Diary
7/2/06
The fun never ends. The ATI balancers arrived by UPS several weeks ago. I finally got them over to Ollie's whereupon we discovered the second keyways were NOT cut at a precise 180 degrees, and were done a bit sloppily. Ollie is setting up some measuring schemes to verify just where the cuts are. If they measure as correct, he and I will be certainly going to some clinics to verify our eyesight. I called Ed at ATI and he said just return the two entire assemblies. We'll thoroughly verify just what's what first.
Got a call from Jeff Willerth, the TV producer/director who expressed interest in the KK project some weeks back. He IS interested, and having just finished his BBC shoot, will come over again and talk more turkey.
7/4/06
As of this moment, I have not heard from John Haynes at Al & Ed's about viewing the truck for a sound system.
Joe is due to return in the morning to continue the body mods.
I did nothing about setting the engines during the 9-day bodywork hiatus. Sal at ACT says he has a 4L80-E core for me to use for trial fitting the engine and trans combo.
I'll be checking again with Ollie tomorrow about verifying the lack of centering on the ATI double keyway situation.
Joe put me onto a guy who is supposed to provide glass and electric window systems for the KK (not free). He appears occupied and busy, so I will likely not see him for at least another week here. Joe also has a chrome guy, and I want to show him some other parts along with the KK grille and get his take on them.
I did spend a few hours cleaning and organizing the garage, putting in a second (inner) rear door for soundproofing and insulation purposes in response to a neighborhood complaint (gotta be my next door neighbor) about the noise of grinding on the KK and the truck parts out front. I'm not even mad, and took it as an opportunity to get the place cleared out. I started with the organ pipes, and will move the Duramax spare truck cab tomorrow somehow or other to Creative. I also need to reach the inspector to give him a progress report and see if the timeline is OK. I will need Jorge, Chris, and John to make this happen tomorrow. I might just call ADP towing again and have him winch the cab on his flatbed for $35 and get it over to Creative. I don't know if the trailer in the driveway is an issue. If so, I'll just hook it up and pull it out and onto Woodley for the day. I'll then work to make room in the garage to throw it in there.
7/8/06
Got another call from Jeff Willerth. He is pitching some ideas to Motor Trend TV, and I forwarded him some shots of the engines in place during mockup and some of the car rolled out on the street. He will be getting back to me mid-week, around 7/12/06 .
Gabby (owner of Al & Ed's Auto Sound) and John Haynes came by yesterday, and liked the KK. Gabby of course expressed fiscal reservations about his involvement. At most, they might put a sound system in the truck, and that would be just fine. I sent Haynes some photos of the truck on the street, and directed them to my website for earlier and lengthy info.
Joe and Brandon spent two days just cleaning out the garage, organizing all the scattered truck parts, cleaning up, putting away tools, assembling a pressure washer for me, and just doing a fabulous job of moving stuff out. Mind you, most of what they did was NOT their work, but just served to give them a bigger space in which to work.
John and I hung 3 new cabinets, added a rear door for additional soundproofing and insulation, and insulated a portion of the 18 x 10 garage door for yet more sound deadening and thermal help. We're running the AC full-time in there, and it makes the whole affair quiet and comfortable.
The cab outside is not yet moved off the property, as a fellow was scheduled to come look and possibly buy it today. So far, no show. Ditto on a buyer for the yellow 03 truck scheduled for 2:30 PM today (he called at 6:05 PM saying he was on his way). These items are relevant as they relate to making room for and creating funding for the KK project.
Here is how the monster looked out on the street:
I especially like the license plate:
So the truck is back on jack stands in the garage, and the bed now tilts, albeit it manually. Even though the two sides of the bed are not connected at the front, it's still very strong, a tribute to Joe Montalto's engineering on the bed subframe.
Salim at ACT Peformance has the core 4L80E trans, as noted, and I will pick it up Monday 7/10/06 and get it over here and bolted to the unmodified motor for a trial fit this week,
Ollie has not done the precise measurements of how off the keyways are, but had two other people look at it who concurred and finding them to be “no bueno.”
He says he'll have his measurements done Monday, and I'll ship them back to ATI. Ollie has also lined up Joey Castillo Crankshafts to cut the keyways. I will not have that done until I verify the 10-degree offset as noted by ATI with some other builders. Some of these guys might include Joe Sherman, Kenny Duttweiler, Bob Lambeck, Joey Castillo, etc.
