Great progress again Falcon... No I'm jealous of your mat...wish I could just lay around and relax a few days!!!!!
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Great progress again Falcon... No I'm jealous of your mat...wish I could just lay around and relax a few days!!!!!
Thanks, guys; half the fun of building it has been all the great support I got from you guys. I never intended to go this far with it but I'm glad I did. It was just supposed to be a quickie paint job and clean up on the old straight six.
I never thought of the Snap On vans, it would have been cool. Heck, Snap On might have even helped me buy some parts.
I got some of the rubber glued down tonight (that 3M 90 spray adhesive is some serious stuff) and a couple other little jobs done. I've also got hubcaps, trimrings, and mirrors on the way. Other than the back door, this thing should be done next weekend. I might just have to run it over to the local show even if the door isnt on it yet.
I have been meaning to ask you what rear end is in the van???.Do you know the gear ratio??.Are they city gears in it??.That would mean the ratio would be in the higher range.I once built a Chevy side slide door cargo van and replaced the straight six with a oval track four barrel 327 sbc.It I guess was a 4.56 rear end gears.Hehe,we used to rock the throttle in first gear(to the floor and off real fast)and get the front wheels to almost come off the ground.
I did that with my first car, a '47 Dodge 4-dr sedan. I was 16 and had no money to do it right, so for a "down in front" dago job, I took it to the local welding shop and had the guy heat the front springs with a torch to take the temper out of them for about a 3" rake. This, of course, stiffened up the springs. I could get her bucking like a bronco in 2nd gear at about 25-30 mph by going on and off the throttle like you describe. Back in those days, I did some pin striping and lettering, so I brushed her new name on the front fenders....Bouncing Buleah. :LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by 1gary
I bought a shop manual for this and according to it all FJ series van were equipped with traction-loc (posi) and 3:73 gears. Nice little perk!:D
Wow.Trac-lock and 3:73"s.Ya know,I think this van came looking for you and not you finding it.It must have known all along you would her back her pride.
Could be; I went looking for 48 Plymouth parts and this is what I came home with. There has to be some kind of irony in that. That, or everytime I see something weird with 4 wheels I get an uncontrolable urge to put a V8 in it. Probably the latter....
Well, other than putting the back door on and a couple minor tweaks; I believe I can call it done. I finished up the wiring and it all works, swapped to an auto choke on the Holley (and found a pretty good vacuum leak in the process so it runs much better), finished glueing down the floor, put on the mirrors, hubcaps, and trim rings, put in the side window glass, and several other minor jobs. I took it a few miles down the road and everything seems to be great. It's running smooth, it's loud as hell, and it'll smoke the tires pretty good so I'm happy. I'll throw a few pics on when the back door is done next week and try to get a burnout video done if I can ever get my son to take a few minutes and help me with it. I might put a start to finish slideshow together if I get the the time. But there she is; just a little under a year from start to finish. Cant wait to cruise as soon as I get plates on it!
A few more....
Last few....Look a little different?
That's just tooooo slick.
Good job, looks great.
It never would have crossed my mind to do something like that. Very creative and great job!
Thanks, guys. Now it's time for some serious garage cleaning and getting back to my Plymouth. I think the garage is worse than I've ever seen it; this could take some time.
Careful in there!!! You never know what could be hiding in those corners!!! If we don't here from you in a week or so we'll get a search party together and come lookin'!!!!!:eek::eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by falconvan
looks really nice, you engine is beautiful and the interior is awesome , action shots now ,,,a big smoky big block burnout is in order, put the old tires on it the wheelwells might need some rubber undercoating, nice job take it out and have some fun with it
Thanks! I'm glad you like it. I'll have to do that burnout vid; I'll get my son to help me film it. Hopefully by the weekend.Quote:
Originally Posted by simpsongreg68
Quickie burnout in the city water dept parking lot; I was going to do a donut but the back wheel started coming off the ground so I figured I better not. Still some tuning to do but not bad for now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYAUCk_e7SA
Sweet, that'll definitely get some attention
I'm grinning with you! Nice!
That's awesome. Think you may need to power brake it more to get your doughnut in....
Falcon..thats krazy...:LOL:Sounds awesome..Yeah,ya gotta watch that rear wheel lifting..You are sure to scare the pants off a few people when ya hit the juice hard..:LOL:
Thanks, guys. First car show this weekend! Still no back door on it but its going anyway.
