XXO/BVGC '38 Chevy Coupe Build

[Tman]

Welcome back. Dale is living out here at least part of the time now.

[Hooley]

Hi Buddy, lets get this land speed racing going again. What do you say?

[pops29]

Hello All.  Its been a longer layover than we were expecting but WE ARE BACK !!!  Dale has been working on the motor and I have been working the car over with some much needed changes.
I stripped the car down completely to the bare bones and blasted the frame and repaired any rust issues and areas needed of attention, also doing some body mods to make it easer to work on the motor.

[pops29]

[pops29]

[pops29]

I stripped down and blasted the under carriage, rust treated , premiered and painted. I sent the rearend off to John Beck for rebuilt and I completely rebuilt the frontend. Also removed to old front core support and fabricated a new one.
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[pops29]

 I am proud to introduce our newest member to the team, some of you may already know him Alex Gambino of Gambino Kustoms. He is one of the best customizers around and he is now on our team. He is repairing all the fiberglass that was damaged in the fire and doing the body mods and paint on the flatcad. Here we are removing the firewall sides for access to the motor.
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[pops29]

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[pops29]

Here is some pics from Dale of the motor. I will let him add to this
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[pops29]

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[WZ JUNK]

I am very interested in your progress.  I was involved in the original build and I would like to see it run again.

[WOODY@DDLLC]

  :clap :clap :clap

[BoredAndStroked]

Hey Gang - thought that I'd get back to this forum and start posting some progress from my side of the FlatCAD Crew.

1) I completed the engine rebuild and assembly two years ago - it is ready to go except for the heads (more to come on that) and I've got work to do on the front of the motor (timing stuff).

2) I've dug-out all the electrical components and due to the fire, there is a lot of work to do with everything that was in the engine compartment.  Thank God a lot of the electronics were inside the car, or we'd have lost a lot more.

3) In looking at the heat-stroked ProMag 20 - decided that by the time I bought all the parts it needed to fix what was damaged by the heat (all external plastic, points box, etc) - that I'd have about $1500 (at least) into it.  Then I thought that maybe I could locate a replacement (used).  To replicate our setup in today's dollars is about $6000!  Everything is DOUBLE what it was when I originally bought all the ignition stuff.

4) Found a used ProMag 20 on Facebook Marketplace that was setup by Spud at FIE (great guy).  We've used Spud to update our prior Vertex mags to high-output version - he knows his stuff - bigtime!  Anyway, Spud updated the ProMag 20 points box to use a big-ass external coil -- 44 amp setup (same as they use with ProMag 44's).  This setup also includes FIE's 44 Amp coil and bracket.  The coil alone costs about $1000.  I got in contact with Spud to see if he had the setup/run sheets for this mag (he did).  Comparing the original output to the new setup, it puts out about 15 - 20% more spark duration and energy . . . which always helps with blown alky or nitro.  Having an external (and rebuildable) coil is a big plus over having to rely on the small internal one that is inside a standard ProMag 12/20 points box.  The ProMag 44's always ran an external coil, so this is a big upgrade for our ProMag 20 system.

One issue for me is that due to the strength of the rare-earth magnets in ProMags, you cannot turn the mag by hand, unless you really work at it (on a 44, forget it!). Well, this means that I cannot run it up on my Sun distributor machine.  This is a real problem for us in that while I can send a mag out and have it tested, I really need to be able to run and validate all the system components before we put them in the car . . . and pray they work.

Due to the above, I decided to use a bit of imagination and create a "Frankenstein test bench" where the ProMag is driven by my small lathe.  I created a mounting system, created an aluminum "drive hub" to mount crank trigger rings to, etc.. I have to run TWO crank trigger rings (offset from one another) such that I get 8 triggers per revolution.  On the car, the crank turns twice as fast as the mag, so I needed a way to mimic this -> having 8 magnets on two trigger rings solved that issue.

I fired up "Ole' Sparky" last night and my Frankenstein contraption works just as it should.  I can test the mag and with my spark-plug setup, actually see the output and can twist/turn the conductors to cause the spark to have to jump a big gap.  I created that setup as a result of seeing my old friend Joe Hunt run a similar machine back about 50 years ago.  It works great in that you can test the secondary on the mag, a points ignition, etc..

Anyway, making progress on all fronts!

[BoredAndStroked]

Another Sparky Pic:

[BoredAndStroked]

Another Sparky Pic: