I've been working on the lower front fenders, the collector takes up the space where they want to be, a problem I didn't have with the old sbc. Cut up the fender to work around the collector Lined it up and made a new lower mount because I cut the original off Put a tab on the fiberglass side and cut a slot in the lower so it could slip in like they were on their honeymoon. They're so happy together Driver's side was easier since come to find out the passenger header sticks out 1 5/8's inch further away from the block than the Driver's side, damn quality control issues. Also that side is a little further forward because of the head placement on the engine. I'll pull it all back apart and touch up that fabulous Rustoleum white and bolt the lowers on for good.
When I had taken my test drives before winter the throttle linkage wouldn't fully return to idle, it hung around 1400 rpm, a slight lift of the pedal would return it to idle. When I made the throttle pedal I put it a little over center when at rest so it would pull the cable straight out of the hole at half throttle, the spot it'd be in more than at rest. That was what was causing it to not fully return to idle, so I cut the short side of the pedal arm in the middle a 1/4 of an inch, welded it back together and gave it a new coat of paint. I also drilled it for the little roll pin to keep it from sliding left/right and possibly going over center of the hole again. It fully closes now and should be fine but won't know until I get another test drive in. All that should be left now is to make the exhaust, I'm going to put Dynomax bullets on it with 3 inch pipe. I have that combo on my 41, it's a little loud but hey we're building hot rods here. The 41 has 12 inch mufflers but I'm going to get the 18 inchers for the J, tone it down just a tad..lol
Not much of that original car left anymore, 14 yrs of ups and downs and changes, me and the car alike lol
Good fix on that header/fender issue. I saw that it was going to be a problem on mine as well, but never made it that far. Devin
Spent an agonizing afternoon figuring out where to drill holes in my doors. Previously I had clamp on peep mirrors but wanted something different since they had a whole lot of shaking goin on. I looked and looked at different types of mirrors and finally settled on 56 chevy, I liked the round mirror head, the pointy thing on the stalk and the teardrop shape base. Now I can see the coppers sneaking up behind me
Look good on there. For years I would never run outside mirrors on my cars, but today I wouldn't want to drive without them.
I ordered a 3 inch exhaust "kit" and a couple 18 inch Dynomax Bullets off Amazon With the collector ending at the rocker it was tough to come up with a free flowing pipe idea and not hang down looking like dog shit. I cut up the U-bend until it had a nice flow with a 6 degree sweep to tuck the pipe back up under the body and exit before the rear tire. I got them to match side to side pretty close but the passenger header sticks further out 1.5 inches from the block than the drivers side and the roll bar outrigger was slightly different side to side. With the muffler in the only place it would fit, kinda far back, I experimented with several tip designs before deciding on a straight out in front of the tire. I painted them with VHT flat black high heat header paint to get them to "dissappear" under the car. Mission accomplished
Today I bolted them on and ran it through a few heat cycles to cure the paint, it pushes air pretty good and I think it sounds pretty good to boot !
Oh yeah, shortening that throttle pedal arm the quarter of an inch worked like a charm, the car now returns to idle when off the gas. I even gave it a good goose on the test drive and it didn't hang at 1300 rpm like before, it did blow the tires off however.
My neighbor took this video of my test drive https://youtube.com/shorts/TswcDQzjdGY?si=uTKBG_Wgw1ocKQbW
Time for a new rear tube bumper, the old one was good except I lost one of the ends and the mounting brackets don't fit the new chassis. The old one was an oddball 2 3/4 in. diameter so I figured I'd just use 3 in. since I had some left over 3 inch exhaust pipe to mock it up with. I didn't like it, looked to big to me, so I got online looking for the 2 3/4 but shipping prices were more than the tube ! I looked at my local Metal Supermarket and they showed they had it so today I drove over to that side of the city for nothing. It turns out the website shows inventory across the whole country throughout all it's stores, they would have it shipped from another store in about a week. I decided to grab some 2 1/2 inch while I was there since it was only $35 bucks, if I didn't like it I could always order the 2 3/4. I mocked it up and it's actually not bad so I'm going to move forward with welding mounts to it to really get a good mockup. I've got it all marked out just need to grab some 1/4 bar stock for the mounts, thought I had some so I didn't grab them when I got the tube, turns out I had 3/8's which is just to thick to blend into the .065 wall tube. Mockup with a piece of wire holding things
I gave it another wash and took it to it's first cruise night in 10 yrs, got close to 200 degrees stuck in traffic but it dropped once I began moving so that's telling me a shroud would work if I need it.
Back onto the tube bumper, I decided to cut off the brackets and move them outboard an 1/8 inch and my half round caps were delivered today. Welded those on and they turned out pretty good, tomorrow I'll sand the tube and see how it all will turn out.
I've been fighting this shrill high pitch intermittent screeching sound at idle that's like nails on the chalkboard you can hear over the exhaust coming from around the collector area somewhere. I went around the toe board adjusting the pinch weld and floor to gain a little extra clearance but the damn sound persisted. Everything is solid mounted but it will go away once you give it the gas to take off, you'd also hear a single chirp if you hit a bump in the road. Today I dove into it further trying to locate what the exhaust could be possibly rubbing on, I removed the lower fender and seen these two spots that could be the culprit. I gave them a good clearancing with the bandsaw and flap disc, to be determined if that was it or not, but I sure hope so.
Spent the afternoon getting the bumper right where I wanted it, then drilling the frame and brackets. Took entirely to long on the drilling part thanks to my 4 boxes of mediocre sharp drill bits and not being able to get any leverage on the drill drilling the frame. Now to sand it down and see if I can get it powdercoated the same chrome as the Eelco tank bracket.
I took it one step further and polished it, I gave it a coat of Mother's Chrome Polish followed up by red Wenol. I'll run it like this for the summer just because I don't want to tie it up in powdercoat jail.
Spent a couple days figuring out the gas guage issue, turned out to be the transponder thing inside the sending unit. Autometer didn't want to know anything when I called their tech line on how to fix it, after some runaround he switched me to customer service and same song and dance there. I took it apart and sanded, filed, scotchbrighted, used a drill bit in a couple holes and removed some tension on a couple screws to get it moving freely.
I took ol Bad Moon down to the local truck stop scales today for a front/rear weight, she's a little heavier than I thought it would be (like always) but not terrible I guess. I traded a lightweight thin stock economy frame for a 2x3 .125 wall, traded stock front suspension for a straight axle with a couple leaf springs, traded small block for big block, traded small radiator for a large 4 core and added that 10 lb stainless firewall. She's 1460 on the nose and 1140 on the rear for a grand total of an even 2600 lbs, plus/minus 20 lb accuracy they said. Last time I weighed it at the track back in 2013 it was 2410 with a couple gallons less fuel.
The Jalopy Journal
