Tach Housing for Barn Find 32 Ford

We finished up the Corvette tach housing for the 32 Ford in the prior post. The Housing started out as a solid bar of 6061 aluminum round stock. It was bored in the lathe then split in the saw to create the bezel, a spacer to perfectly adjust the height of the tach inside the housing and the housing itself. Some milling was done to mill slots for the tach cable and mounting screws. We used slotted pan head screws to be more period correct. The entire assembly was polished and a small bracket was welded together after hammer forming two strips of steel to the required radius for the tach housing and the steering column. The bracket was mig welded to give the bracket an appearance of being gas welded.(tig was not available to the average hot rodder in the 50's). I think it turned out cool. Alot of people just can't figure out where that tach came from. What brand is it? What car is it from.It's fun to hear what people think it's out of. We have done our job if people can't figure out if it's real or not.

Shop Update, New Labor Rate and New Hrs.

Been awhile since the last post. Been working on a variety of interesting jobs thoughout the last part of winter and spring.We have been working on parts for a traditional chopper build that is going to California for Born Free-6 Which is a custom motorcycle show which features amature builders who are hand picked to show. Now don't let the "amature" fool you. The people involved in this in my opinion are far more talented than what you see on TV. This is my second year involved in this and it gets cooler every year.Also been working on another "barn find" 32 Ford 3 window coupe. We again built many of the details for this car. We built the aircleaner assembly for the fuel injection unit.(this was documented in a prior post) We built a horn housing for a vintage indian motorcycle horn. We are finishing a Tach for the steering column. The mech. is a vintage corvette tach. These tachs where dash mounted. Customer wants a column mount so we are machining a pod for it that appears vintage. Some of the early construction photo's are posted here. Compare to later when it's done. This car is also going to California for the 50th LA Roadster show on fathers day weekend.

As of June 1, 2014 are labor rate will increase from $50 to $65. We have tried to keep this rate as low as we can but we just can't do it anymore. Hopefully it won't cause any problems. Also we have set hrs as of June 1. Monday-Tuesday-Wedsday, 4pm-9pm. Saturday 10am-1:30pm. Call (630)710-3977 for information or a job quote.

Reading Camshafts

The 428 Ford that has been a long term project in our shop is in it's final stages of the build. We have to depend on other vendors for certain item's and camshafts are one of them. Most of the cams used here are a custom grind to our specs. The habit we have gotton into is checking the work of our vendors to avoid any problems later. When the cam arrived it was slid into the mocked up engine and one of our cam reading tools( this tool is custom made in our shop) was installed in the lifter valley. The next step is to check lobe lift. The process is simple. We start by zeroing the dial indicator on the base circle of the cam. The cam is rotated around and is read at max lift. The cam card provided by the grinder tells us what the lobe lift should be. After this is verfied as correct we can then put the degree wheel on the crank and reverse engineeer the cam. All event openings and angles are checked to prove they are mathamaticlly correct. It is rare that the grinder screws up a job but you just can't take any chances at this point. We also measured our pushrod length so we can send the dimensions to our pushrod vendor. We used a tool that was also built right in our shop. It is really just an adjustable rod that can move up and down to find the best rocker arm geometry. Take a look at the rockers and shaft assembly. These were made for us by Harland And Sharp. A company that has been in business forever and builds some of the best rocker arms for racing engines. These are a real work of art. Final assembly is next.

