Butch, 383 stroker and 700R4, 9" ratchet pawl locker Finishing up our floor weldments so we can visit the local Line-x for "undercoating" this coming week.. Our bucket seats have one bolt that went through the floor, and we wanted to eliminate the need for two people to install/remove the hardware.. We came up with a plate fitted to the floor pan channel that we welded a hex nut onto. This plate will allow us to plug weld to the floor... The rear quarter also has some bolting pads where the side ears to the rear bumper is bolted through. We needed to make stiffener plates to strengthen this area. We made use of some tubing in the scrap pile to make a punch and anvil... Everything's a tool... Alignment marks in the centers of the tubes.. Ready for Line-x
Doesn't look like we did much, but we got the wheel wells, floor pans, and cross members scuffed up this weekend. Then applied two coats of SPI epoxy primer to address the bare spots, so now we're ready for Line-X..
5 years and 800+ post and we're finally gonna see some color on it, I'm getting excited. I've been following this on two forums for a long time now it'll be neat to see it finally come together.
I will be glad to see it completed as well, thanks for following along! Well, we have the new engine dropped in place. ....and she decided on fuel injection over the 770 CFM Holley (still new in the box). Of course this meant and O2 sensor bung on an already finished H-pipe. The bung that came with the FI Tech kit matched well to the outside radius of the exhaust pipe, but was rectangular in shape, and included a gasket for a "clamp installation"... As we aren't having any of that nonsense, the bung found it's way into the lathe, where a round outer perimeter will serve better for our TIG welded installation.. And after some touch up at the powder coaters.... Next, our arm rest enclosures for the rear seat needed a base for the padded arm rests. So Jake used the Go Kart slick to add some radius to 14 gauge cold rolled steel in order to match the enclosure... .....and trimmed to fit.... These will be held in place with Mopar style door panel retainers, so we can still have ready access for any future maintenance on window mechanisms.
That´s a beautiful build you are accomplishing . My hat´s off to you! I can learn a lot from watching your thread. Thanks for sharing your skills and ideas!
Progress on the wagon... Mike got the new fuel tank all prepped with the fuel pump... Tank mocked up so we can do test fit/fabrication of the filler neck down to the tank... An elbow will be needed to join these two together. The local NAPA store had some smooth elbow exhaust pipe that we used to fabricate the complete filler neck, all the pieces were TIG welded together, and Dana powder coated the assy black for us. Bracket we fabricated for bolting to the floor flange. Next, the drip rail area was scuffed well and the car inverted so we can seal the bottom of the drip rail to the top of the quarter area. This is using the self leveling sealer, so we needed to counter the gravity effect. Next time we'll get the top side done..
I've been needing my fix, was wondering about where you were on the car. As usual, words are not sufficient.
Well, we've had about a month long hiatus as I've been in VA for the day job. Back to some wagon progress, we made a sanding block for the drip rail, this will get some PSA paper applied and sand away! We did have a back up and punt moment. The factory style radiator that we had from Be-Cool did not have quite enough room behind the core support to use a cooling fan. Plus, it was questionable if the size would be enough for the 383 cooling needs. So we are going to use a cross flow, specifically the aluminum version for a V8 S10 pickup. Of course, this will require modification of the core support. Shown above mocked up with the splash pan, the stiffening edge along the c-channel follows the splash pan. We need to insure any future version also clears the splash pan. Also note the three drilled holes in the side adjacent to the blue sharpie. These were added for our version of the AC car battery tray, so having the new upright just outside the old will allow us to bolt to the new upright on the inside, and keep the battery tray in the same locaton. So the hired help started grinding out the spot welds that hold the lower radiator baffle in place. After some modification, one side is taking shape. We will likely add some rings to the weldment to route the water hoses to the front side of the core support. .....and more progress on the core support... Note comparison to old core support, we've added 3" in width to the opening. As with most changes we've done to the wagon, we try to keep them subtle enough that they could be mistaken for factory. Like so..... Still need to add mounting brackets for the radiator and fabricate a new baffle, but happy with the results so far.. Yesterday we got some seam sealer applied in the drip rail. I had tried a few different brands over the years and have to say I'm really liking the Norton 97121 epoxy sealer. Really smooths out well. Spreader was modified to help get things consistent, as well as pull the sealer up into the hemmed edge... Also took delivery on a shop manual for the car, it's nice to have people looking out for you..
Yup. Always look forward to the next installment in this epic thread. I've never said so for some reason, so I'm fixing that. Great work here!
As usual, thanks for taking the time to meticulously chronicle the build (hope that’s correct English [emoji12]) Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Robert, I have said it in the past but it bears repeating, you work is amazing and I too am looking forward to seeing this car finished. HRP
As said before awesome work and detailed steps. I'm still amazed by your work, can't wait for the next update!!!! [emoji869] Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Thanks for sharing ,making the radiator mount wider will be used on my car . Most people will not even notice ,Thanks again
So we had fabricated a duplicate of the 55 AC car battery tray to get the battery off the firewall. This bolts directly to the outside of the core supports "horseshoe". So when we decided to widen the opening for a crossflow, the tubing had to be placed directly next to the old upright to locate our battery support in the same location. This means the new uprights would also conflict with radiator necks. Dominoes, they do fall.... Core support now with relief holes for coolant hoses and lines. Thankfully side baffle plates will hide this ugliness! Video Version: .
Been going through too many sanding discs lately so I decided to pony up for the ceramic ones by 3M (especially since Jegs has them on sale...and free shipping over $100). The sanding discs I was getting locally were about $0.95 each and I would have used about three doing what I did tonight. The sale price on these 3M's worked out to just over $1.50 each. I'm still on the first one and it's still going strong. I think these are going to be another of those "getting what you paid for" type things. Should have bought these long time ago.
Thanks for another great tip Robert, I've told several friends about the Metabo SS slicer and they all use them now.
Nice modification to that core support Had to swap in a special Griffin Rad in a ‘57 Belair with 6.0 LS Really needed a custom treatment like this Fit was horrible and it wound up leaking. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
So this weekend the core support was mocked up and some "sample" radiator hoses bent out of 3/4" EMT. Once bent to fit, these samples were taken to the local NAPA store, where they have become used to me sizing up radiator hoses in the store room. The lower hose was from an S10 pickup or Blazer, but with the battery bracket in place, there was interference to the hose. So our battery bracket is modified to provide clearance for the hose, and a "hem" added to the inside. The upper hose has no such obstacles, so we should have smooth sailing there.
Robert, you're suffering sleep deprivation..........."heater" hoses?....I know you meant radiator hoses. Great tip by the way..and beautiful work as always....Don.
The Jalopy Journal
