Dec 19

Had a "toon" made of the B400. I think it came out really neat. Check out his web page and order your car in Artbomb form!! www.eyemechanic.webs.com/artbomb

Dec 11

I worked over the peep mirrors today, removed the mirrors and replaced with a convex one that will help me see who is behind me. Of course I broke both old mirrors while removing them, will that give me 14 years of bad luck?? I added a rubber pad, framed with 16 gauge strip all screwed down with button fasteners to the trans hump, this will protect the blue paint from my right foot. I also cut some new rubber pedal inserts to match the floor rubber and the trans pad. If you look closely the brake pedal has the new pyramid design rubber, the clutch has the original finish yet.... they will look better to match the floor,anyway I think so. I powder coated the steering column, Hoodlum plaque bracket and the seat latch bracket, while the oven was hot I coated my new shop door decoration. The gas tank is all finished, strapped down, wires run and fuel line secured, looks kind of cool...to bad the rear seat will cover most of it up

missed a couple....

shifter ball....blue 2 ball Gates shrink radiator hose clamps.......

no ugly metal clamps

Dec 7th...misc pics

some misc pictures........finished the bracket for the column today, added the turn signal switch, added a brass plate that says "hot rod made in usa" to the column drop, tail light detail wiring, old regulator cover that covers the battery cable bulk heads, made a bracket for the "Hoodlum" plaque, painted the plaque, shifter handle...a pool ball, blue with a "2" on it...perfect match. Now I need to powder coat the steering column bracket, the steering column and the seat latch...maybe tomorrow. Had to put the snow blower on the John Deere today, I have putting that off for ever...forecast shows 5 to 6 inches bu Sunday, that slowed down the 400 progress...oh well, there is next week.

December 5th...more progress

Its been a while since I have posted. I have been busy, doing many things that don't really show, but still makes progress. The exhaust is reinstalled for the final time. Should have been a real simple thing, it was on before. This time I had the starter on, the header tube would not clear the starter. I had my machinist friend redrill the base of the starter so that it could be rotated by a quarter......fits now. The blue Porter mufflers were installed with my "touch"...silver Porter medallions glued to them......can't hardly see them but I know they are there! I fitted the louver panel to the rear drive shaft hump, drilled holes around the outside to bolt them down and then drilled 1/8th holes for button head bolts to make the hump appear to be bolted to the floor. Just for kicks, and now the drive shaft hump matches the tranny hump. It will soon anyway, as soon as I paint it semi gloss blue. The last bit of the fuel line was installed, thru the floor and to the tank, the vent hose is now in position. The rear wires are run all the way, just waiting for the tail lights to be finished and mounted. The rear turn signal wires run, the 3 wires for the gas sender done. The steering gear is a Shroeder sprint car unit with a quick 8:1 ratio, makes for a very quick steering. I purchased a 2:1 quickener, installed it backwards, that should slow down the steering to 16:1....the same as a Vega box. I measured where to cut the shaft for the reducer to fit and took it to Fat Joe to cut and weld it back together, he does good work. I got a new piece of 1 1/2 inch tubing from him, had him flare one end, made a base plate plate, welded it together for a steering column. Tomorrow I will reinstall the steering gear, make a bracket to keep the reducer from spinning when I turn the wheel, paint the new tubing column piece and finish up the install...oh yea, install the chrome pitman arm and add the drag link. I used aluminum gas line to fit the edge of the rear bomber bench seat and had Fat Joe tig it to the seat side edge....looks good, matches the front seats better and softens the edge. The rubber seal around the windshield is on and the corners cut for a mitered fit and super glued together, now just put it in. The hood tops are fitted, now the side panels are next. The vent hose for the rear end is installed and mounted to the floor out of the way. The three tables of parts are becoming much thinner...looks good to see table tops

and not parts.

More progress

Made some good progress this week. The wiring is 98% done. I still need to attach the tail, head lights, gas sender and a few things like that after the body is on. I also got the Saturday breakfast guys help me lift the body on. Sure looks good to have it mated back to the chassis again. I flipped the master cutoff switch, hit the start switch, the volt meter shows voltage and the starter cranked the engine and no smoke leaks...a good sign !! This week I will continue the final wiring of the head lights, install the exhaust, work on the brake and clutch pedals, bleed the brakes...that will keep me busy for a bit. With the upcoming holiday weekend I probably wont get a whole lot done. Monday I have set aside to fix the seat heater in daughter Michelle's Denali...I promised to fix it for her. I will need to get the John Deere to the shop to install the snow blower before I need to use it. There will be hot rod time next week.

Nov 12th

A snee

k peak at the body..........................

Progress...Nov 12

Motor and trans is in,drive shaft in,

fuel line ran from rear to both carbs, the wiring is started. I made a harness with plugs for the below dash gauges. Next is cutting the holes for the tach and the speedo, wire the lights and then the starter, the dizzy and resistor. I hope to get some help Saturday morning after breakfast and get the body on the frame.

more pics for Nov 1

Photos for the clutch and engine part.

