Project 48 build thread

[Young Ed]

So the wind noise is probably related to the aerodynamics of the car rather than having vent windows.

[james curl]

My 55 Chevy pick up has vent windows and I get a lot of wind noise with all of the windows up and the vent window closed, opening the vent windows reduces the noise, so I suspect that aerodynamics plays a big part. That series of Chevy trucks is like pushing a barn down the highway.

[falconvan]

Im hoping it doesn't do that but I will have A/C just in case it does. Regardless I would think around town driving would be OK.

[falconvan]

Here's the Dolphin power window kit I ordered last year. The only complaint I have about this is that there were no instructions at all. That said, once I laid it out it was pretty self explanatory about how it should go together. This kit was perfect for this door. One side of the upper support bolted right in where one of the old window stops were located. From there I just made a couple of simple mounting plates for the other three mounting points. The kit had two different size spacers to set the glass angle. I tried it with the plywood mock up glass and after some minor adjusting it went up and down smoothly with no sticking. Now onto the other door.

[falconvan]

I've got a few days off so I got a little garage time in. Note to self: Check if fabricated motor mount is going to hit the header before you weld it all the way around. This sucked! I had to cut the whole thing loose and move it forward. Live and learn; it wont happen again. I also took another 3" off of the steering column; it fits really nice now and plenty of header clearance on the drivers side.

[littlemo]

falconvan; Really "GREAT" looking set of headers !!! They're going to look so Cool in your ride!! Tough about that "motor-Mount" thing !!! Cass, alias littlemo...

[falconvan]

We finally got the decklid, doors and rear fenders on, primered, and sprayed with guidecoat. Now for a lot of wet sanding and hopefully some color in the near future.

[falconvan]

I was painting a 95 Honda Civic I bought to get it ready for re-sale and ended up with 1/2 gallon of Corvette Red left over so I found a good use for it. Now all my interior parts and wheels are done. Pardon the crappy cell phone pics.

[falconvan]

Not much exciting to show but lots of wet sanding going on. It took about 10 hours just to do the door and part of the cowl and quarter. I dont know if its Nason primer or that I let it dry for a few weeks before starting sanding but this stuff is really hard to sand.

[falconvan]

Time to pay the piper for all the budget priced bodywork I've been getting on this. I had a deal with my bodyman that when he got the funds to build a new motor for his 87 IROC that I would help him and let him use a garage space. He's ready and he grenaded the 305 so were putting together a 355 sbc with 10:1 pistons, a Lunati cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM heads and a modified factory tuned port injection. Now he's working on the 48 and I'm working on this.

[Young Ed]

I wouldn't hesitate for one second to make the same trade. Have fun

[falconvan]

I finally made it all the way around with 600; I had so much wet sand mud on the car I couldnt tell if it was good or not so I pushed it out and gave it a good scrubbing. Im getting close, just have some touch up spots to go over. I was also looking at my wheels and decided I dont want them painted so I dropped them off at the powdercoating shop.

[40plyrod]

Looking good, I hope (dread) to be starting filler work soon. Are you keeping the firewall white? I like the look and am thinking of doing this to mine.

[falconvan]

Looking good, I hope (dread) to be starting filler work soon. Are you keeping the firewall white? I like the look and am thinking of doing this to mine.

Thanks; yeah we went ahead and painted the firewall and rear inner fenderwells a while back before i dropped the body back on the frame. That's the color the car will be.

I feel for you on the filler work; getting 60+ year old sheetmetal to look good is a ton of work. Ive still got a long way to go after we get the main body painted. I've got more sanding and filling to do on the doors and decklid and havent even started on the front clip yet.

[falconvan]

I got my wheels back from the powdercoating shop yesterday. I had painted them but deceided I wanted a tougher finish. They came out great; I'm glad I spent the extra bux. I also started digging parts out of storage.

