One for front brakes, one for rear brakes with a balance bar between them, one for clutch.

Front and rear master are 2 separate small master cylinders, third is the clutch master. There’s a balance bar between the front and rear to set preload and brake pedal pressure. P

One new photo today.
Billy got the steering column all done using some leftover tubing and the finally correct steering wheel adapter. It took 3 try’s to find one I both liked and fit the old Superior 500 wheel. Next up is to finish the motor plates and the ladder bars, then install the housing floaters and his end is complete. Should have the car back within a couple of weeks. Pretty exciting. Now to find fiberglass rambler fenders lol.

That's a great picture of you in the drivers seat!

Thanks. Bill said this car would’ve been easier to do had I not been a 6’3” oaf with a size 13 foot. It’s a small car and while I fit in it just fine we joke I should’ve started with a bigger car! Lol.

Just ordered fiberglass fenders, a hood, and bumpers from showcars fiberglass in Ontario. Their reviews online are terrible. But they’re the only ones that list parts for this car and the guy says they’ll ship next week. I’ll update when something happens.

Small update for today.
Spent the last few days on breaks and lunches at work cleaning and prepping the Enderle hat. I’m still waiting for nozzles to finish the hat for now. But it’s all polished and cleaned. The butterflies were sticky when I bought it and all the O rings in the barrel valve had turned to plastic. Everything is all rebuild and nice now.
The chassis shop almost has the car done. I might be picking it up next week. I need to put new tires on my open trailer to go pick it up.

A friend of mine who’s an excellent tig welder helped me make the surge tank to eventually feed the Enderle hat. I’m waiting for the aluminum bungs to weld into for the main pump feed and returns.

Thanks for reading.

Small two photo update. The front motor plates are done and installed. And the housing sliders for the rear are tacked into place. I made plans to spend the day there Thursday and come home with the car. Now I have to get everything ready to bring it home. So once it’s home I’ll have a big update.

Big update time
Left for the shop at 3:45am to get there around 7am. Spent the morning building a driveshaft loop into the chassis rails, then added a few more tabs and built a loop into the main bar of the cage to use as a headrest mount eventually. By the time all that was done it was about 2pm.
Got the car back on the ground and loaded up on the trailer. Went to get a soda with Bill and then brought everything home.
Pictures show all of that stuff being built, the finished rear suspension. The finished motor plates and lateral mount. The finished steering column and pedal assembly. The car being put on the ground for the first time in 4 months, and the ride home. Once home I unloaded the car and all the spare parts to give my dad back his truck that I stole for the day.
This car has really turned into more than originally planned. But I’m ok with that. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment.

Spent some time yesterday just staring at the car listening to music. I changed the wheels and tires to make sure I’m still happy with how the car sits. I’m very happy with how the car sits.

Next order of business is radiator/fender mount, and shock mounting.

Had some time to work on the transmission on breaks and lunch. I’m waiting for new bearings to finish putting it together, after that it’ll get put away for whenever the car gets assembled.
First and second are proshifted
Third and fourth are faceplated
The tailshaft housing is mostly assembled and the speedo hole is plugged.

Otherwise I’m working on mounting the passenger seat and got a quote to have the whole car dry blasted in April or May after the spring rains end. Then the body and paintwork can begin. Luckily this car is pretty straight. But I hate the undercoating on the bottom of the car and since everything is coming out so nicely I might as well do the body right.

Haven’t had much time to work on the car lately. I may get a chance to play with it tomorrow. But I did end up with enough time on lunch today to get the transmission all back together. It went together fairly well, other than me not realizing I couldn’t follow the book due to the size of the 3rd gear lugs, I had to slide the countershaft back out of the way to clear the main shaft, which according to the book isn’t a problem with a factory iron T10.

I also marked what it is so if I die someone won’t just assume it’s a stock trans if they buy it at the estate sale lol.

Time for a small update on the gasser.
The cars sat for the last few weeks, I just kind of needed a small break from spending money on it. But now I’m recharged and ready to get after it a bit.

I have a media blaster coming the second half of June to blast the whole car inside and out so I can have a clean base to do all my other welding and fabrication on. I need to do the floors and a bunch of other panels to cover holes and build a partition wall to the trunk.

I have a list of small parts I’m going to try to find at Ford Carlisle in a couple of weeks. Fuel system stuff.

The Lakewood bellhousing is machined flat(it was only .005 out but my machinist says he always does these because he’s seen a lot of variation on them.

