Finally! The 283 is nestled permanently between the frame rails! It was a bigger job than I’d anticipated, since I’d had things only loosely assembled before, I had to move the bolt holes back on the engine mount pads on the frame a quarter inch, but it’s good to go now.
I think the cream color firewall with the three gauges looks incredible, and the low mount alternator gets rid of that ugly lump up on top of the engine. I opted to leave the single 4-bbl Edelbrock Perfomer intake on for now, I’ll put one of the new 500 CFM E-carbs on and get the thing sorted out before I tackle getting dual quads sorted out on a 283. One thing at a time…
I have enough cream enamel left to paint the ’59 T’bird wheel, which will tie that into the color scheme. I dig the red engine and polished aluminum against the cream firewall, and the little dual quad air filter element looks better than the bug ugly chrome air cleaner the engine came with. It’s starting to come together.
When the tires were mounted on the Dayton wheels, the high pressure blast used to seat the bead blasted a couple big hunks of chrome off the right front rim. I was bummed, but had been considering media blasting and paint the wheels anyway. Then, a buddy suggested a product called “Rub and Buff”, sold in hobby shops as an ersatz silver leaf. Probably powdered aluminum in a waxy base, the stuff worked amazingly well. From five feet away, it’s almost impossible to spot the “repair”. I’ll probably end up getting one new wheel from Dayton Wheel, but for now, I’m good to go. The car is going to sport some light “patina” overall, so, this isn’t out of place.
I’m getting excited.
Cool McCool's Garage 