FCCOOL KUSTOM WAGON REBUILD for Mt Gambier?

[craiga]

Hi Leon,

Check this out.

http://www.romac.com.au/pdf/Balancers%20Fitting%20Inst.pdf

If your crankshaft is not drilled and tapped then do so as no warranty will be implied if the balancer is not bolted onto the crankshaft.
For example, Holden Six’s require a 7/16” UNC bolt or socket head of 1.5” long. Drill size is 23/64” or 9.4 mm drilled and tapped just
deep enough so as the bolt will not bottom out.

I used a HSS drill at mid speed, and as suggested used the bolt to draw the balancer on to the  crankshaft.



Cheers,

Craig.

[fccool59]

Thanks craig, thats spot on what I needed to know. i am going to buy a bit and tap and do it myself, the guy who I was going to get to do it is a bit of a perfectoinist, he is aka the blower guru by the guys at the drags but its not like my fc will be a 7 second car.
 I bought a hq radiator of ebay and its not going to fit as easy as I thought if at all, the old radiator used to fit the bottom tank between the rails but this one doesnt, it's a 3 row chev v8 radiator and the inlet and outlet are not far of the 6 cyl radiator but If I am going to fit it I will need to do more modification to the radiator support panel. infact I will have not much of it left but what really sucks is that I already spent heaps of time modifying it to neatly fit a torana radiator and its already painted.
 it also leaves less room behind it for the supercharger pulley so I might need to get a new harmonic balancer made that takes a ribbed or gilmour belt wich means getting a water pump and alternator pulley to suit.
 has anyone ever fitted a chev/hq radiator to a fc?
 good point I guess is I can fit larger fans, I plan to run 10-15 psi boost and the motor is on its last bore so keeping it cool is going to probably be hard.

[Brad]

Hello Leon.
                Maybe you could mount the radiator in front of the support panel to give more room for the water pump? I fitted a HR radiator to a Austin A40 this way.
      Brad.

[fccool59]

The radiator sits higher than the catch panel but my custom grill leaves little room at the front and the closer the fans get to the expanded mesh the more visible they will become.
 I was going to have a aliminium radiator made to fit what I had but this radiator was about $800 cheaper than that option.
 I am tempted to go out now and start hacking up the support panel more.
 Has anyone got a chev/kingswood radiator in there FE/FC?
 I might take a pic to better show the situation.

[fccool59]

here are some pics.

[JB]

Hey Leon,

I cut down a VT radiator by taking off the plastic tanks, the getting som 50mm x 50mm box aluminium and making up the tanks myself after cutting the core down to the size I required.

All you need then is someone who can weld aluminium, for the tanks to get put back on.





You can also see here the standard Vt thermo fans that fitted nicely.

Cheers
Jason.

[fccool59]

fevanv6 that looks like a cheap way to get a aluminium radaitor but I dont know if it would cool my motor, the radiator I have is a 3 row, the main advantage I would get out of the v6 radiator would be weight as the new radiator seems to weigh double what the old one did, the chev radiator inlets and outlets almost line up with the red six ones and will probably use the same hoses although I dont know yet what water neck I am going to use till I decide were the supercharger belts are going to run. If I ever do this again I will spray the car with epoxy and trial fit everything before any paint goes on, being impatient can waste alot of time.

The front end is kind of going together, yesterday was to hot outside and today was to cold but I have been rebuilding the front end in the kitchen. the neighbours probably think the council has stopped me from working on the car, little do they not what is happening in the house.



I tried going of the specs in the rebuilding a hr front end thread but then when I did the lower control arm bushes I went ti tight, I usually tighten them till the arm stops swinging then back it of a little but this time I wanted everything tourqued, I have a fealing the specs for the lower control arms might be from a hk or something becuase it lock up the arm and then when I backed it of I noticed now sometimes the bush turns in the control arm, I will fix this another day, I get worried as one day on the way home from work my lower control arm came of on the great western highway in peak hour and tuck a front wheel up under the gaurd wich was pretty embarrasing and hard to bring to a stop with wiping out the cars next to me.
 The new lower bushes I bought from american auto's were a llittle too small and sloped around in the lower control arm holes so I had to use the old ones, the bushes on the upper pins were the opposite being to big and tight in the holes and one is still not screwed all the way in waiting in the to hard basket till  another day when I am either smarter or stronger.

