1940 Chevy Pickup Hot Rod in the making

Getting some minor things done on the truck, not a lot that show progress but it's getting there.

Wrapped the cab in some insulation and finally got my jewelry that I ordered 2 months ago from summit...eventually cancelled my order and grabbed the last one Jegs had.

Summit box showed up today..so some joy followed by slight sorrow. When I estimated measurements for my Hilborn style scoop I was mostly focused on height and I forgot about depth...damn thing won't fit without hacking up the firewall...sigh

Couple more fail points and then some interesting and positive developments

Rear brake lines designed to fit 68-72 Chevelle...fell a little short. My ARP bolts are fine thread and the balancer on my BBC is course threaded...fail

Followed by some good news... when I mocked the driveline up the first time we ended up raising the trans 2.5" to get an approximate drive line angle. When the truck went back together this last time the angles and the numbers seamed out of wack so I ditched the 2.5" riser block.

Today I put the blocks back in the trans mount and viola.... all my little fitment issues went away. Steering column clears, the recess for the passenger side valve cover slides in and out easily, room to get at the distributor.

With enough room for my scoop to fit with some minor trimming of the rear carb mount... Win!

And the last day of decent weather...so couple more items got a lick of paint

ogre said:

if you like the look, i'd modify the scoop in a heartbeat
that highrise manifold looks good now, anyone know of a clearcoat that you can spray on it to keep the look?
my ramjet intake looked good for a couple years, not so much now

Click to expand...

Ya, aluminum is a PITA. That's why I powder coated my TPI. Looked good for a long time. The fuel rails, not so long.

Little bit of this and a little bit of that going on...

Spent way to long modifying the electrical wiper motor arms to fit the truck... actually just the first one took a lot of measuring and trial/error to get the right length time.






Started to put some of the interior bits in place... rear cab backing


Mounted the grill and started the hood lace

Fitted some more of the interior bits, gauge bezel's will need to be painted black so they blend into the background a little better.
Current struggle is getting the new rear window rubber around the glass and into the frame. Ended up taping the rubber to the external frame in an attempt to get the twist out of the new rubber...will see if it works

Progress is slowing due to a string of parts arriving that aren't the right part or the right part arrives "according to the manufacturer" and then simply doesn't fit.. and making the parts either from scratch or modifying to fit is slow and annoying at the least

Some minor updates.. most of which can't be shown. Updated the carbs to 50cc accelerator pumps and added dual quick change covers for the vacuum secondaries. Changed out the thermostat housing for a straight unit.
Rear brake lines installed, used the TItan tool for flaring the lines...highly recommend it.
Connected and ran the choke and hand throttle cables through the firewall, just need to cut them for length. Nice part about having dual carbs with manual chokes is I can utilize the original dash controls.

Got a couple of hours out in the garage. Coil mounted and made a bracket for the fuel pressure gauge.

Used two of the original firewall rubber grommets to isolate the coil bracket from the sheet metal

Took some time off as winter hit, but I've slowly started back at it. Working on the fuel lines the last couple of days... decided to make life more difficult and use a combination of 3/8 stainless lines with -an fittings.

Using a Rigid 37 Degree flaring tool for stainless and a Jegs tubing bender. Thankfully I don't have a lot of line to run as I find stainless is a pain to bend.

Also got some parts back from the plater... mounted the top hat and that's about it for now.

Getting some more small items completed.... finished the fuel lines, brake pedal assembly is in, started mocking out the floor for the shifter and parking brake

A couple bits of info on the Tunnel Ram you may not know.

Vacuum secondary carbs require that the vacuum pods be connected, so that both secondary's open synchronized to each other. You don't want one wide open and one only half open.
Holley sells lids with a hose nipple, but they are rather expensive.
Allstate Carburation has them for about 1/2 of Holleys price.
HOLLEY VACUUM SECONDARY WITH BALANCE TUBES - Allstate Carburetor (allcarbs.com)
Allstate is a great source of parts.

You may find it easier and better to just drill and tap the center of your Quick Change lids to add a small hose nipple to each lid.

There was someone making the Holley lower housing with a hose nipple, passage intersects on the side close to the vacuum passage feed into the main body instead of putting it up on the lid, and I've read a link on how to add it there yourself.....I'll see if I can find it if you think you want to go that way for a more hidden hose install so it looks cleaner.

i think it was at the Race Fuel Systems forum somewhere.
racingfuelsystems - Racing Fuel Systems (tapatalk.com)

You're also likely to need lighter rate springs, which looks like you already know since you bought the quickchange lids.
i would guess either Long Yellow or Short Yellow.....maybe Purple and possibly even White.
The stock Plain(Silver) is too stiff, even in stock single 4 barrel form it won't be fully open until 5000+ rpm.....and you've got signal split between two carbs!!

Great looking Chevy, by the way!!!