Looks like I posted at a bad time and fell off the page, I'm doing a fast bump because I'm looking to make a purchase this week!

 

Alright guys so through a combination of working my *** of lately, moving, and a lack of internet until today at the new place, you are wayyyy behind. As an update, I have officially bought a house and moved to Philly. Classes start next week, and I start seeing patients within the month! I'm anxious as hell but knowing that I can go out to the garage and tinker around when I get home, helps.

So when I last left you, I had dropped the engine off at the builders and was working on welding the frame up. The engine is still at Double J, He has a ton of circle track stuff that he has to get done and offered to come down on the price if I could let him delay my build.

Bought a set of 781 heads that Kenny Brewster had laying in a corner of his shop. The guy is a legend in the truck/tractor pulling circuits and it was worth doing business with him just to sit down and listen to his stories for a few hours.

I finished up the welding on the frame and stripped her the rest of the way down. Sent it off to be blasted and coated, I went with B and B out of Harrodsburg KY, $450 out the door, these guys do a lot of commercial coating (2 Tractor Trailer loads a week out of the small shop) and do super high quality work while having great pricing and great insight. I don't think you will be able to find anyone else that will blast and powdercoat for $450 anywhere.

Here are some before, during, and after pics!






She's a beaut!

I finally sold the old tired 350/350 Goodwrench and Th350 that was in the car when I bought it for double what the 454 cost me. With the free'd up funds I took advantage of their July sale and ordered some VB and P stuff but I'll save that for when I can let you see what I got!

As I type this I have some of the frame bolts sitting in some Evapo-Rust. I keep seeing advertisements for the stuff so I figured I'd give it a try. $8 for a small bottle at AutoZone is worth it to me if I'm able to make my current hardware good as new. I took some before pics so I'll let you know tomorrow how they turned out as well as let you see the new shop!

 

I FINALLY got the call from VB&P saying my order is shipping tomorrow, so the wait continues. As much as I questioned the legitimacy of Evapo-Rust, I am a firm believer in the stuff now. Here are my results so far:
Before

After


I hit a deer in my DD car about a week before I left for PA, just got her out of the shop! Thank god for insurance, $6500 worth of damage and it didn't cost me a dime because they consider it covered under comprehensive and my rates will not go up.

 

Well Gentlemen I received my VB&P stuff! Really excited to get everything together. Shot some Eastwood internal frame coating today, love that stuff. It really seems to coat the entire box extremely well. Took two cans, probably would prefer 3 though.

Here are some pictures of the VB&P. Everything looks well put together with quality welds, I was very disappointed in the quality of the painting/powdercoating. While the finish is very nice, some parts have areas that did not get coated at all (pictured below). I realize that this is nit-picky but damn I dropped some hard earned cash on this stuff, you know?

 

Hey guys, finally on Thanksgiving break and that gave me time to work a little on the Vette! VB&P front is on and bearimgs repacked and spindles refinished.

 

Love your new seats! Frame's looking good!

Rodger

 

Haha why thank you, surprisingly they don't offer the support I'm looking for when cornering.

 

I missed your build thread until now. A 454 in a '79 is going to be pretty cool. Looking forward to watching your progress.

 

Thank you, I appreciate it!

Speaking of which, I talked to the engine shop today. My engine is finally getting some attention. The block is .030 over, which is apparently a mistake to do prior to piston choice even if you know you are going .030 over (took a considerable amount of heat for this on another forum). I had no idea, I was just trusting the guy that does it for a living. The heads are being bowl blended and a valve job. I went with a one piece stainless valve set. I didn't want $100 to bite me in the *** a few thousand miles down the road.

He's CC'ing the heads today so I'll know what I'm working with in order to start making final decisions on piston choice. I'll likely run a domed SpeedPro at around 9.0-9.5.

 

Calipers rebuilt, new pads in, braided lines installed!

 

You probly want to look into a much nicer upgraded braking set up over rebuilt factory calipers the 454 is gonna way allot more than the 350 plus any other mod add ons jmo but always upgrade brakes if you are upgrading engine great build thread keep the pictures coming

 

I agree that these aren't ideal. But they came on the car and were free so I don't mind giving them a try before I jump to an expensive brake package. My thought is that Chevy let the BB Vette's leave the factory wearing them, I'll at least give them a try.

 

Sounds reasonable to me.

 

Well guys, I'm home for the holidays allowing me access to tools I don't have at my disposal in Philly. I ran into the issue of removing the rear crossmember bushings, at school I beat the hell out of them with a BFH and couldn't budge them. On my way home (12 hour drive) I figured out the solution. I soaked them in PB Blaster and set the X member on top of two chunks of wood placed on either side of the the bushing. Took the hay spear on the front of our 5455 Massey and angled it straight downthe middle, they popped right out after putting the weight of the tractor on it. I really recommend giving this a try if you don't have access to a press but you might have access to some farm equipment, like Hank Jr said, a country boy can survive.



Also picked up a set of nice Aluminum Valve covers off of a forum member. I love that look.

 

Finally engine time!

I just sent my QJet off to Lars. It'll be sitting on top of a Performer RPM intake.

For the cam, I selected this Hyd Roller:

http://www.lunatipower.com/Product.aspx?id=2155

To build some compression, I went with a domed SpeedPro.

Should run a few ticks under 9.5:1

 

Couple of updates for you guys

The QJet I sent Lars was apparently ****. I picked one up off ebay for, no joke, $10.99. I'm waiting on it to arrive and send back out to Lars.

The engine is being balanced, should be done in a few weeks (we'll see).

 

Got some boxes at the door today! Energy Suspension Poly engine mounts with ARP bolts, prothane trans Mount, rear differential crossmember bushings from corvette central. I'm ready to get these things together!

 

Had them both sitting in front of me so I went on with the installation. Slid in much much easier than I was expecting.


I went on and welded the VB&P Dual Mount to the crossmember, I didn't like the bolts and since I will never revert to a stock spring I made it permanent.

 

Finally front rubber on the ground!



Rear end in



VB&P stuff looks good mounted up!

 

Installed Spicer U Joints using the hammer method Van Steel suggested on a thread I ran across. Spicer Part Number 5-799x from NAPA.


Here is the comparison between what I pulled out vs what is going in


Here is the setup I used, hammer and socket. Drilled a 1 1/4" hole in a 2x4 to drive into.


And a shot of how well the parts clean up