Steve's Ride

[Yadkin]

You know the end is near when little chrome bits start appearing.

Both of these are reproductions. The hood letters came with their own barrel clips, which were aluminum embedded in some kind of clear rubber, I assume to electrically isolate the dissimilar metals. Those didn't hold very well, stood off too much, and they seemed to line up the lettering at slightly off angles, so much so that even my wife noticed the issue instantly. After mulling it over for a week I replaced them with original style phosphate-coated spring steel, and they look much better.

The barrel clips for the script are a composite as well, steel coated with a hard plastic, larger diameter and work very nicely.

[Yadkin]

I got the hydraulic system functioning, including the rebuilt wiper motor. It seems to work perfectly, even "parking" the blades nice and tight.

The OE Trico blades themselves cleaned up very nicely. I have the stainless looking like little mirrors.

[bird 60]

She's looking good Steve. Also good to hear that She's coming along without too many problems.

Chris......From OZ.

[Guest]

Steve's Ride

Looking awesome glad to it all coming together best of luck with her

[Yadkin]

I got the "fangs" on her last night after a bit of a struggle. Getting the holes in the brackets and bumper underneath to line up took a bit of convincing. That's a come-a-long attached to an adjustable wrench, pulling against the adjacent bracket to twist and squeeze the driver's side.

On the passenger side I don't have the OE bolt with the alignment tip, so had to use a regular bolt. That took about 57 tries (the same number as US states) to start the bolt in the cage nut. I have my AC drier mounted in that space so have very little room to turn the bolt head. My fingers are sore this morning.

The driver's side upper sweep is slightly bent due to an ancient accident and the chrome shop didn't do such a "bang up" job straightening that section. I used a length of wood against the basement wall along with a big hammer to convince it back into position while I tightened the bolts to the lower bumper. The results are not perfect but it's better than it was.

She put up a big struggle, but I won!

[Dan Leavens]

Steve great effort and love your comment

I used a length of wood against the basement wall along with a big hammer to convince it back into position

[Yadkin]

Using a piece of lumber slightly long is a great way to develop a large amount of force. I learned that from a building contractor when I was a teenager. He provided temporary support of a two-story wood porch by using a 2x4s about an inch longer than the height, and used a short length of scrap lumber as a "foot" to support it on the lawn below. He placed the 2x4 into position at a slight angle from vertical, then hammered the base horizontally, sliding over the scrap wood. He lifted the entire porch 1/4" or so so he could replace the rotted posts.

[Joe Johnston]

I used a length of wood against the basement wall

Shop manuals are mandatory in a restoration and help us a lot, but this is what its all about - doing what it takes to get the job done with what you have on hand to work with. My come-a-longs and port-a-powers get used on every job at some point! (Even the torch from time to time to "persuade" something into alignment!)

[Dan Leavens]

Joe agreed. Sometimes " persuasion " is a necessary tool in restoration

[Yadkin]

The interior is done except for the kick panels and the steering wheel hub. That is such a pain to take off I'll wait until after my first alignment to install it.

On the right is a screen for GPS and a back-up camera. When my wife saw that she said that "this is better than all original". Yeah, well, that's kinda the idea...

A hole in the console that used to be the seat belt warning light will house my son's engine monitoring display. That's a long term project.

Four buttons above that are for ambient lights (not done), AC on-off, Hazard lights (not yet done) and cooling fan override.

A few little things in the trunk and I'm done.

I had the radio playing in it all day while I was working on it. Chuck Berry, Commander Cody, Mamas and the Papas, New Riders of the Purple Sage.

Time for a shower beer.

[Yadkin]

Finally legal. Once I install the trunk liner I'm done.

[Guest]

Steve's Ride

Steve looks awesome brings back memories of show car that my grandfather and I built drive her often good luck with trunk liner goes pretty easy. JEFF

[Yadkin]

Well, I have a punch-list of about a dozen items to fix, most relatively minor.

The biggest and potentially most expensive issue is the valve ticking. I was hoping a run down I-40 would have smoothed that out. I hope to heck that it isn't a bent pushrod.

Another is that the mufflers are too loud. They are Magnaflos for a late model Mustang, and simply too small for a big block. My wife won't ride in that car until I fix that. No big deal, as the custom shop that put the exhaust in can easily change those out. Meanwhile I'll have some fun scaring old folks and small animals.

[Yadkin]

I ran the car over to my engine builder and he thinks I didn't adjust the valves correctly. I've done it myself the same way for years so I dunno, but we'll see. He says that roller lifters should be adjusted while the oil pump is being primed. He offered to come over and show me how to do it, so I've prepped the engine for this.

Some good news, the pushrods are not bent.

This procedure would flood the heads and cause oil to flow all over the lower flanges. To prevent this, I'll cut the tops off my old valve covers and make adjustments through the openings to keep the oil where it belongs. That task now puts my replacement brake booster on priority....

Why? Because I've got a pair of Offy covers that I've wanted to use, but my OE booster is about 1/2" too long. Not wanting to cut the cast covers, I'm looking to "shrink" the booster instead. Since the old booster is original, one of the only parts of this car that has not been replaced, it's now time for it to go.

I found a Tuff Stuff 2131 "slim line" that looks like it will fit. No one has dimension drawings for this or can tell me what the bolt pattern is, so I'll just have to get it delivered and send it back if I can't modify my existing bracket.

The MC looks smaller too, so that should eliminate the interference with my diagonal brace on that side...

Keeping my fingers crossed.

[simplyconnected]

Steve, all hydraulic lifters come dry. As the oil pump fills the gallery, pressure builds and fills that little oil hole on the lifter's side. Whether roller or not, hydraulic lifters work the same way.

The plunger inside your lifter goes up and down until the oil fills the cavity underneath and until pushrod pressure from the rocker arm and valve spring offer resistance. At that point, the lifter stops filling because there is a check valve just above the piston.

You folks that hear your lifters, have mud on the bottom of the lifter and that is what stops them from pumping up. Lifters can be dismantled and cleaned if you have the time. It's more usual to see sets of new lifters rather than to spend the time cleaning the old ones.

LIFTER PRESET: When your engine is assembled, while the lifter is on the base circle of the cam, the pushrod should depress the plunger no more than .040". When your lifters are dry, it's easy to tell when the pushrod first touches the lifter, then MEASURE as you tighten the rocker arms. I shoot for .030" depression with .040" as my absolute limit. This pushrod depression is called, Lifter Preset. Too much preset bends pushrods. Too little preset makes noisy lifters because the lifters are pumped up but the pushrods are loose.

If you don't prime your new engine's oil before starting, none of the lifters will work. This looks a bit scary at first. As the starter cranks, all of the rocker arms only deflect a little bit. (Most cams have 1/2" lobe height, so each pushrod should show 1/2" stroke.) As oil pressure builds, the lifters pump up, noise vanishes, more HP is realized and better fuel economy is delivered.

As an engine sits for long hours, some lifters may 'bleed down' meaning, the little check valve slowly let some oil out. This usually happens with dirty old oil in the lifters. Dirt holds the check valve open and the plunger collapses until your oil pressure pumps them up again. Not all oil gets filtered because of that bypass valve inside the oil filter.

I hope this helps because the ONLY difference between roller and flat tappets is the ramp at which the valve opens and closes. - Dave