@fortynut I have been pondering the Lexan idea, as my old 34 Plymouth had a Lexan roof insert at first As cool looking as it was it warped after a couple of summers from the heat and the sealant couldn´t make up for all those expanding and withdrawing cycles the roof insert went through and it leaked pretty badly after just a few years. Not to speak of the glasshouse effect, we´ve got sunburnt on longer roadtrips, hahahaha I agree with the cycle fenders needing to be part of the car. Everything else will look sketchy... I think TÜV requires them to cover about 1/4 or 1/3 of the tire circumference, and maybe I ´ll clock the front ones so they ´ll be covering the 1 o´clock to 4 o´clock position . For the rears the hard part will be to find 34 Ford ( or something fitting close enough) rear fenders over here , I´m not that afraid of actually bobbing them.
Baumi There is a material called Kydex. It's a thermoplastic sheet used in pistol holsters and knife cases. It car be formed with a heat gun but is quite rigid. You could bend it to fit the roof opening and use screws or duz fasteners to hold it in. Would look great covered in white pleats.
...One More...I also updated the Non Scripted Insert one...I gave it an Interior and tinted glass kinda sorta... ...Perhaps this might give you some inspiration as well...One Of my Faves...A Life Of Riley Hotrod had Hood and sides with abstract flames added at some point... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/any-history-on-the-ice-box.931199/ ...The Ice Box Coupe... Credit to Photographers, Owners,
Sorry, not a lot. I got the radiator top tank resoldered lately as I found it started to leak and after reassembly and a test drive I found my hydraulic throwout bearing does not fully disengage the clutch anymore. Happened before and bleeding helps, but it´s just annoying to have to bleed the TOB every few months. I´ll have to think of a better solution for this, maybe a cable operated clutch mechanism. We have a 8 month old son now and I also have a few old cars that have enough room to haul the little guy plus his equipment around, so finishing the 34 is not very high on my list at the moment. I ´ve had it up for sale a while ago but of course my price was too steep for an unfinished car, but that´s not a problem either, because I still love just looking at it and having it around. As Mark @Moriarity says, " Selling will lead to future regret", and think he´s right. There will be a time when there I´ll be able to finish it ot at least start tinkerin again. I hate to admit it, but this car is both the one I wanted to have the most and also my first "stalled" project ever. What a contradiction, hahaha,
When you really love it, It needs to be perfect. I just stumbled in here. I can offer this, I had a cable Throw out from a Suzuki. It worked like a charm no trouble, ten years. Glad to meet you.
Yes, it does. But perfection is not my league, not even my sport. I´d already be satisfied with" good enough", hahaha .Thanks for chiming in and letting me know about the Suzuki clutch cable.
Happy Independence Day everyone!! Well, I´ve been semi-sucessfully procastinating on working on the 34 for the last couple years. So, without any real motivation to get it back on the road, I decided to try and sell it to maybe someone that appriciated it for what it is. I did have some issues with the 312 that I got figured out finally but I kind of burnt myself out fixing them . Nothing extremly complicated, but everytime I put another new 100$ rear main seal in , finding a puddle of oil under the engine shortly after the first or second drive put me a step closer to setting that thing on fire. It just fought me . No one wanted the car more than me, so I asked myself what I didn´t like about it. The answer was surprisingly easy. A very good friend ended up buying my 312 Y Block, complete from aircleaners to oilpan and I hate to admit it, but it was a good day to see it go. Mike is putting it in his 40 Ford, so I´m sure he is making good use of it. I, for my part, decided to go down Chevy lane, as boring as it may seem to some or most, but I have enough hassle going on in my business and life,enough money pits to fill, that I don´t need anymore of that in my free time. And early Chevys are what I ´m familiar with and what I´m used to work on ( and what I really love, just don´t tell anyone!) So I had three early chevy blocks ( 1x 327 and 2x 283´s)sitting and waiting at my Buddy´s machine shop and I told him, whatever block he does first goes into the 34. I´m calling this gem the rusty mouse, as it had a mouse nest under the intake and was extremely rusty inside. The pushrods where rusted through. Since I hate to throw things away we tried to save the block with a sleeve on #1 and # 7 and a .030 overbore. The block got decked to 8/100mm pistons under deck and will be run with steel shim gaskets and power pack heads. Further updates and pics will follow soon
This is Rusty Mouse. The push rods under the nest were rusted through and I cut the #1 and #7 piston out with a hole saw.
The last drive from my garage to the shop went flawlessly, of course! ( Sorry, I can´t get the pictures turned around.) View attachment 5775160 Testfitting the truck bellhousing to the HotRod Works adapter. Worked like a charm! View attachment 5775161 View attachment 5775162 My friend Nickl came over to draw me an engine mount. I´d have cut it out from angle iron, but he has a few of these CNsomething laser machines that can do crazy things. He also cut out some reinforcements braces that will be welded to the bracket. View attachment 5775163
So, I´ll try and see if I am able to put up photos from my phone that are not kittywampus.... Edit: Fail ,hahaha Whatever, I cleaned the rods, crank and block in vinegar to get rid of all the rust. Of course everything will flashrust right after pressure washing, but that´s to be expected, and a light coat of Ballistol took care of that. I got the parts all clean inside and out, and gave the block a coat of primer.
