Casey Family Build thread....

[QSL]

Jim emailed me today and told me my intake should be on my doorstep when i get home!!!! Pics with smiles to follow tonight!

[Pedalmasher]

Originally Posted by QSL

Jim emailed me today and told me my intake should be on my doorstep when i get home!!!! Pics with smiles to follow tonight!

OK - Back to "hating you" again!!

[QSL]

wow!!!

[QSL]

We also recieved out IBUILD shirts!!!!

[scottns]

Originally Posted by QSL

wow!!!

That looks sick!

[pjdavis]

They should send you to the funny farm!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cobrajj]

Mike, Your engine setup is fantastic! Jim

[QSL]

thanks guys!

Jim, i hope to get to use that leveler this weekend!

[MRSQSL]

Week 6

This was a big weekend for us. We got the engine in!!!! As usual, I don't have pics on my iPad so Mike will have to add them later. Saturday was prep day. Mike and Steve worked on getting the clutch and flywheel on (probably not in that order). They also FINALLY got the rear brakes in place. Thanks to Factory Five, Wilwood sent the replacement rotor. Yay! Mike redid some brake lines so he could add bulkheads. He also started routing the rear brake lines. Turns out Steve really likes to use the riveter. They make a good team, but I think Steve is starting to get bored because he hasn't been able to do as much lately. Hopefully they'll move onto more two person jobs.

Alyssa and I finished riveting the passenger side footbox. Done stamp on that project. We also started drilling the holes for the passenger floor panel. Who knew there were so stinking many holes needed! I broke my first drill bit, but Mike was able to get the end out of the hole. Yay!

It seems like we must've done other stuff too. Hmmmm...

Well, the big excitement was the engine. Joel and his son were kind enough to come help us out. Talk about a HUGE help! I don't think we could've done it without Joel. It was a lot less scary than I expected and other than having to cut out a bar in the trans tunnel area, it went in somewhat smoothly. Joel was telling us he helped install one recently without the leveler. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult that must've been. Thanks again Jim for lending us the leveling thing. Thanks again to Xceleratr (I know I butchered that spelling) for lending us the engine hoist. The guys on this forum rock!

Things we learned:

Joel has a great sense of humor and it was a blast teasing him about which way to turn the crank on the leveler. Hee, hee.

Engines are heavy. Okay, so I knew that, but I realized how heavy while trying to get it to hold still when it was swinging slightly.

Sometimes you can really get lucky. With the motor installed and everyone patting each other on the back, I looked over and wonderd if the heater would clear the valve cover. I couldn't get a good picture, but it clears by about a fingernail.

Lastly, don't hook the chains really closely to the engine or you will end up having to balance things on a jack while you reconnoiter.

We are super excited about the progress this weekend and can't stop staring at the car. Yay!

[QSL]

First of all, want to thank Joel! Thanks for stopping by and spending some of your weekend to get this done! I thought it took a few hours to put this thing in, but it was really only about an hour.

I ended up re doing a portion of the front brake lines so i could add bulk head fittings. I was a lot happier with them. I originally used grommets, but i did not like the way they came out. The bulkheads are MUCH nicer. Clutch and trans went as expected. Nice and heavy and a slight trick to get it all alligned and such. Engine was about the same, I was a little stressed but having joel was a real huge help and took a LOT of the burden off my shoulders.

Wow!!! I cant believe i have this thing in the garage. I cant stop looking at it. Its really starting to look like something special.

Anyway, now for some pics!

[QSL]

More pics...

[QSL]

couple more.

[Ray]

Your garage is way too clean!!!!

Ray

[Doug Meldrum]

It's looking great.
Your flat black panels turned out great. I like the flat paint so much, I did mine in blue.

[QSL]

easy to clean and hides a lot. Its actually a satin finish with a slight texture. Almost like on the cobra valve covers, but not as much texture or shine. Hard to really tell in pics. Much better in person. I have seen yours before, but honestly i thought it was black even though i clearly see in this pic its not. Looks really good.

[lynnhowlyn]

Ya'll continue to impress me with the quality of your build (GREAT family project BTW) and the speed of your build.

At the rate you're going, I expect we could see the body mounted and it off to be painted before your 2 month anniversary!

Very well done!

Lynn

[Tennessee Tim]

Great progress. I'm jealous.



I noticed that you did not cut the lower boss off of the TKO tailshaft before installing. How did you manage to make it fit?

Tim

[QSL]

tailshaft... uhmmmmmm Yea, uhmmmmmm, More to come on that one later.

[Tennessee Tim]

Originally Posted by QSL

tailshaft... uhmmmmmm Yea, uhmmmmmm, More to come on that one later.

'nuff said...

We've all been there.

Tim

[QSL]

I meant to do it that way. That way i can cut it while in the car and i am all twisted up swearing at it. Its more fun that way, really

[QSL]

So after a full day of swearing myself out at work, i came home and went right into the garage for a night of fun. Needless to say, i spent about as much time cutting this freaking tab off as we spent putting the engine in sunday...

kudos for julie thinking of drilling holes into it to remove material. That REALLY helped!!!

Here are the pics... No prius cars were harmed during "cutting this off" Ha!! LOL. Sorry i know i am not supposed to joke on this forum...

[Pedalmasher]

Heck, Mike - Just think of all those calories you burned - (reference the seat thread)...

[QSL]

yea, i for sure sweat my butt off. Maybe i only weigh 240 now... Oh, nope, just ate a grilled cheese sandwich!

