'34 Dodge Brothers, double build.

SWEEET!! You devious devil you. [ddd[ddd[ddd
It will surely stir up some conversations.

Very cool

Thank you guys.
This shows my creativity. But, I suffer from painful honesty, so I'll probably immediately tell everyone that's looking at my truck, how I've tricked them, and that will take some of the fun out of it. Boy, sometimes, honesty can be such a drawback. It sucks to be me.

sucks to be us... we don`t have a car with a fake Hemi...

MercuryMac said:

Thank you guys.
This shows my creativity. But, I suffer from painful honesty, so I'll probably immediately tell everyone that's looking at my truck, how I've tricked them, and that will take some of the fun out of it. Boy, sometimes, honesty can be such a drawback. It sucks to be me.

Click to expand...

I find it funny to play with guys a bit. I often get questions about my 455. It's not disguised, but people have trouble identifying it. I toy with them a little before I give in.

Snopro, I hope I'm not as honest as I'm letting on and I'll toy with the 'lawnchair riders' a wee bit before I divulge it all.

I'm all about honesty but......I would prey heavily on the know it all, better than thou, loud mouths in a heart beat. [ddd[ddd

I love it!!!

I-R-POPS said:

I'm all about honesty but......I would prey heavily on the know it all, better than thou, loud mouths in a heart beat. [ddd[ddd

I love it!!!

Click to expand...

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Some of the old Poly motors had semi-stainless steel, molded, hold-down washers to squash the rubber seals into the valve covers to hold them down. I hunted around and found three out of the needed four, so I had to make one. That was a lot of fiddling around, but I got one made and then I cleaned them all up and painted them with clear-coat. [pic].
I rolled the pressure washer outside and washed up the transmission and the two valve covers that I'm going to glue together, shortly. [not picturesque enough]. At the last minute I changed my mind on the pilot bushing, as it seemed like it had too much play so I pulled it out. I found another pilot bushing that's the right ID but the wrong OD, so that gives me one bushing that has the right ID and one that has the right OD. Hmmmm.

Can’t tell which one is new [S. Good job [cl

It's a Dodge thing! Ain't it fun tho?
Stay after it.

Nice job![cl

Thank you guys.
You can tell this is going to be a High class ratrod, because it will have all four matching shiny valve cover hold-down washers.
Today I spent quite a bit of time shrinking the pilot bearing that was in the truck. It turned out to be stressed steel and I broke it, so no progress there. I made a sparkplug wire holder for the finished valve cover, and scarred up the paint on the cover.

A hardly noticeable swath was cut today. I took the P.T.O. housing off the transmission and then swabbed out the bottom of the trans to remove all of the yuccyness. I had to find six short, 3/8" bolts to hold the tin cover on, because the bolts that were fastening the P.T.O. on were quite a bit longer.
I mounted the flywheel, new pilot bearing, friction disc, and pressure plate. Now, before you ardent Chrysler men point out that I should have mounted the bellhousing first, and then fished the flywheel and clutch up through the bottom, like the book says, and timed the flywheel and centered the clutch the hard way, I want to do it the nice way. Oh, for you non Chrysler guys, the pre-196? bellhousings have a front in them so they will not fit over the flywheel from the back and --- the centering dowels, sticking out of the back of the block won't let the bell slide down from the top. [the second picture is showing the front casting on the bellhousing]. Anyhow, you're not dealing with a completely sane, compliant, short sighted individual here. I'm relying on a trick to make the bellhousing slide down over the flywheel from the top and line it up with the bolts snugged, --- and then hammer the dowels in. I have even bored out and tapped the dowel pins so maybe I can pull them out again if needed.

!![cl!!

??[P??

Well, my Chrysler bellhousing installation trick worked just like I wanted it to. I had driven the centering dowels out previously so after I had the clutch all in place, I just picked the bellhousing up and slid it down the back of the block and in front of the flywheel, then started the bolts. The first dowel pin drove in nicely from the front, but the second one needed to raise the bellhousing on that side a wee bit. Not an insurmountable problem. [pic 1]
Anyhow, I tackled the transmission after that and it went in quite well, so it's buttoned up too. [pic 2]
Oh, I almost forgot, today I got some measurements that will come in handy when I'm arguing with some blowhard at a car show about the authenticity of my motor. The degrees of angle on the top of the valve cover on a Hemi [real or mock] is 45*, whereas, the angle of a small block Dodge is 64*, a noticeable difference.

Looks real good MM, should cause some real good discussions. [cl[cl

Thanks Dozer, that's the plan.
Today I took the emergency brake band off so it can be sent out for relining.
Then this 'semi-Hemi' [pic one] look, was bothering me so I got working on the valve covers to convert them to one real cover. Here you'll see that I made the oil-filler tubes and holes disappear. [pic two].
This new welder is a dream to weld tin with after fighting with that old one for years.

After days of fiddling around on other hobbies, I got back at the Hotrod building. As stated earlier, I was going to make two 'Poly' valve covers into one 'Hemi' one. I sawed the roughest cover in two and flipped it end-for-end and welded it onto the original one. To smooth out the heaves in the new widened cover, I body-filled the bad spots. [pic one]
I mounted my new starter, but ran into some grief. The nose cone was too complete, surrounding the Bendix gear. I couldn't quite clock the starter around enough to put the bolts in, before the nose cone hit the flywheel. I had to trim one side of the cone a wee bit. [pic two].
After I went hunting for the flywheel dust cover, I found that it had been beat up badly and ripped apart, [about one foot] and then welded back together without the benefit of a grinder. I pounded it back into shape somewhat, and ground it smoother. The mud and grease is all gone off it now and it is painted flat brown.

Won't be long and it will be making noise. [P[P