Roger Zimmermann

Yes, it's exactly that: small part, lot or work. The challenge to replicate a car from the thirties with a lot of castings!

Finally, the water pump cover is ready. Maybe not ready for paint, but there will be only cosmetic improvements, if any. The "long" tube was done with a full bar; the end on which the rubber hose will be attached is a short tube silver soldered on the bar. That assembly was then silver soldered on the cover you saw recently. Other small details were soft soldered. It's now the turn to the main body for the pump. Again a battle to get it, but not as bad as the one in the Capitol.

As I wrote earlier, I began the water pump. That damn part is full of curves; almost nothing is straight, with the exception of the attaching brackets to the crankcase. Even if I have many pictures from that element, I had difficulties to begin the work. Finally, I opted for the water pump cover. The base is now done but the pipe coming from the radiator which is casted with the cover is not yet done, because I don't know how to begin it. It has an elbow at its lower part, plus a provision for a petcock. It goes towards the crankcase, rendering it asymmetrical. Maybe I will take a bit of brass and carve it. A solution will come, like for the pump's body but I don't know when.

Thanks Mike! I hope that you had a safe beginning of the year 2021 and that your health is not getting worse.

Finally, the valve covers were finished by adding the décor on top. The lines were machined with a very narrow milling tool and the décor soft welded on the cover. The original parts are aluminum, with the décor polished, the remaining surfaces being black. As my parts are made with brass, the covers will be chromed and painted like the original parts. The question I was faced was: with what will I continue? After switching between gear box and water pump, I opted for the water pump and the 3 water tubes, two on the passenger side and one on the left side.

Thanks Neil! Not only on this forum but on others I'm active too, some people are beginning something and disappear. Life is sometimes not kind with illness, job's change, lack of interest/money and so on. I'm grateful that I had not too many set-back in my life. There are period I'm doing nothing, when we are going to our vacation's house. Sometimes a good opportunity to see and do something different!

Impressive restoration. I'm sure the paint from the factory was not as well done as yours. The design of those Pontiac-Olds-Buick always pleased me. Of course, I never saw a Jetfire in Switzerland; I doubt that this model was exported.

I hope everybody had a good start in that year 2021. Good news for the first update from the year. From a scale model forum, I got various suggestions how to do the bosses or ridges; while looking at those ideas I got the right solution: I attached the valve covers to a plate. This set-up allowed putting the assembly in the vice for milling. As the brass in sheets has not the same characteristic than the bulk rods, it’s more difficult to machine, therefore I had to be careful and mill only 0.1mm each pass until I had the 5 slices each side. To have the ridges or bosses perpendicular to the base, I finished the slices with a file. Then I prepared the ridges with round stock with one hole at the upper end to insert a screw I had to machine myself as the ones I have don’t have the suitable dimension. As they are dummy screws, they will just be glued into the holes after plating. Now, I can prepare the décor for the top of the covers.

Even if I'm familiar with GM products, it's not possible to find the original color from the VIN. Is Chrysler different? I doubt. The body plate located on the cowl under the hood has no data about paint and trim.

This will be the last up date for this year. I began the valve covers some days ago by shaping a brass plate as a "U" and silver soldering the shaped ends. As too often, it happen that I did one cover a tad too long! Fortunately, I could reheat one end, push the end cover away, shorten the main body and reattach the end cover. The base plate will be soft soldered because at this stage, silver soldering is too risky with such long parts. Once the main part and base will be soldered, I will have to decide how I will add the ridges allowing (on the real part) the screws to go through and torqued to the head. On the attached picture, you will see 10 holes which are for those ridges. I don't know yet if I will do a channel into the body for each ridge (a risky work) or if I will shape the ridges to conform the body, which will be less problematic if one part is bad. I'm also attaching a picture from a real valve cover for comprehension. The shiny part on the top will be done separately and soft soldered to the top of the cover. As the valve covers are very prominent parts from the engine, they must be right! Thanks for all who are following my adventure; I'm wishing you an Happy New Year!

The minor parts in front of the heads are now over. The ventilator pipes are not yet done, because I need the engine on the frame do do them. I don't know exactly at which "altitude" they end, I will find a way to determine that. In any case, they don't go extend further down than the lower frame rail. The oil vapors were sucked between the end of the heads and that "new" part at the crack which can be seen on the second picture. On the real engines, that space was greater because the casting was hollow. The water outlets have a pin at their top. The fluted rubber hoses will be inserted on those pins. To service the hydraulic lifters it was just necessary to remove the valve covers attached with 10 screws at the heads. On the model, I should need very long 0.5mm screws to attach the valve covers. As they would be unpractical and difficult to manufacture, the screws will be dummy ones and the covers attached with one central screw hidden by the oil filler caps.

Then you are working extremely quickly! I can only agree with you: no rust on the underside of the package tray is a rarity!

Both heads are ready, with the exception of minor cosmetic additions. Those heads are symmetrical and were manufactured without to know on which side they will go. Therefore, the water outlet to the radiator is on both ends. As there is no radiator at the rear, the water outlets are closed with a plate attached with screws. One threaded hole is also closed with a screw, otherwise the oil vapors would escape from that hole. The other hole on the same side is emerging in the open area from the heads, therefore no screw is used. Each plate has a round recess; to replicate it, I did each plate with two parts, one with a hole of the proper diameter, soft soldered on a plane plate. In the front of the engine, there is on each cylinder head end a casting with has two functions: a tube for the water and also an engine ventilator pipe. When I was looking at the pictures, I did not understand why the water outlet was associated with the ventilator tube; fortunately, one of the Johan's pictures was showing the back from the casting, explaining the mystery. This is what I will begin now, maybe without the ventilator pipe until I can install the engine on the frame. If I'm doing that casting part now is because the valve covers are following the shape of the casting. A real casting picture is attached for comprehension.

