finaly got something done..

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frederick_76 said:
Get a LED light bar, rechargeable if ya can.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice! Will look for one of those in the future,went to a hardwarestore and found a flat LED light with two electrics ports on the backside that i bought,it will do for now but will keep my eyes open for something better in the future,as we all know there is no such thing as to much light when working under or inside a car:)

Today i got the transcrossmember done with the second coat of paint. Also moved a few things around reorganising the shelves,and started rethinking the subframeconnectors may be a good thing i only got started on one side,not sure i want them thru the floor in the rear seat area anymore even thought i already cut the floor open on the passangerside o well we will see how im going forward with this.
 
As usual life gets in the way of getting things done but a few little things have been done atleast.
Getting stuck over and over trying to figure out how to cut out the rusted parts of the rockers right next to the spring mounts in a good way but i will figure it out,might be easier to cut out the rusted floor above that area to get a better view and reachto cut out that bad part of the rockers.
 
Oh and im sorry about the pics,i gave up on Photobucket and deleated that account,might set up something new elsewhere or just put pics on instagram instead,we will see.
 
Ooh great,thought i was going to get something little done today,went to the car and figured that removing som bad paint and surface rust from floorpans on the inside seemed like a good idea,and then cover whatever area i could get nice and clean with some primer and then go home having done something usefull.
As expected that plan failed and was not what happend in reality. it started with seeing some bubbles in the paint that didnt look right snf after some poking with a screwdriver i can now see the floor,the wrong floor,the garagefloor is not what i want to see from inside the car.

This might end up being to much to just patch up if i want it to look respectable in the future,so now i have some more descissions to make,we will see where this goes. Have taken a good look at AMD website and if i had lived in America i would have bought half their inventory by now, but things change alitle when parts this big has to be shipped this far its not the just the price to ship the parts that go up its also being taxed when importing the parts and also the risk of the parts being damaged in shiping(not worried about it usualy but big pieces of sheetmetal can easily be screwed up in transport).
 
Allrigt one step forward today,sent an email to see what kind of a price i will have to pay for a complete floor and both rocker panels insides and outsides,i suspect the shipping might be sort of expensive on those parts,worst case scenario i might just need to learn how to make the panels myself but i would sure be happy if i can afford those replacementpanels from AMD. I could realy use more new sheetmetal but those parts are what is most needed for now or atleast this winter/spring/whateveryearimgoingtogetthisthingontheroadagain.

The picture of where i want to go with this project is getting clearer and clearer for everyday that goes by and thats very positive.
 
Floorpan and rockerpanels are ordered now, realy wish i could have afforded the quarterpanels aswell but other things where more critical to spend money on.
Im more than just alitle excited right now :D

And now there is another mopar parked outside replacing a chevy.
 
Got the floorpan and full rockerpanels delivered,you cant even start to imagine how excited that made me :)
Sadly a few days later i learnt that i will probably need to find a new garage to have the car in,but no date set yet.
Major bummer and not sure where to go with this since its not that easy to find a good place,escpecialy at a reasonable price,wich i kind of important considering how i have planed to go in a different direction regarding employment.
Worst case scenario i may end up having to sell the car,even thought im not sure that is even possible with it in a thousand pieces.
damn it.
 
Ok long weekend ahead and supposedly going to be fair weather so i got some help from my fantastic girl to use the Durango to pull the Duster out of the garage,now with the Duster standing there in the sun those sweet lines makes me just want to get going to get her on the road again.
Todays project is to get the subframeconnectors done or atleast started,and hopefully go to buy some of those spotweld drillsbits for the next step.
Have thougt alot about what order to do things in,those rockerpanels sure seems alitle complicated to cut out, without giving myself a bunch more problems than i already have.
the plan so far is

1 make subframeconnectors.
2 cut out the outer 10 or so inches of the floorboard.
3 break inside of rocker loose by cutting and drilling out spowelds while trying to keep as much of outer rocker intact to have as a reference.
4install inside rocker.
5 cut out ouside rocker and screw up as little as possible of the quarterpanel infront of the wheelhous as possible(yeah i believe im goint to need to cut the lower part of the quarterpanel out to get to the spotwelds and will have to fab up some kind of replacement for that panel later since i could not afford that piece of reprometal at this time.)
6 install new outside rockerpanel.
7 repeat step 2-6 on the other side.
8 cut out rest of passanger compartment floorboard.
9 install new floorboard.
10 create new outside floorpanels over the leafspringmounts(i believe i will have to cut thouse out to get to the rockerpanels and thats fine,they are rusted out and have some hideus repairs done anyway.)

