Well I am happy to say that I survived the last month! Sorry not to update my pages, but been swamped selling parts and fixing the house while trying to keep my day job! I picked up a few fun items along the way. I bought a sand blast cabinet from Harbor Freight. I know, they aren't the best quality gig in town, but for what I have to do, it really works well. What didn't work was the air drier that I bought. I bought a simple $12 Husky brand from Home Depot, to find out it was pretty useless for sand blasting. So I went back to HF and bought their two stage filter and drier for $45 - about half the cost of competing set-ups. I have barely assembled it this week and yet to test. I am crossing my fingers.
I had an extra rolling cart that I leave it on and roll it outside when using it to help control dust. The main complaints I read about this cabinet was that it leaked, no light and cheap gloves. So far, this cabinet came assembled and caulked. I hook a shop vac to the left side port and it keeps it from leaking as long as I don't forget to turn it on 8-/. The biggest mess it makes is when I open the side door to remove the parts...so far, so good! It is nice to have this for smaller parts. The cabinet will fit a 302 head, but I don't think the inside grate will support the weight.
On top of the cabinet, I have been talking with machine shops and considering engine builds. I have decided to keep this build stock. Originally, I was going to port and flow the original 302 heads (which I will still do a little), but at $500 per head for a shop to do it, puts it out of budget for me right now. So port and flow and hardened seats and new guides put the heads at about $1500. After checking into the heads, it is about the same price or cheaper to buy a set of good breathing aftermarket Edelbrock, Dart, Trick Flow or other heads that have bigger valves and ports off the shelf. So for this initial build, I am going to go with a stock build with some mild porting/port matching.
Really as I kept changing this and that, the build was pushing over $5K and I had to real myself in. I decided for the first build in this car to go more mild and keep it sane and a fun cruiser I will enjoy on the freeway and around town.
Something else I picked up to make it more enjoyable is some sound deadener. Dyanmat is all the rage, and because of my budget, I am going to go on some friends word and try out Audio Technix sound barrier. It is a bit thicker than Dynamat (67mil V 80mil) and has had some pretty extreme testing done on it. I will do the roof, firewall, outer door skins, floors and qtrs around the rear seat. Any visible areas in the trunk will not be deadened to keep a stock look.
Here is a photo of the car - it is home now, and I just placed the script in it for fun. I put some of the rubber bumpers on things and just finishing up some loose ends before I get going real crazy.
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Brad and Jessie helping to navigate back into the garage by putting it on dollys |
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California Made It Happen! |