Have you considered sectioning the plenum on the Edelbrock tunnel ram? I have an old Car Craft mag from '72 or so with an article detailing the build on the 327 in Grumpy's pro stock Vega, and it shows that he cut the top off his Edelbrock tunnel ram and reduced the plenum size to make it work better. So that mod could be considered appropriate for this style build...and the Edelbrock tunnel rams are soooo much sexier than the modern Weiands... Just a thought
I did think about doing that. I have so much more work to do on this car I didn't want to take the time to do it. This was a quick and easy fix. The TR2X is in the box down cellar, and maybe a project for later, after the car is up and running.
First time I've driven the 55 Chevy this year and it needed a little maintenance. You can tell they have common DNA.
Cut the holes in the rear lid today and doing the final fitting of the rear tubes for the roll bar. Tomorrow I will clearance the holes in the top lid, install the weather strip and bolt the panel in place for the final time before I weld the bars . Tight fit, but everything fits and there is still room for me .
Looks good Baron! I like the way the stock seat fits, the hardtop and I haven't seen you in it but I'll take your word Pat
Thanks Pat. The stock seats just make it. Today I got the roll bar half welded in . Painted the sections that will be hard to get at now that the lid is on for the final time. The elongated slots in the rear cover gives me a little leeway to lift the lid up should I have to get under there for anything. Making progress.
I finally finished the roll bar today. Finished welding the down tubes to the chassis, welded on the harness tabs, than prepped, primed and painted it. Now how cool is this. This is the friend of mine I traded my last 57 Corvette for his 57 Chevy Gasser (the original Quick Trip), back in 1971.
That is too cool! Love to see you & the 'Bird lined up side-by-side on the dragstrip one day. Baron the roll bar looks great. Are you gonna put side bars in or just the hoop & back braces?
I am. Bringing the 49 Olds tomorrow. Just swapped out the 4.11s with 3.42s. Be interesting to see if it winds up faster or slower (not that it really matters...). You two going tomorrow ?
Well tonight I brought the doors home tonight to see how well the new repro side cove moldings were going to fit. Much to my surprise, they bolted right on and the fit is very good. One more piece to the puzzle.
It sure is. Saturday I bolted the grille surround in and not that it is any big deal, but who ever cut the grille opening in the nose had it too low by 3/8 of an inch. So needless to say, the surround is back out, and I will re-cut the top and probably have to glass up a few spots on the lower side to get it mounted where it belongs. All minor details in the grand scheme of things.
I installed the grill surround today. The contour of the grill opening was a terrible match on the left side of the body, leaving a 3/8 gap with the grill bolted in place. Little glass work , bondo and it fits pretty good now. I just had this scoop made. As much as I like the other scoop, it is almost 6 inches wider than this one, and it really blocks your vision. I'll leave this on the car for a few weeks and see if it grows on me. Proportion wise, it does fit the car better.
Saturday's job will be to remove the steering shaft and column, paint the shaft and get the column ready for paint. And while the paint is drying, it should be a good time to install the headers. Just got them back from Central Connecticut Coatings this week and they did a great job. First they do them inside and out in silver, than they do the outside in white.
Looking good Baron. In the early 70's I made a set of headers for my 36 Willys PU and had them, what they called ceramic coating by a place on LI or Brooklyn I don't exactly recall. They looked very much like yours, mine where white and rough like sand paint after running for awhile they took on a silvery white tone. It was bullet proof but did stain I think the roughness held the dirt and oil. But this was before Jet Hot and other coatings. I liked it a lot. Yours look very good also. Pat
I always used VHT paint in the old days. Six or seven years ago when I had the headers coated for my 55 Chevy, the place I had them done said they would not do them in white as it would not stand up to the temperature, so I did them in silver. Unfortunately the silver did not stand up very well either. This company has had good like with the white. Time will tell. It is. Because the low hood clearance , and the carburetors sit so high, the scoop had to be widened two inches to clear the linkage. Thanks Larry. As you well know, these things always take longer than we think they will.
The Jalopy Journal
