Updating the Super Street Mopar

[ckessel]

Met up with a guy yesterday that has an awesome collection of Mopars, wonder if he needs a new son. LOL! He has a nice stash of early B parts so I was able to get a couple of bumpers from him. Might be able to hook him up with my cast off pieces in further needs. Got them home and took my sawzall to them to harvest out the needed sections. Don't worry, I didn't hack up pristine units. One of them even had a license frame from the dealer in the town I grew up in and that my parents had bought the wagon and truck from in the 60's. Cool! After the hack fest I started forming up my air cleaner unit. For the basic shape going on my wheel then from there transferred to my shrinker/stretcher, shrink jaws in, and started getting it in a U to wrap around the spacer on my TB. This will be part of the plenum and from there I'll be heading towards the firewall. The filter I chose is for a 14 and newer Vette [yikes!] since on that cars application with a blower, I figured the airflow would be sufficient. I was looking at using a filter from my 04 Cummins or a like 95 truck 5.9 gas but that would require me to shorten/re-thread/re cut o-ring groove on the fuel rails. Going to work some more on that today after church. For the bumper, my plan is to widen out the license opening as far as possible, which is why I needed graft material, so that there is plenty of airflow to the oil coolers and a little extra to the radiator plus through the engine compartment. Trying to maximize airflow to keep things cool in there.

 

[ckessel]

Here are some more action shots.

 

[ckessel]

I worked on the plenum to TB unit today. Cut out the base filler and the top. I tacked it to the spacer then did a side look at it and figured I had better set the front sheet metal back on to make sure there was clearance to the hood. It just hits the inner brace so I need to shorten the spacer, drop the plenum down low in the front and should be good to go on that. For the filter box, it needs to be no more total height than where the filter base is now. I pulled out the radiator to give me a better view which worked out great. The upper tie bar portion of my fabbed core support is going to work fine. Will continue hitting it this week. Hope its cooler as its been 105+ and almost raining. No A/C where I work, just some fans to blow air around. I've been back on the 67 Camaro at work replacing the heater core which is a major project requiring removal of fender, hood, inner fender, grille, bumper, carpet, seats, center console etc. Friggin sweltering in the interior with no air flow. When I get home, I've had enough for the day so no work on mine. supposed to be cooler this coming week.

 

[ckessel]

I have not done much of anything on the car for awhile now. Have been busy working on stuff around the house as we are looking to move out of the area by next spring. We plan on moving to Sequim Wa. which is near Port Angeles on the peninsula. We have been wanting to be out of of this location for a long time, 20+ years, but finally decided to get on with it. Family issues and a lack of work that pays properly in an area that gets more expensive yearly takes its toll. We went up there after turkey day for 3 days to get boots on the ground, had been doing internet only, and we like the area. It does not get the rain like the rest of the area due to the topography, so its more like San Diego, and we will love the cooler overall temps as we get hit with 100+ here with the humidity pretty close to it. Getting hit with $800 electric bills in the summer suck. We live in a manufactured home park, aka mobile homes, which is sub-metered so the park adds their 2c onto the bill after they buy it from San Diego Graft and Extortion[SDG&E]. When we sell, besides the fact we have an awesome place with an almost 1k sq ft garage, our kicker is we have a 99 year lease on the land, we own the house but not the dirt, and the payment is $280 or so per month for the lease when the other tenants are paying almost a grand plus utilities on top. We can transfer the lease over to the buyer but they have to have cash for that as you can't get lending for a lease, just the house. Maybe someone who has had enough of the snow wants some heat? It still has not rained here, been low 30's at night with daytime in the 60's.

 

[Jetblast]

Carl, I just started looking at your thread because I just started restoring/rebuilding my 65 Coronet. I have to tell you what you what I am sure you hear all the time, you are doing some amazing work and obviously have some incredible talent. My build will be much closer to stock simply because I don't have the talent you have but I am I am inspired by some of the work you are doing
One blessing I have is a good friend who is an artist, sculptur and fabricator. His main work is monuments and tribute pieces. He did the 12 Strong sculpture that is at the World Trade Center site. He is into building old world War 1 airplanes but, and this is the blessing, he helps me with stuff that is way beyond my pay grade.
Anyway, thanks for the info and updates, hope mine is a fraction of what you are doing

 

[ckessel]

Wow, thank you! I'm always trying to learn new stuff, do a ton of reading, hit the trade shows, car shows etc to suck up as much info as possible to keep filling the noodle. One thing that scares some away from diving in on something is a lack of skill to do so. With the friend who is a sculpter, you can pick up some valuable knowledge and you may have a skill that he needs in return. I do this with one of my neighbors who is a retired contractor. I'm pretty good at butchering wood and construction projects so we trade for when he needs stuff done on his truck. The car is on the proverbial back burner, has been for a couple of months now, as we are packing up the house so we can get it listed and move. We have not nailed down a destination yet but we want a nice water view, prefer ocean, and of course large shop/garage for me like 1k'+ in size and tall so my lift fits in with room over the top when a vehicle is loaded on. I retired? at the end of january so this has given me time to take care of homeowner stuff and house hunting trips plus other stuff. I'll keep an eye out for how yours is going and don't hesitate to grill me with questions.

