[superdutybob]

Leigh:

Can I give you a small piece of advice? It will help your cooling immensely if you shroud the entire surface of the radiator. Your shroud leaves several square inches of fin area that will not get air drawn through them, rendering the entire system less effective than if all of the surface area was put to use.

Love the car by the way! I would love to put together your kind of car and not have to worry about the whole numbers matching thing! Keep up the great work!

[bird72]

Originally Posted by Baba O'Riley

This is one of the best of these kind of threads I've seen, given the challenges you have getting parts and the amazing ways you improvise.

I agree, I dig the make it work how I want approach. And great craftsmanship. The hard to get parts thing is an excuse, he is obviously a tinkerer. I think the NOS crowd here has not jumped him because of well done as said, and for some reason people are very polite to Australians. And after Mad Max, when they get creative and make a non-stock vehicle that looks half normal, it is like hurrah!

[Formulabruce]

Originally Posted by superdutybob

Leigh:

Can I give you a small piece of advice? It will help your cooling immensely if you shroud the entire surface of the radiator. Your shroud leaves several square inches of fin area that will not get air drawn through them, rendering the entire system less effective than if all of the surface area was put to use.

Love the car by the way! I would love to put together your kind of car and not have to worry about the whole numbers matching thing! Keep up the great work!

X2 !!

[LeighP]

I agree, the pics you've seen only tell half the story....the sides of the shroud, being made up at the moment, turn and go out to the edge of the radiator and right in close to the tank. Every effort will be made to ensure I minimise leakage of air around the core.....I want all cooling air to run through the core. The fan pack is offset for clearance reasons on the steering box....but the sealed shroud should mean the whole core is cooling.

Trans is a TH350 with Trans Go kit, all the best frictions etc, 36 element sprag and steel drums etc. 2000-2200 stall converter, built tight for regular driving but will flash to it's stall under full throttle use. I should be picking up the trans next week from the shop.

Thanks very much for the suggestions, guys....extra sets of eyes sometimes see the obvious things that get missed.

[LeighP]

Finally talked to the machine shop.....I'm going to drop everything off next week for the machine work.
Had some spare time this morning so I removed all the casting flash from the lifter valley area and smoothied it out....people tell me thats a recommended thing to do and it doesn't take long. Better now before the block gets tanked and cleaned.




Spent some time late last night (am - couldn't sleep) going through the workshop manual, good reading for explaining the interior of the engine. I recalled that you can screw up and get the pistons put on the wrong way as they have off-set pins.....so I just wanted to refresh my memory on that.
Rods get fitted so the tangs on the bearings face the cam.

[shakerz]

Leigh, when you get time, pm me how you tested your fuel tank sending unit back in the day. Very impressive progress, btw.

tia,

steve

[LeighP]

PM'd you.

Dropped off the engine at the machine shop today, it was going straight into the tank, then off for a line bore for the new 4 bolt caps. Talked to the guys there, who have a really good rep and been doing this stuff a LONG time, lol...they were well aware of the requirements for Pontiacs...and didn't mind me trying to teach them how to suck eggs, lol.
Should have it back in a couple of weeks.
Talked to the trans shop today as well, the box is done, they're just waiting on the new converter...should be in tomorrow...wahoo!

[LeighP]

Picked this up today.....



2200 stall, all the good gear, Lokar kick down cable, deep alloy pan and filter etc, steel drums, 36 element sprag......ready for when the engine is assembled. 8)

[LeighP]

Just picked these up from the coaters this afternoon....a set of unused Tri-Y headers I bought off Larry Navarro...had them ceramic coated. Nice!

[LeighP]

Took quite a while to actually get my new PTFB adjustable front and rear sway bars. Picked them up yesterday, got them fitted this afternoon.

Rear bar (7/8") went on easy enough, though a couple of adjustments were required. I'm using the PTFB heavy duty U bolts on the rear axle, they're 1/2" diameter, not 7/16" like the factory. I had to file out the mounting holes for the end fittings that go on the bottom of the spring perch plate.
Also had to trim the fixed bushes on those end brackets a little....every car is probably a little different and there was no way the bar was going to fit between the two end brackets as they came....so out came the trusty 4" angle grinder with thin cutting blade...cleanly trimmed down 3/16" off each and it fits fine. I've got it set to the middle of the three adjustment positions.
Note the end bolts that locate the bar to bracket....do not overtighten these. I coated everything with antisieze and just nipped them up as something's got to twist when that bar is moving around and you don't want to clamp the bar tight to the bushing.

