No photos but I cut the Henry J outer column down to 23 inches, using the upper bearings. I took the upper bearings off the J upper shaft and installed them onto the chevelle shaft, collapsed the shaft to length and pinned it with a roll pin. Then took the lower bearing, retainers and small piece of the inner tube off the chevelle column and welded it to J column. Put it all together and on the interior side it looks totally like it did before, happy guy. I moved the column and drop about an inch to the left to clear the engine. This thing was tricky splitting the gap between a sparkplug socket and header bolt socket without interfering with exhaust port. The things you have to think ahead about or you screw yourself down the road. Last piece of the puzzle was welding a plate to column to attach to firewall for support.
The truck is up and running good so it was a parts chaser for the J today, my friend in his J caught me in the act and took a couple photos. I finished up shortening the drag link and set the tow in at an 1/8, everything is parallel and should be good. The only thing is I'll pull the steering arm and have the spacer welded to it for a little piece of mind, just feel better doing that. Next step is to pull the motor/Trans and finish up the firewall and Trans hump transition.
That'll be a while yet...lol Between the truck, t-bucket and Harley that are all ready to go it's hard to get time crunch motivated to get this one done.
Not much progress but I did recently test fit some borrowed headers, almost like I had these headers while setting the engine in place. I've got minor interference at the pinch weld on both sides but hot damn if I can't buy some off the shelf headers for this thing, a big plus.
Thanks, it's a handful with the blown 540 but it sure is fun ! Yes that's them, my photos are all screwed up with photobucket's third party posting BS, but I had tried Patriots back when I was mocking up the big block while in the stock chassis and they did not fit. I would have liked at least a 2 1/8 tube but for off the shelf availability, I'll take them.
Last year I was caught welding by my pacemaker reading and was given the sturn lecture by the cardiologist to stop and desist. So I just haven't had any motivation to work on this thing, why fab a part if you can't finish the install. Getting the 57 p/u at the first of Dec. and me telling myself that I won't start on that one until the Henry J is back up and going put a bug in my ass to get something done. Assessing the trans tunnel to firewall situation I decided to remove the old bellhousing area to give more room for the flywheel shield and blanket. Standard posterboard mockup followed by just throwing that in the trash..lol
Trimmed to fit and went against the doctor's orders and started tacking it in place, got over zealous and warped the firewall. The whole welding thing screws me up, so I am as far away from the machine and surface as I can get and it shows. After that it was time to cut out a distributor recess and fit an old tackle box in the hole about a quarter inch from the back of the dash. Got that welded in with the same process and first coat of duraglass on.
Looks good Phil. Evidently your staying far enough away to have your pacemaker send any signals to the Dr. Finish up the firewall and get it painted and you'll be ready to put the motor back in for the final time. Be nice to see this out on the track again. Keep up the good work pal.
Just wondering to myself, would the lead vest they use for dental x-rays do anything to prevent the effects of welding with a pacemaker? Gary
I don't suppose you want to gas weld and will continue to cheat. I've had atrial fib for years and have been advised that I may need a pacemaker or defibrilator at some point, so I pay attention to posts like yours. I've read where it helps to wrap your welding cables around each other. I've also read where pulsing ain't good and that's just what we do with sheet metal.
so how do you go fishing now?? I cant weld either....no pacemaker just cant weld. Looks good should be pulling the front wheels up soon
Thanks everyone and Clik I was just on the operating table a couple weeks ago for a new defib model. They had seen a couple anomalies in my pacemaker reading and setup surgery the following week, very sudden like. If you guys remember, I do not have a heartbeat outside what's induced by the pacer and adding the defibrillator model would have surely put ill effects on my automotive pleasures. Any outside interference that may make the heartbeat irregular would be followed up by a defib shock, but thankfully after 3 hrs laying on the table and getting the heart stimulated for such period, they could not get it to replicate the anomalies. So no change to the defib model
Awesome build! Question for you regarding a Henry J and a BBC. How much further forward could you bring the motor(to maximize interior room)?
A big block is roughly 2 inches longer than a sbc but it's all forward of the motor mounts, from mounts back they are the same. It also depends on how low you set your engine into the chassis, the lower it is the less transmission hump you'll have in the floor. I set mine up high, right at the 24 inch crank centerline to ground maximum as per NHRA rules. Here's how forward the sbc was in the chassis when I bought it and the radiator was in the stock location.
Since the thread was bumped up, not much going on with the car, I don't last more than a couple hours out in the garage so it's been very slow going. Was doing bodywork on the firewall earlier in the year, then got sidetracked working on the carbs on the 41 truck, didn't want to get bondo dust in the carbs or engine while waiting on correct parts so work stopped. The most recent I decided to do a mirrored stainless insert in the firewall recess, always liked them but never had one. So I figure I can cut my bodywork down a bit on the warp I put into the firewall by covering it up, little tough to breathe through a mask so that's good by me. Ha ha ha Making the posterboard pattern Laying it out on the 22 ga. stainless Cut out the sides with a jigsaw and took it to my buddy's shop to use his break to bend it, test fit looked great. So went ahead and cut the rest out with same jigsaw, couple boo boos when I cut into my table that I was working on top of but I can live with it. Might try that chrome door edge guard around the whole bottom cut, I hear you can heat it and it'll take a pretty good bend. Or just blend in my boo boos a bit with a sander and let it ride, might not even see them with the engine back in.
Nice to see you back on this Phil. Going to be a totally different car than you took apart. All good !
The Jalopy Journal
