That's it Graeme!

It was a drag car since 1971 and went through 3 owners as a racer. The guy I bought it from parked it in 1986 when it broke a drive shaft while launching. I had been working on him to sell it since 2012. He finally agreed to sell it to me in 2016! He had mounted a tire changing machine right behind the car years ago so we had to slowly work it sideways to get it out of there. Rebuilt DZ engine in the car now. The car is known in the area so I decided to just do a resurrection on the car and leave all the old stickers on it!

That's awesome. So that was you and your boy that were getting it running out in that shop amidst the cornfields? I watched that video like 10 times and went looking for it earlier today but didn't find it.

That was a great save on the car. :worship:

Yes that was me and my son. I haven't seen the videos for a long time but I remember the guys wife directing the whole removal operation. It looked funny in time lapse. :)
Getting it running was out at my place. I live in the cornfield. :)

John and Graeme, guessing it was this one yeah?



I've also watched those videos several times and remembered the car - John yours looks totally badass on those wheels and tires! Makes me want to get TTs for mine haha.

Graeme, looking killer as always!

Yeah that's it! :) Love that carb backfire.

I think we've all been there John. I know I have, but seldom does one manage to catch the flame in a picture. Yup...been there done that. This little dragon even managed to spit out the side and was really trying to catch my face. (lol)

https://i.ibb.co/PcqP56D/IMG-4766.png

Been busy building a skating rink with my son the past couple of days now that the cold has finally set in up here. That kept me out of the shop for 2 days but I'm back on it with the rear shocks being finished up today and the airlines ran into the trunk using existing holes from back in the day. Also took the airbags off as the heavy lifting will be done with the shocks to gain the tire clearance needed for the N50s on the back.

https://i.ibb.co/CvbKftY/IMG-5353.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/t4FFnG5/IMG-5355.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Rpvp1ws/IMG-5359.jpg

Carrying on here as best I can this past week while trying to keep the family happy as well. That meant building a hockey rink and hanging up shooting tarps for my son to practice his scoring drills. Great weather for flooding the ice as it hit -15 here over the past 5-6 days. So what else have I got done you ask?

Remounted the Victor Junior intake, checked parallel and concentric run-out of the bell housing, and adjusted the dowl pins where the bell now has .004 parallel and .002 concentric run-out which I am very happy with. A new billet flywheel is mounted, Powergrip HD clutch is installed, I added a Moroso roller pinion bearing, installed the old McLeod bell housing, and mounted the new M23 transmission onto the back of it. I'll get the new shifter mounted up and adjusted and then it's ready to go into the car in the coming days. That's all for now.

https://i.ibb.co/QF8RfSV/IMG-5381.jpg
Time to remount the intake again.

https://i.ibb.co/kK0XJwL/IMG-5393.jpg
Victor Junior is back in place until another DZ motor is built later this year.

https://i.ibb.co/gwH1PZ9/IMG-5398.jpg
New Ram billet flywheel is torqued down in place.

https://i.ibb.co/hRFrzzn/IMG-5406.jpg
Chose to try out a roller pilot bearing on this installation.

https://i.ibb.co/tHzkb61/IMG-5409.jpg
Continuing with the use of a Ram HD Powergrip clutch.

https://i.ibb.co/xH2VFZM/IMG-5414.jpg
Time to break the M23 out of the box. Love this trans.

https://i.ibb.co/vLYCJsM/IMG-5418.jpg
This one has the 346 gearing with Italian made gears.

https://i.ibb.co/zN9pzdY/IMG-5424.jpg
Ready for the shifter to be mounted up and adjusted prior to installation.

https://i.ibb.co/cbvn6jd/IMG-5422.jpg
First time I've mounted a transmission to a motor while using this run stand.

Looks graet!

Love those Auto Gear 4 speed's! I put one in both of my cars and stored the original muncie's. I don't have to worry about breaking an original.

