This is coming along nicely. I really like the wire tuck and the aluminum brake hose clamps. I don’t often throw the term around but, it kind of feels like the person/shop building this before you was totally Hack..(wiring, gauges in the firewall, shifter bracket, etc.)
The upper and lower shock mounts look off to me, in that it’s a pretty long unsupported bolt to put through that kind of shear/shock load. I’m sure it’s at least a 1/2” bolt but it just looks weird.
In reply to OneSickGNX :
I do agree about the shock mount design. Bit too much span across the A-arm for my taste, and no, it is NOT a 1/2" it is 7/16". I believe that a place called Horton's Hot Rods built the front suspension. They have been around for a while so have to hope they know what they are doing. The Mustang spindles, Granada disc and S10 caliper parts match makes me wonder though...¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What grates on me the most is that this started with a VERY nice rust free original truck that I would not have taken apart. I would have slapped a Ford 302 with a C6 and a carb in the hole and driven the thing all over the place. Mustang built one just like that and it is an awesome DD for the guy that has it.
One thing that really has me concerned is that there was mention of, and evidence of some kind of oil routing shenanigans; I think it has to do with oil filtration that never came from the factory but was addressed by the Hot Rod community. There are some engine-fatal pitfalls in getting it wrong and I don't even know what they did. "Engine was run in" was mentioned to me. Does that mean the cam was broken in properly? I do NOT want to become the one responsible for this engine or gearbox since I had nothing to do with the builds.
Hmm, that’s interesting about oil routing. I wonder if maybe flat heads just don’t produce enough oil pressure for remote mounts. Could add a oil can and scavenger pump inline as a precaution. I would definitely have the owner come over for first fire and pull the distrutor and very throughly prelube before hand.
I agree on the simple build too. A clean truck that age is getting near impossible to come by. I would have just re-wirded it, replaced the worn suspension, steering, and brake components. Then added a 302 and a C6 or T5 then called it a day.
In reply to OneSickGNX :
exactly what Mustang did with this one that he built like ten years ago. Since sold to a friend of ours and it gets driven all the time.
Nice relaxed night of chipping away at stuff. No huge brain teasers except one ongoing concern
The rear axle is back in. Nets out 1/2" shorter than the old one and the ugly spacers are gone. The spacers would not have been legal in Ontario regardless. E-brake cables are in place and will require a bit of head-scratching to make work. Guess Ford did this one year where the e-brake cables come out different directions since one caliper is mounted in front of the axle and the other on the rear of the axle.
Attach the axle-toframe flex line and connect the rear NiCop brake line and I can try to bleed this on the weekend.
Mustang wants black wires for one of his projects and the black wires did nothing for anyone aesthetics wise, so....
The nice radiator does have a built in transmission cooler, but since I saw the trailer hitch and based on advice that flatheads can run hot, decided to go with an external cooler. "Transmission cooling lines plumbed" crossed off the list.
The owner likes to come around for a visit and a chin wag ahd he has been warned that it will lead to me giving him task, so last night he got to learn how to operate a spray bomb for the first time. Gas tank is now technically speaking "Black" and "painted" so it gets crossed off the list. This is also slatted to be installed and plumbed before the end of the WE.
The lingering issue is maybe not so much an issue, but a case of not having Flathead oiling experience and someone else has already started messing with what Henry Ford created. This area is the main oil passage. The barbed fitting is not a factory item. There was a hose attached to the barb that dumped into the engine valley following the long arrow path. ( No oil filter in path)
I suspect that what they were looking to do was add an oil filter, maybe following this path
What is missing is the restriction ( short arrow pointing at) that requires the block be drilled and tapped to insert a screw in restriction when the oil filter is added. There is no restriction in this block. From what I can tell, they created a huge oil leak that shunts oil from the oil gallery to the valley. Then they ran the engine to break in the cam ( has never heard the word ZDDP)So I am a bit concerned. He claimed to have used some special green break in oil. No idea what it might have been.
The plan is to not install an oil filter since Henry Ford did not bother. I want to just remove the barbed fitting and plug the port. If anyone knows better than me, please jump in cause there is a E36 M3 ton of $$$ spent on this engine and I don't want it to die.
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Our flathead came with a dilter from the factory. I found a BUNCH of pil filter discussion over on the hamb that really helped md plumb dads.
NOHOME said:He claimed to have used some special green break in oil. No idea what it might have been.
Perhaps this. It's the only green oil I've heard of and good for flat tappets.
In reply to NOHOME :
There is a shop near me called Brothers Custom Automotive, in Troy MI. I know them only as a friend of a friend, but they do a lot of flathead stuff. Main dude's name is Bill. You might give him a call, they are a pretty casual bunch. Tell him a friend of Chad Johnson sent you.
Thanks all for the flathead leads. The HAMB has been helpful and in fact where I found the diagram. I think I am pretty safe is just not going down the oil filter path.
Interesting thing I learned is that if you delete the mechanical fuel pump, you have to block the hole in the block where the fuel pump pushrod passed to meet the cam. If not, you lose oil pressure out that hole. This was actually done properly on this engine.
My favourite thing in the world is laying under a car remaking brake line flares that are leaking fluid all over me while doing it. Forgetting to put the flare nut on and re-re-doing it is just frosting.
I think I am sealed up, but ran out of fluid and patience. Carquest opens at 10 am...standby.
