Week #145

I got my new head bolts and pushrods in the other day and could hardly wait to slap everything together and get the show moving. All giddy I rushed out to the shop to slap in the pushrods... went to install the first one and... it was clear they just weren't going to work. For whatever reasons, i.e. used heads, valve jobs, valve heights, etc., the stock length pushrods were generally too long. Not by much mind you but long enough to warrant a custom cut set. My machinist told me that it would be a likely possibility that I would need just that, but of course I blew it off at the time. A quick call to him on the following Monday confirmed that 8 out 10 motors built on used parts from different sources require custom cut pushrods.

Nowhere near willing to throw in the towel yet I came up with a quick way to measure for each required rod. The idea was to make an adjustable pushrod just for the purpose of determining the correct length needed at each valve. It really wasn't much of a big deal. I just cut an extra rod with the idea of adding a threaded section that would give me about 2" of variation in length. The intake pushrods are around 10.5" long while the exhausts are like 11.5". I found a 3" finely pitched thread bolt that fit into the hollow pushrod shaft, welded a nut to one shaft piece then welded the threaded part into the other. It wasn't the prettiest thing I've made but it works like a champ. The one thing I needed to make and adjustment for is the depth of the cup at the top of the pushrod. Apparently the rod measurements are from the tip of the adjustable rocker arm ball to the ball end of the pushrod. With a dial indicator I was able to find the correct amount to subtract from the overall length to get the neededlength for a custom set. My only hold up now is that I don't have something to accurately measure something over 6". I'm shopping around for a cheap 12" caliper. It may be that some of my newly purchased rods will work while others will have to be made. I understand that places like Crane and CompCams will make custom sets for just a bit more than precut sets. I may just have a complete set made so I can sell the set I just bought and recoup some bucks.

I had made what I'm thinking might be my last trip to the plater with a small assortment of goodies. This included the license plate frame pieces, gas tank filler tube stuff, along with the tag light parts... and a couple other things.

When it came time to work on the tag frame I turned to my trusty walnut shells for cleaning up the license frame plate itself. This was one of the VERY few original parts of the car and was therefore covered with black spray paint. The walnut shells did a spectacular job in leaving the original galvanized marbled look. The assembly went together quick and took it's place in the pile of stuff ready to be bolted on.

Thinking that I was only hours away from painting a newly built motor, I went ahead and painted the backs of some parts that cannot be painted thoroughly if bolted in place. This includes the back of the water pump housing and the back and perimeter of the balancer. The perimeter of the balancer only because with it in place, a small section will be covered by the timing mark tab.

I started to get into the tag light bracket and lens but left that for another day.