Posts Tagged ‘buick nailhead engine’

Inspiration in Detroit.

Posted: March 10, 2015 in car shows suck, Chevrolet Impala, Detroit Autorama, HAMB, Ridler Award, Riviera, Thunderbird, transportation
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Chip Foose is my hero.

Chip Foose is my hero.

I’ll say it right now, Chip Foose is a hero of mine.  I’ve heard, and read on-line lately, lots of disparaging remarks about his latest creation, the above Impala which took the Ridler award at AutoRama, but I’m not one of those distractors.  This car is a masterpiece, and was in my head all day yesterday while I was in the shop working on my own two customs, Kim’s ’63 Riviera and my long-term ’59 T’bird project.

I don’t have the talent, vision, or admittedly the budget for a car like this, but I take inspiration for my own cars from Chip’s work, and this one spoke to me at a very visceral level.  It’s absolutely stunning.  The proportions are perfect, the car is radically modified but still looks like a Chevy Impala.  Integrated, unified, classic yet modern/  Everything flows, beautifully detailed to a level that boggles my mind.  It’s everything that I like about custom cars, and everything I’d like to be able to do.

I overheard some comments while looking at the car, and read afterwards, comments along the line of “The Ridler is bought, not earned”, “All Foose’s cars look the same.”, “F-ugly.”, and so on.  My thoughts on looking at this (and LOTS of other cars at the show) were more along the “I could do that.”

In that light, while the images of the car are still fresh in my head, I’m going to get out to the shop and try to get the bodywork on my T’bird, and get busy with the Air-Ride system under the Riviera.  Maybe someday a crowd of guys will stand around my car and mutter “It’s all about money”, “He just wrote the checks”, “I hate painted bumpers”, and occasionally, “I could do that.”

Let’s get busy.

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Just fix it.

Posted: March 1, 2015 in Gilmore Car Museum, HAMB, Riviera, Traditional Custom Cars, transportation, vintage car
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The restoration (or “fixing up”) of an old car is a matter of repairing and refurbishing all of the worn out and/or broken parts, making them work like they should, and then, depending on your own taste, making them look like new, or as close to new as makes you happy, again.  It’s one step at a time.  Today I made several big steps forward.

The Riviera I’m building for my wife had an issue with the passenger door glass, it flopped inwards when the door closed, didn’t fit right, and the power window motor was shot.  Happily, I have an extra pair of doors, and robbed the spare door of the parts I needed.  The window motor works fine, but sadly, the die-cast arm on the window regulator that was the cause of this floppy-ness was also broken on the donor door.  Since I had an entire extra regulator, I cut one of the steel arms off it that happen to be exactly the same length as the broken die cast one, managed to save the shouldered rivet that makes the hinge pin that it pivots as the window goes up and down, and put it all back together.  It works fine, and cost ZERO dollars.

I got the new “Southern-Air” A/C-heat unit mounted on the inside of the firewall too, and adapted the shiny new dash vents to the Riviera’s original housings, on each side of the dash, and the long narrow  original one in the center of the console.  The defroster tubes are also mounted temporarily, so I’ve go all done that I can do until I get the new console (sourced from the guy who bought the parts Riviera I sold) and start permanently putting the car together.

Next up, put some butyl duct-insulation (same stuff as “Dyna-Mat” but about a quarter of the price), on the floor and insulation on top of that.  A buddy uses shiny mylar bubble wrap insulation in all his builds, so I’m going to use the same thing, with maybe a second layer of butyl duct insulation on top of that.  I want the car quiet and cool.

After that, I spent some time sorting out the wiring harness, as I need to sort out the switched and constant hot feeds to wire the new ECM for the LS engine, and I got all the windows to go up and down.  The drivers power seat needs some work to free up the mechanism, but the motor runs, so it should be repairable.  The headlight, tail-light and wiper circuits all work, so I won’t have too much wiring to do, as the original wiring is in good shape.

I’m very happy with this afternoons work, I got a lot done, and made progress on several aspects of the build.  As soon as I get my re-shaped oil pan and the air suspension stuff, the car can start going back together and get ready for paint!

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The defroster plenum will get the tubes sealed in with my second favorite thing, duct tape.

The defroster plenum will get the tubes sealed in with my second favorite thing, duct tape.

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from the firewall

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How to: Drop a 5.3 Vortec in your 1963 Riviera without spending money on expensive new parts!

Posted: December 15, 2014 in cars, Riviera, Traditional Custom Cars, transportation
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Gee, that looks tall...

Gee, that looks tall…

Faithful readers will recall that last week I installed the shine new exhaust headers on the 5.3 Vortec after a little creative work with a touch and ball-peen hammer to clear the steering box and right side upper control arm. The engine is now setting on mounts tacked to the frame, the transmission crossmember is done, but before I weld the mounts permanently, I figured I’d better check to make sure the hood would indeed clear the (high mounted) alternator and very tall intake manifold.

I hung the core support and right front fender, and nervously sat the hood down. In order to have it set down all the way, I had to notch the hoods inner support panel over the alternator, and for good measure, I clearanced the alternator bolt boss on the housing about 1/4″ at the front. The result is an easy 1/2″ clearance between the alternator and hood skin. Hurrah!

