Progress Reports
Cool truck - Chopped, slammed and tubbed. It needed some TLC and finishing work. Try 1962 Chrysler Imperial Headlights and a 1953 Corvette grill.
There was also a need to update the interior with new gauges, freshen up the electrical and update the intake manifold. Then integrate a Holley Fuel Injection system onto the 383 small block.
Well the 1958 Chevy Biscayne went back to the customer right before Christmas. After a little break I'm ready to get back in the garage. The Biscayne was a great project. Nice car, easy to work on and most of GM's long history of using the same parts worked on this car. A few minor adjustments and all is right with a modernized Biscayne.
New project in the garage. A freshen up and modernization of an old classic. I'm in the midst of getting dirty and getting the old parts out. We are going to bring a little modern technology with updated rack and pinion and radial tires. This car was still wearing bias ply Allstate radials. Check out the project page.
And this one smelled like the barn. As I disassembled the interior the mice nests were everywhere. This one had been in the barn for a long time. The thing that attracted me to this car was the all OEM intact drive line. The air cleaners, air pump, hoses, fuel lines. All original. This car would be perfect for a serious MG enthusiast. The gas tank was very rusty, but after cleaning the carbs I was able to get it to run off a gravity can.
Well it was time to get the Lexus tested for emissions and the CEL had been coming and going for a few months. Every time I would check the code it would be for poor catalytic performance. After some research the conclusion is that replacing the factory cats is an expensive project and a new exhaust system from front to back was in order.
So with some finesse I was able to get the old system out and the new one installed. The OEM system had four O2 sensors, two upstream active fuel management units and two downstream for gross readouts. A cool company called TokenSolutions offers a dual O2 sim for Lexus and Toyota products that keeps the two upstream sensors and elimnates the two downstream without setting a CEL. Neat.
Last year we put a set of coil overs on Justin's Audi. Justin likes it low. This year its a 3" turbo back exhaust. Now the exhaust is the closest thing to the ground. We actually had to raise the suspension for a little extra clearance.
Hi -
There has been a lot going on in the shop. A new customer Rich has a 62 Big Block Chevy Nova. Ex-drag car now seeing around town, car show duties. It needs maintenance items and some re-engineering for the application.
Its a cool car.
Since the MGB had floors and an interior I asked a daughter if she wanted to go for a test drive. She took one look and said no way - its not safe! Really? No seat belts. The car never came with them. I need to figure out some belts. It turns out there were original mounts , but it doesn't appear they have had bolts in them for a very long time.
Seat Belts! Of course - now its been fun to drive.
Seat Belts
So as we finished up the floors, sealing, priming and painting it was time to add back in a reasonable interior. I found some substantial grey herringbone style carpet that looked great with the black.
A few cans of spray adhesive later...
Cleaned and ready for seats
It has been a furious few weeks of cutting, forming, grinding and welding to install fresh floors into our MGB. The project went well. I enlisted my daughter to run the bead roller for me as we added ribs into the floors for strength and to prevent the oil can effect. Then we used the flanging/punching tool I have to add flanges and punch holes to plug weld the sections. It worked out really well. A section of Dynamat where to help noise and heat.
No more Fred Flintstone feet.
Floors!