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1963 Wildcat - Freshening and Modification after a long nap


JJorgensen52

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A few of you have been sharing information and ideas with me on some questions with this car, so I figured it was time to start a project thread.

Anyways, back in June of '13 (seems so long ago!) I put down a deposit on this car, and finally brought it home (with a brand new Waldron's stainless exhaust) in mid-September. It had last been on the road in 1975, and had one owner.

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After I brought it home, first order of business was to fix the brakes - the original vacuum booster was completely toasted. I decided, since I was in there, to upgrade to a dual circuit master and booster ('67 Wildcat parts), and add an electric brake light switch at the same time. This immediately led to failing two original brake lines, which I replaced, then bled the brakes and adjusted the rears. Now it stops smoothly.

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After that, changed the oil and took it out for a drive, which lasted about 1 mile before it stalled - come to find out, the fuel tank had 1" of shellac in the bottom of it and the sending unit was completely plugged. After 18 gallons of old fuel, a little xylene, and some elbow grease, I had fuel flowing again.

Next problem up was the cooling system - or lack thereof. Between 30+ years of galvanic corrosion and decay, the system was plugged and the water pump toast. So I installed a new pump, thermostat and water neck.

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Then I flushed the entire system multiple times over. Unfortunately, the car was still overheating – this led me to disassemble the radiator and rod it out – it was VERY clogged.

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It has a few minor leaks now but I was at least able to get some road miles on the car and verify other system problems. Such as the alternator and voltage regulator, which both required replacement shortly thereafter. And the status of my Dynaflow: very leaky.

It was just this past month I came into possession of a nearly complete ’63 LeSabre 401 from a three-on-the-tree car – on close inspection, it appears the only components I am missing are the clutch shield (which the gentleman who sold it to me believes he has and is looking for) and the small return spring and tab which mounts to the bellhousing.

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I also found myself a set of ’64 Formula Five wheels, which I will be cleaning up to install on the car.

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Current Progress:

Honestly, I haven’t done much with the car, aside from tuck it away for the winter in the new heated shop I’ve been building for the last 2 months (eating my project funds and time!). This past weekend, I got it up on stands in preparation for work underneath the car and bodywork.

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Current plans:

Refresh brake system – I have replaced the master, and I have all new pads, hardware and cylinders to rebuild all four drums. At the same time, I will assess the bearings and seals.

Suspension – at the very least, my rear suspension needs all new bushings. Most likely will replace all of the front and rear rubber.

Body – I have found two places where welding is needed – the rear of the driver’s side rocker box requires a patch, and the rear corner of the passenger’s quarter where it meets the bumper. There is also a small puncture in the hood which I will repair.

Otherwise, the body is in pretty good shape. I’ve begun stripping the trim off the car, I am planning to fix the dent in the rear panel, clean and treat all of the rust, then repaint the car here in my shop on the frame. I’m looking at leaving the roof white, and painting the body Twilight Aqua (or similar), this is the basic idea:

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(’63 LeSabre photo, which I found here some time ago and photo-shopped the roof). I am not planning to do a complete, proper color change at this time, as I am planning to do a frame off on this car sometime in the next 5 years.

Likewise, the interior on this car is VERY nice. All I am planning to do here is rebuild the window regulators, recover the headliner boards, and fix the radio / wipers.

Mechanical – The engine in this car runs like a top. I will likely do a full tune-up with new plugs, and I am going to change the oil again and clean out the oil pan, but otherwise I see no need for changes. I will be ordering a new radiator as well.

Modifications:

Here’s the big one. I’m swapping this car from Dynaflow to manual trans. My Dynaflow is in need of, at very least, a high pressure pump rebuild and full reseal, and since I like sticks anyway I decided to spend the money on a swap rather than a rebuild.

To that end, I have spent the last 5 months researching the factory setup and locating parts. My plan is as such:

  • Factory bellhousing with Bendtsen’s flywheel and standard AC Delco 11” clutch
  • ’64 – ’66 Starter (REMY rebuilt) which is required for this flywheel
  • Pilot bearing adapter from Centerville Auto (rather than swapping in the manual crankshaft from my spare engine)
  • Complete stock clutch linkage and pedal brackets
  • Richmond Super Street 5 speed O.D. with the ratio set: 2.89 (1st), 1.85 (2nd), 1.31 (3rd), 1.00 (4th), 0.77 (5th) – this trans is a dimensional replacement for the T10, and uses the same style shifter and external linkage. This gear set closely mimics the factory gears for 1963.

