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I have been working on my Champ pickup. I am keeping the 289 Studebaker engine but I am putting a Chevy 700R4 behind it. Fairborn Studebaker makes an adapter kit with a plate adapter and a redrilled flexplate to adapt most any Chevy automatic to the Studebaker engine.

The Studebaker engine mounts consist of front mounts at the front of the block, and rear mounts off the bell housing. So I have been designing  a pair of mounts that work off the lower bell housing bolts of the 700R4 and incorporate the GM dowel pins for stability. There will also be a read mount on the transmission.

I located the mounts off the original Studebaker bell housing and built a jig to match that location. Then I installed the adapter in the jig and built the mounts from that. I installed longer dowel pins in the adapter so I could use them to locate the mounts. I measured several transmission cases and found there were several thicknesses from the face to the back of the lower bell housing bolt bosses, so I made 1" thick mockups to prototype my jig so I can use spacers to position the mounts correctly no matter the boss  thickness.

I bought some yesterday. First time in several years. 12 14oz cans  $63.99 It was the cheap stuff. Shocking. I see the good stuff is $11.95 a can.

episode 1 youtube.com/watch?v=ucXsqwfNPrI&list=PLM8PtFgv_W-6LwFSNH_Ej7eRQR3rEEDJ2

What make and model car has sold the most cars of that model?

They are nearly impossible to find any more. Most cars will go for $300 to $500 for scrap. And I see by the price most old cars have gold bars hidden in them.

The same thing has happened to new parts. A turn signal switch that I buy for tilt columns has increased in price by $28, more than 50% in three years.

Are you seeing the same thing?

WE haven't heard about him lately.

I see hot Rod is changing their format. Starting the first of the year they will be quarterly " worthy of any car fan's coffee table". Plus a free one year subscription to Motor Trend. Whoopee!

Stick? MIG? TIG? Mild steel or stainless rod? Lets hear some opinions. In this case there is a very slow oil leak, more a seep, but no visible cracks present. Stock 350/350 owned by a woman.

watch these videos and give me your thoughts

www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1514883312376563/  take a look if you have an interest

And how fast would you drive it? You think the clutch will last?

My subscription to Hot Rod is coming up For renewal. I have noticed a lot of the content lately is left over articles from the magazines they stopped a few years ago. You can tell the articles were intended for Car Craft Street Rodder, and Hot rod Deluxe by the bylines and text style. I don't know if I am going to renew or not.

I am getting Modern Rodder, Wheels of Time, Vintage Truck, and a couple others to keep me occupied in the bathroom.

If you could have any car in the world, regardless of price, what would it be? I've owned a lot of cars, more than I can remember, but my dream car has remained the same since before I was an adult. I will never be able to afford it, and if I could, I wouldn't be able to keep it as it should be kept.

1937 Cord 812 Beverly sedan. I saw one in the wild when I was about 15 years old, and I thought it was the best car in the world, and I haven't changed my mind.

What is your dream car?

I am looking for a back up camera for my Silverado. Any aftermarket systems you would suggest?

No matter how good the last one was, I hope the new one is better

I have a cowl here that I have had for some time that I want to use on a roadster. The cowl is sound, and straight but a bit thin from being in a fire at sone point. I would like to coat the inside of the cowl to make it a bit stiffer. I thought to possibly use Epoxy resin, and some light Fiberglass cloth on the inside. The cowl had been dipped, and I will use metal etch on it.

Thoughts? suggestions? GO pound sand?

A happy Thanksgiving to all my friends on the RRT. I hope you and your families had a great day.

SWMBO and I are visiting young Frank and his wife in North Carolina this week. The first time we have been able to get away in two years with one thing and another. Bless you all.

Anyone have experience with one? Good or Bad?

When I was 20 most anyone could afford a Corvette. I know I could and I was not making top money. I could not afford the insurance though. Today most people can't afford one unless they are making top money The same goes for new pickup trucks. A loaded Chevy C10 pickup was priced under a loaded Impala in 1965.

What happened to all the 20s and 30s street rods? I know that many of the owners passed away, but the cars must be around somewhere. But you don't see them at the shows anymore.

I have been driving fuel injected cars for over 30 years now. I had forgotten the pain in the butt setting up a carburetor can be. I don't know if I want to deal with it any more.

