[Essex_29]

After doing some other stuff and waiting for the piece of plate I ordered, it was back to the accessory belts.
Same as with the alternator, the Mercedes power steering pump I had planned on using, didn't fit. I found
out that Volvo pumps are much smaller with remote reservoir, so I got one of those from a scrapped car,
and determined that it might fit, but only just.

This engine has a remote oil filter, and becasue all that wouldn't  fit in among my headers and narrow chassis,
 I still have to figure that one out. In any case, the oil filter connections will be in the same 10 mm (about 3/8")
thick piece of plate that I'm using for the pump mount here. More on that later on.
Lots of grinding and drilling to make this part.



The plate with all its holes fit first try. Unbelievable. Usually it's hard to get more than two holes to fit.
I then continued by making the pump mount. I wanted it to pivot on two bolts, to assure the belt runs
straight. Also a mount for the mount was made from 8mm (5/16") plate.



The hard part was to get the little mount in the right position, so I called a buddy, who came over to give
me a hand, holding the pump in the right position while I scribed. All parts back on the work bench holes
were drilled and tapped, and the parts were bolted together.



Lo and behold, it  came out spot on! I had counted on adjusting and filing holes, but first try. This never
happens.
I cut an old belt and shortened it to a nice fit using a knife, a piece of sheet metal and some pop rivets. Next time
I go shopping, I'll get a new belt, the popriveted one probably won't last for long.

[Essex_29]

The belt tensioner for the power steering pump is done. Also the crank sensor (arrow) is in place, and things
done so it can be replaced without removing more than one bolt.



Next up is the grille. The shape of the grille shell is nice, no need to alter that, but I don't like how the original
grille looked, it's just a stamped sheet, so I decided early on to make a tube grille.



For tubing I use the chapest alternative, which is chromed copper waterpipe, 3/8" daiamete, that's 10 mm in
local currency. I bought a 10.2 mm drill and drilled holes to make a matrix for the top and one for the bottom.
Since the grille shell is a bit wider at the bottom, I drilled the holes .327" farther apart in the bottom matrix.
This resulted in holes for 31 pieces of tubing.



The botom matrix here. It took some figuring out to get it to fit without showing from the front of the grille,
and to get each of the tubes fastened so the whole thing won't rattle. I bought a box of very small sheet
metal screws to get it all mounted.



All the parts and tubes trial fitted it looks okay, the spacing of the tubes follow the shape of the grille decently well.



The crank hole will get a filler piece, it looks a bit silly as you can see the tubes going past it.

[Essex_29]

A small pece of sheet metal was missing between the windsheild opening and the roof. 42" wide and when
 cut, about 2" high.
The first pic shows what was missing.
The piece going here is bent,  it goes all the way to the front of the roof and and is plug welded through the
myriad original holes. The bend wasn't straight, it was bent using a tipping die on my little bead roller, then
using the shrinker, got the new part straight so it fits.

In the second pic the new piece is lined up with vice grips, ready for plugwelding.



Finally the welds were ground down. Some welding still to do on the old front "forehead".
The arrow points at the hole where the axle goes for the viper motor I bought yesterday.

[TFoch]

Wow that grill looks so much better!

[sammons]

Nice fab work. Your pump looks like the small ones they use here on Sprint cars. Your winshield frame looks great! The grille looks awsome also👍

[Essex_29]

Thank you TFoch. I figured a tube grille with tubes fairly tightly spaced would look good, and I think it works.
Thanks sammons for the nice words. Just hoping the windsheld frame isn't too fimsy, so the glass cracks.


I mounted the new aluminum radiator to the shell and was lucky, the mounting tabs for this radiator, meant for
model A Fords coincided with some convinently placed original holes in the grille shell.



I don't like that you can see through the grille around the radiator, so a shroud was fabricated from 19ga sheet metal.




I saw a hot rod with a crank hole delete a couple weeks ago and made an own version from a cut down Cragar wheel
center cap I happened to have hanging on my garage wall.

The radiator and grille shell done now, pending paint and assembly with the tube grille.
Radiator and shroud will be flat black, grille shell gloss black and the tubes chrome.



