A Final U-Turn

We sold the Hot Rod. How did that happen?

As we were installing the accelerator pedal, we had to temporarily place the divers seat into the cabin, we have a lot of headroom so we had a 2 inch standoff from the floor to raise the seat. This would allow some space for heat reduction - something we are concerned about since you sit right over the mufflers. While the seats were in both of us looked at how cramped the cabin really is. We came to the quick realization that both myself and my brother are too big to fit in once the doors, hardtop, and center console are installed. We also had to roll out of the car onto our hands and knees when we sat in the seat, and would always have to do that. We figured that this would limit our driving time to about once around the parking lot once we completed the build.

At breakfast we started to note how much more money we would have to commit just to get that first and most likely only drive. The accounting went like this

Wheels - $400-$1000 each for what we were thinking

Tires - $300-$400 each

Finish body work - $3000

Paint - $8000

Conservative total $13,000

Most likely total $17,000

So would we want to add $15,000 and then sell it for market price of $30,000 to $40,000 or cut our loses and just try to see if we can sell it in it's current unfinished state.

It would also probably require another 200 hours of work by us, and the headache of getting the vehicle titled and licensed to drive.

Our immediate conclusion - try to sell it

After posting on Craig's list we were able to sell to a builder with two sons who will help out on the build, a perfect situation as the hot rod will continue to help inspire the next generation of car geeks.

A few photo's of the hot rod on Larry's fancy shipping container trailer with the rolling chassis and a enclosed trailer where the body and boxes of remaining parts made the journey to Wisconsin, it's next home.

Restarting Build After a Few Years Delay

I have decided to spend at least one day a week working on the hot rod after not putting any time into it over the last few years. It seemed that one project or another always being higher priority, the hot rod sat collecting dust at Larry's shop. After a spirited discussion at a friends father memorial service with another builder, and a long discussion with my brother the passion to complete is returning.

Today I was able to fabricate an accelerator mount that positions the accelerator pedal at the same height and an acceptable distance away for the brake pedal and the transmission tunnel. I made the mount so that it can be adjusted after driving the car once the seat is installed and the interior is in.

Here are some pictures of the mount and pedal

A Project Redefined

December 1, 2017

Today as we released the nephews from working on the hot rod, it has now become a project for me and my brother Larry. 

Back in his late teens and early 20's Larry had a 1932 Ford coupe that he had taken down to the frame and spent years building it, but sadly the business always took priority and he came up short of finishing. Now that the next generation of owners ( David and Jacob) have come on full time, Larry and I can try to finish this one.

I am reminded of a saying that goes something like this:

It's easy for friends to feel like brothers, but having a brother who feels like a friend is sometimes just as rare. 

After moving back to Chicago 3 yrs ago, we have become much closer friends.

We had a very productive day! The last time I worked on the hot rod was July 30. Wow! 4 months went by with a lot of traveling.

We got the hot rod back on the hoist and completed the following:

- Tightened down the motor mounts, and all rear end components
- Checked all fasteners on the underside and made sure all were secure
- Finished securing the exhaust and starter
- Re-installed the air conditioner compressor

- Secured all fuel lines
- Fabricated and routed all battery cables with remote charging posts

- Sorted out and secured starter wiring

- Secured all underside electrical looms

- Mounted fuel pump computer
- Secured transmission cooling lines


It was so productive that we won't need to use the rack as we are on to installing the driver's seat so we can install the accelerator pedal, and then getting the brakes bled and filling with oil before driving it around in the go-kart phase.

Happy Birthday

December 1, 2017

Today is David, Isaac and Jacob's 18th birthday! Their present is that they have been released from hot rod building - in reality, their mechanic abilities are well beyond this kit car, and their interest has waned significantly. In fact, over the past 9 months, we have stalled building and David has been working on his 1976 corvette and Jacob on the 1966 Mercury cyclone (comet). For the vette David took it all the way down to the frame which needed to be replaced - too much rust and rebuilt the engine. David has been driving it for a few weeks now - quite an accomplishment as he started it at 14 yrs old. For the comet, Jake is in the process of changing out the engine, transmission, front and rear suspension, while adding a rollbar. amazing job by both of them and well beyond what we are doing on the hot rod.


