The gangs all here

After weeks and weeks of sanding, it is finally time to do a little assembly.

The first picture shows a couple of the major components … the chassis, and behind that, the body. With those two parts, you have most of a car, but also in the shot are the two inner fender wells. Not visible in this shot, but scattered around the shop, is the hood and the front fenders.

The second and third shots show the heart of the car … the Heart Beat of America so to speak. This is the famous Chevrolet small block, a 5.4L mill more famously know as the Chevrolet 327. The refreshed but original drive-train also features the highly desirable four-speed transmission to make this one of the more rare Chevelles. Nice …

The fourth picture show a nice upgrade … the adjustable upper control arms. Being able to adjust the upper arms on the car allows the owner to dial out unwanted suspension movement under hard acceleration. This will give the car better traction at launch by adjusting the pinion angle for reduce wheel hop. And … they look awesome.

Next week we should get the body back on the frame, then this collection of parts and pieces will once again be car. But not just any car … a Chevelle.

The braided bunch

We are done with this outstanding 1950 Chevrolet 5-window pickup. That is not to say that there isn’t still work to be done, because there is. But the items that remain are going to be finished by the owner.

But before it leaves the shop, I wanted to show off the engine a little. It’s hard to tell from these photos, but the engine is a chromed out small block Chevy 350. All the wiring is run in a braided loom to complement all the other braided steel items on the motor.

The first three photos show the throttle and the transmission kick-down cables. Braided steel hoses on the power steering pump, shown in the fourth photo, compliments the braided steel transmission dip-stick, shown in the fifth photo. Not shown are the braided steel transmission lines because, frankly, I didn’t feel like crawling under the truck to take a picture of them.

I’m sure that the owner will be glad to get the ol’ girl back. The only major task left to complete is the installation of the interior, then she’ll be a driver. I hope he remembers to drive it back to the shop so I can see the truck after it is finished.

Cool truck

Yesterday Murphy Rod & Custom dropped off the 1950 Chevy truck after installing the air conditioner. Originally I had intended to do the install myself but I had too many projects and not enough time. So Murphy Rod & Custom once again bailed me out of a tight spot by taking the truck and doing the hard part of the air conditioning install for me.

As you can see, it is the typical Murphy Rod & Custom work, first rate and very tidy. Except for the fact that nearly everyone knows that air conditioning wasn’t an option in 1950, it could pass as a factory job.

While the truck was at Kelly’s shop, he also fabricated up a radiator cover to clean that area up a little by covering the gap that is there on a stock truck. A little body filler to clean up the machining marks and bit of paint to match it to the rest of the truck will make this an interesting bit of custom work. You can see the cover in the last two photos.

Now that the air conditioning is installed, I can begin wiring the truck to get not only the air conditioning working, but the instruments, lights and all the other bits required by the state of North Carolina for a street legal car as well.

After all, what fun would it be to have a truck this nice if you couldn’t drive it?

It’s alive!

Yesterday evening I stopped by Murphy Rod & Custom to watch as Kelly started the Mustang for the first time. The owners, Cassie and Karl, were on hand for the big moment.

Last week Kelly got the car far enough along so that we knew when Cassie and Karl, who had asked to be there for the big event, were present it would start. It didn’t disappoint. A turn of the ignition and it burbled to life. Kind of anticlimactic actually, though Karl was jazzed. I cut the bit out because I was jiggling the camera, but you could hear Karl in the background exclaiming, “That’s what I’m talking about right there …”

We found a couple of things that needed some attention, but nothing beyond what you would expect when dropping a new motor into a car. Now that the Mustang’s heart is beating it only has a few minor items left, an alignment, one more day of assembly and another day for cleanup, then the car will head out for the interior. I will want it back after the interior goes in so I can drive it for a couple of days to make sure everything is up to the high JMC AutoworX and Murphy Rod & Custom standards … no leaks, squeaks or rattles please.

Then the only thing left … dropping the keys into Karl’s hand.

Just add power

Yesterday was a big day at JMC AutoworX because we dropped the motor into the ’69 Mustang. Well, not dropped … installed would be a better word. In any case, the motor is in the car and nobody was maimed, or even bloodied, during the install.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s fifteen thousand words showing the motor going into the car … from start to finish.

