Projects Modified Lakester Build (THUNDERCASKET)

Stick with it you are much closer to the end.

 

Pat!!!! Mint brother!!! Great to see the pile of parts moving under it's own power, good for you. The best feeling is driving something that you put together
I'm stoked for you. See you at Northeast Vintage Drags, right?!?!

 

THANKS! I saw your new engine the other day & it looks KILLER!

Not sure if I'm free that weekend for NEVD yet but maybe. I am hoping to at least hit Fitchburg on April 28th but I've got a gig the night before so IDK.

 

A brief update here. Lots has been happening, at least small stuff, since the last update. I am now running all 3 carbs, two new 97's and a rebuilt 81 (that I need to re-seat the butterflies in). I don't have the tune nearly right but I'm getting closer. I've got them linked non-progressive at the moment just to move around and make lots of noise.



So, of course I laid my first patch doing a not entirely intentional peelout in the driveway (because I'm not great with the clutch yet and running those ill tuned triple carbs non progressive, like ya do). It made my day and yes the brakes work!

I should probably fix the leaks (4 out of 5 fluids), run proper fuel lines, and rebuild the steering box soon before I get too excited.

 

Holy shit dude! It lives! That’s so fantastic congrats on the rubber patches!

 

One of my favorite threads. Any updates?

 

Yeah Pat, how's it going?

 

Pat hasn't posted on Facebook or the Instagram machine in a while either.

 

I can relate...his plate was rather full and he was under the weather...

That said...he really has made some positive progress on Thunder...high fives Pat.

 

Hope all is well, this has come so far!

 

HI THERE!

Thanks for all the encouragement guys. Life got a bit wild for me last year, not the least of which being my dog's twilight decline, and I have not logged in or done much work since probably this time last year. I HAVE gotten back out there and managed to chip away at a few things over time.

Frankly, a lot of the things I've been puttering around doing are the boring stuff like chasing leaks, particularly FUEL at the carbs. My center and forward carbs now SEEM to be running OK and not puking fuel anymore, so I think my needle valves were the culprit since I had an aluminum fuel block release silica into the system a while back.

I am still chasing a coolant leak somewhere on the passenger lower side. I lost about 3-3/4 gallons over the winter just sitting and I'm still seeing moisture evidence under there now. The hose takes 4 clamps and a coupler so there are a few points of failure. I will probably have to silicone them the next time I drain and disassemble.

I have to address a pretty bad brake fluid leak at the signal sender. For whatever reason, be it sealing, bad threading, or incorrect torque, it pisses brake fluid there whenever I use the brakes. That's one thing for back and forth in the driveway but a big yikes for more than that.

The Amazon fuel petcock I threw on my cheap tank will wet your hand with the fire stuff whenever it's flipped between on and off flow, so, that's gotta be replaced (probably when I run this tank dry).

I have stopped leaking OIL at least! But I am weeping steering gear and rear end oil, so I'm still chasing 4 out of 7? fluids. So far the transmission hasn't leaked or made noises and I've made numerous trips up and down the driveway (leaving small patches, she likes to GO).

So, this past week, I decided that I needed to do something with a big visual impact that involved thinking and fabrication to get going again. All this leak chasing has been TEDIOUS and not fun. I am still figuring out how I want to wire this car, so, I chose to go after the side nerfs, which are actually pretty important with the way I ran my exhaust. I've come close to burning my calves a few times already, so that was plenty justification for me.

It was a bit tricky getting my head around the routing and actually getting it fit but this will do. Hopefully the other side won't be too difficult to match. I've got a bent piece of strap bolted into a rivnut in a stock hole out back and a tab welded on to the transmission crossmember, which wasn't what I had in mind but it works.

 

Those turned out slick! Well worth the effort

 

Nice nerfs. Should keep your legs from burning

 

Good to see you back at it!

 

Quick update here - I've got the other side nerf tacked up and now I'm looking to wire my horn, lights, & possibly a CRAP I AM STUCK IN TRAFFIC electric fan in the bottom of the nose so I can get road legal.

I have an older Painless fuse box that is proving to be a bit of a pain because it's the type that did not come pre wired or with wires. I am not sure what to buy as far as gauge & everything I see seems to have different gauges (some 16/14 & some 14/12 for everything that's not ignition). My car is pretty small, so I am INCLINED to lean smaller but I do like SAFETY so I am pulled to larger wire also (thus making me a little crazy). I also want to use aviation connectors to the body so I can pull it without a bunch of wires to worry about.

Also, for funsies, I had a little party and took some of my 20something friends for little launches down the driveway & laid some little patches. She shot dead straight & was easy to control. I'm going to have to get a better feel whenever I get to race this thing so I'm not just making a lot of smoke and noise (which IS fun) but lose the race. Based on the patches being consistently consistent, I suspect this rear end, which DID come out of an old drag car, has been locked and may not be great on the street but we shall see; I haven't been able to do much turning beyond 3 pointers in the driveway so IDK how she's going to act yet.



My brakes work.

That's my story.

 

Best method for wiring is to use an online calculator to find required wire size on each circuit for a given load, voltage, and estimated wire length. The load can vary greatly depending on what you’re doing (eg LED vs standard filament bulbs, size of electric fan, current draw of ignition system, etc).

 

WHELP, I got one light wired to a switch. It came on briefly and then went out. I called it a day. IDK if the bulb cooked or the fuse.

Oh, yeah, I am wiring the car for real now (it's a mess). I am just using the instructions for the Painless 30001 fuse block I have.

I'm going to go back at it later today.

So far also, I had to ignore the signal and hazard terminals apparently because those generic "hot rod signal flasher" things seem to depend on a direct power to single flasher connection. I wired this up and it just did not work, so, back at that too.





Also here is my hurried build of my 36 buckets with halogen retrofit and added guide signal pods on top. I wish at some point in the years I've had these that I had gone ahead and given them a cleaning and painting but here we are.

 

Hey, you’re farther along than me. I have a wiring harness with those labeled wires and everything. Yup, it’s on a shelf in the box… whatever!

 

At this point I am ready to throw it out a window. It's looking like NONE of the relays want to work with anything on this car.

The turn signal switch wants its own single flasher - the block and one for hazard and one for signals. I cannot find a way to utilize them with this unit. AND I can't get my flashers to flash still.

The H4 Halogen conversion kit I installed, which supposedly just works, does NOT just work. The filaments cook after about 5 or 10 seconds. I suspected the bulbs were dirty/oily but I now suspect this fuse block uses an incompatible relay. Anybody run into this?

Today sucked. I keep throwing money at this and getting nowhere.

 

That sucks! My belief in electricity is that it’s FM! Here’s why: no one can put a piece of electricity in my hand, so I can examine it and see what makes it work. Now some of you will say that I can feel it, but that is not the same as being able to examine it! That is just an after effect of the FM!

Further, I trained as a mechanical engineer. The electrical engineers only make their equations work by believing in the square root of negative ONE (-1). Which is an imaginary number. Something that we mechanical engineers eschew. We work with real numbers. AND real materials!

Did you ever see a bridge built of electricity? I rest my case…

 

^^^^
Funny... .
Marcus...

 

Maybe I'll rethink the halogen conversion for the '30 Chevy headlights I have for my roadster. The 4 banger probably won't push them into the wind anyway.

 

How many watts are the halogen bulbs on low and high? What size fuse, and what is the relay? Got good grounds?

For the turn signals and hazards, do either work or neither? What bulbs do you have for them?