My Tenth Anniv.

[5th T/A]

Here is a snapshot from AMES catalog page on engine paint, as you mentioned a phone call is a good idea. I ordered my wheel paint from them and thought the color was accurate. AMES is pretty up front with their product descriptions.

IMG_1151 by Lawrence Alexander, on Flickr

[Johnny ace]

I've had good luck with the Bill Hirsch line of paints.Used them for over 20 years.The years I listed are from his web site.You could call him at 800 828 2061 and ask him.Good luck.

[tajoe]

You know you're at the "finish line", when you're complaining about the color of your eng. It's definitely gunna be a good New Year. Can't wait to hear your dyno results. Good luck with it. Don't remember your mentioning your exhaust choices.

[roadking77]

I know, first world problems , I have RA resto manifolds on my 77 with a pypes exhaust. Was planning on doing the same. Only the 77 has duals and I spoke with the Pypes guy at Carlisle a couple of years ago and he said the transverse muffler actually resulted in a bit more HP, so in trying to keep 'original' at least looking I was planning on doing the transverse. I ordered from RA restorations in Aug, they gave me a tent. delivery of Oct, that has now turned to March! Parts Place had 'one pair left' on ebay, I called to confirm and they had ZERO, guy did not know why the ebay ad said what it did

[FormTA]

I have the pypes transverse on my car and really like it but it is on an LS engine.

[roadking77]

Doing a bit of reading the other day I found information that says 1979 w72 (4 speed cars) had a dual muffler settup, not the transverse? I guess I will have to try and find some pics of low mileage tata's and see whats there

[ryeguy2006a]

Congrats on getting your motor Kerry! That's excellent news!

[5th T/A]

Kerry, I didn't want to open the whole exhaust system can of worms since you said you were installing RAM Air manifolds and they would not be correct for your car. I am ingnorant on the judging aspect, how closely do they scrutinize the exhaust system? Does it have to be exactly like OEM? In other words, do you need to have a catalytic converter? Can a single pipe be replaced with duals? When i was looking for exhaust on my car I stumbled upon Gardner, it looks like they do accurate reproductions, but would not work with RAM AIR exhaust manifolds.

https://www.gardnerexhaust.com/exhaust-systems/firebird/1979-firebird-trans-am-exhaust-system/

 

[roadking77]

The exhaust should be correct or some points will be deducted. One of the judging requirements though is that they cannot go inside the car, they can look into an open door though. So, using that logic I would assume they would have to crawl underneath to see the exhaust, with low clearance.............
Numbers matching on parts is not a requirement (as far as I know) as long as they are period correct. No.s matching again would only be a bonus. AACA is not as crazy as some judging such as in the Corvette world.

[roadking77]

Latest motor news, I was finally able to drop off the exhaust mani's to the shop (thanks again Larry ), later that day I got a text that he was needing the fuel line from the pump to the carb. Promptly ordered from Ames, shipping says it will be here friday. Dale said he was trying to set up dyno time for next week! Sounds exciting, but I will believe it when it happens. When he told me the motor would be finished over the Christmas break my son laughed and said March. I need to start listening to him more seriously! In April 2020 he also said Covid wont be over until 2023, I thought he was full of soup then also.

[5th T/A]

Kerry, great to see your car is still moving in the right direction.

There used to be a saying, “the olderI get, the smarter my parents get”. In your case I think it applies to your son as well.

[FormTA]

Maybe that will lite a fire under the owner of the car too. He should probably get a move on too.... 

[Wallington]

Kerry, not sure if you had it covered or not but if setting it up for dual muffler then keep an eye out for the offset bracket on the rear brake hose where it mounts on the diff to keep it an inch further away from the exhaust. The brake hard lines on the diff itself seemed to also be revised in location and had an extra retainer bracket off the diff cover. I don't know if this was specific to the dual mufflers but have only noticed it on those diffs. Of course, custom exhaust and location may not require either except for originality.

[roadking77]

Thanks Walli.. I will keep an eye out for that. Which reminds me I need to get an exhaust ordered The way things have been I can see it being out of stock for the next 6 months.

Luke, you are so right, there have been a lot of little things that could have/should have been finished by now.

Larry, I like that.

[ryeguy2006a]

Nice update Kerry! It would be great if he could get it on a dyno and have it drop in ready when you get it. That would make life a lot easier for you.

[Jack]

Great update, this made me happy.

[roadking77]

No word if it hit the dyno last week, I suspect NOT. I sent a message on Monday for an update, yet to hear back.
I would say I am dissapointed but its far beyond that at this point.

