Merry Christmas everyone...

We are going to be closed for the next couple of days enjoying the holidays with our family.

Hope you have a Happy Holidays

Ticking away...

Well, Christmas is approaching fast and luckily, I am almost done with the clock.  Unfortunately, I still have a cedar lined chest to finish for another last minute present. Ugghhh.....

Even though woodworking is a fun and challenging departure from the norm, I'll be glad when the holidays are over.

A Graham Supercharger and the Dodge 218...Rev B

When I was in college, I built a modified roaster, jokingly named the "choadster".  Most people would refer to it as a ratrod, but it was built before all of that really started to get popular.  I always had intentions of finishing it, but never really seemed to get around to it.  Anyway, for an engine, I used a 218 dodge flathead.  It was small, ran well and a T5 5 speed mated up to a tuck bellhousing remarkably easily.  Eventually, after I had the thing running for about a year, I stumbled across a '36 Graham Paige supercharger and knew that it had to be on it.

After some interesting fabrication, I eventually did get it all to work.  It didn't make much boost and probably made as much power as is it took to drive it, but it was different and certainly got people talking.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago, and a guy called out of the blue.  He said that he saw the choadster about 5 years prior and had always wanted to put a similar setup on his '37 dodge truck.  At the time, he had no idea who I was nor how to get a hold of me.

It was by a chance encounter with individual that was selling some 218 parts off of craigslist that he found out that I happened to live right down the road from the guy.  And so, a couple of phone calls and visits later, it begins...

This time, I am actually using some technology...boy, does that makes thing soooooo much easier....

The first couple revisions of the mount where made out of wood to just double check my dimensions and get some additional measurements for the model.  I will eventually make it out of aluminum.  The goal is to make it look like it came from the factory with this setup...

Christmas presents....

Why is it that I simply cannot go out and buy Christmas presents like everyone else?  My what my wife jokingly claims that I am a bit frugal.  Well, I probably should agree with her, but there might be more to it than that.

At least for me personally, some of the most cherished and thought full gifts that I have received have been the ones that were handmade.  Whether they were a photo book on the first car I built or something as simple as a Christmas ornament, they all mean something so much more than their material possession.  So, that might be why I prefer to build my gifts instead of buying them.

This year, it's a Grandfather clock.  I know...I know, it has nothing to do with metalworking, but for those who read his site regularly, you know that I like to dabble in woodworking.  Plus, I have always wanted to try and build one.  So, here it is:


I started with a basically just a dial and a rough sketch of what I wanted it to look like.

I used every clamp that I own and I still needed more...

It still needs to be stained and the doors installed, but it's coming along nicely.  The only problem is that Christmas is approaching fast and I still have to make a cedar lined chest for another gift.  Oh well, pressure makes diamonds, I guess.


     

Willys update....

Well, the Corvette rear end is positioned in place and the main mounting structure is tack welded in. 

There certainly was some difficulty with properly locating that unit.  There is absolutely no good way to position or to even jack it up without it bolted to something.  The four bar links need to be positioned on the frame to set the wheel base and the diff housing height ultimately sets the ride height.....and those two are somewhat dependent on each other to maintain proper anti-squat and camber gain.  This all has to be done  while there is no weight on the suspension because there is no good way in hell to compress that stupid leaf spring.  Oh yeah, on top of that, we also have no idea how much the rear of the car weighs and conversely, how much it will compress the suspension.

So how did we do it?  Well, first, we set the main mounting structure in the frame so that the car would sit as low as possible without a ridiculous amount of butchery and fabrication.  We then took measurement off of the original corvette carcass to the top 4-bar mounting hole.  We drilled a corresponding hole in the Willys frame and bolted the 4-bar mounting bracket to the car at the correct angle measured off of the original chassis.  This allowed us to be able to set the car on the ground and get an idea of how much the spring will compress as well as what we need to do to center the tire in the wheel well.

Surprisingly, it was actually very close to where we wanted it.  The wheel center line needs to move forward about a 1/4" to get it just right.  This is accomplished be moving the 4-bar link forward the desired amount from the holes we drilled.  It is important to note that we did find that the frame rails, while parallel to each other, where actually shifted for from each other longitudinally about a 1/2"

I think for the next one, I am going to build a locating jig off of the original chassis and correlate that with ride height....somehow.

Here is what's left of a running, driving '85 'Vette....

The next step is the front end....

1931 Willys Knight....Hot Rod....

We had a customer drop this off earlier in the week.  Plans are to install a full Corvette running gear, a SBC and a 700R4. 

Apparently, they only made a little over 500 of these cars in '31 and most of those were exported.  This one actually came out of a museum.  Initially, I was a little hesitant to convert it but it's what the customer wants, and well, the customer is always right.

The customer also supplied a rolling chassis from a mid '80's 'Vette that was completely disassembled with a sawz-all.  It was an impressive amount of work that I unfortunately did not get  picture of.

 More progress pics to come....

Volvo transplant....

Found the base for the new power plant for the 240 on Craigslist over the weekend....

It a naturally aspirated SC300 Lexus 2JZ-GE inline 6....