36 Ford Bobber Build

Mac,

Looks killer! I love those batwings! What did you end up with for gauges? The only ones that I have found are the Stewart Warners and they are super spendy typically!

More engine setbacks over the weekend! The block I was ready to build turned out to be cracked. I was hoping that the 3rd time would be the charm but no dice. Oh well, on to the 4th! I had my dad pick it up this weekend so I should get the block here later this week. Hopefully I'll actually be able to start building this one jeez!

Willy, I ended up collecting some old '36 gauge housings, bolting in Ranger pickup gauges for the two outside ones and making glass tubes for the inside ones. The 'glass' tubes are hard plastic from my pencil grinder tips, with the back half painted pewter, the top plugged off and the bottom has a glued in LED red bulb. [Next time I think I'll glue a red bulb in both ends of the glass tube.] The Ranger gauges came from my donor pick-up, so Ranger senders work with them.
My motto seems to be 'cheat like heck and then smooth it over 'til nobody can tell.' [ddd

Outstanding gauges Mac.

Mac, that's a cool idea. I like it. It's nice that the sweep on those gauges matches the cutouts in the originals.

Man, it's been quite awhile since I last posted! I haven't been making loads of progress and a lot of what I have been doing has be parts gathering, planning, and the like so not really much to post about. I finally settled on an engine for the 36 though. I picked up a nice built SBC 383 that I will use. I'm in the process of cleaning it up and dressing it up so that it will be ready when I get the frame sorted out (hopefully by the end of the summer). Anyway, the motor came with an Edelbrock RPM intake and I decided I would just keep it on there. I do want the motor to look a bit more old school though so I machined a port in the manifold to add an oil fill/breather tube to it. That way I can run vintage valve covers with no holes in them. They're on their way here now so hopefully I'll have picks of the full setup later next week.

Nice work on the manifold, Willy.

Will it need a draft tube?

I have to ask what a draft tube is[S I hope I'm not missing something critical!

Crankcase ventilation. On older blocks there is a hole near the distributor with an internal baffle and an external tube that vents the crankcase. A vented cap on the oil fill tube might be enough.

bob w said:

Crankcase ventilation. On older blocks there is a hole near the distributor with an internal baffle and an external tube that vents the crankcase. A vented cap on the oil fill tube might be enough.

Click to expand...

Might be. You'll just have to try it and see.

Draft tube

Thanks for the pic! That helps a lot to know what the older ones look like. My block is newer so it doesn't have the port. I talked to a friend who builds motors for land speed racing as well as hotrods and I think that I will modify my manifold a little more by adding a port for a road draft tube to the back of the manifold. I need to mock it up first to make sure I have clearance around the distributor, then I will drill and tap an NPT port and make a baffle for the underside. I think that should do the trick to keep oil vapors off the motor.

Hey WillyD

Very nice work...love the looks of those cabs...

MikeC

Here's the fitting for a road draft tube on my manifold and a mocked up look at the motor. I'm still sorting through valve covers as the set that I got to go this motor ended up having a nasty crack in them. I also bought a vintage Mallory duel points tach drive distributor for it.

I like the way you're going with the engine.

I finally got a good set of the valve covers that I wanted. They are vintage Cal Custom covers. I also picked up a vintage Malory duel points distributor with a mechanical tach drive for it.

There's a chance that I might have to get an offset base for my air cleaner for clearance over the distributor. I'm hoping that I don't need to but it will depend on the plug wires that I get.

Engine looks great[cl

Nice!

Ya know technically, you have to touch down at least 3 times in 100 yards to be considered cruising right???[cl

Easy enough to cut that base and offset it, or just notch the rear of the air cleaner body.

Just smack it with a BFH if you need more room.


Or a spacer would lift it up a couplethree inches.