40 deluxe sedan with 348 - project

neilswheels

Well Known Member
it’s been a while, but I’ve been tinkering, Headers finished (yay!) a lot of fiddley floor work, remade them trans tunnel, made a new chassis top brace above the T5, gathering parts for Buick drums and F250 backing plates, and finally, I’ve just yanked the motor, and it’s stuck! Looks like heads off and see what’s happened.
 

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neilswheels

Well Known Member
Quick update, just in case you didnt see my 'engine stuck' thread, it is now turning over, very tight, but i've had 3 full revolutions out of it, with a very long bar. So the 'plan' is heads off, check the bores/rings, re hone if needed, replace rings if needed, maybe drop in a mild cam, well, i'll be in there, rude not to, and put it back together, followed by some fresh engine paint.
But, as its out, i've been working on the firewall, filling various holes and some subtle mods that you wouldn't spot unless you know 40's.
On the 'lets drag it out a bit longer' plan, I think Ive decided to take the body of, blast and paint the chassis, and paint the underneath of the new floor, so this will slow down the 'back together' part of the project, hopefully not for too long though - maybe...
 

neilswheels

Well Known Member
Quick engine update, i've just taken it to an engine builder, and generally good news. All machine work good, stock crank with no regrind, bores all good, valves look good. The 'tightness' appears to be down to really stiff wrist pins. There were a couple of little things that caught his eye, 2 bent pushrods, a dirty oil pressure relief valve with a chunk of ally in it, and old dirty nuts holding on the dirty rockers Odd, but overall good news.
 
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neilswheels

Well Known Member
I've had the crank balanced with the new flywheel, looks like it needed it..

The guy building the engine has found that the cam was in two teeth out, and it had a couple of bent pushrods, so just as well I ended up having it looked at. Progress a little slow (er) lately, I've been thrashing on an of topic car that's been dormant for 25 years, getting it ready for a show in two weeks time, hopefully i'll get some time back to work on the 40 again soon.
 

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neilswheels

Well Known Member
Went to the engine builders yesterday, it’s coming back together, crank, cam and pistons are in

I need a couple of rockers tho, and balls, two are worn, one really badly. Does anyone have a couple of good stock rockers they’re happy to sell and post to the UK?
 

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neilswheels

Well Known Member
Not an overly exciting update. Last visit to the engine builders and we were talking about paint, and looking at the pan, it was a bit ‘used’. Various dents outwards (something possibly let get at some point?) and rust inside. Although no one is going to look, I decided to remove the dents as best as I could, and removed the baffle to de rust it, replacing it when all nice and clean.
It’s now at another friends shop getting painted, along with some other bits prior to assembly.
Needed doing tho, the sump was filthy inside, not sure why this was put in a rebuilt motor in this condition, but it’s sorted now.
 

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neilswheels

Well Known Member
Also been making a new trunk floor, borrowed a friends cheap beef roller, and made some hammer forms to put a return edge on the holes for the rear crossmember and petrol gauge sender
 

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neilswheels

Well Known Member
Also had to mini tub the body to get the Halibrands under the fenders. Wanted to keep it looking as original a possible, so flattened the stock inner fender, and sympathetically filled the gap.
 

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neilswheels

Well Known Member
Another overdue update. I decided to split the body of the chassis, and took the chassis to work to repair some rust in the back of the chassis. Mainly to pull
Out the inner frame structure, blast and epoxy prime it all before reassembling it, you couldn’t even see the rust through until it was blasted. A bigger job than I thought, but I’m half way through.
Also have me a chance to mount the body on a rotisserie and finish off the bottom of the floor, particularly the sun rails which you couldn’t get to at all with it on the chassis.
Oh, and the engine’s coming back together, so expect more dumb questions on that front.
 

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benchseat4speed

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 7
I LOVE those rear wheels with the blackwall bias ply's:good:good:good My favorite Halibrand wheel from 'back then'. Also, I'd do the same thing with that damper, especially if I were on the other side of the Atlantic. Yeah the rubber is pushing out, no it's not ideal but I don't forsee you spinning that thing hard enough to throw the ring. I just scratch a witness mark across the ring and the hub and keep an eye on it. I bet you'll see it start to walk before you lose it, if it ever moves. Neat, neat build.
 

neilswheels

Well Known Member
So, the rear of the chassis has now all been separated, blasted, epoxied, and reassembled with rivets as per factory.
Closer inspection of the rear body mount (poking with a screwdriver) revealed more rust, ( all the white crosses)
 

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neilswheels

Well Known Member
I don’t want to cut a big chunk out of the chassis without a jig to hold it straight when it’s welded back in, so I made a ‘patch panel’fir the side of the rail with all the holes in, then made a new body mount from 3mm box as it had the right kind of radius, and I had nothing to bend 3mm steel with. A bit of heat and some hand tools gave me all the depressions it needed, I made the outside face, but rivited the body mount to the chassis panel before welding in the outside face to allow access to the rivets.
It’s off to Roysl Kustoms next week to have the rear axle fitted, which is a mortised ford banjo with 9 inch shafts and coke bearing housings to take early f100 drum brakes , so my existing setup, for a stock banjo, needs modifying. I decided to farm this out because I’ll be deliberating for ages over the best way to do it.
 

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