motorman7

That seems like the best approach, but they are a little pricey. I saw that you used one on the intake manifold tube fitting and was intrigued. I've used a torch and ice cubes in the past, but it was not very effective on the manifold because of its size I think.

The exhaust manifold will be a bit of a project. I don't beleive that the air galley will be salvagable as the attach fittings are pretty rusted onto the manifold. I will soak these in rust penetrant for a couple more days, but most likely I will need to cut off the air galley, remove the fittings and re-tap the holes.

I have two fuel pumps, the one that came with the car and one sent by the owner. The one that came with the car looks like it had the cap replaced for some reason. The base looks like the original Nikki, but the cover is an Ampco. I cleaned up the original and will go with that. If anyone has a Nikki top cover, please contact me. Thanks

Currently I am working on cleaning up the electrical harnesses. New Connector blocks and terminals from Vintage Connections came in last week. Harness pics are below. The last one is the cleaned up section. Also looks like the ID tags are in good shape and salvagable.

I have been pre-assembling some of the suspension parts. Looking forward to actually puttling these on the body. The owner sent me two radios to check for operation. One produces sound but the seek is slow, so I will clean that one up. The other operated nicely, but couldn't find a station. Both had the same antenna set-up, so not sure what's up with that one. 20250222_125123.mp4

The body is now at the weld shop and the replacement panels from KF Vintage have arrived. The welder, Larry, said the panels were very good quality and nice thickness. Panels are now being installed. Pics are below. Work is being done by L&L Restomods. https://www.llrestomods.com/

I have two 2400 valve covers, one from the original motor and one that the owner sent. I was not happy with the painted valve cover, although it looks pretty, as it would get dinged by the ZCON judges as not the original finish. Also, it's not the original finish. So, I just decided to clean up the original valve cover. I am much happier with that. Looks much better. Pics below

I have been delinquent in posting updates, but finally have a little time so here goes. I will break this up into several posts so the pictures won't be overwhelming. It took almost 5 weeks to get the engine parts from Motorsports, but once they arrrived it gave me all the hardware I needed to finish the engine. The shipment was delayed for the stock piston rings. The motor went together pretty smoothly with no hiccups. The only item that was odd, and I'm guessing it's an early car item, is that the timing chain did not have the two timing links, 42 links apart. There was just one bright link and it actually had a clip feature on it so that it could be easily removed. Can't say I have seen that before. I did not take a pic of it, but may show that in the future. Pics of the engine are below.

Now I need to find a Nikki top cap.

That is perfect, Thanks!

I know this is an old thread, but can anyone get me a side view of an Ampco pump? I am curious to see if it says Ampco on the side housing.

The body shop finally had room availabe so we brought the car and all the panels down to the shop. The plan is to media blast next week and then determine what panels will need to be replaced. Got the Block and Head back from the machine shop today. Both look great and nicely done. The block only needed a hone which is good, so we can stick with the original stock pistons and just get new rings. Bearings will be replaced with new stock rod and crank bearings. Oil galleys were cleaned and oil filter check valve and filter screen replaced. The head had just one bad valve and all of the intake valve seats were replaced with the modern 'bronze' seats. Valve guides were replaced. The exhaust valve seats had been replaced during previous machine work. I spent a little time sorting some of the plated hardware putting some of the more common parts in bags. This will help things to move along a bit quicker during assembly time. Pics are below

This is what I used. I initially used an Olive green but it was too light, so I went to Ace hardware and got a darker green. I used the center part of the horn as the 'master' as it was in the best condition. The Camouflage paint is flat, so I added the gloss clear. A thin semi-gloss may be a little bit better replication. I think the green is maybe a bit on the glossy side, but they do look pretty doggone close to the original.

Since we were on the subject of horns, I just went ahead and rebuilt them. Pictures are below. I added a view of the horn coil. You can see that the copper is not plated. (Also, aluminum or any material other than steel will not plate) Also, I noticed the inside of the horn has a round metal part versus the later rectangular part. Maybe that is unique to the early car horns? I am pretty happy with the color of the horn front cover in its match of the original. I used a dark forest green camouflage paint with a clear coat for the color. I was only able to salvage one gasket from the original horns out of four, so I scanned the gasket and made 3 more.

No problem at all. I have rebuilt several sets of horns with this plating. No issues.