Thread: 1929 Essex Highboy

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AHHHHHHHHHHHH. There is life out there.
Thanks all for chiming in. Spent last two days on Honey-Doo list. heeheee Got a tarp-hut up for a garage for Mommie's car.
AND, got a new roof (or partial roof) on the garage, thanks to my Grandson Steve and his friends. I took a long strip of leftover tarp and folded it multiple times and duct taped it, then hauled it on over the peak, hopefully this will prevent the chafing that has worn out the top of my last to roofs!
Then I put on a 24' by 40' tarp that I've had for a while, added ropes on the sides to hold it so it won't flop around in the wind so much, and stapled the ends to the wood. Soon I will get a bundle of banking lathes and fasten the end down proper. Old winter winds really howl up here, especially when we get a Northeaster storm. Later on I am going to get a full cover to pull on over the whole garage, and then nail it down all around. WHEW. Now I can put away my rain catchers!

Next project was splitting the exhaust manifold. I had read a lot of posts where folks said a real GOOD sound could be had with a straight six by splitting the manifod and adding a second outlet giving dual exhaust and add two glass packs! Soooooooooo, fool that I am, here it is. And with a lot of help (emails) from my Mentor, I cut a slot up into the bottom of the manifold and machined a 1/4" thick piece of steel to fit up into the manifold. Thus blocking off three of the six ports. I then bought some high nickel content stick rod and 'tried' welding in the partition and closing the slot.
What a horror scene that was. It made an UGLY mess. Oh Dear, what have I done? I was near ready to toss the whole thing and find another manifold, then forget the idea of splitting it. Then I called an old friend who does a lot of welding, he also went to welding school in the Navy. I discussed the mess with him and told him what I was using for rod. He said he preferred a different kind of rod and told me where to get it. So I bought a pound of that and went to his shop with the manifold (which I was sure was ruined) and the rod. He didn't blink an eye. Stuck a rod in the stick welder and proceeded to weld the whole mess, partition and slot. I watched him through another hood. Sure looked easy the way he did it. WOW, was I relieved! So then I went home and proceeded to add the second exhaust outlet.

And more------

And a mock up of the new piece. Previous post showed that I cut the middle collector (for two ports) from a leftover SBC manifold. The cleaned out the web between the two ports. Here is a shot of it cleaned up inside and out. Then I took a piece of 1/4" flat stock and made a flange to weld on the bottom. This matched the factory one on the original outlet.

Finishing the flange and welded on to the new outlet. Then outlet welded on to manifold. I did all of this myself. After watching my Friend weld the slot closed, I determined to try this myself. Came out pretty good, even if I do say so!

And painted up along with mating intake. This is heat proof ?? manifold paint. And bolted on engine for look-see. Wow, I like it.

Looks good Perley.

"Then I called an old friend who does a lot of welding, he also went to welding school in the Navy. I discussed the mess with him and told him what I was using for rod. He said he preferred a different kind of rod and told me where to get it."

What kind of rod did you end up using?

Hi Restorod. The rod I got first was NI 55 by Firepower, 3 rods for $7.00. It was awful!
The second try was with Noma-Cast 1/8", 1# for $13.00 and it worked great. Here is a link that tells about it. http://power-tools.hardwarestore.com...ods-200039.asp
There is an awful lot of information on welding cast iron on the internet, some on the forums. The Friend took a small bernz-o-matic torch and preheated the area he welded a little. Not a great deal. But I didn't preheat mine at all. It may fall apart first time I fire it up, but it seemed to work well, and the weld looked pretty good. That nickel rod seemed to eat the cast iron, I swear. It made an awful mess. This patch was done by my Friend just as a test. You can see how bad it was. Perley

Whoops, something wrong with that URL. Try again. http://power-tools.hardwarestore.com...ds-200039.aspx

Thanks Perley, good info. I've never had much luck welding cast.....this may be the answer.

OK Perley, color me impressed. The frame looks great and it sounds like you have the drive shaft figured out. I am not sure I have the guts to try that.

Rickomatic, I never would have attempted the driveshaft, along with some of the other things I've done here, if not for J. Robinson. No Lie! His Teacher Abilities have shone thru both his T Modified Build and all of the emails we have exchanged since I met him down at his Home. He describes how to do the driveshaft during his T build and also his Son's A Sedan build. And he graciously sent me instructions in a clear concise manner. And so I felt I might be able to accomplish it, and I did! And splitting the manifold too, I never would have tried if not for his detailed instructions. It sure is great to have all of the old time rod builders who are willing to help a Newbie out. Thanks Jim. Thank you Rickomatic for your support and all of the others who have replied to this thread. Perley

Here's the return of the P.I.T.A. That darn clearance issue between the shock and the steering arm. So------off with his head!
I cut off the ball stud from the steering arm and drilled a hole down thru the remains. I plan on a Heim joint rod end. The lower profile should give me the clearance I need.

Here she is sitting down on all 4 again! Now to make a drag link to replace the old one. This will have heim joint ends. In order to do that, I needed to also cut off the ball stud on the pitman arm.

Wowza! That pitman arm is pretty thin! So, found a piece of 1/4" rod, figured to wrap this around the outside and weld it all up. Thanks again Friend Jim. After welding I turned (once again) to my trusty grinder!
I figure I've got three thousand three hundred and three hours in this thing now-------And three thousand two hundred of them have been on the end of a grinder! haaahaaa. Actually I have three of them! Two 4 1/2" and one 4". Use them all. When one overheats I swap it for another---------