I need to invent some kind of cap for the grille, to cover that giant hole on the top. I have a chromed oil filler cap that
would fit, but it might be too bulky, we'll see what we come up with. Suggestions are welcome.

[sammons]

Essex, your shroud and Cragar badge look great!  A lot of guys just like the looks of a radiator cap or hood ornament. I suppose it depends on the build style. I welded up the hole on my grille shell when i shortned it and extended the depth to get a better slope and room for a/c condenser and external trans cooler.

[sixball]

Looks good!

[Essex_29]

Thank you sixball.
sammons, thank you for the suggestion! That grille looks great without the radiator cap, I might just do that.

[Essex_29]

I did it sammons, I think it looks much better now, thank you for the suggestion!



I tig welded it, and get this: I only dipper the tungsten once! Lots of hammering, so it was
a good thing I used tig instead of mig.

Radiator hoses done now too. I was given access to the local speedshop's radiator hose
collection, and found one with potential. I cut it in half and used it for both the upper and
lower hose. The upper one is 1-1/2" at the radiator and 1-3/4" at the thermostat housing.
The smaller size 90 degree bend one fit right inside the bigger size hose. I found a piece
of copper tubing that fits inside the smaller hose, a hose clamp keeps things together. I have
the upper hose made like this on my Pontiac and it has worked for 13 years by now.



The lower hose is done with help of a 90 degree bend too, same size both ends, the halves
joined together with hose clamps over a copper tube.

[sammons]

Looks great! Like i say, if you were building a stock looking hot rod i'd probably hunt up a rad cap/ornament. But on a regular custom hot rod build, smoothed off looks good. Sometimes less is more😁

[Essex_29]

You're right, sammons. Especially in my case, since I'm planning on running hoodless and
you will be able to see the radiator cap anyway. Not a good look having two of them.

Ed, I decided to make my own shifter. Thank you so much anyway.

 I had a buddy plasma cut a rough shape from
3/8" plate, and did a whole lot of filing and sanding today. I had planned to weld a bolt to
the top of the thing, but decided to try and make it round enough to cut threads on it and
 to my surprise it worked. It's just mild steel, so it will be painted the same black as most
of the rest of the car

 

The bottom end will be shortened and then welded or bolted to the shifter mechanism.

[EDNY]

Ed, I decided to make my own shifter. Thank you so much anyway.

Still hanging in the garage for you!

[Essex_29]

Thank you Ed, I really appreciate it.  It would be super cool to run a shifter that I got as a gift from America (no less),
but I'll settle for a home made one for now. At least it's original.

I had a minor setback. I was watching youtube videos on bmw engines, and then realized that I have mounted the
radiator hoses ass backwards. In other words I ordered the wrong radiator, and connected the hot hose to the
bottom of the radiator. I just assumed that the connection at the thermostat would be the upper hose, but no.
Oh well, I guess I have to get my radiator modified, it would look too silly to criss cross the radiator hoses.

Other than that I've been working on the dash. Seven days in on this project, I think. I took a few hours off to grind the shifter.

Lots of pics here:
One of dozens of sketches. This one's fairly realistic looking.



Top of dash with its edge profile.



Right hand side panel looking pretty nice and swoopy.



A buddy asked if the window crank fits there. No it didn't, so annoyingly enough I had to cut the
thing down a bit to get the hand in there to crank.



Rounding things off as much as I could.



The driver's side panel in the making. I couldn't imagine how hard it would be to make a mirrored
part. All measured cut and  ready for welding and hammering here.



Welded and ground  here, now the rounded top edge profile is welded in too.



Center panel designing and trials here (pic from the R&D department).
All gauges and switches will probably be in this small panel. 
The clock is a swap meet find and has been bolted to the roof of an old bus in its cool housing.
 It's planned to be modified as a tach at some point.

[sammons]

Essex, your shifter looks good. I built one once, took a lot of time and effort polishing up the bare steel, then clear coated it. Didn't keep the car long so i have no idea how well it lasted.
Your dash is coming along nicely.
Bites that you had the wrong radiator. I used one for a 32 Ford for Chevy motor. I still struggled with it in my head that it was correct, checked many times😄 It was dummy proof, but i can be a dummy some times.