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http://www.flickr.com/photos/92382895@N07/sets/72157635005586349/

589 high resolution Louisville pics are up on Flickr.  (Webshots shut off public access in December so I'm using Flickr, now)

Anyhowsomever.....  Click a thumbnail to open it then, once it's open, RIGHT-click to select the picture size.  If you want a large, poster sized, printable picture, select "original size and download that to you 'puter and print it.

Yea, I'm NEVER near the car unless I have to carry something back to it or bail out for the hotel at 16:00 or so.

I'll be putting the pics up on Flickr in a day or so, BTW.

saw a pink car parked next to the fence & photographed it but nobody was around.  Oh well.

Click on above icon

598 pics from Louisville.  No under-tent pics (shadows are too hard to avoid) except NSRA Safety tent pics.

The pics are high resolution and there's a "full size" button in the upper right, too.

This past spring I pulled my hemi down so that I could send a piston out to Ross so that they could measure it and make me a duplicate set.
Since I had to re-ring that piston, I figures a quick hone and ring job wouldn't hurt as the engine had been together for 93,000 miles.

I had to drop the Hot Heads modified Mellings 340 high volume pump in order to get at the rear connecting rods and when I pulled it down, this is what I found.



The pump has about 35,000 miles on it.

Since I wasn't planning on putting that many miles on before I tore the engine down for a rebuild, I replaced it with another of their pumps as it would, most likely, provide more oil than a stocker on an engine with 93,000 miles on it. I even threw in a fresh set of ten under bearings. (the crank had been turned 0.010"/0.010") I've don that on past engines to extend the duration between rebuilds and it's worked fine.

So, now I have an engine with a fresh set of rings and bearings and a new oil pump. Everything should be fine.

WRONG!

When the engine got hot, the oil pressure dropped off a bit more than I was accustomed to but I attributed the heating to the rings being tight. I dropped the break-in oil and put in my usual 15-40 Shell Rotella and a bottle of ZDDP+ and the pressure came back up.
The engine temperature began to drop back to normal. Now, normal for that engine for the past 15 years or so has been 160 down the highway, 180 in city traffic or on 90+ degree days. The engine was running on the thermostat all the time until the rings broke in then it came back to the 160 on the highway.

Well over half way to the nationals (it's a 1000 mile one way trip for me) the oil pressure started to drop again but it stabilized around 40-45 psi from the normal 50-ish psi on the highway. Just outside of Charleston, WV, it dropped again, this time to 25 psi. It stayed at 25 psi for the remainder of my trip to Louisville and on the way home until I jus crossed over the VW-MD border on I-68.

The reason I went to the high volume pump in the first place was because the stock pump only could muster 25-30 psi when the oil got really hot and, before I changed the intake manifold to a vented type (open between the intake runners), heat was getting trapped between the manifold and valley cover and the engine always ran on the thermostat. The new manifold allowed the air to cool the aluminum valley cover and better dissipate the heat and I wound up having to put a bug screen on the radiator to get the engine to run hotter.

Anyway, while I was in the bar Monday night at the Crowne Plaza in Louisville , I was introduced to the Walkers (Hot Heads) by one of their suppliers who happens to be a close friend of mine. I related the tale of the original oil pump and mentioned the fact that the shafts should have been hardened and his wife insisted, more than once, that they were. Bob Walker corrected her and said that they, in fact, were not hardened. She, however, insisted that they ship one or more a day and have never had any issues with them.
If you doubt that claim, as I do, here are a couple of links to discussions about the quality of their pumps.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...t=98959&page=4
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=615310
In my parting statement ( I couldn't take any more of her incessant chatter about their high quality) I mentioned that their lack of complaints must be due to the fact that their customers are all trailer queens. Everyone I've talked with who has actually put some hard miles on their hemis feels like I do. Their stuff isn't up to the task.

About 10 miles into WVI noticed the oil pressure drop almost 10 psi then fluctuate so I knocked the cruise control down from 65 to just over 60 to get the engine down to 2500 rpm and I headed for the next exit. I was right at the ramp when the front three rods seized the crank and the caps twisted right off with 4500 + pounds of rolling hot rod trying to keep the crankshaft spinning.

$2200 and 12 hours later, the car was in my garage and I went out Monday night and struggled to get the pan off and this is what I found.


   


There's a bolt missing in the oil pump cover. I found it in the bottom of the pan and went looking to see where it had come from.

Hot Heads disassembles brand new Mellings pumps, presses out the hardened Allen-socket pump drive shaft and presses in a chrome molly shaft of his own manufacture. Hus shaft is not hardened, hence the issues with the first pump.

Just after I got the oil pan down, a friend showed up and we decided to check the torque on the rest of the oil pump bolts. The readings we got with an old pointer-type torque wrench were 20+, 10-ish, 5-ish and TWO foot pounds.

The missing bolt is near the output side of the pump. When the oil was thick, the pressure was at the factory setting of 65 psi. Once it got warm and the oil thinned out, it squirted out the gap. The pump cover sits below the oil level so there wasn't any issue with sucking air, either. When I was pulling the steep hills in Western Maryland and eastern West Virginia, I was getting the oil petty hot and the pump, simply, wasn't up to the task.

You might want to think twice about putting that Hot Heads modified Mellings 340 high volume oil pump in your hemi if you intend on actually driving the car. If your intention is just to build a killer engine and haul it around in a trailer all the time, well then go for it. You can probably afford the rebuild expense if you already can afford the trailer and fuel costs

Forked terminals come in various sizes, the most common being #6, #8 & #10 screw size.  Terminal blocks usually have #8 or #10 screws.

Last Monday night after installing new U-bolts on the rear to accomodate the pinion angle shims.

