62 Chevy II AF/X

[TheSilverBuick]

Perfect Drag Week testing conditions A small shroud will probably work wonders on the temp.

[squirrel]

I hope so. I got the shroud done. Although I had another adventure last night, the weather looked pretty nice around 5 so I went to the monthly cruise near Sonic. Not many guys there. Hung out for around an hour, then got a burger. By the time I headed home the sky was black, and didn't take long till I was into the heavy rain. There was muddy water flowing over the road in several places, several inches deep. Got dirt all over everywhere under the hood. But I made it home, the car didn't miss a lick. Got a bit wet, and I had to use my handy towel defroster a few times.


btw the shroud is made of robot materials, left overs from building the Virginia Tech robot for the move (renamed) Spare Parts. Set for Jan 16, 2015 release.

[Scott Liggett]

Having the footwell vents and the vent windows cracked open will help keep the windows clean A bit of water might get in, but the windows won't fog up so easily.

[squirrel]

No footwell vents any more. And I tend to close the pass side vent window (and door window) if it looks like rain, since I can't reach it from the driver seat. When it gets so bad that I have to close the driver side vent window, like it did last night, there's not much I can do....

[Russell]

Shroud looks great! Would filler panels between the radiator and head lights help cool it?

[squirrel]

I think they would help direct more air into the radiator when I'm going down the highway, but it runs cool enough under those conditions already.

[TheSilverBuick]

Looks good!

[milner351]

Great work on the shroud (and everything else) Jim, I'd like to learn to shape metal like that, I've tried a couple attempts at building a shroud, none of them look anywhere near as nice as what you put together there.

What gauge is that aluminum? Looks fantastic.

[squirrel]

thanks! Not really much metal shaping involved here. It's real thin aluminum from the building supply, about .020" thick. It bends real easy, you can get a pretty decent bend using nothing more than two pieces of angle clamped in a vise, and use your hand to crease it. The curved part at the top middle just follows the arc of the angle that it's riveted to. I made a pattern from card stock first. the bends and the thin strips of angled aluminum give it it's strength. Pretty simple stuff, you can do it if you try.

[langleylad]

Nice work , I say to my boys all the time "don't be afraid to fail" . Just give it a try , you'll never know if you don't at least try . Plus why pay someone else to do it if you can do it yourself

[DanStokes]

I made a pattern from card stock first. the bends and the thin strips of angled aluminum give it it's strength. Pretty simple stuff, you can do it if you try.

I make all my stuff out of cardboard first. In fact, I hear there's a warrant out for my arrest for cardboard abuse. The dash, dash top, air filter splash shield, etc, etc on the S-10 were all prototyped in cellulose. Easy and cheap way to make your errors - sheet aluminum is pricey while cardboard is free. If I'm doing big stuff (like the dash top) I go to the furniture store and they usually have mattress boxes.

If you need long straight cuts you can start on the table saw (I suppose a circular saw and a fence would work). Don't rush the saw thru the cardboard and it'll make a straight starting point. It WILL leave a lot of cardboard dust, though. If I had a sheet metal shear I'd use that. When I try to make those long cuts with a knife I always seem to go off the line, even with a straight edge.

Dan

[squirrel]

When I made the templates for the new side windows on my suburban, I made them of cardboard first, then cut a set out of masonite. The windows did fit, too.

Anyways...I did a little more farting around stuff on the car. The transmission had an interesting clicking sound sometimes when putting it in park, and once I parked on a slope and it kept clicking. Seems I messed up in there when I put it together, same as the 55, put the park pawl retainer in backwards, So, I pulled the pan and fixed it, the fluid looked good, hardly any residue in the pan. The car has about 900 miles on it now. And I changed the engine oil again, put heavier stuff in it this time, 20w50, will see what happens. Also a front tire was losing air...dunked it in the horse water bucket, and it was bubbling from one spot where I welded up the rivet holes in the rim. So I took the tire off, ground and welded, and remounted it, and balanced it again. It's a lot of work without the right tools, too. We'll see how it works. I need to get one of those manual tire machines from harbor freight, I guess.

I went for a test drive with the shroud, it wasn't hot enough out to really test it, only in the low 80s in town. I got stuck in traffic as best I could, hottest it got was 217, and it cooled back down to around 205 when I got going on the country roads. I'll just have to wait and see, I think it will be ok.

[TheSilverBuick]

I got nothing you don't already know. Double check timing, maybe lean it out at idle/cruise a hair, and maybe try a different temp gauge for a bit, though 205 isn't terrible, I'm not sure I'd want that temp for fear of detonation. Which isn't a huge concern with that compression if you stay out of the boost.

[squirrel]

205 I can live with. I just don't like it getting up to 240 in traffic when it's really hot out

[tardis454]

That car's come a long way, excellent job Jim