Hmm parts of this post should probably be posted in the bodysection of this forum for input from smarter /less dumb people to make sure im not going at this in a stupid way.

writing it like this makes it seem easy,i bet it will get worse when the plan crash headon into reality:D
 
Ok,weather was not so great but made the subframeconnectors and welded them in last weekend,its obvious that its a long time since i did any cuting and welding but i love doing it and the results look ok so far but good that they are under the car but got to say wow what a difference in bodystiffnes,even the empty bodyshell has a whole different sound to it when i shut the door,i cant even imagine how big the difference will be as a the rockers get replaced and the interior is back in the car,i bet this thing will handle alot better now.
Have a few pics on my phone and on instagram if i get some time over for it i will upload something here aswell:)

I will start on the new rockers tomorow or atleast cutting out the old ones after going to the hardware store again, have put some more thought into this and i think im going to buy some smaller 1"x1" or 3/4"x3/4"square tubing to add as reinforcement to make sure nothing especiealy near the dooropening start moving and to help using as reference to make sure i get everything back right again when i start cutting and welding,im alitle nervous about this but i believe a few temporary installed reinforcments will be good if not for the result so atleast it will make me feel alitle more comfortable,doing so may also make it possible to cut out more at once and make it alitle easier,we will see.
 
Sweet! im finding more rust again,o well not that i didnt count on it happeing,just not happy about where i found it,in the bottom of the panel behind the door on the inside. o well i have plenty of weldingwire and its in a spot noone will ever see again,just anoying since its a part i like to have done rigth since it also locates those rockerpanels.

Also noticed that my plan is failing spectacularly,since i will have to cut out both the inside and outside rockers at the same time due to how they are fixed to the rest of the car. Im taking alot of time trying to not do something stupid and all i seem to be learning is that i should just go ahead and cut more out and show alot less restraint

Atleast im learning things as i go and thats just fine:) tomorrow im getting some hopefully better spotweldcutting drills the somewhat cheap ones i have used dont seem to last long at all.
 
A couple pics of the subframeconnectors and the dooropening with its suports,may do a bar between the supports aswell.

IMG_20180430_153402.jpg


IMG_20180501_181420.jpg


IMG_20180505_151923.jpg
 
Its amazing how much time it takes to cut out bad sheetmetal while trying to screw up as little as possible of the still acceptable metal Next step is to produce a couple new pices for the rotted leafspringsuport if i can just break it loose from the boogerweldrustedpilup better known as the driver side inside rockerpanel since its probaly nice to have it inplace before the new rocker goes in.

Just a few more welds to cut out now before that rockerpanel can be taken of the car,unless i have misscalculated something more. On the other side i will probly go after it a whole lot more aggresive while cutting things out to save a bunch of time and effort. this was much more work than i thought,.

IMG_20180511_173432.jpg
 
Will probably end up having to take a few more days of from this project,ran an OCR event today and my hands will probably not work very well for a couple days,this sucks since im realy motivated right now.
 
Waiting for my body to create some more skin on the hands before i get back to work on this,hopefully this weekend:)
 
Other things got in the way last weekend but will go after it again this weekend.
Started thinking about what to do with that 340 for the car,since i have a bunch of parts that are kind of a missmatch but realy only missing pistons to get create a running engine,even thought it would be a far from goodrunning engine and all this talk about strokers are getting to me alitle,we will see where this goes.
 
Not much happening,got vacation and had planed on getting a bunch of cutting and welding done,but its to hot and dry outside and cant risk starting a fire and burning down the house out of respect for my neigbhours. O well will get this done any year now unless i run into some shop that will get this done for a reasonable amount of money and in a good amount of time but i would hate to not do it myself even if im certainly not good at sheetmetal replacement.
 
