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S 4 : Ep 67

Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Davin is still working from home, but that doesn’t prevent him from making progress on the 1951 Buick straight-eight. This latest Redline Update comes from Davin alone, with his only help standing behind the camera (his son Anders must have found something else to do). The straight-eight is still back at the shop, but the fuel pump and oil pump both need rebuilding and are perfect take-home projects.

You may think of assembly as simply putting things back together. At first glance, there isn’t much artistry involved; however, ask anyone who has tackled intricate projects like a fuel pump that doubles as a vacuum pump. They’ll tell you that assembly requires much more finesse than putting a gasket between two pieces and tightening the screws.

Davin uses a Motor manual as a reference. Though it provides him with an exploded diagram, the manual isn’t written for the straight-eight’s donor car (a 1951 Buick Special) or even for this particular engine.

“On things like this odd double pump situation, sometimes you have to think outside the box,” Davin suggests to those searching for the proper reference material. “Glenn over on the Carcierge team helped me find another application where the same pump was used, and we had a Motor manual for that [application]. A lot of parts are shared between various models, so before you declare yourself stumped, look for other vehicles that would be similarly equipped.”

Poring over a diagram and knowing how all the parts fit into the final design is only part of the process, though. Davin needs to study the parts in front of him and analyze their details as he puts them together. “The diaphragms in these pumps are fairly delicate,” he observes, “and the spring was quite heavy for the vacuum side. It took a bit of careful trial and error to get the two pieces together, but now they are together and look pretty good. I’m excited to get them installed on the engine. ”

Another task that will take a bit of trial and error is the engine on Davin’s run stand. Anders helped install some of the first parts into the block of the next engine destined for Davin’s nostalgia dragster, and now the engine is complete and ready to run. Unfortunately, it doesn’t crank to life when Davin tries to start it at the end of this video. Rest assured that he’ll get it running, though. If you want to witness it roaring to life, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to receive an update with each video that goes live.

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Our Chevrolet 3600 pickup has been making steady progress, but even though it now boasts a fuel tank and a new wiring harness, the heavily-patina’d pickup stranded on the two-post lift hasn’t seen any major changes recently. That’s about to change, though, because Davin finally has enough small-scale projects done to tackle something big. Engine-installation big.

First, Davin has to wrap up one more mundane task. While this pickup doesn’t have much snow driving in its future, Davin wants to have the heater functioning for those crisp fall mornings. Even a working defroster alone makes a serious difference—just ask anyone who has logged brisk morning miles without one. With the heater bolted back under the dash, Davin turns his attention to the powertrain.

With the hood, radiator support, and front fender removed, shoving the refreshed 216-cubic-inch inline-six into place seems like a simple task. At first, Davin tries to bolt the transmission onto the engine and install both as one unit, but that plan collapses because the transmission can’t fit through the opening between the floorpan and the crossmember. Instead, Davin is forced to install the transmission and engine separately.

If you’ve ever found yourself in a similar situation, it’s a good time to remember that you’re most likely doing this installation the hard way; the factory would have installed the driveline in the chassis before fitting the body. Any other way of bolting in a powertrain fights the original design.

Even with the straight-six bolted in and looking like a diamond in a brass ring, Davin has gobs of work to do before the engine runs in the chassis. That to-do list starts with connecting the electrical and cooling systems, but it’s not long before this 3600 will be back on the road. If you want to follow along with the progress, be sure to subscribe to Hagerty’s YouTube channel to receive notifications with each update.

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When Davin’s manager told him he had to transition to working from home, he didn’t put up too much resistance; that meant Davin would have a second set of hands to help with projects around his home race shop. His 9-year-old son, Anders, becomes Davin’s co-star in our latest video.

There aren’t Buick straight-eight or Chevrolet 3600 truck parts on the workbench as the pair gets to work, though. While Redline Updates are delayed, Davin’s chronicling a few personal automotive projects. Before he and Anders start working on an engine, however, there’s some clean up to do. Davin knows that a well-organized shop is an efficient and productive shop, so Anders takes the job of sweeping the floor while Davin prepares the small table to organize the rivnuts rolling around his toolbox.

“I like using these rivnuts to make items easier to service. For body panels or heat shields on race cars, they are hard to beat,” Davin says regarding the handy expanding threaded fasteners. “The only pain is they roll away and become a jumbled mess real quick.”

