BUILD THREAD Janky- A Mexican Monte Clone

[UC645]

I’ve come to realize I need to buy another of these Platinums for basecoat. This gun practically ran itself!

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There’s a bit of dirt (and bugs) in both pieces, but it was expected with the questionable painting set up I was working with. I haven’t found any runs or sags in any panel yet that weren’t in the primer that I could safely ignore, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t proud of that.


I’m hoping to have the carpet in by Monday, and having the rest of the interior up to the upper sail panels by the end of next week so I can prep the body for wet sanding, then I’m tackling the remaining door and fender, the trunk lid, and hood in that order. I’m hoping to have the car home by the end of August, so I can paint the bumper covers here while they’re on the car, as I can set this place up to paint far better than the barn.

So little tip: 1/4 inch round 303 stainless is not strong enough to hold one of these doors up. I came out the following morning to find the rod on the rear part of the door had unbent itself on the rafter side, and almost dropped the door on the ground. I have some 3/8 stainless to use for the next one.

The driver’s door is installed, shuts great, has its weatherstrip installed and is wired. I’m tinting my windows because I figured I won’t draw enough attention from the cops with just the red and white paint scheme by itself.

And do these speakers make my quarter panels look big?

I was going to use the adapters for the package tray speakers but found that even with those, these speakers would be too tall and would hit the trunk rods, so this was the only other option left on the table.

These are DS18 shallow mount 6x9s, I don’t remember the exact model but they have ferrite magnets.


And speaking of wiring, I think I have an issue with my power door locks. I have it wired like factory, but I couldn’t get the actuators to get power, but the relay did, as I could hear it clicking. After a few tries and a couple inspections I heard the power accessory fuse blow and I’m out of ideas as to why, unless the body of the relay needs a direct ground. Either way I’m pulling the dash tomorrow to check my wiring.

 

[UC645]

I managed to figure out the issue with the power locks after ripping the dashboard twice- the contacts on both of the actuator connectors were corroded to hell and back.

With that sorted, the next major thing I covered was painting the passenger side door, driver’s side fender and trunk lid. I ended up having to respray all three due to burning through while trying to nib sand runs and somehow not spraying enough clear on the edges for some reason.

After that I tackled the interior and can say everything is in save for the door panels since I’ve got a bit more wiring to tackle. Currently I’m not getting power to or through the window switch for some reason.

I did run in to a snag with the roof seals, both of them are an inch and a half (give or take) too long.

I forced these in to the rails the best I could, there’s no gap in the corners of both seals, and I end up with this much left over at the bottom of the A pillar. Would it be possible to cut these down and glue them together with weatherstrip adhesive until I can get some better quality seals? The car won’t be on the road until next year, but it will be exposed to the elements because I have to get it out of the garage I’m in by the end of October.

 

[UC645]

Annnnnd we’re back.

I haven’t been idle the last couple of months, so I’ll pick up where I left off.

I ended up cutting the window seals to get them to fit since I’m not satisfied with them at all and I’ve had them too long to return them. Needed to cut roughly an inch and a half per side to get them to line up. I’ll be buying a set off of Steele Weatherstripping in the spring, since they have a far more consistent reputation than anyone else on the market.

After that I got the door, fender, and trunk lid finished, but forgot to take any pictures of them so here’s a picture of the whole mess assembled:

After that came the projector 4x6 conversion. I had already modified a pair of buckets and assembled them, but when I was setting the glass in place I broke a lens. That needed another trip to Amazon and another pair of lights for the glass lenses.
If you’re interested in doing this, buy two pairs of lights if they come with glass lenses. The housings use a form of what’s called permaseal, think of it like silicone- if it was created by BMW engineers. You’ll break the glass no matter what you do, and it’s impossible to get solvent in between the lens and housing, so don’t waste your money on that.
Use a dremel tool to cut the housing just behind the lenses and peal off the sealant.

Once you’ve done that, toss the rest of the housing in the trash, you won’t need anything else off of it.

And here’s the finished product:

Unlike the crappy jungle specials you can buy, these are actual projectors designed for HID bulbs, so they have a beam pattern that allows you to see more than 15 feet without bringing the candle power of a white star to bear on other unfortunate motorists.

Plus, they look like they’re not even there.

The next few weeks were spent finalizing wiring for the moment, and then the last Canfield swap meet of the year came up, and I took another dive into 4150s, at a significantly higher price point than where I started: a QFT 650 SS.

Adjustable air bleeds, billet metering blocks and baseplate, adjustable idle and power valve feeds and four corner idle. Way too nice for the junk it’s topping. The seller said it was used for mock-up and was run, but ended up on the shelf. The night I took that picture, I found out why.

