A little Fordillac project progress

I haven't been able get nearly as much done on the '36 as I'd hoped while off for these foot surgeries, but have gotten a little bit accomplished. The break in the weather helped, nice to not have to wade thru the deep snow any more!

Anyway, got the brake and fuel lines finished, and as soon as the new rear brake drums get here, I can bleed the system. I'm waiting on the linen wrapped wire to get here, so I can get the wiring done. I have the radiator mounted, hoses on, and trans cooler lines installed. Have to get a yoke for the trans, then I can get the driveshaft made, and then fire it up! I had hoped to get the exhaust manifolds jet coated gloss black, but haven't been able to coordinate that getting done by the local guy who does it. I think I'll just paint them with black high temp paint.

Installed the battery in the trunk, and have the cables run and secured. I like the look of the tractor battery, it doesn't take up much room, and looks proper.

My hope is to get it wired, the interior aluminum panels done, and pretty well wrapped up next week. After that, I just need a little warm weather and it can get painted. Not long now!

Oh, the spark plug looms will be painted black, and an engraver friend of mine is engraving br*** ID plaques for them, which will look pretty neat. The copper "bolts" are copper pipe caps, just a goofy idea I had to dress things up a little. Going for the no chrome thing. The air cleaner top will be painted black as well, but it really doesn't show as it's pressed up tight aginst the underside of the hood.

 

Diggin' the copper caps! Might have to steal that one!

 

So it's a Fordillac Rocket??????

 

Not after I paint those looms, put the br*** tags on my buddies making. I like the looks of the looms, and it's about what I like. It WILL be ROCKET too....

 

I really like this project. Extremely creative stuff going on.

 

In an attempt to keep this somewhat a journal of the build, at least from here on out, I'm gonna just start adding to this particular thread of the progress. At least that way I'll be able to find it!

Yesterday the box of cool linen wrapped wire arrived, and this afternoon I got started. I did the spark plugs first, 'cause they're very visible, and I was anxious to see how it'd look. I'm very happy with the results, looks very "antiquey", and looks great against the grey engine.

I stole the floor dimmer from the Diamond T (I'd forgotten to order one, that one's gonna have column mounted switch gear anyway), mounted that, and got wiring started for the headlights, the starter to ammeter, ammeter to alternator, and the dash harness started.

The whole thing looks just as I'd hoped. I did try to economize a little, I have all the wiring from the conversion van I'd parted out, it had hundreds of extra feet of interior lighting wiring, and I'll use that where it won't be seen, as to the tail lights, gas gauge, everything hidden by bodywork. So, I'm keeping my "scrounger" mentality!

 

Love it!

 

Got the wiring finished up today, which was a big accomplishment. I made a neat neutral safety switch out of a starter ****on switch, mounted to the shifter base, which I think looks kinda cool exposed. The lights all work, the horns honk VERY LOUDLY (6 volt trumpets!), everything is done. I'm waiting on the fuel gauge sending unit, electric fan and relay kit, and a blinker switch, but the harness itself is done.

I have the a local shop making the 15" long driveshaft eek, and tommorow one of the things I need to do is run the trans cooler lines to the radiator. Once that's done, the Quadrajet needs to be rebuilt, and I can fire the beast up. I'd like to get the aluminum door and interior panels cut out this week and beads rolled in, I'm going to rivet them to the doors with dynamat between the panels.

It's getting close to being a car!

 

Spent a little time this morning finishing up the interior panels for the '36, and rolled some beads in to match the forward part of the quarter trim panels I'd made earlier. I also re-thought the seat belt mounts (mainly because the guy making my roll bar, which I'd planned on mounting the shoulder strap to, hasn't gotten to it). I cut pieces of 1/4" x 1" strap, 6" long, drilled and tapped a hole for the bolt, and welded them to the inner body panel for the shoulder strap mount. The seat tracks have the latch part of the belt, and I bolted the retractor to the body mount bold at the door post, so it's mounted directly to the frame. Happily, the top bows (barely) clear them raising and lowering the top.

