FC Holden Sedan "Black and White Taxi Service Co-Operative" restoration

[fe350chev]

[FCRB26]

Im building a manifold at work all sheet alloy for a supercharger on a 186 for a mate. ill post some pics soon.

[fe350chev]

That would be good. Hey do you know when it come to engineering certificates and they check all the specs on the car, next time you talk to your engineer can you ask him if say he passes a 327, can they approve it with a supercharger despite it not being fitted to the car if all the mods are up to scratch.

[FCRB26]

I think its to the discretion of each engineer but i think you will be pushing the friendship with a blower.

[fe350chev]

Starting on the new shed.

[fe350chev]

Other stuff I am doing, sourcing 179 valves for the grey, putting in new steel guides then bronze inserts (if I can bash old ones out, old ones are badly pitted, never seen that b4 on a holden 6), doing some mild port work (myself), getting valve seats cut to fit the valves at home, cos I want a 3 angle cut and some good valve seats. Don't wanna go too big with valves as I want good throttle response and torque. I have started restoring some of the chrome bits n pieces. I am starting with the front lights on both cars. Its coming to an interesting time now and will be even better when I have the sheds up, then lookout.

[fe350chev]

Pad for the projects 

[fe350chev]

Stayed up til 2 in the morning making copper sulphate so i could strike some onto the parts that took my fancy to restore. The ring around the dash speedo is terrible quality on mine from factory, has many deep lines and not sure if all the same but the turn lights need to be built up on one side to make the tear drop at the top look straight. I am starting to restore the cool taxi meter handle which will probably be gold plated, but I will have to get some old computer mother boards at the tip and extract some gold for the plating, I would like pure gold not the shitty solution rubbish.

Will use premium grade copper as in pic to strike a base for the solder. These parts have pits over 1mm in places, but I wanna do it properly so the solder doesnt lift later.


Ill colour match the dash paint against gold to see if I like the combo, hence why I have started the etching process for the big knob bit on the taxi meter lever and I will use that to sample as I keep plating it to see what strength solution I will need to give the best gold shade, otherwise I could go plain old chrome.

[pedro]

Gold plating , you robbed a bank recently Deano
  Pedro

[fe350chev]

I live near the goldfields mate. Na ill do the plating myself, make gold ions from a ring that hopefully someone won't miss.

[DN2168]

make gold ions out of a ring that I should be able to find around the house that hopefully someone won't miss.

Nice knowing you Deano ;D

[fe350chev]

Been jewellery hunting with no luck   BUT I have another idea  

Been very happy with how things are turning out and enjoying the things I am currently working on. Giving body work a rest until shed is up, but in planning mode and sorting things that need resto, from things that just need a polish, unfortunately the latter will be few and far between.

My "experimental" head will be flowed on a bench to see how it compares to a more radical and stock head. I have the new guides, seats and angles cuts and larger valves with smaller thickness stems all sorted, Just gotta do some minor work on the runner roofs of the intakes - match ported. Thinking of using 90 pound pressure springs and sorting a happy medium rocker setup. I don't want too much ramp on the flat tappet cam setup so might go for extra lift with 1.6 ratio. I am trying to get some initial vacuum so that when the cylinder fills, it will do it quicker with some good initial lift. Exhausts on the siamese will get some work but the other ex port runners look a lot better so just deburring will be done. Has anyone used 1.6 ratio without using rollers. I am not a fan of roller rockers on engines revving under 5500 so I guess I would like to get say .3 extra lift from .48-.49 static lobe life from a 1.6 ratio rocker rather than too much ramp on the lobe/lifters? This is a custom design working off purely my own ideas, i have tried listening to others with other head work in the past and I think I trust myself now that I am older and wiser to get what I am after out of this engine makeover. Also, because I was going to go for more exhaust duration I was toying with the idea of changing the crank angles and dynamic compression by using different rods and pistons.

[fe350chev]

Going to experiment with some interesting setups.

[pedro]

Don't know how you keep up with all these separate jobs on two rebuilds Deano i get lost trying to keep up
  Pedro

[fe350chev]

Today I started the tedious job of de-burring the head and removing the casting marks and roughs. Kinda brain numbing, so I liked it cos my brain was full of shed planning stuff, but now the new slab pad resembles a swimming pool. I don't mind that though, better than it being dry like it usually is here. I also started restoring some other parts that I pulled out of my rust solution and buffed them up. See the taxi accelerator, its just hanging in there, lots of daylight. Are there replacements or do most guys just repair theirs? It has been repaired before 






 

[FCRB26]

You can brand new accelerators off rares.

[fe350chev]

You can brand new accelerators off rares.

Wheres the fun in that LOL. Thanks. Is it worth doing the original for originality sake for the taxi? Ill just use the best one perhaps.

Cleaned up the head a bit more this morning. I hand filed all of the head bolt flanges so they are the same (old skool like back in the 50's) and all the other mating surfaces. Started getting rid of dags inside the runners, got 10 thou off the head face.

[fe350chev]

Here are two of my worst brake drums that I put in my whacky backyard solution. Originally they were black painted but there was no way of telling b4 hand, they came out with completely blackened potatoes and black converted rust. I just bring the parts inside into the sink and use a nail brush to wash em down (No smell). I mix a cup of vinegar in the water to rinse them, then If there is any paint left it just comes off with a coarse scotch bright. No real scrubbing and I use my bare hands to pull them out of my tank. Then after a few solutions I put the solution on the plants. So that they dont rust, I pre heat the oven and heat them up quickly, take em out and when still warm hit em some paint. Rinse vinegar off to do this, the vinegar doesn't get rid of the rust cos that is non existent, the vinegar eats up the paint after sitting in it for a few minutes, but it's pre loosened.

I don't like getting everything grit blasted, it gives surfaces a very rough look and creates more work than its good for for the wrong part.




but before doing this, try to explain to the missus the benefits of using her oven for the environment or some crap because there is nothing worse than accidentally leaving a pile of brake drums in the oven and trying to explain why they are there. 

[fe350chev]

Are these the FE/FC ones? I seem to have brake drums coming out of my ears 

[Ed]

what de-rusting solution do you use? a mild acid of some sort? 

your parts are really clean... interesting stuff going on.

Cheers

Ed