I'm almost done putting the roll up door together. I had somebody cut new wood panels using the old ones for patterns. I put it all together raw for a test fit last weekend, then took it back apart and started painting the door and all the hardware. I hope to have it all painted and back together Saturday. BTW, the show I took it to went really well. Got a lot of positive comments and the little kids really seemed to like it.
Back door is finished! I cleaned it up to go to a show tonight but gave up on finding baby moons that fit right. They're all too small except one set I found but they fall off. So I guess I'm just sticking with painted wheels and trimrings.
looks great
Falcon, see if you can find a set of 49/50 Merc dog dish caps. They just might fit.
I went back and spent a day on this; I had to build a fan shroud and had some other minor issues like the shifter not working right. I cruised it around town for a while today and it's much better now.
on a set of GM truck steel rims i drill and tap the rims for 3 button heads on the outer rim ring .so the moons there was more of a snap on themQuote:
Originally Posted by falconvan
thats just plain cool! i too like to see somethin different sometimes and this one fits the bill. cant wait to see more of it.
Thanks guys. Pat, the more I look at the wheels without the caps the more I like them. It's got a nice utilitarian look about it, but thanks for the suggestion. How's your back feeling; are you back to normal operations yet or do they have to do any grafts?
well no skin grafts but two month out and skin is thin in spots but not leaking out any more so no more rapping it up two times a day :D it has taken alot of time to grow skin. no i am not working done some things but not muchQuote:
Originally Posted by falconvan
I'm glad to hear it's progressing; hopefully you'll be back wrenching before long. Watch that welder when you do!
well i do not wrench much i machine stuff more then anything . for welding well i tig most everything but that day i had it switch to dc arc for fast welding 1/4 flat plate with cad plated caster wheel used 7018 1/4 rod i had used many times on other set of caster wheel s for this guy .my number was up that day i maybe one of the most careful guy you would meet.i clip cars welded all day as body/frame man then built drag cars at night. welded frames.welded over head. welded gas tank s. much fab work .headers.rear ends. built cars and drag cars .blocks heads every thing . it happen.:DQuote:
Originally Posted by falconvan
I really hate to admit I'm wrong but after trying to sell the I-Scream for the past month or so I've got to admit it wasn't such a hot idea. It looked good, sounded good, but from a drivability standpoint it was pretty disappointing. The combination of the small drum brakes, RHD with a small steering wheel, too low geared, and being so short and tall all made for something that was amusing to putt around town as long as you didn't jump on it and downright terrible at highway speeds. The RHD is confusing enough without trying to keep it on the road with a small steering wheel. I'd do a cool burnout but i think trying to go fast would be a death sentence. Most people who looked at it really liked it until they tried to drive it; and i had to be honest with folks from out of town who wanted to know if it would drive back to their state if they bought it. I thought about upgrading the brakes and going with an overdrive but after a lot of thought I decided enough is enough. This thing was just not built to have a lot of power. I pulled the 455 and sold it and bought a good 292 straight six to go in it's place. I also pulled the little Grant steering wheel and put the original back after some cleanup. The manufacturer designed it with an inline so rather than trying to re engineer the whole vehicle I'm going back to what it was meant to be; just a cute little delivery truck.
Good lesson learned; just because you can, that doesn't mean you should. I sure wouldn't want to sell this to somebody and then find out they got killed driving it. I'll throw a couple more pics on when it's done.
Gotta appreciate a man with integrity. Good on you bud.
Falcon it was a cool build and fun. I know what you mean by worrying about safety, it's always running in the back of my head.
292's and most other inlines respond very well to turbocharging.. you could size a turbo a little bigger than what is 'perfect'. and end up with a 2-300 hp 6cyl. but it would have great street manors due to turbo lag. probably pull down some great numbers at the drag strip. tho the drum brakes might be a challange to stop
I think I'm giving up any power aspirations for this other than a few more cubes than the original 232. Here's a 292 Chevy I picked up for $100 that sounded good. Looks fast, doesn't it? My special spray can rebuild!
Sold the I-Scream to a couple really cool guys from Ohio today. They drove two 1971 Honda 90's here, all on old two lane highways. Very cool little bikes and it sounded like a blast of a trip. They loaded them in the back and headed for Ohio, back on the same two lanes. The I-Scream is going to be the billboard truck for the guys HVAC business.