Which is why he lays them out in a divided plastic organizer. The special tools for setting the fasteners, plus all the rivnut sizes Davin will need for future projects, fit into the handy case that he tucks away on a shelf. Then, the boys get down to the business of making progress on a more powerful project.

There are multiple engines hanging around Davin’s home garage, but only one is destined to be bolted into the nostalgic, front-engine dragster he races. That 350 block is in the early stages of assembly, so Davin and Anders tackle installing the various threaded plugs in the block before calling it a day.

Davin kept his hands pretty clean, compared to a normal day, but we would venture to guess he has other projects waiting just off camera that will be more involved. To see what those projects are, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to receive notifications with each new videos that goes live.

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Davin spent lots of hours rebuilding the 216-cubic-inch straight-six for the 1950 Chevrolet 3600 pickup, but the fact of the matter is that without a fuel system that engine would just be a pretty hunk of metal. That’s why, on the latest Redline Rebuild Update, he dives into getting the chassis set up to feed the engine its necessary fuel.

The fuel system on a vintage pickup like this Chevy is darn simple—it’s a tank. The original piece is crusty inside, but Davin wants to save it if at all possible. It eliminates the cost of buying a new item, and why replace something that might be solid with just a little elbow grease applied? Well, maybe he should have taken the sending unit’s resistance to exit the old tank as to how crusty the inside might truly be.

“I had high hopes for being able to knock out the rust and use the tank,” Davin says about his plans for reusing the existing parts. “In the long run it saved me some time, so I guess I shouldn’t be too mad it sprung a leak right away.”

That leak was just a pinhole, but further cleaning with milkstone to remove rust was likely going to only increase the number of pinholes. Davin elected to replace the tank at that point, since a replacement tank was readily available. It’s worth a reminder that there are methods for fixing pinholes in tanks if a replacement cannot be sourced. In this instance though, taking the time to braze each pinhole and defect would likely cost just as much as replacing the whole unit—unless your time is worthless.

Once the new tank is in, the rest of the system goes together quickly. Fresh rubber hoses for the fill neck and vent hose, and a shutoff and hardline running along the chassis to feed the mechanical fuel pump mounted on the engine—an engine that is getting awfully close to being reinstalled in the chassis.

If you don’t want to miss the final steps of getting this truck back on the road, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to receive notifications with each new update that is posted.

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The Redline Update series has been tracking Davin as he tackles multiple projects, but the one that’s come the furthest is the 1950 Chevrolet 3600. Progress is continuing on the crusty pickup, and the latest project is running the wiring for all the essential systems.

Davin didn’t elect to build his own harness, mainly because an American Autowire pre-made harness was readily available for ordering from LMC Truck. The harness saves time and makes sure everything that needs power will get it. No reason to over-complicate things.

“It makes the time in the shop a lot more productive when I am laying the harness into the car rather than pulling lengths of wire and putting on all the proper connections,” Davin says, explaining why he elected for a pre-built harness. It also helps me get the routing correct sometimes, because based on the length of wire supplied and where the connections are, I can use a bit of common sense looking around to find where the proper placing is.”

His technique of using the two-post lift to hold the truck in such a way that he can stand through the transmission tunnel to work under the dashboard will be an envy of anyone who has had to do their best contortionist routine to accomplish just about anything under there. Soon the engine and transmission will return to their home between the frame rails and Davin won’t have the convenience of a massive hole in the floor. Perfect time to utilize it.

Over the years the wiring has been mangled and modified to where what is left cannot be trusted. That means looking at things a few times to figure out exactly how the wiring should be laid out. If there is one tip to take away from this quick video, it is to resist the urge to cut wires to solve whatever issue you have. Try re-routing first. That short delay might save you hours of wire splicing.

As Davin notes in the video, this pickup is getting a lot of work—but this is not a restoration. He is bringing the pickup back to working order, but not over-doing it. Even with that in mind, there is plenty of work left to do on this truck. Be sure to subscribe to Hagerty’s YouTube channel to receive updates when each video goes live and never miss a minute of the progress.

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Here at Hagerty we’re doing our best to stay safe and follow the advice of our local health professionals by social distancing. This week, hang out with Davin at his home garage (digitally, of course) as he walks you through all the projects he can wrench on without leaving his driveway.

Luckily Davin had some space in his home shop, because he had the foresight to grab a bunch of projects from the Redline Rebuild garage the last time he dropped in. Progress may happen a little slower than usual on the Buick straight-eight, but Davin has no intentions of letting the project grind to a halt.

