Arguments with furniture are rarely productive.

If I ever start a hotrod shop it probably ought to be called Third World Hotrods. Since I don't have a shop or a garage, I end up having to improvise pretty often. In this week's installment, you will see an old big block cylinder head repurposed as, well... you'll just have to keep reading.

One of my challenges on this project is to convert a carbureted car to a fuel injected car. I didn't want to build a carbureted car because carburetors are poorly controlled fuel leakers, and if you want a carburetor tuned, you have to sacrifice a fatted calf and take it to a wizard. I am not a wizard nor do I have a fatted calf. My roommate's doge keeps defecating on the floor though, I wonder if a canine sacrifice would do...  But I digress. I didn't feel that the stock fuel tank would provide a reliable supply of fuel to the fuel pump, seeing that it doesn't have any baffles or method of fuel control. I decided that I should build a sump for the stock tank so that I would still get a constant fuel supply under hard cornering and acceleration.

The initial cardboard pattern.

This is the shape of the sump.

Carefully laid out in sharpie.

Cut out using my hand grinder with a thin cutoff wheel.

A wild cylinder head appears.

What's this, you're not going to??

Oh yes I am!

Third world fabrication at it's finest.

Welded inside.

And out.

YARR MATEY, THAR BE TWO BUNGHOLES!!

Prepping the fuel tank for the sump.

Installed sump.

Finished product.

So that's my mostly finished gas tank. I still need to leak test it and then paint it. Lets hope hope it does it's job without any fiery death.

I also painted the underside of the car in the rear suspension area so I can begin to re-assemble the suspension and axle.

That's about it, other than my purchase of a 10 gauge 100' extension cord. It cost more than I'd like to discuss at this time, but it has the double your money back macho guarantee. If you find a more macho extension cord which can beat this one in an arm-wrestle, you get double your money back. I seriously doubt there are serious contenders. On that note, I'll leave you to marinate in wonder at this cord.

FEEL THE MADNESS OOOH YEEEAH!

As the late, great Macho Man Randy Savage said in his debut (and final) rap album "I'M BAAAACK!" After taking a hiatus of laziness, I'm going to start blogging again. A lot has happened in the past couple months, so I'm just going to post up a few pictures of my automotive (and bike) adventures.

Remember this frenchie from a few posts back? I gave her a little makeover.

One of the coolest cars at the Toyota car show

Clean.

1970s Corolla race car

TWINS!

I went to 'Murica on a business trip, this was my rental car.

While killing time in 'Murica, I saw this. This is my kind of deathtrap.

Back to my dear old Falcon, Grace. The underbody of this car is amazingly clean for a 51 year old vehicle. Every time I look at it, I'm amazed. Though I'm in one of the nicest climates in the world, and I never have to worry about road salt, I would like to make sure the under side of this car never has any problems. That's why I've decided to strip it down and paint it, along with all the suspension parts. I'm making a great deal of extra work for myself and but luckily its the most miserable kind of work. Like a large portion of automotive work, it involves lying on your back, but when you are prepping an underbody, you get to be showered with debris, some of which is red hot bits of metal. I'm pretty sure it's against the Geneva convention to make POWs do this.

Underbody, 51 years old.

4-link cradle after paint, sway bars waiting on paint.

Axle housing after paint. 

Prepping for paint.

In addition to prepping the rear suspension area for paint, I am getting ready to build a fuel system. A word to the wise, if you are planning to build a high performance fuel system,  prepare to empty your wallet. It is one of those things that doesn't seem like it will be that expensive, but it is. Costs like these are the ones you forget about when planning a project, and that's one reason projects drag on.

At this point I have almost all necessary parts for a complete fuel system, so stay tuned kids. It's about to get real.

It may not look like much, but this will provide the nectar of the gods to my
cantankerous little horsepower maker.

All we've got right now is this box of one dozen starving crazed weasels.

A few weeks ago while I was working on Grace, I got asked a funny question. Mary, my roommate's girlfriend asked "How do you know what to do? Do you have a manual?" The question kinda made me laugh because only slightly unstable people want to put a noisy, old turbocharged 4 cylinder into an even noisier, older sedan. And if that wasn't enough, I am crazy enough to spend the money on a completely new front and rear suspension and brakes. All this on a 62 Falcon 4 door? There is no manual for that kind of insanity. I should probably get my head checked. But I digress. The question made me stop and think about how I had learned what I know about cars.

