1965 Chevrolet Impala: October 2016

Friday, 28 October 2016

New Tailshaft

New thicker-wall tailshaft (80 mm shorter than original to accomodate the longer 4L65E) and new uni joints, packed with grease ready to be bolted-up...

Work done by A&L Driveshafts in Campsie.

UPDATE: exploded on the dyno on Tue 17.04.2018.

The A&L driveshaft was 2.750" OD with 0.083" wall... waaay too small!

J

Thursday, 27 October 2016

The small things in life

The steam pipe outlet on the LS needs a 6 mm ID hose.
The inlet port to the top tank of the radiator needs a 10 mm ID hose.
Get both size hoses and join in the centre with this...

One required but bought two in case one snapped ;-)

J

Tuesday, 18 October 2016

CSI: Radiator Hose Unit

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John
Date: Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 11:00 PM
Subject: CSI: Radiator Hose Unit
To: JtC

After a bit of measuring down in the garage, the attached "Top Radiator Hose Drawing" is going to be in the ball-park of what we are looking for. Printed out on A3 will give me a 1:1 template I can take with me to a parts store.

Mackay Automotive have put out an AWESOME catalog which lists their hoses by ID, then length...

http://www.mackayrubber.com.au/pdf/hose_ID_listing.pdf

The top hose needs to be 33 mm ID. There looks to be a few which are promising, with CH1848 one of the best (with some trimming to length).

Did a quick search for CH1848 on Supercheap Auto's website...

http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Product/Mackay-Top-Hose-CH1848/105856

Now to go have a look!

It just happens to be the top radiator hose off a V6 VN-VR with ABS... did you salvage the top hose off the VR you bought?

Other promising ones...

---

Mackay

33 mm ID x 424 mm long as the basis...

---

CH3420

CH3539

CH3730

CH4822

CH1368

CH2552

CH3336

CH4274

CH3900

CH4009

CH1365

CH4954

CH1848 <-- 05-0922 <-- 92046089

Sunday, 16 October 2016

Thermo Fan + ATF Cooler Lines + Bottom Radiator Hose (phew!)

BIG weekend spent on the Chev... and another BIG effort from JtC!

Saturday started with choosing a thermo fan from the pool of fans (what is the collective noun for electric thermo radiator fans?) we had lying around the place.

We settled on a VS V6 Commodore fan; will it draw enough air? We'll see! At the very least we put 12V across it and it certainly works.

Time to fabricate a shroud and get it mounted. Scavenged plastic sheet from old radiator shrouds and self-tappers FTW!

Folded gal steel sheet was used as bracket material, salvaged from a bash/splash plate from the underside of the VZ ute...

The shroud and brackets were hit with satin black in the evening, ready for Sunday.

A new day and new challenges.

The bottom radiator hose arrangement was adapted from the VT II/VX/VY setup we used on the test frame. This meant:

U-shaped hose out of the water pump (Mackay Rubber part number CH2956),
VT II/VX/VY transfer pipe (sourced second-hand from a wrecker) and
90 deg. hose into the radiator (Mackay Rubber part number CH3028... cut-down for the narrower Chev radiator).

The transfer pipe has mounting tabs which we bolted to the radiator support panel using more brackets fabb'ed from the VZ splash plate material. Bit dark, but it's there I promise!..

The last photo also shows the ATF cooler hose sitting on top of one of the transfer pipe brackets. The cooler hoses were connected to the radiator using Speedflow fittings/barbs and standard ATF cooler hose, retained with hose clamps. Might swap to hose with AN hose ends in the future when the wallet recovers.

More ATF cooler hose goodness...

ATF Cooler Lines + P-Clips + AN Fittings/Barbs

Finally, the finished product...

Massive thanks once again to JtC who did the majority of the work; excellent workmanship yet again!

We are getting close now...

J

Saturday, 15 October 2016

ATF Cooler Hose AN Fitting Shopping List

Speedflow Fittings

MALE TUBE ADAPTER
618-06-06-BLK
2 off

411 SERIES HOSE ENDS - 45 DEG HOSE END
412-06-BLK
1 off

411 SERIES HOSE ENDS - 90 DEG HOSE END
413-06-BLK
1 off

411 SERIES HOSE ENDS - STRAIGHT HOSE END
411-06-BLK
2 off

POWER STEER, FUEL & OIL LINES (AN-6 to 1/2”-20 Inv)
703-06-BLK
2 off

Saturday, 8 October 2016

Radiator Support

With the radiator left getting modified, I took the mounting strap/flanges home to be modified to mount the Chev's radiator support panel without using the spacer.

The spacer was a handy template, obviously having the bolt patterns for both the existing radiator mounts, as well as the radiator support panel.

Without the radiator to hold the correct bolt spacing, I bolted the support strap to the inside of the spacer and use threaded rod to hold the two sides at the correct spacing.

Then flip over the spacer and determine the width of flange required. Here it is with the flanges already cut out of galvanised steel scrap...

Holes were drilled in the flanges to match the radiator support bolt spacing, then bolted into the car...

...before lowering in the radiator mounting strap, locating it against the flanges in the final position and marking where the welds were to go...

Then it was time to break-out the welder!

Trial-fit in the Chev... all good!

Then a quick dress of the welds, prime and paint with satin black (no photos).

Now to drop the modified mounting strap off to Merrylands Radiator so it can be reunited with the modified radiator.

J

Wednesday, 5 October 2016

What's missing?

Stopped in at Merrylands Radiators this morning and explained the plan.

Ray was all good and will put Commodore-sized ports as far in the corners as possible, plus add the little steam vent port... all for $100! And could be finished this 'arvo!

He was just a bit unsure about the wider mounting flange so came up with the idea in the photo. Within a couple of minutes he had melted the solder holding the mounting strap and whipped it off the radiator. Now I can take the mounting strap home and weld a wider flange to it. He will remount it, all included in the $100.

He'll give the radiator a clean as well.