[tajoe]

Well, how did the sayin use-ta go? "No news, is "good" news"? Not sure if that pertains to your situation. I believe you mentioned you saw the engine completed..."almost". So at least that's something. And I'm not sure where your local is, but here it's still winter, so you're not missing out on any cruising. Spring is quite a distance off. So you still have a little time.
 And hopefully he'll give you a break on the dyno-testing part, or somewhere in the build. It's totally unacceptable for him to drag this out so long, W/O giving you a heads up in the beginning. In my business, if we don't deliver our engs. in a certain amount of time, we pay a penalty to our customers, for each day it's late. Not every customer, but delivery is expected in a realistic amount of time. So sorry for your situation, and I wouldn't be recommending him to anyone soon. (Unless he apologizes, and cuts you a break on it...somewhere) We can only hope, "the end is near".

[roadking77]

Tajoe, its technically winter but we really didnt have a winter this year. In fact its supposed to be in the high 60's over the weekend (and yet I havent had my 77 out ). But yes, there is still some shop time this spring. Honestly I would like to show the car at Hershey in October so that is my new end date on this one. I am in somewhat regular contact with the builder as he owns the shop that maintains my dd's. I have had the carb on my workbench at home for the entire process just so I could keep a close eye on it. He asked for that a couple of weeks ago, then he needed the fuel line from the pump to the carb which I got and delivered a couple of weeks ago now. I was under the impression that he was just this part away from getting the motor running. Its kind of a weird dynamic and I know I am the sucker that all you guys think I am. I feel like an abused spouse. To meet with this guy face to face is a great experience. He is very personable and all around a good guy. I know the final product so I dont want to cut off my nose to spite my face, as the saying goes. I have even talked to him several times about how unhappy I am that it has taken so long. The one reason for my patience has been me having another car to enjoy, as well as I have been so busy the last couple of years I have had no time to work on it anyway. I am at a point now where I just want to put this project to bed.

[tajoe]

Amen

[kentucky yeti]

To meet with this guy face to face is a great experience. He is very personable and all around a good guy. I know the final product so I dont want to cut off my nose to spite my face, as the saying goes. I have even talked to him several times about how unhappy I am that it has taken so long. The one reason for my patience has been me having another car to enjoy, as well as I have been so busy the last couple of years I have had no time to work on it anyway. I am at a point now where I just want to put this project to bed.

I understand that completely.  My house painter started in mid-December.  True, he had a lot of trim to paint first so that the contractor could install it.  I bought it primed to help him out a little bit.  He paints it on the sawhorses (he gets to stand up to work), contractor installs it.  He starts to putty in the nail holes (now having to crawl around) and give it a second coat.  Then Christmas, then his gf kid has ball games that he has to attend, then one thing after another. I called him Monday and said "what the heck?"  You haven't showed up in two weeks and I want to move in sometime this year.  He came out at 12:05 and ate his lunch, got his stuff out, stirred paint and started work- so I left.  He texted me at 4:03 and said he had something he had to do Tuesday and Wednesday, but would return Thursday and stay until he was finished.  Yesterday (Thursday) came and I was there doing dirtwork.  Looked at the time- 9:10.  I called him and told him to NOT show up here except to pick up his stuff.  I have another painter I am meeting this weekend and showing him the house.  He's been here before (he did the sheetrock) and I have faith in him.  Sometimes you gotta just move on...

[tajoe]

Good for you Mike. there are times, you just gutta say, "enuff is enuff".

[roadking77]

Thats a shame Mike, I have had a couple of jobs go off the rails slightly because of material shortages, but thankfully to date the customers have been patient and understanding, paint was even hard to get a year ago, but that doesnt sound like the problems you are dealing with. Hopefully the new guy will take care of things quickly.

Dale sent me a text this past friday, saying he has dyno time for this week set up!  I told him to send me a video. IF it happens and I know how to post, I will put it up.

2023-03-06_08-29-46 by Kerry Grubb, on Flickr
One part that has been unfinished is the hood. I have been going back and forth with this one. It has a bad edge, I was gonna ditch it for new, then figured I have nothing but time so a repair is in order.  The hood on my black car was in much worse shape.2023-03-06_08-30-29 by Kerry Grubb, on Flickr
I set 6 points and like any good carpenter got out my laser to see if there was any twist. Lo and behold everything was in plane, so I made a couple of cardboard templates and checked the sides, both were consistent then the front.
2023-03-06_08-30-18 by Kerry Grubb, on Flickr
2023-03-06_08-30-37 by Kerry Grubb, on Flickr
2023-03-06_08-30-45 by Kerry Grubb, on Flickr

You can see the dr. side has a pretty bad bump on the front edge. I was trying to figure out to fix it easily, the best I could come up with was to remove the inner bracing along the front edge, straighten then weld the brace back in. I also saw at this point that the 'flat' part beside the shaker cuttout has a bad push-in bend as well. Along with some rust along the inner folded seams that will need addressed I made the executive decision to find a better starting point. This one will be relegated to wall art.

[FormTA]

What a shame. I was looking forward to seeing you repair this one.

[ryeguy2006a]

Exciting news Kerry. Look forward to seeing the engine dyno video.

