Oh yeah, I'm good now....I'll never be able to enter that Arnold Strongman competition like I dreamed, but I guess you can't have everything. LOL I do have one small update, not really an update though, after all. I was out in the shop the other night for something and noticed a huge, deep crack in the sidewall of one of the tires. They have been cracking for sometime, but nothing big. This one though is a bit concerning, so after nearly 10 years of service, the only wide whites are being replaced with a new set. Not earth shattering. LOL Oh.....and I got a Bermuda Bell. Haha.
Page 1 in ... at work Dr Dave ....and friends. Just placing this here to read 16 pages .... later. I must of been Rip Van Winkling to miss this "dorky" thread. I dig it.
Glad to hear you are ok, afraid I can’t comment on lack of progress as I haven’t gotten much done either but not due to health problems, just getting lazy?? Actually grandkids keeping Me pretty busy and I’m enjoying it! Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
LOL....I'm pretty much a behind the scenes/background kind of guy, so this thread lurking back behind all the "good" stuff is pretty much where I belong, so you haven't really missed much. Haha! Welcome aboard my dorky project.
I’d go head and start the hirohata stuff. That hirohata stuff is just fun to do.... Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
That's kinda where I'm leaning. I'm getting too old to do do things twice, so I may as well just head the direction I want to go rather than side step it a bit only to have to redo it again later another way.
THREE YEARS is but a small ripple in time Doc...FWIW, I wanted to have my '48 Caddy at the 2016 CCR event...and the 2017 event...and the 2018 event but it's taken longer than anticipated to build it (I've owned the car for 20 years) and I swore last year I'd have it at the 2019 CCR event...and I'm close to having it on the street (not finished mind you, but streetable)...and now I find that another commitment has me not going to CCR again this year...oh well, I'll shoot for 2020 and the Caddy will be streetable by then...altho I'm not getting any younger either...!!! Here's a couple of shots of the '48's current condition... R-
I just sat here and read though most of the thread. Right now I'd rather have a "semi finished" car /truck that could get in and drive rather than one torn apart and spread all over the place.
Glad to see this thread pop back up, it had been so long that I had forgotten about it! Course it only takes me a couple minute's to forget things anymore. lol Also glad too see it back up again, cause now I don't feel so bad about still working on the wiring in my Olds! It's only been a few week's for me
Caddy’s looking good Roger!! I’ve missed nearly every car deadline I’ve ever set for myself. Even at missing the CCR for a few years you are still ahead of me....I’m 35 years into my Pontiac and I’m further from done than I’ve ever been with it. Haha So, yeah, Mr48, I’ve got them in all stages: finished, 1/2 finished and running and blown all apart. Lol Even have the A apart right now Slopok...on its way to a dropped axle. [emoji16] Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
So....what happened with this turd? Hope you kept that WONDERFUL consol! hahaha I plan on picking up plenty of "Dork" cars, when I retire, and bringing them back to "Traditional" reality.
No way!!! @Bad Bob? Dude!! Where you been? It's still a dork car, even after all these years....hard to believe it's been 10 already. Half a set of ghost flames, fake Buick portholes cut in the hood, console and 80's pillowy split bench and all. I keep chipping away at it here and there, but still driving it. Maybe one day it will be something, but even still, it's owner will still be a dork. LOL Good to see you back on the HAMB Bob!!
Mine will be running again, by the end of this year, so I can drive my granddaughter around. Retiring soon, so I will have plenty of time to sort issues out on it. Never saw this thread, so I HAD to give you some shit, haha. Love what you've done so far. Dash is awesome!
LOL. Thanks for the compliments. It's better than it started, that's for sure. Never thought I'd be 10 years in and it would still be in this stage. But, time flies by and we look back and say where on earth did it all go. A guy's gotta have goals...and I have plenty, just hope I end up with enough time to see them through. LOL Congrats on the upcoming retirement!! That's awesome! I've pretty much come to the conclusion significant progress won't be made on many of my projects until I reach that stage in life....especially since I'm an old parent and our last one won't be out of the house until I'm nearly retired. LOL
There's a lot of Streetrods here in SoCal that I would like to save. The younger generation don't care about old cars, so they are just dumping them. Nobody want Gradpa's POS. Same thing is happening with Harleys.
Nailhead...... Well, not really....SBC, but I did find this finish nail laying underneath the valve cover when I pulled it this morning. Why did I pull the valve cover you ask? Well, last year it started running suuuuper crappy and was behaving like it had jumped time. Suffice to say I got other stuff going on....a big house reno, new grandkids, finished a new motor in my '50 Chevy, blah, blah, blah, so it's just sat. Finally had some time over the last few days to mess with it. Started it back up and ran fine and dandy at idle, but not so much once any rpms were put to it and a nice banging developed at cylinder one....thus the pulled valve cover. Exhaust valve wasn't moving. Pulling the rocker showed the stud still in place where it belonged and a straight push rod. Turned it over with just the push rod and no movement to speak of, so off comes the intake.... Was hoping for a hole in the top of the lifter but naaaaahhh. :/ At the very least there's no doubt been metal floating around the system, so I guess it's best to pull the motor and see what we got. Of course, me being me, this means there is likely to be a whole sweater unravel behind thread I'm pulling.....just been driving it since any real forward progress was made 7 years ago (!) when I painted the top half, so here we go digging into it again.
