Tabres Posted March 3, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2016 I still don't have any update on my engine components but my paint finally showed up so I've been working on making the engine bay white again. I'm just letting it cure for a while, then am install the Scott Rod panels for good. After that I'll spray one more coat of white on it, then several coats of clear. Afterwards I'll just have a few areas to clean up and I'll call it good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted March 3, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2016 Panels are in and last coat of color is on. Just waiting for it to dry and I'll clear it tonight probably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sho Amo Posted March 4, 2016 Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 How well does that aerosol handle work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted March 4, 2016 Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 looks great tabres!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted March 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 11 hours ago, Sho Amo said: How well does that aerosol handle work? For like the $3 it cost me, it is pretty nice. I found it to make handling and using the spray can easier and your hand certainly doesn't fatigue as much using one, particularly when painting an area the size of an engine bay. I found it a little cumbersome in tight areas like by the booster for example but not unusable in those areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanter Posted March 4, 2016 Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 Those panels do a ton for cleaning up the look of the bay. Really turning out great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted March 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 I cleared it last night and everything seemed to go well. I checked it out this morning in the light of day and it looks really nice. I did find a run in the clear in one area on the driver's Scott Rod side panel that I'll need to sand down and fix. For some reason the bottle of clear starting almost dripping towards the end. I thought I caught all of the drips and had it cleaned up well but I missed a spot apparently. Not a big deal. I'm going to wait a few days for it to cure fully before I take care of it. I also dropped off the bottom plate of my MM C/C plates at the powder coater this morning. I have no idea why but the finish on them has always been rather poor and peeling. Decided to take care of it while I had time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det_Riot Posted March 6, 2016 Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 those panels do a wonder for our engine bays! That was going to be my next step if my car decided to be an asshole. How did the paint turn out over the rivets? I barely even notice them in that view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted March 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2016 (edited) On 3/6/2016 at 8:28 AM, Det_Riot said: those panels do a wonder for our engine bays! That was going to be my next step if my car decided to be an asshole. How did the paint turn out over the rivets? I barely even notice them in that view. You can obviously tell in person that they're riveted-in, but they honestly don't stick out when you look in they bay. I imagine they'll become even less noticeable when the engine is back in and there is something to look at. I took a bit if a closer up picture for you. Nothing really new to share. You can probably see subtle differences in this picture from the one in my previous post. I spent maybe an hour and a half removing overspray from various items and cleaning some things up in general. I installed the new throttle cable to the c-head intake, reinstalled other little things like the clutch cable adjuster. The wire loom you see running through the bay still I'm toying with tucking in the cowl panel. It will work fine, I'm just trying to think if logistically its the best place to put it. I want to move my fuel pressure regulator to a different spot to clean up the fuel lines and I don't know if the wiring being in the cowl will really help me or not. I've also been trying to brainstorm ideas to clean up the vacuum lines I've got in the bay. They're not terrible at the moment, but they're not as cleanly routed as I would prefer and when you start to tuck and shave stuff it kind of becomes an obsession. You'll notice the booster and whatnot is still masked up - I'm still messing with the driver's side Scott Rod panel. You may recall I had a run in the clear so this weekend I sanded it down, cleaned it extremely well and re-primed it. It appears I've gotten a bad bottle of primer because it cracked like crazy when it dried so now I've got to do it all over again for a third time. I think I'm going to go pick up a different brand of primer this time. Edited March 7, 2016 by Tabres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det_Riot Posted March 7, 2016 Report Share Posted March 7, 2016 I kinda dig the rivet in to be honest, it's a little raw and unruly, it kinda just works, and I think a the end of the day, they'll be overshadowed by the turbo and everything else going on in the bay! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackmage Posted March 14, 2016 Report Share Posted March 14, 2016 not a huge deal breaker, but does that gap close up at all near the strut tower on the passenger side, down near the bottom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95opal Posted March 14, 2016 Report Share Posted March 14, 2016 On 3/6/2016 at 10:07 AM, Tabres said: You can obviously tell in person that they're riveted-in, but they honestly don't stick out when you look in they bay. I imagine they'll become even less noticeable when the engine is back in and there is something to look at. I took a bit if a closer up picture for you. Nothing really new to share. You can probably see subtle differences in this picture from the one in my previous post. I spent maybe an hour and a half removing overspray from various items and cleaning some things up in general. I installed the new throttle cable to the c-head intake, reinstalled other little things like the clutch cable adjuster. The wire loom you see running through the bay still I'm toying with tucking in the cowl panel. It will work fine, I'm just trying to think if logistically its the best place to put it. I want to move my fuel pressure regulator to a different spot to clean up the fuel lines and I don't know if the wiring being in the cowl will really help me or not. I've also been trying to brainstorm ideas to clean up the vacuum lines I've got in the bay. They're not terrible at the moment, but they're not as cleanly routed as I would prefer and when you start to tuck and shave stuff it kind of becomes an obsession. You'll notice the booster and whatnot is still masked up - I'm still messing with the driver's side Scott Rod panel. You may recall I had a run in the clear so this weekend I sanded it down, cleaned it extremely well and re-primed it. It appears I've gotten a bad bottle of primer because it cracked like crazy when it dried so now I've got to do it all over again for a third time. I think I'm going to go pick up a different brand of primer this time. Fuel pressure reg can go in the fenderwell on the return side. Not sure how your lines are routed. A vacumm block can also be added and stuck in one of the fendeewells...then you can rout the vac lines in the wells to gwt them close to were they need to be then bulkhead them threw the sheetmetal to were they will go. For instance I have one vac line coming from the intake to vac block in the fenderwell. Then i ran what i needed as far as vacumm from the vac block to the items that needed vacumm, which in my casw amounted to just one vac line back into the bay. The harneas you have sitting behind the ahock tower can be routed behind the dash and popped out in the trans tunnel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted March 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 18 hours ago, 95opal said: Fuel pressure reg can go in the fenderwell on the return side. Not sure how your lines are routed. A vacumm block can also be added and stuck in one of the fendeewells...then you can rout the vac lines in the wells to gwt them close to were they need to be then bulkhead them threw the sheetmetal to were they will go. For instance I have one vac line coming from the intake to vac block in the fenderwell. Then i ran what i needed as far as vacumm from the vac block to the items that needed vacumm, which in my casw amounted to just one vac line back into the bay. The harneas you have sitting behind the ahock tower can be routed behind the dash and popped out in the trans tunnel. Very solid ideas. Thanks for the insight. I'd had thought about using a vacuum block, just hadn't determined where to put it, yet. What did you do with your vacuum line that runs into the interior from by the A/C connections on the firewall? I'm going to guess you moved it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95opal Posted March 15, 2016 Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 37 minutes ago, Tabres said: Very solid ideas. Thanks for the insight. I'd had thought about using a vacuum block, just hadn't determined where to put it, yet. What did you do with your vacuum line that runs into the interior from by the A/C connections on the firewall? I'm going to guess you moved it? Yes vacumm for hvac controls was ran off the vacumm block thats in the fenderwell back into the interior behind the dash. The only vacumm actually in the bay is for the mondo valve. All the other cohple of vacumm lines are routed and hidden in the fenderwells as my set up just needed a couple of lines. As I have very few things that actually require vacumm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted March 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 Is it much of a pain to route the vacuum line behind the dash? I haven't got the ambition to take the dash out at this point if that is what is needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted March 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 I've started getting some stuff re-installed back into the bay this weekend after finally getting the paint on the driver's side Scott Rod panel fixed and re-installed. I picked up my caster/camber plates from the powder coater's yesterday morning. I decided to have those redone because the finish on them was flaking. I took some meticulous measurements on them with a digital micrometer before I took them apart and matched the measurements when I re-installed them so hopefully I can get by without having to have the car re-aligned. After those went on I re-installed the front coil-overs. Other little stuff went in, too. The firewall adjuster and clutch cable found their way back on the car and the coolant reservoir. I re-wrapped the harness that goes to the master cylinder, hood light and wiper motor just to freshen that up. I still need to get the wiring and vacuum lines