Just doing the regular benchracing with my self and trying to figure out the direction i want to take with the car.Been of the road for way to long and cant get the things i need to do done due to weather so im stuck thinking of what to do for an engine once the rustrepairs are done.
Got a 340 with fresh .030 over bores,ported Edelbrock rpm 340 heads,some old ported J-heads a couple stock forged cranks,Eagle H-Beam rods,stock 340 rods,a edelbrock tunnelram,a few different carbs including a E85dominator, Airgap intakemanifold, a billet intakemaniold that needs a few more odds and ends, a lysholm 3.3L twinscrew,a dead 904 transmission with a fresh custom 3500rpm converter, some 1 7/8" TTI smallblock headers and Hooker 1 3/4"supercomps. XR280R cam. Old Crane gold rockers...Two sets of solid roller lifters.

Its a bunch of parts that could result in a variety of things but in need of new pistons with balancing and possibly a bunch of milling on the heads if it stays NA and stock stroke,it needs a new oilpan,it could realy use all new studs or atleast bolts since they have been stretched countless times and who knows how long those ancient rockers wants to stay alive.
Or it could be turned into a stroker for not much more money,but at that point: do i keep my H-beams and get a forged crank and pistons or take the easy way out and get a a complete forged piston/castcrank Scat kit do i go with the dishpistons and alitle to low compression unless milling the heads or the flattops that will put me on the edge of pumpgascompression with the cam i have?
Oh it needs a flexplate to.
And the usual suspected endless amount of other small odds and ends.
Also that broken half bolthole on the rear of the block do i just ignore it again and just run a big washer or do i create a new corner with some chemical metal?
Or do i go retard as was originaly planed all those years ago and put that twinscrew on that poor 340? Or do i go absolute full retard and put that screw ontop of that poor 340 with a stroker crank aswell?
Or will i just sell that 340 to someone who realy wants a 340 for it being a 340 and start selling of smallblock parts and start looking for a 5.7Hemi or do i start to look for a bigblock?
Ok this ended up a long post with just some of the options of what goes thru my head regarding what to do with the engine part of my build since i cant get the things i want to do done and that means im stuck benchracing..


All these thoughts... we will see where this goes.
 
Man, unless you start out with a solid goal for the power plant, this kinda thing plagues many a build, I’ve been there and still going through it with my Mustang. If you decide to sell the 340 and you’re not too far from Texas (hmmm! Lol!)
 
txstang84 said:
Man, unless you start out with a solid goal for the power plant, this kinda thing plagues many a build, I’ve been there and still going through it with my Mustang. If you decide to sell the 340 and you’re not too far from Texas (hmmm! Lol!)
Click to expand...

We will see where the engineplans goes,its probably just a case of overthinking things since i have to much time for it so to speak.
I know a stroker is probably the smartest way to go since the engine will be much nicer running for very little extra money,but it also feels alitle wasted since i have two forged 340 cranks that are nice and strong but not all that valuable anyway.
That twinscrew would be ooh so cool and was my dream when i started on this jurney but i know where that would end,it would end with that screw pushing 15PSI into a stockblock that will be destroyed in short order unless it just ends upp destroying all kinds of drivelineparts if it ever hooks and thats just going to push the expirationdate forward alitle on the block and i dont realy like the thought of destroying another 340,they are not all that comon as we all know.
Whenever i get done with the rustrepairs that needs to be done im sure something will be built in short order to power the thing down the road.

Im quite far from texas unless you ignore that fairly substantial puddle of water known as the Atlantic ocean ;)

I also have some thinking to do regarding the steering,if im going to bother trying to make the powersteering happy with somewhat high rpm or just drop it all togheter and go manual.
It would be nice getting alot less play in the steeringwheel.
I know that there is a leak in the PS system somewhere that i cant find for obvious reasons at present but it did use some fluid last it ran.
The pump has quite alot of back and forth play in it for some reason.
The brackets dont realy like the mix of frontcover/fluiddamper/waterpump/crankpulley arrangement this thing has,that would also be nice to sort out.
Have looked more than once at the Borgesen box and that seems to be a nice option if i can afford one over some time.
 
