The Virginia Muscle CarGeorge's Six Deuces/Manifold Rebuild |
Started another project - Like many of us I also have pleasant
memories of the 50s, 60s,
and 70's hot rods, muscle and classic cars. As Bob has said, we
were fortunate to have been
a part of this time period. During this time, I built several
cars, some on very limited
budgets. The first engine swap I built, during the 60s was a
'53 Mercury w/ Olds 324ci OHV with six deuces. I
put this engine in a couple of cars
When I was developing these WEBpages,
I was reminded of this car like it was
yesterday because I live 3 blocks from the
subdivision construction site trailer office
where I first drove car, after completing
engine swap, to get my last paycheck. I
believe I quit HS summer job at end of
summer, did the engine swap and first drove
car here from Alex (~10 mi) to get final
paycheck one week later. I do remember I left
hood off car when I drove here - lots of
chrome air cleaners to show-off. Car was my
12th grade daily driver; thus did engine
swap/carb work, etc., at age 17. Actually,
my first drive in the
I drove this car that fall to York, PA US 30
drag-way for Saturday night drag races (was
an NHRA track that used an airport runway;
saw Bill Jenkins and other early racers) On
way back, clutch linkage broke and I had to
drive through down town Baltimore MD (Charles
Street, etc.) w/o clutch. This was possible
because of light, very late night traffic. I
was able to pace speed for traffic lights.
I had to make several modifications out of
necessity. My clutch disc exploded and also
broke 6 transmissions in about 12 months
with this car. I once floored car in 1st
gear going up a hill and destroyed 1,2,3
and reverse gears (a new record :) ) -
early Ford trans was not made for this
HP; went to later year Mercury trans. I
also had a custom replacement Mercury clutch
lever made with a stronger steel alloy by
Jensen Machine Shop in Alexandria, VA. Was
using a T-Bird clutch that had stronger pedal
effort.
~George