How long do you think it will take for electric hot rods to really become common? I know for guys our age that is a pretty big jump, but for the younger guys that is just one step.

I would like to hear your take on this.

This FAA legal conversion is built by a friend of mine.

He was killed in a racing accident with the Ike Iacono dragster. He will be missed by many

A little over a year ago I sold my 65 Buick Sport wagon to my grandson Josh. I had the engine blow up in New Mexico, failed timing chain, in 2003 or so on the way back from Bonneville.               

I got it home and found the crankshaft was broken, and the front main cap pulled out of the block. It took me three years to find a good block to rebuild locally. I went through the engine, and while I had it out I built a T200R4 to go behind it. I also rebuilt the front suspension, Installed a dual master cylinder, and installed disc brakes on the front. I also converted the AC to R134.

About that time I got really busy with customer cars, so I put the Buick into dry storage, and it set, for about 10 years before Josh bought it. I retired from customer cars last fall shortly after I sold it to Josh.

So Josh Started finishing things up. And setting hadn't helped it. He had to replace most of the brake system, master cylinder, combo valve, rear wheel cylinders, shoes, and drums. By the way most of those parts ae Sport wagon only. New carburetor, I had fuel injection on it, new fuel pump, I had blocked that off, clean and coat the fuel tank, no sending unit available I made one. I had locked out the advance anticipating EFI so we replaced the distributor. I had to build a new steering column because Josh wanted a column shift, and a new neutral switch since the original would not work with the new column, and no one makes an aftermarket remote switch for a 200R4.

We fired it up the first part of July and broke in the cam, but there was a problem with the shift linkage. No park. The next time we fired it the oil pressure went away. By this time I was having a bathroom remodeled, and the vendor quit after doing the demo, and getting paid $3500. So that became my priority and I called my buddy to fix the Buick. I got it in last week, and he found a gasket pushed out on the oil pump pickup. he also did the alignment and a couple other small things. So last Wednesday I drove it back over to Josh's house and parked it.

Wednesday night the reverse went out on the transmission backing it into the garage. So Sunday I picked up another core trans to get rebuilt, it will be ready Friday. Back to the shop for installation. Bonus I got a 4L60E core along with it for $40.

The plumbing is done on the bathroom and it's ready for drywall.

I have been watching

and they make truck parts out of used ship metal using the crudest of tools and make them well. they also recycle worn out truck and train parts into tools, and agricultural parts. If you have some time to kill they are well worth watching. But don't tell OSHA.

New record at the Goodwood hill climb 

My fancy TIG welder buddy has retired. Both my prime body men painters have retired. My favorite salvage yard has closed, the owners have both hung it up and it's for sale. My alternate is closed as the owner is in jail for an extended vacation.

Inflation is killing us, the parts I use have gone up 30% in the las four months. Shipping is out of sight. I have had to increase my prices to the point it is hard to sell my products.

I am about to give up.

The bead blaster I built does a nice job, but I get a lot of static shocks. Do you have any solutions that work for you?

I am working on a 65 Buick gas tank . It's out for cleaning at this time. I took the sender out and it is gummed up just like the tank. I checked it with an ohm meter and it reads correctly, but I would like to clean it up. Any ideas? I was thinking lacquer thinner. Acetone? Alcohol?

Well here are the pictures. It has some warts, but overall I am happy with it. I will change the transmission, it has a three speed and I want a five speed with overdrive. I am not happy with the brakes, I will have to look into how I want to improve them. It has new tires but they are 8 ply rated, I think I can improve the ride with 4 ply rated tires. I don't like the gas tank at all.

I am still getting Hot Rod, they are publishing stories and features that would likely have been in Street Rodder and Car Craft in the past. But it's getting pretty thin of late, and not too many ads any more.

I subscribed to Modern Rodder, only the on line version so far, but I may get the printed version when my subscription is up. I just miss turning the pages. There are many of the same names you have seen in the past.

Outside of those two I still get Vintage Truck, and that is about it.

Here it is in all it's glory. All recycled material except the hook. The legs under it make it balanced when it is set on the ground, but it has to be  hooked to the tractor to lift anything. I am building a strut to support the lift arm, or you can mount a cylinder on it to pull engines and so forth

Here are some pictures of what I did. It works really good except for the leaks. A bit of time will fix that though.