“I really want to keep this project moving forward, so I grabbed as much as I could knowing that I still could be productive even if I wasn’t right beside the engine,” Davin says.

Each of his projects comes in a dandy box full of little pieces. What’s on the to-do list? The Buick’s dual-action fuel pump needs polishing before reassembly with a rebuild kit, and the valve springs need to be checked to ensure they will work smoothly before they are installed. This video proves that, contrary to what you might think, the Redline Rebuild process isn’t all sexy engines and first starts; it’s also the small-scale, mundane tasks that must be done properly for the end project to work.

“Having the cameras around typically slows down work,” says Davin. “I often end up doing things two or three times to get the shot they need. That means mentally keeping track of what I have done—and more importantly, what I have not done—so that it all ends up together correctly the final time.”

Maybe he won’t be as distracted now, since his camera crew has downsized from several people to just one—his daughter. Though the cadence of Redline Updates will slow a bit in the coming weeks, rest assured that Davin’s still working. This Buick straight-eight is going to come to life soon, and we’ll be on hand to chronicle the entire process for you.

Be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to get updates with each new video Davin posts.

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

There have been some really sweet rides (and parts of rides) that have rolled through the Redline Rebuild garage. Davin has accomplished some wild transformations, but his latest project is simple when compared to a full rebuild or restoration—at least, it’s simple on paper. He’s just getting a motorcycle running. How hard could that really be?

Well, for starters, this isn’t just any ol’ bike. No, this Triumph is even more famous than Davin. It is the silver 1952 Triumph TR5 that the leather-jacket-clad Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli rode during the Happy Days television show. Its current owner loaned it to Hagerty to display in our Traverse City, Michigan, headquarters, and when Davin heard that the bike wasn’t running, he decided to take action. When the bike’s display term was up, the Triumph went straight to the garage.

“I really wasn’t sure how bad [the bike] was. A once-over look sure looked like everything was there,” said Davin. “I have brought back rougher stuff, so I figure this couldn’t be that bad.”

However, Davin’s initial diagnosis would prove overly optimistic. The twin-cylinder wasn’t stuck like the Buick Nailhead V-8 he tackled last year, but it was missing fuel lines and had no spark from either spark plug. Davin dug a little deeper. Gunk filled the oil tank, and one of the oil feed lines was split. The carburetor was missing pieces and its gaskets were dried out.

“It was a little worse than I expected,” Davin admitted, “but [with] a carb kit and some time with the right tools, it came around.”

Choosing the right tools to resurrect the Triumph involved more than simply grabbing a few wrenches from the garage tool chest. The Triumph was built with Whitworth hardware, meaning that Davin’s set of imperial and metric wrenches were all but worthless. The adjustable wrench did work, but to avoid rounding any hardware, Davin borrowed a set of Whitworth wrenches from a fellow gearhead.

With a rebuilt magneto—which is both a generator and a distributor—installed and timed, the 500cc twin rumbled to life. Of course, it wasn’t long before Davin donned a leather jacket and took the bike for a ride around the parking lot.

Now that the bike is running again, where would you ride this machine? Tell us in the comments below.

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

The Chevrolet 3600 has been making steady progress, but in this week’s Redline Update Davin makes a concerted effort to bring the whole thing to a stop. That’s right, the man is finishing up the braking system so that this truck will be ready for driving as soon as the northern Michigan weather allows.

Before Davin could dive into the brake system though, he spent time finishing up the front suspension. The kingpins were more than a little worse for wear, and the last Redline Update showed Davin pulling everything apart; but this time it’s all about assembly. Similar to the suspension bushings that Davin pressed into the leaf springs, the new bushing for the kingpins needed a final touchup after being pushed into place. For that, he phoned a friend.

“I got to looking at the spindles, and the size of hone I needed was awful close to the fixture [that the] Thirlby machine shop uses on the little end of connecting rods,” Davin says. “So I gave Mikey a call and took a field trip over to see what we could do.”

It was a quick trip through the machine shop, then right back to the Redline Rebuild garage for assembly. With the bushings properly fitted, it was just a task of putting all the parts back in their proper places.

“This style [of] front end is one of the easier styles to rebuild,” Davin says. “Not a lot of parts, and the whole design is intuitive. It’s a durable design that, once I get it put together right, should hold up to anything we decide to use this truck for in the future.”

