Can't powder coat headers as the high temps they operate at will melt the powder coating and make it sticky every time you run the engine. So ceramic coating or paint are your only options.
Yes, i know. He has a paint/ powder and finishing company, so he also does cerakote, ceramic coating, etc. even has a hydrographics tank and does silkscreening. He has been offering his services for years and we barter each other when he needs something, but i hadnt called in one yet, thats all i mean, was that i wanted to pick his brain, and figure out a solution.
Years ago I sent out my OE exh manifolds from my 348 Chev engine. They looked great but, in 2 years all rusted thru the coating. Sold the car so I never pursued the issue.....
Nothing too exciting, the seats were mostly complete, but one of the bottoms, was missing the handle/ leg support that actuates a latch to lock the seats into the buckets. I figured the likelihood of finding another handle and bracket was pretty slim, so cobbling one together on the cheap was the best option so i can get the seats out of that shop and brought home, out of harms way of catching fire from sparks or something. Starting with some 304 stainless 1/4" rod, and a little chunk of 304 1/4" plate, stainless so that it could eventually be polished up. 20210614_180242 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 20210704_184403 by Dan Haas, on Flickr Eventually had a shape to somewhat match the toothed head to move the latch mechanism 20210704_202903 by Dan Haas, on Flickr Tig welded with 308L rod to the 1/4" rod and sanded down a bit, i left some of this stuff a little rough so there was enough material when i go to sand it down and polish everything. 20210704_205911 by Dan Haas, on Flickr I didnt have much faith in making a tight enough bend to match the original bracket, so i found a piece of .5 x 1.5 x .125 stainless rectangular tubing to start with 20210717_111328 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 20210717_111400 by Dan Haas, on Flickr covered the original bracket in a few layers of tape and used a razor blade to trim it out to make a template 20210717_113657 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 20210717_114247 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 20210717_114526 by Dan Haas, on Flickr A few die grinders, some heat, a hammer and a vise later, i had this 20210717_123836 by Dan Haas, on Flickr I left it a little rough so it can be sanded and polished at some point in the future. 20210717_141614 by Dan Haas, on Flickr Originally, the handle was riveted in place in the bracket, I'll probably either rivet it or find some nice looking hardware so its removable just in case theres a reason to take it apart. 20210717_141657 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 20210717_142720 by Dan Haas, on Flickr (the floor started to show some rust from me sweating my ass off getting in and out of the car setting the seats up!) I think whats left is to make the rear tab brackets for the seat buckets to secure them to the car floor, make some sort of pad or puck to reinforce the floor where the seat handle/ stand will sit, and figure out how/ where the side cushions secure to under the rear quarter windows. 20210717_144204 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 20210717_144034 by Dan Haas, on Flickr And I've been picking away at some work on the '37 Plymouth, fixing some issues with the sheet metal on the doors and the trunk/ license plate/ taillight area. I dont have any good pictures of the before on the door sill, but this picture of the backside of the license plate box that was cut out is a good example of some of the problem areas on the Plymouth 20210614_180522 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 20210614_180524 by Dan Haas, on Flickr I just ended up cutting the bottom 3'ish inches off the bottom of the door and started over, since the owner wanted the bottom edge hemmed/ folded over, where as before it just ended. 2021-07-19_03-28-56 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 2021-07-19_03-32-37 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 2021-07-19_03-33-23 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 20210710_111327 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 20210710_134819 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 20210718_112249 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 20210718_142655 by Dan Haas, on Flickr And started mapping out the new license plate box. Its probably about 1.5" narrower, and atleast .5" shorter than what came out, so i'll need to make some new surrounding filler pieces. Sort of arbitrary measurements trying to find a center point since i was basing half of them off of bondo'd body lines, but just trying to make sure its not glaringly off center 20210718_120020 by Dan Haas, on Flickr 2021-07-19_03-39-20 by Dan Haas, on Flickr And saw this yesterday on my way home from the garage, seemed a little too specific to me! 20210718_150811 by Dan Haas, on Flickr
@Stooge You continually outdo your previous remarkable fabrications…..apparently no end to your skills! Ray
Hey thanks Ray! I really appreciate it! I have to admit that this seat project is coming together better than i was expecting, and hasnt been nearly as tedious either. This car's sneakily getting nicer and nicer! I've gotten in most of the materials to start the new intake and i have a sort of plan so maybe i'll try and start that this weekend. I've been hemming and hawing over buying the pair of new Big Strombergs yet though. I know i'll need them eventually, but i wasnt planning on starting the engine for a bit, so after i use them to mock up the intake and pedal linkage, they'll just go back in the boxes and there will just be a grand sitting and waiting, but with how expensive cores seem to be to just get some for mockup, its almost not worth it to buy cores to just delay spending the money on the new ones. Probably better to just bite the bullet and buy the ones i'll be using and get the linkages and everything set up. This time next year i want to be driving this car so i'll need them in the not too distant future anyways!
