Nice. Awhile back I was informed that the aftermarket/restoration Dog Dishes don't stay put on the wheels. Units are sized wrong and the material is soft/thin. What did you get?
Voodoo Rising - A Build Thread
- Thread starter Voodoo
- Start date
Voodoo
Well-Known Member
I believe these are original ones, they have quite a bit of wear and tear. I would guess originals, OR they may just be really poorly taken care of repops haha. I messed with the lips on the dishes a bit and managed to get them to lock in place ok a while ago. I think I just need to try seating it a bit better.
They all came with full wheel covers.
Voodoo
Well-Known Member
Sorry I phrased that poorly. Original as in "made by Mopar" but not original to the car. The car did have the original 14" steelies and full covers with the pseudo knockoff centers when I got it, and those suckers held on REALLY well haha.
Voodoo
Well-Known Member
Thanks! I know my motors are good, tested them multiple times. The headlight hold switch appears to be working based on my volt meter continuity test. I think just about the only other part of the system is the microswitches. Wouldn't be surprised if one is just on it's last legs.
Voodoo
Well-Known Member
I had a lot of fun driving it around with no hood on for a week, but it was time to get the engine bay covered up. We were super lucky and had no rain but being Florida, I did not want to count on that lasting forever. The hood on the car was in pretty rough shape with a really notable rust patch in one corner, so I bought a fiberglass one with a six pack scoop. I have not had time to do the prep and paint on that new hood, so the old one is going back on for now. My brother helped me lift the hood in place and get it aligned.
I am running hood pins on the car for a couple of reasons. Mostly for the future fiberglass hood, but also because the latch mechanism is currently frozen and I haven't taken the time to free it up yet. I mounted the pins in where I believe they would have gone on the later factory cars that had them. I then began the process of checking clearances, as I was certain that the air cleaner I had would not clear the stock hood. Good news and bad news! The good news is, the air cleaner fit under the stock hood and I didn't have to cut a hole in it. The bad news is, I had kinda hoped I would get to cut a hole in the hood and have an air cleaner poking out. Oh well.
I put the brightwork back on the leading edge of the hood, as well as the letters. The outside is starting to look remarkably "complete" and the car is starting to settle in nicely. The clutch has bedded in and is behaving a bit better now too. Over Thanksgiving I will be working on getting a passenger seat in the car, and maybe some dynamat to quiet down that fuel pump a bit.
I am running hood pins on the car for a couple of reasons. Mostly for the future fiberglass hood, but also because the latch mechanism is currently frozen and I haven't taken the time to free it up yet. I mounted the pins in where I believe they would have gone on the later factory cars that had them. I then began the process of checking clearances, as I was certain that the air cleaner I had would not clear the stock hood. Good news and bad news! The good news is, the air cleaner fit under the stock hood and I didn't have to cut a hole in it. The bad news is, I had kinda hoped I would get to cut a hole in the hood and have an air cleaner poking out. Oh well.
I put the brightwork back on the leading edge of the hood, as well as the letters. The outside is starting to look remarkably "complete" and the car is starting to settle in nicely. The clutch has bedded in and is behaving a bit better now too. Over Thanksgiving I will be working on getting a passenger seat in the car, and maybe some dynamat to quiet down that fuel pump a bit.
Encswsm
Well-Known Member
Those micro switches tend to stick. Topher has brand new ones, also the 3 relays behind the glove box frequently get old and fail too.
Voodoo
Well-Known Member
Already got the modern relays from Topher. I'll reach out about the microswitches once I test them this weekend.
Voodoo
Well-Known Member
After the last round of testing on the charging system, I narrowed it down to definitely being an alternator issue. Last night I was able to get the alt back out of the car and crack it open. I had a suspicion that one of the brushes did not seat correctly when I put it back together after pressing the new pulley on.
That suspicion was confirmed by the brush being reduced to chunks inside there. It charged for the first 5 minutes, then instantly stopped. Likely this was making good contact, then got wedged somehow and grenaded. I poked around and found a new brush set for $13, and resigned myself to not driving the car until the 11th when they arrive. Around this time my dad was dropping off some of the old parts I had left at the shop, and among them was the old alternator that came with the 440. I realized I could likely harvest the brush from that and put it into the new alternator.
Lo and behold, there was a worn but serviceable brush waiting for me in there. Don't tell my wife I did this on our coffee table...