In a conversation with Rob Anderson, head engineer at Vortech Superchargers, he noted that cooling the engines just boils down (pun intended) to dissipating whatever the average horsepower is. Based on using three engines to move the vehicle down the road, NOT at full power, it appears that I'll be using VERY little power most of the time from each engine, but I do have three of them. So it's really about the total horsepower/heat load. If I were to add a lot of onboard water, that would greatly help delay heat soak. I've noted this before. Bonneville cars use no radiators on streamliners, etc. They just carry about 20 gallons of water and go full throttle for 5 miles. Rob is going to do some calculations this week to give me a more solid set of numbers. In very brief and simplified overview, a LOT of air passing over as much radiator surface as possible, combined with as much water as possible on board, will be the best we can do. I had mentioned that I thought having the motors out in the open, and being aluminum blocks, would help a lot. Rob says no, it's all about the heat being transferred to the water in the system.
Rob also agreed that splitting up the accessories among the engines would be preferable, rather than gong to a power takeoff from the transfer case. I have a hunch some others may think differently. But I DO have to turn the water pumps on each motor unless I go to all electric pumps, so accessories do make sense in the belt loop.
Some other thoughts to ponder are:
Do I use three alternators or one?
Three starters or less?
Three batteries or less?
A master controller computer?
Yeah, we've got a ways to go.
7/17/06
Spoke with John Haynes of Al & Ed's today. He confirmed they are on board to do the system. All right!!
Joe Montalto returned today with a new helper, a lovely girl named Heather who is a WELDER. She came from San Diego via Colorado to learn welding to serve her metal art ambitions. She jumped right in, did some grinding, and nicely, and appears to be not only good-looking, but good working. Joe told her simply, all we want is perfect, so take your time.
Jeff Willerth also emailed me asking for some other pictures, which I sent.
I sent the ATI dampers back last week, and I'm really curious as to just what they will have to say about the sloppy-appearing work that is SO out of character for them.
We have a few sponsors on board so far:
ACT Performance Converters and Transmission for the 4L80E trans
Al & Ed's Autosound for the mega hifi
Joe Montalto of McGruder's Vintage Parts for a portion of the rough bodywork
The finish bodywork will be serious, and perhaps Creative Automotive will step up for that work and the paint.
I am waiting on Rob Moore of Nitro Performance at the moment for the transfer case. Once in hand I can get serious about mounting the driveline. I do have the empty trans case here, so that will make things easier shortly.
Joe did some welding around the rear pivot on the bed, while I ran out for another stick of 16-gauge 1/2” x 1” tubing for more subframe work under the bed itself.
7/20/06
Joe showed up with Carlos, another new addition, and will return tomorrow with Heather and Carlos to continue on. Brandon will return on Monday to beef up the crew. No word from ATI as yet, and no response from NitroDriveLine, either.
We are intending to start fitting the engine and trans setup next week. Joe intends to take the bed off to do some bottom-side work, and that will open up the frame rails for some engine fitting. I have had to rethink the engine mounts yet again, as I now realize the bed is hanging over the frame rails, obviating any mounts sitting on top of the frame rails, with ugly buts into the surrounding bed metal. So we'll set vertical plates and gussets of 1/4” steel, and make mounts that bolt on, much like the Funnycar rear mounting plates.
8/10/06
Heather couldn't take the dust and fumes and has moved on to other careers. We have a noise issue here, and must keep the garage closed for the sake of the neighbors. Granted, it IS air-conditioned and VERY nicely so, but metal grinding leaves some stink in the air for a while.
Joe's dad, Joe (yes), has been here for a couple of days dong lead work. He makes it look SO easy. I'd have about 8 pounds of melted slag on the floor and nothing on the fenders. He just gets it ALL on the metal. Really a privilege to see someone who has been doing it for over 50 years, and one of a very few left who does this art. He used to work with Gene Winfield.
We got the first half of the floor pan set in roughly today, and removed the cross-bracing from inside the cab. This allowed me to mock up a sitting position for the first time with the new lowered cab configuration. With an 8.5” cushion, I still have 4” of headroom. I'm confident this will get most of my tush above the trans tunnel and give me some cheek room while retaining comfort. Joe will likely have the floor attached tomorrow while his dad continues on the leading, and I should be able to get the motor/trans back in there near the end of the day for a real look.
Joe feels the bodywork should be done by the end of the month, including tilting the front, filler panels, hydraulics, etc. I'm not so confident. I'll need to get Al & Ed's back over here to start planning their cavities soon, as they will need room for enclosures, drivers, screens, etc. Next week should be a good time for Haynes to look it over again and do some planning. We have a LOT of things to squeeze into the car: fuel and water tanks, piping, batteries, radiator(s), fans, exhaust, etc.