I am intending to make as few permanent changes to the car as possible, and keeping all of the Dynaflow parts for originality purposes.

So far, I’ve run into 3 problems:

  1. Driveshaft. The Dynaflow is 24” long overall, while a Richmond or BW T10 is 27”. I have a good driveshaft shop that can easily replicate the front part of the driveshaft in the correct length. I am going to use a Spicer 1330 u-joint, rather than the GM 3RL/S44 style the car currently has – comparable in strength, but 3RL yokes are difficult to find.
  2. Transmission mount. I have the original stick shift cross member; however, the Richmond trans mounts approximately 3/8” lower and 3.8” further back than the T10 did. As such, I will build a custom cross member to carry it. I will be using an Energy Suspension poly mount, standard GM style, short model (which is 0.40” shorter than standard), which will give me some flexibility in mounting.
  3. Shifter / Linkage. Console shift Wildcats being as rare as they are, these parts are virtual unobtainium. The Richmond trans uses a Long external rail shifter; I will fabricate a replica of the console shifter mount (of which I have some pictures) to position it as the factory had. I will have to make my own console trim plate and shift rods as well.

Stay tuned for photos and updates as things progress. I will also be trying to keep track of all the part numbers I use and sources of supply so that I can provide the information, if there is interest in that.

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Great plan James!

i have a tremec for my 65 Wildcat and will be fabricating a stick to mimic the 63/64 style.

Matt Menges loaned me a shifter to copy, I still have it stored in my garage. I drew it up one time, maybe I can do that again and share that with you.

Ted

Ted,

If you did get around to doing that, it would be very much appreciated!

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More work on getting the car stripped down for paint. My plans did a bit of a 180 this weekend, so I only had perhaps 4 hours to work, but I made some progress.

Rear bumper and trims removed, as well as stripped the trunk pan of foam lining and insulating mats. I confirmed that the rear of the car is very solid, and the lower quarters are actually in better shape than I had first anticipated.

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I unfortunately also discovered that whatever caused my bent bumper also bent the upper portion of the rear fascia, as well as the trunk lid:

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But, worst news of the day: Rust. I knew I was going to have to repair the rear corner of the passenger's quarter, but the two spots in the trunk are new discoveries. Over the driver's side body mounts at both the front and rear of the pan:

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Front driver's trunk mount

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Rear driver's mount (from above in trunk, and from below in cross sill)

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Fortunately the cancer appears to be localized, so I should not have too much difficulty in removing it.

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This weekend's update.

First thing I did today was attempt to get the passenger's window to work, to no avail. After some work at dis-assembly, I removed the motor and found out it was rather, err, cooked. It looks like it was full of water at some point? Anyway, will be looking for a replacement for that.

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Progressing further, I stripped out the rest of the interior. Mostly, I was very pleased with what I've found, especially given this is a lifetime New England car.

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In each front floor pan, I found some perforation in the pan directly above the body mount boxes. Otherwise, the pans appear solid and other than some sweat equity and a wire brush, I'm in good shape.

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Next project on my list is getting all the trim off the the outside of the car. And then the rest of the window regulators.

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Nice floors! Is that a heater duct on the pass side next to the trans tunnel? And a tilt steering wheel?

On both counts, you are correct, sir! I was under the impression (perhaps mistakenly) that the rear seat heater ducts were a standard feature on console equipped cars? Also, I've been given to understand that a car with manual trans would have had the driver's side cut to facilitate the shift linkage.

In looking at the shifter geometry for the dynaflow, I'm hopeful that I can modify my new shift linkage to pass through the floor with little modification to the pan itself - which would also allow the heat ducting to remain in place.

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More trim comes off, more rust appears :rolleyes:

Anyways, this weekend, pulled off all of the hardtop trim around the windows on both sides. I also removed the interior rear window trim, sail panels and 5th (rearmost) row of the headliner, to gain access to the hardware mounting the lower roof pillar trims.

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I've got rust at the base of the B-pillar on both sides - fortunately localized, and it looks like I should not have too much trouble removing it. But more work than I had hoped for. Still wresting with getting the windshield trims off - I'm petrified of bending any of the stainless!

Driver

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Passenger

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  • 2 weeks later...

This weekend was very nice out of doors, so I spent most of my time working on another project I have going outside (parting out trucks is kind of a side-side-hobby for me), but I did get one thing done (see this thread for more details) - installed a '69 AM/FM radio in place of my Sonomatic. Still need to hook up the rear speaker wiring and make a small trim plate.

