Recently, I made the quick jaunt down to Marcy NY to lend a hand on the 2011 NSRA giveaway car being built at Tucci Hot Rods and given away in Louisville in August. Dave and I have worked together a few times in the past, mainly on Sinuous, a 1935 Ford that debuted at Cobo Hall a few years ago. You’ve probably seen it in at least a few magazines. Being an 8 year project, Dave invested a good chunk of his life into this beautiful car. I posted some build pictures on the HAMB: check them out.
Tucci-built Sinuous
Anyways, back to last week… We sent some parts down for the car that Dave had installed before I got there, like the triangulated rear four link kit, but while I was there we installed the engine/transmission, center section, rear sway bar, front Panhard, and I finished up some welding on the frame. Here are some pictures of the fun!
Tucci-built Sinuous
Figuring out the driver side motor mount on the GM Ecotec engine.
Plates were made using the factory motor mount holes.
For future reference, yes, the engine is supposed to be tilted… the oil pan is what’s levelled.
Mocking the motor in place so we can decide how to trim the frame brackets.
The tubes from our #WS2149 Chevy motor mount kit were welded to the Ecotec plate.
A Welder Series #WS40003 was adapted to the Ecotec transmission mount using a GM rubber insulator.
Here’s the engine mount frame plates trimmed and tacked in place.
We tweaked the mounting location of the transmission mount plate up a bit so we could run the crossmember tube straight across at the bottom of the rails.
…makes it easy to drop the transmission out.
Dave uses hole saws for just about every radius he cuts – he has plans to write a book on hole saws :)
Mocking up the center section. I used a ratchet strap to hold the two tubes tight and parallel while they were being tacked together.
This is the filled notch in the floor that Dave was hole sawing.
We added some support tubes beside the transmission.
Inland Empire Driveline will be building a new driveshaft.
This is a crossmember that will mount the Unisteer rack.
You can see the Unisteer rack mounted below the crossmember that will also hold a Walker radiator.
Starting to think about a tunnel…
Dave’s got it started before I can get my camera out.
He’s shrinking the end with the Pullmax.
Then he smooths out the ripplies with a planishing hammer.
It’s always a pleasure to work with Dave and the rest of the Tucci team – he has the skill and equipment to turn out some of the nicest cars across the country.
Comments