Chuck the Truck's 52 Chevy - Exh&Fire it up

Despite warnings that AD hoods are tough to align, I got lucky. It took all of ten minutes to get it looking good. For once something went right.

A bit of ciphering, some 45 and 90 degree elbows, and some straight pipe and I had an exhaust. The only special pipes were the flanged pipes at the engine - Walker 41257. I picked them off the pipe rack at Master and they worked well after I cut off the excess. I chose to route the front pipe in front of the sump so I could do a clutch without having to drop the exhaust. I'm not going to be pulling that oil pan for a long time..... Yeah right, stayed tuned.

My first choice of mufflers was the pair of Walker TurboTubes that I've had for 15 years and two moves. They are copies of the chambered pipes used in the 60's on Vettes and Camaros. I had them originally on my 351C Mach1 and they sounded great BUT they were LOUD and drew too much attention so I pulled them off and stashed them. My baby brudder was driving his truck with only the converter after the exhaust fell off, so I donated one to the cause until the exhaust was replaced. Not too loud with a converter in front. On this truck, I figured the long 2" tailpipes would keep the sound reasonable. When I fired it up, it sounded great but too loud, especially since I leave for work early AM. They're off now. I put stock Caprice mufflers on and it is a lot quieter.

Tailpipes are 2" and run straight out the back.

Gassin' her up. First time in two years she saw the light of day. She does sit low, but not too bad. The wheels are 15x7 Vette rallys and the tires are Goodyear Eagles P225-70R15. Plenty of room up front, they just fit the rear with about a 1/2" to spare on the inside.
I was sure I had everything set right, but it would not fire. I had my daughter turn the key while I twisted the distributor, thinking the timing was off but only got an occasional pop out the intake. We had done a lot of cranking to no avail, so I thought I must have the distributor in 180 out. I asked her to bump the starter to line up the timing marks and the light bulb went on, but I didn't believe what I saw. "Do it again, kiddo" and sure enough; the engine was rotating backwards! That Tilton mini-starter was spinning counter-clockwise. I have no clue why the parts store had that on the shelf, nor do they. The only engines I'm aware of that turn CCW are marine engines in a twin engine setup. They had another and it went the right way. Minor setback.
Got it in, reset the timing and it fired right up. Man those TurboTubes rap nice, but way too loud. Breaking in the cam at high idle about ten minutes in the engine starts tapping. Too loud to really tell what was happening, but just a lifter I think, so I'll set them running. Boy is that messy, even with the clips on the rockers. Not like a "V" where the oil stays pretty well contained. The noise though kept getting worse. I thought I might've spun a rod bearing since adjusting the rockers had no effect on the sound. Back in the garage, pulled the exhaust, pulled the pan and surprise, surprise!
While I was waiting on new parts I put the tailgate on. I wanted a plain bumper and was going to paint to match, but couldn't find one. Got a great deal on Ebay on the bumper and brackets. The chrome was too good for me to take a DA to it, so chrome it is. Just after, I got the new LMC catalog and now they list non-chrome bumpers. Figures.

This is sitting out, right around the corner from work. It would make a cool project wouldn't it? I've never seen people around it; I don't know who owns it.