Great stuff Graeme! :)

Resto porn!

So true Tim. Kind a like you guys with all these new shops being built. :grin:

Interior is almost done here with one door panel to mount after I reinstall the drivers mirror. Aside from a couple little things in the engine bay, we're almost ready to put the hood back on. First I have to add the carb linkage, mount the breather and put a battery in it. We will then shift to finishing off the Gardner exhaust before it goes out for a quick alignment. Next week it'll be fired up and tuned so I can start with some initial shakedown runs to work out any bugs with the car. I'm excited to hear this one run after its been sitting here for so long.

https://i.ibb.co/RYg1tFB/Right-Seat.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/0GYhgwb/IMG-4110.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/c6whyyg/IMG-4111.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/xh7nCvQ/IMG-4112.jpg

And before anyone spot's that goddy repro rad cap, I have a good original around here somewhere but cannot locate it at the moment. Putting that on there really bugs me but it'll have to do until I can find my original cap. :D

Car looks great!

I also use that Macs Pivot Plate and love it!

One thing about how bolts and studs work...

Preload on the fastener = (torque)/(K*nominal diameter), where K is thread coefficient.

0.2 is a good K value for steel-on-steel. The higher the thread coefficient, the more thread friction we have. Let's say steel on aluminum is 0.3 (a wild conservative guess).

Let's say we have no gasket between that pivot plate and the manifold, so it is a rigid connection (the best way to use this plate). Let's also assume that we tighten the bolts holding the pivot plate to 15 ft-lbs (180 in-lbs). Let's calculate the preload in ONE of those studs / bolts:

(180)/(0.3*0.3125) = 1920 lbs.

That means that just ONE of those bolts has a theoretical preload of 1920 lbs. Four bolts would have a total clamp load of 7680 lbs. Until you exceed that clamp load, the fastener and threads do not actually see any additional load. If it doesn't pull threads when tightening the fastener, it's not going to load the threads more until you exceed 7680 lbs. Of course this assumes straight tension, and a completely rigid plate. Still, there is a ton of room for error here.

I used my Macs pivot plate to install an iron head BBC and TH400 in a Friends '70 Cutlass. No problems at all. As long as you tighten the bolts first, your chance of pulling threads is zero. 7680 lbs of clamp load also generates a lot of frictional force to keep the plate from sliding around and generating any side shear loading on the bolts.

Just throwing this out there for other guys nervous about carb plates.

The hooks the factory used to hoist the engine are attached using only one manifold bolt each.

Installed the Gardner exhaust today and gotta say I like how well it fits. Finished off a few other loose ends and installed the breather ahead of the cowl hood which will go back on after we fire the car up Monday. It also gets an alignment next week and should be ready to roll on on it's birthday (May 9th) which marks 50 years from the day it left the Norwood plant. More on the car when we get it fired up next week.

Have a great weekend and Happy Mothers Day to all the ladies and wive's out there.

Amazing work! I'm drooling all over here on this build!

FYI- mothers Day is next weekend... had me worried for a Sec.!

LOL...I thought it was this weekend until I just looked at the date. Can you tell I've been busy...don't even know which day it really is. :biggthumpup: