'71 R/T, fixing a parts car

[Flatdad]

These areas need repair:

[Flatdad]

Been working on the passenger front rocker & the panel above it (kick panel? Interior webbing panel??) After an aggressive wire-wheel inspection, there was quite a bit of swiss cheese. Since then, I've chopped and ground most of it out in preparation for a patch.

Thinking I'm going to have to put the car outside for a while to have room to prep the "new" roof. Installation will need to happen outside too, we'll probably use the the backhoe bucket to lower it on.

A far cry from the little bit of structural repair I intended to do "just to drive it" back when I bought the car almost 5 years ago.

Planning out the chassis bracing... likely using 2x4's

[Flatdad]

Well I spent most of Sunday & Monday night burning my lungs out with welding smoke. I relented on my pledge to not buy any more new metal for this project by buying a 4x4 sheet of 18 gauge. Was just sick & tired of scrounging for steel to do my repairs.

$37 more spent, & well worth it so far.

The passenger front rocker is patched back together. Quick & ugly, yet, painted & hidden.

I've been jamming pretty hard lately to get this car back on the road, by the time April 14th comes around, I'll have owned the car 5 years 

Where would I be without delusional optimism, lol!

[Flatdad]

My brother came to visit, so we worked on the 400 a bit. I thought it was a '77 but its actually a '75.

We took off the water pump, timing cover, heads, & cam. Surprisingly, the deck clearance was less than expected.

.1045 Driver's Bank
.095 Passenger Bank

Since the CH on stock 400 pistons is 1.830", that means the deck height is the nominal 9.98" on the driver's bank, and a short 9.9705" on the passenger side. The stamp pads showed no evidence of having been disturbed by decking.

Yesterday, we "ported" the fresh machined 915 heads. Really all we did was clean up the areas under the valves, breaking any sharp edges & stayed away from the short-side radius since we're not experts by any stretch of the imagination, lol!

Out of curiosity, I cc'd one chamber each on the 915's & was disappointed to see 82cc on one & 80.5cc on the other! My steel shim gaskets from the dealership measure out to .015" thick.

With the small chambers on the tall side of the block & large chambers on the short side, static compression will work out to 8.47:1 & 8.53:1.

Not bad for a stock short-block 400!

[My Kars Shop]

 

I am at a disadvantage  on the forum as I am rarely on my computer and always on my phone.  But I wanted to see how you were coming along.   If you followed my channel you know that I TOO have been jammin in the shop.  But I wanted to get here and catch up on your project.  You are making PROGRESS. 

Looking GREAT!!!!!!!

[Flatdad]

Nothing outstanding to report, I've been busy working on other people's projects.

My eldest brother & I took the 915 heads back apart & put on stiffer springs, I also cleaned up & primed various exterior engine parts & ordered some things. New exterior balance flexplate, new valley pan gasket, new valve cover gaskets.

This weekend, I took a long look at a used '17 Challenger ScatPack with a 6spd... I daydreamed about selling off all my old junk to buy it until I saw the price: $40K! Maybe fiddling with my old cars isn't so bad.

[Flatdad]

Baby steps

This weekend I worked on valve covers. I believe they are original to the car even though the 383 is long gone. Upon stripping away the rust and remnants of orange paint, I found two rust pinholes. A hold-down bolt had also fatigue-cracked one valve cover at the rail. Aside from the holes, a couple dents need knocked out. The insides were such a greasy mess, I spent several hours on Saturday scrubbing them with gas until I was loopy.

Sunday, my brother came to visit. We drove the old distributor-oil pump drive bushing out of the block and installed a new one. Progress has been slow, as I've been focused on making more room in the garage. I made a painful decision to sell ALL but one of my motorcycles/dirtbikes & at least one daily driver. I don't need the money, but I value the extra space freed up and the time taken up from extra maintenance.

[70 Top Banana]

Keep working on it and don't give up! Some of the best times I have ever had was working on old cars with my dad, brother, cousins etc.! Some great stories too!

[Flatdad]

Thanks for the encouragement! The last couple weekends have been engine work.

I knocked out the dents in the valve covers, welded up the holes, and shot primer on 'em.

The intake got scrubbed down & painted next. 3 coats Aluminum Cast Coat + 3 coats of clear.

I didn't like how stiff the new valve springs felt on the heads so I swapped 'em for the third time now.  The 915's are now wearing the stock springs, retainers, & locks from the 452's that came off the 400 in the first place. They're pretty weak, but at least the used cam & lifters have a fighting chance.

There seemed to be a lot of mismatched fasteners so I dug through all my spares to make complete sets, mostly for the valve covers.

I finally took the old oil pan off & spent a few hours cleaning off grease, oil, & rust. A couple dents had to be knocked out, but its primed & ready for installation. Surprisingly, the drain plug was stripped. Luckily I had an old motorhome oil pan laying around that could donate its drain plug. I might sneak my spare windage tray into the installation if I can come up with another gasket.

The water pump housing got a fresh gasket & old pump. I plunked a new 180 degree thermostat into place & torqued it to spec.

That's all for now, not much left before the 400 can go back together.

[Flatdad]

Last night we stabbed the new-used cam in with plenty of goo on the lobes, and slid the also-used lifters into their bores with some 30wt. The galley plugs got fresh sealer and installed. Last, I copper coated the head gaskets before we torqued the heads down.

[Flatdad]

Everything is painted now & 90% assembled. The oil pump was leaky so I grabbed a spare off the shelf from my old 440.

I was missing an oil pump gasket so I cracked open an ancient Direct Connection gasket set for a 426 Hemi & robbed one outa' there.

It just needs the valley pan, intake, & oil then its ready to drop in. If the used cam + lifters survive the break-in I'll blow some cash on a decent dual snorkel and pie tin.

[Flatdad]

Good grief is it October!? Where did the time go this year?

The 400 is fully assembled and painted, months ago. Since the last update, I drove my poor leaky road runner over to the garage and pushed the '71 outside and tarp'd it. The road runner is apart in the garage, as it needs the 727 swapped. So, the Challenger is in limbo unless I want to work on it outside. Poor thing.

Back in July, I bought myself a spankin' new dual-sport dirtbike and have scarcely been on 4-wheels since. I've been getting the itch to work on the car(s) again though, so hopefully I can post up some meaningful progress again soon.

[cudamadd]

Nice work . It's nice to follow a build like this .  I find it's lets. Me appreciate all the hard work that goes into these cars .cheers 

[Flatdad]

With a big hand from my dad and brothers, we got the road runner put back together and out of the garage. The Challenger is back inside, and out of the weather. I did a little busy work like filling pinholes and grinding welds. Yesterday, my middle brother helped me get the donor roof setup on some sawbucks to start prepping it for the swap. One step forward.

[Flatdad]

I cleaned out the windshield channel corners on the donor roof and found plenty of rust and holes, but nothing I'd call a deal-breaker. Over Christmas, we flipped the donor roof over and went to work removing chunks that wouldn't get used in the graft. My brother worked on removing what was left of the old quarter pieces and I removed remnants of the aprons up front.

Both the upper firewall panel and lower/inner firewall panel need a LOT of work, but its nothing compared to the rotten pieces on the car now. Since new firewall panels would be close to $800 for me after tax, I'm going to try and repair them.