My first muscle car build thread (lots of pics)

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Finished welding up underneath, burned my neck and I think my hair caught on fire too. anyway just need some seam sealer and undercoat for that. Moved on and started putting stuff back on. Got the brake lines back in their spots, got the fuel vent line back in place. put the new idler arm in, put the steering box in. put the shock nuts back on. Thinking maybe put the brake master and pedals in and the steering column next. then maybe the horn and battery box. a few things i can't do rite now because I have no money.

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SirDan said:
Finished welding up underneath, burned my neck and I think my hair caught on fire too. anyway just need some seam sealer and undercoat for that. Moved on and started putting stuff back on. Got the brake lines back in their spots, got the fuel vent line back in place. put the new idler arm in, put the steering box in. put the shock nuts back on. Thinking maybe put the brake master and pedals in and the steering column next. then maybe the horn and battery box. a few things i can't do rite now because I have no money.
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Looking good man . Been there done that I hate welding under the car. P.s. pics of the burnt hair ?
 
got the front bleeder screws loose in preparation for bleeding. lubed the back ones just haven't got to them yet. put the steering column in. Put the pedal assembly which was a B*tch! then put the brake master on. Put on the wiper motor, still need to attach it inside. put one of the horns on. Had a tiny bit of rustoleum left so i decided if i could do the firewall with it then i can put everything back on since it will be painted behind there. It was like paste in the 30 degree weather but i got it on there and even had a bit to do the drivers floor pan. Not sure if I can do anything tomorrow. we will see.


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Had to go to my uncles for his birthday worked out well as it was rainy and cold today. He has a ton of mopar stuff! I got some flywheel bolts from him for free. When I got home at 9pm the rustoleum on my floor was still wet so not much could be done today anyhow. Might take a while for it to dry since it went on thick and its cold outside. But, i have homework to do tomorrow and class tuesday and wednesday. By thursday It should be good.

Hoping the motor can go in christmas but, not sure if it will.
 
Christmas came early, my dad gave me a set of US Car Tool frame connectors. Tried to hold them up tonight to see if they fit but ill have to move or remove some stuff to really see. should be real stiff though.
 
Got one sub frame connector in today.

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Wanted to keep going but the neighbors probably wouldn't like to hear me grinding at 9pm on a thursday night.

Fit pretty good, I cut a hole for the E brake. Going to route the brake line over the frame connector.
 
Both frame rails welded in. I have some seam sealer now so perhaps I can get everything sealed up tomorrow. Got a can of rustoleum enamel too. Thank god I'm done welding under the car.
 
Like I said before "Looks Great keep going!"
I hate welding above.
Like this work you are doing!
Darryl
 
cleaned primed and seam sealed everything. Slammed some rustoleum canned stuff on the floor topside. got 3 cans of undercoat for the bottom side going to hit it hard tomorrow. maybe engine in by Christmas?!/?1?
 
woke up this morning with a cold. Got out there and put 4 cans of undercoat on the bottom of the floor. heated the crap out of it for a while. hooked the Ebrake back up on the underside of the car. found some new carrige bolts for the driver seat and welded them on, the 4 speed hump was hitting the seat track a bit so beat it into submission and installed the drivers seat.

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Moved on to the brakes, got the rear wheels off and freed up those bleeders. Bent the master cylinder lines to fit the new manual one. was careful with the brake fluid and I kept rinsing the engine compartment down in case some fluid got on the paint. Seemed to work good as i don't see any messed up paint. thank god! got the brakes bled and the pedal seems good. The only issue with the brakes rite now is the pedal is about an inch higher than the clutch pedal. Ill have to fix this issue one way or another. I'm thinking about cutting and welding the rod but I am a bit scared to weld something like that for my brakes.

It looks like I can probably get the engine in for christmas. I probably won't be driving it that night but I will be one big step closer.



greendart said:
I'm interested in the US Car Tool sub frame connectors how did they go in? fit quality etc? thanks Steve
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They fit pretty good actually. You have to cut out for emergency brakes and brake/fuel lines. you will have to beat the floor down in some spots but not very much.
 
