Projects 1934 3 window HighBoy Build Begins

Look like a nice start. Rex will do it up right.

 

I got my wood kit for my 34 3w from:

Classic Wood Mfg
<!-- adr -->1006 N Raleigh Street

Greensboro, NC 27405-7328

<!--/o-company-->
(336) 691-1344


They had it in stock and the prices were right. Most of the vendors on the east coast buy from these guys and re-sell them.

-Mike

 

A little progress....Dave Crouse made a run down from Loveland this morning to pick up 3 vehicles at Blast Tech. Here's the coupe minus a few layers of old and rusty. smile.

On the engine front, Gary at Rocker Arms Unlimited ( new company name after employee buy out) was able to round up a set of push rods and they are on the way. He sure is nice to speak with! (plug for his business)

I may have to drive up to see Rex and swap the front tires left /right for him. IE: the front tires are on the opposite sides so the treads are running backwards. I think Rex leaves them this way because people keep teasing him over it. LOL

Regards,
George

 

Yes Richmond 5 speed.

 

My wife and I drove up to Loveland to deliver water pump adapters , water pump and an EFI manifold + stack to Rex for next weeks motor mounts locating effort in the chassis. He will need to have them on the mock up 392 to determine location for both height as well as firewall set back. After a nice lunch and a walk around downtown we headed back. I was planning on a little afternoon shop time for slipping in the hydraulic lifters and adding my cleaned up push rods plus newly reworked heads. A couple of hours and the engine re assembly will be getting really close to being wrapped up. NOT!!! 4 of the 16 lifters would not slip but half way in their bores. WHAT THE HECK? How do you get this far along and have this type of issue? The bores needed to be honed AGAIN even though they were supposedly ready to go. A trip to the auto parts store to pick up a wheel cylinder hone was quick and I proceeded by first removing the cam shaft to insure I did not screw up my cam lobes while honing the 4 tight lifter bores. The hone was a piece of junk and I called Pete to see what he might have? Oh?, Pete commented that " I don't use that type of hone as it will be a disaster" Come over and borrow my " ball hone" . Well duh! It was , in fact, a piece of cake. (see attached pic below) I used a couple of shop rags on the bottom side to catch the penetrating oil that I used liberally while honing and washing the dirt into the rags rather than onto my crankshaft assembly! The bores cleaned up quickly and I re lubricated the cam shaft before carefully re installing. As a side note: while we are in the valve train,....see the second attached picture of a worn out "pencil tipped" push rod vs a good one. The engine it came out of must have been abused. A Hemi's top end does not oil all that well from the start , so you need to keep the oil clean in order to not have clogged rocker shafts and arms.
I am going to the shop now and add a few more parts to the engine. Maybe the effort today will be a little easier. It is still a lot of fun even though there are a few set backs from time to time.
Regards,
George

 

I added/ assembled the timing gear dot to dot again, while adding a little loctite and finishing up the cam install. I didn't forget the oil slinger and it's a good thing as it took a whole lot of "whaling away" to get the harmonic balancer seated. I used the bolt and washer to keep compression while I hammered away with my big rubber mallet. I could have used a dead blow but wanted to sneak up on it, rather than kill it. I then eased my single pulley on. It will drive the water pump and alternator. ( no power steering or a/c this time, smile.) Last but not least, I brought number 1 up to "top dead center" and added the pointer on the front of the timing cover,
I decided that was enough for today and came in to watch football.
regards,
George

 

This proto type for my velocity stacks from Hilborn will be at OTB Gear's booth in building no.4 at this week ends LA Roadster show in Pomona. Stop by and thank Bill Lathrop for me.
regards,
George

 

The following update was received this morning with regards to Monday's progress.
" George,
Some bumping and denting repair around the rear quarters and reworking of the lower flange where the gas tank cover meets up with the panel below. That area has been removed and the tail section of the floor remade. We are waiting on the radiator to come in for the car before we can mount the motor. Once the rear pan is in place, we will be able to mark where the frame needs to be bobbed. If all goes well Saturday we will be able to louver the decklid and maybe the roof insert as well" ( thank you Rex)

The supply base for the radiator, rear end and the wood kit has been frustratingly slow. The radiator is finally in a big brown truck and on the way. A partial wood kit has been received, but NOT all of it! The 4 weeks leadtime of the quick change has now been 6 weeks and it hasn't shipped. The flip side is that other folks have been marvelous. Hilborn , OTB , Hotheads and Real Rodders Wheels have not only been good to deal with, but over the top with super folks. The jury is still out on the folks I ordered a seat from. We shall see? So far, responsive to emails, but slow on samples for leather. Waiting on suppliers that should need the business is a puzzling experience? They can't sell something if they do not ship it. I will just be thankful for the great folks I am so fortunate to deal with! smile.Speaking of great folks, I really like the individuals at Custom Auto. An extremely talented group of folks, coming to work to make something happen everyday.
Thanks Guys!
regards,
George


