Thread: Starting to look like a car.

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Finished the wiring. Everything works . . . first try.

Shocking!!!

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

Finished the wiring. Everything works . . . first try.

Hey! This guy is goood!

Jack,
Some more of Brent's problems with email posting updates again. I had lost the updates

The car looks great - and the wiring.....glad to hear that all went well.
I do feel your pain with a Gibbon body - probably something like mine with the Brookville. You just get tired of fixing their "quality" problems .
Are you going to have it ready for the Richmond NSRA show this year?

I've been trying to just finish prime and block. It will warm up for a day or so then back to the overnight 30's and 40's then to mid 50's for a high. Today, it will only be about 53 with rain - not a paint day. And I'm ready. Monday ---- maybe

Dave,

I'm going to give it a try. My interior won't be done, but I'm going to put this sucker on the ground and drive it around the block - probably next weekend. No windshield, no rear window . . . I guess i'll call it a pseudo-roadster.

I need to wait to July to license it to take advantage of the new VA replica title.

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

Dave,

I'm going to give it a try. My interior won't be done, but I'm going to put this sucker on the ground and drive it around the block - probably next weekend. No windshield, no rear window . . . I guess i'll call it a pseudo-roadster.

I need to wait to July to license it to take advantage of the new VA replica title.

The breezes blowing thru your hair......

I'll be looking forward to seeing a picture of it on the street. I might even make Richmond next year as we do have a daughter there.

I'm waiting for a new law in NY so I wont have to lie to register my car, but our wimp mixed party legislature will probably shelve it again.

A few small glitches - two seeping fuel leaks at the carb, a problem with the electric choke, and the trans pan leaks at the drain plug. Oh, and it's apparently manditory to drop the distributor in one tooth off - even with everything marked. It ran with one tooth off, but I obviously couldn't get enough advance. I moved it over one tooth, and it started instantly. Idles at about 750 - 800, and drops to about 600 in gear. It's pretty lopey. The cam is the full roll GM "Hot Cam" (218/228 @ 0.050, .525/.525, 112 LSA) with 1.6 Roller rockers.

Next weekend, it goes on the ground.

Kewl, now that you're all done straightening out Kyle's mess, you can come do some blocking on the Merc's!!!! I bet by now you are highly experienced at block sanding fiberglass!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry Jack, somebody had to say it......

Kewl, now that you're all done straightening out Kyle's mess, Oh, would that it were so. I still have the interior moldings . . .

If I never see another sanding block, it will be too soon.

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

Kewl, now that you're all done straightening out Kyle's mess, Oh, would that it were so. I still have the interior moldings . . .

If I never see another sanding block, it will be too soon.

Does this mean I shouldn't be expecting you for dinner on Monday?????

Well, I fixed my "too low" problem. I pulled the too-weak, too-short shocks that Gibbon supplied and replaced them with some polished Aldans with chrome springs. They brought the front end up so that I now have 4-3/4" under the pan instead of 2-1/2". I lost some of the rake that I really liked, but I had to be able to drive the car without scraping the trans pan on every piece of pea gravel in the road.

I made a guess, and used 300# springs on the front shocks. I bolted them on, crossed my fingers, and dropped the weight on the axle. At rest, I have 1.5" of rebound and 2.7" of compression. Just about where it should be.

By dropping the drag link to the bottom of the Pittman arm, I kept that level with the tie rod. I do have a slight down angle on the Panhard rod, but I ran the numbers, and on an extreme bounce, I have less than 0.2" side-to-side movement. I'll lower the Panhard frame bracket if it becomes a problem.

I'd like to get a small bit of the rake back, but unfortunately, there's no more adjustment left to bring the front end down. The adjusters are all the way out. I expect I will get some settlement when I drive it a bit. I thought this might happen, but the next shorter shock was too short.

For those of you who missed the other thread with photos, here's the car outside just before I made the first drive around the block. This was before I raised the front.

I've got the dash ripped out so I can attach it without putting screws through the windshield channel like Gibbon suggested, so It won't be outside until a week from Friday or so. Then another trip around the block, and finish up the VIN/Title/Registration documentation.

That car looks awesome! I love the lines of the '34

looks killer henry................ hard to believe it's a gibbon. you got any fingerprints left.

The car looks terrific. but I have to agree the previous rake was a bit radical for road use. What would probably be desirable would be half the distance you lost, which would still have yielded a nice rake but with a little more clearance than the original.

I went from a steep rake to a little less steep rake by changing wheel and tire sizes. One of these days I would like to convert the from suspension from standard springs to either coil over or shockwaves. In either case I will have to re-visit the front end geometry issue, and that I am not looking forward to.

Since we are not all that far away I will be looking forward to seeing that beauty on the road in the mid-atlantic region one day soon.