I've had interest in engines from a very young age. I remember my brother being in a small engines class when he was in high school, so I must have been about ten. He had a textbook from the class that I picked up and read because I thought engines were cool. At some point during my childhood I took the cylinder head off the lawnmower because I wanted to see inside an engine. Luckily it still ran fine when I put it back together. When I was in high school my parents made me be financially responsible for my own car repairs. I soon learned that doing my own repairs would make me a lot less broke.

Just before my senior year I got an old Ford Ranger, which overheated on the way home from the dealership. I soon found that this truck was painfully slow. I wanted more power. I got on the internet and discovered forums. Prior to this I had never really used the internet for much more than napster (to download Weird Al Yankovich songs of course). I did some research on www.therangerstation.com and found that I had two options for more power. Option 1 was to turbocharge my ranger. Option 2 was to swap a V8 into my Ranger. Option 1 seemed more economical and more interesting, so started gathering parts and signed up for an account on www.turboford.org . That old beat up Ranger forced me to learn so many things that I don't think any one specific object has had more influence on my life than that truck. It was what made me realize I wanted to work in the automotive industry, the things I learned while researching and working on it got me involved with senior projects as a freshman, and they are what set me apart when interviewing for an internship with Toyota.

Now that I'm done rambling, I'll show you what I've done. I found a place on the way to work that does sanblasting, so I stopped by to see if they could do my axle. I walked back into an old rundown looking corrugated metal building and saw an old guy sleeping at a desk. I woke him up and found  his name was Bill. Bill looked like a hilbilly character in a movie, and talked like one too. We agreed on him sandblasting the axle by that evening for $50. I have to say, he did the work just as I expected and I'd be happy to go back any time.

Brake line bulkhead.

Braided Stainless line installed.

That night I finally got to working on some brake lines. I ran braided stainless hoses from the calipers to a bulkhead which was welded to the housing. Then I ran a copper nickel alloy tube to the top of the differential at which point I added a tee fitting that will connect to a line running to the master cylinder.

Bending tubes.

Finished brake lines.

I discovered that I really enjoyed running brake lines, so long as I was not rushed. It was actually very relaxing.

During the week I called wilwood because I felt that my clutch pedal was too close to the brake pedal, that it was angled and it made for an uncomfortable driving position. They agreed to provide me with new pedals at no cost. I asked if they would be willing to let me upgrade to the pedals with adjustable pads if I paid the difference. They were willing to oblige, so I got me the coolest thing to put your feet on besides a liger skin rug.

I also went to a hardware store with the best selection I've ever seen. I found some parts I needed for my brake caliper brackets which I couldn't even find on the McMaster website. I needed a threaded spacer to center my rear calipers over ther rotors properly, and at this store I found the perfect piece for the job, after a little magic with the grinder.

Blingy drilled brake pedal pads are proven to stop your car  impress girls car nerds 50% better.

I bought this lil' bastard. <snicker>

Full spacer in my hand, spacer cut to size on the bracket.

One spacer welded to the bracket, one waiting to be welded.

Complete rear brake system.

Proper Schports car pedals.

Two Pedals Bad, Three Pedals Good

Today I finally got to spend some time with Grace. It's been a while since I've been able to dedicate some time to her, mostly due to the Subaru from the last post.

I'm a big believer in manual transmissions. If God wanted us to drive cars with automatic transmissions, he would have only given us one arm and one leg. Grace has lived most of her live as a two pedaled chariot, but today she got an upgrade.

Two pedals bad

1/8" thick pedal mount plate

Pedal assembly and mounting plate

Old pedal assembly vs new pedal assembly

Cardboard template for fitting the pedal mount plate to the firewall

Pattern transferred to the mounting plate

My redneck vise

Cutting out the old pedal mount

Looking through to the throne

Welded into place

Master cylinders mounted

Three pedals good.

Once I got the pedal assembly mounted, I started on the steering column lower mount. Originally the Falcon did not have a lower steering column mount. I got a pinch collar from McMaster-Carr to use as a lower mount and cut a piece of 16ga steel with my grinder to fit the floor. I didn't get a chance to weld it in place, so there will be more welding in the near future.

Sheetmetal cut with a grinder and hole saw

Lower column mount ready for welding