Now, I can relax a bit, secure that I don’t have to buy a new, low-profile intake manifold and front accessory drive set up. I do have to get an air conditioner compressor mount, but that’s easy. Now I can pull the engine, install the new oil pan with it’s shallower rear sump, clean the frame and weld the mounts in for good.

It feels good to have it working out!

Nip-tuck on the inner panel right over the alternator.

Nip-tuck on the inner panel right over the alternator.

It fits!

It fits!

It’s a FLUID plan.

Posted: September 7, 2014 in Classic Cars, Traditional Custom Cars
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Plans change.

Plans change.

When I bought the Rivera home, I’d initially planned on using it as a home for the 454 from the motorhome which I’d drug home, getting the car running and driving, and then flip it, letting the happy new owner finish it. That plan changed when Kim surprised me by saying she liked the car (actually, she was looking at the parts car, which I’ve already sold) and wanted me to build it for her.

I got excited about that, and the rush then to pull the motorhomes engine/trans seemed not so urgent, and I immediately decided an LS engine and 4L60 would make the car much more enjoyable if we were going to actually DRIVE it, so the plan morphed again. My pal Brad at Morris Rose Auto Parts here in Kalamazoo scored a 5.3 from an ’04 Avalanche for the cause, and it’ll be united with a 4L60 trans, along with the complete under hood wiring harness, fuse panel and PCM from the Avalanche. With a minimum of effort, that gets us a stand-alone harness to make the engine/trans work in the Riviera, with money left over from the parts car sale.

I also decided right away that the car would get a ’65 grill and hidden headlights. The ’63, with its clunky headlights plunked in the grill were a stop-gap design from Buick originally, and since the car is a custom, I didn’t care to use ’65 clamshell lights, which means a complete front sheet metal swap, or tons of work. I saved the headlamp buckets from the Thunderbird, which is now wearing ’63 Caddy lights and bezels, and these fit perfectly in the Rivi fenders, simply stood on end. The lights are visible behind the grill and lens, but no more so than the original park lamp reflectors, so it’s a natural.

Headlamp behind the park lamp grill/lens.

Headlamp behind the park lamp grill/lens.

The ’65 grill, which I got from the guy who bought the other car as a direct swap for an extra ’63 grill/headlamp assembly, doesn’t quite fit in the ’63 front, but a few minutes with a cut off tool to open up the fenders, and some whittling on the lower corner of the new grill with a flap disk (it hit the core support) let it slide right into place. I have to make a new lip on the fenders to fit the grill, but it won’t take long at all, and the difference is dramatic.

This is what the Riv SHOULD have looked like to begin with.

This is what the Riv SHOULD have looked like to begin with.

To say I’m enthused about the project is an understatement, I’m excited, and eager to get going. The ‘bird again has taken a back seat, but I’ll make myself do the little remaining body work on that along with the Riv. It’ll be fine, I’ll get them both done, and, what’s the rush, anyway?

The only drawback thus far is that now that we have the car, every event I now go, there are ’63 Riveras! Why is it that I never noticed them before we had one?

Cool McCool’s Garage visits: Crafty B

Posted: January 2, 2013 in Ford Roadsters, Real Hot Rods, Roadsters
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DSC04161 (1024x768)Continuing our trend of visiting friends shops rather than getting anything done in our own,  we start the new year by visiting “Crafty B Nostalgic Speed” near Caledonia, MI. 

Kirk Brown, aka “Crafty B”, is shown here holding his latest creation, a cast aluminum ’32 Ford grill, and it’s screen inserts, up to his ’32 roadster project.  The car, a long forgotten X-drag strip warrior from the ’60’s, is being brought back to life in Kirk’s shop.  The grill shell is the latest in his line of  cool cast aluminium goodies that he markets.  This car will also sport his own Hallock style windshield, although we didn’t get to see it.  The parts are being cast a local foundry Kirk uses.

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Above left, Kirk examines the rear of the much abused ’32’s body, which he relieved of a set of bobbed fenders that had been welded to the quarters.  While it’s fairly rust free, it suffered from a casual approach to metalwork in the past.  In addition to the welded on and mudded in fenders, the car had been channeled by hacking the floor and subrails out with a torch, and rear quarters pushed outward by about 4 inches, again by  just torching away the factory bracing and pushing the sides out with a jack.  Never fear, Kirk and his friends are getting the body squared up, braced up, and getting it ready for street by spring.

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Shown above is his ’32 three window, again saved from a former life of drag strip abuse, having more or less been wadded up into a ball and left for dead.  It too will sport LOTS of one-off aluminum goodies from Kirk’s inventive parts inventory, including the replica E&J headlights, matching tailights, an absolutely beautiful tilt steering set up.  In addition to those bits, the car will sport a 6.71 blown Buick nailhead engine and a 5 speed.   Like the trunk-lid?  Kirk also punches louvers on a (naturally), home-grown louver press. 

DSC04159 (1024x768)It’s always fun to visit Kirk’s shop, whether it’s during his every-Friday morning  “Geezer Coffee” and shop open-house, or any weekday when he and his friends are working on the latest projects.  There’s always guys dropping in to help out, get work done on their own, or his projects.  That’s what Hot Rodding really is, good friends getting together to turn neglected junk, and bits of metal into works of art.

Thanks for the welcom, and the  inspiration Kirk!