Not-a-number

Put discs on as it had scary braking. Same old story, get in to install the discs etc and find the ball joints are gone. I get new ball joints and when I get to the 2nd side I find the upright is flogged out (scary). So I do all ball joints and uprights. Then when installing the new booster find that the proportioning valve is in a completely different place with different sized fittings. So replace all the brake lines!

Adjusted rockers. Still a bit tappity sounding so not sure whats going on there. Maybe a stuck lifter. It had a dead spot at tip in and surging at cruise. Im certain the timing is good now so went over the carb. It was all gunked up, wire brush in the float bowl and a bent metering rod. Gave it a full rebuild and its now great. Have a new dash and engine harness to put in to clean things up. The fuse block looks ridiculous. Theres a lot of surface rust/corrosion under the dash but only from pedal height up which is weird. The rest of the car is great so I dont know if

Started goin over the engine. Compression testing @ about 155-165 but cylinder 4 is at 145psi. So I gotta keep checking that and see if it is actually bad. Ignition was way off too. I had 35deg mechanical advance (excluding vac). So even with low static timing I was in the mid 40s which cant be good. So I got a new electronic dizzy and high power coil. Now running 16deg static and 38deg mechanical with 14deg vac. Works way better. It wasnt without its issues though. I didnt know the harness ran an internal ballast. So the coil was only getting 4volts and breaking up at high

First job was to set up the TV arm correctly. Learning new things but it looks like the 700r4 really needs the cable set correctly or you can burn the trans out within miles Its not just a kick down cable. The arm was completely wrong but luckily not in a bad way. Needs a 1in leverage and was set to about 2in so it was driving the line pressure up really quickly.

Need a ute to carry moulds for the engine project. So I got a 67 El Camino. Picked it up in Tucson and drove it back to CA without too much stress. Has the original 327 with camel hump heads and a modern (/80s) 700r4 trans. Ton of things to sort to make it a daily. Like it doesnt run very well! Timing feels off or vac advance isnt working. Carb seems way too big. It looks good from a distance but dont let the fool you!

Main inner core pattern is complete. Will most likely do a partition in the middle of this one too.

Hopefully not. Its going to take quite a bit of squashing on the sides to get it finished before we can see if thats a problem.

Im pretty sure, from what I've seen of other chassis (and what Pur Sang do), that they would have used a lot of heat and a lot of guys with big hammers. Thats just way too hard work for one person though! Its 4mm!

Chassis Update: My Dads been working away on this when he has a spare minute. Been making various press tools and working out a process. Starting to look like a chassis rail! Not the easiest way of doing it but definitely the most authentic! Also if anyone needs a clock or a barometer restored hes your go to. As long as it doesnt take away chassis building time!

Got the sump inner core pattern assembled and painted. Should be a lot easier to sand than the outer pattern! This gives a visual on what its making. The main inner core. A couple of smaller cores attach to it.

Yeah that’s exactly the plan. Was just going to use a 2in router bit or something to make a couple of half rounds on each section join. Ideally I won’t need to split the sections from each other at all. I will then build a frame around them to hold them together once I remove the mould box (could maybe keep it in the mould box but the foundry is pretty rough and it would probably get wrecked)

Got the mould box done. Just need to sort the partition mounting.

Exactly. This is what I keep a check on all the time. Im not doing sand casting because I want it to be a hobby. Im doing it because I need the parts.. So I dont like getting bogged down in stuff that isnt moving things forward. I do want to get good at it because I have a lot parts to do, so I do spend more time testing different approaches to pattern prep and runner systems by doing several castings. I can do 30-40kg of sand at a time so if I partition off the pattern I can work my way through it at home. Once Ive figured out how well the assembly goes together then Ill go to the f

Ive been looking at continuous mixers quite seriously. How I could make a small one etc. They are a horizontal auger with a center mixing section that have apposing and varying angled paddles. The resin is injected at a point a long the mix. If its a 3 part resin you do a pre mix (like you normally do). Ive used them at the foundries before and youre right about keep things clean. An initial un mixed amount comes out that you set aside (which you can throw into the pattern in the right place). Then when youre finished you have to do the same, keep running sand with not resin for qui

Awesome work! Moulds look great. I am definitely trying to reduce the sand in these big moulds because its going to be hard to pack and hard to handle. Should be able to save 100kg on the big mould. Good idea on removing the catalyst. I havnt considered that but it kind of makes sense. It would be awesome if it took a few hours to go off! Even if it took days! I use a mortar mixer and 10L buckets. It is a workout when youre doing a bunch of transferring to make sure everything is mixed and you only have 30mins to do the whole thing! Ive been considering a