I finally started the new and hopefully permanent intake for straight 8 this long weekend. I changed plans a few times and am simplifying things alittle with a pair of Stromberg Big Primary 97's and basing it off of an Edmunds Customs intake, but with the exhaust, a real Edmunds probably wouldnt have fit and it would have been an expensive experiment trying to buy one. Split the tubing down the middle to give it a rounded edge. The tubing and flat plate is mostly 1/8 and 14ga, and the flanges came from Hells Gate hot rods. I just put a couple single barrels in place for something to look at. Im probably going to get the new carburetors in the next few weeks so i can set up the pedals and linkages incase i need to add some brackets before it gets coated. I was talking to a buddy who has a finishing shop this morning, and it might be chrome cerakote for the intake and black for the exhaust header. This is actually upside down in the pictures, i wanted to be able to really smooth out the inner floor along the seams , so the lid will go on with the new carburetor flanges since i believe the Big 97's need the intake flanges opened up and ported a bit. ( i need to trim the exhaust flange near the firewall, stacked over the intake flange so that is why the exhaust is sticking out a bit) Also happened to find the right sized radiator, it will need to be gone through, but i got it for not too much so im happy with it
Cracked open the piggy bank and bought something new and shiny for a change! I just bought one of them to finish the intake, ill get the second one when im closer to starting it but at $550 with a couple of the linkage clips, i might grab a cheap core 97 in the interim to get the linkages set up. The bottom of the Big 97s are opened up a bit more and share an open space rather than 2 seperate holes. Next to the 1 barrel Carter, the 2 barrel shows the size of them plenum more realistically, and it doesnt look nearly as big i think. I was going to start planning out a linkage with a bellcrank and homemade bracketry because i figured the stock one was long gone and probably also wouldnt work with the intake and exhaust. Started digging through my boxes of stuff that came with the car and managed to find the brackets but will have to source the replacement hardware and cotter pins. I have to widen the brackets a smidge or move it over a hair to clear that last exhaust tube, and make new rods, but it shouldnt take much to get it to work at all, so im happy to have not have to reinvent the wheel and keep this simple. I am plan on using the front carb to connect to the pedal rod, and the front will connect to the rear, but i seem to have plenty of room to use either with the rod running between the exhaust and intake runners. Then got the Plymouth back on the ground to see how it all looked with the changes and how it would sit, plus to do the taillights, i needed some room and to be able to step back to make sure they would be even. New Posies rear leafs, and coilovers up front, ( was previously air suspension). Im very happy with how it sits, and will have a good usable ride height now. Its getting Halibrand style slots, i think from Rocket Racing? And i got a new old book after a month of shipping from a slightly drunk ebay purchase. Brooklands, Eduardian era and old cycle cars were some of my first car interests, and still are a big interest, so stuff like this always grabs my interest
I’m enjoying seeing pictures of the fabrication you’re doing. And your new book looks very interesting too! HFH.
So this is what i've come up with so far to try and move this intake project along, First made some flange plates out of 1/2" plate, drilled and tapped 5/16-18, and used set screws as studs to keep things simple and so if i wanted to add a spacer/ riser, getting longer set screws and swapping them out would be nice and easy I even bought a new hole saw for this. The bottom of the Big 97's have a a massaged base plate and the holes intersect, so i just used the accompanying gasket to mark it out and made to intersecting 1.5" holes and did the rest with a die grinder. these will get welded in and blended to make it look like 1 piece. I bought a 97 out of the HAMB classifieds from @Sutton Speed on friday and i had it in hands on my monday from California to Boston. And bought some 10-32 rods to play with and an assortment of throttle levers, rod ends, ball sockets, etc. I still need to widen or move over the pedal trunion brackets to clear the exhaust tube, but that should be simple enough I'm not sure if i will try and use the hand throttle knob on the dash for the choke or just put a dedicated choke under the dash. Under the dash would probably work better since it would be in line with the choke, but the hand throttle lever to the left of the steering wheel is already there and will look a little cleaner i think, but trying to retain the hand throttle function would be kind of cool i think. Im going to try and get the rest of the intake welded together this weekend, so it should look like something soon!