My Christmas Bonus

Just before Christmas I attended the 2013 version of The Performance Racing Industry Trade Show. This year the show moved back to Indianapolis after a 5 year run in Orlando Florida. This show is THE best trade show bar none in regards to showing what kind of technology is available to the racer or shop equipment that is available to the machinist/fabricator. Everyone in the all facets of racing are here for the week. This show also showcases racing that may be off of most peoples radar. Like the sprint car in the pictures. This car was built to go land speed racing at Bonneville or El Mirage. The goal was to reach 200mph. That is quite a feat with an upright style dirt car. Also on display was the new USAC national midget engine produced by Honda. Honda has always made first class equipment from lawn mowers to Indy car engines. The new Midget engine is an inline 4 cylinder, naturally aspirated with electronic fuel injection. The engine is a piece of artwork and makes about 450-500 HP on methanol. Plug that into a 1200 lbs race car and you have a rocket ship. I would love to see this run on pavement like Indianapolis raceway park. Also of interest is the amount of technology that is now available to the little guy racer like the rest of us. A few short years ago alot of this stuff was only available to F-1 teams. Things like rapid prototyping services, high tech aerospace coatings and metal treatments, computer machining like porting and crankshaft lightning and most of all components are available that in the past took knowing people in the right places or unlimited funding are now available to everyone. walking around the show taught me that the entire industry is healthy and despite the bad economy is still making it happen. We will see what happens next. One thing I noticed is that the nostalgia/vintage racing rage is getting even bigger and is becoming a major market. Lots of cool stuff was on display. It is a cool blending of old looks with new technolgy. That's just what appeals to me and what Rocket Engineering's business is based on. Hopefully it only gets better.

New Addition to the Family!

We recently got a new addition to the family! We have been looking for a used CNC mill for a while now. This one came up for sale and I just couldn't pass it up. It is fully tooled. That is half the battle with CNC mills. Tool holders are VERY expensive and you need 15-20 tool holders to work in an efficient manner. The machine needs some electronics work so now is the perfect time to upgrade to the very latest and greatest control system. So hopfully soon the machine will be up and running. This could be the best thing we have done around here in a while!

Scott Fuel Injection

My Friend and Customer Dave Burke has me help him on occasion with some really cool projects for his stable of very traditional hot rods. His Model A coupe for example. I machined the block and prepared the valve train on his Ford Flathead some time ago. Dave is a trained tool and die maker himself and has the ability to create stuff right out off the top of his head. The pictures may not show it well but the intake manifold and cylinder heads are built from scratch by Dave. This last winter he called me to pick my brain about mechanical fuel injection and this is what  he came up with. This is pattered from a Scott Fuel Injector kit    you could buy in the Mid

   fifties. The kit changed your stromberg 97 carbs into fuel injectors using this kit. Today these are super rare. Dave copied his and fiqured out how to make it work from the Sept 58 Rod and Custom magazine article that featured a Scott Fuel Injector. The car runs very well and the injectors are like jewlery. A job well done If you see one of Dave's cars at a show Check it out you'll be amazed at the little details he incorperates into his cars, and most are hand made by him.

Shop Update(it's about time!!)

Been busy here at the shop. We have been working on a variety of different stuff this past winter. First up is the 428 Ford engine that we are doing as a complete This engine was completely engineered and machined by us. What is cool about this job is that the customer had the same vision as I had for this engine. The engine looks stock on the outside. All factory valve covers and air cleaner assembly, pulleys and accessory drives are in place. The inside is a different matter. A brand new rotating assembly with Scat Crankshaft and Connecting rods, Mahle forged pistons, Solid lifter flat tappet cam mated with composite flat tappet lifters, Edlebrock Aluminum heads, Harland Sharpe roller rocker shaft system. Lastly all bearings are coated with Calico antifriction coatings. We have used alot of cutting edge racing technolgy in this fairly radical street engine. Power is predicted to be around 500-530 HP running on regular pump gas. The pictures that are posted are of the process of putting in the sleeve that was required in the block. 428 blocks are quite rare today and cannot be bored more than .040 because of the thin wall design that Ford used on their FE series engines(352, 390, 406, 427, 428.). I had a cylinder that did not clean up as good as i would have liked after the hone process. That required a sleeve be installed into the block. We start by boring the block oversize to accecept the sleeve with about a .002 interference fit. once bored the sleeve is shrunk with dry ice and acetone. The sleeve is pushed in and allowed to return to room temps. The cylinder is then bored and honed back to it's original size, and the block is decked to it's proper height. The result is an almost undetectable repair that is stronger than the original block.We have the engine in final mock up. It will then be torn down and be prepared for painting,chrome, and special coatings. More later