The seats had to be switched side for side to get the belt latch on the inside, and as long as I was redoing that, I made little risers to tilt the front up an inch and half. That made them surprisingly more comfortable, and drops the back of the seat a little as well. They had been flat, and felt wrong.

Rough carved the foam for the cushions, so I guess now I'm ready do the upholstery. Also got a bunch of little stuff done, thermostat in, horns painted, and others, stuff that doesn't show but had to be done.

Back out now to take the w/s posts off and polish them up, getting ready for the windshield to go in.

 

Well, it was a frustrating, but overall, rewarding weekend of progress on the roadster (I'm calling it a roadster, 'cause even tho it started life as Tudor, it's got no top, no side windows, and Thom Taylor designed it! ).

After some frustration getting the brakes bled, we (my wife and I, she wants credit for helping ), we finally got that handled thanks to my buddy Marks visit, and asking if I'd adjusted the brakes after going thru them. Duh...Anyway, all's good now with that.

Polished the windshield posts, upper and lower bars, a way bigger job than I'd thought. Turns out, anodizing is a ****** to get stripped off, but again, finally got that handled, and the result is great. Now, I have to cut the "gl***", which is gonna be 1/4" Lexan 'cause that's what I have, and I'm out of money ! We'll get real gl*** later.

I also took some inspiration from this board (Thanks Jethro!) and "restored" the badly cracked banjo wheel. I ground out all the cracks and splits with a cut off wheel in the die grinder, then roughed up the remaining bakalite and ground away badly checked areas, and sandblasted the whole thing to clean up the exposed wire rim. Made a simple fixture in a piece of pipe clamped in the vise to spin the wheel like a potters wheel, filled and rebuilt the entire rim with short strand 'gl*** reinforced body filler.

The result is excellent, if I do say so, although unlike the great tech piece that inspired me, I didn't make a mold, so I was left with an hour or so of hand filing the finger notches, smoothing and filling little pits. It really looks better in person than the photos, and needs only primer and paint. I'm debating ivory or camel to match the upholstery. Either way, it looks great.

So, now when I get the driveshaft, all 16 inches of it, I can fill up the trans, put some gas in the tank (I made the filler neck for that, and got the Chris Craft bronze stripped of old chrome and polished it, as is), fill the radiator, and fire that bad boy up!

I want to take the opportunity to thank my wife, Kim, for not only helping me by wedging herself into the drivers seat to bleed the brakes and listening to me swear, but for letting me cure the exhaust manifolds with their fresh coat of glossy black high temp paint, and not complaining when the house filled up with smoke and smelled fumey ! They look great too, hopefully, it works!

 

Your project is coming along great. nice job on the steering wheel. It looks like Im gonna hafta do mine after I finish building my motor.

 

Here's a photo of my wife comfortabley seated in the car. She surprised me by saying she's disappointed she may not be able to drive it, as she can't get her right foot under the base of the column from the gas to the brake. (I can, so I dont' see it as a design flaw, she's just taller than I am, and her feet are so small, her legs are so long, she can hardly get her leg betwee the wheel and trans tunnel. Anyway, I'm going to m***age the column a bit, angle it up as much as I can to try to get a little more room.

I think it's great she WANTS to drive this thing!

 

I really like how this is shaping up. Very creative.

 

Thanks!

 

Dude, NEVER say things like "my wife wedged" or "her feet are bigger", to ANYONE unless you enjoy rat poison in your dinner.

 

Ohhh, point well taken...I meant to say, "My wife gracefully slipped behind the wheel..." and "...desite her dainty feet, she was unable to access the brake pedal with her tiny right foot..."

There, all good!

 

MUCH better.

 

Good to see some new progress brian , Looking nice .
Just a small point that's buggin me though , the fuel line bud , being close to the water neck getting hot and your nice loops may cause vapour lock .
Just a thought ...

