512 cid C series on Dakota chassis- build thread

[Radarsonwheels]

Wow he already punched them and sent me pics. I’m over the moon it looks amazing can’t wait to see in person. 

 

Now I gotta buy some epoxy primer

[Todd B]

Awesome 

[John Rogers]

That looks great  !!!

                         John 

[RNR1957NYer]

 Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about -  Old school craftsmanship!  Next, a flush tailgate panel punched to match?

[The Oil Soup]

Those louvers look great, you really have motivated me to try my hand at upholstering the headliner in my truck! I can't get the abs panels locally and the freight alone on them would be about $200, may try bending plywood.

[tanda62]

Nice pattern, looking forward to seeing them installed!

[Radarsonwheels]

11 hours ago, The Oil Soup said:

Those louvers look great, you really have motivated me to try my hand at upholstering the headliner in my truck! I can't get the abs panels locally and the freight alone on them would be about $200, may try bending plywood.

Thanks ‘Soup!

 

I think when they made our trucks people were much smaller- three modern working men fitting on the bench is a tight squeeze.

 

But they also were all wearing tall hats!

 

I bet you could get away with a flat headliner and still not have your hair touching it on bumps.

[The Oil Soup]

9 hours ago, Radarsonwheels said:

 

 

I bet you could get away with a flat headliner and still not have your hair touching it on bumps.

 

Two things, 1) I am thinking about doing the headliner flat, 2) you make the assumption that I have hair.

[Radarsonwheels]

Ha!

 

I picked the hood up at the shop today, deburred, sanded, and degreased it.

 

I decided to do a better job than usual since this will be the worst part to sand in the future. I got some black eastwood epoxy primer and it lays on pretty nicely. That’ll do for now to match the black truck and protect the raw sliced metal. 

 

I still have to clean up, paint, and weld the rear hood structure/ supports back in. The hood is pretty stiff with the work hardened sections from punching but I like the scissoring hold-up bars. 

 

This pic is the first coat of primer. 1/2 hour coat intervals and it’ll need a scuff before topcoating if I ever get around to making this pic a little nicer.

[Radarsonwheels]

And now I went and put a thumb print in it. Oh well I left the patina on the edges and just sealed it up in black so no harm no foul. The epoxy has a little orange peel but not too bad and in a couple days I’ll stick the hood back together. It’s crappy and raining today and tomorrow anyway shoot it already is tomorrow!

 

Happy Halloween y’all

[Radarsonwheels]

All done minus the strut welding. It is less obtrusive than I thought it would be- a nice detail that doesn’t stand out too much. 

 

It’d be fun to get a pic with one of those heat seeker cameras after a nice cruise.

 

 

[Radarsonwheels]

Finally actually finished the hood louvering project- the hood reinforcement struts have been sandblasted clean and welded back in and the hood and scissor hinges are bolted back on. The epoxy primered areas don’t really clash with all the patina that’s around them- I like the look too. 

 

Hopefully the end of my heatsoak problems- if that even was the cause of my brake switch failure.

 

don’t mind all the dust in the pic from blowing off the engine- sanding off 6 layers made a lot of it!

Edited November 3, 2019 by Radarsonwheels

[Radarsonwheels]

Crappy old farm trucks always look good at night

[tanda62]

Nice shot, very artsy. Bet that would look great as a B&W photo.

[Radarsonwheels]

 Cheers here’s that and a link to a video I made playing with imovie

 

 

[tanda62]

Great contrast on the shot, really brings out the best in those louvers! Thanks for sharing.

[Radarsonwheels]

I have 500 miles or so on the truck but never took it out on the highway until tonight. The new DOT drag radial tires are a little bigger than the nitto summer tires I started with so my speedo is a little off- the iphone gps speedo app says I’m somewhere a little over 10% low. So 55ish is actually like 62. I will have to see aboit getting a new speedo cable drive gear to correct that. 

 

I took it to drop off a large speaker cabinet at band practice and it did fine. On the way home I pushed it up to 80 a couple times and it was rock solid and even seemed to like it. I was still white knuckling a little- it’s not fully proven reliable yet and it’s too cold to walk home or wait for a tow.

 

Speaking of which I think re-coring the heater and installing a new 12v fan is next on the to-do list. Some heat would be nice and I’d like to hook up hoses to the defrost vents too. 

 

Here’s an uncommon angle to see it taken from our rehearsal space.

