Projects The bucket of ugly! A de-uglifying thread...

And make it fit.

 

Happy belated Birthday!

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Thank you!

 

Hey gang,

Just a quick update today while I put the finishing touches on Endlessearth's truck.

The other day I took a giant step forward in making the engine bay in the 'Bucket look early sixties. Anybody that knows me knows I have a weird sort of "thing" for old Mallory YC type distributors. I have several in my collection from over the years, and nothing to me screams late fifties or early sixties like one of these at the proper end sending sparkles out to the right places! Oh, gotta have the two piece cap too. GOTTA have that! Not to mention that they were built originally to outlast ANYTHING that they were ever intended to be stuck in, and give a nice tasty happy advance curve for performance duties, too! I submit: It don't get no better than this!

With all of these around, a good usable YC for a small block Chevy had eluded me for quite some time. Found one earlier this year at one of So-Cal Phoenix's second Saturday get togethers offered by a good friend of mine that swore the Pertronix unit inside was junk. Take it! Was his offer... I can afford free stuff! Now I owe Rick something.

I checked with Hotroddon here in the H.A.M.B. who works for (or owns, not sure which) Pertronix, and he was kind enough to send me a wiring diagram to check the unit, and to my surprise it checked just fine. I pulled the cap apart to see some corrosion in the base of the cap where the wires insert, and figured that was the culprit. From there it has just sat for the last month or two while Grant's truck has remained on center stage.

Well, Thursday I had to pull the later, and very happily functioning Mallory/Pertronix unit out of the bucket, as I had promised it to Grant for his truck. Time was made to dump the YC in the 'Bucket, and get things working. A bit more tuning and screwing around with the cap, as my initial "fix" didn't fix the problem, and I'm down the road, looking much more the part! Happiness ensues....

Quick question to other hapless souls that have played with these distributors. Any body have any luck with reconditioning these caps? My initial attempt included lightly bead blasting each wire socket that was corroded by putting the nozzle of my blaster down in the recess and carefully triggering. Seemed to clean up the ends, but on the inside of the cap I see traces of carbon tracking, probably in response to the resistance caused by the corroded wire out puts. Anybody got a good way of cleaning and sealing that? Good thing I had another clean cap around...

 

Sorry, meant to reply the other day, but got busy with the new LCS class ships. Unfortunately, I bought the Plymouth with the Fat Man Fab front end already installed, and since his frame stub was used, there are no original rails left to attach the Heidt's kit to. I have a line on a rough '48 Plymouth 2 door sedan project, and as far as I can tell, the frames are the same. Anybody know for sure? In all fairness to Fat Man's, this front end served the original owner well, lasted for years, took several (somewhere around 6) round trips from San Diego to Utah, and gave him no problems. I didn't have any problem with it other than the twitchy steering that comes from a late model, high pressure p/s pump being used on a Mustang II rack. Still exploring options for that, mostly Later Mustang and Cavalier. Can't really put the brake failure on Fat Man's, too many other shops touched after to point the blame at anybody (even me, though now that it happened, I guarantee you I'll be checking ALL the suspension / brake bolts tight several times a year from now on!) for that one.

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Louvers,

Can't help with the distributor. I've seen them, but never messed.with them. They were a little before my time (which is funny since I think we're about the same age ....I turn 50 in August. ) Closest I ever got were the OLD Mallory dual points w/ the tan cap.


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Well, Endlessearth's truck fired and ran for the first time today FINALLY!!! A few last little things to finish up and some running in and the world will be back on an even keel... Kinda. That means that soon I can get back to getting stuff done on the 'Bucket, posting and not feeling guilty as all get out for not working on customer stuff!

In another interesting twist, Miss Judy has announced that she is heading up to her sister's house in Toronto for a couple of weeks at the end of next month. She will be leaving me the keys to the accursed Honda, which could easily be a two week (GRUMPH!) daily driver if I could pull the 'Bucket apart and paint... Lets see how messed up the schedule is by then.

In the mean time, it was 81 here today, and I jumped in the 'Bucket this morning to drive exactly 9 blocks to get a bit of gasoline for startup, and I ended up putting about 10 miles on it just boppin' around my neighborhood... Life is good sometimes!

 

Poor Chip. My truck has been clogging his yard for months. Nothing like a 64' C20 long bed to cork up the works. It is the project that never ends and he might regret taking it on but the workmanship is top notch and hearing that baby fire up today was awesome and chilling. If I didn't know that it was Chip, I would think that the very devil himself built this block. Here is a pic that my wife took today of Chip doing his thing under the hood to beat the devil back while I just sit in the cab and turn the key on command.



Here is a link to the video of the start-up. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kEQsI5koXXs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

You know that you just jinxed yourself, right?

 

Nah, not a chance! I think I already found the next round of cool air duct tubing...