[Ed]

Leon,

Ive used an HQ radiator, however it had to modified to sit under the radiator support panel.

cut down approx 2 inches, used a commodore filler neck and added 1 more row.

should cool your 6 adequately, I was towing a trailer in +30° heat with no temp troubles.

the ally radiators are supposed to be more efficient, just make sure there is no stray current running through it.

nice radiator Jason, clever.

Cheers

Ed

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Any progress Leon?
The Nats aren't that far away y'know.

[fccool59]

I havent done much lately, if its not too hot its raining or just heaps windy or i have no money for parts or materials becuase my two sons and wife all have their birthdays in janurary and we had christmas in december, next month my wife and i just have our anniversary of our first date wich was at the Newcastle burnout masters in 99.
 I was donated some nbrand new lowering blocks from greame and fitted up the springs, i had some hassles with a striped pin, i thought it was a dodgy pin but i now think it was becuase the parts the pins go through were slightly bent cuasing the pin to bind up so i straightened it using a bolt.
 i now have the springs and diff in.




I am experimenting with spray can white walls, i used vynil spray, i heard of someone having succsess like this but cant remember if they used a adhesion premoter, i decided not to so i could save $15.



sorry about the finger in the shot.

[craiga]

G'Day Leon,

Like everyone I always watch for updates on this thread. Its a credit to you for the effort you've put in on this car, under clearly difficult circumstances. Building a car in a driveway can't be the easiest thing.

Keep at it.

Cheers,

Craig.

[FC0058]

Hi Leon
Looking good, I have not checked your progress for a while now you have come a long way since I last looked.

Cheers Jim

[FC_Driver]

Thanks Leon,
Its good to see your still progressing.
Keep it up
Bruce & Jan

[fccool59]

As usual i am not having heaps of luck, i couldnt find all the bits to put the rear brakes in so i just chucked on the drums and rims and decided to get some work done up front.
anyway i found i didnt have all the subframe to crossmember bolts, 2x ready, 1 needs to be sprayed matching 2k silver, 1x destroyed while being seperated from the sleeve that was rusted on but the crossmember is hanging up with 2 bolts.
 I then went to fit the rotors, put in new bearings and got to the second rotor and found i had lost one of the washers that go between the bearing and the nut so i decided to put that on hold till i could get to the wreckers and do the calipers, i finally got the calipers together but couldnt get the dust cover rings in one so i pulled it back apart and lost the o ring somewere in the front yard that goes between the two caliper halfs to seal the fluid gallery so that caliper is on hold wich is for the side wich the bearing got finished on so i still didnt get any calipers on so i went to the wreckers to get a washer and the oldest holden with wheel bearings was a hg so i figured that was as close as i would get but when i got home the washer was way too big so i still cant do up my bearing and fit the 1 caliper that is complete and ready.

[TAYZ]

Looking real shit hot Leon, LOVE those whitewalls

                                                           tayz

[fccool59]

finally 1 calliper has made it onto the car.

here is a commodore m90 on a 4bbl manifold, if the supercharger is mounted here it will need a spacer machined from a big chunk off alluminum between the manifold and blower for becuase the supercharger outlet is a few inches infront of the hole in the manifold when the pulleys are line up.

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

You're not going sneek up on anyone with that setup   :o
Straight Cuts and a blower, do you want some cheese with that whine?  ;D

[smithy]

Leon once again i take my hat off to you. ;) ;)
it is looking bloody fantastic mate an absolute credit to you.

keep at it

dean

[fccool59]

i held off this weekend, i had planned to bog a door and get it in primer, the wether has been unpredictible, windy and everytime you think its going good it pisses down so after i prepped with acid i stopped.

[fccool59]

Ok, I saved up my holidays and now have two weeks to get through some work on my car, its the first day and its allready rainning as usual, hopefully today the sky will empty out so the rest of the time of my holidays it doesnt rain.