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In other news, I have found a gentleman with a '64 Wildcat that is getting parted out, from which I am getting patches for the tops of my quarter panels. So that is a big step forward.

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  • 1 month later...

Well, I am WAY behind on this project, but life does that!

Anyway, I've been chipping away at it, and this weekend I got two things done:

First, I got the front clip broken down - unfortunately both front fenders have patches in the lower sections and will need repair

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However, this is one step closer to being paint ready. I'm also happy to note that the remainder of the front of the car is very solid.

I've found out the extent of the rust I had seen before on the passenger's side by the firewall - as it turns out, the rocker box is fine but the floor support - cowl pinch joint is rusted through and you can actually see the ground from inside the car.

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Secondly, I was able to get the dent in my tail panel pretty much completely out. There is still a small curvature to the top of the panel right below the trunk lid, but I would have to cut away the lock mounting bracket on the inside to fully straighten it and it is hardly noticeable unless you know to look for it.

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All for now. I am also in the middle of converting my '72 1-ton GMC from 2wd to 4wd, so I'm jumping back and forth between cars. So many projects, so little time!

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  • 1 month later...

Well folks, small update after what seems like forever to me.

1st - I've transferred for work, so my Buick and myself pulled up roots and are now in Virginia. That put a bit of a damper on things, but I've got the shop more or less set up here and I've got more time now because my commute is a lot shorter, so more work to be done!

2nd - I've run into an opportunity to purchase a number of pieces of sheetmetal and other small parts I need, which will help speed things along.

3rd - Most important. I've been on a waiting list with Richmond Gear (through Jegs) for a transmission since the 1st week of March - last week, they called to tell me that the expected ship date this month wasn't going to happen and that they couldn't tell me when a transmission would actually be available. So, in the interest of getting the car on the road, I chose to give up my spot on the list. Instead, I did this:

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I'm pretty excited about this one! It's not exactly the right unit, but it is a '63 dated Borg Warner T10 with the correct gearset (per the service manual), which has the correct Buick casting iron main case. It was originally installed (and is VIN stamped for) a '63 Special. The tailhousing is not the correct casting number, it's a Chevrolet part, but it will do for now. The trans is freshly rebuilt and I'm excited to get into the swap. Predictably, finding the correct yoke for a '63 Buick 4 speed (which, from what I can gather, should be a GM 3R type u-joint) proved difficult, so I have a standard Dana 1310 series yoke from a Corvette of the same vintage.

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Tonight I pulled the rest of the interior trim and the headliner (yesterday, I had removed the rear window). Getting ever closer to starting rust repair!

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I had asked previously about the sail panel light wiring - the answer is, in this car at least, they come from a connector in the driver's front footwell, and run up above the headliner. There is no inline connector, and I while I can remove the harness, I can't separate the two lights so I'm still stuck there.

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I have a question - in the attached photos, you can see where I pulled the front of the roof insulation down that this car clearly had moisture in it and the inner roof panel is rusting (just surface, no scale to speak of).

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What I would like to know, does anyone have a good suggestion for dealing with that? I made a slight effort to pull the insulation out from under the top bow, but it wasn't interested in coming free. I DO NOT want to remove the spot welded bows. Any thoughts?

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Only a small update. I continue to make progress on disassembling the car for paint, but I received my new built radiator today

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This is a U.S. Radiator, purchased through Cool Craft components. It's original copper/brass construction, A/C style without a trans cooler and with an updated core (4 rows vs. OEM 3 and more modern fin spacing). They offer all sorts of options, of course. Note how thick this core is (5/8" thicker, nearly 30%, over the original)

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Making progress!

Dashboard is now completely stripped.

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I also drained the cooling system tonight, getting ready to pull the radiator and subsequently the inner fenders and core support/front apron.

Does anyone know if I can remove the inner fenders, but leave the hood in place?

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Answered my own question. Yes, you can remove an inner fender with the hood still in place. No, I would not recommend it! I'm getting a second set of hands over here as soon as I can to get the hood off - for now I have it supported using a wooden dowel. I don't think it would actually do any harm, but I'd rather be overly cautious in this case.

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  • 2 weeks later...

More progress. First, I had to clean up a bit in the garage - I have a new project coming home which needs space, so I'm turning my Buick into wall art!