Here are a few photo's:

The welding Jake did on the new front suspension

roll cage

the front post gusset

The Lincoln Gets Crushed

September 12, 2017

Yesterday Jake and David took the donor car to the scrap yard to be crushed. Along with the carcass of the car, the box of wires was also recycled.  Here is an accounting of our 1997 Lincoln Mark VIII donor car.

Purchased 2/21/2016 for $1600

We kept the engine, transmission, fuel pump and the rest we tried to part out to recover our costs

date	part	sales price
3/12/2016	back brake light	50
3/13/2016	IRS rear end	250
3/19/2016	front grill, fender bumper	240
5/22/2016	various switches amplifier	110
12/19/2016	master cylinder	25
1/3/2017	vlcm	50
2/9/2017	right drivers headlight lense	50
9/12/2017	scrap yard	250
		1025

so we essentially got an engine and transmission for $575 vs somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000 if we had to purchase new ones.

Off to a Slow Start Again

July 30, 2017

The hot rod project has been on hold since mid-March. The hiatus was due to a number of things. First I helped a friend's sister flip her condo, we were out of the country for a few weeks and to get the car ready to go kart, the rack was being used. Now the hot rod is on the rack and we are starting up again, but have a bit of the summer blahs, so it's slow going. 

Our main job now that it's on the rack, is to button up all the lines (brake, fuel, and electrical) that were too hard to get to on the stand we built. With it all the way up on the rack,  we can really see how things are routed and make sure the lines are secure and routed out of harm's way. For example, we just tightened up the exhaust and it took a while since it touched the frame and would have caused extreme vibrations if we left it routed that way. So we reworked the exhaust so there was some clearance to the frame.

We are in process, but so far we secured the radiator hose, hooked up the emergency brake cables, and routed the oxygen sensors. Plenty more to do while it's up in the air.

very tight but we got it not to touch the frame

The muffler and the heat shield above it

Emergency brake linkage

Off the Stand and on the Ground

March 16, 2017

After almost a year of having the car being built on a wooden stand, we have it on the ground. 

From now on we will use the hydraulic lift and floor jacks to work on anything under the car. 

Some pictures with my nephew David and his Mom Evie

The car rides really low, the clearance from frame to the ground is just 4.5 inches. It's lower than the 73 corvette David is restoring.

The first time we could look at the engine from above - it fills up the engine compartment!

A few items to close the loop on.

We could not find a way for the rear donor car wheels to fit over the 13 inch rotors and brake calipers, so we went with doughnut spare tires -  a $17 purchase from the pick and pull to be able to roll the car around and use until we figure out the custom wheels and tires we need to order. No sense in getting them now and trying to keep them clean and paint free while we do the body work.

We finally have a solution for the air conditioner compressor. When we moved the engine forward two inches it caused a lot of modifications. For example the motor mounts, driveshaft, exhaust headers - all mentioned in earlier blog posts. The last one we were noodling on was the A/C compressor. Being two inches forward, it is in a tight space and the hard lines could not fit. We could have went with another compressor and mount it somewhere else, but we have little room for an alternative mount and we would have to configure a new serpentine belt. Both more difficult to do vs trying to get the existing one to work. We got lucky and our custom hose shop was able to modify the compressor block with a 90 degree escape which now just fits. So we avoided changing the serpentine belt and mounting a new A/C compressor.


Old compressor block

New modified compressor block

Installed - just need to reinstall the exhaust header.

We also needed to get an extender for the Oxygen sensor on the driver’s side and we added a  FORD MUSTANG SVE MIL ELIMINATOR (O2 SENSOR SIMULATOR) for the rear Oxygen sensors so we could fool the computer for any check engine faults – we did this because we want to run a wireless OBD connector to a tablet to display key engine performance and be our check engine light with specific faults displayed

We also finished up moving the brake pedal and steering shaft so we have room for the accelerator pedal