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.