Author Archives: kenrule

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,200 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it … Continue reading →

A tradition among car folk and very important is the naming of the car. I have named my cars for years, but special cars need special names. Here’s your chance to contribrute. Take a look at the car (currently named … Continue reading →

Here are some shots after all the trim, emblems, weatherstrip, etc. is back on the car. I am still waiting for the front spoiler mount hardware, so that will have to wait. The car went on it’s first real test … Continue reading →

The paint cured enough to peel back the tape and see what it looks like. All my hard work taping paid off, as I didn’t find any unwanted overspray. The paint is by no means perfect, but I’m still quite … Continue reading →

The end of summer is fast approaching, so on to the next step. Painting. First the car was stripped back down removing everything that is feasible to remove. Then another round of final sanding and then into the makeshift paint … Continue reading →

It turned out there were 3 different leaks that plagued the startup/burn in. The first was transmission fluid from the cooling lines as mentioned previously. Tightening it down did not help, so I took that line off and bent the … Continue reading →

The day was finally here. After checking and double checking that I have hooked up everything correctly, it was time to fire the new engine for the first time. My buddy came over to help and we hauled the car … Continue reading →

I found a big problem while investigating why the front end sits too high. The coil springs were not in their perches. That meant more dissasembling and renting a spring compressor to re-seat everything. With that problem solved and the … Continue reading →

Between traveling and waiting for final parts to arrive, things are moving slowly. I can’t fire up the engine for the first time until the new gas tank sender unit arrives and the new tank is installed. That doesn’t mean … Continue reading →

The little things are taking so much time. Added fuel pump and hoses, Fuel filter, carb lines, PCV, transmission linkage complete, trans cooling lines installed, carb linkage, headers, fan and spacer, etc, etc, etc. Major plumbing is complete, with wiring … Continue reading →

Time to check out the differential. This is something I feared, as I had pictured worn gears with metal shavings and thick dirty oil. Who takes care of a differential? When was the last time you serviced yours? I was … Continue reading →

It’s finally nearing the scariest part of the build – transplanting the 327/powerglide with the 383/TH350. As you can see from the photo, the tear down continues to make as much room as possible. The radiator and mount were removed, … Continue reading →

It took me way too long to get the transmission in house. I planned to swap the powerglide (2 speed) with a turbo350 (3 speed) transmission which is much more common. They are identical sizes, so the same driveline will … Continue reading →

The car was originally a V6, which came from the factory with a one row copper radiator. To support the additional demand of the new power plant, a 3 row aluminum radiator will be used instead. This saves weight up … Continue reading →

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but the work continues. Little to show for most of the winter, but expect work to begin in earnest again. As you can see from the collection of boxes accumulating, much research and … Continue reading →

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever. Crunchy numbers The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 … Continue reading →

The instrument carrier is restored and everything put back together. Time to reassemble. I ordered addon gauges, but had to return them twice to find just the right solution. In the mean time, the rest of the dash and dash … Continue reading →

A before and after of the interior now that it’s coming together. Seats are installed and the rest of the interior is temporarily on hold until heater control repair parts arrive.

Time to install the new carpet and get this interior back together. Start by laying down insulation to cut down on head and road noise. The carpet is two piece, and the hardest part is trimming down the edges and … Continue reading →

Now attention turns to the interior. Take a look back at the first posts to see the ‘before’ pictures. Everything is stripped down to bare metal to see what needs fixed. It’s amazing how many parts make up an old … Continue reading →

Wheel wells are common places for rust to develop. The rear wheels were pulled, then the old existing undercoating scraped down. It was flaking off in a number of places, so not too difficult. Then wire-brushed and new undercoating sprayed on. This will … Continue reading →

We visited the Sherwood Cruise in last week for some inspiration. The cars were incredible! Here are some action shots from the trip.

2 of 4 shocks were shot, so the new replacements have arrived. Front shocks are in, completing the suspension upgrade in the front. The back shocks will be installed later. Also installed the A-arm bumpers. Next it’s on to the … Continue reading →

The disc brake conversion came with upgraded chrome booster and master. Installation is straight forward for this one. I hope the trend continues. The only difficulty was assembling the pigtails to the proportioning valve. The existing brake light wiring will … Continue reading →

After everything I learned doing the passenger side drum to disc conversion, I expected the driver side to go quicker. The driver side took much longer than anticipated as I encountered frozen bolts, rusted tie rods that didn’t want to come … Continue reading →

Time to replace the crusty old drum brakes with a much safer front disc conversion kit. If you haven’t done this before, I don’t recommend it. Those 41 year old bolts don’t like being removed. It was very difficult to … Continue reading →

Since not much was known about the 327 engine and powerglide transmission, we decided to replace with a completely fresh redone motor and transmission instead of a lengthy teardown and rebuild. We found a great small block 350 (stroked to … Continue reading →

The centerline wheels make the car look like a drag racer. My neighbors though we were starting a race team. I always liked the look of the rally wheels often found on 69 Camaros, and found a great set of … Continue reading →

Now the car is home and ready for more intense phase of the project. We dissasemble the complete front end to get to the good stuff. Fenders, hood, header panel, cowl panel, bumper, bumper mounts, etc. No big surprises yet. … Continue reading →

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