Brad's 1954 R Series Build

Brad I was sorry to hear of your loss, 57 is so young. Peace to you and your family. John

So sorry to hear of your loss.

I'm terribly sorry for your loss.

thanks fellas, i appreciate it.

Got my A/C hoses made and routed:

54 IHC by isu_phi, on Flickr

54 IHC by isu_phi, on Flickr


I'll get the heater hose routed this weekend. With any luck i can start wiring her up.

I like the look of the rubber AC hose you are using. Very neat installation. .
I decided to use AEROQUIP stainless braided hose with stainless fittings. About half way through the hook-up and with the costs still rising, I wished I had done the plumbing your way. The final cost of the AEROQUIP plumbing was over $1365.00 and nearly twice the cost of the Vintage Air evaporator and condensor. About half of the stainless braid and fittings are out of sight. I had to make/modify wrenches to "get-a-grip" on some of the fittings.
Live and learn.

I am sure your look will be great, especially hiding everything. That extra time will pay off in the end.

This being the first time i have ever done it, i really am going for the "jeese i hope this works" installation....

The passenger side defrost duct had clearance issues with the aftermarket evaporator, so i did a little chop, cut, rebuild and rerouted the ducting to the bottom side with a little piece of scrap that i had laying around. After installing, it looks like it will work out nicely


54 IHC by isu_phi, on Flickr

So, good news, bad news.

Good News, I have a lot of the wiring done. All the engine accessories, interior accesories, A/C......its done, appears to be working. I really only have the lights left to wire, and im in no hurry there. I'll have plenty of time to actually clean up the look of it all and make it look pretty.

Bad News, I went for a test fire last night. Needed to crank a bit for the gas to make it up to the carb, so i was expecting to crank a few times. Bumped the starter and no engagement with the fly wheel. So, i took the dust cover off to check it out and snagged a recording.

https://youtu.be/_5K-R5dTaJM

To me, it looks simply like a warped flywheel. And if thats it, then other than the PITA to remove the transmission and put a new one on, its not that huge of a deal. The question i am struggling with is why i wouldn't have noticed that while bolting up the torque converter????? It seemed to bolt right up, i'd think i would have noticed a warp at that time, because i didn't have to work hard at all at bolting it up? So, unless someone has another idea on what the issue is, i am going to replace the flywheel and see what happens.

she is alive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSpZNI3xCUI