 

[ckessel]

Other than chiming in on others projects with my 2c worth, I have not been active on updates. We did move to the central coast of Cal, to Los Osos, which is just south of Morro Bay, as we had lived here before and love the area. My car has been on the back burner for a year now between down south and being here since may. We are waiting for our old house to sell, so that will fund my new garage/shop here. The house has a 20x20 on it but I need way more space especially since we scaled down on house size, was 1980 sq ft now its just under 1300, plus I need height for my 4 post lift. We have some nibblers on the old place but its not a fully done deal yet. The new cave will be a 30x40 with 15-16' walls and have the roof double as a deck which will connect to the existing one on the house and give us more viewing area. Love being back here and having the south end of the Morro rock and sand spit for viewing plus the constant crashing surf. I needed to go back to work since the cd we cashed in was almost out and we have taxes to pay on two houses. I checked in with a guy I knew from before to see if he or anyone he knew could use my talents. He said check in with a friend of his, named Ben Bright, who has a rod shop in Morro Bay called " Old Soul Speed and Custom". Turns out he was one of the A-Team members from Overhauling! I could not believe my luck, still don't, at scoring this. I did not watch the show as we, on purpose, were not on any systems like Direct etc. I thank the Good Lord everyday for this. In the meantime I'm getting better in my skills and being beneficial to him on the projects there at the shop.

 

[ckessel]

Just some updates to keep this current. My garage is built, still have a couple of tasks to do for the final inspection sign off. At least for now the car is in the new garage and out of the elements. Later this year I can hopefully get back on it. For the garage, see my thread "lessons in patience to me" in the garage section.

 

[CudaChick1968]

Fabulous!!!

 

[ckessel]

I want to get cracking on it now but I'm going to have to wait until the garage gets cleared on the final inspection. From there empty the trailer, get stuff put away, get my lift re-assembled, gets some work going so I have funds etc.

 

[ckessel]

This is what the inside of my trailer looks like currently. Lots of stuff!

 

[ckessel]

Been making some progress emptying my trailer this week, should have it wrapped up today. The engine/trans is back on concrete.

 

[Jarven1977]

Let's get this Rolling!

 

[ckessel]

I'm chomping at the bit to get back on it but need to get the last two items of the garage build squared away so the county can give me the final inspection write off. Asphalt approach to the parking area not to the street and I need to drywall the old garage. With the new garage, see "Lessons In Patience To Me" in the garage section, it had to be fitted with fire sprinklers which meant that the house and old garage got them too. Because of the square footage of the new unit and it being attached to the house meant having to do the retro fit. Once all thats done, I need to start doing some work from home to give me car funds. There is quite a bit of stuff I can still do once the garage is ok to work in, have to get it signed off, but there will be a point when dough becomes the issue. Can't wait though. Its been over 3 years since I last worked on it.

 

[Superbeemike]

ckessel, dropping a comment to bump this thread up.

I unfortunately understand the difficulty of managing multiple projects along with trying to cordinate a move. This year I just finished restoring my 77' D-150, which I dissassembled back in 2008. I stalled on it enough to where I thought I was going to have to scrap this old truck? Luckily I had a an opportunity come up that helped me finance the project and now its done. Along with getting the money to finish it, I set a deadline to finish the truck. That really got things moving too. I'm really hoping to get a track day scheduled for next year, just waiting on the 2022 schedule to be released at https://www.ongridtrack.com/. Maybe we can pick a track day and I'll meet you there. A deadline so to speak.

Good luck with the build, I'll be following along.

(here's a pic of my D-150 pulling the Bee at ThunderHill for motivation)

 

[ckessel]

A Dodge pulling a Dodge! I have an 04 Cummins dually as my daily driver. I'm hoping to get some work started soon as I do have the time, its just the lack of funds. I'm checking pricing/sources to get my front bumper stripped/de-chromed so I can do my mods to it. The engine bay needs to get sandblasted which is easy and won't cost much if I DIY. I'm not sure when I can make big progress on it but just have to wait. Do you get down to Buttonwillow? Let me know if you do and I'll head over. I did see the schedule for the organization you run with. I will get over there sometime to check out the happenings. One of my main holdups is the drama/CF of the garage build here. Unit is done but I have work to do on old one so the permit can be signed off. From there I have a bathroom to redo in the house, found the source of a leak and black mold. Its been gutted for over 2 years. But other than that, life is good.Lessons in patience to me

 

[Superbeemike]

Buttonwillow is on the list of places I still need to go. Just haven’t been able to get dates and schedules synced for it. It’s actually a really good halfway point between my buddies in SoCal and where I’m at in Nevada. Maybe next season it will work out. One things for certain, it’s an expensive hobby. I do have to choose my track days wisely because I just don’t have the money to blow to hit them all up.

 

[ckessel]

For sure BW is a trek from your area. I wouldn't mind the one up by Tracy but its 4-5 hrs away from here. I see they hit Laguna Seca. Thats 2-3ish away. I'll watch for that. Been there before watching the historic races. Fun stuff.

 

[ckessel]

I'm getting back on the car project! I moved some stuff around in the garage, tossed some items that were not going to be used, shuffled more items around and freed up some shelf space. My neighbor helped me get the hood off so it could be set on a rolling rack. Its tall enough so that I don't have to duck. I picked up some new moving blankets from HF, they had a new size. 144x80. I was able to set the fenders on them and wrap the blanket around. Put some bunji cords around them to keep the blankets on. I recycled some foam insulation packing that is used for keeping the frozen pet food frosty in the box from Darwin's. Layed a 3 panel strip on the wire racks, then put the fenders on those. I'll get the various heat exchangers off next. I need to get ahold of some of the plastic car bagging to cover the car when I get after the rust. For Christmas I received some dough, so I bought the SCT unit from Eastwood and two each carbide coated nylon bristle brushes and flap wheels. I'm going to use those for the bulk of rust removal and then blast whatever is left over. Very dumb on my part not to have put some sort of protection on the bare metal. The car was covered but still in the elements. My McFly moment.