A little project update on Chug A Lug

Yahoo 2+ days of work and I finally have the base and air horn for the Air Cleaner fleshed out.

Looks simple enough but it gets complicated when you have to hand turn the milling machine to cut the air horn shape into the bottom of a piece of Micarta. Then do it two more times.

The stack starts out with a 1/2" spacer then the K&N air cleaner adapter (it goes from Weber to Std. 5.125" round like a Holley) then a layer of Neoprene foam as a gasket. On top of that fits the 1/8" aluminum Base for the Air Box (the big Soup can I showed earlier is the top). And finally the Air Horn I fashioned out of Micarta to act as a bit of a velocity stack.

In this photo you see a Yellower band to the bottom of the Air Horn this is where the rubber edge on the 7" OD 5.5" ID 2.5" H K&N Air Filter will sit down over So the Air Horn will start directing the air at the very bottom of the cloth element.

I got so mad today. The 4 screws holding this all together are 5mm .80pitch x 50mm all thread bolts I had to reshape the heads and slot. Cause the ACE here in town while I love them and all doesn't carry squat for some of the things I end up doing. And driving 20 min one way to the over priced Hardware store that has the weirder stuff wasn't going to happen.

Here is a little different view you can see how the Air Box will be offset to the center line of the Chassis. This is to make more room for the Air Duct that will be coming up from the #2 and #3 Primary header tubes to provide warm air during engine warm up and a source for air when the damper on the main Air intake is closed off due to risk of water/snow)

And an underside view.

I'll wait until the Air Filter Element shows up in a week to finish the Air box.

I got the Motorcycle throttle cables in the mail today so I'm going to switch to seeing if I can get more done on that. Looks like even though in the photos the Bends looked 90° they are more like 75° so I'm going to try bending them a little farther. I think I'll be able to use the center of one of my Brake tubing benders and a bench vise to complete the 90°. I bought an extra one in case I fubar it.

Next Friday is our Start up Meeting at work. I have little faith I will not be heading back to work  very soon after so I am trying to figure out what up coming projects I can do in an evening after work.

I still have the Front Brakes to assemble that should be a good Evening job.

We are supposed to see some sun shine this weekend so I want to get the Front Brake Drums Painted and maybe a few other items.

LOTS TO DO.

I got a bunch of stuff half done. The Throttle Cable and Mount is done BUT I can mount the mount until I take the Header off as it will mount via two 5/16" bolts into the top of the Flange between Tube #3 and #4. And since I need the header in place to have the intake and carb in place while I work on the fancy Fresh Air box. its in limbo for now as far as photos.

I have been working on the Fresh Air intake. This is a oval aluminum tube 1.5" OD x 5" long that will bring the fresh air collected from just in front of the Radiator at the top of the grill back to an aluminum enclosure roughly 3" tall and 10" in diameter. Inside the Air Box is a K&N air filter 7" OD x 5.5" ID x 2.5" H with its own 1/8" Aluminum top on it. The Filter showed up today and looks like it will work very well.

The aluminum duct was a challenge to make first I built a positive of the inside dimensions then I made a Box to push the positive into causing the aluminum to wrap around the positive. Once that was done I used clamps and sections of 2x2 wood to then wrap the aluminum the rest of the way around the positive and then I cut the ends to length and drilled and Pop riveted a strap over the joint on the inside. This was all a 2 day affair and less then easy LOL.

I have three pieces of the duct now roughed out. the first will fit into a Micarta Block that will be on the inside of the Air box tight up against the side. I am going to PC-7 Epoxy this short section of Air Duct into place and make a nice smooth joint between the Air duct and the outside of the Side of the air box. I plan on Painting the 3" H side of the Air Box Gloss Black. Then the 1/8" thick top and bottom will remain aluminum. Should make a nice contrast. The Top will most likely get a Polish job then the Decals I have on order will get applied and finally a 1/2 dozen coats of Eastwoods Diamond Clear over the top so I can wet sand it and polish it. And the crowning glory will be the Willys Cereal Box grill emblem I have made into a screw cap for the top of the Air box.