I thought I had a little trouble installing the mid cam bearing, I just could not get the camshaft to slide through. Fun fact: the bearing diameter was just too small , but it had the right number on it. Luckily I tend to order 3 of everything when ordering from the US, because shipping is pretty much the same whether the box is full or half empty. The center bearing from another set with the same number fit perfectly and the cam turns freely. I also figured the stock rods would be good enough for what I´m going to do to this car, but better ARP rod bolts are good insurance just in case a fellow grows a wild hair. Cam is a very mild Edelbrock Performer Plus with 204°/ 214° @.050 and 112° LSA. It´s been sitting on my shelf for a least 15 years , so I have good faith it won´t have those weak lifters the new cams set come with.
The mouse motor is holding what its name promised. The mice pee rusted the heads pretty bad, but that´s good, I planned on porting and cutting them anyways. I also played with bigger valves, but the small bore would just shroud the inlet valve and not help at all…. As soon as the new valves come in from summit the heads will be off to my friend´s machine shop… not much progress otherwise The heads are power packs. I gave them a light coat of primer after blasting them, just to keep them from flash rusting. I know I could have bought a set of 305 heads and save me some work and money, but I just love the smooth look of the no accessory bolt hole heads… I kinda thought of welding up the rusted valve stems for a minute, hahahaaaaaa, just kidding…. Valve guides are very nice and tight, I ´ m sure this was a nice low mile engine before family Mouse moved in…..
The heads came back from the machine shop and I obviously put in new valves since the old ones were almost rusted through. Assembly is fun! I‘m still undecided if I‘m going to put the old chrome factory or the cal custom valve covers on …. I like both
So, I finally got all the parts I thought I needed to put the mouse motor in the 34 but as luck would have it , mix-matching parts that don´t belong together nothing fits right... I thought I had three matching flywheels, but all of them came from an 235 six as I found out. My friend Damir helped me out with a brand new V8 one and another friend of mine, Manuel, machined the pilot bearing to fit the T5 WC input shaft. Hot Rod Works supplied a perfectly machined adapter so after several trails and errors the drivetrain is completed.
This is still not a lot of progress, but it feels good to at least inch a little step ahead. Tonight, when it´s bedtime for our little guy, I´ll be heading out in the shop and heave that beast back in place, hopefully for the last time
Wow, nice work resurrecting that mouse nest mouse motor Can’t wait to try the 283/T-5 in my 34 Keep up the good work
Thank you, when I found the nest and the rotted out push rods I thought about throwing it away. But the steel crank was perfect, it only needed two sleeves and a bore hone and deck job and having friend that works at a machine shop made the decision to build it a lot easier. I´m confident it´s gonna run pretty decent for a 283. I tried to get as much compression as I could with flat tops and chose a mild enough cam . I hope it works.
Nice work on the 'mouse motor' What color did you paint it? I really like the color but on my computer the picture of the oil pan doesn't look like Chevrolet orange. Keep up the great work.
Funny you ask, I was undecided on the color so I just primered the block to keep it from flashrusting. I liked the red oxid color, it is not as bright as the late chevy orange and closer to the oxblood color the early sbcs had. ..so I went to our local paint store and had them mix me a couple rattle cans of synthetic based resin enamel in glossy red oxid. It‘s actually tractor paint and holds up nicely on engines.
No wonder I liked the color, I have always liked the look of red oxide but I have never seen it in a gloss paint. Great choice.
Last night I managed to wrestle the drivetrain in, hopefully for the last time.... there , I said it...no way. Hahaha, I also beefed up the front motor mount and added a simple alternator bracket to it. I looked for a piece of thickwall tubing and found an old wrist pin that was left over from an old Vespa. The upper adjustable bracket will most likely attach to the lower water pump bolt . I just wanted the Alt out of sight, that´s way it´s mounted so low. Next things on the list are: Exhaust, rebuild intake and carb, break in,---fix what needs fixing. Then clean the heck out of it, that poor little car has inches of dust and dirt on it , just from sitting and being englected.... but times are about to change
In the States, we would have thrown that engine in the scrap pile. Glad you didn't. Nice work. -Abone.
Ok, I think it´s time for another update. I rebuilt the carb and ported the stock 4bbl manifold to fit the ported heads, wondering how much better ( if any ) this will work over a stock unit. I also made an arm for the alternator, made trelven or more trips to the parts store to find a matching belt ( anyone else who sucks at measuring belts as bad as I do?)ran fuel lines, ordered some tubing and flanges to get the exhaust ready... we are getting closer to have that 34 running again. BTW, I was visiting my friend Mike , that´s the guy who bought my 312 Y engine. It´s still sitting there untouched. His garage is almost like a museum. Lots of great stuff.
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