And I have all of my fiberglass parts that I’ll need to figure out how to mount. I have some time off in June so I’m going to try and spend a couple days assembling the long block so it can get stored away with the transmission until it’s ready to go in. So I should have some bigger updates coming up. Thanks for reading.

Nice, what type of cutter did your machinist use on that bell?

His exact words were “the dullest one I have. It cuts these the best.”

I need to get parts off my work bench. The easiest way to do that is to assemble the engine since I have most everything to build it. Specs are

Crower blower cam installed
Crank installed with arp main bolts torqued to 110
Weisco pistons .020 below the deck with Molnar connecting rods
Crank is .030/.030 and was a pain in the ass to find bearings for.
Ring gaps are .025 for the top ring and .027 for the middle ring.
Cam is installed straight up using a Rollmaster gold timing chain set.
Waiting for a friend to stop over and double check the cam to degree it in 100%.
Once I get the cam done I’ll get the front cover, oil pan, and heads on and actually have room on my workbenches for when the car gets blasted in a few weeks.

Small update today, spent a little time outside going over engine parts. I found that the Milodon head studs are way too long for the heads. After calling Milodon and sending pictures they agreed to swap them out for shorter studs. Hopefully I’ll have the long block together next week and start figuring out all the pulleys for the blower and alternator.
Also got the rocker studs in and torqued to get rid of a box that’s been in my way for months.

Small update today.
Stopped at an auto supply place and talked to the guy about primer and paint and decided to use them for all of my supplies for the car. I picked up epoxy primer and am ready to get started on the bodywork. This Saturday the car gets media blasted and then the real work begins.

Spent some time when I got home working on the engine. Checked intake centerline and degreed the cam in. Ended up retarding the cam 2 degrees to put it at 108ish. The cam card calls for 110 on the centerline and I’m figuring on 1-2 degrees being added by the valvetrain and timing chain stretch.

I then installed the front timing gear cover and began getting everything ready for the oil pan. The plate on the cover is for the electric water pump I’ll eventually have to order.

Enjoy the pictures both of the work and Marty helping me on the engine and the car.

Thanks for reading. I hope everyone reading this has a great day.

Well…
I was going to post an update where I was very excited. All day today was spent getting the car media blasted. Top and bottom. Mostly because I wanted to remove all the factory undercoating and I figured since I’m keeping this car for the long haul I’d get the topside blasted to have all fresh metal to start with.

I guess that ended up being a mistake because everything is warped now. It wasn’t noticeable until a couple hours later and everything was out of the sun and cooled off, but the roof, nice original trunklid, doors, and quarters to the gasser are all warped. I guess I should’ve known everything was going too well.

I’m sure it all can be fixed and I’m trying really hard not to be incredibly disappointed about everything being damaged. I spent good money with a guy who swore he’s had experience blasting cars and wasn’t worried about it. I’ll probably have an update once the car is in epoxy primer and I can start figuring out where to begin with the mountain of bodywork I just created for myself.

Sorry for the long read.

I was hoping, for your sake, that wouldn't happen, but it is all too often the outcome. Pulling warped sheetmetal back close enough to not need a ton of filler is an art unto itself. You may be able to learn how, but things will get worse during the learning curve.....been there and still learning...sorry for what you had done.

Trunklid? Scrap metal
Doors? Scrap metal.
Roof? Looks like dogshit. Along with the quarters. If I hadn’t already spent thousands and thousands of dollars doing all the chassis, rollcage, and suspension I’d probably scrap the car and start over.
I’m sort of at a loss right now. It may be awhile before I post another update. I don’t even really want to look at any of it.

I’m really sorry this happened to you. I looked at a gold 67 Z down in Texas about 25 years ago. Car was awesome with Original drivetrain and paperwork. The owner insisted on painting it before selling and wanted the tired original paint removed. Same deal…the blaster warped the entire rust free car. They skim coated the body and got it straight again and it has changed hands a couple of times since above $100k. Hopefully, you can get yours sorted out…

Don't give up on it, yes, take some time to get over it and then start studying how to shrink it back to skim. You can make it better and probably "good enough" for a skim. Finding rust free body parts where you live is like me looking at rust belt crap. The hood I just had body worked was warped from blasting bad enough that my bodyman told me to find something better. I got another hood that looked better, until it was chemically stripped and it was just as bad under all the paint and filler..... :mad2:
I worked the low areas on my original with a heat gun and flame, with refrigerated water to shrink and I got it "good enough" that he was OK with the amount of filler needed to make it presentable. I had the same thing with the right door for my Camaro...HUGE, deep dent right on the center body line in the middle of the door. Bodyman wouldn't touch it. He was amazed at how well that dent came out with some metal tapping and ironing with heat and cold water. It's in final prime and ready for paint.
Be disgusted and pissed as long as it takes and then get back on it...:worship:

Get that beast in epoxy primer asap.I know you don't want to look at it but.....