[Gene-73]

For the hood, I would try hammering it down. Just put some wooden blocks on the bottom for support on either side of the bump and hit it from the top. Any localized metal damage could easily be fixed with filler. I'll bet that bump would come down with a little persuasion.

[roadking77]

I thought about beating on it, but I'm not completely sure the brace on the underside is not bent a bit also. The warp at the shaker scoop area is a bit more of a concern, plus there is one spot with a hole rusted through. All could be fixed and if this was for a 1932 Packard and replacements werent available I would def. be doing some pounding. I dont want to spend money just because, but I think it may be worthwhile this time around. I do have a pretty decent original paint TATA that was given to me that I could use, but honestly I think it looks cool with the original wear and plan on using it as wall art also. Plus Im using it for dimensions for painting. I guess I should focus more on getting my car on the road than interior decorating.

[5th T/A]

All could be fixed and if this was for a 1932 Packard and replacements werent available I would def. be doing some pounding.

Kerry, in another 20-40 years that wall art hood just might be the best hood around and worth some money.

About 45 years ago a very good friend of mine owned a body shop. it's a long story, but his body repair knowledge was limited at the time. He had several body men that came from Poland, they could speak little English but were real craftsman. My first experience was watching one of them on a Saturday. He took a late model Datsun that looked to be close to a total wreck and using a frame jack, hammer and dolly pulled out the entire rear end. My friend said at that time in Poland replacement parts were hard to come by, and they could repair anything. I wished I would have taken pictures.

[roadking77]

Yea, I have seen some crazy stuff repaired. This one is not really all that bad, but...... I went on the usual haunts looking for a hood and the only 1 I found looked worse than the one I have and it was something like 500. I might just wait another month and see if I can find one at Carlisle. I had a couple of contacts but one of them passed away a couple of years ago and the other fell off the radar. I do believe that good original hoods are indeed getting to the point of being scarce to no good ones existing. Shame of it was I started collecting them just because, when I had my barn fire I know I had at least 6 really nice ones that were destroyed. I have 3 now, none of which I want to use.

[kentucky yeti]

If it doesn't straighten out- it is still wall art.  If it does, you have a hood with a small amount of finessing and filler.

[roadking77]

Update umpteenth. Last call I got was that he needed the oil dipstick tube and dipstick. 'Last part I need to get the motor running'. I have a 400 behind my shop and lo and behold those parts were there. I think I got a bit lucky as the few sources I checked show that part as being discontinued. Dropped it off at the shop, got a call the next day 'I dont have the correct hold down bracket for the distr. but I do have it in and working'. So, another order off to Ames, I checked their cat. and ordered a new dipstick just because (the one I gave him was rusty and crusty but I cleaned it up pretty good, just figured having a new one would not be a bad idea). So happens they showed the dipstick tube so I ordered that as well. THEN, I get another text, 'do you have the lower dip stick tube?' Ah, NO! I had no idea this was a 2 pc thing!! Turns out by shear luck the part I ordered was the lower tube. Stuff came in 2 days and it went to the shop today. Hopefully this will be the last of it.

For the hood, I stood out in the shop one night looking at it and figure what the hey. So I got a BFH and WaCkEd it a couple of times. Putting my template across the front its pretty darn straight as is. I really need to have it in place against the nose for a perfect alignment but I think I have it to where it may work.

[FormTA]

Sweet! Glad the stars are starting to align on this thing!

It a precision adjustment tool, not a BFH. 

[kentucky yeti]

IIRC- the lower dipstick tube is installed from inside the block.

[roadking77]

I think it may go in by removing the oil pan? I know I ran into this same issue with the motor for my 77. They had a hard time getting the correct part. This time he just asks me for what he needs. I had forgotten all about it until it reared its ugly head again.

[kentucky yeti]

Right.  I was just saying to make sure your engine guy doesn’t “force” it through from outside.  It has been done- I’ve seen it and it ain’t pretty.

[roadking77]

I can imagine 

[tajoe]

Right.  I was just saying to make sure your engine guy doesn’t “force” it through from outside.  It has been done- I’ve seen it and it ain’t pretty.

LOL. Is that like trying to stick a wet noodle up a goats.....( )

[Jack]

Thats a good one Joe 

[roadking77]

OK, latest STORY, the dyno guy has had covid for the last 2 weeks. May be, as I know of a couple of people in my area that recently had it. Dale called me this past Friday morning. Motor is running, said it sounded great with a bit of a lumpy cam. I cant wait to hear it myself He did have one minor problem, the knipple that the heater hose attaches to the back of the head was kinda wonky. He wasnt sure if new ones were available so he tried to reuse what was there. It was leaking. SO, I promptly placed an order with Ames and its supposed to be here the first of the week. I was told that once that gets swapped and another run that proves successful I will be a proud new papa

[5th T/A]

After waiting all this time the excitement must be building, many of us who have been following your build are just as excited. Little bit of a lumpy cam also sounds good.