Barney

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datzenmike
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Re: Barney

Post by datzenmike »

510wizard wrote:Is a Pontiac of the same vintage, the same body? If so,my old neighbor has a stock hood in his garage rafters that he would probably sell.
The Pontiac had chrome stripes down the center of the hood and trunk.

My dad bought a '51 Chev in '56. It was our family car until '65 when we bought a 'new' '64 Dodge. I would have been 15 and was expecting to get that old Chev.... but he sold it to our neighbor and I became a lifetime Dodge Boy.

Julian that brings back memories.
"Nissan 'shit the bed' when they made these, plain and simple." McShagger510 on flattop SUs
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okayfine
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Re: Barney

Post by okayfine »

Hasn't been a lot actually going on with Barney in the last few days. Making lists, ordering parts, and...figuring out why it wouldn't start. It's been a bit of a trial by fire figuring out the SBC, since this is my real first time with something not import and 4 cylinders.

Due to the pinging on the drive home, I figured there had to be some sort of timing issue creating the no-start condition. After all, it was unlikely to lose compression sitting on my driveway, and not only was the glass fuel filter at the carb showing fuel, but the carb was also spitting up fuel while cranking, and sometimes this was on fire, so I was at least getting spark.

Well, long story short, it ends up being a fuel supply problem. I was focused on it being ignition and didn't bother to check for fuel (after all, it was backfiring). Cracked open the catalog and ordered a new, $200 OE fuel tank complete with boss and block-off plate for an in-tank EFI pump. Since that's where this whole thing is eventually headed, it was a no-brainer.

Going through the whole fuel system at this time, including a new pump. Changing a SBC fuel pump can be a 5-minute job if you know the trick of using the block bolt to pinch the pushrod (which falls down if you don't, and you can't push it up because it's shiny metal covered in oil). I didn't. Finally got it back in after consultations with the Internets. Boy-o...

In the good-news category, I again got to deal with Hagerty insurance. An actual pleasant experience all around, and no hassled at all getting Barney some coverage, even in modified form. $221 for 100/500 at $15,000 value.
Because when you spend a silly amount of money on a silly, trivial thing that will help you not one jot, you are demonstrating that you have a soul and a heart and that you are the sort of person who has no time for Which? magazine. – Jeremy Clarkson
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Mattndew76
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Re: Barney

Post by Mattndew76 »

nice insurance setup.

I was talking to my Allstate rep and got a good vintage plan for the 1200. 200$ glass deductible and 500$ Damage deductible with a $23,000 replacement value. $75.00 per month added to my package policy.
An Idea doesn't work unless you do.
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okayfine
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Fuel Tank Swap

Post by okayfine »

Found my fuel problem. The 5" of hose that went from the tank outlet to the chassis hard line had a big crack in it, so the pump was sucking air. I'd pulled that short hose off the hard line and bent it in half to zip tie it so it wouldn't leak when I pulled the tank - it ended up pouring more gas out than if I'd left the hose wide open. Well, almost.

Pulled out the tank for the swap to the bigger tank with the EFI mounting in it. Tank I removed was a poly replacement tank:
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Here's the new tank, ready to go in:
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And in place, with new straps and some inner tube to protect the tank:
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Some odd stuff done to this car by PO's various. Like the fuel sender - it was grounded to the chassis since the tank was plastic...but then that ground spot was grounded to the body in a wire chain. So, lots of opportunities to do things right. I'll have another one to share tomorrow.
Because when you spend a silly amount of money on a silly, trivial thing that will help you not one jot, you are demonstrating that you have a soul and a heart and that you are the sort of person who has no time for Which? magazine. – Jeremy Clarkson
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two_68_510s
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Re: Barney

Post by two_68_510s »

"Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages."
James Madison

(Looks like you might have found some good medicine.)
Joel

2 '68 510 2 door sedans
'95 240SX


“We will either find a way, or make one.” – Hannibal
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okayfine
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Re: Barney

Post by okayfine »

Owning and working on a supported car is nice, but you still have to deal with PO screwups. Take, for instance, the fuel sender. The gauge in the car didn't seem accurate to me, and the PO mentioned having run out of gas with 1/2 tank on the gauge. I'm thinking he didn't run out of gas, it was just sucking air at that time as well. How the heck I made it home with no issues...Mr. Chevrolet must have been smiling down on me.

But, anyway, when I swapped tanks I R&Red the sender as well. The sender body was adjusted to a suitable height (otherwise it wouldn't have fit), as the poly tank was only 5" high. However, whomever installed the sender left the full length of the float rod. It was easily 14" long, and working in a height of 5" or so, would have given very narrow results on the gauge for a given fuel height. I trimmed the float rod right down, adjusted the sender for the new tank height (new tank's oversized compared to stock).

Also discovered the factory riveted the rear spring mounts to the chassis. I have a bolt-on set of new springs coming, but no one said anything about bolting off the current stuff. That'll not be fun, but not difficult since I won't care about the OE brackets and I can just butcher them with an angle grinder until they cry submission...times 16 rivets.
Because when you spend a silly amount of money on a silly, trivial thing that will help you not one jot, you are demonstrating that you have a soul and a heart and that you are the sort of person who has no time for Which? magazine. – Jeremy Clarkson
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two_68_510s
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Re: Barney

Post by two_68_510s »

You must be getting a lot of those, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?" issues, eh?

