Arrowhead's 33' Hot Rod Build

[Arrowhead]

5/8" master cylinder insalled for rear brakes, line lock plumbed for the front.




Bit the bullet and got a Fastrax caster/camber gauge and did a complete alignment. I set the caster for 6 degrees to go along with the power steering I'm going to install.

[Arrowhead]

Since the controller for the electric steer unit is not weather proof, it needs to be sealed or mounted inside, but of course the harness is not long enough to reach into the cabin. So I had to extend the harness.




Electric steer unit installed and harness extended.






Mounting the controller was a PIA becuse the bolts have to go in from the back - so you can't mount on a flat surface with no access from behind. Soooo I had to make a bracket to mount it on.




Finally got around to finishing the A/C hose layout. I had most of the hoses cut and fittings in place, but never got around to the final connections to the compressor. Now I just need to take to a shop and have hte ends crimped. I'm not too thrilled at the layout, it's not very pretty, but it will be mostly hidden by the side cover.

[ehansen007]

I plan on weatherproofing my unit with this stuff. Supposed to be out by mid 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqGkC...eature=related

['33 BOD]

Great choice of wheels. I've been looking at those also. What size did you settle on? I'm still bending fuel lines.

[timdks]

I plan on weatherproofing my unit with this stuff. Supposed to be out by mid 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqGkC...eature=related

Good old nanotechnology. That should keep it dry enough.

[Arrowhead]

UPDATE AS OF OCTOBER 4, 2014

Well it's confession time. It's been three years today since the hot rod went on the "rock star" tour to SEMA and World of wheels car show circuit of winter 2011-12'. I drove the car quite a bit that following summer, did some autocross and a bunch of car shows. But things kind of stalled out after that.

[Arrowhead]

The winter of 2012 I decided it was time to finish up some loose ends line install the power windows. The more I thought about it, the engine was in need to freshening up so it would be a good time to do a rebuild. It was a salvage yard engine and the oil pressure was getting low. I had no other projects going on so I tore it apart with the intent of having it back together for summer.

How to tear down a hot rod in a weekend:
(sorry for the crappy pictures)

[Arrowhead]

So while I waited on parts, there were a few other things I wanted/needed to do.

The steering seemed a little sloppy and traced it to the rack had lateral play in it. The is no support bushing on the drivers side so I could see the rack rock back and forth which translates into play in the steering. Sent the rack to Unisterer and they said it was fine, but I had emailed them a video showing them the movement so they tried to tighten it up after they saw the video.

[Arrowhead]

I also notices about 1/32" play in the top ball joints. Since I was getting some parts powder coated, I figured I might as well replace the joints now and have everything powder coated at once.

[Arrowhead]

I also wanted to make the rear suspension adjustable. So I got four heim joints and bungs to fit the existing control arms.

[Arrowhead]

I originally had polished the firewall and foot boxes and grew to hate having to try and keep them clean and polished. So I removed them while the engine was out and put them in the pile of parts to powder coated.

[Arrowhead]

The new parts came for the engine so I put that back together. Forged pistons and rods, new rings, bearings oil pump gaskets and seals of course. Even reconditioned all 32 valves with new seals and relapped the valves.



Spirolocs are fun:

[Arrowhead]

So another issue I wanted to address was a small transmission fluid leak. I wasn't the torque converter seal, so I assumed it was the pump to case. Simple right? So I removed the pump, and replaced the gasket and oring around the pump. No problem. BUT, in reinstalling the pump, things didn't line up right and while trying to maneuver the parts together "PING" a small metal clip pops out! No idea what it's for or where it goes. So after some researching found it's some vibration dampener or something and clips between the pack and housing. So, out the tranny comes and on the the bench, pan has to come off and pistons out to release the bands, etc. What a nightmare for a stupid little clip.

[Arrowhead]

So now it's around March 2013 and the engine and chassis are back together but the engine is not installed. some how the stars and planets align and the wife says "You need to build a garage". You don't need to hit me over the head with a tire tool to get me to act on that. So basically I put the hot rod on hold for the next eight months to build a new shop.

My son and I did all the work ourselves except for the slab. He had a buddy give us a hand with some of the bigger jobs like trusses, roofing and siding. Ironically, the building went up in no time. The rest of the work like electrical, insulation, heat, A/C (YUP!) took me most of the summer to finish.

[Arrowhead]

So finally, with the shop done, I could get back on the hot rod (well at least for a little while).






One thing I splurged on was a Canton oil pan. The problem was it was warped like a banana. Not happy for what it cost, sent it back and got another one with the same problem. I was in the middle of the garage build at the time so I just didn't deal with it and thought I could make it work. Got the engine buttoned up and installed.

[Arrowhead]

And that's how it sat for another seven months. Over the winter had an opportunity to do bodywork and paint on a FFR MkIV. Figured hey, can get my car fished up in the spring.

[Arrowhead]

Then I had another opportunity to do body and paint on a '65 Chevelle SS, so I took that on also. I knew it was pushing out getting my hot rod back on the road for the summer, but it was worth it.

[Arrowhead]

Being that the hot rod had sat so long I really want to at least get it running. So I took a couple weeks out of the Chevelle to at least finish assembling it and run the engine.

I also relocated the brake fluid reservoirs to behind the firewall. There just wasn't any room up front for them and it was cramped. I did open up the hole in the cowl so I can still get my hand in there to bolt on the hard top.

[Arrowhead]

So engine was running good, excellent oil pressure and no funny noises. EXCEPT, I kept hearing a "ting" noise coming from the blower. I also had a coolant leak in the heater hose buried under the intake. So after the Chevelle was done, I pulled the blower off and rebuilt it with new seals, bearings, etc. BUT, the front cover got busted up removing so had to get another one. I just painted it wrinkle black for now.

[Arrowhead]

I also had been wanting to completely redo the cooling system. I had made up new cooling tubing and hoses when I first built the car, but used the stock thermostat location which is AFTER the radiator. So I wanted to revamp it into a more conventional routing and also tap into the rear cooling ports on the heads. To do this I got AN hose adapters for the heads and a Canton catch can. I had my son weld AN bungs for the lines from the heads on the tank and a thermostat housing on the top of the tank. We also fabbed up a stainless return pipe for the radiator outlet.












Also figured while I had it all apart, I wanted to move the regulator from behind the blower to the firewall. It was cleaner install but I couldn't get to the regulator and you couldn't install a gauge on it where it was.

[Arrowhead]

I also wanted to replace the crooked grille shell with the newer updated version from FFR. And of course with the square grille, the hood and side panels don't fit right (which I knew wouldn't). But I'm OK with that as I want to do some other mods anyway.

While I was at it, I replaced the radiator. I had a put a small hole in it and repaired it but was not confident it would hold. I also though it might be contaminated and not cooling effectively. (Had used stop leak at one point to fix the pinhole)

[Arrowhead]

Also had wanted to update the sprigs so I did the rear to front spring swap and got the softer rear springs from Breeze. Defiantly made an improvements, not so harsh a ride.

[Arrowhead]

Finally got around to addressing the oil pan also (had put the stock one back on temporarily). You can see how badly it was warped. I removed the reinforcing rails and then cut along pan along the edge of the rail. Then I was able to straighten the rail and reweld.

[Arrowhead]

So I was able to get out and get a couple hundred miles on it and hit some shows. But, now on to another project for a friend of mine so it will be a while before I can get back to the hot rod, there are still more upgrades I want to do before next summer.



Doing body and paint on a '69 Cutlass now.






So that's my update. I kept thinking I would update my build thread when I got everything done, but things kept getting in the way so I figured now was as good a time as any.