 

That's already gone! Thanks.

 

Spent this afternoon going to the U-Pick yard and scrouged a throttle cable from a Suburban and pedal for the car. I could have saved my time pulling the pedal, as none of it was useable, but for 10 bucks, I got the entire thing.

The cable was kind of tough to route, as the carb is soooo close to the firewall. I ended up making as big a loop in the cable as I could, and made a simple bracket on the Caddys lift strap, which mounts to the intake. Works fine once I got it all mounted up. The pedal is a NOS left over from the Pontiac wagon, and the linkage is the '36 Ford throttle pivot, mounted on the brace behind the dash, as opposed to the firewall as original.

Painted the spark plug looms black, and managed to tilt the steering column up only about 1/2" at the wheel. There's just no more room, so my wife will have to learn to brake with her left foot if she's going to drive it.

 

To demonstrate that I'm not trying to make the old Caddy in the Fordillac look like an Olds, here's a shot of the engine finished. I was going to have an engraver pal of mine make some br*** plaques with some goofy fake industrial engine info on 'em, but I like it as is.

The gl*** on the air cleaner is filled with homebrewed hard cider/mead, which I'm enjoying right now...

 

I'm off right now to pick up the new driveshaft, a stop at the autoparts store for some trans fluid, and some gl*** fuses (been putting that off for some reason), fill up a gas can, and we're gonna find out what an unmuffled 472 Caddy with a lumpy cam sounds like. I'm excited and nervous!

Wish me luck!

Brian

 

Really digging the antique/industrial look you've come up with for the engine.

It definitely works well.


Good luck firing her up!

 

Thanks! I sure hope it lights right up, after how much it cost, I need some good news!

 

Were all with ya. Fingers crossed and wings a flappin.
BTW, with a great wife like that, maybe its time for HER build.
I gotta do one for mine.

 

Fingers crossed for you.

 

HA! I knew I'd have to make at least one more trip to the part store. Didn't notice the drain holes in the block which I'd neglected to put plugs in, so you know where the a-freeze began to run from before I could gather a couple of pans to catch it in?


And of course I don't have a funnel with a hose long enough or flexible enough to snake around and get to the trans filler under the edge of the firewall, and I need some 1 1/2 fuel filler rubber hose to connect the filler to the copper pipe into the tank, off I go again!


Brian

 

I'd be willing to bet you aren't the first (or last) of us to have done that. In fact, from personal experience (2x, to be honest) I know you aren't.

 

Heavy sigh...rolled over and fired once before the battery (right off the Tractor Supply shelf) called it quits. Guess I shoulda thought to put the charger on it. So, since I can't get anywhere near it with the truck to jump it, and I don't want to pull the battery and reset the clock and radio in it, I'm gonna do something else, like have lunch, for awhile...

At least it fired.

 

Out to the shop now to figure out what's up with the fuel pump not drawing fuel from the tank. It's either not got enough in it to get the bottom of the tank wet (I only put a couple of gallons in, and it's a BIG tank), or I've got a clamp not tightened down and it's ****ing air. Or, the pump may be bad, it's 30 years old...Can't be too serious a problem.

Anyway, after the battery charged up for a little while yesterday and had enough ooomph to roll the 472 over, it lit right up. (Well, after I moved the horn mounted on the intake, which wouldn't let me move the distributor enough, it was 1/8 turn advanced) I dumped a couple tables****s of gas down the carb, it fired immediatly and ran until it used that up. I didn't want to keep grinding away, nor dump a lot of gas down the carb, so I stopped after a couple rounds of that when it was obvious it wasn't getting fuel to the carb. It sounded GREAT, like BIG cubic inches, just like it should. Enough cam to sound "Cackley". Open exhaust helps that too .

I have to make another trip to the parts store (of course) as the fuel fill in the tank is 1 3/4, and the rest of my hardware for the filler is 1 1/2, so I can't get the rubber tube I have over the tank neck. No big deal, I should learn to read the tape measure...