John

Thanks everyone
Wanted to post a small update with a few pictures using my straight edge to show some of the warpage.
I spoke to the blaster today. He was adamant he’s done a bunch of cars using the same media(60 grit aluminum oxide) at the same pressure(80psi) and has never had an issue. He blamed the heat from the day and that sitting after allowed it to cool and distort. He’s going to stop over this weekend to take a look at the car and see if we can come to an agreeable solution.

At the end of the day I can’t really blame him for some of the warpage. The doors had a little work in them already, along with the quarters. So I can’t say for certain what was there before vs what was caused by the blaster. I spent a little time trying to shrink some of the metal on the trunklid as it’s a good test piece before I try to tackle the roof. Honestly the roof is far and away the worst and what bums me out the most.

I’m going to try and get a coat of epoxy primer on the car in the next 2 weekends if we get a nice low humidity day. Otherwise the only thing I can do is soldier on and try to make the best out of it.

Good to read you are looking at this with a slightly more positive attitude.. :biggthumpup:

80 psi on large panels is way too much in my world. I stay at 45 psi with play sand, which leaves a texture of about 80 grit. Your surfaces appear to have a lot rougher texture than any I do, like the oxide is quite aggressive. Yes, the lower pressure and sand takes longer, but I can do this without warping. He is in a hurry to make profit...

The panels are incredibly rough. I’m interested to see how well the epoxy primer covers it.

It will cover it, but how many coats will it take to do that ? I would be looking for a DA random/orbital sander and 80 grit discs to knock it down. Maybe use the trunk lid as a test for that too.

Knock it down before the primer?

Yes

I'm very sorry for your misfortune, but I thought that it was pretty well known that you can not sand blast body parts without warping them. I've seen several cars years ago that were scrapped because of this. When I was doing my car I had some areas blasted, such as the door jambs and trunk seal area, but told the blaster not to touch the large areas.

Bought a '70 chevelle deck lid a few years from a seller whose price included media blasting.I told him it wasn't necessary and agreed to meet him at an upcoming swapmeet.Well he went ahead and blasted it anyway and it pretty much ended up looking like your roof.
Needless to say the deal fell through and he agreed to a refund & how I felt about it.

Any updates on this? I hope it can be saved.

Thank you for asking. It means quite a bit.

It’s savable. I’m not happy about it, but really the roof is far and away the worst part. I’ll have to spend time shrinking all the sheetmetal into shape and it’ll need a skim coat of filler. But honestly the quarters had a little more hiding than I thought. And while I’m annoyed about the doors I think my dad and I can fix them too.

Otherwise I’ve been having an issue getting head studs for the engine and I can’t put the heads on the engine without them lol. Milodon makes studs. But all the lengths are wrong. They sent me the right length, but the wrong size. It’s been about a month now and I’m still waiting to hear about them sending me the right size and length studs.

Also, it’s been brutally hot and sticky this summer. The car is sitting in a wood garage which wicks the moisture away so the car hasn’t rusted at all. I figure in the fall I’ll be able to get the car in primer and jump into the bodywork. Hopefully I can have an update with engine and blower stuff soon.

Glad to hear. It's a very interesting build not something you see everyday. Good luck.

Well. Things only change if you work on them. So today I was able to spend some time on things.
The Milodon head studs finally showed up. It took forever to get these sorted out because first their height was wrong, then they sent the wrong width studs, then I finally got everything right. After cleaning the decks I got the heads dropped on their dowels and slathered in arp lube. Then tightened everything to 80ft/pounds. Except the lower corner studs. They went to 65 as they’re known to crack on the 1970 specific heads. AMC actually recommended a different torque sequence on these heads(which I followed).
I needed a little motivation after the heads were down so I got the intake down to see how much it needed to be cut. After that I dropped the blower plate and blower into place and marveled at it for awhile. Then I sent pictures of the intake to the machine shop and took a ride there to drop it off. He’s going to get it back to me Monday after an initial cut to see how much more it needs.

