Thread: 1929 Essex Highboy

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My coupe is wired with 5 fused circuits. I used a corrosion resistant marine fuse block from ACE Hardware. It uses the old style fuses, but the screw terminals make it easy to work with. I have a radio/CD player, but no heater. You may wish to add one more fused circuit for the heater blower...

Perley, how I have been missing this entire build thread I have no idea. I sat down tonight and read the whole thing and loved every minute of it. You have all the ingredients for a super thread..........you started from scratch, you explain each step and document it well with lots of pictures, and you even threw in a few dogs and cats. How could a person not love reading this kind of stuff.

Seriously, you are doing a bang up job on the car and on letting us ride along. I've bookmarked this one so I don't miss it again. Thanks for taking the time to do this for us. As someone who once did a similar thread, I know how much work goes into the picture posting and typing, but it also makes it a lot of fun too.

Don

More work on the exhaust yesterday. I hung the mufflers temporarily with inlet slid on over the head pipes. Then fitted up the outlet pipes. Tack welded the outlets, then removed the muffler/tailpipe pieces and welded all of this up with the flux core. Then ----------- YEAH, you guessed it! More grinding! haahaaa. Got to love it, ehhhhh?
Then put it all back together. I need to go downtown today and get some clamps. I am going to clamp the mufflers to the head pipe, then if I need to disassemble everything, I can seperate it here. With all of the twists and turns I would never be able to remove the whole system in one piece. I also need to get some hangers to tie everything up to the frame. I spent some time this past weekend on the Honey-Doo list and on straightening up my work area. Sorted out saved parts and stuff. Cut down and burned up a stack of old cardboard. Don't know why I save that stuff-------
Thanks Don for joining in. Great to hear from you. I'm missing your build posts! Perley

Here are a few more pictures! Enjoy

Here is a shot of the firewall. Looks like it's been a target for the Army! FULL of holes. I found some washers that would fit the big holes, 4 that were 1 1/8", 3 that were 7/8" and 2 more that were 5/8". These I stuck on a magnet, inserted from face so washers went into holes, then tacked. Then welded all of these, little at a time, weld-chip-brush, repeat! Then welded up all of the smaller holes, 1/4", 3/8", and miscellaneous others! Counted 42 holes all together. Then started---------GRINDING! haaahaaa. Getting to be my favorite part. heeheeee. I ground (grinded) did grinding till it got too dark to see what I was doing. I feared grinding so much I would create MORE holes.
So gave it up for the day. Up this morning, raring to go again! No call to work, so I'll go get clamps then grind some more! Perley

I understand the hole fillin process and have plenty of experience with that as well.

No doubt Perley one of the best threads I have read on the net. The detail you put in makes it easy to follow. Thanks for all your effort.
Now get back to work dude and keep the pictures coming.
I am looking forward to seeing what you do with the body now.
Larry

Well thank you very kindly Larry, Crazyrat. You got no call to talk though. I been following your build, and you are doing some great work! I love your truck, as I told you before. Makes me want to remodel my '47 truck. It is sitting there waiting patiently while I spend all my time (and most of my money) on the Essex build!
So-------today, I went out and first thing got the stoves going!!!!!
It was cold up here this morning. Ice in the water bucket! Anyways, after a bit of a warm up, I started on the timing--distributor thing! Got some info on how to set the distributor and thus the timing from my Mentor, thanks again Friend, so I dismantled the dizzy and cleaned it all up, then primer, then hammered silver. After a while to allow the paint to dry (some) I proceeded to put it back together. Then, following my instructions, I (finally) got the distributor in place and in time! Only took me an hour or so! Then tightened the clamp to hold it for now. Then I removed all of the old plugs, gave each cylinder a squirt of Mystery Oil, put in new plugs and hooked up the plug wires. After that I pored through my parts box and found a pair of battery cables and hooked the ground wire to a bell housing bolt, after cleaning off the paint, and the hot wire to the starter. Then connected both to my newly charged battery. Then I took a short piece of wire and connected one end to the inboard terminal on the starter solenoid and touched the other end to the hot lead at the starter connection, and BINGO. She turns over! Whooooeeeee! I cranked her over a few times to smear the Mystery Oil over the cylinder walls a little, and just wanted to hear her speak. Then I put in a grommet for the PCV valve, then put some gasket sealer on the valve cover gasket and put the cover on and bolted it down. Then put in the PCV valve and hooked up the vacuum line to the intake! Now all I need is fuel and coolant! And then I can fire it up. WOW. Yeah Jim, seeing some light at the end of the tunnel now! I cut up some old radiator hoses and got the angles and all, but they were too small to go over the motor connections. So soon I will take these to the parts store where my Grandson works (Advance) and get some the correct size with those bends, I hope! Some pics! Perley

