Tweet
Today, for the first time in many, many moons, I did car stuff. I had forgotten how cool this stuff is...
First thing this morning, I went down and picked up a complete 383 and 727 from a 1967 Newport. Yeah, it has the small-valve heads, but I can fix that. The intent was to get a running engine to put in my Road Runner so I can pull it in and out of the garage while I am doing the bodywork on it rather than have to push the damned thing in and out. I fired up the old Chevy pickup in my driveway and rumbled over to the shop. There is just something cool about cruising along in an old truck with a saddle blanket seat cover while sipping on a hot cup of coffee. It was a good morning..
I dropped the truck off in my driveway after picking up the engine and trans and drove my car up north to visit an old friend whom I had not seen in a very long time, Brian High. Brian called me earlier today and told me he had heard I was in the market for a flywheel and clutch for my Road Runner. He just happened to have some extras he needed to find a home for and we worked a deal. I went to pick up the stuff and while we were chatting, he asked if I needed anything else while I was there and pointed out several bits and pieces he had laying around that were taking up valuable real estate. One of these items, an Edelbrock Performer intake for a SBC, looked interesting as the intake that's on the truck is cracked and leaks water. Twenty dollars later, I had a nice intake for the truck.
The clutch disc Brian had was for his coarse spline "Hemi" four-speed in his Road Runner and isn't compatible with my 23 spline input shaft on my A-833, so we jumped in Brian's badass 1970 Plymouth (Sassy Grass Green is a very loud color, by the way) fat-tired Road Runner and headed out to visit The Legend hisself: Mike Crow.
As we pulled up in Mike's driveway (no small feat in that low-riding Mopar) I asked Brian if someone recently had a clearance sale on red paint. Mike's Cuda was sitting out side the garage with a battery charger hooked up to it while it's red paint glistened in the bright Saturday sunshine. Next to it was Mike's bright red Dodge truck and behind the Cuda, in the garage on the lift, was our buddy Danny's red Chevelle. There was a LOT of red sheetmetal there today.
We caught Mike putting the finishing touches on an uber-high tech, triple chrome pated, high capacity oil pan for his Dart. He had the tig welder fired up and was trying hard to complete his task without revealing the slick nitrous bottle brackets he was adding inside the sump of the pan.
Mike showed off the Chevelle project he and Danny (and a host of Brian's minions) had been working on for several months. New sheetmetal, new paint, new suspension, all looking good up on the lift. Danny's car is going to be a killer street cruiser. After the tour of the Chevy, Mike dug out a couple old clutch discs he had laying around. I'm not looking for a good clutch, I just want something to get me in an out of the garage while I do the bodywork on my car. Mike measured the thickness of both discs and handed me the one that measured .271" thick... yeah, he got ALL the goodie out of that one, but it will work just fine for what I want to do with it. We shot the bull for several more minutes, sharing war stories and such. It felt good to be out in a garage talking about cars. Brian said he was hungry, so we jumped back in his Road Runner and headed back to his place.
When I got home, my buddy Chris and I put a new set of plugs & wires in my Neon and then unloaded the engine and tranny from the pickup. The 383 is now sitting on an engine stand and it appears to be very clean inside. With a new set of gaskets and freeze plugs, this thing is going in the Road Runner.
I do love weekends like this.
Ron
First thing this morning, I went down and picked up a complete 383 and 727 from a 1967 Newport. Yeah, it has the small-valve heads, but I can fix that. The intent was to get a running engine to put in my Road Runner so I can pull it in and out of the garage while I am doing the bodywork on it rather than have to push the damned thing in and out. I fired up the old Chevy pickup in my driveway and rumbled over to the shop. There is just something cool about cruising along in an old truck with a saddle blanket seat cover while sipping on a hot cup of coffee. It was a good morning..
I dropped the truck off in my driveway after picking up the engine and trans and drove my car up north to visit an old friend whom I had not seen in a very long time, Brian High. Brian called me earlier today and told me he had heard I was in the market for a flywheel and clutch for my Road Runner. He just happened to have some extras he needed to find a home for and we worked a deal. I went to pick up the stuff and while we were chatting, he asked if I needed anything else while I was there and pointed out several bits and pieces he had laying around that were taking up valuable real estate. One of these items, an Edelbrock Performer intake for a SBC, looked interesting as the intake that's on the truck is cracked and leaks water. Twenty dollars later, I had a nice intake for the truck.
The clutch disc Brian had was for his coarse spline "Hemi" four-speed in his Road Runner and isn't compatible with my 23 spline input shaft on my A-833, so we jumped in Brian's badass 1970 Plymouth (Sassy Grass Green is a very loud color, by the way) fat-tired Road Runner and headed out to visit The Legend hisself: Mike Crow.
As we pulled up in Mike's driveway (no small feat in that low-riding Mopar) I asked Brian if someone recently had a clearance sale on red paint. Mike's Cuda was sitting out side the garage with a battery charger hooked up to it while it's red paint glistened in the bright Saturday sunshine. Next to it was Mike's bright red Dodge truck and behind the Cuda, in the garage on the lift, was our buddy Danny's red Chevelle. There was a LOT of red sheetmetal there today.
We caught Mike putting the finishing touches on an uber-high tech, triple chrome pated, high capacity oil pan for his Dart. He had the tig welder fired up and was trying hard to complete his task without revealing the slick nitrous bottle brackets he was adding inside the sump of the pan.
Mike showed off the Chevelle project he and Danny (and a host of Brian's minions) had been working on for several months. New sheetmetal, new paint, new suspension, all looking good up on the lift. Danny's car is going to be a killer street cruiser. After the tour of the Chevy, Mike dug out a couple old clutch discs he had laying around. I'm not looking for a good clutch, I just want something to get me in an out of the garage while I do the bodywork on my car. Mike measured the thickness of both discs and handed me the one that measured .271" thick... yeah, he got ALL the goodie out of that one, but it will work just fine for what I want to do with it. We shot the bull for several more minutes, sharing war stories and such. It felt good to be out in a garage talking about cars. Brian said he was hungry, so we jumped back in his Road Runner and headed back to his place.
When I got home, my buddy Chris and I put a new set of plugs & wires in my Neon and then unloaded the engine and tranny from the pickup. The 383 is now sitting on an engine stand and it appears to be very clean inside. With a new set of gaskets and freeze plugs, this thing is going in the Road Runner.
I do love weekends like this.
Ron
Comment