After the front axle was bolted together it was time to focus on stopping for the day. Well, not cleaning tools and cracking open a cold one, but rather assembling the brake lines and prepping the whole hydraulic system for bleeding. Which leads to Davin’s final tip from this episode, and it’s a good one.

He always wraps the bleeder screws with regular Teflon tape. This easy and simple seal helps keep the threads sealed when bleeding the system, especially if using a vacuum bleeder. It’s important to ensure that while trying to get air out of the port of the bleeder, you are not introducing air through the threads. It also keeps the threads from galling or otherwise becoming corroded and locking the bleeder screw in place for all time.

We’re one step closer to putting the drivetrain back in and taking the truck for a spin. There is still a lot to get done between now and then, however. If you want to track the progress of the Chevy 3600 and get more of Davin’s great garage tips, be sure to subscribe to Hagerty’s YouTube channel and you’ll receive notification with each great video that goes live.

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The Hagerty Chevrolet 3600 is still hanging around on the Redline Rebuild Garage lift. Its three-quarter-ton chassis was rescued from a dirt field where it was trying its best to return to the earth by way of oxidation. Davin isn’t going to let that happen, of course, so he’s been tackling various projects all over the truck on the path to getting it roadworthy again.

This week it was the front suspension. The setup is a simple design, with parallel leaf springs positioning a solid beam axle. The relatively minimal number of overall components should make for an easy rebuild, right? Well, not exactly. The solid axle is durable and sturdy, but years of use and abuse have taken a toll on this poor pickup.

The springs were broken and required replacement. Like any DIY project, that meant replacing more than just that one single part. New bushings and shackles got the axle attached to the truck again, but the kingpins that allow the spindles to turn on each end of the axle were pretty knackered.

“The kingpins were something I was pretty well expecting it would need when we dragged it out of the field,” said Davin. “Luckily this truck is so simple compared to a few of the other vehicles that have hung on this lift. It is a pretty quick process to get everything swapped out and back together.”

The front suspension was the last thing necessary before this truck had the green light to go back on the ground. Next, it’s ready to have the engine and transmission reinstalled. Of course, there is much to do before the Chevy 3600 is fully driving, and if you want to follow along with the progress be sure to subscribe to Hagerty’s YouTube page to receive updates with each video that goes live.

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The Redline Update 1950 Chevrolet 3600 is just hanging around the shop at this point. Quite literally, because the suspension was so walloped that putting the truck back on its wheels would have been just short of a death sentence. Leaf spring suspensions are simple in design, but when corrosion rears its ugly head, disassembly gets annoying—fast. The latest Redline Update shows how Davin dealt with this problem.

This Chevy continues to show that its previous life involved some hard work. Simply getting the rear suspension apart requires liberal usage of the oxyacetylene torch, using heat to break the bonds of rust that had fused together so many parts.

This all looks sweet in slow motion, but the fact of the matter is that cutting and disassembly are the easy parts. Once the rear suspension is apart, Davin finds that ready-to-install bushings are nowhere to be found for the shackles or leaf springs. Moments like these separate the enterprising gearheads from the parts replacers—Davin sets about making his own bushings.

He starts by taking a few measurements and then consulting the industrial supply site McMaster-Carr. There he finds bronze bushings which are really close to the right size. “Really close” proves to be workable; because Davin has access to the right tools to finish the fabrication, it’s more convenient to purchase the nearly perfect bushings rather than buy the bronze stock and spend an entire day at the lathe. With the “really close” bushings, he needs just one pass on the lathe to remove 0.010 inch from the outside diameter of one set before installation can begin.

The installation process has one extra step this time, though. Once the custom bushings are pressed into place, the inside diameter tightens up ever so slightly … just enough to prevent the pin from sliding through. No matter—there’s a tool for that too. A reamer removes material from a round recess in something, but it is not a drill bit. A drill bit punches a roughly correct diameter opening in solid stock; a reamer’s duty, on the other hand, is finishing a hole to an exacting diameter.

A quick pass with a reamer puts the bushings back in spec and allows Davin to quickly reassemble the rear suspension, making this truck one step closer to road ready.

There is still a lot more work to do, though, and more problems will inevitably crop up before Davin can hop in this truck for its first parts run. If you want to see how it gets back on the road, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to receive updates as each Redline Update goes live on Monday.

Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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