Car Junk We've Done, 2006
Yup, you guessed it, we're still at it, tearin' shit up and having fun!!
John's Burger Livermore 12.16.06
Winston took a couple pictures...
Scott's 1951(?) Chevy
Relic's Home Brew Aluminum Casting
Last night our search for a “thrifty” way of melting aluminum to cast new club plaques led us finally to a reusable method. We “repurposed” an old oxygen bottle (empty for many years) into a makeshift furnace.
Sure it may look a little like R2D2, but it puts out one hell of a flame. After warming it up to operating temprature it melted an usable amount of aluminum in about 15 minutes. We didn’t time the warm up as it was interupted but I would venture a guess of about 30 minutes at 15psi on the propane. Once we get a successful pour I’ll detail our entire process from start to finish. Now we just need to work on a proper sand mixture and we’ll be ready to go!
The rest of the progress pics are here in our gallery.
My 1931 Ford Coupe 'Hot Rod'
Flamed the Model A over the last weekend.... 12.10 - 12.12.06
12.03.06
Cruised over to some of my brother Relic's house to do some engine tuning. By the end of the evening it was running like a scalded cat!
I drove it around the day before, and it was running like crap. Spooked some horses, downtown Livermore was doin' some Christmas thing. Now that it runs decent, I can get on to the next thing to fix. Exhaust, maybe? Cut down and reinstall the Windshield? A roof?
Ooops!!!
Hit a Suburban on my way home from work on Tuesday. He turned right in front of me on Vasco on my way home from work, trying to turn onto the freeway on-ramp. Slammed on the brakes, or I would have hit him at 45, but I still hit his quarter panel/rear axle. Dammit!!
Not much more to say. Pulled on it with a chain, beat it with a sledge, and pryed on it with a jack handle, so she's ugly, but driveable.
Jim's Crazy Engine!!!
Lots of good stuff in this engine, Brodix heads, DART block, Eagle crank, the list goes on like that for days!!
The crown of this blower engine is Hillborne mechanical injection that has been modified to function as modern EFI! Very cool stuff!!
Jim says he was hoping to make 500 horsepower, but his engine guy is telling him to expect more like 800!!
Pictures of the truck soon!!
Steve gets a Chrysler 383 amd 727 Torqueflite!
Find pictures of Steve's Belvedere HERE....
Was a running '66 383 combo out of a Chrysler 300, Steve tore it down for a big nasty rebuild!
We also put the engine/tranny into my '57 Chevy truck that night, so we were pretty hammered by the time we got around to Steve's 383!
My 1957 Chevy Pick-up Truck
I got a Chevy 350 and T-5 into my '57 Chevy pickup. Only took me 10 months to get this far. It's still non-op'ed, and I need more little parts to get it on the road.
The brakes would be done, but when I ordered the three hydraulic hoses at Kragen, they only sent one, so they had to order the other two again. The rest of the brakes are good to go.
Marco sent me an email the other day. He writes:
I’m not sure if you remember me. It is a long time ago we have been comunicating a little. My name’s marco and i’m from switzerland europe. I saw your black charger few years ago, and thought I MUST have a car like this too. So i found a rotted project and you helped me out with some information, know-how tips and links were to find parts. After about 3000hours of work into the car, and around 100T US$ spent to parts and paint, i’m almost done. I thought you as a freak might be interested in my work and my final setup. This weekend i was on a test ride first time, even first time in a mopar ever. And it felt damn good!
I’m an office guy and it was my first restoration, but i gave my best and it came out very well i think. Attached you find some pictures. I hope you enjoy them. It is not finished yet, but winter is coming and still much time left to do that.
To the engine, i’ve built a stroker. It is a 72 charger block 474ci 0.60over, 11.5:1 diamond pistons, eagle H-beam rods, edelbrock heads, crane roller rockers, crower cam, holley race carb, electric holley fuelpump, edelbrock waterpump, flexalite dual fans, hedman ceramic c. headers, 3“ flowmaster pipes, spezial built reverse manual tranny, external b&m oil coolers, msd ignition with billet distributor and and and absolutely everything as been restored. The only thing i want to do is having a second hood with the sixpack scoop. There are different sizes available can you remember which one, and from which manufacturer you did get yours?
Wish you all the best, and hope to hear from you anytime. I like your site, and it helped me pushing my ass to continue with working. Thanks for that.. !! :-D
Greetz marco
She's ALIVE!!
Bill's Coronet is running and driving under her own power for the first time since the big block swap!
What happens when Relics get bored - Round 2
For the last two evenings Dan, Scott, and I have been trying to cast our own club plaques with mild success.
We learned on the inter-web that casting can be done as simply as putting charcoal in a flower pot and lighting it on fire. Bam, instant foundry… sort of. We discovered as you accelerate the oxygen going to the fire you quickly achieve temperatures over 700 degrees. These temps are high enough to melt aluminum, but also high enough to turn a flower pot full of charcoal and molten aluminum into a giant mess.
So we rushed and tried to pour the aluminum in our “greensand” mold. As you can see below it didn’t work out very well. We have since decided to do things the right way, chock this one up to experience. Maybe next time we’ll remember to do it right, and do it once.
