john's 74 s&h clone build thread

Bead seater...you must have a coats 2020? My arm breaker is a coats 1010 no bead seater it's in the background of some of the pics, i painted it sky blue and black

well i finally got my lincoln mastercylinder cover back from chrome plating 

 nice car buddy

Alright...two days of clicking a reading...all 98 pages! I had so many questions and comments, but I decided to hold it all until the end....Sooooooo........here goes...........


(secret weapon) 

(here's mine LOL)



Is this the complete piece with the chrome? Or does the rubber just slide in?



I hope it didn't take long to figure out that the body and frame are facing different ways LOL...rear engine front wheel drive...now that would be different



Can't remember for sure why I saved this picture, other than to say that I'm sure it was much easier with all the glass out, I left all mine in.



My doors were out too much at the tops too. I used human hydraulics, I sat on the floor and put both feet at the bottom rear most edge and grabbed the top rear most edge with my hands and pulled with my arms and pushed with my legs with all I had! Both doors came out perfect. (take a look at them on my post)



I plan to put a custom console in mine too, but I want a "Go Baby Go" button next to the protected power toggle switch....Zooooooommmmm....(I don't have an engine that could stand it just yet ..like I said, YET!!!)



Okay...I looked and looked, but I never saw where you reinstalled the seal that goes here, did you get new ones or did you have to use your olds? Mine are okay, but I'd love to have new ones, or at least a better one for the drivers side.



And my very last question.....As I look and read over all this above, I can't help but wonder....and this may be like asking a woman how old she is.... or worse, how much she weighs ..... but have you been brave enough to total up your parts tickets?

californiajohnny wrote: i know, i know!  i said that when i got the vette...it's not going to be all chromed out, just something nice that i can drive...weeeell one thing led to another...and...  so then i got the torino, and said i'll paint it nice and not all chromed out ,this time i'll have something that i can drive...well i got into it that far and one thing led to another, then i saw something that just wasn't acceptable...well we'll make that a little bit better...and then it became an obsession! so here we are  (again)  I been working on one more item for the torino (every night this week) it's almost finished...

That was me too...I have done many projects over the years and made them way too perfect for me to enjoy. I always was afraid to use them for fear of putting a tiny scuff on them, so I would sell them. I double promised myself not to do that on my 75, and I did not! So proud of myself, I actually enjoy driving it, and guess what? It's dirty right now as I type. Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for you and your car and could never take anything away from all your hard work. My car looks good and gets many complements, but it's nowhere near in the same category as yours. I doubt I'll even get one trophy. I'm sure I'll do another perfect one with all my custom ideas before it's all over with, so don't count me out...... Great Job my friend!!!!





Edited by M Casey Stock - 14-December-2016 at 8:36AM

californiajohnny wrote: casey:  #2 it slides in a grove in the chrome (if you need some and find them grab em, they have been discontinued!!)  total$$$ ? about 10K

#2- I thought they looked like you just slid them in (noticed the dish washing liquid on the floor) Just ordered a pair off Ebay (they had limited supplies) for $49 and some change. Not desperate for them as mine are okay, but stuff like that, I'd rather have on hand before I need them, than need them and no longer be able to get them. Thanks for the heads up.

It seemed like as I mentally kept up with the different parts and other goodies you were adding as you went along, that you would have a lot invested in parts and supplies. Of course there is no way to figure the worth of all the time spent taking apart, repairing, designing, building and reassembling a project. My car was non molested and completely intact, which made it a great car to do a budget build with, and keep it a "any day you want to" rain or shine driver. I have around 5K in it, that's every penny including purchase price, again no way to figure all the hours of love labor. If you subtract from that what I have cleared by selling parts off my parts car, it's even less (and I'm still selling) But again, it's a nice car, but not a show stopper.


Edited by M Casey Stock - 15-December-2016 at 7:19AM

unlovedford wrote: Wow, you guys did well. I'm approaching the $5K mark on my '72 Formal and it still looks like a big bag of beat-up di@@heads. Most I have ever had in a Torino, except maybe the Squire.

A couple things that went really well for me that kept the expense down, #1) I had to do very little mechanically to get the car back road worthy, that helped a ton. The guy I bought it from kept excellent records and did the maintenance to a tee. He got sick and couldn't drive it and he couldn't keep it out of the weather, when he got better the carb had gummed up and he couldn't get it to run right, so for ten years it just sat outside and never moved, even though it was perfectly drive-able when it was first parked (kinda like your two) You can even see in the original pictures of it in his back yard, that he had a sun shade on the dash (had one on the package tray too until it fell apart). #2) I had a young man spray it for me that just does it as a hobby, so I only have $1850.00 dollars in the sealer, base, clear and his labor (his labor was stupid low) the paint is not perfect, but perfect for me and my usage... Anyway, I didn't mean to hijack your thread CJ, again Wonderful job on your build!

That expression is reserved for really ugly things. Like my car.

californiajohnny wrote: oh i thought you sprayed it

Well...if I had it would not have been my first, I had a friend offer to let me use his booth (don't have a booth myself, my business is mechanical repair, not paint and body) it was in the middle of my busiest time of year, I was like you in that I was tired of parts scattered about, and this young man was practically begging me to let him paint it. If I had been building a show car, it would never have gone down that way. All in all he did a pretty good job. What you see is just as it came out of his gun. I'll likely do some wet sanding and buffing before it's all said and done.

Edited by M Casey Stock - 15-December-2016 at 4:37PM

Car looks great how's the ride with the nose of the car that low?

look what just arrived...little shop mgf. A-arms!!

ball joint in and all reassembled
(i took a rough measurement before and after, these arms moved the top of the spindle back about 3/8")



Edited by californiajohnny - 27-January-2017 at 9:01PM

that's what i'm thinking! as long as it gets rid of that "twitchy" felling at highway speeds i'll be happy! now just got to make arrangements to get it realigned one of these Saturdays...

OK I just got up to page 63 Wheeewww!

 just got it realigned, now with some positive caster, drives great! no more twitchy feeling!!!

got the holley base plate a few days ago, got it on the carb. put the 600 DP carb on...the different configuration of the DP float bowl interferes with my HEI  either rotate the HEI or trim the corner of the HEI cover...hmm, so i grabbed the diegrinder and shaved the corner by the tach terminal ( i'm not using that tach term. since i have the factory GTS tach
 so tonight i got a 5/16" fuel line from the parts store and bent and reflared the tubing for the fuel line. no leaks! set the float levels and idle mixture screws. now i just need to crawl under there and attach the pressure gauge to the tranny to check and readjust the T/V kick down cable for the proper pressure adjustment tomorrow night...


Edited by californiajohnny - 16-February-2017 at 6:32PM