Huffin' my Hot Rod

In reply to wearymicrobe :

I'm going to run a Holley 750 double-pumper.  I had Gary Dyer (yes, that Gary Dyer) rebuild the blower and that's what he recommended.  This engine is only going to see about 5K RPM, so I'm very comfortable with a smaller carb like that so I get good driveability. 

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

Where did the hood come from that you fitted, is it repop or original?  How hard was it to get it to fit the 'glass body?

It's a Rootlieb repop 4 piece hood.  The car had a stock hood on it at some time in its past.  It's also got an orginal grille shell, so fitting it was pretty easy.  I've fitted my share of hoods on old Fords and sometimes it's a lot of work, so I got lucky.

That is great looking! I was always a fan of the California Kid 33 and yours looks like a different version of it.

I bet it is fun to drive  

Engine and trans are out and the heads are off.

Good news when I looked at the pistons/cylinders.  Looks like a fresh .040 rebuild.  No ridges and still shows a nice crosshatch. 

Most of the engine parts are here and I'll have the rest, plus the new trans, in a few days.  For the trans, I'm going with a TCI StreetFighter and a 2000 stall converter--opinions?

Jack's going to help me redo the front crossmember to get that last inch of ride height reduction.  We've got great access now.  And a little cleaning to do.

OjaiM5 said:

That is great looking! I was always a fan of the California Kid 33 and yours looks like a different version of it.

I bet it is fun to drive  

When I bought it, I thought pretty seriously about putting fenders on it, putting a nicer paint job on it, and basically cloning the California Kid.  But Nick talked me into preserving the patina and just doing the hood/flames.  I'm glad I listened to him.  

It's very fun to drive, but in no way a sports car.

Ok that's t I must be an old guy now.

I've never liked old hot rods. Except yours looks awesome and fun and I want a ride.

Why does it seem like everyone of them has a Chevy motor though? 

Mad_Ratel said:

Why does it seem like everyone of them has a Chevy motor though? 

I'm more of an British/European/Japanese 4 cylinder guy, but do have some American stuff.  I helped my son, Jack, a lot with his CAM-T Falcon Wagon, which has a Ford 302 in it.  I figured small block Fords would be as easy as small block Chevys as far as parts, knowledgeable help,  etc.. I'm really surprised how much easier and cheaper small block Chevys are.  It's not like the Ford was impossible to work with, but we spent more time than I would have expected dealing with which motor mount to use, pulley setups, and other parts compatibilities.  And most of the parts were more expensive.  So I think that's why so many hot rods have Chevy motors.  It's just an easy button.

The same thing seems to be going on with LS engines--they're everywhere, they're cheap, and so many people know them.

Mad_Ratel said:

Ok that's t I must be an old guy now.

I've never liked old hot rods. Except yours looks awesome and fun and I want a ride.

 

Why does it seem like everyone of them has a Chevy motor though? 

The GM 350/5.7 liter V-8 soldiered on from 1957-1999 with minor changes over the years, like roller cams and different heads. Most of the parts are still interchangeable, and they built about a bazillion of them. That in turn, means that you can go to just about any parts store in the country and find parts for one. 

Sheer volume accounts for the difference in parts prices.

In answer to your trans question, what about a 4-speed electronic shifter like a 4L-60, 4L-70 or TH700 R-4 (possible nomenclature fail)?  Lockup 4th behind a real street-y motor could be nice, especially on a clear two-lane.

In reply to Jerry From LA :

The 700R4 is hydraulically controlled. The electronic version is the 4L60E. The two transmissions are otherwise identical.

Recon1342 said:

In reply to Jerry From LA :

The 700R4 is hydraulically controlled. The electronic version is the 4L60E. The two transmissions are otherwise identical.

Oops.  Forgot.  Perhaps a refreshed 700R4 would be the easy button on a four-speed swap then.

If she ends up needing a fan, I saw a neat idea on the H.A.M.B back in the day: use an old 50s box fan to make a shroud, the ones with the rounded corners. Slice and dice it to fit a mechanical or electric fan (works real good at hiding an electric.)

How do these drive? All that torque and low weight. I imagine it can be compared as the grandaddy to a locust? Straight line only? Or are they all so custom no two drive alike?

Appleseed said:

If she ends up needing a fan, I saw a neat idea on the H.A.M.B back in the day: use an old 50s box fan to make a shroud, the ones with the rounded corners. Slice and dice it to fit a mechanical or electric fan (works real good at hiding an electric.)

That's a great idea.  Thanks for the tip!

Mad_Ratel said:

How do these drive? All that torque and low weight. I imagine it can be compared as the grandaddy to a locust? Straight line only? Or are they all so custom no two drive alike?

I lot of them are terrible and you nailed it with custom and no two alike.  The bad ones are scary and dangerous but there are good ones that are really fun.

