Big John Widitron bearing gifts

For some reason these pics came out a bit dark, but Santa John brought over some air cleaner love that he is not able to use since his Project Temptress is going all modern - after a few minutes of precision adjusting and expert fitting it looks right at home...





I'll get some better shots tomorrow when I open up my goodies from Summit that should be arriving by the time I get home from work.

No big deal . . .

Not too much work this weekend just mostly garage cleaning in the warm weather, however I did manage to get a few things accomplished. I called my buddy Pat over at Summit Racing (call him, order stuff 800-230-3030 ext 6129) to order a nice load of parts and on Friday I ordered my gas tank.

I also took the time to clean up and body match by the old Cragar center caps. These may get replaced with bullets at some time but for now they look a bit better.



I also painted the insert grill that I made the other day to match the silver suspension pieces.



Another coat of paint went on the bucket over the weekend as well, that means some sanding in the next day or so and parts should start arriving on Tuesday for more fun.

Electrical (ugh)

I started going through some of the old electrical, while it's not as archaic as my '52 Buick was, it's definitely in need of an upgrade. While I have a great deal more to do, I was happy to do away with the glass fuses and a bit of the old wiring so far.

Here is the main feed from the light control switch from the battery cutoff, above was what was there and below is my new piece.



And now on to the fuse block.

Old:



New:

Building the grille

I made the insert for the grille shell today, this one is a bit more stout than I expected but it gives the exact look I wanted.

Here is the old insert next to the new one



and with it sitting in the shell - you can also see the first coat of paint (unsanded) as well

The past couple days

Over the past few days I turned my attention to the engine, removing, cleaning and painting parts - I came across a few surprises but nothing horrific.

The color scheme coming together, that intake manifold was days of wirebrushing and sanding - apparently it was hot pink and high heat primer under the black top coat. I stripped it down and painted it cast alum.



Under the HEI cap I found these bare wires when doing a simple tune up, actually wrapped around each other and definitely touching - I can't believe this thing ran at all let alone so well.