67/68/69 cuda dilemma

[mosleyme]

So as we peeled open more of the "rotten onion" we found this massive butchered hole above the radio cutout. I have no earthly idea why this was done, but it appears to have been purposely hacked in there.

View attachment 1716409763

looks like someone was adding an opening for a double DIN stereo head unit.

 

[moparmat2000]

Junkyard brake and clutch pedals disassembled, sandblasted, repainted, and reassembled with new bushings, rubber pedal pads, and greased with aeroshell 22 all temperature synthetic grease. They are back in the truck

 

[4spdragtop]

Beautiful!

 

[moparmat2000]

Correct junkyard manual shift column with ignition key interlock. This thing fought us on disassembly. The bearings were "crunchy" we cleaned them up with lacquer thinner and some compressed air. Repacked them with Aeroshell 22. Had to carefully drill out the old lock cylinder. No keys.

Now it's got a new lock cylinder, new ignition electrical switch, new turn signal switch, and I had an old grant 15" wheel I tossed in, he just had to buy the adaptor kit. Lock cylinder unlocks and locks nice and smooth.

Sometime this week, I'm going to mask off everything, scuff and spray the column with a nice matte black finish. It will sit where it's at for the next 2 weeks, and then we will install it back in the truck.

 

[moparmat2000]

It's getting a new gas tank and sending unit specced for a carbureted 84 model, plus an Edelbrock Inline low pressure pump for the carburetor. Lookit all the rust lol.

 

[nutz]

Yuk

 

[moparmat2000]

Ok, I took a day off work today to do some engine work on the 318. We got rings on, checked side gap, got the bearings scuffed with gray scotchbrite, and installed. Will install them later today. But I aim to have all 8 in by tonight. Hell they should be, since the hard work is done. I could not find a ring clocking sequence in my factory service manual from 1975, so I went with the one I found off google. It makes the most sense to me as the ring gaps are 180° apart from one another.

 

[nutz]

I set the first gap away from exhaust valve

 

[moparmat2000]

Done

 

[4spdragtop]

Beautifully meticulous!

 

[moparmat2000]

Beautifully meticulous!

Thanks Steve. I cant wait to hear this thing run. Lookit them KB167s. I have some 64cc heads to go with this along with my melling 68 340 cam. This should be a pretty mean 318.

 

[4spdragtop]

Yeah a beautiful rowdy looking piece of jewelry. Nice work!

Thanks Steve. I cant wait to hear this thing run. Lookit them KB167s. I have some 64cc heads to go with this along with my melling 68 340 cam. This should be a pretty mean 318.

 

[moparmat2000]

Yeah a beautiful rowdy looking piece of jewelry. Nice work!

I wonder how much HP it will be at the crank.

 

[4spdragtop]

What heads?

I wonder how much HP it will be at the crank.

 

[nutz]

makes me think about hot rodding my 273...

 

[moparmat2000]

Workbench is back to somewhat normal. I may wheel my 360 block over to the workbench on the other engine stand, gun brush it, and stick the stroker crank in it that's been sitting in the box on my workbench for the last probably 8-9 years or so. I got all the parts for that narrowed Ford Explorer 8.8 on the left side of my bench. I may need to get that back together soon as well. I'm kinda liking that open bench space.

 

[nutz]

radio is cool

 

[moparmat2000]

radio is cool

Thanks. It's a Crosley repop with aux and CD player that my wife got me. She must know I'm an old soul. I like old cars, old airplanes, and steam engines.

 

[nutz]

and trains ....i have ho....that i need to retire to play with

 

[moparmat2000]

I may take a wee bit of a break, and tinker on some model trains. I have a G scale C&S box car kit by roundhouse models I need to put together, and add some finishing details on the Rio Grande box car

 

[moparmat2000]

and trains ....i have ho....that i need to retire to play with

I used to have HO, and N. But I really love the size of G scale, so that's what I have now.

 

[nutz]

Yeah you just need soooo much room
I might have to go to o just so I can see them

 

[moparmat2000]

Beautifully meticulous!

Just thinking about that this morning. It must be the aircraft mechanic in me. I am extremely fussy and picky about how something is at work. It has to be 100% right before I stop with it. Dittos for at home. Wife watched me install a pair of these pistons the other day when I assembled this. She said I made it look easy, and that she loves seeing me do work like this.

 

[moparmat2000]

This is a public service announcement for anybody buying a 68-69 A-B body Goodmark standard steering wheel. I had an aftermarket grant wheel on my 67s steering column. Well I gave it away to the young buck who works for me for that old F150 we are fixing up.

The Goodmark wheel, the spring wire for the turn signal canceling cam stuck out too far in 2 directions. I ended up cutting it flush, then taking a small drum rotary file and grinding it down to the dimension that the nub on the Grant adaptor is. You can see how far out it was with the ruler pix. Thankfully I had enough material to work with. This could have broken the turn signal switch.

It cancels nicely now with a very light click. there is enough metal left on the wire nub, that I dont worry about it breaking off since it only pushes a piece of plastic. It is kind of sucky that an aftermarket part like a steering wheel can be like this requiring me to play engineer to make it right. What should have been a 10 minute job took me 2 hours to figure out, and correct. If I had the original beat to crap wheel, I would have just used its wire spring on this wheel.

 

[moparmat2000]

Son and I are doing a road trip. First motel we stopped at, they were full. No vacancy. So we go across the way to the Best Western. We end up with this room. See pix below. What are the odds lol