| 02-23-2012 |
I worked practically all day on this air cleaner to get it done so I can have my '57 finished. Theoretically it could possibly get 25 mpg highway with the overdrive and my higher 3:55 rear end. All stock overdrive cars came with 4:10s so my stock 3:55 should hopefully help out even more.
After today this is the point I got to. I resized and welded in the velocity stack like I did the last one. This welding is extremely frustrating because the metal is so thin it's impossible to find a setting that will penetrate consistently without simply burning straight through the metal. I takes a lot of different techniques depending on exactly how big the gap is in the metal. It just means a lot more grinding. I hope to get the welding and grinding done tomorrow and lay down the first layer of body filler.
In between working on the air cleaner and while waiting for the weld through primer to set up I took April's gas tank out and get the rear end kit out and went through the directions to see exactly what's going to be involved in getting it mounted and positioned correctly. Finally, I was able to work with some parts that weren't covered in gunk and rust.
This is the greatest stuff that there is for getting rusted things broken loose. I'm not sure what they make this stuff out of but it must be made out of magic.
It looks like someone had tried to seal this gas tank in the past. The stuff on the tank feels like tree sap. As I figured, the bolts for the gas tank straps broke when trying to take them off.
I wasn't surprised to find solid metal over the gas tank. This car is really solid and has turned out to be a great candidate for our car.
Here's the rear end mounting kit, minus the leaf springs. Look at all that shiny hardware with no rust or grease. I could get used to that.
I noticed today that there are yet more rivets to remove from the rear suspension to get the old spring mounts off. These will be worse than the front ones because I'll have to lay on my back to get them and there's no access to the top of them. I'm not looking forward to that.