That's bad luck. Even if my '56 Biarritz too 10 years to restore, I had the luck to have a dry storage. I had other setbacks but so dramatic as you are experiencing.

Thanks Marin and Paul! Yes, almost all details will be hidden once the cover between both heads is installed. That will be the "concealed beauty"! Did the necessary holes into one block using the head as a template. I could not resist to do a picture or two to show how tall this engine was. On top of the heads, the valve covers (which are almost as tall as the heads) will accentuate that incredible height. Imagine such an engine into a modern car: even if some recent vehicle would have an engine bay long enough, a hood would never fit!

With the exception of many holes, for example the ones for the manifold's studs, the first head is ready. There is some small cosmetic details to be addressed; they will be done later. I will now adapt this head on one block before I'm continuing with the other head. On some pictures, you will see that I added some "décor" at both ends of the head.

As this forum is not about modelling, my goal is attained when people can forget for a moment the worries of the year and the next one most probably. Thanks Pat!

What a surprise!

Well, Hat off for your determination. I have heard the name before, but of course never saw one. I have to confess that it's not my style of cars!

Don't worry, Paulie, it will never happen! For those who not sleep at night until I found a solution how to continue the heads, the relief is there: I succeed! I did first a small sample with the conflicting angles; this is on the LH from the first picture. This tiny exercise was a great help to see the relationship between the sections concerned. From then, I could continue, modifying the base already done. I had to silver solder tiny pieces to close the gaps and to correct the shape. Once done, that assembly was silver soldered to the head's base. The second picture is showing the "pockets on top; both drill bits are temporarily replacing the future tubes for the push rods, 16 per side. Some trimming must be done to the pocket assembly as it's too massive now. I just have to do the same at the other head...

The cylinder heads are getting more difficult as anticipated. By looking at the pictures, there are many symmetrical surfaces, easy to do. Easy? well, some surfaces are at an angle, other surfaces are at a different angle(s). The easy part, at least it was my impression: the "pockets", connected with a tube to the base of the heads have at the back a vertical surface going to the base. The pockets are separated by the shape allowing the spark plugs to be installed; the angles are different. How to conciliate both? I still don't have the answer. I drilled first the holes for the tubes; in the original engine, the push rods are inside those tubes. Then I bent some flat brass for the pockets. I began to makes elongated holes for the spark plug's surfaces and I realized that this method was going nowhere. Then I did another piece replicating the surfaces for the spark plus, thinking that I could attach the pockets on that. I attempted to shape a pocket with thinner brass and I had to admit that the best destination for that pocket was the waste bin. Then, I took some thicker material which should be the pockets. I did the holes for the tubes and the grooves for the spark plugs surface and I'm there, not knowing (for the moment) how to continue. With a 3-D program, the parts were already done, but it's not my way to modelling!

Well, the skill can always be improved by training. The patience, that's different: you have it or not! It seems that I got an extra portion when I was born. As the total properties (positive and negative ones) are the same to all humans (this is my theory), I must have a deficit at something else! For example: sport activities: what an horror! Snow? Singin in the rain? beurk!

As for every part, there must be a base on which I can get the construction up. There is no difference here. I did a base and the wall which is on the exhaust/intake side. That's for the easy part, the rest will be more labor intensive. I continue with the exterior side (a picture from the real head is included) by adding the element just above the base and into which the 13 outside bolts are attaching the head to the block. As a casting an easy part, but without this possibility a bit more complicated: I did first the base without the "barrels" for the bolts. I drilled the holes at a diameter large enough to insert the barrels. Those were silver soldered to the part which is looking like a rod. After trimming the assembly, I realized that it will be more clever to soft solder it on the base part. Therefore, the parts on the pictures will be set aside for the moment. I will now go the the spark plug's side, the really complex one.

The engine blocks are ready. Finally, I soft soldered the "lid" earlier as foreseen because I will need the completed blocks to do the cylinder heads. At the side of the block, 13 studs will be used to attach the heads! On the picture, there are 2 smaller holes next to the ones figuring the cylinders. These holes are to temporarily attach the blocks to the crankcase with 2 screws each. At the back of each block, there are 5 tabs. These are needed to attach the tube hiding the spark plug wires. Now, I'm planning the heads. Of course, the internals (valves and so on) will not be reproduced; if the heads towards the outside are fairly simple, the sides towards the center are much more complicated. Sure, once the garnish cover will be installed, it will be difficult to see that side from the heads, but I would hate to oversimplify the heads. I'm attaching a picture showing all those shapes.

Each engine block has 6 expansion plugs; I reproduced them as good as I could. Then came the moment I have to drill the holes into the crankcase, securing partly the blocks to the crankcase. To have a consistent drilling, I did 2 supports with scrap material to have an horizontal surface for one block. For the other block I certainly will have to do two other supports because they are not reversible. Furthermore, I will need them again when I will drill the heads, blocks and crankcase. As you see, the blocks must be closed at the top. As long as drilling is required, the "cover" will not be soldered.