A Noob's build thread: 50 Styleline

Hey Guys,

ModelACitizen came over this passed Wednesday and helped me immensely...and get it on its' first test drive! Unfortunately, I have what seems to be a bad rocker nut on the exhaust valve of cylinder 4. The nut had backed almost all the way off, the car was making noises of death, no power, etc. Tightened it up, ran like a dream, 5 minutes later the thread had already loosened .5-1 thread and the whole problem started again. PRAYING it's not a cam lobe Anyway...here's the vid:

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and here's the thread talking about the problem, originally thought it might be the trans:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=490807

 

UPDATE!!!

I got the guys down at Meineke to install my exhaust system along with the Brockman Mellowtones. I have to say, I *love* how they turned out. The cell phone mic sucks, so you miss out on the midrange of tones. The "screech screech" sound at the beginning and a couple times throughout is my neighbor dragging his aluminum ladder around his house

The engine is almost dead silent under the hood, all the way through the RPM range. The only thing I figured out is after I rev it up, white smoke with a little blue hue comes from mainly the manifold....but I tracked that down to me accidentally having used too thin of a valve cover gasket...wants to keep on leaking from the back, and down onto the bottom of the manifold/top of the exhaust...from what I can tell. No sweet smell to it.

The other thing I notice is water coming out of the exhaust more than what I'm used to...perhaps related to the water in the gas tank problem I discovered not too long ago? Seems to be decreasing the more I run it.

Anyway...here it is:

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Hey! Sounds great! Bring it to the Chatterbox this weekend?

 

Don't I WISH. Lots of little things to do....not to mention that the Meineke guys left the ignition switch on ACC for at least 24 hours, possibly 48. I had to jump it off to get it on the flatbed truck to tow it back. I got it home, charged it enough to roll around the "hood" in it....then while it was idling it began to die. Not so sure if it's the battery not taking a good charge or what. It's reading as slowly charging even on rapid charge....but it sure as hell isn't keeping it very long. Battery is a little over a year old.

I can't help but think that somehow there's some craziness going on in the gas tank still. When I turn it over, I can't even smell any gas...not even when I relieve the pressure on the carb by manually opening the throttle. Everything from the carb back to the intake fuel line is new...only thing left is the tank. Heard somewhere that there's some sock thingamajinger that can come loose and cause hell....can anyone corroborate that?

 

Have you checked the fuel filter? Could be clogged with old junk/debris. If you really think something is going on in the tank, you can isolate that issue by using a gas can to the feed the engine while its in the driveway... or if you are really daring, run a fuel line in to the car and keep the gas can on the on the passenger floor while you drive up and down the street haha! As far as that 'sock' thing goes, I always thought only cars with tank mounted fuel pumps had those. Could be wrong though? Does the car seem to be running out of gas at higher rpm or under load? Seems to idle nice.
As for the charging issue, I can't remember- do you have a volt gauge hooked up? If not you just stick a tester on it and make sure the alt is putting out 12-14V and the battery is getting it. It seems like you you've just got a bunch of minor gremlins to chase down. I see you enjoying this car very soon.

 

Still lovin' this build! Race you to the rocker work!

 

coulda fried the points or coil by leaving the ign on. the water out the pipe is most likely just condensation.

 

When I sent it over, I only had about 5 gallons of gas in the thing. As ModelACitizen can attest, I'm not driving it around (other than our two ventures a few weeks ago , so it never occurred to me, the idiot that I am, that it was out of gas. I have it set about middle of the road on the carb, so I'm thinking that maybe the muffler guys took it on a joyride? Who knows......I'm always making things more complex than what they are!

 

Sounds nice!!!! Now go drive the livin shit out of it!! Todd

 

WORD!!!!

I gots ta find time to roll up there and get those rear wheels from you!

I'm trying to keep this thang cool, but just seems like the 16" electric fan mounted to the front of the radiator just isn't doing it. It wants to sit around 230 degrees I guess I need to put a fan blade on the water pump and shroud on the radiator? I was hoping the electric fan would do the job...makes the engine bay look a lot nicer IMO....but if nice means it's burnt to sh*t...then NO thank you!!!

 

I have a shroud I made for my car. You can have it if you like. What are you using for motor mounts? I ask becuse of the height of the motor in relation to the fan weather it will fit or not. Todd

 

WOW...thanks Todd! Now I MUST drive up there sometime SOON.

Did you decide you didn't need it for yours or your engine stayed cool enough with the new radiator? I think part of the problem of mine is that while it's sound, it's original to the 216.

I used the Walton Fabrication motor mounts, hopefully that tells you what you need to know. I also don't have a fan as of yet, figured I'd wait and see what shook out here on the boards as far as info

 

I don't know how far those Walton mounts set the motor back, but I made my own mounts that put the driver's cylinder head about 3/8" from the firewall. Stock SBC with intake/carb/cam. I used a 55-57 3-row radiator in the stock '53 location (took a little trimming and some bracket fab). I used a 1.5" fan spacer to get the fan closer to the radiator, it sits about 2.5-3" away now. I made a 2-piece aluminum fan shround with flaps that open up while driving. I also run a stainless puke tank on the side of the radiator. My operating temp maintains 185-degrees at all times. It has never ran hot, even while sitting in the parking lot idling for 15 minutes the temp never climbed. I run two gauges, 1 inside, one direct mounted on the intake. I live where it stays over 100 most of the summer and our winters only dip below the 40's for a few days.

