VISION

Greetings!

I've been busy with the '51 Chevy Coupe this week, trying to get enough high profile tasks accomplished so I can invite Gary, the owner of the car, over to my laboratory to look things over. I don't want to be embarrassed when he looks at it and asks if I've been golfing lately. There's a condition that exists that I call "vision"; it's where someone looks at the work in progress and sees the destination. It seems that the more one is immersed in the automotive aftermarket, the easier it is to see beyond primer and welding scars. Take for example the El Camino I painted last fall; Even my wife of 29 years has difficulty seeing the vision ahead of reality.

Years ago I made the mistake of letting a car owner visit my shop to see the progress on his '50 Ford. He wasn't so immersed really, he was a farmer. I'd worked very hard to make the body straight and had the car in primer with some patches of color still showing. I could tell he thought it looked like he was standing in the high school parking lot staring at somebody's first car. He thought the it was months away from being completed, when in reality I delivered the beauty less than a week later.

I've been doing essential upgrades to Gary's coupe that are less visible. For example, I replaced the rear axle with one from a 1990 Chevy S-10 and then bolted on the same wheels that were on it before. Who can tell what I've done?

I replaced the rear spring shackle bushings while I had the axle out. Who's going to notice that? Here's the real sleeper: I lined the inner door skins with sound deadening material, then I re-attached the door panel upholstery, thus hiding all of the evidence. The truth is: if I DIDN'T change the bushings and add the sound deadener it WOULD have been apparent. 

It's like a beautiful woman who skillfully applies her makeup in the morning: one day she forgets and everyone at the office is shell-shocked at her appearance. Sometimes it's the absence of a needed performance that clamors the most loudly for attention.

By the way, have you ever known a woman to forget to apply her makeup? I'm not talking about the ones who choose to avoid makeup, I mean the ones who regularly use it. They never forget. To them it's like forgetting to open one eye, or forgetting to swallow.

I plan to use a hydraulic clutch so I spent some time this afternoon fabricating a bracket that mounts the slave cylinder to the linkage side of the 4-speed transmission. I tucked it in very close to the linkage arms for two reasons: so it would clear the walls of the narrow transmission tunnel, and so it would have less flex when Gary stabs the clutch pedal. It's a pull type slave cylinder so I had to mount it behind the clutch fork. It's a Speedway Motors unit that got pretty good reviews.

When that chore was done I wheeled in a Chevy 350 engine that is one of my inventory engines. It's not the engine I intended to use for Gary's car but it's identical in size so I can use it to position the transmission crossmember and make the motor mounts, etc. This engine is a post '86 model with a hydraulic roller cam and a one-piece rear main seal. Also, it happens to have forged pistons (way cool upgrade) and all the rotating assembly is balanced. I'm referring to the crankshaft, connecting rods and pistons. I also have a set of high-flow aluminum heads with large valves mounted on the block. This engine is going to put out the power and purr while it's doing it. I'm not sure what car I'm going to put it into yet - something special for sure.

However, plans call for a 305 V8 for Gary's car and I had one to rebuild for him. Unfortunately, the block is cracked in 4 places and I had to discard it. But not until I'd commissioned Bryan at K&U Auto Parts to completely rebuild the heads and machine the crankshaft. I bought a camshaft from Bryan for the 305 also, then he told me the block is cracked. I've been looking for a "core" engine that I can machine to fit the new pistons I've already purchased, but I'm insistent that it's a roller cam block. The roller cam engines are smoother, more powerful and last longer than the standard blocks and that's what I've promised to put in this creampuff coupe. 

Meanwhile, back in the laboratory, I bolted the engine and transmission together without a clutch set (remember, it's being used to mock up my mounts and such) and hoisted it into the chassis. I had thought I might be able to use the stock emergency brake linkage and transmission crossmember, but it looks like both ideas are not going to work out. The oil filter boss hits the emergency brake linkage (and it will probably block the exhaust headers) and the transmission crossmember from the original drivetrain is too far forward and puts the front of the engine too close to the radiator. Just look at the gap between the rear of the engine and the firewall! This baby's got to scoot back a bit.

I'll eventually have to get the radiator from the front clip and bolt it in place on the frame temporarily, just to see how things are going to fit. I think I'll have to fabricate a crossmember and weld it in place after cutting out the stock unit. 

It's going to look so much better with an engine in place. It's very exciting now. I can't wait to get back out to the shop and get things situated. But, its just my luck that I had a flat tire on the wife's car while I was heading to the parts store after dark tonight in the snow. Instead of fixing the flat on the side of the road, I called my son Skylar to pick me up. I'll fix it in the late morning when it warms up into the double digit temperatures. There's always a distraction when I have something exciting to do in the shop. Where's the convenient distraction when I'm changing the baby's diaper, eh? Or when I'm loading the dishwasher? 

Doug