fabrication

mygasser said
i've been here a while now and read a lot of threads about fitting a big block (b or rb) to an 'a' body. there's lots of great advice and suggested vendors for swap parts. it's occurred to me it's rare now for anyone to make their own parts, be it mounts, headers or whatever. does nobody either want to or are able to do this stuff any more? i've put a 440 into a 65 dart and a 383 into a 68 valiant and the closest i got to 'bought' swap parts were used schumaker headers for the latter (i was going to make fenderells like the 65 dart but was offered the schumakers cheap). everything else i made myself. lots of people say mounts aren't available any more, but sheet steel is everywhere and most guys can use a tape, a hacksaw or a grinder, a drill and a welder. card templates are easy to make even if you can't weld so a local welder can make them up for you. sorry to go on but we all seem to be getting lazy, like if you can't 'buy' a part it's not possible to do that any more. is it just me?
neil.

I'm slowly getting parts together to make my own kit to put a 400 in my 64 Valiant. I'll probably be doing the initial fitting over the winter and have it back runnin and drivin with the slant 6 again before the weather warms back up. I am choosing to do it that way because first, it's my car and I'm doing it how I want and secondly, I don't want it off the road very long. When I get to the point that the big block swap will happen permanently (and it may not) I want to be able to do it in less than a week so the car will be back on the road quickly.

We're having so much fun with the car now, I'm not convinced a big block is the way to go, but I'm going to at least do the initial fit work "just to see" what it takes to make it happen.