Oh yes, I put in the motor oil too! heeheeee. Then I put one exhaust clamp on one muffler to head pipe connection! WHY? Because that's all I had! heeheee. I did visit the parts store last thing today and bought a couple more, and some pipe hangers! Got to support my Grandson's paycheck, you know! After that I took the header pipes down from the manifold connections and put in my flange gaskets, then put the bolts back in with some thread locker (blue) on them and tightened everything up. I spent a lot of time just sitting and looking, next to the stoves of course! And a lot of time walking back and forth from the garage to the house and back. First for masking tape, then for my instructions on timing, then for the paint (which I forgot on the first two trips) and then for some nourishment, (some times I forget to eat, and not good because I have diabetes). haahaa. WHEW. So the day went by quickly, and got parts for tomorrow, if I don't get a work call. Perley

Wow your cranking away Perley. Hope to get mine started soon too. Keep up the posts! Steve

Very nice build and great choice for the engine!

Originally Posted by oldrodder43

Here is a shot of the firewall. Looks like it's been a target for the Army! FULL of holes. I found some washers that would fit the big holes, 4 that were 1 1/8", 3 that were 7/8" and 2 more that were 5/8". These I stuck on a magnet, inserted from face so washers went into holes, then tacked. Then welded all of these, little at a time, weld-chip-brush, repeat! Then welded up all of the smaller holes, 1/4", 3/8", and miscellaneous others! Counted 42 holes all together. Then started---------GRINDING! haaahaaa. Getting to be my favorite part. heeheeee. I ground (grinded) did grinding till it got too dark to see what I was doing. I feared grinding so much I would create MORE holes.
So gave it up for the day. Up this morning, raring to go again! No call to work, so I'll go get clamps then grind some more! Perley

Perley
I think I welded up about 12 holes, then started plugging up the rest with plastic grommets that look like rivets. Still all in all must have been 50-60 holes in that fire wall! Your patience and hard work shows!

Hey 68Chevelle. Yeah, I think so too. Gonna be an attention getter. Among all of the high horsepower and cube V-8's, some with blowers, some with multi carbs, this little jewel will be like a breath of fresh air! hey?
Hello Steve. Yep, those firewalls seem to get mistreated something awful! Why so many holes I wonder? I have been watching your build for some time now, it's coming along fine. I may make startup this weekend! I need to get the coil wired, however that may be? And get a fuel can of some type and radiator hoses. Oh and something to plug off the heater ports!
Today I got the coil mounted, I painted it last evening. And got the condenser on and wired to dizzy. Then put on four hangers for the exhaust. Can't believe I ran short of clamps again. Short sighted, count count?
heeheee. Then I pulled the front wheels, took off the hub/rotors, cleaned them all up and masked off the braking surfaces, then sprayed them black. Probably won't last long, but it'll look good for first ride! heehee
Last thing was taking off the tape and remounting the hub/rotors. Then left them to finish drying. Tomorrow I need to get some caliper paint and paint them black, then mount the calipers, hook on the flex hoses, mount terminal plates to go from hoses to hardlines on the front brakes, then run hardlines to connect both sides together. Then I need to wait until I get the cab all on and hooked to mount the master cylinder and ---------------
Oh man, get me depressed thinking too far ahead!
Anyways, still heading in the right direction. Thanks everyone for the support and the comments. Nice to know people are enjoying the build. ME TOO.

Here I am cleaning, masking and painting the front hub/rotor combos. Messy work. I had as much black paint on my hands as on the rotors.
Anyways, got them done and put back on. There are also some shots of the machined increasers to build up the spindles for the bearings that fit in the '76 Camaro Hubs. The front brake kits are made by Chassis Performance Parts and Speedway sells them. I bought the basic kit which had the mounting plates for the calipers, the increasers, 2 bronze spacers (because the spindle is too long for the hubs), new spindle nuts and index washers, bolts, and instructions sheet. I bought the hub/rotors at Advance where my Grandson works! And the bearings and calipers also. Anyways, some more pics for those who enjoy them. I'm glad I'm not on dial-up anymore! Perley

To Pastor Bubba, sorry I missed you. Thanks for following along. I'm having a great time. Perley