The first picture shows the water trap and regulator. It's regulated to 90 psi

The second picture is the lights I installed in the top. They have LED bulbs in them. I cut holes in the top of the cabinet, and installed plastic hemispheres I found on Amazon to protect the lights

I wired in a switched plug that controls the lights and the shop Vac to carry out the dust.

The shop Vac connection, that is also leaking dust. Inside is a baffle.

The plastic hemispheres to protect the lights.

The inside baffle to redirect the dust.

This is the doohickey I made to introduce air into the  media stream. The bolt screws into the standpipe and adjusts the amount of air allowed in.

I have a Columbian vise, made before Wilton bought them out. The vise jaws are badly worn, particularly on the left side. My problem is instead of being held on by screws through the face, the jaws have a T profile and are held in by pins through the stem of the T. No one that I can find makes new jaws for this vise, and I can't find any jaws that will interchange from other brands.

Any suggestions on how to fix this vise?

Using a few Ford parts, some Camaro parts and some later model S10 parts I have come up with a concentric slave hydraulic clutch release bearing T5 that bolts up to a Chevy V8 with no adapters.

I hope all my friends on the RRT are having a great day today. We are having a family get together at Shelby's house for gift exchange and the annual Christmas brunch.

Anyone have an idea what the pressures are for a hydraulic clutch system?

Someone down the street had built, or picked up a gasser very similar to one my buddy had back in the day. A55 Chevy  two door sedan body with a 57 Chevy nose. No grille or front bumper. It sounds like it has a Rat motor in it with a stick shift. It has little and big Crager SS wheels. Flat black paint job of course

I have a vibration problem on my 2012 HHR. It's in the front end, you can feel it through the steering wheel. A little history.

This started about a year ago.  It started at about 55 mph, and went away about 62 mph. I had the tires rotated, no change. Tires rebalanced, twice, by two different shops, no change. My shop diagnosed two wheels bent. I replaced them with new wheels. No change. I replaced rotors and pads, checked wheel bearings and CV shafts, no change. I replaced all four tires with new ones. Now it is somewhat better but still vibrates from about 57 mph to 60 mph.

Any ideas? This is driving me nuts.

Winter weather will be here very soon. So be ready for it and prepare your ride before it arrives.
The following are a dozen helpful tips for winterizing your car, plus one bonus tip:.
1. Reverse your battery cables so that the heat comes on instead of the air conditioning.
2. Change the air in your tires from the hot summer air to drier cold winter air to avoid getting a flat.
3. Loosen your lug nuts so they won't freeze to the wheel in case you do get a flat.
4. Check your blinker fluid and top it off if needed.
5. When you get home at night after driving your car and it's is still warm, place a wet towel on the windshield to insulate it and hold the heat in for the next morning so you don't have to scrape the glass.
6. Sharpen your wiper blades to better cut through any ice and snow on your windshield while you're driving.
7. Demagnatize your muffler bearings to keep your exhaust fluid from freezing.
8. Make sure you have a left-handed metric screwdriver in case you need to adjust your thermostat.
9. Run a hose from your tailpipe to the inside of your car to recycle the heat from your exhaust.
10. If you change your own oil make sure and leave the engine running while you do it so the oil doesn't freeze and clog up your oil plan and drain plug.
11. Remove your front tires because the edges of your rims will dig into the ice and give you precise steering.
12. If your gas cap becomes difficult to unscrew take a lighter and burn off the hardened residue built up on the inside of the hole.
Bonus Tip: Drive south until you see palm trees. Then apply the brakes and sunscreen.

I delivered the 54 truck about a month ago. There were a couple minor issues, turn signal canceling, and brake lights staying on.  The brake lights were an easy fix, a light spring on the pedal to hold it against the switch. But the turn signals gave me fits. I tore down the column 17 times, and I could make the left cancel or the right cancel, but not both. I decided to just replace the column. So I was taking the truck back after making that decision, and on the way I had an epiphany, the steering wheel hub was out of time! so after checking the books I was almost exactly 180 degrees out of time. Now I knew that the hub needed to be timed, but for the last three weeks that thought never occurred to me.

So if you are having a problem go back to the basics. I didn't and I spent a lot of time and money wasting my time and money.

When you are tacking, or Spot welding with a MIG do you wear your headgear? I have a instant on welding mask, so I typically do, but I wondered about the rest of you.

What do you think of this? Not a bad idea   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ULZGFU?ref_=pfb_403cdl18h277b6hmkj9e79bcc87d&tag=fbcmapdsc-20&ascsubtag=pfb-DLZ-P11-V01-O3-bhv0tq-GWFSYZ&fbclid=IwAR2XfhXVILRjr0vuKJG8TdJX8589lL8RQSiL7JBZ7DtBd5vWucEsuRcwwBw

 I went to the tech tips and looked them over. You can find them here https://roddingroundtable.com/forums/index.php?board=17.0 and are worth reading again Also lets see some new tech tips.

On Josh's 65 Buick we installed a later GM no key tilt column. The later neutral/backup light switch interferes with the 65 brake pedal bracket. If this had been known before we rebuilt and painted the column we could have moved it easily, but neither of us wanted to redo the column again. So I picked up a Lokar transmission mounted switch. The only problem, it will work as a neutral switch, or a back up switch, but not both, There were other switches available, but they are very proud of them.

So I mounted it, and looked at it for a while.  The neutral switch works off of a forked bracket that depresses the switch to actuate in Park or Neutral. The back up lights work off the same switch, but uses a single end bracket. It will do one or the other, but not both. But by having another switch mounted inboard of the one that is there, I could reverse the back up light bracket and actuate both. It took about an hour to whip up a bracket that was held in place by the the original switch in place of the spacer washer they had there. I have to mount it on the transmission to be sure, but no reason it won't work.

I needed a second switch. Lokar gets $24.95 for just the switch. I found the same switch on Ebay as Eaton/Fuller pn 22940 for under $10.

NAPA has a nice flasher that is about $20 that will reliably flash LED bulbs. The P/N is EL-12L-1  It does have to grounded to work, it has a wire on it to do that. Five minute install.

Now that the 54 Chevy truck is done I am moving on to my 54 Ford. It has a 78 to 87 GM A body or El Camino frame under it but it is crusty rusty. I picked up an 83 Camino frame but the frame is too wide at the rear tires for the wheels I want to use, and the steering box is right against the front bumper. Plus the replacement frame is bent, diamonded actually, but repairable. Also the frame rails set up into the floor, without making the car set too high.

With all the things I would have to do to make it work the way I want there is a lot involved in making it work.

I have another frame here I was custom building for an AD Chevy pickup made from 3" by 4" rectangular tubing, with a read steer Nova clip on the front. I'm starting to believe in the long run it would be easier to modify this frame for the wagon. At this point there is no rear suspension on this frame, and it might just be an easier way to go.

I picked this up Tuesday for a very good price. It's not as nice as it looks in the pictures, but it is nice none the less. The major problems are the wrong tires, seat, and marginal paint job But I have all the stuff to fix that. Plus I think the governor has issues. I have been looking for a good block for one of the two I already had, but they are very very difficult to find at any price.

Back in 2003 I bought a set of new tires for my 65 Buick wagon. Shortly afterwards I blew the engine. the tires had less than 5000 miles on them. It took me a while to find a good block to build, and with the changes I wanted to make, and taking other jobs to finance it, it was not finished when I sold it to Josh this spring.

He purchased new tires and wheels for it a couple weeks ago, and I borrowed the old ones to make my El Camino frame a roller.

Yesterday I heard a loud bang that sounded like an air hose. I looked around the shop and couldn't find a problem. When I headed for the house I see one of the front tire was flat on the El Camino. It blew up setting on the trailer with very little weight on it. The date code was 2002.

I mentioned the other day that I could not find any light bulb contacts for tail light sockets. In most cases I just use brass pop rivets but in this case an 1/8" rivet was too large to work in these sockets. So what I did was get some brass tubing of the right size to fit these sockets, and made a steel die to form a head on short pieces of tubing. I then crimped them on the wire with an old crimper that I have that crimps all four sides at once. As the finishing touch I silver soldered a convex head on them after crimping.

Most of the gauges on late model cars are using stepping motors for operation. Can these be used in a stand along configuration, or do you need some type of computer to run them?

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Where else are you going to find a 400 SBC and a 400 Turbo for $500 with under 26000 miles on it? And you can get back most of that for scrap on the rest. And it likely has a no key tilt column to boot.