@Stogy As you know I have been a fan of you and your Buick project from the beginning. I hope that ‘history’ will permit a suggestion ……..looking at the side view photo of your engine with both manifolds in place, an idea occurred to me. Perhaps you could modify the last header pipe to curve forward as it drops from the port and then curve downward to match the angle of the down pipe just ahead of it. Sort of a very lazy ‘S’ shape that would tuck the header pipe under the intake and perhaps provide the needed clearance you mention for the pedal trunnion. Ray
Oh i really tried to figure out a way to not have the last tube just go straight down, but it was a compromise with how and where the main tube had to kick down under the toe board and under the brake and clutch pedals. Not ideal but it runs out of space both horizontally where the firewall is, and vertically where that tube had to join the main. Fortunately, that tube is a little visually obstructed by the steering column so it doesnt stick out as much. Widening the pedal trunion brackets will be alot simpler than it sounds. Using the stock threaded holes, i can get away with just adding half inch to an inch to the main 2 pieces to go around the tube.
...what a cool pipe that is @Stooge...the Crazy pipes Thread beckons your entry... I believe @Hnstray got us mixed up but I can sure be a Stooge at times...
Hi Stogy…….it was accidental, I know youse guys are two different people. I was typing @sto….when the auto fill completed the name ….only it got it wrong because the first three letters are the same. But I wasn’t paying close attention and just tapped on it. Ray
No problems Ray I knew that...no need to apologize at all...I've been interacting with Stooge on other Threads and have been poking my nose into this Thread as well...So many awesome builds going on here it's hard to keep up with them all... I was only funnin' with my response to Stooge and you...isn't technology wonderful... I find doing the @ membership thing challenging at times myself...I'm also constantly correcting my grammar and spelling hoping I get it before someone replies to it because then I'm doomed... I feel like a brother to many of you fellas now...Cheers Mate...
Spent probably 13+hrs over the weekend working on getting the intake a little further along. Alot of that time was getting the inside all sealed up and smoothed out from all of the seams. I dont know if this was the correct method, but i found using the tig torch without filler and melt the interior seams in then going over it with some sanding discs and the air belt sander worked pretty good and wasnt as much work as having to grind down a lot of filler in hard to reach areas. I ran out of wire doing the mounting pads so there is some more to do on those, and i have alot of sanding and prettying up to do before they get coated, but definitely in the home stretch! I'll play with the pedal bracket this week sometime and get it hooked up so i can sit in the car and pretend I didnt take many process pictures, it was filthy work and i was trying not to reach in my pockets and stuff too much, but while i was working on smoothing out the inner seams For not really much forethought about how the pedal and accelerator rod would work, it should really be pretty easy to get lined up and working, just a happy accident! No pictures of it, but i found some time and tore the rear end and leaf springs out of the Edsel. We were planning on getting new springs, but these seem to be in good shape so we'll get them cleaned up and try and use them. Im not too sure about the rear end or what gearing it has. 1958 Edsel Villager wagon, smaller lug pattern 5x4.5, i think some were 5x5.5 or 5x5, i've heard they are basically a ford 9 with funny, non interchangeable brakes, but i'll have to do some research. We're fine with drum brakes in the back so it will just be refreshing what is there, new bushings and shackles, U bolts and shocks. It has a funny rear mount in the form of a U shaped leaf spring looking bracket the hangs down and accepts the upper shackle. It seems like it's made to articulate to an extent, so maybe some sort of overload or load assist type thing? maybe an edsel thing, or maybe a wagon thing? I'll try and remember to get a picture of it.
. Yeah! im starting to get excited about this stuff! after a few yrs of just sheet metal repairs, its fun to work on something a little different! I dont have a timeline really on getting the engine started, but it shoulnt be too long now, and aside from the other big Stromberg carb, not much i need to buy i dont think. I want to drop the oil pan to give it a clean, pull the freeze plugs, and get whatever debris is in the water passages as ive heard thats a problem with these long engines, stuff further away from the water pump can start to pile up at one end of the block. I'd like to get the flywheel machined but that wouldnt really stop me from starting the engine, just one of those things, and id like to get the radiator recored since it sounded like it had some extra pieces inside. Theres still a ton to do on this car before i'll be out and about, but im still shooting to bring it to a show in July 2022! Body work has to start pretty soon though, thats going to take me months and i work annoyingly slow!
