Hot Rod Part 4: Christmas in August

Man, this is going to take a lot of parts.... If you have ever built or modified a car, I'm sure this might seem eerily familiar. I started reading Summit/Jeg's/Speedway catalogs like they were sacred manuscripts and the sky had just turned purple. I had lists and lists all over the place. Plumbing diagrams, part numbers, prices, everything compared... kits versus individual parts - even from seperate vendors. There was a lot of research on the internet too. How did we live without it? Oh yeah, we communicated with other people... went to the track and local shops and talked with the people who knew. I started looking for all kinds of parts that were top notch yet affordable. (You could even say used).

Patience and perseverance have paid off. My first project was the radiator. If you have ever had a car that likes to overheat, it sucks the fun out of driving it instantly. Atlanta isn't the place to have a marginal cooling system, either. Considering that I was running the original radiator in this car was enough gambling on the car's drivability. Fortunately, finding a radiator for this kind of car is pretty easy. Finding one that can cool a high strung big block is a little more difficult - especially if spending $600 on one is out of the question. I was saved by Racingjunk.com! There was an ad for an aluminum radiator... $279 or best offer. It looked like it would fit, but there was just one "thing". This brand new radiator had 4 of these 1/2"NPT threaded holes in the top instead of the large single outlet. I looked at the ad and went to work figuring out if I could make it work. I finally figured out a way, but it took a lot of research. I found a place that sells stainless steel thermostat housings for boats, and the housing has...4 1/2" NPT holes in it. Sweet! Now, instead of 1 radiator hose between my engine and radiator, I am going to have 4 small ones. It's going to be different for sure. The bonus here was the price had dropped while I was figgering... got it delivered for $200 even. Thanks Racingjunk!

Next was some bodywork (Yawn, I know). Let's just say it took me a week to fix the trunk lid. It had some cracks on the inner supports and glue stuff all over it. I ended up finally buying a cheap sandblaster to help (after a few hours of paint thinner and a wire brush on a drill...). I can tell you that as a novice welder, you can distinctly hear the sound as the weld goes through the 73 year old sheetmetal.

I finally acted on my now very detailed list. I had researched every fitting and component of the brake system. Since I was planning on running a brake pedal assembly that was under the floor, I had to buy 2 lb residual pressure valves (for front and rear disc brakes - fyi rear drums need the higher pressure ones). Sorry, I am liable to throw in little facts that I learned on the way. Back to the list.... It was done. Fuel system, check. Electrical system, check. Steering, braking, engine brackets, flywheel, transmission shims and cooler....check. Double check the prices...check. Wake up after adding up the total... check. Man, that was a big number.

In the parts order went. This took about a week, because every time I finished an order, about 400 things I'd forgotten jumped into my head. Hardware... damn. Plus, I needed to have some parts installed before I could order the next round. A prime example is figuring out how to mount the alternator when the water pump was changed from a long style to a short one. Sure, one of those low mount block-hugging ones would be killer - if I didn't have motorplates on the front of the engine. Man alive, this is getting complicated. I have the steering system change to deal with too...

I started working on the car while I waited for parts to come trickling in. I went for the low hanging fruit by starting on the rear end housing. It was covered in a nice coat of surface rust and generally looked bad. This was just a matter of spending some time with a grinder and a wire brush. After a few hours, it was sprayed down with some black epoxy based primer. It ended up being semi-gloss. Nice. That was going to be the topcoat for the frame. It looks good, clean without too much gloss. It'll practically sparkle under that flat black body.

Here is the rear back in the car.

Parts started trickling in. It took me 3 or 4 phone calls to Moser Engineering to get all of the measurements and pertinent information that I needed. I already had a 3.50 geared center section all ready to go. It had a brand new spool (this locks the axles together mechanically - it's not really the way to go for a street car, especially on curves or in the rain). You see, when a car goes around a curve, the inner wheel turns slower than the outer. If the axles are mechanically linked, the tire will chirp and screech it's way around the corner. If it's wet and you hit the gas... it's hello other direction. After numerous discussions with the tech people, I was talked into a spool and back out of it. I opted for a nodular center section (better metal than the housing that I had) and 35 spline axles, also with a locker. This is going to be one stout "bulletproof" rear. I do plan on throwing some slicks on this thing and heading out to the dragstrip at some point and I don't want to spray parts down the track.... This was expensive peace of mind.