YEA I know what the hell's he talking about. A few days I will have enough of it done to show some photos.

The emblem it is the one I posted above on the soup pot.

Now that’s freaking awesome

I been thinking about taking the Chassis to a couple local car shows prior to dropping the Tub. Which I hope will be happening around Memorial Day. All depends on how much work we have coming at work. I can't be but a week or two from back to full time.

I need to get the Dash wet sanded and polished so I can start putting in Gauges and Heater and and and. Cause I want to do all that while the Tub is on the Rotisserie.

As to being in a Magazine. hmmm that would be interesting. I was in a couple dozen magazines and books back when I was a Custom Knifemaker. At least this time I wouldn't hope it would make me rich LOL

I have hundreds of photos of every stage of Chug. But yes before I put the Tub on and start covering up things I plan on doing both a complete set of photos and a good long video.

I appreciate you guys support it helps keep me going.

OK so today I got the Center ring centered. I installed 8) 1/4" high 3/8" D nylon threaded spacers around the inside of the Center Ring. I used 10-32 Button head bolts up through the bottom plate to locate them. I have them so that its about all I can do to stretch the center ring over them. I got the support for the Air Filter top made (so I can screw the Air filters actual top on and then I drilled a hole in that top for the Whole air can top to screw down to. I made a big Oval hole in the side of the Center section and Epoxied in the Micarta block that the Air Duct will anchor into.

I also fiddled around with the Blue Silicone Hose I bought to use for the two joints in the Air Duct. But now I'm not so keen on it. And after some show and tell with the Neighbor guy I am thinking in a different direction using Nylon Webbing for the Joints with Stainless hose clamps and Painting the Air Duct Glossy black like the Center section of the Air box.

I would have been happier had I been able to put the Air Box end of the Air Duct up another 1/4" on the side. It looks a little like its going up hill as it heads over the Radiator. But it is what it is. 

Two days of fiddly work completed I now have a Warm Air intake for CHUG. Along with needing a way to source Air for the carb when I shut the Forced Fresh Air Intake Damper I also wanted a Carb heater to help in cold weather and to speed the warm up process. SO this is what I came up with. It sources air from just above the #2 and #3 Primary tubes as they exit the Flange. It also has a side effect of acting as a heat shield in warm weather. Though once I have the Header Ceramic coated this shouldn't be a problem.

Lots of photos hope you all don't mind.

First one shows the inside of the little Warm Air Duct and the Butter Fly valve I made to control it. It took a full hour of very slow cranking on the milling machine to cut that 5/64" wide slot almost 3.5" long in that 1/4" D Brass rod. Lots of passes moving very slow. I just happened to have the cutter left over from a job I had years ago converting hundreds of Boker pocket knives into Switch blades. I really didn't want to break it.

This next one is the Warm Air Duct propped up mostly in place. The Vacuum advance nipple on the carb threw me a little loop which is why the Duct has the bend in it. To allow me good clearance to attach an elbow to the nipple and route the little silicone hose I will be using to the Distributor.

Top view of the Warm Air Duct as it comes through the bottom of the Air Box.

Front Side view as its hanging from the Base plate.

Rear view of it hanging from the Base Plate. In this photo you can see the Throttle Cables and their mount. Its not mounted to the Header Flange yet so I haven't done any real photos of it yet.

Warm Air Duct View from Head side

And with the Air Horn installed

And the K&N filter. Interesting if I bought a universal 5.5" ID 7" OD 2.5" tall filter it was going to cost $48.00 by buying the exact same sized filter for a John Deere tractor application it was 8.00 cheaper!

And with the Center section of the Air box installed. You can just see how I filleted in the Snout and smoothed up the inside of it. I had to completely take this apart after having it almost cured as it turned out the snout was pointing down and would have caused problems in the Duct getting up over the Radiator. I solved that by pulling it apart then recutting the opening moving the snout up about 5/16" and then giving it a little bit of an up angle. This time I was careful to clamp everything and double check all angles and measurements.

And with the top of the Air Cleaner installed.

So there you have the progress on my UBER complicated Air cleaner.