Thread: Everybody that is currently building a car...

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This is what it looks like now. Much done and much left before it's running.

It is great to see all the rides that everyone is building, what a great hobby to have huh? My car is moving along too, finally have a motor getting stroked as we speak, IFS is done, new rotors and all, power brakes in using original pedal assembly. 10 bolt 4:11 rear end getting ready to go in as soon as lowering kit gets here. Camaro shifter and console is in and too low so I have to raise it up. I just keep on plugging away at it, a true labor of love though!

I am epoxy primering my car and I am going to run without a front bumper so I was wondering if anyone nows anything about making roll pans? Are there any availible for sale anywhere?

Well the bodys coming along nicely with the 69 ute making one good complete rust free body from 4 donor bodies. Front suspensions all stripped down and cleaned ready to be painted. so of the ute its all in bits sitting on the garage floor. Looking at a yellow body with black sidestipe paint sceme.

The 350 engine is coming along nicely all aligne bored, torque plate bored .030, decked to zero deck height with new flat top pistons. Con rods shot peened, new rod bolts and resized. . The only setback is a cracked crankshaft . So a steel ones going in. Cylinder heads are 461's that have the standard size valves with a 3 angle valve job and 70 degree throat cut into the ports, will probably have to run shorter pushrods to get the valvetrain geometry right. as for the cam looking at a 229 duration with 490 lift hydraulic stick. The short block originaly came out of a 72 ss camaro ckd suffix code that I picked up at the swapmeet for $100. Gearbox is a 4 speed manual thats been fully reconditioned with new bearings and syncro cones.

So hopefully I'm shooting for the 1 HP per cubic inch figure. Luckily I have access to an engine dyno so I should be able to dial it in without to much drama. :

Well ive just finnished frame #2 for my dodge roadster, the first frame having been an extended model A frame that kept twisting and cracking out the welds. Now im going the the process of remaking the body hangers for a much less channeling this time. At this rate shell be road legal sometime next millenium.

I have a 51 shoebox sectioned 2 inches tacked together and floating on a 70's buick frame with a 350 out of grandmas station wagon, not enough room in the shop for it so its a shade tree custom at the moment.

thanks guys, I will have the book coming to me. It's a hard one to match at the rear of my car because of the curve of it. We will see, thanks for the info.

I have finally found a 454 for my car. It's a H.O. out of a monte carlo, we'll see. I can't get to it for a week and a half.

Originally posted by brickman

I have finally found a 454 for my car.

After about 5 months of colloecting dust, I finally started cutting tubes for the chassis. It will be slow going tho. Seems the faster I go the behinder I get with shop work. Guess I just hafta' get over feeling guilty workin' on my own stuff on the weekends.

Well everything takes longer than expected but this thread is good to keep track of progress, however slight. New for me are that my son and I squared up the 4-bar front and rear last Saturday to within 1/32" around what appears to be a perfectly straight Brookville '29 frame. I also got the short block 350 back from Joe Butler's amazing shop (a very small shop chock full of blocks in various stages of rebuild) and yesterday got back the rebuilt 882 heads which were treated to a smoothing of the exhaust ports, a poor man's port job on what some say is the limitation of the 882 heads, the exhaust ports. I also purchased a set of ARP engine bolts, but found that some are not included and yesterday finally got a junk front pulley just for the three bolts to hold the crank pulley. I bought the ARP bolt for the crank pulley from Summit ($18) and found it is too long and that there are dozens of possible 350 pulley combinations for the crank and waterpump! I don't know whether to cut the bolt shorter or stack washers on the bolt. Since I bought a very bare block and heads, a lot of little pieces are missing and causing a lot of little annoying problems and to my amazement the local Chevy agency, NAPA and two other aftermarket outlets do not have a lot of these bolts. The ACE Hardware guy told me he can get me any bolt in any grade as long as I buy a box of 100 at a time! Thank goodness for Summit, but even they do not seem to have all the bolts. I guess this is normal and would not be a problem if I had a few donor engines but what it means for others is that when you get an engine, try to get it with every small piece and bracket still attached! I also got two 15x7 and two 14x6 wheels from Early Wheels with baby moon caps and the wheels are now at the paint shop for epoxy primer. IF (?) I get the frame up on tires by Labor Day I will finally send a picture. A bolt-on Power brake unit has been on back order for over two months and the next chore will be the brake lines and rebuilding the brakes on the 8" rear.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

progress , well the 37 conv , is being painted this weekend , the 37 3 window is ready for paint , the 41 willys is still in fabrication of the headlamps and hood stage . the elcamino is waiting on the vacum pump to be installed , the 1961 bubletop waiting on fatmans frt clip for c4 vette to show up . the 55 nomad ready to tear down , the new ls1 is here and the scotts frt clip waiting on the 20s and 18 s, and the 33 is on order from redneck glass. projected dates 37 conv . oct 1 , 04
37 3 window dec 1 ,04
41 willys may 31 ,05
61 bubletop ????
55 nomad june 1 ,05
33 ford cabr. aug 1 ,05
all this and still run a bodyshop 60 hrs a week .
well i better get to work !

Dang KennyD, no wonder you make the rags with that kind of dedication, very well done by the way. I wish I had all those worries!!hehehe!

Don, I have a few of those crank bolts laying around, measure the length you need and if I have it it's yours. Let me know.

I myself have passed on the big block, it was very very sick. But my 383 stroker is well on it's way at the shop and half my car is now in epoxy primer, soon to be paint. I have the parts coming and my new rear end should be under her by wed. or thurs of next week if speedway comes through again. still to buy a tranny and drive line. New fuel tank, fuel lines are in with electric fuel pump. Slowly but surely, it's starting to look like a car again.

I am really enjoying everyones entry's and everyones cars and Ideas. This has turned out to be a great thread.

Hit a bit of a snag with the headers. But the good folks at Sanderson were able to help me out with an 'off the shelf' pair.
Looks like the TPI system will work with the early(350) block. Hope to get exhaust complete by end of next week. Also looking at Dakota Digital dash set up. Anyone using this?

Don Shillady
Though I'm not a big fan of Pep Boys, the one here in Springfield has a rather decent selection of Grade 5 and Grade 8 fasteners. If you have one close you might want to check them out.

I might start getting work done on my truck again. I have gotten good at welding, so I bought a floor pan for the passenger side and my grandpa is going to help me put that in. As soon as I do that, I can lay some epoxy primer down on the floor and cover it with the carpet I can now afford to buy because I am now getting paid for some of my work. I can also afford to get the seat reapholstered, but I am thinking of buying a bench seat from a newer truck and installing that because they are more comfortable and have head rests which are a big safety plus when you have a lot of very hard glass right behind your head. After that, I've just got to polish up some of the hugger orange paint I laid down a year or 2 ago and my interior will be done. It wont be perfect, the dash pad will still be cracked and such, but it will look good and be very functional (no bling factor here). I've also got to decide what color to do the seat, black is simple but charcoal gray is cooler in the summer (no AC). It's a daily driven truck that I do make dump runs in, so no white or really light colors for the interior. Suggestions are always welcome. As soon as I finish with the interior, I'm going to grind out my bondo that I laid down when I first got the truck, pop the dents out like they should have been, and fill with lead (and maybe a little bondo). I get a second paycheck in about a month so I am going to replace the ball joints and rebuild the suspension so I don't have to worry about chewing up the new tires I'll be getting mounted on my very 70's slotted mags.