There were three of us working on putting the motor in. There was myself, whom you can identify by the sun glasses on my head. Jordan was there as well, in the gray JMC AutoworX shirt like my own, but he isn’t wearing sunglasses.

Also there was Kelly, in the black shirt. Kelly is my fabricator and Jedi Knight of all things mechanical in a car. He was there to provide moral support, encouragement and guidance. When things got a little tight, and I mean that literally, Kelly is the one who pulled us through the squeeze. Thanks Kelly. We couldn’t have done it without you. Really.

There was a fourth person there too, Terry, a former customer and friend. You won’t see him in these pictures because he is the one operating the camera. Little did he know, when he volunteered to stop by to shoot the action, that we were going to put him to work too when things got a little hairy getting the engine in.

The motor went in pretty well, though as I mentioned above, there were a couple of times when the install was in doubt. We had to battle through a few clearance issues, and it appears that the oil pan may be installed backwards on the motor. We didn’t know that until the motor was in the car and we discovered the pan prevents the steering ram from fitting back into place. Fortunately the engine doesn’t have to come back out to fix the oil pan problem … having to pull the motor back out after the struggle to get it in would have been, well, depressing.

Tomorrow Jordan or I will pull the oil pan and turn it around to see if that allows the pan to clear the steering ram. If it does then we will tighten all the bolts down to secure the engine and transmission in place. After the motor is locked down, we will hook up the fuel line and electrical systems, and attach the headers to complete the install. Then it will just be a matter of adding some dino-juice, priming the engine, and seeing if it will start.

In just a few more days we finally be able to add some sound and fury to this restoration. At that point we will truly be rounding the final turn and this Mustang will be pounding for the finish line.

The heart of a thoroughbred

The power-plant, the heart and lungs of this thoroughbred, arrived at the shop yesterday. It’s a nice looking piece if you ask me.

The motor is a Ford 351 Windsor with aluminium heads and a March serpentine pulley system. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect lurking in there is a slightly hotter cam than a stock 351 too. For an engine to run it really only needs three things … fuel, air and spark. This engine is brought to life with an Edelbrock carburetor and a MSD ignition system and will exhale through a set of long tube headers. The whole package, the owner tells me, will make about 450hp.

Yeah … its got some pop. And to top it off, the Edelbrock Durashine finish adds that little something extra, making the ordinary extraordinary.

All the power in the world does you no good if you can’t get it to the ground. So backing all that juice is a Ford C6 3-speed automatic transmission with a 2,500 RPM stall converter. The entire package, while maybe not 1,000 hp ground pounder, nevertheless should hustle this old girl along with a certain alacrity.

When you get to this point, dropping in the engine, you know it won’t be long before this Mustang will be bought to life once more.

It’s baaaack …

After leaving the JMC AutoworX shops for the installation of the interior, the C10 came back for some final spit and polish before its debut at the Shriner Hot-Rod show in Greensboro.

I put a lot of sweat, and a little blood, if no tears, in this project and I think it is some of my best work to date. I am very pleased and quite proud of how it turned out and I expect it to do well at the shows in the area.

The interior lives up to the exterior in every way with custom seats, door panels, center console and finished bed. And every bit of it, including the bed, dripping in leather.  You open the door of the truck and the smell … mmmm … nothing like the smell of quality leather.

Come see what I think is one of the nicest trucks around, this weekend, at the JMC AutoworX booth at the Shriner Hot-Rod show in the Greensboro Coliseum.

See you there.

Listen to that baby roar!

Today we finally heard the truck run for the first time. That engine is healthy and the sound is enough to give a guy chills.

Check out the radiator on this thing. That is a hand made radiator that is capable of handling up to 750 horsepower. You could let this thing idle in the middle of the Sahara dessert at noon, with the air conditioning on, and it wouldn’t over heat.

Tab A goes in slot B

Now that the car has been painted, wet sanded, and polished, it is time to reassemble it so we can see what it looks like. But before I did that, I had to have a picture of that magnificent hunk of American iron sitting in the nose. If you are going to have a car like this, it needs some go mixed with its show.

After the fenders were bolted up the great lines of these old Chevelles are apparent, even with the missing grille, bumpers and other bright-work that looks so good on these old cars.

The last picture shows how beautiful this blue really is after it is brought up to High Performance Finish standards.