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More pictures from Rex with today's progress.
Rex is going to visit a "volunteered louver press" tonight to punch a few louvers to get a feel for his lay out requirements. I am hoping to be invited for the hole punching Saturday am. grin. More wood came in today PLUS an extra set of Hoosiers that will get mounted on a set of polished Real Rodders "Sprints". I am still not sure if I want to use satin or polished. Pat OBrien has agreed to send me some Bronze knock offs for the satin rims to see if they look a little better. I will shoot some pics for you to see. The dust caps on the faux axle mounts are bullet shaped and a little too "custom" for this ride. Pat is making me a set of flat inserts that I can have engraved with my own logo, PLEASE don't throw up.... I am considering a crown to have filled with one shot paint. This sort of stuff makes Rex happy as it keeps me out of his hair.
Regards,
George

 

Wednesday progress: The rear panel is COMPLETED . (Thank you Josh!) The newly acquired 34 Dash arrived today. PICs attached. As a side note: I was surprised to find 8 available dashes within a week of posting on the H.A.M.B. Thank you to all that offered them. Very much appreciated!
Additionally, the Saturday louver party in Loveland is off and we have made arrangements to visit a friend with a press in Pueblo. ( date to be determined) I picked up powder coated valve covers, oil pan and valley tray at Premier Coatings this morning and will work on polishing fins this weekend.
regards,
George

 

Thursday morning surprise. I was heading in to work when Rex sent me a text asking if I had received the rear frame horn modification pictures? No sir,?????
Rex sent them again and I would like to share the changes. Rex, Dustin and Josh decided to have a little creative time and do something different in dealing with the rear frame horns. I sure like it. Thank you Guys!
After, seeing the pictures, it just makes sense! big grin.
regards,
George

 

Thursday evening post for today's coupe progress update. Josh worked hard to complete each new profiled rear frame horn. He not only made the contours match the underside of the body, he left the rear inside rails open to match the factory "look". After getting these to being near completed, Josh formed up a tube with bracketed ends for the new spreader bar. LOOKING GOOD JOSH!

Regards,
George

 

The nice work continues. This will be a good one!

 

Friday evening update.... Engine and shortened radiator + grill were mocked up today for the placement of the motor mounts. Josh will do this Saturday morning. The real thrill for me is that the Ram tubes + filters will be "OK" to slightly protrude through the hood without being way long IE: "Giraffe " looking. I can't say enough good things about the effort from Rex and Josh.
regards,
George

 

OK, Thanks to Josh, all the mounts are now welded in place and the firewall has been cleaned up to make room for a new insert. The pics are of the mock up parts that they had available, so that I didn't have to take the newly under construction 392 up from my shop. The ONLY thing in the mock up that's mine, is the BBC water pump and adapters to mount it to the HEMI. Another good progress day!
Regards,
George

 

Today was an all day ,SHOP DAY! I sure had a good time. I started by spraying copper coat on my head gaskets and then managing the 70 pound plus heads onto the dowel pins before adding push rods, rockers and 20 head bolts. I torqued them down 3 times before getting them to stay at 75 ft lbs. The biggest bolt stretch was after the first 75lbs. To be expected!
I then spent hours polishing the fins on 1 valve cover and put it on for a happy picture. ( 2nd photo below). I couldn't stand anymore wet sanding and buffing so I changed course for the evening and attacked the water cross over. Next time I decide to put 331 heads on a 392...PLEASE STOP ME! smile. The water cross over is naturally .600 too short as the water ports on the 331 head are lower than those on the 392. I must have been having a brain '_ _ _ _' as I knew better than to think I could just add gaskets and bolts. TEARS!( 3rd photo close up tells the story) I have two hoarded aluminum cross overs that PAW sells from time to time and have decided to splice them together as I do not want the braided hose kit you can purchase. I cut the bosses off one of them and got it all smoothed up tonight for a little welding tomorrow night ( see last picture). I used my band saw to cut most of the excess off before using a 24 grit disk to get close, a 50 grit disk to get a little closer still and finally a scotch brite disk to finish the effort up.
Tomorrow nights first thing is to fill the two unused holes to buy myself extra room to take a long center section from one crossover and long arms from the other. I need to gain .300 from each side and have my thermostat housing perfectly centered for my centered, top radiator hose mount.
Even though not a soul will have a clue of the 5-6 hours to get this done...It will make me happy!
Regards,
George

