Firewall Holes Filled - Almost Ground Down!

I have all the holes in the firewall welded closed. Most of the welds have been ground smooth. Finishing up the final touches tomorrow night. Once that is complete, I will paint strip the front end, sand smooth, and prime. Once the primer is done, the skim coat of filler begins to smooth out the entire firewall.

Video of the SBC 350 running for the 2nd time!

Completely rebuilt SBC 350. Bored .20 over, new flat top pistons, crank, mild cam, bearings, gaskets, aluminum intake, holley double spread bore 650 carb, etc. etc.

Exhaust leaves engine with a pair of ram horn manifolds into 1.5" pipe, immediatley stepped up into 2" pipe, into an H-pipe, into dual Flowmaster 50HD mufflers, and then out and over the rear axle with 2" pipe.

Idle is currently set high for breaking in the motor. Tuning will be done later on. I'm just thrilled to see it running finally!

Engine Installed!

I finally got the engine and exhaust all installed. Transmission is a TH700R4. From everything I've been reading online, tweaking that transmission is a royal pain in the butt. I picked up a new TV cable kit that automatically adjusts the TV cable from the carb to the transmission. Once the engine & transmission were installed, I dropped the transmission pan, swapped out the TV cable spring, installed a new filter, and re-assembled the transmission.

The exhaust was then bolted on, transmission fluid filled, and a test fire commenced. Once we verifed the engine would turn over and fire, we connected the radiator for a full on test.

Transmission Hump Almost Complete!

Both sides of the tranmission tunnel have been welded down from the top side now. Came out very nice.


Next I will be welding the tunnel from below. I JUST ran out of gas for the mig welder so I will getting that filled tomorrow after work.

Reworking the Tranny Hump!

Started working on raising the tranny hump up about 2 " to provide better clearance for the transmission. First I cleaned up the transmission hump to prepare it for the new metal. I then used some cardboard to mock up a template that will be cut out of metal.

Once transfered to the metal, I cut it out using my cutoff wheel on the hand grinder.

Another shot of the piece of metal that will be formed into the new transmission hump. Transmission tunnel prepped for the new metal.

Another shot showing the lip all the way around of the tranny hump.

Placed the piece of metal over the hole and started welding it down. So far about half way done, coming out nicely.

Tomorrow night I will finish welding down the other side.

Been A While.... Some Progress!

So it has been a while since I've had an update. I've been dreading having to lay under the body of the car and wirebrush the rust away. Well, the time finally came to do that. Took about 2 days to get it all brushed down. Surprisingly good shape. Only uncovered a few tiny holes that were easy to fix with some fiberglass resin & mesh.

With the bottom mostly patched up, I started on the firewall. Plenty of no longer needed holes that I will patch up and smooth out the entire firewall. Previous owners really did a hack job on the firewall especially around the steering column.
Started to patch the big hacked up hole by the steering column. Kind of a tricky patch but started out well. Some overlap welding and butt welding.

Most of the holes all patched up. Need to grind smooth and skim coat with some filler.

2 more spots to fill in by the brake pedal and then I will smooth all the welds out.

Picking up some body filler tomorrow along with some sandable primer. Preparing to put on an addition, so the sooner I can get the body back down on the frame and rolled out of the garage the better.

Rebuilding the Small Block Chevy 350!

This weekend, with the help of my brother-in-law Joe, we re-assembled my Chevy 350 which was just picked up from the machine shop. The engine received a complete overhaul. The heads were rebuilt with hardened seats to run unleaded gas, block was bored 2 over, new pistons, rings, bearings, gaskets, crank was ground, and a new mild camshaft was purchased.
1st we attached the freshly bored / honed block to the engine stand.
Shot of the gasket set.
Shot of the new flat top pistons pressed on to the rods.
The first thing to get installed in the block was the new camshaft. This was lubed up a lot to help during its break in period.
Another view of the block with the camshaft installed (you can barely see the cam).
With the camshaft installed, we moved on to the crankshaft. First we set in place the new crank bearings. With the bearings snapped in to place, we set in the crankshaft. Lots of oil to lube it up.
Litterally a "parts" car.... We just used this "under $500 race car" as a workbench to layout our parts on.
Once the crank was set in place, we put on the upper crank bearing caps and torqued everything to spec. Next we flipped the engine over and prepped for installing the pistons.
Shot of the drivers side with pistons all installed. When in doubt, hammer it in... NOT!
Flipped the engine over again and torqued all the rod caps to spec. Temporarily bolted on the oil pan to prevent oil from dripping out from this point on.
Shot of the passenger side with all the pistons installed.
We then installed the new timing chain / gear set.
Upper gear is the camshaft, lower gear is the crankshaft.
Lifters were then set in place. The lifters ride on the camshaft.
Next we bolted on the heads and set the rocker arms and connecting rods in place. Rocker arms ride on the connecting rods which ride on the lifters which ride on the cam.
Rocker arms all tightened down.
Another view of the new timing chain & gears.
View of the lifters & connecting rods.
We finally temporarily bolted on the new Edlebrock Performer aluminum intake. Where the carb will bolt on, we hooked a bracket made for lifting the engine. This will be used to lift the engine off the stand for transportation back home.
Final view of engine. Next will be installing the oil pump and then prepping for paint!