It really wouldn't have been practical for the street though, I ran it over to Jan-Cen and talked it over with pro mod champ Mike Janis. They make their own line of billet blowers but said this would never get even fuel distribution with carbs. My friend Tom that owns a fuel altered was hoping to hit the lotto so he could get one
While searching for a new vintage blower I decided I might as well replace the last weak link, the factory housing 9 inch that had been under the truck since the early 90's. It's only money and you can't take it with you right. Lol The only thing saving that rear from breaking was those M/T sportsman's that did nothing but spin So out came that rear and it's unpredictable Lincoln brakes that almost got me in a wreck twice
I talked to my friend beforehand that owns a busy chassis shop, he built the Henry J's chassis, about just putting big torino ends on so I could go with 35 spline axles. Once I got it there I was put on the back burner, the price of being friends and getting friends pricing, which I was fine with because I was still building the Henry J anyhow. Several months pass but he gets caught up enough to fit it in, but left turn Clyde, the new ends line up directly on the weld where the axle was narrowed previously. So we order a new fabricated housing that he'll narrow and I decide to go an inch wider because my new rims have one inch more backspace than the old ones.
Since it physically bolted right up on the mockup I pulled it back out and started the assembly. I had ordered Moser 35 spline axles with dual bolt pattern with screw in long studs, these should handle the power. For the center section Moser got the call again with all the good stuff, dropped down to 3.70 gears from the previous 3.89 and went with a Detroit locker, 1350 yoke etc etc. For brakes I went with the big drums instead of discs, those Lincoln discs on the previous rear left a bad taste in my mouth.
During this same time my search for a good vintage blower was going no where so I decided to order a new 8-71 from The Blower Shop. I went with the extra length on the front to keep my distributor clearance on the back side, teflon strips, etc, the goodness stuff. When I unboxed it, man what a piece of jewelry
I set it up next to the old 6-71 so I could rob the idler bracket/pulley combo, carb adapter, top pulley, carb linkage and whatever else I needed. The idler bracket needed different length stand offs and I needed a longer snout, so I figured that stuff out.
Time to get this thing back together, I thought this meat grinder shot was kinda cool, don't stick your fingers in there kids The old setup had 750's, another one of those back of the mind bothersome things where you know they're not big enough to support full boogie operations. So out come the 950's ! Sent those idler bracket standoffs to the machine shop to get shortened and turned down to fit the front cover on the new blower And more pieces of the puzzle put together
I slipped the old rims and tires back on the rear, they barely fit since the new rear is a bit wider But hey, what the heck is that ! How did I never notice that the passenger fender is lower than the drivers side ! I mean how did that even happen, I drilled all the holes in the bedside myself. So I massaged the holes to bring it up because if I lowered the drivers all the wear marks would show, now it's good.
Now that was fixed I was still mainly working on the Henry J and also renovating the old one bedroom apartment inside the garage into usable shop space. Physically I'm feeling pretty good although they had to put a new upgraded icd pacemaker in to keep up with my heart condition, at times my pulse was dropping into the 30's. The carpentry thing was never my cup of tea but I'm glutton for punishment. Getting this I-beam in and up was definitely tricky, it hung off both sides of my car trailer when I picked it up lol
Back to thinking about the fuel delivery and how it was originally plumbed for a naturally aspirated 454, well originally the first V8 it got was a tunnel rammed 406 sbc. The beginning 406 So I replaced the entire fuel system except the fuel cell, everything got bigger and higher flowing, gotta feed this animal
With the fuel side done I decided to tackle another issue the truck had which was it's marginal cooling capabilites. I had a good cooling crossflow radiator in it with the 454 but it needed moved for the blower to fit so I opted to put an up and down flow in it. Although it was supposed to be able to cool it, it would go past 200 pretty often and especially on hot days. I had that old radiator moved over into the Henry J So I indian-givered that back and once again built new brackets for it back in the 41 Then started figuring out the radiator hoses, even using a piece of stainless swimming pool ladder I made my own dye for the bead roller to put a raised ridge in it, worked great The upper I added an inline filler since the radiator is lower and laid back to clear the fenders.
My next can of worms was a new alternator mount, I had made the old one but it had a little flex to it. I found this incredibly stout aluminum mid mount while searching for something for the Henry J, so I ordered two, now they both will take the same belt. But of course another "right turn Clyde" since the blower motor sets a little lower and the different suspensions. I can't get enough adjustment to get the belt to work, alternator hits the stock A-arm, well I always wanted tubular A-arms, which gave me clearance.
At this pont the engine side is done, oil in the blower, the fuel system is done, the water side is done. I think it's OK to start, check for leaks and set the timing, if you noticed something in this prior photo, you get a gold star. I hook up a battery, cycle the fuel pump for about 30 seconds to fill the float bowls, shut it off and check for leaks which there's a small one at the carb. I fix the leak, cycle the pump again, turn it off and check for leaks, nothing this time around. So let's start it, it fires off for a couple seconds then dies, I start it again and it fires again for a couple seconds and abruptly dies. Surely that gallon of fuel was enough but I'll put another gallon in, then I go up and wipe all the fittings to check for leaks, give the throttle a hit to see if it's shooting fuel, yup all good. I get back in the drivers seat and wonder what the heck is going on, this truck has had some weird and strange things happen around it for decades, always figured it was a previous owner that didn't like what I did with the truck. I hit the key and it fires off for a second then dies, I shut the key off walk around the back, up to the passenger side engine and there's a glowing rd wire and smoke ! I run to the passenger rear and disconnect the battery with the wrench I had left there, whole ordeal couldn't have taken 30 seconds from shutting the key off. I got back to engine side and there's more smoke and the interior is full of smoke now, I step out of the garage for fresh air and wonder what in the hell just happened.