Yes, your solutions on a wide range of problems glued me to this thread from the get-go. I've been pleasantly surprised at your use of many home-made tools... dollies, 'T' dollies, and hammering sheet steel over 'em in lieu of a Baleigh-class complex! Trunk channels were something, a lesson in shrinking... (See? I'm not the only one that has to make his own stuff... LOL) Love this straight 8, especially the intake & exhaust, all that tubing! Great finishing...
Thanks guys! i really appreciate everyone who's been following along and watching me guess my way through things and trying to do it relatively low buck. it's not always on purpose, i might just procrastinate alot, and every time, it's 'next time i have to do this thing, that will be my excuse to buy whatever widget' ' then next time comes and its the same thing, or theres something else i need to buy instead. It's been a fun build and i've learned alot, and i want to say alot different from my last personal project, with keeping this one simple where the last one got a little complex, but i dont know if that really applies anymore after building the headers and intake and doing a frame off while replacing the bottom 6 or 7 inches of the car The shrinker and stretcher was a good investment for the trunk channels and that was actually the first time i had really used them, so it was just guessing, but really worked out well! I 100% underestimated how much work the body would need when i bought it but its also moved up a bit in project scope and gotten a little fancier over time, but its in the home stretch finally, and im hoping to be starting filler and primer in November, work on that all Winter and hopefully paint before April or so? I'd really like to take it to the Endicott show in July, but i also want to do it right! In other news, i need to rethink my pedal bracket assembly, i started to cut it in half, and i added an inch and half to it, and all of that worked fine, but it doesnt swing exactly how i was imagining it, but i think if i cut the accelerator rod tab off, and reclock it so it acts more as a bellcrank, it should work, but just making or buying a bellcrank set up, could be worthwhile if its adjustable and i can dial it in a bit. I didnt really take any picturs of it after it was welded up and ground down since the bracket didnt move how i wanted it to. But more interestingly, earlier that day on saturday, someone called and asked if i wanted to go look at a 1950 ford truck for sale with them and they wanted an extra set of eyes, and thought i would enjoy the property. Im not going to share pictures of all of this guy's treasures, but he had 3 barns/ sheds that he had handbuilt over the last 50yrs, out of old materials from the old Hingham shipyard, old churches and buildings, some it dating back to probably the early 1800s judging by how some of the wood was cut in big14in wide slabs, and giant beams from old ship cradles, along with all of the old doors, windows, glass, etc. and every space had a lifetime of collecting. I could have spent the weekend going around. He was really into license plates, and i think he had Mass ones dating consecutively back to 1908 or so, all immaculate inside, but he also had this shed he had built and shingled with them The friend i went with, who has known this guy for what sounds like atleast 50yrs, passed on the truck. The owner brush painted the cab green, so its hard to tell what exactly was under there, but the cab and front dog house were all really solid. Frame looked a little crusty but was solid, and came with a mid 50s Buick Nailhead with mounts for the truck, and offy adapter to the stock ford trans i believe, and there was an extra 9" rear that went with the truck. i believe he wanted $5k for it.
Then sunday, i was invited to the Spindles Car Club's open house. They seem to be mostly muscle cars usually, so not a ton of HAMB friendly stuff, and it had looked like rain so that probably kept some people home, but it held off and i know a few of those guys so it was a nice day, especially since with covid, most of the shows i go to have been cancelled and i havent been to many car things this last yr I tried uploading them with flicker so i could post more than 10, but it wasnt working
Man, you can do a lot with even a cheap shrinker/stretcher setup. You can also fix a lot of mistakes with them! I don't use mine as much as I did when I got it but I am ALWAYS glad it's there when I need it. That and the stubby motorized bead roller I put together are probably my favorite stationary tools in the shop.