November 1 ...a little progress

I've been busy doing other things instead of working on the B400. I did get a little progress made this last week or so. While I was waiting on some clutch parts I decided to make the kick panels. They are made from ABS plastic panel. I kind of like that stuff. I needed to mount the voltmeter in the right kick panel because the extra gauge panel is full. I am running 2 water temp gauges so the 4 gauge panel under the dash is full. To make the voltmeter fit in the kick panel I had to make a little pod or a bulge in it. I have done this on two other deuces in the past. I had saved the wood buck from the last jobs. The heat gun works wonders to heat the plastic soft, then carefully force it over the buck and apply a little more heat. You can feel when it is soft enough. After it cools, a hole saw makes a nice round hole, then pop the gauge into it. I had my neighbor machine a bushing so that I could use a real bearing for the pilot shaft instead on the bronze bushing that comes with the set up. Next was to drill and tap a hole in the aluminum bellhousing to attach the throwout bearing to. I drilled a small hole at the end of the bolt to attach the spring to. Thanks to friend Darrick, i used his bellhousing as a pattern. His flattie is torn down at the moment, so me taking the bell for a day or so worked out. Yesterday I got the trans and engine bolted together and installed into the chassis. Sure looks good in there. The firewall went back on and the radiator too. Speedway order will bring me more radiator hoses and Gates power clamps to finish it up.

Monday/Tuesday

I left OKC about 7AM and headed to Des Moines by the way of Joplin and Peculiar, MO. I stopped in Peculiar to visit Pete and Jakes. I wanted to talk to them about the broken bat wings. Of course they said they never saw that before. He thinks it has something to do with the broken mono leaf spring in June. Anyway, he gave me new shackles and a new pair of perches. I arrived in Des Moines about 4:30 PM. I met Dave at his shop. After a little visit and a car wash we went to Lone Star Steak house for a nice dinner and then over to his friend Rick's DQ for some free ice cream. After a relaxing night at Dave's house, I left at 7 AM for home. I decided to stop at the Walgreens retirees lunch. That was fun. Hardly anyone recognized me. They new me as a guy in a suit and tie, short hair, no beard.....I walked in with a t shirt, cut offs, tennies, beard and my ponytail. LOL!!I made it to my home at 4 PM. 4109 miles, not sure how many gallons of gas, will add that up later. This ends the "trip of a lifetime" adventure...and it was just that. A exciting, fun trip, so glad I did it. I hope you had fun riding along. The next plan is how and when to get the B400 body home, it is all done, I want to have it home by the weekend. I will be updating progress on that project at least a few times a week.I will be starting work on it early next week.

Sunday

I woke up to cloudy and drizzle skies. I had planned to leave around 9AM, I finally left at 10:45. The sky had dried up for the most part. I headed up the back roads, county 1209 and onto state 95 to get me to Temple, TX. Then it was I35 north all the way to OKC. I got here about 6:30, found a room at Knights Inn...what a switch, last night it was the Hyatt Resort, (regular price of $249.00) and tonight its the Knights Inn at $34.99. Talk about a roller coaster ride! LOL !! About half way here I glanced at the volt meter, it showed 0 ! No charge at all, after a quick panic, I thought, can't be, I just took a break and the car started fine, its been running all day, has to be a lose wire on the gauge. After about 40 more miles I found a rest area, pulled in, reached under the dash and yep, the little brass nuts were loose. I tightened them up and the needle jumped to 14, I didn't even turn the engine off, just reached over, tightened them, stuck it in gear and away I went. It was a good drive here, 410 miles or so. In the morning its off on I44 to Tulsa, Joplin, MO then north on 71 to Pete and Jakes. I want to show them the bat wings and get their thoughts on why they broke. I plan to spend the night at Dave's in Dse Moines, thats the plan anyway. Going down the highway, people pull up next to me with their camera out the window, so I decided I would do the same, I would grab my camera and point it at them.....HA. They would laugh...doesn't take much to entertain me.I will add some photos of the bronze foundry sculptures, really neat. One is a bigger than life horse and wagon and a model T, the horses are about 12 ft tall. Its going to a park in Tulsa, OK next week. Also a pic of Charlie "Deuce Duran", and my new friend "Fordor Jerry"

All Deuce Reunion..Bastrop, TX

Ron, Don, Charlie and I left Ft Worth about 9AM for the Lost Pines Resort in Bastrop, TX. Its a 200 mile drive from Ft Worth. Bastrop is located east of Austin. We took the 2 lane there most of the way. It was a fun drive. Friday was a beautiful day. We hung out in the parking area (on the grass) and visited with old deuce friends and met several new ones. Plenty of fine deuces show up here. Most are from Texas. It rained Friday night over night. Saturday morning was foggy and drizzles. The sky would clear then cloud over and lightly rain. More of an nusiance than any thing else. Tonight was the awards banquet. It was Texas BBQ....very good. I was lucky enough to win "Hard Luck" and "Favorite Roadster" also received a trophy with a plaque that says...Most smiles per miles in a hot rod" that was cool. There were several door prizes, and a t shirt quilt raffle. A funn weekend. I plan to hit the road about 9AM and head for OKC in the morning.

Pics of Bruce Ricks collection

I forgot to post the pics of the Bruce Ricks collection. Tether cars, the Ridler ragtop Ford, and more.