But even so, the fun is fixing the weird problems and making it a clean build.
Joel

2 '68 510 2 door sedans
'95 240SX


“We will either find a way, or make one.” – Hannibal
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okayfine
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Re: Barney

Post by okayfine »

two_68_510s wrote:You must be getting a lot of those, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?" issues, eh?
There are those, but when they took twice as long to do as it would have taken to do it right, I get nervous enough to check over the whole car front-to-back. The major stuff (front suspension, engine/trans, rear end) seem okay.

After getting the fuel system back together and fixing the rickety battery tray, the next step will be to make up some seat belt mounts to weld in to the upper and lower B-pillars. At least there's no headliner, so I have access. New belts are on the way, and I have plate and 7/16-20 nuts.
Because when you spend a silly amount of money on a silly, trivial thing that will help you not one jot, you are demonstrating that you have a soul and a heart and that you are the sort of person who has no time for Which? magazine. – Jeremy Clarkson
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okayfine
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Sort of Cooling Fan

Post by okayfine »

Another thing that needed fixing was the cooling fan. As I'm discovering, there are some nice parts on this car, installed not so well.

Such as the $700 aluminum radiator with a nice $200 17" electrical fan,
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installed with a one-inch gap to the radiator core, allowing most of the fan air to blow out the sides:
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I could have just made new mounts for the fan, but the fan is currently triggered by nothing better than a manual switch. I pulled the efan off to save it for the eventual LS swap, and bought a flex fan to install.

Of course, it wasn't as simple as that. Despite the near $grand spent on cooling, the PO filled the system with water. What was in there when I popped the cap might have come from the Mighty Missisip for all the clarity it had. So, clearly, a coolant flush was also in order.

Putting it all back together gave me a clean front, and a new fan behind:
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I still need to make a shroud.

I also pulled the billet steering wheel and replaced with a clean, if generic, 3-spoke wheel. Critically, this wheel has 4" of dish, where the billet wheel had next to 0". I have long arms but it was quite a reach for me to the old billet wheel.
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Time to polish up the billet parts and put them up on CL. Hopefully somebody's building a ZZTop tribute car...
Because when you spend a silly amount of money on a silly, trivial thing that will help you not one jot, you are demonstrating that you have a soul and a heart and that you are the sort of person who has no time for Which? magazine. – Jeremy Clarkson
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Mattndew76
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Re: Barney

Post by Mattndew76 »

Really Clean car Julian.
An Idea doesn't work unless you do.
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two_68_510s
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Re: Barney

Post by two_68_510s »

Man, I am glad you changed that steering wheel! Didn't know about the dish issue, but it was just wrong.

Much better classic choice.

Did you get rid of the electric fan completely? I had a nice really low profile shroud made for mine, I am sure with your aluminum skills, not too much of a challenge.

I am also drawn to the other end of that decade ....
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Joel

2 '68 510 2 door sedans
'95 240SX


“We will either find a way, or make one.” – Hannibal
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okayfine
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Re: Barney

Post by okayfine »

OE steering wheels for the car wouldn't have had much dish at all. I suspect the later steering column changed what dish would be appropriate. But, yeah, that billet wheel is gonzo.
Because when you spend a silly amount of money on a silly, trivial thing that will help you not one jot, you are demonstrating that you have a soul and a heart and that you are the sort of person who has no time for Which? magazine. – Jeremy Clarkson
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McShagger510
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Re: Barney

Post by McShagger510 »

Cool project. 8) Gotta luv the str8 forward fixes. :mrgreen:

James
The person with the sun in their eyes has the right of way. - my brother

'72 2dr. 510 Turbo
'73 240Z all stock
'71 2dr. 510 stock......for now
'91 Nissan truck *SOLD*
'02 TOYOTA Tacoma
'78 Kawasaki Z1-R
'84 Kawasaki GPZ750 Turbo
'99 Kawasaki ZRX1100
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okayfine
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Re: Barney

Post by okayfine »

Next on the list of failed-PO fixes...valve cover gaskets. So I've been chasing an oil-smoke-into-the-cabin problem. Only really happens when you give it the beans and then let off. Light smoke wafts into the passenger footwell. On the other side of the firewall is this big SBC, which are known to blow oil out the breathers. There's a breather on the passenger-side valve cover. It looks like oil dropplets all around the breather. Fine, I just need to convert it to a catch can. I even have one on the parts shelf. Bingo-bango.

Then I go to modify the valve cover for the fitting I need it to have to route hose to the catch can. Pulling off the valve cover, the entire lower half of the gasket has been pinched. So, there's me problem. :roll:
Because when you spend a silly amount of money on a silly, trivial thing that will help you not one jot, you are demonstrating that you have a soul and a heart and that you are the sort of person who has no time for Which? magazine. – Jeremy Clarkson
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RonM
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Re: Barney

Post by RonM »

My neighbor Ebah Lupton, who lived at the end of our street had a white 50 Chevy. Memories.
Sometimes people loose touch with subjectivity, because they've got they're heads stuck too far up they're own,,, Reality.
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