I also opted for a serpentine belt system for the engine. Here's my thinking.... Every time the 406 hit the rev limiter (at 5800 rpms), it had a nasty habit of pitching the one and only accessory belt. This wasn't obvious until the car overheated, which sucked. Carrying a spare belt helped, but doing a monster burnout and having to pull over to check the belt (or watch the temperature gauge closely) just didn't fit in to my idea of fun. Plus (this is true) I went to the local (and closest auto parts store for 20 miles) O'Reilly store for a new belt. I approached the counter and told the clerk that I needed a V belt that was 45 inches long. Of course his reply was.... you know it... "What vehicle is this in?". Ummmm, I tried again and got the same question repeated back at me. After informing him that it's not going to be on his computer, he said "Try me". Okay, here goes. "It's a 72 model 400 small block with an Edelbrock long water pump in a 1934 Plymouth coupe". Deer in the headlights looking back at me. Finally, he disappeared into the shelving abyss. Later, he came out carrying a serpentine belt. To make matters even worse, it was 6 feet long! After informing him that I needed a V belt, he came back with a double V belt that was for some lawnmower (It was green). This back and forth continued until I finally gave up. This took 15 minutes out of my life, which is a very long time in an auto parts store line. I figure that I'll find out what Honda takes the same size serpentine belt and save my self some trouble in the future. I am sure the service would have been better if I was asking what neon kit would fit my Hyundai or what chrome coffee can exhaust tip I could put on my Mustang.

My rear end parts came in and instantly I went into a panic. The axles looked WAY too long. I am a newbie to Ford 9" rear ends, and I had just learned that the axles were different lengths (That was call #3 to Moser - figuring out what my pinion offset was). Since the measurements they had me take were only 3/4" different, I expected the axles to be 3/4" different. They weren't. They were like 8" different. I was all set to send them back when I decided to go ahead and mock up an axle and see how it was going to fit. Frustration again - it didn't even go all the way in. Th bearing that was pressed on to it was exactly the same size as the housing end. After a little honing (careful measuring found that the housing end was a little egg shaped) the axle went right in. The same with the other side. After I got them in, I noticed that they were practically touching. In my mind, this verified that they were too long. I even remeasured the whole rear end housing to make sure I had given the original measurements to them correctly. Yup, still 49".

I took a look at the center section and I could now plainly see that this was how the axles were supposed to be. Man, am I ever glad I didn't make that call back to Moser. I try to limit my exposure to the world as a dumbass, and every time it's avoided, it's a small victory for me.

I pulled the intake manifold off (It was in need of some cleaning). To do this, the distributor has to come out. When I pulled it out and laid it on the workbench, it started hemorrhaging oil from the distributor cap. Not good. No HEI for the ol' rod. As luck has it, I happen to have a Joe Hunt magneto. A little more nostalgic.... and buzzing the hell out of radios at stoplights only adds to the effect I am going for. I hope it causes check engine lights to go off in every car within a mile when I fire it up.... I have to send it out for a checkup and have an advance mechanism installed (it's locked out for the previous blower motor). Anyway, the intake was in very poor condition, so I sandblasted it. At some point the battery in the previous owner's car exploded, or something equally corrosive sat on the front half of it for a year. The first clue that I needed to take a closer look at the engine was the fact that the chrome 1 wire alternator on it was flaking chrome off of it like a bad dandruff commercial. Now I had looked the engine over, but I was more concerned with cam lobes and rod bearings, so the cosmetic stuff barely got a glance. It'll work for now, but a tunnel ran or blower are in the future for this engine anyway.

Here's the engine after I cleaned it up and painted it:

This is how the car left the garage. I have the parts to plumb the brakes, plumb the cooling (except the funky curved lower radiator hose I have to come up with), plumb the transmission, etc.

Here's some of the other lessons I have learned. Don't shim your starter until you bolt the flexplate on to the engine. Um, it flexes and moves about 1/4" after its bolted down. That lesson only cost me $10 for the shim kit and I now know how to shim the inner workings of a CSR high torque starter.

Here's the CNC brake pedal assembly I am going with:

I also took a picture with the fuel cell sitting in place.

So, as it sits now, the car is back at Donnies getting the seat brackets welded in. He's also going to mount the brake pedal assembly and make a driveshaft loop. I finally have a transmission on it's way (A used Mike's TH400 that'll handle 1000 horsepower). The sidepipe headers that I got didn't fit, so Donnie is going to lengthen the primary tubes so they'll go on the car. I'm planning on coating them with this shiny black coating..... He's also going to mount the new Vega style steering box too. Then it's back to me for rear end assembly, driveshaft measuring and installation, wiring the car (a Painless wiring system is waiting...), plumbing the brakes, plumbing the fuel system, and a few other things like figuring out the steering components. I'll start doing some detailed and a little more technical stuff on here for those things - if anything interesting pops up. Stay tuned!