[Pedalmasher]

Originally Posted by QSL

yea, i for sure sweat my butt off. Maybe i only weigh 240 now... Oh, nope, just ate a grilled cheese sandwich!

DOH!!

[frankeeski]

Originally Posted by QSL

No prius cars were harmed during "cutting this off" Ha!! LOL. Sorry i know i am not supposed to joke on this forum...

Don't sweat it Mike. I about peed my pants when I read this. Plenty of us have a sense of humor. Car is coming along great keep up the good work. Frank

[Tennessee Tim]

Originally Posted by QSL

I meant to do it that way. That way i can cut it while in the car and i am all twisted up swearing at it. Its more fun that way, really

I call that C*bra yoga. It's supposed to be quite therapeutic.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Mike Forte for cutting the boss off of my TKO before he sent it to me...

Having said that, I'm trying to find the therapeutic benefit of forgetting to slip the nut over the brake line before flaring. I think it might be primal scream therapy.

Tim

[QSL]

tim, its easy, when the nut forgets to get onto the tube that you just flared, you just yell at the nut and tube and bash them with a hammer. The rest of the tubing and nuts will get the picture and most likely they wont forget to get onto the next one.

[cobracruz]

LOL! This thread is like a good mini series. It has laughter, tears, drama...
I hope your family finishes in time to make the Huntington Beach gathering. I would love to see this fantastic build in person.

[MRSQSL]

Week 7

I usually post an update on Sunday night and I will post again, but so much has happened this weekend, I wanted to start the sharing process now.

So, Friday evening, UPS arrived with two tires. Who's the hero now???? I'm pretty sure these were the last two ecsta xs tires in 275/40/17 (I think that's the size) in the US. Oh yeah. I'm awesome. Hey, someone has to pat me on the back, right? Mike rushed home and we shot off to Big O to get them mounted and balanced. It took about an hour and we had to answer the same question about a half dozen times (what are these going on?). They look great and Mike will post pics later.

Saturday morning arrived and I had a bunch of stuff to do. No roadster work for me. Alyssa and Mike got the wheels installed on the car. Steve and I returned and admitted the car now looks more like a car. Silence engulfed the garage and all heads tilted in concentration. Mike announced he heard a roadster. I jumped up and ran to the door to look out. Yup. Jim arrived in his gorgeous blue roadster with Scott bringing up the rear in his stunning white coupe. Shortly after Frank joined us in his eye catching currently black roadster. Yay!

These are a knowledgeable bunch of guys and it was great picking their brains. I was sad when everyone left. We learned quite a bit and I will discuss that more on the next post.

This is where the evening headed towards a downward spiral. Mike really wanted to get the intake in so he and Steve started on that while Alyssa and I drilled out the rivets in the firewall. I'll explain that later as well. Anyway, they quickly ran into a snag. The best way I can explain it is that there are four bolts in the center portion of the manifold that are just below the riser things on the carbs. It's like a capital letter T with a lower case i really close to the T. We needed to put a washer and nut on the "i", but the cross of the "T" is in the way. Wow, that sounds confusing. The only way to get the washer and nut on was for Mike to lift the intake while the kids (small hands) put the bits on. The gaskets were installed and Rtv was on everything. Mikes instructions were to put them on and hand tighten. Well, Steve was slower than Alyssa and Alyssa is apparently superman, the incredible hulk and wonder woman all rolled into one. She got her nuts down tight before Steve could get one of his on and mike couldn't lift enough anymore for clearance. In our minds, the Rtv was suddenly going to harden instantaneously and we just destroyed the entire engine and intake. Okay, maybe I'm the only one that mentally dramatic. None of us could undo Super Alyssa's tightening job. No tool fits in that space and we had previously gone to 4 different stores in the quest to find one. Mike was able to modify a wrench for the job, but I suspect craftsman won't believe it was a defect and replace it for free. .

After several terrifying minutes, Steve is able to get the nut on. The kids quickly disappear as they don't want anymore issues. I take the new tool and mike takes a torque wrench and we decide to torque it all down. Of course, there is no way to get the torque wrench on those four center nuts, but we figure we can do the rest and then try to hand tighten the others down to a similar tension. It becomes obvious rather quickly that this isn't going to work. We are better off removing the carbs so we have access to do it right. The instructions with the Webers say the only problem with removing them is that the linkage may need to be adjusted after. Nooooooo!!! Still, this is better than having a vacuum leak. Mike and I unbolt them all and carefully remove them in one bunch. He hands me the tightening chart and I point out which gets torqued in which order. Things are looking good until mike realizes the four stupid bolts are starting to press into the riser thing and if we tighten much more, the manifold will likely crack. Argh!!!! We wnd up having to remove the manifold and wipe off all the Rtv which I now realize was nowhere near hardening and permanently trapping the intake. We decided to go grab dinner and tackle the project in the fresh morning light. Keeping my fingers crossed there is good news tonight.

[Tennessee Tim]

Julie:

I just went through the same ordeal. You may not like my solution, as it is not for the faint of heart, but I think it will work well. Regular hex-head bolts are completely out of the question. Studs will work, but as you found, it is nearly impossible to get a wrench properly on the nut. I decided to clearance the flange on the manifold to allow a cap bolt to pass into the hole from the top. I used a dremel tool with the little sanding drum to cut the clearance. I have to admit that it was a bit gut-wrenching, but I'm happy with the result.

Tim