We've gotten into a fair amount of them at Eclectic and it's pretty common to see some pretty bad ideas--bad suspension geometry, suspension parts in bind, mismatched brake components, things like that.  It's also pretty common that the right parts are on the car, but it's not dialed in.  That was the case with my car.  I dealt with some minor suspension binding issues and then got the alignment right, the right offset on the front wheels to get the scrub radius right, the brakes setup, adjusted, and proportioned correctly, and its a great driver.  It doesn't have a lot of suspension travel and has a relatively short wheelbase, so it's not much of a highway car, at least on terrible Michigan roads.  I wouldn't take it autocrossing, but it doesn't pitch and roll like a 1960s American car.  With Fords, the 1935 and later cars can really be set up well.  They have a longer wheelbase, can offer more travel, and have a lot more room for packaging.  You can make one of those into just about anything you'd like and love driving it.

Jerry From LA said:

Recon1342 said:

In reply to Jerry From LA :

The 700R4 is hydraulically controlled. The electronic version is the 4L60E. The two transmissions are otherwise identical.

Oops.  Forgot.  Perhaps a refreshed 700R4 would be the easy button on a four-speed swap then.

Thanks for the feedback.  I should have been more clear.  I'm sticking with a TH350 since I don't take this car on the highway much.  A TH350 is a quite a bit cheaper and the car is already setup for it.  I was wondering if anyone had experience with TCI Streetfighters or advice on stall speed for the torque converter.  It's a bit of moot point, though, as I'm picking everything up from Lane Automotive later this morning.

I hope I'm not boring you too much with this, but as I was going through the old photos, I found a few of Nick helping me deal with how to live with my first minivan.

Carl Heideman said:

In reply to MadScientistMatt :

I've seen good flex fans and bad ones.  This one has been great for 20+ years so I think it's one of the good ones--the blades are well-balanced and the rivets are tight.

Also, I found a few more photos from the original rebuild:

The car had Ford juice brakes on the front with Ford drums.  The hot setup is to adapt Buick drums, so that's what I did.  People usually use the earlier ones that have half as many fins.  I actually found these in a local junkyard for $15 each, so I had to use them.  

The black and white tuck and roll was in the car when I got it.  It's got Mallory guages.  Who knew they used to make guages?  One of them was an amp gauge, which I try to avoid using.  So I called Mallory at the time and they still had some volt gauges, so I switched it out.  The steering column drop is a flathead connecting rod, but it was just screwed into the fiberglass dash and shook in very creepy ways going down the road.  I put a steel reinforcement behind it and tied it to the steel substructure in the body.  Other than rewiring and adding seat belts, the interior hasn't changed much since then.

Flames and PBR go hand-in-hand.

PBR?!  You guys really were ahead of the curve!  Ask your friend what the next trend will be.  I want to hire this guy to tell me what to invest in.

A 401 CJ said:

PBR?!  You guys really were ahead of the curve!  Ask your friend what the next trend will be.  I want to hire this guy to tell me what to invest in.

Nick is really ahead of the curve, but I'm the one who's been drinking PBR since before it was cool.  I used to say it was the best beer for three reasons:

1. Cheap.
2. Just as good warm as cold.
3. Won't run out because friends won't drink it.

Hipsters have weakened #1 and #3, but #2 will hold true forever.

Carl Heideman said:   I'm the one who's been drinking PBR since before it was cool.  I used to say it was the best beer for three reasons:

1. Cheap.
2. Just as good warm as cold.
3. Won't run out because friends won't drink it.

Hipsters have weakened #1 and #3, but #2 will hold true forever.

Among other things we agree on, it seems our logic on PBR is perfectly aligned as well 

With the drop in price, I have seen many hipsters switching to Hamms. Good for them I say; leaves more PBR for me

Boring us? You will never bore us when you post pics of flamed Caravans.

Appleseed said:

Boring us? You will never bore us when you post pics of flamed Caravans.

Or that good sir is a Ford windstar...

Jerry From LA said:

Recon1342 said:

In reply to Jerry From LA :

The 700R4 is hydraulically controlled. The electronic version is the 4L60E. The two transmissions are otherwise identical.

Oops.  Forgot.  Perhaps a refreshed 700R4 would be the easy button on a four-speed swap then.

I think a 200 4R would be the actual easy button.  IIRC the 200 4R is a bolt-in swap for a TH350, whereas the 700R4 is physically larger and longer.  The 200 4R can be built to stand up to a 3.8 Turbo mill in a Buick GN, so it should be fine for this.  

But yeah, the TH350 will be cheaper and if you're not worried about spinning a ton of revs on the highway forever, probably a better option.  

Mad_Ratel said:

Appleseed said:

Boring us? You will never bore us when you post pics of flamed Caravans.

Or that good sir is a Ford windstar...

Caravan, Windstar, whatever it takes. 

Appleseed said:

Caravan, Windstar, whatever it takes. 

I always called it the Flaming E36M3Box.  That was not a good van.  I've been with Honda Odysseys ever since.