This is the carb main body, if you look at the respective corners of each venturi, you’ll note the idle feed passages are at an angle from one another, not straight across.

Well, either someone messed with this before it was sat on the shelf, or someone at the factory wasn’t paying attention to what they were doing and gave the carb a Holley style gasket (at least I believe it’s a Holley style gasket), that had holes cut for idle discharge ports that are directly across from the idle bleed ports:

No idle discharge= no fueling on the idle circuit
And no running without the choke causing air to pull fuel from the primary boosters.

Got a rebuild kit for it the day before I took these pictures, put the right gasket on it, set it to base settings, and with holes drilled in the throttle plates (complete mistake on my part trying to get it to run but it worked out), I fired the car up and the thing idled on the choke at 1000 rpm, and sat on the curb idle at 650 with no issues. I’ve got the idle mixture screws at 1-1/4 turns and about 8.5 inches of vacuum at 650-700 rpm. I’ll likely need a 3.5 power valve, but I had a spare 4.5 lying around and it seems to be fine. Heck, I tried to start it today in 45 degree weather, two pumps and it lit off the second it had oil pressure at the safety switch!

And finally, the car has glass in it for the first time in 3 years

I’ll have to get in and take the tape off of the interior panels, that was just there to mask off against the urethane primer. Might take it to a shop to have the rear window tinted at some point, I’m not entirely sure yet.

 

[Rktpwrd]

So much win in that post, absolutely love it. Nice catch on the carb gasket, I bet the seller would’ve been kicking his azz if he realized that’s all that was keeping it from running properly!
Also love what you did with the projector headlights for HID’s, nice work.

 

[Ernest]

Looks great, a real stunner when completed im sure.

I know its the least of priorities right now, but for future reference just before you finally run the car on the street, set the primary blades to .020 in relation to the transfer slots, you'll typically experience a lower than usual idle situation afterwards, depending on the factory set opening of the secondaries, and to fix that, use the secondary throttle blades to set your curb idle.

To adjust the secondary throttle blade opening, you can use the set screw underneith the throttle base plate, you will need a very small flat blade scew driver, but that will require taking the carburater on and off multiple times till you get your final idle rpm setting, and thats a PITA, a much better sollution, since its a DoublePumper, you're lucky, unlucky for us vacsec users, this nifty adjuster allows you to keep the carburater on the engine at all times while adjusting the idle rpm, example... https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pro-67237?rrec=true

Engines with increased overlap will benefit more running their vacuum advance can straight to manifold vacuum than ported vacuum, thats if its not deleted, even then, you can still set the initial timing manually, it wil increase your initial timing at idle, therefore increasing rpm, so idle readjustment will have to be made. I now run with a totally electronic distributer by "progression ignition" to set whatever timings i want at idle, cruising and WOT(within reason in relation to the engine needs) all from the comfort of the drivers seat in real time with their AP via smart phone/tablet.To give you an exmaple, i used to run with a mechanical HEI ignition using springs, weights, etc, i ran my vacuum advance can straight to manifold, granted my bone stock ZZ4 crate engine sounds much tamer than yours, my stock initial timing setting is 10*, but i ran a fixed 10* vacuum can(stock 20*), i retarded the initial timing to 5* so i could run with 15* total initial timing at idle, figured 20* would be a bit much, end result, fast startups even when hot, engine ran smoother, cooler, and the bottom end felt much better.

Ps - drilling holes in the primary and/or secondary throttle plates should always be a last resort, or no question at all with super radical camshafts.

 

[UC645]

So much win in that post, absolutely love it. Nice catch on the carb gasket, I bet the seller would’ve been kicking his azz if he realized that’s all that was keeping it from running properly!
Also love what you did with the projector headlights for HID’s, nice work.

The baseplate screws looked and felt like they were never messed with, so I’m betting it came from the factory like that.
And with the sale price, I’d of been kicking myself up and down the racetrack at the fairgrounds 🤣

Looks great, a real stunner when completed im sure.

I know its the least of priorities right now, but for future reference just before you finally run the car on the street, set the primary blades to .020 in relation to the transfer slots, you'll typically experience a lower than usual idle situation afterwards, depending on the factory set opening of the secondaries, and to fix that, use the secondary throttle blades to set your curb idle.

