The beast!

[needsaresto]

So today I got out of bed,loaded up on painkillers and a stimulant called alertec. I did it because I had a heavy day planned. I have been spending a couple hours here and there lately pre prepping my donor car for the engine pull.

I simplly cant do it all at once. I had it down to 2 tranny x member bolts,2 engine mount bolts,the throttle and cruise cables,and the alternator wiring.

So I headed up to my buddy Jims place to finish her off.

Heres the donor car. Its perched about 4 feet from the edge of a steep bank and on very rough and uneven round.

One thing I did for extra clearance was to cut out the rad support. Good thing too. It never would have come out otherwise.

We laid down a 1 1/4 layer of plywood and shimmed it up for good support

The hoist just reached!

Heres my buddies Jim and Mike. Cant thank them enough for helping out. Was THE most difficult engine pull I'd ever done,due to the tendancy for the hoist and motor to want to go down the bank..

Heres me.

After hours of screwing around and fighting she came out.

And home she goes in the back of Jims truck! Mine was full of parts and tools.

Here it is behind my son Nic and sitting on wood blocks beside the Dart. He thinks it's pretty cool!

And my lovely Daughter Olivia ,who is quite bored by cars,is very happy her Daddy came home.

I also picked up a set of aluminum rims today.They have a big bolt pattern and are a 14 inch rim. Not sure what they are but I liked them,so they came home. They remind me of weld wheels.Any idea what they are? Should work nicely for my big bolt conversion.

 

[memike]

You had a full day needsaresto:happy10: I am glad everything worked out :cheers: Your careful planing and help got the job dun :cheers:
I believe the wheels could be an American racing wheel :happy10: My little brother bought a set for his duster and they looked great.
I hope you have a good day tomorrow and take some time to relax a bit.
Proud to see you doing good brother :cheers: You have some beautiful children that I see love there daddy!

 

[needsaresto]

And heres the forged 440 crank I got from a BB Dart member on Saturday.

And the 440 LY rods from the same guy. Thanks Preston!!! He deserves a big good guy alert. Drove an hour to meet me in 34 celsius weather!

So thats it for now. Im aching everywhere inspite of the T3's.Saturday we drove to Grandforks and took the kids to the circus,plus met Preston to pick up the crank and rods. That crank is a heavy beast! The weather was hot and the AC was busted..

Today I spent pulling the 400 and 727. Jim and Mike did almost all the heavy work and Im very gratefull. Never could have done it by myself.

So those who are waiting for rims,my apologies! I had a very full weekend and am feeling every minute of it....

 

[needsaresto]

Thanks Mike! I apologize for the blurry pics. It's what happens when I get really tired and I cant control it.

Tommorow is being spent with the family at the aquatic center. They have a hottub and I'll be living in it,lol!!

 

[goldfish65]

Good to hear you're doing well :cheers:

 

[slantscamp]

holy crap man. you got alot done. i dont think i would have wanted to deal with that and im still a young guy. so did you guys just push the car over the edge when you were done with it? hehe. im glad to see you getting things done on the car and with the family. keep it up buddy.
-aaron-

 

[needsaresto]

holy crap man. you got alot done. i dont think i would have wanted to deal with that and im still a young guy. so did you guys just push the car over the edge when you were done with it? hehe. im glad to see you getting things done on the car and with the family. keep it up buddy.
-aaron-

WEll,you have to realize most of it was done over a stretch of a week,a few hours here and there by myself. The really big job was today and the actual grunt work was done by Mike and Jim.Every time I tried to do something really physical they were right there.

Thats not a bad plan,shoving that beast over the edge.

And Im just trying to keep up to you young bucks!

 

[slantscamp]

well you doing a fine job. maybe one day your kids can help you with the cars.

 

[needsaresto]

Yep,my boy is already really interested and a great intuitive helper who seems to just know what to do next. My girl just says ick,dirt! She has helped me pressure wash though,as she likes water and cleaning stuff,lol.

Im beat today and paying the price for what I did. Cant move any farther than this keyboard,lol and took a 3 hour nap earlier today.Hopefull Im better tommorow as I have a guy coming to build me a new shed out back. The metal one got killed by snow. I should take pictures,it's a good chuckle!

Them C bodies are tuff sonsabitches! The rad support was triple layers of metal in key areas and it took me the better part of an hour to sawzall it away.

Thanks for the supporrt though.Makes the price not so bad.And you keep it up too! I wanna see that thing on the road!

 

[slantscamp]

yeah. you should upload some more pictures. i wanna see a before and after of the sheds.

 

[clifftt]

A story you have for the ages....Good luck with the rest of your project.

 

[flyboy01]

Nice,

Looks like you are having the same plan as my engine, I ended up turning down my 440 crank to fit my 383 block, 400 rods, and Diamond pistions for a total of 432 CI.

 

[needsaresto]

Nice,

Looks like you are having the same plan as my engine, I ended up turning down my 440 crank to fit my 383 block, 400 rods, and Diamond pistions for a total of 432 CI.

Yup,pretty similar.It's a very cost effective engine build that reuses lots of stock stuff.Can make LOTS of power too. What heads did you use?

 

[needsaresto]

Well, I think I'll keep this thread going for a bit.

Today I threw the LY rods in the solvent tank for a soak.
I also picked up an oil pan at the greyhound station (THanks chrisf!!). Chris was good enough to glass bead the pan before shipping it to me. It looked good enough to paint when I got it,so here it is!