tucked in the cowl instead of leaving them run in front of the fire wall. Little by little I'm getting there, though. I'm also working on modifying the bracket for my fuel pressure regulator. For now just to get the car running it's going back in the same spot it was previously, but it'll be mounted a little differently to make it more discrete. Something also interesting I chose to do that I haven't really seen done before... I was loathing how much the black brake lines were going to stand out in the bay against the fresh white paint and I didn't want to get into the mess of bending new lines and trying to tuck them, so I decided to paint and clear coat them. They actually came out really nice and visually blend in very well. Given that they don't draw my eye now with the engine out, I'm sure when I put the motor back in they'll virtually completely disappear. I probably won't get much else done on it this week as my parents will be up visiting from South Carolina. Still waiting on the engine anyway. It's been at the machine shop 6 weeks now and they still haven't gotten to it. The wait on it wasn't really painful to me until lately because it's started to get nice out in my area and I could be driving this thing if I really wanted... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedTwilight Posted March 20, 2016 Report Share Posted March 20, 2016 Looks good so far. Nice touch painting the brake lines to blend in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted March 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 (edited) A little more work but not a huge visual difference. In the picture two posts up you can see some wiring in looming draped in front of the firewall that runs into the passenger fender. This annoyed me as I found it ugly after tucking everything else so I tried to figure out a way to hide it also. In the end I moved into into the cowl panel. There is a small opening on the passenger side of the cowl panel under the area that is used to source air for the HVAC system. You can fish small items underneath it and it comes out in a hole in the frame out into the fender. It's a little fiddly to do. I accomplished it by bundling the wires and taping them to a heavy duty 18" cable tie . The cable tie is long enough and rigid enough to find the opening in the frame but still flexible enough to make the bend out of the frame and into the fender. So the cable tie plus a little patience and it worked well. After I got the wires in the fender it was just a matter of soldering everything back together, simple. I also routed the vacuum line for my boost controller through the cowl and into the fender in the same way as above. It originally ran into the engine bay and connected to the intake along with a few other hoses using a mess of t-fittings. Again, it was an eye sore with everything else so cleaned up. I didn't take any photos of this but another vacuum line I'm rerouting is the black one that runs through the area where the A/C hook ups are that drives all of the interior HVAC stuff. If you remove the glove box door and one of the items on the heater box (it's a little oval plastic object, almost looks like a tiny black plastic compressor tank) you can pull the vacuum line back into the car. From there all you have to do is lengthen the line with some parts store vacuum tubing and run it through the kick panel and out into the fender. I've got a vacuum block ordered that I'm going to mount in the fender to hook everything up to so this way I only need to run a single vacuum line in my engine bay from my intake to the vacuum block in the fender and it'll run everything. It should be pretty clean... A picture of how it sits now. I put the cowl panel back together which helps a lot with making it look more finished and you can see my fuel regulator and return lines re-installed on the core support, too. This is basically done... just need the engine, two fuel lines to feed the rails, my tucked engine harness and a single vacuum line go back in at this point.. Edited March 29, 2016 by Tabres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95opal Posted March 29, 2016 Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 Nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted March 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 11 hours ago, 95opal said: Nice work Thanks! I appreciate the info you gave me on running the wiring in the cowl and how to get that vacuum line out of the bay! Definitely gave me more ambition to give it a shot when I knew it could be done for sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanter Posted March 29, 2016 Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 Looking great! Any update from the machine shop on getting the motor back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted March 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 Nope. I'm about to rip those people a new asshole. This coming Friday will be 8 weeks that it has been there without any progress, at least that I've been told about. Originally I was told probably mid-March at latest with a good chance of getting it done sooner. Obviously, we're well past that now. I'm just going to straight up tell them they either give me a hard timeline that I can hold them to (because I want to make a spring tuning date when Kurgan comes, and they know this) or I'll go pick my parts up and take it to someone else. Honestly, what I think is happening is they're a huge race engine builder for late models and stock cars and are a big Hemi shop.... race season has started here and I