57 Chevy Wagon - Californa Dreamin'

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Keep plugging away Vic! It's coming along great!

Thanks, Dale. I'm beginning to think there's some light at the end of the tunnel.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Looks great! Excited for you this Saturday!

Hey Chip, me too! I sent Sean a text today with a photo of the car lifted off the ground as he requested. I've been marking off little items on the punch list to keep me occupied.

[mongocanfly]

What a bueat..!!!

[knomadd]

Oh man, she's looking good!!!

[HAULIN' IT]

That is one classy lookin' ride! Lorne

[Ol Blue K20]

It won't be long before you drive it to Cali and visit. I love it....

[Vic1947]

Thanks everyone! Minor setback, though. Sean called Thursday afternoon and said he had a schedule conflict and asked to postpone installing the front end sheetmetal until next Saturday. I'm still working on the punch list so it's okay but I was really looking forward to seeing it complete. Still need to bleed the brakes, fill the radiator and test the fuel system. At that point, it will be time to bust it off.

[Low Elco]

Well, at least this morning's work went well! It's installed and everything's welded up. Thanks again for saving my hide!

[Ol Blue K20]

Looking good Vic! Keep plugging away at it.....

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Well, at least this morning's work went well! It's installed and everything's welded up. Thanks again for saving my hide!

Glad I could help, Chip.

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looking good Vic! Keep plugging away at it.....

Thanks, Dale!

Sean from Hot Rod Express made it to the house yesterday morning and put in six hours helping me hang front end sheetmetal. Took longer than it should have thanks to yours truly. One of my backup pieces for the cover panel was holding the driver side fender up and not letting it slip down over the inner fenderwell. By the time we realized what was happening, we'd spent a bunch of time trying to adjust the fender without a lot of success. Finally removed the fender and fixed the problem which made all the difference in how it fit. All the gaps (doors, cowl and hood) look good. Now the real test is getting the chrome grille surround to line up. It was adjusted pretty well before the car came apart for paint, but now it's giving me a bit of grief. I need to back off all the filler panel screws adjacent to the chrome pieces and see if that changes how the fender and the chrome piece fit. Not a lot of wiggle room, so plan B will be to use shims or trim pieces as needed.

The Eddie Motorsports hood brace just barely dinged the core support in two places. It comes to a point at those spots, so I had to remove the entire brace and mill .040" off the high spots. It now has enough clearance to keep from chipping the paint. Too late for me, though, as I now have some touching up to do. Sean offered to stay and help with the front bumper, but I declined. It was 5pm and I told him I was too tired. When I run out of steam is when I make unforced errors. He said he was happy to return when I'm ready. Need to get the rest of the grille pieces and the headlights in and wired before then.

But it's looking a lot more like a real car. Longer than I remembered.

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Glad I could help, Chip.

Thanks, Dale!

Sean from Hot Rod Express made it to the house yesterday morning and put in six hours helping me hang front end sheetmetal. Took longer than it should have thanks to yours truly. One of my backup pieces for the cover panel was holding the driver side fender up and not letting it slip down over the inner fenderwell. By the time we realized what was happening, we'd spent a bunch of time trying to adjust the fender without a lot of success. Finally removed the fender and fixed the problem which made all the difference in how it fit. All the gaps (doors, cowl and hood) look good. Now the real test is getting the chrome grille surround to line up. It was adjusted pretty well before the car came apart for paint, but now it's giving me a bit of grief. I need to back off all the filler panel screws adjacent to the chrome pieces and see if that changes how the fender and the chrome piece fit. Not a lot of wiggle room, so plan B will be to use shims or trim pieces as needed.

The Eddie Motorsports hood brace just barely dinged the core support in two places. It comes to a point at those spots, so I had to remove the entire brace and mill .040" off the high spots. It now has enough clearance to keep from chipping the paint. Too late for me, though, as I now have some touching up to do. Sean offered to stay and help with the front bumper, but I declined. It was 5pm and I told him I was too tired. When I run out of steam is when I make unforced errors. He said he was happy to return when I'm ready. Need to get the rest of the grille pieces and the headlights in and wired before then.

But it's looking a lot more like a real car. Longer than I remembered.

OMG! It looks fantastic!

[Low Elco]

Looks Awesome! Congratulations!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

OMG! It looks fantastic!

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Looks Awesome! Congratulations!

Thanks, guys!

