up to make a race car out of it. Checked the kingpins, they're sloppy, so I'll be putting an axle under it unless I come by stock parts in good shape for cheep.

 

And this sticker appeared on it while it was in storage:

 

Guess it's time to learn to do body work

Devin

 

it's rough but not that bad i love those henrys getir done

 

Looks good. I like to see other h/j it makes me want to finish mine.

 

I was finally able to get it in the garage this weekend.



And then, just because I am a glutton for punishment, I started sanding on it. The existing paint is rough as can be and full of rust and dirt. At this point I'm only after getting it fairly smooth, nowhere near show quality.





Devin

 

Got the call from my machine shop, motor is all ready to go. Now I need to get the rest of the car ready!!

If I've got it figured right, it should be capable of running 9s. Motor makes peak power at 6900 and I'm thinking final weight should be around 2300 lbs. I need to figure an approximate mph to find gearing. Any suggestions?


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nice to see that J go some where. I did look at that same one in south Oregon at the time the old man was asking 5000 for it. I did wanted to buy it but not for that much. hope you have fun with it.

 

I had no idea he was asking that much. I didn't pay anywhere near that, but it wasn't a screaming deal by any means either. The big thing is I got a ***le.

I'm still in the stuff collecting phase right now, as other projects are in front of it, but it will get done in time. I may start working on getting the front end off of it next time I get some free time. I need to get the engine mocked up and metal cut out before I start fixing stuff.

Devin

 

It's been a while but I found myself with some time today and decided to address one of the things the Henry J needs. Mine somehow escaped the factory without the standard options of a straight axle and radiused rear fenders. So I went after the fenders today:



Following Swade41's example I used a jackstand, a piece of steel rod and a piece of chalk on a string







So it's official. I'm a hack. This job is rough as a corncob. I may need to trim it some more when I get my slicks, these tires are only 27" tall and I'm thinking 30" slick so I'm leaving it as is for now. I tried to weld up a couple of places where the saw didn't turn like I wanted, but all it did was make the hole bigger so I'll deal with that later.

At this point the wheels aren't actually bolted on, just mocked up since Kaiser was kind enough to use bolts to hold the stock wheels on. They weren't long enough to make thread engagement so i had to throw the stock steelies back on when I was done.

Thanks,

Devin

 

I've picked up a couple of front axles recently, first one from a 55-59 Chevy pickup. Kingpins are good and brakes are complete, but when I tossed it under the car it looked a bit wide so I tossed it out in the shed. The second one I picked up was from an early Econoline, again good kingpins and complete brakes, tossed it under the car and it looked wide too, so I measured it and it appears both are about 62" wide wms to wms. Either will need a good disk brake kit, which is easier to find for the Chevy axle, but at this point it will depend as much on which will mount easier as to which one gets used. The stock wheel track on these things is pretty narrow so a bit wider is ok, I'm just not sure how much is ok. I have a friend that has one that sits like I want mine to, I'm going to see if I can get some measurements off his soon.

Also picked up a set of 4.86 gears with the Econoline axle. Woohoo!!

Devin

 

oops i would have given you my cut qrtrs -trade for yours you know those unbolt didn't you

 

Funny how these opportunities turn up after you do something. I saved the pieces I removed in case it was too much but a set of already cut ones would have been fine too. Yes, I know that they unbolt-Doing the cut off the car wouldn't have made it any better using the tools I have. Once the 9" gets swapped in and appropriate size tires are bought I will finalize and clean up the mess.

I have a 9" from a late 50's Ford that has the mounting pads in the right places to bolt in to the stock leaf springs but the mounts are on top of that housing and the stock rear mounts are under the axle, so that will raise the rear probably 5" and I will be using a 30" tall tire instead of the N50s that are on the wheels now that are only 26" tall.

Devin

 

Made a little progress today with the long weekend. With the help of my best helper (oldest son) the front bumper came off today





Much better

 

Don't know if this thread is still good after all the changes to the site. If it comes back up to the top would someone respond? I'll do some updating if so.

Thanks

Devin

 

Update away.

 

Ok, time for an update then. After 2 years of working with my son on his car, his is roadworthy and I finally get some time to get back on my car. A while back I did a Rustoleum paint job. For a rusty, junky race car, it's perfect. I had started at one point to do it in orange, but it looked awful. I would love to do a full-boat candy orange over silver flake, but this wasn't cutting it. I scuffed it all out and rolled it in black.







And with paint:

 

And in the mean time I've been slowly working on getting the front end loose on this thing. I had read that there really wasn't all that many bolts holding the nose in place. There are 11. The one in the front center had to be removed with a grinder, no big surprise on a rusty car. We finally pulled it off a couple of weeks ago:





And then finally today the engine came out with the help of a friend with a tractor.



I also sold a car today so now I have need to order the headers I'm expecting to use.

Devin

 

These were waiting for me when I got home yesterday. I need to ***emble a dummy block to start mocking everything up but my back wasn't up to it and I don't have my helper.

Devin

 

great project nothing like a j! keep up the good work !

 

Nice to get back to this thread and checking out the progress. What engine are you running ?

 

Running a 427 that's currently installed in my Camino. This was it before I dropped it in last time.



It's currently backed by a TKO600 but will have a TH400 behind it in the Henry J. Early 9" rear is in my possession, but small bearing, as well as an Econoline axle and 4.86 gears.

Devin

 

It's been almost a year since I updated this last. Just read through it and not sure how it has 2 duplicate pages, at least on my computer. Anyway, I have made some progress in the mean time.



Stuff tends to collect around non-moving vehicles. I removed all the mounts for the original engine and anything else that I could get out of the way and marked the firewall for cutting. I'm not sure if it is enough yet, but I'd rather have to cut more than find I took out too much.



Daylight!





I had been waiting to get some paint on the headers until I was sure that they weren't going to need some modification, but in this wet environment they had started rusting even in my garage so they got paint too.



I also was given an engine cover from an old outboard motor. It had the right shape to it, so I cut it down to use for a hood scoop. I'm still trying it out to see if I like it.





Still playing with ideas for door art. This one is my most recent idea.



Devin