Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Resale red

Yesterday the powdercoater called and said that my wheels were done.  I couldn't help but mount them, at least on the front....


Monday, April 25, 2011

Pressure makes diamonds....

Canfield Swapmeet is May 6th-8th.  The plan is to sell the '40 there.....hopefully.  That means, I only have several weeks to get the thing done.

The truck is really not that far from being done.  When I did all of the initial sheetmetal work, I left a few details that needed to be taken care of.  Particularly where the front fenders mount to cab.  Since the fenders where raised on the cab, the original bolt holes were no where close to aligning.  The problem that I ran into was that I could not access in behind the fender bolts to install the nuts.  So, I used these...


McMaster Carr carries these style of riv-nuts that come in all sizes.  The problem with these is that you need an expensive tool to install them.  Fortunately for me, I was able to borrow one from a friend's work.  A word of advice however, make sure you get the correct arbor....we had to make one.

Before I could set the front clip on, I had to address the issue of the fan placement.  The original '40 ford had the fan mounted to the crankshafts of the Flathead.  With a 261 inline, the fan is mounted much higher on the water pump.  In this particular case, this would cause the fan to be to high on the radiator and not provide sufficient cooling.  The easy way out would to have been to use an electric fan.  I couldn't bring my self to do that, so I machined a crank adapter.


ooohhh, billet...



Autofair....

Two full days and we still did not see everything.  That place is unbelievable! 


I was surprised that prices seem relatively fair.  Sure, there was the occasional part that was outrageously over priced, but overall, there were some good deals.  If you are thinking of going next year, I would suggest planning on attending Thursday and Friday.  Walking around Friday morning, I saw quite a few "sold" signs.  By Saturday afternoon, the majority of vendors are on their way home.


Seems a bit high to me, but I am cheap...

Monday, April 18, 2011

back from Vegas...

Had to take a recent "work" related trip to Vegas couple of weekends ago.  It was in the plan to visit a couple of hotrod shops in the area, but it just never worked out with the work schedule.




We did however take the rental truck off roading.  This was out at Apex, just north of the racetrack off of I-15.  Since it was a brand new F-150...we figured it was a base model Raptor. I was not driving, my co-worker was.  He is suppose to be a big time off roading jeep guy. I personally would have gone faster....needless to say, I was not too impressed with his skillz.


If you make it to Vegas, you have to go to the Omelet House in Henderson.  It is awesome.

mmmmm!





Tuesday, April 5, 2011

intake prototyping...

I've been working with a customer who does some impressive header work for drag cars.  We have been collaborating to start producing some intake manifolds.  I made a up quick template of an intake runner flange last night out of wood to make sure all the holes are in the correct place.  I learned that I need a larger machine as the 22" long piece required two set-ups.  Unfortunately, I only have about 21" of travel...