To adjust the secondary throttle blade opening, you can use the set screw underneith the throttle base plate, you will need a very small flat blade scew driver, but that will require taking the carburater on and off multiple times till you get your final idle rpm setting, and thats a PITA, a much better sollution, since its a DoublePumper, you're lucky, unlucky for us vacsec users, this nifty adjuster allows you to keep the carburater on the engine at all times while adjusting the idle rpm, example... https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pro-67237?rrec=true

Engines with increased overlap will benefit more running their vacuum advance can straight to manifold vacuum than ported vacuum, thats if its not deleted, even then, you can still set the initial timing manually, it wil increase your initial timing at idle, therefore increasing rpm, so idle readjustment will have to be made. I now run with a totally electronic distributer by "progression ignition" to set whatever timings i want at idle, cruising and WOT(within reason in relation to the engine needs) all from the comfort of the drivers seat in real time with their AP via smart phone/tablet.To give you an exmaple, i used to run with a mechanical HEI ignition using springs, weights, etc, i ran my vacuum advance can straight to manifold, granted my bone stock ZZ4 crate engine sounds much tamer than yours, my stock initial timing setting is 10*, but i ran a fixed 10* vacuum can(stock 20*), i retarded the initial timing to 5* so i could run with 15* total initial timing at idle, figured 20* would be a bit much, end result, fast startups even when hot, engine ran smoother, cooler, and the bottom end felt much better.

Ps - drilling holes in the primary and/or secondary throttle plates should always be a last resort, or no question at all with super radical camshafts.

I think the holes I drilled are a touch too aggressive, as I have the secondaries completely shut and have the curb idle just barely off of completely shut to keep it idling at 650ish. It’ll stall out of I completely close them.

I’ll have to grab that bracket at some point if I find the bleed holes are a source of a problem. I’ve got an inch tall spacer for the brake booster, and combined with the RPM Air Gap intake, I can fit an allen wrench between the baseplate and intake, but it’s a pain to adjust.

My timing is set at 18 degrees initial, but I need to get a new balancer since the chincy Summit one had the numbers rust, then the whole thing rusted so I only have paint marks for 0 and 18 degrees to go by. Still running ported vacuum, I’ll look in to running straight manifold vacuum over the winter.

And is a single pattern cam with .480 (.512 with 1.6 rockers) lift, 282 degrees of duration 229 at .050 and a 108 degree LSA radical? It’s getting hard to tell with the ludicrous “street” grinds people are running nowadays.

 

[Ernest]

The biggest cam i've ever used was in a 9:0:1 350 sbc i built back in the mid 90s, it was an off the shelf CompCams grind, 270H(224/224 - .470/.470 - 110) and i used CompCams 1.52 roller tip rockers, by no means radical IMO.

I think 230+ is radical, but i was a noobie back then, i bought a brand new 3310-2 with manual choke, stuck it on the engine, i only adjusted the curb idle, idle mixture screws and added a quick change vacuum secondary kit with spring set, and thats it, ran 8* initial timing and a stock HEI rebuild using ported vacuum.

I had no idea about optimum timing, the transfer slots, adjusting the secondary throttle blades, never changed the jets(72/front - 75/rear plate), ran a bit rich by the lQQk of the spark plugs, but ran surprisingly well, but looking back now, i probably left a lot of HP off the table if i only knew how to tune back then like i know now, no plethera of internet information back then either, just word of mouth from machine shops, some books and freinds was the best i could do to help myself.

 

[mclellan83]

You make me feel guilty for taking the lazy route on the blazer, I had thought about making my own projectors for it but decided I was going to be spending a lot more time on other stuff

 

[UC645]

You make me feel guilty for taking the lazy route on the blazer, I had thought about making my own projectors for it but decided I was going to be spending a lot more time on other stuff

Don’t feel bad, those are done VERY cheaply and fitted together with a sledgehammer. The one I showed has far too much butyl in it and it’s oozing out along the inside of the glass, hard to see unless you’re looking for it but it’s about a 1/4 inch inside. I have about 10 hours in these total, even though I reconstructed a portion of the housing with JB Weld fitted to the projector to hold it level in the housing.

You’ve got a square body Blazer, right? If it’s 5x7 lights, those are far easier to retrofit than 4x6s since you can use a wider variety of shrouds and projectors and even the pre-assembled offerings aren’t too shabby either.

 

[mclellan83]

Don’t feel bad, those are done VERY cheaply and fitted together with a sledgehammer. The one I showed has far too much butyl in it and it’s oozing out along the inside of the glass, hard to see unless you’re looking for it but it’s about a 1/4 inch inside. I have about 10 hours in these total, even though I reconstructed a portion of the housing with JB Weld fitted to the projector to hold it level in the housing.

You’ve got a square body Blazer, right? If it’s 5x7 lights, those are far easier to retrofit than 4x6s since you can use a wider variety of shrouds and projectors and even the pre-assembled offerings aren’t too shabby either.

Yeah s10 blazer, I had been looking at retrofit source to make it all up myself but didn't end up liking my options. Would have been pretty cool to be able to get whatever I wanted printed onto the projector though. Ended up with these which I originally thought I was gonna get flamed about but in the mean time a few other people have went round eye