think people are blowing their shit up and mine is getting bumped in line. It's very, very frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95riosnake Posted March 29, 2016 Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 They shouldn't be bumping people in line, a customer is a customer. If they keep kicking you to the back burner it's time to kick them to the curb and find a new shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanter Posted March 29, 2016 Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 58 minutes ago, Tabres said: Nope. I'm about to rip those people a new asshole. This coming Friday will be 8 weeks that it has been there without any progress, at least that I've been told about. Originally I was told probably mid-March at latest with a good chance of getting it done sooner. Obviously, we're well past that now. I'm just going to straight up tell them they either give me a hard timeline that I can hold them to (because I want to make a spring tuning date when Kurgan comes, and they know this) or I'll go pick my parts up and take it to someone else. Honestly, what I think is happening is they're a huge race engine builder for late models and stock cars and are a big Hemi shop.... race season has started here and I think people are blowing their shit up and mine is getting bumped in line. It's very, very frustrating. That's what happened to mine. My builder is a big race engine builder for late models as well as pulling trucks so once race season started mine got bumped. Only difference was my timeline was open and I told him this from the start so it was ok. You on the other hand have a target date so you getting bumped is wrong. Hopefully they can get it done soon as the wire tuck and panels are ready to accept a new shiny engine lol. Good luck man hopefully they get to it soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Psychorugby Posted March 29, 2016 Moderators Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 Same shit happened with the original painter for my 66. Car sat down there for almost a year, untouched, because insurance work paid better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted March 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 (edited) I obviously don't know for certain that I'm getting bumped, but it is the only thing that makes any sense right now. I feel like I'm a pretty easy going person and I understand things happen. I would be more ok with the timeline slipping if I'd been kept up to date but I haven't been and it's been a long time without any news. The last time I called them, like 5 weeks ago, they seemed pretty irritated that I was checking in.. "if anything changes we'll call and let you know..." Maybe they were just having a bad day, who knows but when you've spent thousands of dollars with someone a 2-minute phone call for a courtesy update every few weeks isn't unreasonable in my opinion. Edited March 29, 2016 by Tabres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95riosnake Posted March 30, 2016 Report Share Posted March 30, 2016 I'd give them a call soon and if they start getting salty with you, tell them you're going to have to find a new shop if they aren't interested in your business enough to conduct themselves professionally. Bad day or not, you should be able to turn that off when a customer is on the phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttocs Posted March 30, 2016 Report Share Posted March 30, 2016 I have been wrapping everything I can find with techflex for years and never had a problem with it melting. Now when I got into high temp areas though like the spark plug wires and the wiring that is going to my electronic cut outs I found a similar material that is made from fiberglass and resists to 1500 degrees or something stupid. If you do start with the techflex be sure to also include some electrical tape and the really thick industrial heat shrink that has the glue inside of it as well. Cut it to length and then run the electrical tape over the end to hold it to the wire. If you don't even with the glue in the heat shrink its easy for the techflex to work its way out of the heat shrink and looks like hell then.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted April 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2016 I've got most of the day off of work today. I think I'm going to make the hour drive over to the engine builder's, boys. Time to find out what's is going on. If they tell me they haven't done anything yet, I'm going to lead off with "This is an April fools joke, right?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanter Posted April 1, 2016 Report Share Posted April 1, 2016 Good luck man. Let them know that they aren't just letting you down by delaying but also letting down everyone on sn95source that have been waiting to see this car back together with a tucked and smoothed bay. Lol That should get them going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted April 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2016 Well... To make a long story short, me showing up at the builder's shop today certainly made an impression. Without getting into the gory details of the conversation, they hadn't done a single thing with my stuff yet. So I laid it all out there, politely, and told them that if we can't come to an agreeable timeline then I may need to find other arrangements to have my engine components repaired. I was left the promise that they would look at the schedule and call me back this afternoon. So I drove for two hours to have a two minute