Been a long time coming but every day a little bit closer.

[Low Elco]

I like the subdued look of the painted grille bar.

[Ol Blue K20]

I love the smile on that cars face!

[67C10Step]

That is beautiful! You are going to get sued for multiple cases of whiplash when guys like me snap their heads around when we see that out on the road.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

I like the subdued look of the painted grille bar.

Me too, Chip. Unfortunately, the spray chrome just wasn't doing it for me. Glad I went this direction.

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

I love the smile on that cars face!

Oh yeah, Dale, and it's going to get even better. Chip is coming over in the morning to help me hang the front bumper.

Originally Posted by 67C10Step

That is beautiful! You are going to get sued for multiple cases of whiplash when guys like me snap their heads around when we see that out on the road.

Thanks! If that's the case I hope my umbrella policy covers it.

Lot to report...

I had an issue with the hood not closing firmly. After it latched, you could still lift it up about 3/8". I shimmed the latch and adjusted the striker plate as much as I could, but it still had some slack. One of the guys on the Chevy forum suggested that I add some material to the bottom of the striker plate to tighten up the latching tongue. Did that and voila, it's now snug as a bug.

But the really big news is...

After weeks of hand wringing, I finally turned the key on and fired the engine. It took four or five tries for it to catch, but then started and after a few seconds of running rough, smoothed out and stayed alive. The Dakota Digital gauges are working, but are nagging me to calibrate speed and RPM. Engine seems to be running rich, but the fuel pressure is at 60 psi instead of the 55 psi specified by FITech. Hoping an adjustment makes it happier. However, all in all, a satisfactory first step.

Topped off the trans fluid and coolant then checked for leaks. Noticed a small puddle of trans fluid on the driver side so I grabbed a towel and a flashlight for a closer look. There's a pipe plug going into a boss on the side of the trans and I could see that was where the leak was originating. Assuming the plug wasn't fully tightened, I grabbed a wrench but it seemed pretty snug. So I pulled it out and put a couple of wraps of teflon tape on it and put it back in. Wasn't until I removed the wrench and looked closer that I saw the real reason it was leaking in the first place. There's a crack in the boss.

Tomorrow, I'll check with Ohio Speed and see what they suggest. For their engine/trans/EFI combos, they have Performance Automatics drop ship the trans so I'll probably end up going thru them. I might be able to clean it up enough to epoxy it or there may be enough room to wire brush it and hit it with the TiG - don't know. Both options are better than having to pull the trans and return it. I doubt this is the first time this has ever happened, so maybe there's a fix for it.

Two observations after the test firing...

1. The Spectre cone shaped air filter and associated tubing make a god awful whistling sound. You'd think I have a blower on it, there's so much racket. Don't know if it will quiet down on the road or if I'll need to extend it out thru the inner fender and box it like a cold air setup.

2. Likewise, the Flowmaster FlowFX mufflers are plenty loud. If you blip the throttle, it sounds like it has glass packs on it. Again, it may be less noticeable going down the road but that may be wishful thinking. I guess if it's too loud, I'm too old.

That's all for today, I need to figure out my next steps and revise my punch list.

[sduckworth13]

That’s awesome Vic! Congratulations on getting it fired up!

[mongocanfly]

Man..that's sucks about the trans...but congrats on firing it up..!!!....
I have a spectre cone on my truck...I've never know it to whistle...have you checked for a air leak on the intake tube ?..

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

That’s awesome Vic! Congratulations on getting it fired up!

Thanks, Scott.

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Man..that's sucks about the trans...but congrats on firing it up..!!!....
I have a spectre cone on my truck...I've never know it to whistle...have you checked for a air leak on the intake tube ?..

Thanks for the tip, Greg. Checked the worm clamps this morning and added a couple of extra turns to the screws. All three are now good and snug. Will have to wait till I fire the engine again to know if it helped but will let you know.

Chip came by this morning and helped me with the front bumper. We had to perform a bit of mill magic on a couple of the main brackets. When we got the bumper where it needed to be, we had a half hole showing for one bolt and almost none for another. We marked the directions we needed to go and slotted four holes in each bracket just to make sure we had enough slop (ahem: adjustment). We reinstalled the brackets and were able to get the three main fasteners in both sides. At that point, I sent Chip on his way as he has a lot of irons in the fire and didn't need to hang out while I made the necessary mods to get the rest of the brackets to fit.