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Secondly, I ordered a can of paint to test the color I'm thinking of for the main body in my two-tone - I had previously identified it as Twilight aqua, but it turns out that it's actually a Chevrolet color, '63 only, called Monaco Blue (Ditlzer PPG 12711, factory code 914). Either way, I think it looks sharp (And I realize this is REALLY bad paint work, it was just a quick spray with a rattle can to get a sense of the color, I did no surface prep and even less finishing).

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And here's a link to some photos of a '63 Impala in Monaco Blue http://www.jr56.com/pa/63409/

What do you guys think?

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Looks good. A subdued color. No one will suspect a hot Buick under the hood with that color. Of course I'd be more inclined to keep it white. But that's just my preference.

I must admit I'm torn because white over white is in fact the original color - but at the same time, I really feel that the car really deserves a darker color on it to make all of Buick's intricate trim accents stand out! It's a tough decision, to be sure. That is one reason I wanted to actually get a little paint on the car, before I commit to it.

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I probably should not have commented because I am biased against blue. Were I to pick a dark color, as long as you have the black interior I would favor a metallic forest green. Single tone. I don't know the color name or formula but it is a 66 Olds 442 color I am referring to. It really looked rich on my friend Warrens car, and the chrome really glistened against it.

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Thanks Bama!

I probably should not have commented because I am biased against blue. Were I to pick a dark color, as long as you have the black interior I would favor a metallic forest green. Single tone. I don't know the color name or formula but it is a 66 Olds 442 color I am referring to. It really looked rich on my friend Warrens car, and the chrome really glistened against it.

You know, I'm not a green person myself, but my uncle used to have a '73 Centurion convertible that was a deep forest green and it was a SHARP car. I'll have to look into that.

The two tone, that's another matter. Part of what I love so much about this car's style (I mean, aside from the fins, because who doesn't love fins??) is that faux convertible roofline, and I like the idea of taking it that extra step further. I am toying with the idea of going to black instead of white, given that I've darkened my main color from what I had first envisioned.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tonight, got the old brake pedal bracket out and my sandblasted / primed clutch&brake pedal bracket test fitted.

The clutch pedal is not on it's return spring yet, but I've zip tied it to the stop to set the height correctly

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Then, it occurred to me there was enough stick-out on the clutch pedal carrier to install the manual trans / manual brake pedal to the right of my auto / power pedal. I set the height according to the factory service manual diagrams. Also an interesting fact here, the clutch pedal rides on a pair of cartridge roller bearings, rather than bushings as I am familiar with from the Chevrolet world.

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The next photo shows the height difference in the two pedals when the pedal faces are level. Not sure how to get the image to rotate?

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I decided I would cut the manual pedal 8 1/2" above the bottom of the pad for my splice. To pick this point, I set the pedals at the same height and then took a square across the auto/power pedal at the lowest possible point where the pedals are the same dimension (the power pedal tapers to about 5/8" depth at the pad, where the manual pedal is consistently 1-1/8" all the way down).

Then, I pulled the tape on the power pedal from the point I marked to cut. 8 1/2" will drop the pedal pad about 3/4" from where it is now, but brings it visually into line with the clutch pedal and satisfies my compulsive symmetric tendencies :rolleyes:

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These last two are a bonus - this shows the bracket I made to hold a standard GM tail lamp switch to the auto brake pedal assembly. used a piece of 1/16" wall 1" square tube, a #10 machine screw and a preexisting hole in the bracket to mount the switch.

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This method will not work with the clutch pedal assembly - I'm planning to make a mount which mimics the style of the factory clutch stop, and weld it on to the bracket in the same fashion as the clutch stop. That way, hopefully it will look as factory as possible.

Thoughts on this? My only concern was that lowering the pedal pad might cause binding with the floor, but I appear to have good clearance all around based on my trial tonight. I do not know how much thickness the carpet will add, that could present an issue. Unfortunately, my carpet is in storage at another location and I don't have access to it to try that out.

One other thought. I was surprised to find both the dash braces and the pedal bracket assembly to be bare steel in this car. I'm used to the later trucks, where the brackets have some kind of anti-corrosion coating on them. Can anyone comment on whether any of the factory cars were coated? I had in my mind that I was going to paint these with the faux gold zinc.

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Edited by JJorgensen52 (see edit history)
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Well, I'm still a little less than enthused about taking a grinder to my manual brake pedal... but I did, and I'm very happy with the results.

This first photo shows my cut line drawn on the power brake pedal - note that the pedal is 1-3/16" depth to this point and tapers below it. I am not sure what the roll pin is for - my car doesn't have this?

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Here's the pedal after the initial splice. I added about 3 degrees of forward angle when I cut the manual brake pedal, to keep the pad at the height I wanted.