conversation but it was worth it to make the impression I did and to make them look me in the face. They called me around 20 minutes to 5 (not exactly what I would characterize as the afternoon but whatever) and told me one day this coming week they would definitely get it apart, inspect it, and call me with a plan and estimate for repair. So, anticipating they may need to order parts, I'm guessing 3 weeks-ish and I should have it back and can start putting everything back together. Face to face dealing counts for a lot in situations like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prokiller Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 here's hoping they stay up on that timeline this time around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95riosnake Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 I think the face to face made it real to them that you'd had enough. Can't dodge someone in person. Glad to hear they are gonna get crackin on it finally! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted April 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 (edited) I finally heard from the machine shop this afternoon. The cylinder heads are perfectly fine. They didn't find anything amiss with the valve, seats, guides, nothing. They gave them a light touch up on the valves and put them back together. They're starting to inspect the shortblock now. So, shouldn't be too long before I'm re-assembling everything. Can't wait. I'm ready to have all of the piles of stuff back together and off of the garage floor. Edited April 13, 2016 by Tabres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95riosnake Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Great to hear they finally got crackin on it. And even better to hear the heads are ok! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 (edited) 2 hours ago, 95riosnake said: Great to hear they finally got crackin on it. And even better to hear the heads are ok! Yeah, I was relieved to hear they were ok. Good 03/04 heads are getting expensive to find these days, especially if you only need one side like I would have. More fun news, I heard back from the machine shop again yesterday. The shortblock is ok, too. So, in some respects I kind of took it apart for nothing but I'd much rather have had it gone through and checked than to just hope for the best and run it and always worry in the back of my mind. Plus, I got to paint the bay properly, fix and oil leak on the pan, etc. etc.. The machine shop is going to replace the pilot bearing for me and put a threaded insert in one of the lower intake mounting points that is starting to strip a little, but otherwise I'll have it back soon. I'm guessing it'll be ready maybe tomorrow or early next week. Once I know for sure when I'll have it I'm going to get hold of my Dad and he's already volunteered to fly up from South Carolina to help me put it back together. It's easy enough for me to take the car apart by myself but getting it back together is a two person deal for many aspects of it, especially with fresh paint in the bay, and he knows this car just as well as I do. It'll be nice to have him here for it. Edited April 14, 2016 by Tabres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prokiller Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 piece of mind is worth the cost sometimes. and like you said you got the opportunity to clean up the bay a lot more than if the engine was in there. just sucks you had to wait this long for them to tell you it's all fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RideTech_Ryan Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 Im glad you finally got your point across with the shop and they eventually took care of you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted April 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2016 (edited) Not much new to report. I went and picked up my shortblock and heads from the machine shop on Friday. They did a really, really good job smoothing out the combustion chamber in the heads. The piston cleaned up really well also. I haven't done anything with it besides put it on the engine stand. My Dad wants to fly up from South Carolina and put it together with me so I'm probably just going to wait for him before I mess with it. Probably be about 2 weeks or so. The chamber on the bottom is the one that was damaged. I had a few minutes on Saturday morning free before I headed out of town so I took the opportunity to get my vacuum block mounted in the passenger fender. It's tucked up and out of the way nicely. Just need to connect up the single feed line from the engine once it goes in. I did order some more stainless tubing in various bends as I'll have to change my cold side piping a little bit for the 99/01 Cobra upper but aside from that, I have nothing else terribly interesting to report. I just spent a little time cleaning up parts that have been sitting around on the garage floor for a few months. Just trying to get everything ready and in order for putting this thing back together. Edited April 18, 2016 by Tabres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabres Posted May 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2016 (edited) I've been busy this weekend. I started with a bare shortblock on Friday at 1pm, I had the bottom picture by noon today. Just need to have the new intake tube tig'd together, extend two plugs on the engine harness and it'll be done. Here is your before and after money shot... Edited May 2, 2016 by Tabres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
