f100_dreamin

I second Matt at Tin Tricks. He did the floors in my Belair and his work is top notch.

haha wish I had known this before I refurbed the standard VJ callipers, oh well at least I know there is an upgrade if I need it.

Rockauto delivers again. This time I ordered parts Monday. Received them Friday. just for the size comparison here is the later model dodge starter vs the factory one. Fairly sizeable difference still plodding away on cleaning and painting suspension parts and replacing the bushes. No pictures as I’ve not actually finished any this completely yet. And now I’ve run out of etch primer Got the bill from the machinist for the engine work which ended up being a reasonable amount more that planned (there was extra work done to justify it) which has completely drained the bank account. Also my headers are in the country now so just waiting for them to clear customs etc, all in all still chipping away at it.

Yeah @cletus the way that they attach the hubs to the rotors is a new one for me. Still if it works it works I guess haha Cheers @con, I never made it out to get the diff that Cletus shared so not sure sorry. I will aim to get one shortly and have spoken to Lee at Diffs’r’us and he quoted $450+ to shorten.

Since my last update I have re-kitted the P/S pump I’ve also shimmed the relief valve to lower the assistance given as the steering was too light at higher road speeds, I’ve replaced all the inner and out tie rod ends and the drag link, I dropped the block, crank and heads off to my machinist, block had been acid tanked, honed and had the cam bearings replaced. The heads have been checked over, machined, machined to take the valve springs, couple of worn valve guides replaced. The valve springs turned into a bit of a headache, the double springs supplied with my cam kit ended up having 140lbs of swat pressure which is was too high for a hydraulic flat tappet cam, We ended up ditching the inner spring and shimming the outer to end up with 100lbs seat pressure. A bit annoying but at least it didn’t turn into a major. Dont have any photos yet as it’s all plastic wrapped as it will be a couple of weeks before I start assembling slowly coming together, made another couple of orders from rock auto got a cam thrust plate with a tensioner (from a Dodge V6) as the factory 318 doesn’t have one, got some rubber lower arm inner bushes as apparently the complete polyurethane bush kit I got for the car doesn’t come with them (and no one lists a poly bush for it) ordered new rad hoses, bypass hose, rear spring shackles (as mine were too rusty) also ordered a starter motor from a 1992 dodge Dakota as with the headers I can’t use my factory starter due to the size. You can buy A/M mini starters but they are around $400, or as most of the guys in the states do you can get a Dakota starter and it’s basically a factory mini starter and at $71usd plus shipping it’s still way cheaper than an A/M unit. For now I need to let the bank account recover so ill be working on tidying up the rear suspension mounts and springs.

Big fan of Galaxies, this one is super cool! Good work so far man!

Yeah so that’s pretty epic. And I love the Gasser!

I used push lock fittings, and 1/2” truck brake airline. Works ok but it’s a bit of a pain in the fact that getting a tight radius is impossible. I have a few leaks at the tank where the brass fittings are in the tank. Used a liquid thread sealant (was told not to use tape) but unfortunately I still seem to have leaks there. One day I’ll get around to sorting them......

Also @Shakotom hurry up and bag the olds already

I bought all my Airride from Simon at Airridenz, 100% top guy to deal with, always took time to answer all my questions regardless of how stupid they were. @Kimjon my 61 was certed on stock rims and tyres at around 90mm from lowest chassis point and it rides awesome. It worked out to about 110psi in the front and 45psi In the rears. With the smaller tyres on the 100 spokes I tend to roll 120psi front and 50psi rear as otherwise I can bottom out on big dips on the road (which sets the missus to full whinge mode haha)

The heads are only getting machined to take the double valve springs and having a quick once over. Because it’s the machinist we use for all our engine work he is doing me a good deal which is under a third of the cost of new edelbrock heads. Obviously if he finds that they need a bunch of work then I will have to re-asses from there. Cleaning up the valley has always been on the cards but I will have a look over the area you recommended, cheers for that.

Small update. Have rebuilt the front Callipers, new pistons and seals. And all painted up! Also pulled the PS pump apart ready to take to work to clean up then I’ll re-assemble and modify the pump to reduce the amount of assistance (common modification over in the states as it’s way too light at higher speeds) Again it feels good to be putting parts back together also spoke to a local sand blaster and they reckon a couple of hours should get the underbody all finished up so I’m going to make a couple of frames so I can lower the car onto a trailer and take it to be blasted soon.

Sunday I decided that I was sick of taking things apart so I decided to do a smaller job that I could finish up in the same day. I got my VJ Valiant disc brake conversion parts out of the shed. Broke it all down until I was left with the spindle, backing plate and hub. Made a makeshift petro-bath (using a petrol/diesel mix that we drained from a customers car) that plus a wire brush and all the grime was gone. Degreased everything and got it all etch primed. (Another great use for the hoist) Got it all painted black, fitted the new rotors (which have a black protective paint on them) to the hubs. Installed new wheel bearings and assembled everything to the spindle (ball joints are just sitting there temp for the picture) New piston and seal kits have been ordered for the Callipers, as has a new disc brake master cylinder (from Rockauto) Also ordered these. 4 1/4 star rating over 27 reviews so figured they were worth the punt. Plus at that price if I have to modify them then it’s not the end of the world. Summit wanted over $300usd to ship to New Zealand, so I had them free shipped to the guy I bought the car from (L.A Wellington Shipping on trademe) who will put them in a container and ship them over for less. Still haven’t been to get the explorer diff from Zebra yet. Hopefully can make it in the next couple of weekends (if it’s even still there haha)

Scored some garage time to work on this cream puff, Decided to take a break from the underseal removal. started on Saturday by pulling the engine further to pieces, timing chain has seen better days Not an issue as I already have a replacement double row chain that I got with my Cam kit. Proceeded to remove the cam to check the cam bearings. Unfortunately they’re goosed. so I’ll speak to my machinist and organise to get the motor down to him to have them replaced. I’ve got the heads ready to drop to him anyway to have them machined to take the double valve springs. I’ll give the ports a tickle up when I get them back from him.

I remember watching Deanis build this after he moved on from his EF daily driver. He is now working on a jet powered drag car I have a vague recollection of one of the engine pulleys hitting the chassis rails on launching at the drags and spraying sparks everywhere,