Fordor has a heart

I located a 270 Dodge Baby Hemi for the fordor. I found it in Oregon, all rebuilt ready to go. It is being shipped, should have it here in a couple of weeks. I have been busy and Have not touched the fordor. It is to be next winters project anyway
. I sold my 29A pickup a couple of weeks ago. That is the first hot rod that I have sold. No I did not lose my mind, what little I have, I replaced the A with a deuce panel truck. It came with a 327/350 57 chev rear, lots of patina and needs lots of TLC.
The previous owner was up front with me and told me the king pins and steering box were shot. He was right! I replaced the king pins already. It has a F! steering box, i decidec to go with a Vega, I have a Vega box, pitman arm, bracket on the parts shelf. Here is the kicker. To get the F1 box out, other than a cutting torch, the engine has to come out, well, it was mounted too low anyway, so that will be a 2 fix deal. The engine is out, tranny out, the rear mount was completely worn into two pieces. Now I will box the frame from the firewall forward, add front shocks, new column, n ew wheel, new front spring, which means new perche bolts, you know, one thing calls for another. I have cleaned and painted the engine, cleaned the trans, paint will follow. Tomorrow or Tuesday I plane to sand blast the frame rails, firewall, then weld the boxing plates in.
While I was replacing the king pins, I had the front drums turned, and the shoes relined.  When I was pulling the engine, I noticed the brake line was copper.....and singled flared!! That is being replced too.
The wiring is in dire need of repair, there are four glass fuses, and all the wire is yelo or white. The lights are not hooked up, I'm changing the rear lights out, so there is a complete wire harness on the list to go in. I really wanted to drive this thing for the "shop truck" this spring/summer...might be a push to do that. In two weeks I leave for a Buick trip to my 50th class reunion and then jump into the rpu and head to the LARS. My next two weeks will be busy. I think I should go to the shop now.................see ya later

New project

Since the B400 is done, I was getting nervous that I would have nothing to do. I can't stand to sit in the rocking chair on the porch, so I found another deuce to build. This time its a 32 fordor. Ebay is a dangerous place to hang out at.....found a body in TN, hit a bid and it said reserve met...you are the high bidder. Oops, I better look a little closer. LOL A few days latter my friend Terry and I was off to TN to pick the body up. It was a good buy. Already all blasted, so I could see everything. All the garnishes, firewall, two rear fenders, doors, regulators and most of the latches were there. They are a few bullet holes, dents, broken hinge pins and a little rust out in the lower cowl and the rear of the body. Sometime back someone lifted the body with a chain thru the door openings and bent both drip rails...thanks a lot !!
The  road trip went fine, 850 miles, arrived in the little town about 9 PM, arrived at the hot rod shop at 7ish the next morning, gave him a bag of hundreds, loaded the body and was gone by 9 AM on the road....arrived at home about 10 PM. We stopped for a Subway at lunch, gas  a few times, a drive thru burger, that was it.
A few days later I found a new chassis in WI for a good price, so another road trip to bring that home, that was just down and back in the same day. I found front fenders, running boards, rear fenders, floor boards, and rear frame horn covers.....ths time in GA ! That's 1300 miles one way.....wow. My friend Darrick called his buddy a trucker that goes to FL each way and got him to pick them up for me in his produce truck...that was a great deal, saved me lots of gas money and four days in the car. So now I most of the main parts, plenty of work to do for a while.
I am thinking of a Hemi for power, a friend found one of those for me in Hastings, MN, only 120 miles or so away, I will go check that out in a couple of weeks.

the striper came by today

I called Cliff Anderson, my favorite pinstriper last week to come by, He came today, he lives in the cities so it was a bit of a drive for him.  He laid down some AWESOME stripes. A neat dual line on the beltline, some on the dash and a real cool design on the rear deck area. He also made a really cool acetate show card sign for my lighted box, all just in time for the next two weekends of indoor car shows.
Tomorrow we will load the B400 into friend Doug's trailer. We leave for Fargo Friday morning. Should be a fun weekend. The next weekend it will  at the GSTA show in St Paul, that one is a "real car guy" show.

Good day today !!!

Today was a good day. Finally got a good brake pedal. Doug stopped by and help me adjust the brakes....this time we got it. 40 Ford brakes are a little harder to adjust than the later 48 and up ones. Have a nice pedal now, I think we got it.
I added some gas to the tank, hit the fuel pump switch....nothing. Re did the ground wire and bingo....it works. Next was a leak from the aluminum fuel line......two little pin holes....cut if off and spliced in a 3/8 rubber line. I decided to replace the line coming out of the fuel filter too, a quick trip to the hardware store for the proper fitting and that was done. I never liked the first line that I used, it was an AN fitting but I never trusted it, now I feel good.
 I added hose clamps on top of the Gates heat shrink ones. Three of the heat shrink ones were leaking, five were good.....added a real hose clamp to all of them....now the leaks are gone. Next thing was to fire the engine. I have been dreading this and putting it off for as long as I could....finally today is the day...poured a little gas down the carb, hit the key and it fired up. Kind of noisy....found leaks on the passenger side exhaust headers.I tightened the bolts on the headers....still leaks. Time to replace the gaskets...I used new ones that came with the headers but they still leaked. I had a set of other new ones, they look better, thicker, good thing I ordered those when I did. Replaced two of the gaskets and now all good. Nice sounds coming out of the exhaust and not out of the exhaust ports. It was real good to hear the engine run., the Porters sound good, the oil pressure was good, I have the rear wheels jacked up, hit the clutch and put it in gear and the wheels turn, the clutch should be all good.  I did not run it long enough to heat it up and check the fan and cooling system, but I am sure it will be fine. Feels good to hear it run ....if it wasn't so darn snowy out I would be driving around the block!! Now just clean her up, wax it and go to Fargo Toppers show the first weekend of April and the next week end go to St Paul for the GSTA show. The GSTA acceptance note came today so I am in both shows. It will be fun to show her off. Oh yea, I have to get Cliff to drive here and lay some stripes on her, I think ivory will look good.  Today was a good day !!!

More pics...maybe???

seats, aircraft seat, aircraft belts, back seat matches the front

new pics

I'll try again........................................

B400 almost done

The B400 is home from the upholstery shop. The top and interior is done. Al from Rapids Upholstery did another great job for me. This is the 7th car he hss done for me. The top came out great, it folds nicely. The interior is just the way I had invisioned it.
The small item punch list is down to a couple  of things. The sticker item is getting the brakes bleed properly. My friend Kirk has been over twice to help me pump the pedal. After several leaks in the lines were fixed we got the front brakes to work well.  The rears are giving me trouble. This morning I picked up two rear wheel cylinders. The ones I had are frozen. I will replace the cylinders Sunday or Monday, call Kirk to come again and that should be it. I hope to attach a couple of pics. I am using my new little noteboo computer, the one I plan to take on the trips with me. Of course things don't work quite the same. Well I just tried, and the pics are not in the file!! I will post this, download the pics again and try to post them on a new post.