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Welds finished. I was not happy with the shape of the welded section at this point, it was too obvious, so I welded some additional material in there and smoothed it out again.

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After the second go around, and some quality time with a fine metal file to blend it. I'm reasonably satisfied that anyone who wasn't looking for this would not notice it.

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And the final view. I am quite happy with the location, it's in line height-wise with the clutch, and sits at a height which falls in line with the clutch and gas pedals to give visual continuity. As an added bonus, this position actually makes heel-toe quite comfortable.post-97346-143142717173_thumb.jpg

Making progress!

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I'm surprised you just did not use the pedals as they were removed from the parts car?

There were two pedals in the parts car - the original, manual brake pedal for a manual trans car, and there was an automatic trans pedal (with the wide pad) that had been "trimmed" to fit - meaning enough that it didn't hit the clutch. It looked hack and there was no good way to make the correct pedal pad (same one as the clutch uses) fit on it, because the metal pad on the auto pedals has a different curvature, and also the way it is attached to the pedal arm prevents it from being made narrow enough.

The manual pedal will not fit the power brake booster, the linkage is significantly lower and shorter. It actually pivots on a different point in the bracket - by my measure, I would have had to add about 3.5" to the length of the booster pushrod to meet the pedal, and at that point the steering column is in the way. So using that pedal directly was not possible.

The short of that is that I wanted it to look as much like the factory setup as possible (re: this post from a question I asked earlier). The only difference here is I lowered the pedal slightly closer to the floor, to satisfy my visual tastes.

Edited by JJorgensen52 (see edit history)
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I'm not being negative with this statement,,,,,,but I see you did a butt weld, and at least in the pictures you posted I didn't see signs of angle grinding before the welding process? Then you ground off what appears to be a lot of the weld, so my concern is how deep did the weld penetrate?

Most racing assoc. demand that welds NOT be ground so the weld can be examined.

NOT saying you didn't do a good job,

Dale in Indy

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I'm not being negative with this statement,,,,,,but I see you did a butt weld, and at least in the pictures you posted I didn't see signs of angle grinding before the welding process? Then you ground off what appears to be a lot of the weld, so my concern is how deep did the weld penetrate?

Most racing assoc. demand that welds NOT be ground so the weld can be examined.

NOT saying you didn't do a good job,

Dale in Indy

No offense taken, this is a very pertinent question! It's great to have folks sharing their knowledge here, helps those of us still relative newcomers to the hobby to learn the right things to do.

The answer is that I did not take as many pictures as I might have to fully illustrate the process.

I did bevel the ends of both pedal sections prior to making my butt joint - because the pedal arms are not very wide, the depth of bevel only amounted to ~3/16" on either side, totaling about 50% of the total width of the pedal arm at the joint. When I did my MiG pass I was able to neatly fill the bevel and ensure good penetration into the base metal.

The other photo which is missing here would show that once I was satisfied that my structure was sound, I made a few additional "filler" passes to allow me to blend my joint without cutting away too much of the material at the joint itself.

Given that I'm never planning to race this car, or to drive it *too* hard, I was much more concerned with the visual aspect of the joint than I might otherwise have been.

Thanks for the feedback, folks!

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  • 4 weeks later...
Looks like there is no pilot shaft bearing hole in the end of the crank?

You are both correct and incorrect at the same time, sir.

The Dynaflow crank has a very large pilot hole (for the torque converter snout) which is just over 2" in diameter! You can see the "snout" in the first photo.

I have a machined adapter (courtesy of Centerville Auto) which fits in the Dynaflow pilot recess and is machined to accept a standard GM pilot bearing (0.590")

I also have a '63 Nailhead with a manual trans crank (which is machined for a pilot bearing), but I decided that since this motor runs so well and has so little mileage, that I would not take it apart to swap cranks.

Edited by JJorgensen52
I can't type... (see edit history)
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This is gonna be a great car when you're done!

Thanks!!

I did in fact get a chance to install the T-10 tonight. Good news, bad news.

Bad news is I've discovered my tail housing is not compatible with the transmission crossmember in this frame

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As it turns out, this tailhousing (7D) uses the middle of the three possible T10 mounting positions.

Good news, everything fits like it was meant to go up there, I have adequate clearance all around and things are shaping up!

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Please note there is no clutch, flywheel or linkage at this point because I'm just test fitting parts. I also have sandblasted many of the parts but have not yet coated them so didn't want to get them greasy or cause rust before they're protected.

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