This weekend I got a few hours in the garage so I worked on my dry sump tank, water header tank and both catch cans.

I had one small setback where I put the header tank too close and forgot that the rocker covers are on studs so I needed more room to remove them, but at the second attempt I'm happy with how everything fits.

Now I have to start planning the hoses and hose ends to plumb them up.

I got $50 from the in-laws today (my birthday) so I think a trip to Summit is in order for hose ends!

I had a great time on Sunday meeting others from the HAMB forum for breakfast. Brett (GreenMtnBoy) arranged it and was surprised when 20 people showed up at the Skillet in Roswell. One of my old haunts when I lived in Roswell, a great place for real Southern cooking!

You should read the thread about the meeting, but here's a pic of yours truly admiring Dave's (dvanecek's) bike..

Last weekend I finally got the fixed wheels back on the car (they fitted, yeah!), dropped the body on and rolled it outside!

For the first time I can see how the chop looks, how the rollcage looks in the car and how the car will sit over the wheels.

I'm really pleased.

It's not fitted of course, I just rested the body on the rollcage, and jacked it up a little at the back with a piece of 2x4. I think the small rake is about right, what do you think?

The front end is sitting a bit high in these pics due to poor fitment, so the front wheels will be covered an inch or so more.

I'm so glad I went for the Mopar Police wheels, not the usual big billet!!

Kinda interesting this. I got the wheels back yesterday after getting www.rallyamerica.com to move the centers outboard, and I wanted to get the tires on and back on the car to test fit.

But when I took them down the road poor Alex couldnt get the tires to blow up. I ended up taking them to McDonough Tire on racetrack. They had a cool method that I hadn't seen before; using a little compressed air tank they shot - more like exploded - 160psi of air into the tire. It basically BLEW the sidewalls against the rim.

They had to do it like 3 times per wheel to get the seal, but it was fun to watch.

Now back on the car, they fit perfectly. Next is to lower the body onto the chassis and see if they still rub the bodywork...

You really want to know more?

Then you need to get back to 1993 and start reading this series of blog posts that describe how I started with a GT40 replica and ended up with a '55 Chevy that really started out as a '37 Ford..

• 1993
• Posey's 37 Ford
• Grim and Lol
• Paul Barrow
• to be continued...

And, yes, that's me on the right in (I'm guessing) 1990/1991 when I was testing my GTD40 at Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit nr Chichester, England.

Man, I miss my hair.

I put my old 55 wheels up for sale on ebay and they sold after one relisting.

I'm pleased with the price I got, and its nice to get them out of the garage - they took up a lot of room!

Surprisingly, the rears weighed 61 lbs each, the fronts 51 lbs. That's quite heavy, and even sending to Washington D.C. cost $210 by UPS. I think I'd be disappointed if I'd just bought aluminum wheels and low profile tires and discovered that they weigh not much (if anything) less than the 15" steels that I'm now using.

I mean, unsprung weight isn't going to be much affected by buying Antera it seems.

After admitting I misunderstood how wheel widths should be measured, I finally scratched together enough money to have my tires removed from the rear wheels and the wheels shipped all the way to Prather, CA where Rally America will - again - cut the center out of my wheels and weld them back in a slightly different position.

*sigh*

They are moving them 0.75", leaving me just 0.25" gap between the wheel and the suspension. Fingers crossed...

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to get out a deck chair and just stare for a few minutes.

So, yeah the wheels got powder-coated a second time and worked out great. But of course that's not the end of the story. These wheels still have a few more surprises in store for me!

I got the chassis off the wheel stands so I could fit the rear wheels (the stands were in the way) and raised the chassis on the lift under the body (which is hanging from the ceiling).

Looks great, doesn't it? It's exactly how I wanted it to look - except I hoped the wheels would fit *between* the arches, not so tight that they are hard up against the inner arches. HARD against.

Turns out my measurements were wrong. Looking at my drawings now I see the problem - 15x10 wheels are not 10" wide. Nope, they are 11.5" wide. The width of a wheel is measured inside the lip, where the tire sits. I didn't know that.

So, although my backspacing was right for a 10" wheel, they are about 0.75" out for an 11.5" wheel. So I need to remove the tire, send the wheel back to CA and have them cut the wheels apart, move the center 0.75" outboard and then - guess what - have them powder-coated again for the thrid time.

*sigh*

Still, they (will) look damn nice.

Just as an update to the front end fabrication.

I installed the steering rack properly after spraying the tie rods, installed the sway bar and then welded on some tabs to bolt the remote oil filters to.

The tubing was already going brown so I grabbed the nearest rattle can and made it all black for now.

Eventually (as in, perhaps a year after driving it) I'll strip it all and get the chassis poweder coated.

So, with this all done I can concentrate on getting the engine running again. So, plumbing is the name of the game now. I have a load of old plumbing but obviously some will have to be modified with the changes made to the radiator, oil tank etc.