After I confirmed the fit and took this photo, I removed the brushes, installed the other half of the alternator, then reinstalled the brushes being careful to make sure it seated properly. On the first test, we now have an ammeter that climbs with RPM, which is a great sign! It does not charge super strong on idle, but I am thinking the brush may just need a little time to bed in with the new drum? In either case it is better than NO charge, and I do still have the brand new ones on the way as a fall back. I will still count it as a win.
That suspicion was confirmed by the brush being reduced to chunks inside there. It charged for the first 5 minutes, then instantly stopped. Likely this was making good contact, then got wedged somehow and grenaded. I poked around and found a new brush set for $13, and resigned myself to not driving the car until the 11th when they arrive. Around this time my dad was dropping off some of the old parts I had left at the shop, and among them was the old alternator that came with the 440. I realized I could likely harvest the brush from that and put it into the new alternator.
Lo and behold, there was a worn but serviceable brush waiting for me in there. Don't tell my wife I did this on our coffee table...
After I confirmed the fit and took this photo, I removed the brushes, installed the other half of the alternator, then reinstalled the brushes being careful to make sure it seated properly. On the first test, we now have an ammeter that climbs with RPM, which is a great sign! It does not charge super strong on idle, but I am thinking the brush may just need a little time to bed in with the new drum? In either case it is better than NO charge, and I do still have the brand new ones on the way as a fall back. I will still count it as a win.
Voodoo
Well-Known Member
Big progress over the past few days. FINALLY got the charging system working. After a full-field test of the alternator confirmed it is working great, I once again turned my sights to the regulator. This time I decided to swap in a solid state unit as recommended by another member in my other thread. Lo and behold, we have charge! It behaved all day today, so nice not having to worry about pulling the battery every night!
I was tired of the exhaust leaks and some of the tinny sound from the flex pipe in the original "temporary" exhaust. I finally got around to putting in the "Angry X" which was my intention from the start! Sounds much better now.
Finally got a passenger seat in the car, as well as the other harness. Nice having it in the car and useable, and not taking up space in my already cramped shed.
I got the car out to a show today, and my dad was able to ride along with me for the first time! Nice being able to share the car with other people now. I also got to meet up with a fellow B Body owner, he just got his '66 Coronet 383 4 speed on the road a few days ago and drove it quite a ways out to meet up with us! Gotta love Florida, 72 degrees today and a huge turnout at the show.
Finally got a few clips of the car driving too (big thanks to Mr. Coronet and my dad playing camera man!)
I was tired of the exhaust leaks and some of the tinny sound from the flex pipe in the original "temporary" exhaust. I finally got around to putting in the "Angry X" which was my intention from the start! Sounds much better now.
Finally got a passenger seat in the car, as well as the other harness. Nice having it in the car and useable, and not taking up space in my already cramped shed.
I got the car out to a show today, and my dad was able to ride along with me for the first time! Nice being able to share the car with other people now. I also got to meet up with a fellow B Body owner, he just got his '66 Coronet 383 4 speed on the road a few days ago and drove it quite a ways out to meet up with us! Gotta love Florida, 72 degrees today and a huge turnout at the show.
Finally got a few clips of the car driving too (big thanks to Mr. Coronet and my dad playing camera man!)
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That’s amazing! Great memories for both of you too
Voodoo
Well-Known Member
After driving the car for a bit, the I confirmed the engine was consistently running lean. Makes sense based on what the seller of the intake/carb setup told me when I bought it, but always best to test and be sure. I found a previous post where a fellow FBBO user @gtxrt was kind enough to share what the recommended jets for the CH28 intake are, specifically .098 for the primaries and .086 for the secondaries. Dad and I pulled the carbs and it struck me how efficient we were, felt like a pit crew working together!
Starting to appreciate the ease of use that comes with the Edelbrocks, they came apart super easy and changing the jets and rods was a breeze. The whole thing took less than an hour, and a good chunk of that was us pivoting realizing that we didn't have quite the right jets for the secondaries. We ended up going up a size (.089) as we had enough to do that on hand. I figure the 10:1 compression, decent cam and headers may not be as fussed with a little extra juice at WOT. Plus that dense Florida air!
We also adjusted the accelerator pump shot from the smallest to the medium setting, saw an improvement there too. Now, 3 out of the 4 states were essentially perfect. Off-idle transition was nice and smooth, steady state cruise no longer had the hesitation, and under load it pulls smooth and strong. Only issue that remained was idle being... "muddy?" Felt like a cylinder was weak, definitely not quite right. I drive the car a bit then let it idle in my driveway for a minute or two then decided to pull the plugs to see what was up.