I woke up even sicker (is that a word?) this morning. Tis the season. I kept on going but It slowed me down a lot. I was in a mental fog all day. I did a lot of little stuff and i probably will forget a few things I did. anyway

First I wanted to get out there and fix my brake height issue. I found a place online that listed A body manual pushrod length at 6 1/2" end to end and mine was 6 3/4" end to end which was apparently B body length. I contemplated my options, either make a 1/4" spacer for the master cylinder or cut and weld the rod. I was figuring making a spacer would end up looking like crap and taking forever to cut out then drill all the holes in 1/4" metal. I am getting more confident in my welding abilities and last night I welded some things up for the frame machine where he works. I figured since he didn't come home at lunch complaining they held out to the stress of the frame machine. This gave me the confidence to cut and weld my rod.

I cut a 1/4" out then beveled the edges so I could get good penetration. cleaned it up really good. did a few really quick light tacks just to get it straight then hit it hard. Watched the weld really penetrate and sit down in there as I was going. This is what I had when I was done welding.

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Hit it with some paint and bolted it on, pedal height was PERFECT! Stepped on it a few times hard and it felt great. Everything worked out great on that little project. and I still had lots of daylight left to burn.

Next I hopped on the E brake, got it all hooked back up inside the car. seems to work good but I need the spring for it, which i don't remember it having when it came apart. either way it functions fine it just doesn't automatically return and you have to push it slightly.

Next I moved on to the fuel lines and got those all secured where I welded the new frame connectors and up in the engine bay.

Then I got the brake line by the frame connector secured nicely.

I went and attached the wipers inside since I had forgotten to do that.

got the horns and battery box all hooked up.

Put the wireing harness in, attached the voltage regulator and ballast resistor.

Got the back seat halfway in, I think I can get the other side in when I back the car out and get the door open all the way. I sat back there for a while to rest It was real nice back there without the passenger seat in the way. It was like a couch with wheels.

Lastly I dragged my motor towards the front of the garage. tomorrow I can hopefully get it out do some minor things to it then mock up the 4 speed on it, then put it in i guess.

Really want to have it in there as a present to myself. About 8 months into this whole thing. maybe I can drive it by this weekend???
 
Woke up, feeling aweful again. Santa brought me some nice things including a 23" lift jack and a load leveling thing for the hoist. dug the engine out of the garage and got it to the car. put the rear freeze plug in, put the magnum pilot bearing in which worked great! Put the flywheel and clutch on. Like usual I had issues mating engine to trans the clutch plate has to be dead nuts on for the trans to go on easily. once i got it centered up nice it went on like butter. dropped the engine in the car and got it sitting in the mounts thinking to myself man was that easy, then i realized we forgot to put the damn headers on! I really haven't been thinking rite since I got this cold. anyway fought the headers and got those in and the engine back in the mounts! nothing is bolted down yet but the hard part is done and over and I achieved my goal of setting it in today. Very happy but still very sick.

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Still fairly sick but I think my condition has gotten slightly better today. First thing on the agenda was to get the shifter mechanism bolted on then put the trans mount on. Then I tightened the engine mount bolts so everything was attached. moved on to the Z bar which I had to shorten an inch. greased the bushings a bit but wasn't satisfied with that so I put a grease fitting on the Z bar. ran out of grease tho! anyway I was surprised how easy it was to get the Z bar in place. there was much more room than I expected. I hooked the clutch linkages up and tested it out. I was surprised how easy the clutch was to move. I was expecting it to be much harder being the borg and beck style. Will be even better once I lube that Z bar real good. Next I moved on to the shift linkages, got it hooked up and the shifter didn't work. scratched my head for a minute then got down there and yanked on the 1/2 rod and it clicked out of gear. then the shifter started working! sat in the car and banged through the gears for a minute. I was ready to quit since it was really windy and raining. but i pressed on. I decided to bolt the headers up since I was done with the Z bar stuff. put some stock gaskets on it and put sealer on the front and rear bolts and torqued it down. at this point I was ready to go in when I looked down at the two driveshafts and said to myself, I could bring those in the garage and work on those and be out of the wind and paint it tonight so it will be dry tomorrow. Sounds like a plan! Swapped the yolk over to my driveshaft and gave it a quick coat of flat black. And that was that for today.

took some pictures with my phone but I tried for an hour to send them to my computer. gotta start using my real camera again.
 