Somehow or another this wire, which was to short to reach the charging stud since the alternator was in a different spot with the new bracket, shorted out to the alternator body. It melted the wires all the way back into the fuse box, melting anything they were up against ! Time to take a break from this possessed cocksucker and finish up the Henry J
Looking back at it is never as bad as the day it happened and there's a lot to look back on with that ol truck.
Some days I'd like to forget ! I'm lucky I'm remembering what all I've done to update this story and think what all had happened before I started this thread. The truck is resting with it's orbs till spring
Part of this whole makeover ordeal was to be able to get some sticky tires on this rig so I can see/feel what all this horsepower is about. Before it would instantly blow the 33x19.5 M/T sportsmans right off, no pushing you back in the seat or nothing, it was like you were sitting on ice, flashing the shift light but you didn't go anywhere. M/T doesn't make the 19.5's any more, I can't fit 21.5's so I was prepared to drop down to 18.5's. This was all in my calculations to figure out the new rear end's width along with the extra inch of backspace on the new rims. I find some used 31x18.5 Hoosier quick time pros, a really good sticky street legal tire, and mounted them on my new rims, man they look good ! I put them on the truck and they don't fit, to wide, did I miss measure that rear end width I take the other tire and lay it down next to the old 19.5's, both at 20 psi, damn 18.5 is wider ! So I then find a pair of Quick Time Pros the next size down which is 31x16.5, they fit but to my eye look a little skinny in there
I finished the Henry J in the deep fall of 23, that makeover only took 10 yrs, jeez I remember it only took 11 months to build the car the first time around. That cleared up the Lube-Atory to get the 41 in right before our long 6 months of winter
The first time I wired this truck I was on the same wave length as Freiburger, don't get it right ... just get it running. So this time around I'm actually going to hook up dash lights I made up this little bracket with an old license plate light so the behind the dash light would work like factory, originally it shined down on the throttle, choke, headlight knobs I also installed the battery cutoff switch I've had for years, that would've came in handy with the harness meltdown
What's next, a new shifter, both this truck and the Henry J have Hurst Quarter Sticks. The problem is the J is forward pattern and the truck is full manual reverse. So sometimes muscle memory was overriding brain function and there's to much time and money in these drivetrains for accidents. The new shifter is a Kilduff lighting rods, a super stout positive action shifter with each lever actuating a gear and it looks bad ass ! I modified the existing bracket for it to rest on I also put a drive shaft safety loop in while I was down there
To keep up with reinventing the wheel I had decided to remove the power brakes and got to manual. Twice I had almost rear ended a car during a panic stop while heading to cruise nights. The brakes worked great during normal driving, but the panic stops acted like only 3/4 brakes were being applied. My first thought was the pedal was contacting the column so I clearanced the pedal and all was good until the next panic stop and it acted the same as before. Now my thoughts were the pushrod wasn't traveling deep enough or the vacuum wasn't operating the power booster correctly, this was a matched setup from Master Power brakes to work with my existing brake setups. I had no place to mount vacuum cans or electric motors so let's just get rid of this shit and go manual, eliminate any possibilities. Made up a 1/4 inch steel adapter plate for the manual master Time for that line lock I never installed before, actually robbed it to go into the Henry J back in 2011, and a manual proportioning valve New lines on the rear too going to the new drum brakes of course
A little more wiring, I couldn't have just a plain line lock light to show it's activated, let's use skulls ! I've had skulls in those dash holes for a few years now, how can I get a light inside the head to light up when I push the button ?? Video https://youtube.com/shorts/kV83J1x5c2M?si=8D8ruYzlOOYck2EK
My mental and somewhat written down list of things that needed to be done and things that I always wanted to do to the truck is growing shorter now. One of the things on the list that harken back to my love of nostalgia racing is a pair of tall breathers sticking up on either side of a blower, like on 1960's top fuel rails. I had most of the pieces for a few years but just never got around to making them, now would be the time. I chose the black crinkle covers as a starting point And the breathers in the middle Stripped the black crinkle with multiple rounds of paint stripper Measured out where I wanted the breathers I don't own a mill but I have a drill press and a hole saw After some delicate work I got them fitting really good Then I spent countless hours polishing these rough ass castings And my vision came to life finally
With all the mechanicals done again it's time to get it started, still needs some carb tuning but it's alive once again ! Video https://youtube.com/shorts/P1vQAogTt-g?feature=share .
Now that it runs I put it in gear to test the brakes, it holds, so now see if it goes forwards and backwards, it does, how about that line lock ??? Oh yeah ! The things that I'd still like to do before winter are not essential to driving it but things I never finished before. I want this one out of the heated side of the garage so I can get the 57 in, much like I did with the Henry J to get the 41 in.
Finishing the body work on the hood where I bonded it all together to make the one piece tilt front and the upper grill area never fit good. I never made any kind of latch system to fasten the tilt front down, I cut the fenders at the cowl so they didn't scrape while tilting and two fold was to get air out to help cool the engine. Out back where I had that valve cover script section panel bonded in under the tailgate never got finished either. One other thing I wanted was to get side windows in it, way back in the early 90's I bought a power window kit to put in it so the original stuff got shit canned. When I unsuicided the doors and put the stock hinges back on I decided to put manual windows back in. And also paint the door panels to match the dash
Let the sanding commence, yes it To me these art deco vehicles look better with the hood closed, but what about that killer engine ? Yes, hood windows for the viewing pleasure
The Jalopy Journal