Before I even got to the plugs I found my problem. I had a lightning-leak on #6 thanks to the tight packed primaries on that header. Less than ideal as I discovered this just a few hours before a cruise I had scheduled with some new car buddies. I ran to the auto store and got a universal set of leads as i figured it was time to make ones that were the right length anyway for better routing. I also added heat shield boots to protect the worst offenders on both sides. I pulled the plugs and gave them a quick once over. Looked like the rear carb was a bit lean on idle, so I bumped the mix up a tiny bit.
The threads on #8 also reminded me I needed to fix my leaking valve cover, so I slipped that into the service too. Dad kindly gave me a spare set of NGK plugs which I swapped in, figure they might be a bit nicer than the basic AC Delco ones I had in there. I got the engine back together with about 10 minutes to spare, and headed right to the meeting spot. Thankfully the idle was back to normal and the car ran amazing! We had our cruise and stopped for a quick photo op, before heading off to the local brewery. Didn't realize until now, but I guess we were all "big body" cars haha.
I met up with a friend the next day and snapped this picture after parking up near his place. Pretty pleased with the way Voodoo is turning out!! Next up, gotta get some new front tires. After that, I am on the hunt for a cheap 742 chunk near me that I can rebuild with the gears/sure grip I have on the shelf (if anyone knows someone in the Tampa Bay area with one, let me know!) I have been going real easy on the power, learned my lesson about open diffs a long time ago on cars with 200lb/ft less torque. Thankfully the Hoosiers still have some stick to 'em so I can still have a bit of fun for now without one-tire-firing into a lightpole.
Starting to appreciate the ease of use that comes with the Edelbrocks, they came apart super easy and changing the jets and rods was a breeze. The whole thing took less than an hour, and a good chunk of that was us pivoting realizing that we didn't have quite the right jets for the secondaries. We ended up going up a size (.089) as we had enough to do that on hand. I figure the 10:1 compression, decent cam and headers may not be as fussed with a little extra juice at WOT. Plus that dense Florida air!
We also adjusted the accelerator pump shot from the smallest to the medium setting, saw an improvement there too. Now, 3 out of the 4 states were essentially perfect. Off-idle transition was nice and smooth, steady state cruise no longer had the hesitation, and under load it pulls smooth and strong. Only issue that remained was idle being... "muddy?" Felt like a cylinder was weak, definitely not quite right. I drive the car a bit then let it idle in my driveway for a minute or two then decided to pull the plugs to see what was up.
Before I even got to the plugs I found my problem. I had a lightning-leak on #6 thanks to the tight packed primaries on that header. Less than ideal as I discovered this just a few hours before a cruise I had scheduled with some new car buddies. I ran to the auto store and got a universal set of leads as i figured it was time to make ones that were the right length anyway for better routing. I also added heat shield boots to protect the worst offenders on both sides. I pulled the plugs and gave them a quick once over. Looked like the rear carb was a bit lean on idle, so I bumped the mix up a tiny bit.
The threads on #8 also reminded me I needed to fix my leaking valve cover, so I slipped that into the service too. Dad kindly gave me a spare set of NGK plugs which I swapped in, figure they might be a bit nicer than the basic AC Delco ones I had in there. I got the engine back together with about 10 minutes to spare, and headed right to the meeting spot. Thankfully the idle was back to normal and the car ran amazing! We had our cruise and stopped for a quick photo op, before heading off to the local brewery. Didn't realize until now, but I guess we were all "big body" cars haha.
I met up with a friend the next day and snapped this picture after parking up near his place. Pretty pleased with the way Voodoo is turning out!! Next up, gotta get some new front tires. After that, I am on the hunt for a cheap 742 chunk near me that I can rebuild with the gears/sure grip I have on the shelf (if anyone knows someone in the Tampa Bay area with one, let me know!) I have been going real easy on the power, learned my lesson about open diffs a long time ago on cars with 200lb/ft less torque. Thankfully the Hoosiers still have some stick to 'em so I can still have a bit of fun for now without one-tire-firing into a lightpole.
Voodoo
Well-Known Member
Well it's been 5 months of driving around and doing more minor shakedown, and generally everything is great! I had my fun with the "sponsor stickers" on the fender, and pulled them off to go back to a cleaner look. I had the rear passenger side hubcap come off no less than four times. The first three times by some miracle I was able to find it again. Sadly the fourth one was it's last ride. That said if anyone has one of these red-ring hubcaps laying around I may be interested haha. Mine are far from perfect, so a little beat up is actually better for me.