Went to OBT World Headquarters after work with it today (Friday) to deliver T-shirts for him to haul to Louisville for me and got my '09 NSRA Safety Inspection at the same time.

Shot the Candy Tangerine on Saturday, blended it over the gold stripe and white panel this morning .

Pulled the doors back off and shot three coats of clear on the jambs and jambed the body.

Put the doors back on and cleared the outside.

Was putting the first coat of clear on the back side of the cowl vent and it went milky SO I cleaned the gun and packed it in.  It's raining AGAIN!

Have to block the whole body to level off the remaining transitions between paint layers then clear the car again.  I sanded the transitions I could get away with but some of them just couldn't be sanded w/o breaking through a layer.    so...... I'll hide 'em under the clear like we did 37 years ago when we painted it the first time.

Well, I beat the rain and got the doors and body graphics done.  I shot the cob webs Saturday and sanded the clear yesterday (Sunday) and finished up tonight.

Now I have to bolt on the doors so I can get an accurate tape reference to blend the Cinnamon Firemist over the edge of the white panel.

It's been raining since Saturday evening and isn't supposed to let up until Thursday so  I have plenty of time to tape panels up.

Once the Cinnamon Firemist is blended, I can shoot the Candy Tangerine over it, un-tape the graphics and blend the candy tangerine around the white panel and over the gold stripe.

Last step is a few coats of clear, then blocking it out then a couple more coats of clear.



I got the blend on the blue ribbon pretty close.  It ain't perfect but that's nearly impossible with translucent paints when you have one color laid down over another.

The gold stripe with the acetylene smudges around the belt line was shot a couple of weeks ago but I still need to finish sanding off the tape edges.  Got the graphics taped off (mostly Metalflake Spray-Mask) and the white is , now, all repainted.

Started repairing the transitions between the doors (I took out the stone chips while I was at it and that means blending the blue stripe across the rear hinge on the front door)  That bottom hinge on the front door will be blue. Still need to reproduce the Candy Sea Green over Candy Regal Blue ribbon on the front doors/cowl.

and I have part of the ribbon replaced where the fender whacked the rear quarter  (Candy Sea Green over Candy Aztec Gold).  
Have the Candy Aztec Gold sprayed on the car, will overlay the Sea Green tomorrow night after work.

The last part of the ribbon is Candy Brick Red fading into Candy Purple then over sprayed with Candy Regal Blue.  Getting the transition of the Candy Regal Blue into the existing scene will be a challenge as I'm dealing with translucent colors and overlaying one coat over the existing paint darkens the existing paint.

Last Sunday (April 26).  Nearly ready to lay on epoxy primer.  Need to clean up a couple of body seams that were originally leaded but the lead got partially removed by the "professional" who re-painted the car in '04.  Sandblasting the crevices pitted the body filler on the cowl.





Late this afternoon.  Need a bit more work on the "dent" and I can start rebuilding the graphics.  

All four doors, the cowl vent and left rear fender now have epoxy primer on the bare metal.  I'll go over everything looking for door dings (there are a couple) and pitted body filler from sandblasting the crevices then I'll shoot the car with lacquer primer and start putting on some color.

[licensed]

The appraisal was done by a licensed appraiser about 5 years ago.  It's nothing but a beat up old hot rod with 233,000 miles on it.

don't think I'll have it finished by then

Would you believe that's all the last appraisal said the car was worth?  TEN GRAND!

Yea,  Grundy said to up it a bit.

The car was up in Rindge New Hampshire for a few weeks dealing with the insurance company. Since it was only insured for $10.000, they totaled it and I had to buy it back after they averaged the salvage bids.  Some shyster, who knew the car, bid ten grand.  When the insurance company averaged in the other bids, it cost me $2,100.00 plus $300.00 deductible and I got $2,400.00 to resurrect the car.

Once that was settled, Jack straightened out the rear quarter and made me a new fender from one I bought from Dave Simard.

I have all of the paint that I'll need to re-paint the car, even the original Cinnamon Firemist base for under the candy tangerine. (thanks for the pointer, they had the paint and shipped it right out).  Just ordered and received all of the Metalflake colors I need.

Spent the better part of late fall removing the doors and sanding the candy tangerine off the front doors before the cold weather hit and my air sander started freezing up.  The front doors wound up in my den all winter because I was afraid the condensation in the garage would turn them to rust.

Now that warmer weather is here, I've gotten a lot more done.  I still have to weld up a tiny crack in the rear pan (on the left side) that occurred when the body got  stretched around the back.  As soon as that's done, I can get some filler on top and prime the rear of the car.

The roof's all stripped as is the rear and right quarter.  Still have the left quarter, cowl and all four door jambs to do as well as the both rear doors and finishing up the front doors.

 
This was shot yesterday afternoon, 28 March. I shot the pic before the light got bad.  The belt line is, now, bare metal as is the rear window opening.

Click on the image and, once you get to Webshots, click on "full size".  The color of the dashboard is the original color of the car.  The last paint job in 2005 was done over Metalflake Gold base.  The original was shot over Cinnamon Firemist.  The dashboard and header are the only two pieces that are original.



After this shot was taken I finished removing the candy tangerine below the belt line.  I want nice crisp lines so I'm removing all of the paint in the crevices and blending back into the graphics.  The plus side of the matter is these repaints have all but erased the masking tape edge lines that were under the original clear.

The "tiger stripe" is, now, totally bare metal.

Have to blacken the surfer's hair and re-shoot the cob-webbing then blend the candy tangerine back into the belt line.


The crease in the body was pretty severe.  I'm just about done leveling off the corner.  The candy tangerine up at the top in the groove under the belt line has been sanded off since the pic was shot.