Held off installing the motor/trans in hopes that I could quickly change directions on a shifter and keep with the day 2 theme on this car. With the help of Mr.4-Speed (Russell) I have now found a vintage Hurst Super Shifter that he is sending up from California c/w H/D shift linkages. I will need to find a good set of Hurst shift tabs for the late style Muncie and once installed I should be back in business. Here's the Super Shifter 3 that Russell is sending on its way for the 69.

Thank you once again, Russell. :worship:

https://i.ibb.co/F5B7vMg/IMG-5554.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/5Ts5YKP/IMG-5556.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/jZkwhD6/IMG-5555.jpg

Love the progress Graeme! Might need to do the same with some air shocks for my car... I might have some shift levers

I might have some decals? lol

I had one exactly like that in my car for a few years. I love the super shifters.

Shifter arrived yesterday (Thanks Russell) as did a few other boxes of much-needed parts. I can now get the engine and transmission installed so I can mark out the cuts for the shifter body and get it roughed into the tunnel. Stay tuned...

https://i.ibb.co/D9y3drg/IMG-5652.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Qv3pCbD/IMG-5654.jpg

wow fantastic job graeme. im late to this party but making my way through this thread. awesome! definitley subscribed.

Hey good to see you drop in for a visit Vinnie. Hope you are keeping well? As you know...your car was a big inspiration for me. I'm heading out to get the motor into the car today and getting onto the shifter installation. :headbang:

Cheers...Graeme!

yes graeme feeling better again thank you. back in the garage playing with cars and motorcycles again. life is good.:biggthumpup:

Hi Vinny, my old friend !!! How you been ?? Rob Z

Installed the engine and transmission so that I could mark up the holes for the super shifter and get things mapped out. Once the shifter hole was cut, I slotted the side of the tunnel for the larger 3-4 shift rod and started fabbing some sheet metal boxes to close everything in. I still need to spend some time seam sealing the box inside the tunnel and will finish soundproofing the inside floors to reduce road noise.

Also waiting on a set of original Z/28 engine frame mounts that Buddy (x77-69z28) was kind enough to ship up to me earlier today. Once I have the mounts installed, the engine and transmission can go in for good. I also found a NOS Super Shifter 3 in its original carton and will be picking that one up tomorrow. I'll then get it set up and adjusted on the run stand and will fill the transmission and differential with gear oil before it all goes back into the car later this week.

What else...oh yeah, gotta get the new carpet installed and trimmed out as well. More stuff coming up real soon...


https://i.ibb.co/jL8jDwg/Shifter-1.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/FnDbkg3/IMG-5775.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/12B9xZB/IMG-5778.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/LvNR1qt/Shifter-2.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/PDjy8G8/Shifter-5.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/y03LCWR/Shifter-6.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Z2pjnzS/Shifter-7.jpg

Nice work! Going the extra mile to do it right makes all the difference!

Picked up the NOS shifter today and it's pretty cool. An original Super Shifter 3 from back in the day. The paperwork inside the original carton is dated 1978 so I would think this is from the late 70's to early 80's. It was sitting inside a sea can full of parts ever since it was purchased 30-40 years ago and aside from a little damage on the chrome, it's new and tight. I'll clean it up and will be using this one on the Air Force Brat.

https://i.ibb.co/020MZGY/IMG-5867.jpg

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https://i.ibb.co/rc7p2VH/IMG-5869.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/SKMy1SW/IMG-5870.jpg

Great work on the trans tunnel Graeme. Keep it coming!
Buddy

Thanks Buddy, :biggthumpup:

I mounted up the shifter and the rods last night and got everything adjusted nicely. I'll need to shim the 3/4 rod a touch as it's rubbing on the 1/2 nut but that's an easy one. I'll be adding fluids to the gearbox today and then I'll get the carpet trimmed and installed before the frame mounts arrive.

I'm going to need to find an old Hurst T handle for this shifter. An ivory one would probably look best with the bright yellow interior so if anybody out there has a NOS White T Handle squirreled away, I'd be happy if you'd consider selling or trading a part for it? (lol)

:Can-I-Have-It:

https://i.ibb.co/k5LRYzj/IMG-5871.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/kD2cggQ/IMG-5875.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/xz47t1s/IMG-5873.jpg

What a great find!