In reply to NOHOME :
Putting a tube nut on backwards also sucks, maybe even sucks more than leaving it off.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Keep talking about buying one of the fancy flare tools that cost like $400 but then thing "Not ever doing this again" but then I do it again.
Today was e-brake and exhaust fabriculation, moarly Pete and Mustang on the truck. Myself, I worked on the Molvo figuring out an adaptor for a 7/8" clutch MC; not QUITE enough throw on the clutch.
I about E36 M3 myself paying for my mastercool flare kit.
However, i no longer remember what it costs, and i use it way more than i ever thought i would.
It does not look like it, but the truck is coming along nicely with all the stop and steer working. A lot of the work is re-dos so I feel bad for the owner.
Now we move on to the make it run stage. The engine is waiting on a carb adapter, so decided to bolt the exhaust system on. It has already been fablricated and I figured it would be easy.
Gotta stop saying that.
The clever bit was that someone thought it a cool idea to run the exhaust outside of the frame rails so they made these
Thats cool. Lotta expensive stainless and lots of hours confabulating the curl and the bump over the axle.
The tube does fit in nicely between the frame and the bedside
Course that hump over the axle is really going to come in handy since the frame is lower than the hump
And that dont matter either because the pumpkin is only 2.5" wau from the shock crossmember. That is with an empty bed. The wood alone is going to be over 100lb
and the point of all the fancy exhaust money spent, owner wanted duals out the back. Going to be fun drilling right down the middle of the taillights on the bumper after I drill the mount. Gonna have to go down or out the side behind the fender. Maybe just an offset/offset muffler.
The DS is more fun. cause the pipe crosses right past where the fuel fill tube needs to go. This is looking in from the bottom of the bedside and you cant even see the filler hole with the exhaust in place.
I would be concerned about the exhaust that close under the wooden bed too. Flat heads run high EGT, and stainless pipes radiate lots of it.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
I think it will be ok, If not, there is room for heat shields. I just wanted one night where I could coast and still say I did something,,,nothing much accomplished at the end of the night except a lot of head scratching and planning,
Did you give the customer a price up front or is this by the hour?
In reply to solfly :
Time and materials. My garage is quite generous in that I don't count for head scratching time, WTF time or time spent on the internet figuring E36 M3 out and shopping. Or that sometimes there are 3 Petes working on it, we only bill for one. This does not put food on the table; it is a hobby.
NOHOME said:In reply to solfly :
Time and materials. My garage is quite generous in that I don't count for head scratching time, WTF time or time spent on the internet figuring E36 M3 out and shopping. Or that sometimes there are 3 Petes working on it, we only bill for one. This does not put food on the table; it is a hobby.
That's what I did too. Head scratching time, figuring things out, calling around, ordering parts, etc. I never billed for. If I made a mistake I didn't charge for the time to correct it. But still just my time and materials cost were brutal. I did it so much I found a whole car done properly and made reliable was 3500 hours. Even a quickie would take 2500 hours.
As high as that sounds when I look at previous bills customers paid for I was actually less time and it was done properly and reliably. I had body work "experts" with decades of body experience do stuff that came out poorly. ( example; the nose of the Demar blew 35 feet in the air on the first lap when it shattered off the car) He had been charged for 400 hours for that. Recreating it from remnants, taking a mold off it, and making a new part that was both lighter and stronger cost 200 hours from me.
In reply to frenchyd :
A stock restoration takes around 1000-1500 hours if you have the basic skills, tools and its not your first rodeo. But that's just take it apart. clean fix and re-assemble. Restorations are good training, but not for the creative person. ( said while putting on my flame-proof underwear)
This custom restoration gets way out of hand and 3500 hours is not hard to believe if you are being diligent in your accounting. ( that would be $350,000 on labour alone going by local shop rates of $100/hour) My one pet peeve is scope creep on both the part of owners and people who do this work. You often get a positive feedback loop going that crashes the entire project; this truck was very much one of those situations.
One of the things that has been keeping me awake at night is the rear tire clearance to the fenders.
The truck arrived with these huge spacers and a conversation with the previous builder told me that it was "Tight".
I had no idea what "tight" was numerically, the fenders were not in my shop to do any checking and we had just installed a new axle that was 1/2" shorter ( wheel flange to wheel flange) than the one that came out.
A fender arrived and I could not wait to toss it on. Perfect.
Quick shot of the engine with the engine bay side panels in place. That engine is way down there and with the fat fenders is going to be no fun to access if need be,
And a critical but not truck related solution that had to happen. The shop is heated by an IR tube heater that gets stuff real hot. It was more than a little close to the roof of this thing and bound to burn the paint off. It was also getting chilly in the shop and going to get a lot colder before it got better. So enter the scrap pile heat deflector. For the win
This truck is definitely coming out nice. So, I'm kind of curious how you started into this as a side business? I think it would be neat to do builds on the side with other people's bank account. (It would be nice to have extra hobby money too.) Did you just take builds to shows/events, word of mouth, etc.
In reply to OneSickGNX :
The work finds me somehow. I am an old guy, been in the car hobby locally for 30 years and the grapevine seems to work.
I would not enjoy this if it had to put food on the table and will never take it beyond the hobby level, Much easier to get a second job.
gotta love the noize
fun day in the shop despite the fact that the wife wanted everything i wore to get burnt outside afterwards.dont believe the catalytics are working on the thing...
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