It's a stock 187 BB pan for my conversion. I was desperate to get a coat of paint on it before it rusted. Can after can turned up empty or dried out when I spied a little can of aluminum. It was already thinned for spraying,so the pan got 2 coats of aluminum paint.

I like it!

Those are the stainless brake pistons in the background.

Im also considering painting the inside,but I dont think theres much point. Everything that effects drainback I WILL paint or smooth.

 

[pauly v.100]

nice work. those rims are american's outlaw 2's

 

[needsaresto]

nice work. those rims are american's outlaw 2's

Thanks! THose american outlaws are VERY similar no doubt. THe only difference I can see between them and the rims I have are the outlaws have 12 holes and mine have 10. Could be just because mine are a 14" rim and thats all there's room for?

american's outlaw 2's

My rims are VERY similar

Im going to bang a few more dents from the pan and give it some more paint. Im not building a show car but everyone wants to look under the hood,so it has to look decent.

The rims will need to be recleared. Whats a good method for stripping the old clear without damaging the aluminum?

 

[slantscamp]

looks good. still want to see that shed. you will have to get those pictures up soon.

 

[needsaresto]

Hey Mods,if you dont mind please tranfer this thread to the members restorations section. I plan on posting progress pics to this post and it will likely belong over there anyways. I just want to do it this way to save reposting all those pics.

Pretty please with hi octane on top?

 

[memike]

I am so happy to see your progress and I bet that hottub felt real good, I have a small one here at home and it sure can help relax the mussels and give allot of relief to some old bones.
You are doing a great job and I see it is making you a happy camper.
I can send you a tripod if you like, i have three, and only use one, I need them to take pictures.
I hope you are having a great day needsaresto.

 

[needsaresto]

Thanks Mike.You are a true friend and I really wish we lived closer! It's nice to have someone other than the wife who knows what its like to feel as we do.

I think the wife has plans on getting a new cam,so I'll hold off on the tripod offer for now and will let you know,O.K?

Yesterday was horrible and I was real tired,so tired I wasnt even here except for a couple minutes,lol. HAD to get that in...

 

[needsaresto]

Well I went back today and parked beside the Newport.I looked and someone(young Mike) had pulled both axles,rear brakes for me without being asked.He is a fine upstanding guy,so I figure I'll buy him lunch and slide him a few bucks.He is in desperate need of a pickle fork so I'll get him one of those too.Super guy as is Jim.I'll grab him a new jug of hand cleaner as I've been using his every time Im there. Im sure he doesnt care,but I like to treat my friends good

The only thing left to do was pull the front right knuckle and brake and the driveshaft. That took 5 minutes to get the top ball loint. Then 2.5 hours to get the bottom...
So I ended up with complete c body brake system and knuckles minus the booster and master,plus the driveshaft and axles from the 9 1/4.I'm going to figure out if the c body brakes can be utilized on a dart. I have 10" A body drum spindles,4 piston caliper spindles for kelsey hays brakes A body,c body spindles and will have M body ones soon.The only thing I dont have is a b body spindle.I'll have to do some measuring..

I also was snooping under the hood of a demo car. Was a diplomat so I asked what year it was. They couldnt remember. I popped the hood and someone had already stripped the top end except for the heads. On a whim I pulled the rocker shaft and discovered 302 heads. Only had time to pull the passenger head as the inner fenders were punched in so far,I couldnt get the manifold off. I cut the exhaust studs and had enough wiggle room to pull the lower head bolts. I will go back and grab the other one soon.I'll give them a good cleaning and post them up for grabs here. Im also going to grab the front brakes and upper control arms from the dip. Might as well grab the rears too.

I felt absolutely great today! The only thing I should have done was bring the sawzall. Would have shortened the day up.
Im paying the price now so I took some heavy duty pain killers, but I still feel like I won a major victory today over my m.s.It's not every day I get to do this much so Im very happy right now.

Can the c body 9 1/4 axle be cut down and resplined for use in an 8 3/4?

 

[needsaresto]

Well both heads are home now and I already have a customer for them!! I got my butt in gear and gave them a very thorough degrease and grime removal. Thet are looking much better. It's on to phase two of the cleaning procedure...

I ended up buying young Mike a 190 pieces Candian Tire tool kit. They are great as every tool has its place so its real easy to do inventory at the end of the day.His lovely young girlfriend L.J whent halfers with me after I let her know what I was up too.

Mike is extatic as several years back someone broke into his garage and stole every tool he had. He has been garage saling to replace them,but most of them are crap. I've been there as I had my tools swiped when I was the same age. It's a horrible feeling,so I was glad to help especially after he pulled all those parts without being asked. He is a real good kid,but has a hard luck story. His father up and left the family when he was 10. He is now 19 and hasnt seen his Dad in 9 years. How in hell could someone abandon thier kids like that?

So Im taking him under my wing. Me and Jim feel he needs some guidance as does any young man.

I will hopefully have more pictures this weekend as Im headed to Kelowna to buy a fibreglass front end clip for my 70 Dart. It includes both fenders and the header panel/front valance and the hood. It's a lightweight race piece so I plan on modding it into a 1 piece tilt nose. Should stiffen it up considerably. Adding a layer of long strand fibreglass filler to the inside will also help.

I'll end up cutting the inner fenders out and going tube chassis in the engine bay. Suggestions here are greatly appreciated as I've never done this. I do have the mopar chassis book. Maybe theres something in there.

 

[Coyote Jack]

Sure looks like you are having lots of fun. Those wheels look exactly like a set my brother had on his Ford truck. I called and asked him and he said they had 10 holes and they were an option factory wheel.

Jack