[falconvan]

I got a few things bolted on; coil packs, MSD, sensors. It's starting to look like something. I still need to figure out an A/C compressor. I've seen some exaples of the the GM pancake compressor mounted with S-10 brackets on an LS1 to get it up high. I'll probably go with that.

[Frank Elder]

You always get me going with your progress and I think what a neat car this is.....then a picture of the gm lump pops up.....

[falconvan]

You always get me going with your progress and I think what a neat car this is.....then a picture of the gm lump pops up.....

Here's my thinking, Frankie. I got 325ci engine that makes almost 1hp/ci in stock form, has a steel crank with 6 bolt main bearings, all forged rods and pistons, a short block proven to hold up to 800hp worth of modifications, excellent flowing aluminum heads, and full roller valvetrain. A simple cam swap has proven to yield a 75hp increase. For a 60,000 mile engine I paid $500; another $225 for an LS6 cam and springs. As far as the intake, carb, and headers; I would have had to buy those no matter what brand of engine I put in it. I just didnt see how I could get a better bang for my buck with much more potential to go. If Mopar had a similar product that was available at a comperable cost, I certainly would have bought one. The lump won fair and square.

[Frank Elder]

Here's my thinking, Frankie. I got 325ci engine that makes almost 1hp/ci in stock form, has a steel crank with 6 bolt main bearings, all forged rods and pistons, a short block proven to hold up to 800hp worth of modifications, excellent flowing aluminum heads, and full roller valvetrain. A simple cam swap has proven to yield a 75hp increase. For a 60,000 mile engine I paid $500; another $225 for an LS6 cam and springs. As far as the intake, carb, and headers; I would have had to buy those no matter what brand of engine I put in it. I just didnt see how I could get a better bang for my buck with much more potential to go. If Mopar had a similar product that was available at a comperable cost, I certainly would have bought one. The lump won fair and square.

:)I get it:)it's your dollar, your preference, but you can still build a 318/360 for the same price because nobody wants the mopar lump.....thus you can buy them for under 500, sometimes 300 running/ready to install all day long.

That offsets your parts cost.....I'm a mopar guy that's all, it's still an awesome car no matter who cast the lump:D

[falconvan]

Truthfully i am, too, but I always wanted to try one of these 5.3s ever since I started reading about them. I've got a 318 in the garage so if I decide to dump the flattie on my other project it will go in there.

[falconvan]

Finally after 4 years I got some paint on the car this weekend. I think it came out nice; next step to finish up the doors and decklid and shoot them, and then onto the front clip.

[littlemo]

Go falconvan, Go !!! Cass, alias littlemo...

[falconvan]

I'm going, Cass! It's time for a nice break so I'm going on vacation! My wife and I and some other family members are heading to Seattle for a 7 day Alaskan cruise on Wednesday. It'll be nice to get away from work and from the 100+ temps we've had for a week. Bon Voyage, all. I'll try to log on while I'm on the ship and see what's happening.

[Suess]

Falcon hope you had a great vacation. I need your help I tried to install my engine today but the motor mounts that are their put the engine way to far forward my serpententine pullys are almost in the middle of the cross member. I can go almost 3 inches back but I need to build new mounts. Can you please tell me what you used and give me a couple of pics.

Thank you sir.

Edited July 29, 2012 by Suessbyr

[falconvan]

Falcon hope you had a great vacation. I need your help I tried to install my engine today but the motor mounts that are their put the engine way to far forward my serpententine pullys are almost in the middle of the cross member. I can go almost 3 inches back but I need to build new mounts. Can you please tell me what you used and give me a couple of pics.

Thank you sir.

I had the same issue so what I had to do was slice the firewall, fold it flat, and weld it back together. That point in the middle of the firewall was hitting the back of the heads. As far as mounts, I just made some simple triangle mounts from some 3/16" steel plate with 3/8" steel tubing for the bolts to slide through. I welded them to the frame but also put a 1/2" bolt through the frame and the mount just to be safe.