1933 chevy tudor sedan aka Project Copper Tone!

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Apperently he has already had a heavy hitter of an offer that would just bash anything I could come up with. 10k!!! and just by the 3 pictures I showed you guys. But then again, with internet stuff, could be all bark and no bite. I was however able to talk him into letting me come out and take a look/help him dig it out, all I gotta do is bring my self and a shovel. So that’s a plus. Also talked to the ol’ lady some more about it and how if I don’t at least make the attempt, I would probably regret it the rest of my life. And with that she caved!!!
 
Last piece of the 390 puzzle came in today. So clutch and bellhousing are all back on and ready to drop into the car. Last minute trip out of town but should be together by the wnd of this coming week and running. Updates on the Willys. Needed to stay home for reasons that Im not going to dive into here so I wasnt able to get down there and help dig it out. He however got it out of the hole and up on blocks. It’s only the shell, no floors, frame, or suspension but most would toss that stuff anyway. The rockers are shot as are the lower doors. All somewhat salvageable but its going to take a lot of work. Here are the pictures he sent me.
 

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I hear ya sam but thats a car that needs to be prettied up in my opinion.

The 390 is now back in the car. Need to bolt down the motor mounts as I seam to have lost the nuts, install the headers, prime the oil system, and hook up the cooling system. I must have moved the radiator mount forward a touch as the upper coolant line doesn’t meet up like it used to so I need to get another piece of radiatorhose. While I am at it, I’m finally going to weld some beads around the ends of the lower pipe so the hoses won’t fall off for sure. This is one place where it’d be nice to have a tig but unfortunately, those things are way expensive. Should be firing her up by the end of the week.
 
Engine is in the car now and ready to run minus one motor mount. I don’t know why but it just won’t line up properly to go in the hole. Half tempted to drill the hole out one size larger just to see if that does the trick. But aside fron that, it’s all wired up and ready to rock. Will get a new battery for it tomorrow as the one from it is nearly ten years old and has a cracked case spewing water all over the place. So yeah, tomorrow she should be fired off and the cam should be broken in. Then I can pop the covers back off and reinstall the inner springs and she’ll be all finished up and I can move back onto the 31 getting it prepped for Rat City Rukkus next year.
 
Well, went to start her up for the first time today and nada. She’d huff and puff and pop out the intake. Pulled the valve cover off and even with double and triple checking clearances, once the lifters pumped up, she’s a bit too tight. So guess I am going to order a pushrod length checker and see what’s up. Damn these shaft mount non adjustable 1.7 factory rockers.
 
I have not stayed up on whats going on around here ... just saw the whole willys thing.. Thats quite an rare car, I think i would be tempted to keep it rough like Sam was saying. The purists would surely freak out...

Good luck, I wouldnt spend 10K on it.. but Im cheap.. looks very fixable to me
 
So, between wrong pushrods and a broken distributo(my fault as I rushed installing it) got parts on order for the 390 so when it’s done, I’ll get back at it and hopefully lit off. Spent some time yesterday changing out the fuel pump on Riley’s truck ol’ blue and got it running off of it’s own tank. Runs great and even spins the rear tires with ease. Once I got that all sorted and shoved over against the fence I finally unloaded the A from the back of my truck. So I think Im pretty well set for winter. In other news, the national freight agreement for my union had been under works for a few years and they finally got it sorted at the end of october which gave us a good backpay check that was more than I was expecting. So guess who has a Lincoln Precision Tig 225 on order? It was a close call and a hard descision between the Lincoln and a Miller Syncrowave 210 but all in all I liked the lincoln specs more. Now I’ll be able to do more “pretty” work.
 
Well, got my distributor parts in today, put the distributor back together and finally fired up the 390. About 10 minutes into cam break in I noticed oil coming from the rear main seal area. So looks like the engine is coming back out and I’ll be doing the rear main again. The issue with these FE’s is they use a 4 piece rear main and they can be a real bugger to install. I know a few engine builders who shy away from them just for that reason alone. The good news is, because I did finally fire it up, I won’t worry about retiming it. Set it at 32* max advance during the cam break in. She definitely sounds stout.
 
Rear main and oil pan gasket came in for the 390 on Monday. As it turns out, my the side sill seals were ripped a little bit. These y-block style seals are a pain even with loads of lube on the seals. But I did get it put back together this afternoon. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow afternoon but after that I hope to have the engine back in the car and maybe even fired up again. We’ll have to see how she goes. In other news, I finally had the money saved for a tig welder and that came in on Monday also. So now I have just about everything I need to do just about anything I want. Been “playing” around with that a bit just because it’s been so long. When I removed the engine from the car, I noticed the thermostat was sideways in the intake and not exactly functioning as intended so I decided to order a new housing. Cut the housing down this afternoon and tigged it back together. I wish it were just a hair longer but it will work.
 

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Engine is back in the car for round two. Tomorrow I’ll get the radiator and exhaust installed and fluids filled. Should fire right up and I’ll finish breaking in the cam. I’ll try to remember to take a video of her running at idle once the cam is broken in.
 

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