Finishing up the brakes
The new stainless brake line coil arrived, so another ‘battle’ unwinding it and cutting a section to run from under the car, up the front of the driver’s footbox, and in to the master cylinder.
I’ve said it before, and I might have to eat my words, but I’m very happy at how my double flares are coming out now. ?Thanks to the Eastwood flaring tool pictured in the vice.
Today I’m hoping to put back much of the aluminium. ?Now that the brake lines are run the engine will soon be dropped in and drilling and riveting will be very difficult once the motor is seated. I am a little concerned that the brake line run down the front of the driver’s footbox might end up too close to the headers, but will have to see once they’re in.
Speaking of headers, I had a stroke of luck on Friday. Scanning the FFCars.com classifieds I spotted a ‘Wanted to Buy’ entry for 302 headers. Since I have a set that aren’t going to fit my 351W, I responded, and happened to comment that I needed a 351 headers set. A response came back that the guy with the ad actually had a 351 set and needed the 302. ?The result, a straight trade! Saved me (and him) $650 for new headers. Packed and with FedEx, my new ones are en route. Will be the same as these, just a little longer to account for the added height of the 351 block.
With the brakes done, I returned to the hydraulic clutch. Since the engine will go in soon, I need to install the slave cylinder for the clutch kit. Old bolts came out just fine but when I put in the longer replacements, to accommodate the additional bushing and billet bracket, it just wouldn’t bite. My first thought was that I’d stripped the threads in the bell housing and many bad words were uttered. I then measured the bolts with a micrometer and found that they’re different sizes.
The new one is slightly smaller (1mm to us Europeans) which explains the lack of grip when tightening up. On closer inspection the markings show that the old bolt is metric, the new American.
So now to hunt down a 3″ long metric equivalent.
This week I started investigating engine bay parts and have ordered a custom radiator direct from Factory Five along with a set of Vintage style instruments. More to come on those. Also discussing with Mark Reynolds at Breeze Automotive on other cooling system and fuel delivery components that I need.
As the summer heats up so does my eagerness to get this baby on the road. ?Maybe next summer?