One of those mods involved radically reshaping the outboard brackets that bolt to the fenders and the bumper. The smoothie bumper has some welded tabs on the backside that stood out too far for those brackets. Photo below of the before and after. Still a lot of shimming and repositioning to get the angles and gaps I want, but I can tell it's going to work out.

Chuck from Ohio Speed is working with Performance Automatics to find a solution to the cracked boss that's leaking. Hope they have an easy fix.

More later.

[Low Elco]

Thanks for the fun morning! Talk about modified brackets! Y'all, pics do not do this car justice at all. It's fiiiiinnnne.

[Ol Blue K20]

The smile is getting better! I hope the trans works out.

[Vic1947]

Well, the news I received this morning wasn't good. Performance Automatics said there was no way to reliably repair the leak. They want me to pull the trans and send it back to them to be re-cased. They're unable to send a replacement trans in advance due to a shortage of parts on backorder. So they want to just transfer my internal components to the different case. Probably looking at 2-3 weeks plus the expense of the trans R&R.

I can't safely lift the car high enough in my shop to get the trans out. Hot Rod Express will have to do it for me. When I spoke to Rick at HRE about it this afternoon, he suggested that it would be a lot quicker if P/A would send us the case we need and we can have a local shop do the parts swap. I forwarded his suggestion to my guy at Ohio Speed who's acting as the go-between with P/A. We'll see what they say. Regardless, this is going to be a costly fix.

[Low Elco]

Don't know who Rick would Recommend, but Apollo Transmission on 40 Highway does all our work, and has so far proven trustworthy. 'Course, there's always the suggestion your hoodlum friend came up with.... I'll spray the brake kleen!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Don't know who Rick would Recommend, but Apollo Transmission on 40 Highway does all our work, and has so far proven trustworthy. 'Course, there's always the suggestion your hoodlum friend came up with.... I'll spray the brake kleen!

Thanks, Chip. The shop Rick recommends is Nicholls Performance Transmissions in Grain Valley. Apparently a well known builder capable of putting together automatics for high HP cars. He'll swap the internals into a new case (provided by me) for around $400.

I heard back today from my guy at Ohio Speed and it turns out the person that said the trans couldn't be repaired and needed to go back wasn't the shop owner. He was out and when he returned, he suggested trying the JB Weld fix. So now I'm in the middle of that. I machined a cap to go over the boss and will use a 1/8 pipe fitting to snug it up and hold it while the JB Weld sets.

The problem I ran into was that after cleaning the area with brake cleaner, within about 30 seconds the port started to seep trans fluid. So I drained the pan and will let it set overnight and see if that stops the seepage. If it doesn't I'm doubtful the repair will be effective - especially at the line pressure the port sees. Online, I've seen recorded test pressures from 90-270 psi. I'd be surprised if the epoxy fix is durable enough to handle those pressures long term if there's residual trans fluid trapped in the fracture. They said if it doesn't hold, "they would take if from there". So we'll see what happens.

As a last ditch effort, I might try machining an o-ring groove into the very end of the plug. It might extend just far enough into the smooth bore to stop the fluid before it gets to the crack. In this case, desperation is the mother of invention.

[Vic1947]

I was able to clean the area around the boss pretty well this morning after draining the trans fluid. Test fit the parts, took a deep breath and mixed up the JB Weld then applied a layer to the inside of the machined cap. Stuck the cap on the boss then inserted the pipe plug with washers and snugged it up to force the epoxy around the perimeter of the boss and hopefully into the crack. I used quick setting epoxy so after about 15 minutes, I removed the pipe plug and inspected the repair. It looks like a half turn with a 1/8" pipe tap loaded up with heavy grease to trap any shavings will clean out the small amount of goop left in the threads. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Meanwhile, I machined an o-ring groove in the end of the plug that came out of the port. I'm hoping a 009 o-ring will seal down in the bore below the threads. Taken together, perhaps the two fixes will stop the leak. Should know more tomorrow.

With the repair job under my belt, I returned to the front bumper adjustments. A few shims and gradual tightening of the mounting bolts has it fitting pretty nicely. Once that was done, I installed the headlights to top it all off. Still have a few things on my punch list, but I'm getting closer all the time. If the tranny deal works out, I'll only have lost a day or two. If not, I'll likely be down for a week or two. But since I'm on retirement hours it doesn't really matter.