Brennan's 54 chevy kustom

[Brennan]

 

 

 

 

FYI Moondiscs are coming soon.

[Brennan]

Cut and reinforced some better speaker holes in the parcel tray.

 

And purchased all new seatbelts so was able to make and have Matt Tig in some OTT anchor plates.

 

[Brennan]

Stripped the many layers of paint off the roof today.

[Brennan]

After stripping the roof of filler and many layers of paint. We found it was quite damaged.

 

Matt made quick work of smoothing 90% of it out.

 

We sprayed some more PA10 on

 

And the bonnet almost fitted up.

 

3d Printed a prototype shifter gate cover. Should work alright once cast in aluminium.

 

Couple of speaker grills and high stop light we cast are almost finalised too.

[Brennan]

Used some 1/4 inch rod to make a start on a basic hood peak. After stripping it of primer again.

 

The black is CRC aerosol rust kill. Its so easy to use and seems to work really well.

 

Bit the bullet and put the sabre saw through the fender, to try and create some more wheel clearance. 

 

After some pondering I bluffed my way through filling it in.

 

 

Sprayed some primer over it, temporarily to see how it went.

 

And pretty happy with the result. Its not perfect. Like the rest of the car. But its not terrible.

 

[Brennan]

Rebuilt the old cnc router. Runs heaps more reliably now.

Brought some 50x50x3 aluminium extrusion at put it to work on some brackets.

 

Finished and painted.

 

With the Valves and sensor fitted. Mounted into the trunk.

 

 

[Brennan]

Fenders Painted and Fitted Up.

 

Fitted up a moon disc to the alloy wheel too.

 

 

And the Painted peaked bonnet.

[Brennan]

Air tank is in, with fittings connected and sealed.

 

Wiring loom is pulled back through too.

[Brennan]

Realized i never put these photos up on here almost a year ago.

decided to give some aliexpress gauges ago. Visually they look great. Time will tell if they are any good.

Although it seems its not to hard to be better then expensive American branded gauges.

 

 

 

Yet to decide what finish the boss kit and dash insert will end up being. Thinking shot blasted or tumbled. Not likely to be polished.

 

Also picked up some titanium bolts for the steering wheel. Mostly due to the shape and finish on them.

 

Heaps of other progress has been happening too since the last update.

Mostly electrical stuff that isn't too fun to photograph.

[Brennan]

Been printing some tail light plates to adapt the lexus bulb holders to the 54 chevy tail light.

This would be version 3 or 4. In PETG and handles the heat fine.

 

 

 

Also Made some sheet metal caps to cover up the loom and main 50mm² battery cable.

Will be carpeted over eventually.

 

Still need to extend it up a bit further beside the rear seat.

 

Finally found the confidence to attack some of the many wire looms too. This one was stereo, air conditioning, trunk release, cd changer etc etc etc.

This pic is from halfway through, with some stuff already removed.

 

All done and wrapped up. (more was removed since this photo)

 

What had been removed.

 

In the trunk, i made a battery floor and shelf to hold the Viair compressor.

Stainless strap down the front to hold the battery in. That matches the fuel and air tanks.

[Brennan]

Sandblasted, and painted the Chevy factory park light enclosure.

Drilled out the 50s bulb holder and epoxy glued the Lexus bulb holder with plug in.

New Park Light lenses are on there way from America.

 

Wired in the h4 plug and pilot light into the Narva 7inch buckets, with their new ABS 3d printed adapters.

And just waiting on some pilot light bulbs to fully assemble.

 

Have also Wired the Davis Craig fans into the Lexus loom. And mounted through the Radiator with m4 allthread.

[Brennan]

Fitted the rest of the moon discs. To hide the 15x6 alloy wheels.
 

 

 

Real White wall tyres will be purchased soon, to replace the snow tyres.
 

 

 

Wiring is well underway. Just waiting on a few components to finish up the air suspension side.
 

Battery and back up compressor all mounted and working.

 

 

New park light lenses on the front too.

 

 

 

[Brennan]

Over the past few months most things have been sorted.

Here is the 3d printed lexus tail light adapters.

  

 

 

The new strut tops with heavy duty bearings. And the new White wall tyres.

  

 

 

Today, it started for the first time. Took quite a while. Lots of turning over. Then a large backfire out the k&n and she was away. And now seems to be idling nicely.

Power steering is noisy and foaming. And hopefully bleeds up ok.

Air conditioning compressor fills the air tank so fast. Easily 10x faster than the viar. 

 

Seatbelts. Seats. and some more fuel and air line clamps and it should be good for a drive.

[Brennan]

Made a Rigid PVC panel to go over the b pillar. And fitted the front seatbelts along with the front seats.

Work well.

 

Fired it up again. Still took a while of turning over.

Then drove it off the hoist and out of the garage and around the driveway.

 

The Transmission. Despite being opened up by a professional and checked over.
Has no reverse. And neutral drives forward.

So going to try find another new transmission again. 
As that seems to be the common fix to this particular problem.

 

Front Air bag struts also don't have enough travel and their Air bag is too small. So that will be something else to purchase and rejig, hopefully successfully.

 

 

[Brennan]

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[Brennan]

My Dad managed to find another transmission through the hotrod club.

Slightly earlier A341 without the temperature sensor inside. and smaller connector.

So swapped the loom over.

 

 

 

Have all the gears including reverse now.

[Brennan]

After making new top mounts for the struts the lengths were all wrong. The smaller front bags could only pick up the front 60mm off the ground.

I purchased a pair of larger bags that match the rear bags. And started on making a new mount for between the lower control arm and the strut.
This moved the strut inboard. for more travel. And up to use all available travel.

[Brennan]

Extended the exhaust out to under the bumper

[Brennan]

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[Brennan]

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