 

More progress on the water cross over modification last night....basically, just fill the holes with 3/4 inch aluminum plugs and then weld them in. Next, cut two seperate cross overs up into pieces in order to splice them together into a new longer crossover that will fit.
pic one is of the 3/4 aluminum bar stock beveled and in the hole for welding. I used a piece of copper strip folded to support the plug from the back side in order to prevent it from falling into the cross over during the welding process
Pic two is the plug welded up
Pic three is after sawing up into pieces and ready for welding.
I cant weld aluminum and Guy came over to help.
Regards,
George

 

Josh at Custom Auto fabricated a tailshaft mounting plate for the 700r4 . This finished up the install of the engine/ tranny.
See pics below.
regards,
George

 

Wednesday's effort was to start on the patch panels required...heres some shots of the effort from Josh.
1. old panel out
2. the hole
3. new panel
4.welded and ground

 

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Josh sent me the below updated picture of the " finished" patch panel to show how detailed he can make his work.
NICE JOB JOSH!

 

Very nice!

 

The rest of today was spent removing the nasty "dirt dabber" welded in rocker. A lot of clean up before Josh can add back a new rocker panel. Part of the effort also included rehanging the door to insure the gap will be correct. The coupes factory hinges were exchanged for hidden hinges sometime in it's past. These will be going back to original in order to get the door to swing properly and not rotate downwards. (PLUS , I want the hinges to show. )
smile

 

Driver side rocker installed, Hilborn bling arrives.... and the best thing for me after 7 weeks, the Winters Quick change showed up at the end of the day.

Tomorrow is welding up the cross over and polishing up the second valve cover.

i will keep trying to upload a couple of pics that will not go as thumb nails

 

Josh has the rear end centered up under at ride height and while nice looking, I can see a little too much under her skirt. I am thinking a louvered rear valence panel to shield the view of the upper shock mount bar. Maybe ....Between the frame rails extended low enough to hide the bar and mounts.
regards,
George

PS added a picture of the rocker that I didn't get to load in last nights post.

 

that there is one sweet arse end !

 

Guy helped me finish up the aluminum welding on the crossover's required "stretch". I ground the welds flush and used a 2" scotch brite disk over the the entire crossover. I then spent time with the gradual sanding from 150 grit to 2000 grit on my valley pan before buffing the fins to a nice shine.

I primed and painted both the cross over and the valley pan and have left them in my paint booth. I will let them sit for a few days as I have plenty to do and do not want to handle until they are completely dry.

I really appreciate Guys time to help me with the welding. The two of us ended up with about 5 hours in the modified cross over and I am very happy with the result . No one will have a clue it wasn't made this way from the factory.

I ended up using a valley pan without an oil fill or a place for the PCV valve because:

1. the fuel rails do not allow room for a factory fill pipe between them.
2. I can't use a PCV valve as it will interfere with the MAP sensor performance.

This leaves me in a pickle as I will need breathers on each valve cover to handle the venting ,PLUS... I need to have breathers that have removable lids so that I can get oil into the engine. I have been searching the internet this morning for a suitable pair. I would really like to just put a 5 inch 90 degree breather on the front of each valve cover. I haven't found one yet! Please help me look.
regards,
George

 

One more picture to share from the week...
Josh had to cut the frame cross member out to allow the 700r4 to fit. The below picture is of the replacement arched hoop Josh had to fabricate.

Another small detail that has to be done , but never is seen. Everyday is a small step forward to driving the coupe June 7th in Loveland.

I am getting concerned with how tight things are around the x member. Can you say....exhaust? YIKES!!! sigh...Maybe a 180 degree around the front drivers side to passenger before running both of the 2 pipes down the passenger side? Maybe moving the brakes up top? Only time will tell. She is just too low to route the exhaust under the frame!!!


Thank you Josh and Rex,
George

 

I love the look of that curved rear bar, really looks neat, but was curious as to why the firewall 'sail' panels were removed? I could appreciate it if you were running a blower and had the engine set back the more common 3-4", but since I thought you were fitting a bonnet not sure why had them removed, was it just an aesthetic prefference?

For comparison, this is where I've got my 354 sitting, and will be moving it back another 1" shortly, such that the rear plug will basically be in line with the leading edge of the original sail, with a relatively small trim/dimple required for the inner fender/hood side



Enjoying seeing your build, appreciate the updates.

Cheers,

Drewfus