While i try to figure out how ill sst up the accelerator rod carb linkages, i started on the last big sheet metal repair on the driver side lower cowl area and fender mounting. I got a little lazy taking pictures, but cut out the inner rocker area and welded in a new piece. Still have some cleaning up to do but i ran out of air sander belts. I left the door facing edge unfinished since the door was in the way and i need to blend the new patch into the door sill And all of that work hidden under the front fenders The door sill was a little worse than i remember, and rather than trying to make a handful of patch repairs on it, it needs to be cut out and replaced so i started making a new one this morning. Cut a strip of 18ga, 2.75"x 42'ish inches, and hammered out a 90° with some rectangular tubing and the edge of a table because it didnt fit in my cheap brake. Then with a combination of a bunch of clamps and a big crusty piece of angle iron and a few hammers to make the upper round fold/ top of the door sill. Used the shrinker/ shretcher to give it a little curve to follow the shape of the body. The rest of the outward facing side of the original sill is in good enough shaoe so the plan is to cut off the top section and weld it into the original areas and blend it all together. I need to pull the rear seats out before i start cutting and welding in that area, dont want to set them on fire, but i still need to make the rear floor brackets to bolt the back of the seat buckets to. Should be simple enough, i just havent gotten to it yet.
Lets see, where were we! Finally got my engine back from rebuild at the end of last year, that both took awhile (14months) and was very expensive but atleast it looks cool! Since i didnt have an engine for a long time, i couldnt finish the intake and exhaust until i got it back and got it installed, but ive been plugging away at it making it nice and pretty and smoothing out all of the welds before it all gets ceramic coated. The gas pedal and manual choke rod are both made up, i tried to use the stock pedal but it didnt make sense and used an under floor one from speedway and it seems like it should keep things pretty trouble free. Stromberg Big 97 primary carbs with a direct, non progressive linkage. Fuel/ vacuum pump rebuilt, generator rebuilt, distributor rebuilt and starter and solenoid rebuilt, but that one took some doing to get the solenoid working and had to piece it together, but stupid me wanted to keep it 6v just because I dont really remember where i left off with this. I'll dig through some pictures on the phone and add them later
One of the main goals of this car has been to be able to take it on some 'good' length roadtrips, in the thousand'ish mile range, while still being an old 6volt, points, manual trans, manual drums, manual steering car, so this is something i was a little more excited about than probably needed to be over. When i was putting together the trunk area, im keeping a space for a spare, the little trunk shelf, spare for a small jack, and a dedicated slot for a toolbox. Found an old Kennedy cantilever that couldnt have fit better I havent bought tires yet, because im still not so close to being on the road, but i did buy the wheels and caps from Wheelsmith, 5 of them so i had a spare, though i only bought 4 sets of caps and rings. Their Hollywood flipper caps, trim rings, and 15x5.5 (or 15x5, i dont remember off the top of my head). Planning on blackwall 7.00x15 Diamondback Auburn deluxe tires when the times comes And just some pictures from the day the engine went in. It was a hassle, things went together and came apart a bunch of times, some hardware that had fit previously, didnt fit any longer (flywheel bolts now contacted the block through the crank flange?) but its in and shouldnt have to come back out. I was trying to think why it was so much easier last time it went in, but remembered the body was off, so swinging around probably over 6ft of engine was a little easier
One of the other projects im working on for a buddy of mine, has been a 1958 Edsel Villager wagon, that i shoved a 460 big block in with a C6. Some ups and downs with making stuff fit, and just having to make some stuff. The inside frame is around 41" wide, and the c6 has i believe whats referred to as a long tail shaft, so i had to make a fairly convoluted transmission crossmember since the aftermarket ones arent wide enough and no one seems to make one for that style tailshaft. It got a B&M shifter, pertronix, some flavor of holley owned radiator that went on a big sale last year, i had a spare holley 600 that is holding a space for something a little bigger, but we can atleast start it with the 600. We can reuse the stock pedal bracket linkage after very little modification to fit on the later big block manifold, which i was pretty happy about not having to re-engineer something since space is pretty tight around there. Cobbling together an exhaust for it currently, a very big Y pipe into a 3" dynomax muffler, mostly using some truck exhaust pieces and universal bends, since surprisingly no one makes an exhaust kit for a big block swapped 58 edsel wagon. We're on a budget, so some rattle can white valve covers, atleast for the time being I think the radiator was for a similar year ford fairlane? And i assumed i would atleast have to drill some new holes, but lined up exactly. I think its a frost bite brand? It was over $300 off so it fit the budget its been off the road since 1968 and living on a farm in Iowa since then, so we treated it to some new leaf spring bushings and shackles. The front bushings came from a jeep i think? And the rear bushings were a mix of universal shackles and stuff that got to fit together. But it was good to get it back on its wheels after a long time on jackstands with the rear end pulled out
The Jalopy Journal