Doh! Thats not supposed to look like that but would explain it running bad. Now would be a good time for that nailhead you mentioned.
Lol! My original plan when I first bought the car and have still had that as my intention all these years was to put in my 56 Olds motor since my dad always wished he’d put an Olds in his Merc way back when. I kinda thought if this mess turned into a deal, maybe now would be the time to do it. But, with the number of car and non-car projects I have on the front burner at the moment, that’s probably more than I want to bite off and chew….not only all the re-inventing the wheel to get it in and set up, but all the money on the parts I don’t have….intake, dress up parts, etc, never mind the cost of building and Olds in the first place. So, right now I’m debating: 1) doing the cam and lifters and lots of oils changes and hope for the best, 2) pull the motor and go through it hoping it’s good enough for just maybe a hone and bearings (plus the cam of course) or 3) someone we all know and love (Flat Top Bob) may be able to land me a GM Performance 265hp 4 bolt 350 crate long block. If the motor comes out, I suspect I’ll keep pulling the string and replace front cap with the one I have that’s already blasted and in epoxy (remember the existing front end is tweaked from the hood blowing open on the previous owner) as well as put in the new Vintage Air system I’ve had sitting here for a while. And remember waaaay back when I uncovered all the mess with the “smoothed” firewall? I would take care of the passenger side and finally have the engine compartment all in shape and be done with that part of the process, plus make forward progress on finishing outside of the car. We’ll see….still a pretty fresh wound from thinking I was just needed to put in a new timing set, so not exactly sure which way I’m going to land yet. Lol
You sure have loaded yourself up but glad to see you’re back on the Merc, I agree with Jeff- that nailhead would really look good in there!
Guys, guys.. I hafta tell you - retirement really doesn't magically create more time for projects. I don't know why, but sadly there does not seem to be any more "free time" for the projects we love. Do things while you can as retirement conjures up even more "stuff" that needs doing. C'mon Dave; sea foam and green powered by Olds!! lol. Dave
....says the guy who keeps hounding me if I've made any progress towards finishing it. LOL I'm sure before I make too many decisions I'll do something stupid to derail myself like lifting the Olds motor into the hole "just to see." LOL
For me it does...I already retired once, but took a job for the insurance. I have no kids at home, and my wife is busy all the time, so I have lots of time when i'm off, and get so much done. I make lists and check them off every weekend. Not eveybodys situation is the same.
All kool suggestions but its a complete waste of time and money. Dave drives his stuff daily and everywhere at any time, day or night. Spending thousands more on a nostalgia motor in a kustom is just not worth the effort. The hood will be closed all of the time. In a Hot Rod no question just not in a kustom. Maybe a nostalgia motor if its a historical kustom and it would be stuck in a museum. When you drive it as much as Dave, you need to keep the Mechanics simple. Looking forward to watching the kustom work come together the way you plan. Going to be real kool.
The Olds got the final nail in the coffin earlier this morning. Checking into trans adapters to hook it up to the 700R4....1500 clams, plus basically having two bell housings (the Olds has an extended bell on the back fo the block). I can't see spending half of the cost of a crate motor on just an adapter and having a motor/trans combo 86 feet long requiring reworking the floor and the driveline to get it to fit. The comments would be made put a standard in it and it will fit fine. For a million reasons, I'm not going down that road either. Just not worth it to me. Like Mickey said, I drive these cars as my everyday cars...everywhere, so some expensive, half way set up just for the sake or seeing an Olds in the engine compartment isn't going to be the answer for me. SBC stays, either this one or a crate. Fits, already set up, have all the parts. Sort out the engine compartment, detail it all, put the new front cap on and the final phase of un-dork-ifying (other than the seats) will be complete along with making the beginning strides to my Hirohata-ish looks. Here we go...game on.....
Swap cam and lifters pull the pan, clean it out ..... maybe spray some diesel on the bottom end to wash off any grit that might still be hanging around, and slap it back together. I've done it..... got about 15k miles before a non-related issue ended up killing the motor. If you pull it, you might as well rebuild it. If you swap the cam / lifters and the bearings fail.... you still end up rebuilding it. But there is a good chance you kick the can down the road for quite a while.... i'd take the risk...... always plenty of guys that like to make things much harder than they may have to be. Considering the risk being the cost of a shortblock, ain't no way I'd pull that motor.
I agree Clay. That may well be the way I go for now. Seeing the price of the long block through Bob, I can't see rebuilding this motor (a 305)...the 350 with a warranty is just money better spent. That being the case, I really have nothing to lose with this motor putting a cam in it the way you say since push come to shove I'll replace it rather than rebuild it. So, mechanically minded people...what would be a reasonable cam to slide in if I went that way? I can screw a motor together, set it up and make it pretty, but picking components like cams and such I really don't have a clue other than to say things like "mild street cam" or "RV cam" without know really what any of that means. LOL Motor is an '85 305 out of an IROC Camaro running an Edelbrock 4 barrel and HEI ignition.
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