Then my dad and I got the front axle back on the car. I need to modify the front spring shackles a little for proper clearance. So I’ll bring them to work next week to trim them down. I was going to be done for the day but my dad and I started looking at all the holes in the firewall. And then I started the generator to run the welder, and welded most of the holes shut on the firewall.

I also ordered a rear floor pan for a Nova, and a front floor pan for a javelin. Hopefully that’ll give me enough sheet metal to weld the floors back together. Pictures of that will start once the car’s in primer next month. I’m waiting for the humidity to go down some into the fall.

Thanks for reading. I personally think I’m going to leave the car in primer for awhile and just get it built. And I can do the bodywork at a later time. I always wanted to live the Two Lane Blacktop life anyways.

Finally have a little time to make an update. The text should roughly follow the pictures I’m going to post.

After looking all over the place I finally found where Marty hid the other shock mount I remember him playing with at one point. It was in the bottom of a toy bin. He hid it for later. I got it installed in my little mount and welded to the frame so both front upper shock mounts are complete.

I’ve been working on removing the passenger side floor pan. I picked up a Javelin replacement. It’s almost the same except for near the hump. I’m still working on getting it cut out nicely so I can begin the process of getting the floor installed around the cage.

After Scott(my machinist) cut the upper edge of the intake to clear the valve cover rails I brought it home and tried it. It was much closer but now the china walls at each end of the block were hitting the intake first. So I took a ride back over there and he cut it while we bullshitted for a few minutes. He had .070 cut off the walls in about 5 minutes. Unfortunately it needs to be cut on the intake mounting pads so I brought it back to him today. I brought a NOS factory intake gasket to measure the thickness(.015) and he’s going to cut another .010 on both sides. Hopefully then it’ll sit nice and I can leave the intake on while I figure out all the pulleys and mounts in the winter.

I started messing with mounting the 70 challenger BB radiator I had laying around. After some trial and error I came up with these little mounts that will hold the radiator, support the hood/hood pins, and can eventually also support the fiberglass fenders. I’m not a fabricator in any way, shape, or form. So feel free to make fun of them.

I measured for the pushrods today. On the valvestem on the left I ended up at 7.900. So I placed an order today from Competition Products for a set of valve covers. That wasn’t without its setbacks. I guess I haven’t turned the engine over since I bolted on the pan. And I hit a spot in the pan and it wouldn’t turn. Taking it apart I found a stud holding the Aviad pan windage tray was hitting the connecting rods. After first trying to trim it down to the nut. I ended up cutting off the whole stupid thing. I found a NOS oil pan gasket set in my basement so I used those 50 year old cork gaskets since I destroyed the first set removing the pan.

I also got around to finally making the small -12 feed line for the external oil feed to the block. And I had a local shop make a small -6 hose for the valley oil line. It’s a little too long but it’s not in the way of anything so it’ll ride.

Marty wanted to sit in the car and help work on it over the last couple of days.

Thanks for reading.

Had a little time over the last few days to play with the car here and there.

Got the fuel cell and battery box loosely installed in the trunk so I can eventually start planning out my shutoff, cables, and hoses.

Ordere 1” valve cover spacers and got them installed. Once glued to the block I found that 1 rocker arm on each side ended up lightly touching the spacer. So I had to clean it with a file to fit. I caught most of the shavings and after I ran the oil pump primer for about 15 minutes one day I’ll swap filters out hoping that caught most of whatever was left before I start it. I ran the primer for about 5 minutes today while turning the engine to get oil up all the pushrods and rocker arms.

Of course after that I found the valve covers also hit the rocker arms. But the valve covers require other machining too. So once I have all of the parts I need they’ll go to Scott so he can do everything at once.

At the end of the day I test fit the intake back on. Scott cut .025 off, adding back .015 for the steel shim gasket I’ll be using. So a true loss of .010. It’s going to be close but I should be able to get all the bolts in. And then I wanted to see if my Grant Flamethrower distributor would clear the blower/ drive. Which I believe it will.

My dad and I are hoping that next weekend we can get the engine painted, and within a few weeks get the car in primer. Before winter I want to drop the engine and trans back into the car so I can start figuring out all of my pulleys, drives, hoses, lines, and linkages. It’ll be a lot of work. But the engine really needs to be in the car to do it.

Thanks for reading.