corsepervita wrote:Jerry From LA wrote: Best reality show I ever watched.I'm sorry though that I don't have any dramatic events like diving into mud pits while eating corn dogs, or any kardashian like stuff going on like chipping my nails and stuff.
Yeah but you're grafting the testicles back on a bull so there's that.
LOL! Never heard it put that way, I dig it.
I bet this was one of the highest viewed threads over the past 24 hours.
Now ALL of us can get some sleep. Glad it runs! Congratulations!!
It really sounded rowdy. Looking forward to videos in car so uh... hurry we have short internet attention spans. Congrats.
Congrats corse! Great news you finally got her running. Hell you got me to comment on the successful start up an I'm Lurkey Mc Lurker, what's this? My third post? Best of luck for the rest of the journey. Now, if I can drag my ass out to my garage and get on with my project instead of geeking out on yours, I'd be in great shape! Dan.
Congratulations!
84FSP wrote: It really sounded rowdy. Looking forward to videos in car so uh... hurry we have short internet attention spans. Congrats.
It'll be properly rowdy instead of running rough rowdy once I get it in the car and can tune it properly.
So, I've held off on all of the bad before photos, and wanted to hold out till the engine was confirmed running and working. Who wants to see the real before photos I haven't shared? And some after.
duh
corsepervita wrote: So, I've held off on all of the bad before photos, and wanted to hold out till the engine was confirmed running and working. Who wants to see the real before photos I haven't shared? And some after.
Only a Dork of some kind would want to see that stuff!
Spill the beans!
Pretty please?
Congrats on getting it running, and yes please, more pictures!
So, I held off on posting all of the really bad stuff, I figured most people would be like, "yeah this isn't gonna go anywhere." So to save myself from any attempts at deterring me from my project, I never posted the worst stuff.
So I saved them for the day the engine was confirmed running and happy. In fact, upon calling a place that was well known for these cars, they told me there was no point in rebuilding this car and basically that I was crazy, and not worth my time, and was essentially given a lot of flak over the phone. Upon giving me a quote on what they begin rebuilding engines at, I went "yeah lol. no." Asinine price. I guess he assumed I was ignorant and had no idea and would just write a check and he could laugh to the bank.
The interior itself is great, the chassis and frame is great, but the wiring and engine were shot.
I talked to my machinist, and built it exactly how I wanted it.
The engine, when I got it, was filled to the top of the dipstick. I don't mean that it was filled to the full mark, I mean the entire dipstick had fluid. Water, fuel, oil, coolant. You name it. The carbs had sat for so long that they were completely and utterly destroyed. Holes in the float bowls, literally crumbling as I took them out. One of the float bowls broke off as I took the carb off the engine. Some of the pistons were so corroded away, they looked like they had melted.
On top of this, the factory head gasket had failed a long time ago, and the heads were so severely pitted, it was 15 hours of welding PER HEAD to repair them properly.
I still knew it could be rebuilt. Pretty sure i'd be 2-3x the original quote for where I'm at if I went to the guy who told me where his prices "started", and we used aftermarket parts (far cheaper than factory), and came out with a result that is (in my opinion) better than factory.
Even the guy who repaired my cylinder heads laughed when I told him the original "starting cost" of rebuilding everything quoted by that shop. His words, "Metal is metal, welding is welding, machining is machining. This metal and that engine is still just metal at the end of the day. That's ludicrous." My machinist told me that was also ridiculous, and has wanted to work on these cars for a long time, and thus began the journey. He now has every tool imaginable to work on the v8 engines.
The day I pulled the engine and got the heads off was unsettling, stressful and I knew there was a long road ahead.
These are the carbs. I held onto them for the sake of reminding myself just how much of a pain this was going to be.
one of the cylinders
One of the cylinder heads and pitting. As you can see, the combustion chamber is completely rotted away.
That doesn't look TOO bad, right?
Well, that was after I had cleaned it up.
The frame of the car itself was fine but the subframe was not, needed to be fixed.
Remember that piston that looked rather melted?
But with time, progress, patience, money, it's alive. After being told that "what i had is basically a parts car" and that, "this isn't just some corvette you can get parts for at the junk yard, these things are hens teeth" and having been insinuated that I'm some sort of idiot with a pipe dream, I took the time to make sure that dreams could come true. I wanted a challenge, I got a challenge, and a wonderful challenge it has been.
berkeleyin' ay!
Man that's great. Every car has a soul and your Jalpa's soul is only getting better.
AWESOME !
Great story and yes, you have come a LONG way. Congrats 
Maybe I missed it... Why does a breather stick out of the engine about 8 inches?
wvumtnbkr wrote: Maybe I missed it... Why does a breather stick out of the engine about 8 inches?
It doesn't. It's a placeholder. That pulley was disabled for dyno day to reduce parasitic drag and was previously an air pump that doesn't do anything beneficial. It was open, so we put a filter in it just as a placeholder and breather. I'll CNC a blockoff plate for it as a permanent solution.
Glad you stuck with the project. Another inspiration to those of us who must rely on perseverance and invention as much as or more than our bank balances to achieve our automotive desires.
Daaaaaamn 
Wow that's an even bigger transformation than I thought.
Good for you. It's so easy to criticize someone on the internet that I think some people get discouraged. I'm happy to see you prove the naysayers and trolls wrong.
Also the extra work your machinist did dishing the pistons is really nice. You'll get it chassis dyno'd soon enough.
I can't wait to see the rest of the project come together.
I am absolutely amazed. Once it is all buttoned up, you need to do a victory lap in that shop's parking lot where you got that ridiculous quote.
Jeez, that’s an incredible journey. I think that it's something that an automotive publisher would be interested in hearing more about. They would probably want to publish a story about it. I think there's clearly a lot more to the tale, and there's a whole lot of folks who sound interested in hearing about it. Those are the sort of people that an automotive publisher would probably want to attract. The story of a car guy, who found an example of his childhood car-lust, and, despite industry naysayers and parts availability issues, overcame incredible adversity, and can beam with pride at his now running powerplant. What a story!
Then, there are the inevitable followup stories about getting the thing in the chassis and making it drive-able. And also the story around the little changes and updates to the braking, suspension, and interior that usually follow as the owner gets things the way they want them. Sounds like it could be a whole series of stories...a pretty cool way to sell more copies, if a publisher were so inclined ...
4cylndrfury wrote: Jeez, that’s an incredible journey. I think that it's something that an automotive publisher would be interested in hearing more about. They would probably want to publish a story about it. I think there's clearly a lot more to the tale, and there's a whole lot of folks who sound interested in hearing about it. Those are the sort of people that an automotive publisher would probably want to attract. The story of a car guy, who found an example of his childhood car-lust, and, despite industry naysayers and parts availability issues, overcame incredible adversity, and can beam with pride at his now running powerplant. What a story! Then, there are the inevitable followup stories about getting the thing in the chassis and making it drive-able. And also the story around the little changes and updates to the braking, suspension, and interior that usually follow as the owner gets things the way they want them. Sounds like it could be a whole series of stories...a pretty cool way to sell more copies, if a publisher were so inclined ...
Eh, maybe. That could be fun I guess. But I do this stuff for me, not to get into magazines or build show cars. Regardless, I really appreciate the support everyone has given me. I'm sorry we didn't get to do an engine dyno! Perhaps we can redo the "guessing contest" for the pistons and gift card for chassis dyno once I get there.
My next hurdle today is to get the engine home safe and sound, and then hunt down a clutch.
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