Just a note to update everyone … we “are” making progress even though it seems somewhat slow to show.  We’re also taking time to enjoy life along the way so that we don’t become all consumed by the enormity of this project.  By that I mean, “we’ve been down the ocean hon” (as they say in Baltimore) to “Cruisin’ OC” in Ocean Cty, MD - a fabulous long weekend hot rod extravaganza … it was great!  We’re headed to York, PA this coming weekend for the National Street Rod Association’s big event there and it promises to be even bigger than OC’s was by about a 1,000 registered cars.  Oh yeah, we spent some time on our boat as well in between all of the other fun stuff going on.

After more than a few discussions about Project Vicky and its trials and tribulations, I offer the following to all those folks who wonder why it takes so long to complete.  Building a car from essentially scratch is a monumental task.  I’ve often said to the people who ask about it: “do you know how many parts go into a car?”  Well, it’s even more daunting than that because nothing is a direct replacement for something that is bolted on in the first place.  There are parts from various years, makes, and models of other cars going into this project.  It’s all custom fitted a piece at a time and more times than not, the parts need to be finessed or persuaded to bolt up so to speak.  In many cases - there are no instructions to go by and everything takes longer than originally imagined.  But, that is part of the fun too - making it work.

To think that after it’s all put together (mocked up) that I’ll have to take it all apart for painting and final finishing is a thought for another time  ;-)

I ordered some of the additional brake component parts I needed, such as, the front and rear brake hoses and some clips to hold the lines to the frame.  I still need the straight run hard lines and connectors to run from front to back as well.

Additionally, I’m trying Griot’s Garage for some miscellaneous stuff and ordered a box of H-D Mechanic’s Blue Latex Gloves with a nifty magnetic holder to secure them on the side of one of my tool boxes.

I’m also getting a 3″ Random Orbital from Griot’s to polish and wax tight spots on the car but the primary decision to purchase it really came from the desire to have something better-than-by-hand to do the windows on our boat and of course on our cars.  I hoping it works as well as I imagine it will.

Although we installed the crankshaft, pistons, and cam along with new bearings and the oil pump and pan, etc. some time ago, we still needed to finish putting the engine together.  Over the weekend, Dave and I put on the ported and polished heads (complete with Corvette Z06 valve springs) and torqued them to specification.  This step was not without a minor set back.  Since these bolts are single use and get torqued to yield, torque is a very significant factor and the sequence used is also quite important.  My 3/8″ drive inch-pound torque wrench wasn’t performing like it should (didn’t hear any clicks when it reached specified toque values) so we switched to my larger 1/2″ drive foot-pound version and converted the inch-pound spec to foot-pounds.  All went pretty well until the very last bolt.  It snapped off in the engine block.  It took a trip to the hardware store for an extractor and new 3/8″ drive “dial-type” torque wrench plus a little time to extract it but success was ours in the end.  The bolt was successfully replaced without having to take the head back off and all was well once again.

Once that was done, the push rods were re-installed along with the rocker arms which also got torqued to their appropriate specification.  And, yes, we did use that neat super slick red assembly lube like you see used on some of those car shows on TV.

I put the valve covers on to keep it clean inside but didn’t go on to install the Z06 intake manifold that I got from my friend Phil just yet.  I need a different crossover cooling and venting piece to use with this manifold; the original won’t work with the Z06 setup.  It’s no big deal and not an expensive part either.

As time ran out on my play time this weekend, I did do a little more welding and grinding on the frame closing up the rest of those extra holes we manged to drill in to it.  It looks pretty good.

I haven’t posted anything for a while but heard from a friend who was wondering how things were going.  Thanks Joe for your inquiry - it inspired me to at least post an update.

Aside from life’s usual distractions plus some unusual ones, e.g, the economic downturn and a sharp dip in my discretionary spending, progress has been a bit slow.  Having said that, look for things to pick up again now that better weather is apparent and there is more day light available to play even longer …

I believe that I mentioned previously that I had several holes in the frame that I don’t really need thanks to moving the motor mounts around two or three times.  They’re all welded up now and I’ve been grinding them flush - it looks pretty good.

Dave thought we should “box” the strut rod bracket that we cut down some to add clearance for my A/C compressor.  That turned out well I think.  I will try to remember to get a picture of the bracket as it looks now.

I haven’t heard in a while from the company that was developing the accessory pulley drive system that I thought might solve the A/C and alternator clearance problems so I’m forging ahead without them.

After deliberating a bit this past weekend, my friend Dave and I decided to move the motor mounts again and believe that we really will have the clearance we need for the accessories.  Some minor adjustments to the strut rod brackets are still needed to complete the installation but we anticipated that we would have to do that - not a biggie.

One slight mishap occurred when I accidentally bumped a small floor jack that was supporting the engine from underneath while we reworked the motor mounts (again).  The engine/transmission started to roll over slowly and went down onto the floor.  It was like watching in slow motion.  No one was hurt but some transmission fluid did spill out onto the floor.  It took the engine lift to get it back into position plus we switched to a larger floor jack to better support it while we finessed the mounts.  We got it cleaned up pronto and no overall harm was done.

Progress has been slow (not a revelation) but it’s been fun to see it coming together.  The weather was absolutely great for February as well (actually warmer outside than in the garage) so it was a fabulous day to work on the car.

Well, boys and girls - we were at it again over the weekend trying to resolve the fit and clearance issues to shoe horn the LS1 between the frame rails with an AC compressor, alternator, and power steering pump hung on it.

