Hank's Type 65 Build Thread

[rhk118]

Watch out for levy racing. I had a bad experience with him. Ordered an engine from him several years ago with a 4 month lead time. Took him a year to build it and only after I threatened legal action. When I went to pick the engine up it was not ready, parts were missing and there was no paper work. I eventually got the missing parts but to this day have received no paperwork. Good luck.

Thanks Bill and sorry that was your experience. So far I have nothing but great things to say about all the forum sponsors I've dealt with and as we are aware like us they are all in line for parts, seemingly random at times (I mean there are no 3/4" pillow block or 1" flange bearings anywhere in the world?). I've had extensive discussions with Gordon at Levy Racing, Mike Forte, Greg at 520 Speedworks, Georgie at GASN, Russ Thompson, and several emails with Mark Reynolds at Breeze. Everyone has been great, and whether they know it or not they all say pretty much the same things and make very similar recommendations. Gordon, Mike, Georgie, Russ and Mark have been at this quite a while and as I'm building a trackable street car all gave a lot of what I consider to be great advice on how to set up the brakes, spring rates, fuel pump, and engine heads/mounting to ensure the headers fit. I've had no issues with Levy Racing and just received my QA1 double adjustable shocks from them on Friday. I'm glad these guys have all made it through the pandemic seemingly intact, and still available as "wisdom and parts" resources for us. Gordon has been great.

Presently I think parts for these places are all feast or famine, certainly a different world than when you got your engine...there are either backlogs, or they receive a palate of parts then have to rush to catch up and get them out while conducting business and support for customers as usual. On top of that there is no single system in my kit that is complete from FFR other than the manual steering rack and body panels -- everything else is missing critical parts. Engine parts for the 347 I'm having built by a local engine shop are also having major backorders. Will be working on panel and likely seat fitting in the meantime, and as parts trickle in either from factory five, or the vendors then will build as I go. Thankfully I'm not in a rush to build this as fast as I can, and honestly if I had all the parts here, knowing me I'd then feel pressured to get as much done as quickly as possible. As for the pillow block and flange bearings I found some from Motion Industries so I can at least get the steering mocked up as need to find a way to mount electric steering as maybe the only unusual thing about my build. But all of that stream of consciousness to say I have confidence that the parts I've ordered from everyone will get here. Their willingness to communicate and their availability has been stellar.

And since its July 4th here in the states I saw this picture in Mike Forte's Shop. B-25 Mitchell Bomber. He was surprised that a "young-n" like myself (haha) knew what it was. Turns out his dad and my grandfather both flew them in WWII. This is a cool community!