Once the weather got properly hot here in FL, I started having mild overheating symptoms. Not boiling over, but running grumpy and in extreme cases, stalling out at the occasional traffic light. I ended up deciding to add heat shield over the fuel feed hardline that runs across the firewall, as that does sit relatively near my header. Of course as soon as I finished that project, I fired up the car to test it and FINALLY noticed that the passenger side electric fan was wobbling and running at about 20% speed. I definitely don't have the budget for new e-fans (these ones were a generous hand-me-down from my brother) so I decided to try and repair it. Very glad I took the time, as it turns out the pin that turns the fan blades had failed. The blades were only turning from the friction of the shaft spinning, but were definitely not pulling any air at all. You can see one end of the pin broken off and partially melted into the plastic of the fans in one of the pics below. $0.55 for a roll pin from Ace Hardware, and I was back in business. I have only driven the car once since the repair as this was quite recent, but it behaved great even in 90 degree heat!
I attempted to get my headlights to behave, but they are still acting erratically. I am relatively certain it is a flaky microswitch from my testing, as the motors work perfectly, and all the harnesses and switches are 100% brand new. I have one that is intermittent when testing with a multi-meter and poking the button to test continuity. That said, I had some wire laying around and a couple of 3 position momentary toggles, so for the time being, i overrode the automatic lights and have them manually controllable from in the car. Cheap quick project that lets me enjoy the aesthetic of the grill during the day, and have lights at night when I need em.
I am now working on sealing up the back window, as I am relatively certain that is the source of the minor leak that is getting into the trunk. I just finished round 2 of cleaning in the channel outside the rubber seal, but I have a feeling it will need 2-3 more rounds of cleaning before I can get in there with the butyl caulk. I would love to pull the window and do a new gasket, but budget is not on my side at the moment. I also finally wrapped up my hands-on portion of my home renovation and handed over to the contractor to carry it to the finish line, so this was my first weekend in months where I had some free time. Pretty soon I need to start tearing down the donor rear axle I picked up so I can get the housing sanded and painted. I have had all the parts on the shelf for ages, and I get the sense the old diff currently in the car is not long for this world. Hoping to have that underway in the next couple of months, with any luck I will have a 3.55 Sure Grip in the car by end of year.
Once the weather got properly hot here in FL, I started having mild overheating symptoms. Not boiling over, but running grumpy and in extreme cases, stalling out at the occasional traffic light. I ended up deciding to add heat shield over the fuel feed hardline that runs across the firewall, as that does sit relatively near my header. Of course as soon as I finished that project, I fired up the car to test it and FINALLY noticed that the passenger side electric fan was wobbling and running at about 20% speed. I definitely don't have the budget for new e-fans (these ones were a generous hand-me-down from my brother) so I decided to try and repair it. Very glad I took the time, as it turns out the pin that turns the fan blades had failed. The blades were only turning from the friction of the shaft spinning, but were definitely not pulling any air at all. You can see one end of the pin broken off and partially melted into the plastic of the fans in one of the pics below. $0.55 for a roll pin from Ace Hardware, and I was back in business. I have only driven the car once since the repair as this was quite recent, but it behaved great even in 90 degree heat!
I attempted to get my headlights to behave, but they are still acting erratically. I am relatively certain it is a flaky microswitch from my testing, as the motors work perfectly, and all the harnesses and switches are 100% brand new. I have one that is intermittent when testing with a multi-meter and poking the button to test continuity. That said, I had some wire laying around and a couple of 3 position momentary toggles, so for the time being, i overrode the automatic lights and have them manually controllable from in the car. Cheap quick project that lets me enjoy the aesthetic of the grill during the day, and have lights at night when I need em.
I am now working on sealing up the back window, as I am relatively certain that is the source of the minor leak that is getting into the trunk. I just finished round 2 of cleaning in the channel outside the rubber seal, but I have a feeling it will need 2-3 more rounds of cleaning before I can get in there with the butyl caulk. I would love to pull the window and do a new gasket, but budget is not on my side at the moment. I also finally wrapped up my hands-on portion of my home renovation and handed over to the contractor to carry it to the finish line, so this was my first weekend in months where I had some free time. Pretty soon I need to start tearing down the donor rear axle I picked up so I can get the housing sanded and painted. I have had all the parts on the shelf for ages, and I get the sense the old diff currently in the car is not long for this world. Hoping to have that underway in the next couple of months, with any luck I will have a 3.55 Sure Grip in the car by end of year.
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