week 57
week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5, week 6, week 7, week 8, week 9, week 10
week 11, week 12, week 13, week 14, week 15, week 16, week 17, week 18, week 19
week 20, week 21, week 22, week 23, week 24, week 25, week 26, week 27, week 28
week 29, week 30, week 31, week 32, week 33, week 34, week 35, week 36, week 37
week 38, week 39, week 40, week 41, week 42, week 43, week 44, week 45, week 46
week 47, week 48, week 49, week 50, week 51, week 52, week 53, week 54, week 55
week 56, week 57, week 58, week 59, week 60, week 61, week 62, week 63, week 64
This week I block sanded the top, spread a thin coat of body filler over it, blocked that out and then sprayed 2 coats of Spies-Hecker sprayable filler on it. The rearend housing finally made it back from the chrome shop so I installed and assembled it. Advanced Plating removed the studs that hold the third member in so those had to be re-installed. Because they had also chromed the studs I had to grind some of the knurl off of them to get them back into the housing. The chrome was built up inside all the holes in the housing so I had to grind the chrome out of the holes before I could get the bolts to go through the holes. I also had to grind the chrome out of the housing ends because the axle bearings wouldn't go into the housing. When I went to tighten the axle flange nuts I noticed it sounded like something was dragging when I turned the axles. Upon further inspection I realized that the wheel stud heads were hitting the e-brake springs and arm. I guess because the chrome was so thick on the housing ends and backing plates that it had spaced them out too far. As you can see by the pictures I had to remove the outside spring from the e-brake shoes and grind down the arm and the heads of the wheel studs to get enough clearance so they didn't rub. After I put the rotors on the axles I noticed that the caliper brackets were touching the rotors so I had to shim them out.
All the chrome parts sure look nice but it takes a lot of extra time to prepare them before they can be re-assembled. I wouldn't have ever dreamed that it would take me 2 days to assemble a rearend. I realize now how some of the other custom car builders can put three to four thousand hours in a project. This car will be a nice car when it's done but won't be anywhere close to what the 2002 Ridler award winner is. Of course this car isn't going to cost anywhere near the $1.2 million that the Ridler award winner cost to build.