 

Man, that sounded awesome, I liked the faded paint and signwriting on it too... One has to admire the sky light in the roof to allow heaps of light in on the job too.... just as well it doesn't rain much there.....

 

Ya, we had one Hell of a windstorm that rolled through on Friday or Saturday and took the last little bit of my canopy apart. I have to run to WalMart tomorrow...

 

Is it orange now?

 

I wonder how many of these kits survived, gotta love those headers.,

 

No orange yet! But I might be doing a bit of an update later today if I can find the right fuel line fittings...

It was out proudly at what might be the last South West Nostalgia Drags on Saturday coolin' it with a car that has a ton of Arizona history that until 8:30 AM that morning I didn't know still existed... I ran the car show out there, so the 'Bucket was kinda the poster child.

 

I know a guy that has one of those kits. I'm waiting for him to give me the go ahead, on restoring it.

 

Well gang, I had every intention of showing off my new fuel lines and glass bowl G.M. fuel filter this evening, but nature had different ideas. We now have a freak early season dust storm rolling through town that cut my work day short by a bit. That'll hold 'till tomorrow.

I realized I hadn't left you guys with a Judy-ism to ponder in quite awhile, and this morning over coffee she uttered another that got written down for my book, "The practical conversion Judy Chan to standard English manual".

Back in January we rescued a small male Shih-Tzu that is black with white feet and collar. He is one hell of a cool little guy with a major Napoleon complex, and has zero problems keeping up with our deranged Schnauzer.

So, he hops up on the bed as we drink our coffee, and curls up on my lap, and Judy sighs a bit and says "He really is tusteego dog"... The look of confusion that washed across my face brought the re-affirmation at higher volume "TUSTEEGO, HE A TUSTEEGO DOG!" My mind's tach needle pegged, Tuskegee Airmen? Tostito's chips? Wait a second, black, white, tuxedo? Ya, that's it tuxedo... "Sweetheart, do you mean T-U-X-E-D-O tuxedo?" "Ya, what the herr you think I say?!"...

 

lmfao

 

You have got to publish this book! Even if it is in multiple volumes to update the ongoing isms.



jerry

 

Very funny

 

Write it down! My wife of 50 years this Fathersday. (yes I'll be at LARS on our 50th anniversary) but that's another story. Anyway she was raised by very southern parents and I remember her saying some very cute down home things. I didn't write them down and now they are gone. I don't remember them and her speech is much more sophisticated.

Love the profile of the not so ugly T now. It really needs the carb. scoop though.

 

Scoop, coming up soon...

 

Stopped by a buddy of mines shop today to check the speedometer on my T, and found out it's 5 mph slow at 45 mph, which made sense since I seemed to be keeping up with traffic at 55-60 mph. This just doesn't happen in SoCal! But anyway, more importantly, I realized my rear brakes don't work for crap! I had to put the car in neutral just to stop the rollers on his emissions dyno. Now I realize they have some pretty serious inertia to them, but still, I didn't think I was gonna get them stopped! I just got the car out of extended storage, so I'm guessing the rubber hose has deteriorated and collapsed inside. Ten days till Goodguy's, two blower carbs leaking like a sieve, and now this too. Yay! :banghead:

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I would like all those thinking and planning to build a Bucket to have a good old study of Chips in that first photo. Notice how well proportioned the side view is with no nasty large gaps between the rear of the engine and the fire wall. Also how the length of the engine bay is almost equal with the body followed by a pickup bed not too long or short to upset the over all dimensions of the car.
As for your book, I will have to order a copying too as that last comment almost made me wet myself with laughter.
Back to the car, I look forward to seeing those other wheels and tires on it when you can Chip.

 

HELLS BELLS !!! I remember that A from the early 60s around here, at that time the blower was change drive! You could hear that chain singing for a long ways away. And even stranger I've been hanging out lately with the cars orignal builder ,Marion Jordan. Ol Marion is totally 'puter illeliatrat so I've been posting some lathes etc. on craigslist for him. Orignally black and in my opinion looked better. Marion was a member of the "Drag-uns" car club way back when .And before the A had a 31 Chevy coupe fenderless with a big inch GMC 6.

 

So N.L.,

My T came from Az as well, and has "Jalopy Street Hot Rods" engraved on the wind wing. Ever heard of them? I've been hesitant to post any pics of it on your thread, cause it's definitely NOT traditional (and that's why I have parts to build two more, one way more traditional glass car, and one as a '26 roadster pickup.)! In fact it kinda has an identity crisis, a couple of different build styles mixed together. Plan to change that as funds allow.

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Thanks for the kind words! The other set of wheels and tires are forthcoming soon, but there is a bit of a hitch... Cody and Steve from Hurst up in Portland have had some issues with their lease on their place and are down a bit while they relocate. I LOVE their cheater slicks, so I will wait out the move. I think the fronts are going back on in the next day or so.

 

Does she know you put these on here haha

Love the T...I kinda want it...want a shoebox?!