It's been awhile..

It's been a while since I really posted much, I'm one of the old members from the first FABO page. Some of you may remember me.

Thought I'd post what I've been working on..

I still have my '70 Dart Custom, I hit a deer with it last year and have since had the grill restored, the front end straightened out, and I have gone through the 340.

My '67 Barracuda, I pulled the 906 heads and installed 915 on the 383, what a difference!

I pulled the flathead in my '49 Fargo and installed a 1968 225 slant 6, and a 4 speed. It's running, but having some trouble with the 4 speed. May install a 904 for now to get it driving while I sort out the 4 speed. I also installed a Scarebird front disc setup.

My '65 Valiant 100 came home with a 170 slant 6 & 3 on the tree, but it was totally worn out, and I had a '71 318 with Magnum heads/intake already installed, so in that went with a ball & trunion 833. I enjoyed it, but the 318 has a BAD oil leak, and is burning oil under load. It was sort of a mystery engine. I have a low mileage '69 318 with fresh heads and 4 bbl intake, I may swap that in.

I pulled the seized Poly out of my '63 W300 Power Wagon, installed a '72 forged crank 440.

I have since sold my '68 Polara wagon, the new owner drove it back to Manitoba about a week ago.

And I drug home a '58 Plymouth Suburban 2 door wagon, a '57 Dodge Suburban 2 door wagon for parts, and a '56 DeSoto Firedome with 330 Hemi. I have already installed the '57 Custom Royal front clip on the Plymouth, and the plan is to install the 330 Hemi. I'm not planning on restoring the car, I don't have enough lifetime left to restore all these, I'd rather just wrench on them and enjoy them as is, shiny or not.

Couple more..

And non Mopar related... The brown body on my '75 F250 4x4 rotted out pretty bad... this pic is old, before it fell apart. I originally picked up this green F250 2wd for parts, but decided it was best to just swap the whole body. So now the 4x4 is back together, just green this time.

Oh... and in my free time, aside from work and life.. I restored a guy's '67 Barracuda fastback...

I would dare say that you have been kind of BUSY.

Your on a roll, don't stop now. haha. Its hard to stop doing what you love doing. I'm totally jealous of the suburban project.

welcome back

Holly crap you have been busy Mike, Colton told me you were having issues with your clutch, are you still using the oem pedals that go down? If so that is a challenge for sure, I ended up putting my 56 on a 81 frame then used a pedal box from a b van and hydraulic slave and master from a s10, she ain't on the road yet, close, but I think it'll work, good luck, hopefully you can " stick" with the STICK, so much more fun than a boring auto.

mopar56 said:

Holly crap you have been busy Mike, Colton told me you were having issues with your clutch, are you still using the oem pedals that go down? If so that is a challenge for sure, I ended up putting my 56 on a 81 frame then used a pedal box from a b van and hydraulic slave and master from a s10, she ain't on the road yet, close, but I think it'll work, good luck, hopefully you can " stick" with the STICK, so much more fun than a boring auto.

Click to expand...

I chose to keep the original pedals because I don't like the look of modern pedals in an old truck. I fabbed up everything underneath as it's sitting on its original frame, to put the brake and clutch master under there, the pedals aren't the issue. The issue is, I used a bellhousing and NP435 from a '66 Dodge W200, and that bell uses a hydraulic clutch only, the clutch fork enters passenger side. After 3 bad master cylinders, I finally was able to bleed the slave. Since nobody seems to make a 10 spline clutch for a '58 - 68 Dodge truck anymore, I had to go with a Ford clutch. I used a diaphragm since I'm not running an over center spring. I had to redrill the Ford pressure plate for the Dodge pattern. All was good, the clutch opens all the way. Engine running, press clutch, trans grinds no matter what gear you try to put it in. Climb underneath while wife is pressing clutch all the way down, visually see the clutch opening all the way, input shaft is NOT spinning, trans is grinding bad. Sigh...... My plan for now is to put the auto in it, and figure out the 4 speed later. I have had this truck almost 15 years... I'd really like to get it on the road soon. I don't need the satisfaction of a stick, I have a stick in my '75 F250 4x4, as well as my '63 W300, and my '65 Valiant, and my '67 Barracuda...

Ok well definitely unique I didn't realize there was a set up that existed the passenger side, like you said maybe an auto for now, too bad, and dont feel bad I'm just getting my 56 on the road after 28 years, I updated my registration last week and bought some storage insurance and the girl laughed she said she wasn't even born when I first registered it in 93, ...made me feel old lol

mopar56 said:

Ok well definitely unique I didn't realize there was a set up that existed the passenger side, like you said maybe an auto for now, too bad, and dont feel bad I'm just getting my 56 on the road after 28 years, I updated my registration last week and bought some storage insurance and the girl laughed she said she wasn't even born when I first registered it in 93, ...made me feel old lol

Click to expand...

Glad you're getting on it! When I transferred the '58 wagon into my name, the transfer papers I had were filled out in 1972!! The ladies wanted to hang it on the wall as a historical piece, as they hadn't ever seen one that old. LOL, I said I didn't care what they did with it, so long as they put the car in my name.

Yep, I'm thinking if I do a 4 speed, I will use an aluminum bell and probably an 833.