As a few of you know, I’ve been looking around for potential solutions to the inevitable accessory drive clearance issues that would work on my car but would not break the bank as some of the bigger names and bling mongers in the market can provide for my LS1 application.  Because of a tip from a vendor, I stumbled upon a company that is in the development stage of an accessory drive pulley arrangement for LS1s in vintage car applications.  It isn’t quite ready yet but they asked if I would help by taking some hood clearance measurements.  Because I don’t have the body on the frame right now, I mocked up the hood and side panels on the body over the weekend to see if the dimensions they provided would do the trick.  I also touched base with my friend Phil who has a ‘34 with an LS1 in it and we concluded concurrently that the proposed arrangement would in fact be too wide for the application.  I’m afraid it’s back to the drawing board for now on that one although it probably would work on a “newer” 40’s fat fender model car.

Dave and I got together to try and work some magic on it too.  We mocked up a new bracket out of poster board and taped it together for later use as a template in order to fabricate a new motor mounting bracket.  Our hope was that it would provide the needed clearance we’re looking for to mount the accessories without interfering with the mounting bracket itself or the infamous installed strut rods of the Mustang II suspension.

We did the origami thing after a failed attempt to use a set of LS1 Camaro motor mounts I had on hand - they just plain didn’t fit (too big).

As a side note: Phil successfully used a set of stock LS1 Corvette motor mounts on his ‘34 application (they’re different from the Camaro).  He fabricated a special cross member to support their “vertical” installation and it worked out quite nicely but acquiring the Corvette motor mount hardware is a little pricey.

We performed a trial fit up of the AC compressor to test our poster board wizardry.  It was immediately apparent that the AC unit hit the motor mount itself while barely kissing the strut rod mounting bracket.  We can trim that bracket for clearance.  It got a little brighter in the garage when it was decided to turn around the adaptor plate so that we could move the motor mount back a little further while leaving the engine where it was.

Let me explain - the newer  LS1 design uses 4-bolt motor mounts but we’re using the older style 3-bolt motor mounts that the frame rails were originally laid out to accept.  Doing so required the use of adaptor plates on each side of the block that would theoretically locate the LS1 appropriately with respect to where a typical small block Chevy (SBC) or small block Ford (SBF) engine would sit.

By the way, we are using Energy Suspension’s polyurethane components for hot rods and competition vehicles - yet designed to be used for street vehicles too.  We test fit the earlier style components upside down because the 3-bolt arrangement worked that way with the existing threaded holes .  Keep in mind that we turned the adaptor plates around - hence the reason for the upside down configuration.

We did a trial fit up of the alternator on the other side without clearance issues.  On a whim, we right-sided the Energy Suspension mount and held it in place with just one bolt to see if it would allow for two additional drilled and tapped holes to be put into the adaptor plates.  It did.

The engine is supported while we drill and tap the new holes on each plate.  Stay tuned but it’s looking promising.  I’ll worry about the exhaust headers later …

Dave and I got a little tinkering time in over the weekend; Dave brought his 35,000 BTU kerosene heater which handled the cold garage rather nicely.  We left one of the garage doors open about 4 inches so as to minimize the potential CO2 effect of the heater plus put a tray of water in friont of the outlet to boost moisture in the air.  It all worked splendidly and we working in shirt sleeves in no time at all.

We bolted up the rear axle assembly to the frame and everything went together pretty well actually.  I’m considering whether or not to upgrade to an air ride suspension package back there for an improved ride compared to what will otherwise mimic a stiff buckboard.  The overall cost versus ride quality will figure significantly in the final decision.  I need to assemble the rear brake components so that the brake lines can be routed and secured.

We checked some critical angles and made an adjustment to the driver side frame motor mount bracket so the LS1 is now better positioned between the frame rails and is within 1 degree of the horizontal plane.  Looks as if we’ll be welding up a few holes on the frame and re-drilling the bracket’s new position.  I don’t think we did it particularly badly or wrong the first time around but having the engine in place (supported by the hoist) certainly was a good move to fine tune its location.

The windshield arrived over the weekend - thank you StreetBeasts!  The glass was shipped priority as promised.

Next up - the bumpers.  Hopefully,  SB had those in stock and will ship soon if not already.  The bumpers are heavy and regular ground transportation is fine for them.

I had a call yesterday from StreetBeasts in response to the letter I wrote last week.  The latest news sounds encouraging and far better than not hearing anything or worse not getting a call at all.  I’m hoping to possibly see the windshield and in particular the front and rear bumpers real soon.

Evidently StreetBeasts has been having supplier problems with the windshield glass for quite some time now but hopefully it’s been resolved.

Once I receive those parts, most everything else will come from aftermarket or other more local sources although there a couple of StreetBeasts items I’d like to get yet for the car.  Stay tuned …

I finally got to see what the LS1 with its 4L60E tranny would look like when resting between the frame rails.  After some gentle persuading, the engine and transmission slipped into place.  It still needs some adjusting but it looks pretty good if I do say so myself.  I’ll post a picture or two shortly if all goes well (my image resizing software isn’t functional at the moment).

I also did a trial fit up of the floor pan because the tunnel looked too small to adequately clear the rather large bell housing of the 4L60E.  As best as I can tell and to my pleasant surprise, it clears all around by about a half inch.  That was very good news.

The down side became pretty clear that the motor mounting brackets and/or the suspension strut rods would probably interfere with the A/C and alternator when installed in their respective low OEM mounting positions.  I’ll have to ponder on it since the solutions could be a tad on the expensive side.