I realise that since i took down the photobucket account this thread became very anonymous, so im just putting up an older pic now to give a little visual of the apperance of the car.
Since im not getting anywhere and my garagespace situation is derailing im presently sending out questions to bodyshops,lets hope i can afford this.

plyman.jpg
 
Allright i got alitle something done today,seems hard to be able to find a shop that wants to do do the floor and rockers but i will get there at some point.

So today i took some time looking over some engine parts,CCd the heads or in reality measured the chambers that had the best exhaust valveseats and found them to be 70cc. didnt bother to measure the chambers with sunk valves, picked one of the worse exhaustvalves and tried to get it out,didnt want to let go of the locks and keepers but could tell with both springs on that valve compressed that doing something about the guides is going to be needed. didnt even bother to measure how much the valves move around.
Noticed a variance of about 0.050" in valveseat height by measuring the height difference betwen intake and exhaustvalve in each chamber.
I will most certainly try to find a replacement for those heads.

Also put some time into starting to check the deckheights before deciding on pistons and or rotating assembly
#1 piston is 0.63mm (0.025") over the deck.This is an expected height.
#2 may be 0.365mm (0.014") over the deck but i was in a rush and something did not seem right about how the dial ran over the face,so i will go back and remeasure tomorow,im guessing i might have failed to tighten up one of the links.
Will then measure #7 and 8# aswell.
Decks should be square but not necesarily equal side to side this is due to me being an idiot when i had the block decked but hoping they are equal.

When im done measuring pistons over the deck i will take those pistons out of the block and measure the pistons aswell,tolerances may stack up here, i hope the decks are both a usable equal height and ready for some of the shelf pistons but we will see,no dissaster if they are not i will just become a better friend with the machineshop.
 
Went back for some more measuring today.
This is getting intresting,i think there will be an insane amount of measuring and headscratching before im done with this,and thats measuring stuff that will go into the dumpster later.

Measurements over the deck.
Remeasured #1piston and the measurement from yesterday repeated nicely.

#1 piston is 0.63mm over the deck and measures 34.29mm from top of pinhole to top of piston. Pinhole is 25.00mm
#2 piston is 0.86mm over the deck
#6 piston is 0.42mm over the deck
#7 piston is 0.61mm over the deck
#8 piston is 0.80mm over the deck

The math works out to
#1piston having a compresion height of 1.842" and deckheight 9.595"
If my math works out right.

Seems bad? sure does,but reorganizing the numbers into left and right bank,it makes more sence.

Left bank
#1 piston is 0.63mm over the deck and measures 34.29mm from top of pinhole to top of piston. Pinhole is 25.00mm
#7 piston is 0.61mm over the deck

Right bank
#2 piston is 0.86mm over the deck
#6 piston is 0.42mm over the deck
#8 piston is 0.80mm over the deck

All of a sudden there is one piston that sticks out as an anomaly and thats #6,the deckheights being of left to right is expected on this engine.
Oh and that number #2 piston has had a date with foreign objects in the past atleast once.



Also need to be aware that this engine as is was put togheter from the remains of another broken engine,a broken engine that i had alot of reasons to suspect was the remains of atleast two blown up engines this is why im measuring everything to figure out how much machining i may need to do to this block to make it usable again with new pistons and or a whole rotating assembly.
Will fill in more numbers as i go on with this project,things are taking there time.

For reference
0.42 millimeters =0.0165inches
0.86 millimeters =0.0338 inches
34.29 millimeters =1.35 inches
25 millimeters =0.984 inches
 
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Garagespacesituation has been corrected,ended up buying a house with my significantly better half,not a good place to weld unfortionaly,however i did also find a good bodyshop run by an American owner who is presently replacing the floor and rockerpanels.
Very refreshing to see the the progress as he does the job and his attention to getting stuff done right!
 
Got the car back and now its in a whole lot less terrible shape.
Also on the second attempt i managed to find almost the kind of right shade of white paint to cover the new sheetmetal with, ooh and i rediscovered what a terribe painter i am but i couldnt care less.
i also redid the 20 year old bondodisaster behind the rearwheels with a new bondodisaster even thougt im terrible at that also. that sheetmetal will be taken care of correctly later.
 
got started on some radiatormounts,i have a long way to go.
 
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