I love the rods with the nuts on them. That's what I'm using on my Ram Rod. They seem more secure than the rods with the spring clips. I used a little Loctite on the nuts just to be sure that they wouldn't back off.

I just traded an old ignition system I have for a restored/rebuilt RamRod. Now I'll have a pair of shifters to swap around since the mounts are the same. Just need to slot the back of the box for the spring and they should interchange.

These rods also have the Hurst locking tab washers in behind them and those fold over the head of the nuts to keep them from backing off. Also just discovered they now repro the white Hurst T handles. Better than paying a small ransom for a chunk of plastic.

Back out to work on the car...:3gears:

My lock tabs are worn out and I need to find a new set. I think I saw some reproductions somewhere but I can't remember where. I was using a Super Shifter for a while, then a Super Shifter 3, but for some reason my brain won't let me push to the right when going from 2nd to 3rd when power shifting, so I had to put the RamRod in so I would stop missing 3rd gear.

Need 1 of these Freddie ?

Yup...that will make your shifts more consistent Freddie.

You should see the clutch pack that goes with that trans. It looks like jewelry. (lol)

That's an awesome transmission. I don't think I could miss a shift with that one.

Here’s 1 of 3 clutches, I Hate to tell you what this cost. 7” Dual disc.

That's pretty sweet. I'm using a McLeod RXT with a Clutchtamer. It's working pretty well for what I'm doing, but I may have to step up to something better if I get to build the Nova that I'm trying to buy.

I've had two M-22 cars with SS3s in them and I really miss how good it felt to operate.

Yeah, it's a good solid feeling. No feeling of rods bending or looseness in the shifter.

Hi Graeme, just want to say I love the way you're putting your car together.

I've never had a Super Shifter, but I've run (& loved) a Hurst Vertical Gate in my 65 GTO for a lot of years. That's a big hole you have to try to cover in the tunnel with one of those, and you also have to use the huge boot- a lot of heat still comes through to the interior even if you try to seal it up as tight as you can. It also nixes the use of the factory console.

Is the Super Shifter an inline pattern like the Vertical Gate or is it a Standard H-pattern that's just mounted high and uses straight rods?

Thanks, Bill

I was able to cut a slot in a B4 boot and use it with my SS3. I'm using the same B4 boot with my RamRod. I cut a hole in the top to make it work.

Hello Bill and thanks for the comment. It was a tough decision to make but cutting the tunnel in favor of a correctly themed shifter was the way to go for this build. The stock shifter and console w/ gauges will be stored away in case I ever want to convert it back.

The Hurst Super Shifter 3 is an H pattern shifter and you are correct in that it has a high mounting position that utilizes the straight arm H/D rods. The same mount and rods are used for the inline version with that of the Hurst RamRod, and I also have one of those coming in case I ever want to swap them around for a summer.

I have a couple of boots that I plan to play around with and may have a trick up my sleeve yet. One is a B4 and I may cut down the SS3 boot and use the ring from the B4 to simply size it down to fit the small shifter box I built. More on that once the carpet is finished up, but I am having a lot of fun with this build. Now that the shifter is being changed, I'm also hoping to find a nice Lakewood 3-Point rollbar so that I can finish off the interior in Day 2 style. :worship:

I remember that shifter: the Super Shifter III. My brother had that in his Daytona Yellow 69 SS396 Camaro back in 1977. I don't recall his car having so much tranny tunnel mods to fit it though? Were there different rods available or mounting brackets?

I know about the mods to the tunnel, since my 69 Z11 pace car had a Hurst Ram Rod inline shifter and I hack-sawed the hell out of the side of the tunnel to make that sucker fit.

Steve, my car is also a big block car and I didn't have to cut mine that much either. The big block first gen Camaros had the engine and transmission offset to the right more than the small block cars, which gives more room for the shifter.