Hey, Is That a Car in Your Garage?

Wow! It's starting to look like a real car instead of a transformer (for those of you who aren't up on kid's toys, a transformer is a toy car that transforms into a robot). The body is on, but before any of you get too excited, I'm not anywhere near being finished. I'm hoping to be finished around Thanksgiving (actually, I have no idea).

I had to put the body on to help with another step -- making the aluminum panels that will form the engine bay and the cockpit.  Some of them have to be fit to the body and so, here we are.  For example, here is a picture of the panels that surround the radiator.

These panels are particularly important because they will force air through the radiator rather than allowing it to escape around the sides.

So far, I've made about 20 panels and I hope to get them all done this weekend so I can bring them to get painted on Monday.  For those of you who have followed for awhile, here is an older picture of the area that will form the passenger foot area (the white cardboard pieces).

The process has been the same for all the panels -- make a template, trace it to sheet metal, cut it out, and bend it into shape.  Here are some pictures of the piece that forms the top of the passenger footbox.

I also made the metal bending tool (it's actually called a brake but I don't know why).

The panels will typically be rivets together.  Last weekend we had Laurie's mother and sister visiting.  Susu wanted to help me so I showed her how to rivet.  Before you knew it, it was like Tom Sawyer whitewashing the fence and everyone wanted to do it.

(I know it's a nice-looking workshop, but they were all in the kitchen so I brought the work to them.)

If you saw the previous post, I had two videos -- one of me being pushed around the driveway go-kart style and the other of the engine running.  Now my goal is to put them together and have the engine push the go-kart.  In order to do that, I still need brakes and a clutch.  Well, the clutch is done.

The top picture shows the slave cylinder mounted to a bracket I made.  The bottom photo shows it installed on the transmission.

I've been working on the brakes too.  I need to form brake lines that will connect each of the four brakes to the master cylinder that's operated by the brake pedal.  Here's what one of them looks like.

This piece snakes around the front to connect to two front brakes together.  Here it is installed.

Here's another small piece that I formed.

I've got the back lines done too.  After I get the aluminum panels back from the painter, I can install them and then mount the master cylinder to connect everything together.

I almost forgot that I'll need to have the stickshift mounted.  Fortunately, I found another helper for that.

He's ready for his first ride.

I also needed some helpers to get the body on.  Thanks to Ben and Rob for their help.

I must say that the engine likes its new home.

Of course, not everything goes smoothly.  Here is my current problem.  The exhaust pipes on the driver's side (ie, the headers) don't line up with the cutout on the body.

It's supposed to look like this

And no, I'm not going to just cut the body to make it fit!  Maybe the solution will come to me soon.  I think I'll sleep on it.

It's Been a Month, Has Anything Happened?

You'll have to read the entire post to get the answer.  When I last left off, I had built the engine and hoped to have it in the car for the first start on June 21.  Here's what happened.

When my brother and has family came to visit, he and his son wanted to work on the car.  I had them finish the steering and mount the tires on the chassis.  Since the car is officially a "roller" we decided to give it a try.  Check it out.

The ride was comfortable and quiet (except for the huffing a puffing coming from somewhere behind me).  But getting pushed by teenagers just won't do, I need a real engine!

Before installing the engine, I temporarily mounted some of the gauges so I'll be able to monitor what's happening as I try to start the engine.

How fitting to get to install the engine on Father's Day with the help of my father and brother.  We started by moving the engine off the rotating stand and onto a fixed stand so we can mount the clutch and transmission.

Here, my brother and I are wrapping up the transmission installation.

The engine sees daylight.  I had to remove a bunch of components that were in the way (carburetor, alternator, valve covers, exhaust headers, and various water fittings).

Up and over the front of the chassis.

It actually went in quickly.  No problems.

Well, the motor mounts didn't quite line up, but after making a few faces, Tom got them tightened down.

I'm getting the transmission mount in place before we remove the engine hoist.

A good day's work and a Father's Day I'll never forget!

There was a lot to do before the engine would be ready to turn-over.  I had to reinstall all the components that had been removed.  Here I'm priming the oil pump.

We got good oil flow from all the pushrods, just like the book says.

Then I had to figure out the wiring.  Should be easy for an electrical engineer and it would have been if I had a wiring diagram (no such luck).

This wiring is just temporary anyway.  I installed switches for main power, the fuel pump, the fan and the starter.  Then I wired the gauges.  I probably should have wired in some fuses, but I was on a tight schedule.

Well, I didn't have everything ready on June 21, but by June 25 I rolled it out of the garage, put fuel in the tank for the first time and got ready to hit that start button.  Here it is ready to go!

And now the moment you've been waiting for!  I bought this engine block on eBay a year ago and I've gotten it to this point.  With my family around to watch and my heartbeat thumping in my ears, it was time!  Roll the video!

I can't say it ran perfectly, but it did run.  I'm checking things over and doing some tuning to get it running just right.  I guess I'm a little surprised it started, but failure was not an option.

I feel like I've crossed over a major milestone and now I want to get the car moving under the power of that engine.  I guess I'll need to finish those brake lines first.

Even I'm Impressed

Okay, it's been awhile.  Is anyone still our there?  Let me get right to it and a picture is worth a thousand words.

Yes, deep inside there is that same engine block I showed in the last post.  Quite a transformation!  I have a (nearly) completed engine and it was a blast to build.  I'm even fairly confident it will start.

Of course, there's still a lot to do before I hit the start button, but I'm shooting for June 21 as the official first start.  I'll have family in town and any of my followers are also welcome to attend (bring your own fire extinguisher).

There's so much I could get into, but I think I'll just show some pictures.

Piston and connecting rod

Testing sidewall clearance

Modeling clay used to check valve clearance

Installing pistons

Ben and his friend installing pistons

My brother supervising

Oil pump and pickup

Oil pan

Timing cover and water pump

Harmonic balancer

Rocker arms and intake manifold

Now I have this amazing engine sitting on a stand.  I've got to get it in the car.  That means getting the transmission and clutch attached to the the engine, prepping the chassis for the engine and then lowering it into place.  It should be interesting to have a 700 lb. engine swinging around on a chain as I try to lower it into the engine compartment, but that's for another day.