Waaaa Fuckin' Whooooo!!!!
I did it!!! I fucking pulled off getting my pile o' junk to Billetproof 2006!!
I still can't believe it, but I did it. Now I got to button up a LOT of incomplete junk, an exhaust and floor pans "sound" (haha I'm a dork!!) good, followed by an adequate fuel tank!! The clutch linkage works, but I want to redesign it for more controlled actuation (I'm still too wiped out to know if that's a real word or if I even spelled it correctly), and lots of other stuff. I need side windows, seat belts, a driveshaft safety loop, and a catch can to run it at a strip, and slicks would actually make that trip a worthwhile effort. At any rate, here's:
BILLETPROOF 2006
I think we are finally rested from our adventure this weekend. It started out Friday night, Dan and Jeremy helped me work on my car until about 5am Saturday morning. I had finished piecing the car together, and they were just helping make sure things were safe before his maiden voyage to Antioch. We had to make a couple stops on the way to tighten up the bailing wire and such, but we made it!
The only casualty was my truck, as we were headed up 680 some jackass in a Dodge Viper (license plate VIPERIV) shifted down and lost control in front of us. As we were trying to avoid him one of the members of our caravan hit Jeremy from behind and smashed up the back of his bed. Despite that he had a pretty good weekend.
This weekend was also the first time out for another Livermore local Dave, he's a member of the Sidewinders. His whole club has been busting ass on this fine GMC powered '32 Chevy.
As in past years the crew behind Billetproof put on a good show. When we arrived at 10 O’clock the fairgrounds were already near capacity, and we had to do some searching for a parking spot. There isn’t much of a better way to spend a sunny Saturday then being surounded by great cars, and great friends. We even had 4 members show up with cars! I think that’s a new record.
I didn't take any pictures, but Jeremy did! To see the rest of the pictures head on over to the
Relic's Car Club Gallery.
These videos are pretty big, so if you've got a slow connection, go throw some popcorn in the microwave!
Hemi Jeff's '66 Dodge Charger, burnout one....
(Click here)
Take two, more burnout action!!
(Click here)
Kyle’s mom owns some property in Castro Valley which they are turning into a winery. They threw a big party this past weekend and invited us Relics to participate in the festivites. A few of us drug out our heaps and headed out to show them how to have a good time. It was a fun start to a very busy weekend for most of us.
Finally an Update!!
More appropriately, I took pictures this time!! Just building a firewall, and other assorted crap. Welded on the frame, mounted the z-bar bracket, pedals, started the rear brakes, and some other junk.
It may not look like it, but I'm beginning to wrap up all the sub-systems, steering and the clutch linkage very soon, followed by the brakes, drivetrain (just need to have a driveshaft cut down), then it's registration, chopped top, and a windshield!
Another night around the garage!
This is the frame thus far. Ladder bars, "traditional" buggy springs, and a 5" kick up in the rear.
Dan cuts the firewall to fit. There's no metal "brake" here, we did all our bends by hand. Kinda. Later, we broke that little red sawhorse.
Tack welded in. I have to thank Dan a bunch, he did ALL the hard work. It may not look like it will fit, but I reversed the firewall, it goes inward, and that has given me a lot more room around the engine. I took no pictures since I did that, so you'll just have to imagine it right now.
John's Burger
Friday 6/30/06
One end of the parking lot....
Kyle's 1966 Dodge Coronet
All torn down for paint.
Ask Greg about his Corn.
Joe's 1954 Chevy
Dan's 1954 Chevy
Dan's hopped up 235 six cylinder.
Shannon's 1951 Cadillac
Jim's little Chevy Nova
The other end of the parking lot.
First day of Summer Updates
6/22/06
Norm's new Wagon....
(Click on the picture)
My new $500 1950 Plymouth Business Coupe. All stock, almost all there (I DO have the windshield!!), and like all of my MoPars, has some rust issues. I almost got the stock flathead six running last night!!!
Kyle's getting his 1966 Dodge Coronet ready for paint, but hasn't made up his mind on a color yet....
Jon "coach painting" his 1966 Ford Mustang. I'm interested to see how this turns out.
I threw an engine into the '57 Chevy farm truck. It was one of those spur of the moment ideas, and I probably should be working on the Model A (or Challenger!).
Still no progress pictures of Greg's Ranchero, I really should be taking more because Ford parts are falling off that thing like a leper!
1931 Ford Coupe 'Hot Rod'
Gonna be Fast Loud and Dirty, a 6.15.06 update
Jon's 1966 Mustang
It's trying to kill him again!!
Post-Swapmeet Posers!
Paso Robles 2006
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Road Trip!!!!
ATTENTION!!!! There are a TON of pictures on this webpage, so it may load slowly. It's too freakin' late, I got to get to bed, I'll fix it tommorrow. Maybe.
Carnage!!!
John's Burger from Friday the 5th
Ian puts the saw to a 1973 Firebird Formula!!
I found a couple digital cameras around the, so I dropped 'em off to get 'em developed. They had some more pictures from our 2005 Paso Robles trip!
Assorted Pictures from GoodGuys Pleasanton 3.25.06
http://www.waywardgarage.com/