Great build thread, you're doing that car up right. Keep on it!

 

sweet! you finally got it goin. u gonna bring it to the gasket goon show this weekend?

 

Well, things are dragging on with the build....life, work, etc etc get in the way :/

I snagged a battery cable set from a BMW 7 series so I can run the battery to the trunk...recommended to me by a fellow HAMB'er. It's cool, it has this junction box to mount to the firewall so I can still jump it off from under the hood. 1 hour and 20 bucks from the scrap yard:



Since I'm not going to begin sheet metal work until next spring, I decided to do the unimaginable and refill the potholes I excavated bondo from with MORE bondo....one place is an INCH thick...wth? I cleaned and treated the wounds as best I could before filling them and rattle canning the whole thing with satin black. Didn't really cost much, and I wanted to at least make it presentable to *my* eyes so I can drive it this fall/winter when it's not 3 feet of snow on the ground.



I know that what I did will likely get some comment from the peanut gallery about how "R*t R*d" what I did actually is....but whatever. My mechanics are safe, the body work WILL be restored, it's just on delay and I didn't want the think looking like complete sh*t until then.

I'm able to drive it around now, got it tagged a few weeks ago. However, I need to get the brake lights/turn signals hooked back up and the pinion seal replaced. I'll rig up an e-brake later down the road, as I'm not going to be tearing up the pavement with it anytime soon.

 

if people give you shit for using bondo right now who cares, you'll get to that stuff later. Seems like a lot of people on here are bondo nazis and everything has to be metal finished, so you can't please everyone...keep up the good work I say

 

LOL! thx

 

Meh, a lot of people on here like to give people shit just because they have a functional keyboard. Usually, they have eleventy billion posts, and several non-running cars, or one that they paid to have built.

You know your intentions with the body, and any halfwit can see from the way you've been building so far that you mean it when you say it's temporary.

 

Nice car and great progress! Keep us updated!

 

UPDATE:

After taking baby steps of running it around the block, watching the gauges with nervous anticipation that I didn't *actually* end up building a ticking time bomb, I finally took the car out for it's maiden voyage today with the wife. She recorded it in mowtha F'n 720p so you could smell the dried fluids burning off the block from this year and a half build!

Notice the fartwagon (aka Saturn Vue hybrid) that she mentions at the beginning of the vid, that's one of our dailies.....and it smokes donkey pole.

Couple of notes on it:
-tracked the "sewing machine" tick down to the rear of the engine, trans mount area....the flex plate I put on was solid when I installed it, but who's to say it's not cracked? It was 30-40 years old when a friend gave it to me last year.
-I pulled each plug individually while running to track down the aforementioned tick, wasn't any of the cylinders...which in my mind is good.
-Metal work to be done next year
-In the mean time, I'm going to be putting the battery in the trunk, running the headlight wiring, cleaning up the existing in-cab wiring, figuring out a way to mount a 55 Buick steering wheel to the 50 column (55 Buick has 3/4 spline shaft, 50 has 1/2"), getting new tires, etc etc

Tug, you still have that set of 7" wheels and fan shroud up there in CT? I see it looks like you got rid of your 50. If so, I think the wife and I are coming up that way in a week or three.

Now...for the vid:

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Congrats man, excellent work!

 

Little update on the ride....

After going back and forth on whether or not to sell it in order to fund a 29 Coupester build, I decided to go for the least economical solution...HAVE BOTH!

I've been wrestling with this mystery tick coming from the passenger side, and after inspecting the cam shaft, replacing the lifters (some were pretty weak) and rods, I'm still coming up bust. The tick is definitely from the head, and I thought I covered the exhaust tick angle...but perhaps not. I'm thinking this because I also had an intake gasket failure which was wicking coolant up through the 2nd bolt from the front....and after I got as much milkshake out as possible, then priming the system with MMO, then swapping out the filter and oil once more, I buttoned her up and ran it for a break in period for the new lifters....THEN I SAW IT! Little puffs of white smoke coming from the rear exhaust port of the passenger side of the engine, from between the aluminum "reusable" exhaust gasket and the log. Tried tightening it down, but to no avail. Anyway, I'm running with it. I still get little puffs of wispy smoke from the exhaust after its first run since putting it back together, but I'm chalking it up to remnant MMO and milkshake...for now.

Either way...I had a good run today, got some Mickey D's over at the local shopping center....crowded as hell, and my little jalopy in the parking lot only made it worse with people driving all the way across to show it to their kids...or look at it themselves. I found a train substation of some sort locally and popped of a pic, good times in the freezing weather!

 

I love your car, and you've certainly inspired a lot of guys here with your build. I fear that like so many of us, the sale of your car will bring to mind how cool it really was, and all the other things you could have done with it, AFTER the sale. Just something to think about.....Centurion9

 

I say go for both. Keep the fifty and drive it while you spend time on the 29. As you said yesterday so many people just coming over to look at it, should make you proud of what you accomplished. Great thread and I will keep watching for updates.