Put the driveshaft in, fixed the exhaust hanger that broke at some point during the build. Put the starter in then connected the steering back up. The god damn header is hitting the steering shaft. It didn't hit on the old motor WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!! bolted the headers to the exhaust. Put fluid in the transmission. Moved on to the engine got the balancer and pulley on, water pump, A/C, distributor, coil, engine harness got the alt on there. Put some oil in it, my dipstick decided to stop working on me so thats another problem that needs resolving. Wanted to crank it over to see if I had oil pressure and I could not get it to crank. Decided this was a good place to stop. Overall the day was full of disappointment and great success. Worst part is that it will snow saturday and the roads will get salted and I wont even get to drive the car.:angryfir::angryfir::angryfir::angryfir:
 
Another day more headaches. Figured out how to jump the solenoid out to crank the engine. Had some issues at first, the battery was barely charging and id just get clicks out of the starter. after cleaning the terminals really good on both ends everything started to finally work. had to crank it over a lot to get oil to the rocker arms since I couldn't fill the oil filter due to its sideways orientation. but i finally got some oil up there. The 25 dollar used new style small starter I got is kicking ***! Bolted on my alt and put the belts on and got the fan on there. Its looking cooler the more stuff I bolt on. After I got the oil moving around the engine I was after some spark. Figured out why my key switch wasn't working. Someone jumped out the column i swapped in. I just rigged it to work for the moment and now my key switch works! I could not for the life of me get any spark! Power to 3 plugs of the computer, power at the coil. not sure why I have no spark. I decided to plug up the remaining holes since it will snow tomorrow. Bolted the carb on and sat the air cleaner on to keep snow out. They are saying 1-3 inches I am hoping that they wont salt the roads but they probably will.
 
Ready to start smashing things. No spark still, swapped for a points distributor since they are so simple. Still no spark no matter what I do. I am beyond angry. one whole day wasted with nothing accomplished.
 
Check the ballast resister, and check If you have 12 volts going to the coil while cranking.
 
Wasted so much damn time trying to get spark. Found an old crusty electronic distributor laying around and swapped it in and got spark. Then my starter started taking a crap on me. had to beat it with a hammer a lot but finally got the engine running. sounded real good and had a little blowby which I assume is because the rings aren't seated yet. Not one oil leak, so far... Still have plenty of stuff left to do and now I have to find money for a starter and battery. I have to get some pictures too, I have been too frustrated to take any recently.
 
Still have been a bit frustrated with this project. Got good spark now but it doesn't want to stay running. Set the initial timing to 12 BTDC. I think I have fuel or carb issues. Not really sure at this point.

Went and took a few pictures though.

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went to the scrapyard today and made enough money to pick up a wimpy 500 cold cranking amps battery. FWIW I had a 525 cold cranking amps battery prior, not the best battery for the job but considering its low compression I think I will be okay. Seemed to crank it over fine in 30 degree weather.

Wasted more time trying to get it running properly. Checked every single plug wire and spark plug. One sparkplug broke as I was putting it back in so I had to get another one. checked the fuel line and it had a bunch of fuel squirting out when i cranked it, took the carb off opened it up and it seemed fine floats seemed good squirted some carb cleaner through the jets while i was there. they seemed free and clear. tried setting the reluctor gap a little looser as it seemed a bit tight. Tried messing with the timing in a move of desperation, no matter where you put the initial timing it runs the same. made sure the vacuum hoses off the carb weren't leaking. Hooked a vacuum gauge up had a rock steady 10 pounds of vacuum at a guesstimated 1500 rpm.

Pretty much got nowhere today which is VERY frustrating to me.
 
The answer just came to me all of a sudden last night. The ballast resistor, usually the spring resistor thingy just breaks and they stop working all together. mine on the other hand was causing lower than normal voltage at the coil causing weak spark. It runs better now and idles finally.
 
huh, that's weird.

Hey, don't beat yourself up over wasting a day or two getting it running. You got until the second time in a row it rains to get it running. That's at least March. You are pretty far along and working in New York. Don't expect everything to come together in a week. I had to deal with stupid BS getting my car back on the road and it was July when I could finally drive it. I was shooting to have it done early June and had started working on it in mid April.
 
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