Saturday, July 14, 2012

Day 17

We've been working on the radiator and carb for the past week, so here it is condensed into one post.
Installed the radiator using the Breeze Automotive mount kit (sold separately from the FFR kit):
It uses a heavy steel hinge on top instead of the stock mounting solution, and a thick steel bar across the bottom for extra support. I burned through three drill bits just to get the holes through the steel! It's easily adjustable to compensate for when we put the body on.
Here we have the bottom stainless hose attached:
And here is the upper hose, filler neck and expansion tank in place:
I had to shave a bit of material off the outside of the water pump to get the 90 degree thermostat housing to fit, but otherwise it went together well.
Here is a better view of the expansion tank area:
Dad got the spacers for the carb, but the kit didn't come with longer mounting bolts, so we couldn't finish that today. We need the spacers to make room for the distributor which is VERY close to the bottom of the air filter. We also put some gas in the tank in preparation for the first start and verified that the fuel gauge works...which it does. We also pumped up the oil pressure and verified that the oil PSI gauge works...which it does.
Hopefully we'll have the carb on *permanently* tomorrow, as well as the distributor. Once that is done and all other systems are filled (water, oil, gas) we can start it up for the first time! Till then...