[LeighP]

Front bar is a little more time consuming to fit, just playing around with the end links. Its an 1&1/4" diameter bar with adjustable clamp and turnbuckle style links.
I measured up the original front bar to determine the length of the torque arm on the factory bar and set my new links at that. After its on the road, I'll try sliding the clamps forward to tighten the bar up and see how that feels.

[LeighP]

Still waiting on the engine to come back...... :roll:

Been doing little things when I get a few minutes, latest is to build up the tail light units. Bought new seal, new chrome diecast frames and new lenses.
Around here, we're supposed to run amber turn signal sections in our lights. Luckily, a guy in the next suburb to mine has a business making rare tail lamp lenses and such stuff. He's making very nice amber sections for 70-73, 74-78 and 79-81 lights.....so I bought a set and he fitted them to my new lenses.

I made up a divider for the outer lamp section of the light to separate the brake/tail lamp area from the turn signal area, painted the housing inside (white gloss) and outside (aluminium) and them made up some new studs for the diecast cover.....all went together nicely.

[Tazzz2]

Very cool Leigh,,, the build is look awesome pal congratulations on your progress buddy...

[LeighP]

Too slow.....darned engine is holding me up....and I'm still waiting to sell my old house, so I can fund the body and paint....lol.

[LeighP]

Good day today....went and picked up my new Honeycomb wheels from my importer, then headed down and had the tyres fitted and balanced.
They look really cool. Not the lightest wheels and tyres I've ever seen, though.





17" x 9" - zero offset with 255/50ZR17 Nitto Invo tyres.
Guess I'm the first one in Australia with these new Year One wheels....cool stuff. Pity it'll be a while before the car is done....

[Tazzz2]

I hear you Leigh as it's very design makes it so strong it's a joke,,, but it also makes for a Hell of a lot of weight too.....

[shakerz]

Lovin the progress. Those new lamps are gonna look sweet against your exterior paint.

[LeighP]

Thanks...call from the machine shop yesterday...engine is finished, going to pick it up on thursday. Yippee!!!!!

[LeighP]

Picked up the engine...its on the stand in my friend's workshop and we're going to start the mock up test build shortly...just to check all the clearances.

Well, the guy who was welding up the pieces of my new radiator shroud finally finished it off. Picked it up this morning and finished off fitting the fan pack and checking it all fits with the radiator in etc and in the car.
Works pretty well, the fan pack bolts on its factory mounting points, just had to trim a couple of little pieces of plastic here and there...fits nicely.
When finished, the radiator and shroud will all be painted satin black as is the rest of the engine bay.

[Rack776]

Originally Posted by LeighP

Still waiting on the engine to come back...... :roll:

Been doing little things when I get a few minutes, latest is to build up the tail light units. Bought new seal, new chrome diecast frames and new lenses.
Around here, we're supposed to run amber turn signal sections in our lights. Luckily, a guy in the next suburb to mine has a business making rare tail lamp lenses and such stuff. He's making very nice amber sections for 70-73, 74-78 and 79-81 lights.....so I bought a set and he fitted them to my new lenses.

I made up a divider for the outer lamp section of the light to separate the brake/tail lamp area from the turn signal area, painted the housing inside (white gloss) and outside (aluminium) and them made up some new studs for the diecast cover.....all went together nicely.

Great Work so far, I love the hedders, I had a set of H-O try y's
but they were beat, yours are too nice looking to hide under a car!
Holy Cow those are friggin cool wheels!

Could you possibly post the contact info for guy who makes the signal lenses?
I have been interested in making a set of "international" lenses for my 75 bird
for a while, does he supply the whole lense or just the outer amber section
to bond to a modified red lense? Thought it would be a cool look here in the states.
I had a japanese model kit of a 74 T/A with amber lenses an thought it was neat.