[Radarsonwheels]

Checked the rocker shaft bolts under the valve covers this morning- I can hear a little tappy noise sometimes which is probably either the injectors firing or a small exhaust leak but at least now I know the valvetrain isn’t working loose like it did on first fire/break in. Everything looked great in there and all the bolts are still tight. The driver’s valve cover bolts were barely hand tight so it’s good I got them gently torqued into the squish of the cork gaskets again. 

 

Louvers are working great- much cooler after a drive almost no heat soak in the engine bay ?

 

I have the driver’s side vent window taped shut- it swings open easily and around 50mph likes to do so by itself. I need to find or make some twist locks or some kind of tab to slip into the stock holes for the latches which are missing. 

[Radarsonwheels]

I consulted the mopar 727 transmission chart- tire diameter vs rear gear ratio, and looked up my buying history from around this time last year. Looks like I had a 32 tooth speedometer drive gear installed which checked out just about perfect for the nitto 255/50-17 tires and made the autometer analog speedo read the same as the GPS speedo on my phone. 

 

Welp now that I have 28” tall tires that’s out the window. Apparently the new setup calls for a 31 tooth gear. Hopefully it won’t be too cold out when it comes in- I just ordered one off ebay tonite.

[Young Ed]

Would that chart show what to use when changing from 14s to 15s?

[Radarsonwheels]

19 minutes ago, Young Ed said:

Would that chart show what to use when changing from 14s to 15s?

Well you can put a 36” tire on a 15” rim or a 20” tire on there I guess so unless you are running the steel rim on railroad tracks or something I don’t understand the question. The chart tells you what gear to use so the transmission can spin the square drive cable from the tailshaft to the dashboard the proper speed so the odometer and speedometer will read properly. Here’s as much of the one I used as I can fit in a square pic. If you want more info just google “727 speedometer gear chart”

 

 

Edited November 11, 2019 by Radarsonwheels

[Radarsonwheels]

Unless you were just poking fun at my bling bling 16” front 17” rear rims? In which case I’m totally in on the joke I would rather have 15” wheels all the way around but for $550 and a hour drive I couldn’t say no to somebody’s clean E-body mopar hotrod takeoffs. He even threw in a set of chrome lugnuts with the 5 funky keyed locking ones! And I re-used the rear tires on my mildly rodded 318 ‘73 swinger which should be way less traction challenged. Excuses, excuses. But yeah I have 17s on the rear they look fine but I’d rather have stock hubcaps on sneaky wide steelies.

 

I won’t apologize for the DOT drag radials though they are amazing I can’t believe the traction on the street

Edited November 11, 2019 by Radarsonwheels

[Young Ed]

8 hours ago, Radarsonwheels said:

Unless you were just poking fun at my bling bling 16” front 17” rear rims? In which case I’m totally in on the joke I would rather have 15” wheels all the way around but for $550 and a hour drive I couldn’t say no to somebody’s clean E-body mopar hotrod takeoffs. He even threw in a set of chrome lugnuts with the 5 funky keyed locking ones! And I re-used the rear tires on my mildly rodded 318 ‘73 swinger which should be way less traction challenged. Excuses, excuses. But yeah I have 17s on the rear they look fine but I’d rather have stock hubcaps on sneaky wide steelies.

 

I won’t apologize for the DOT drag radials though they are amazing I can’t believe the traction on the street

 

No not at all. Thanks for posting the chart. I have a 64 plymouth that was converted to 15s and the speedometer is off. 

[Radarsonwheels]

Got a nice scare this morning- after my first blast downtown and back on 95 in the '54 the other day I pulled the valve covers to check the rocker shafts. The cork VC gaskets are glued to the covers but I managed to fold over the rear corner of the driver's side re-installing and hadn't driven it more than moving it up in the driveway since. It’s easy to screw up because the rear of the valve cover is deep in the firewall.

 

Well today I got down the hill and around the corner before oil started flowing and the exhaust got nice and toasty- smoke started pouring out pretty good. 

 

Jumped out, killed the battery, looked for fire, and saw oil dripping on the pipe- like a lot. Let it cool off, limped home, leaked a pint in the driveway on shutdown, went to buy a jug of fresh step. 

 

Luckily I didn't torque it hard enough to rip or badly fold the gasket so I put it back on properly located, and drove to work an hour late. 

 

It wasn’t really such a big deal but thankful it didn't catch fire and I was close to home!

 

Hotrodding is always an adventure.

[billschwindt]

Here are updated pictures of my hood louvers on   49 B1F on Dakota.