Mark's Monster Garage....3800 sq ft
- Thread starter IGO2XS
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Thirdyfivepickup
Well-known member
I checked in for the van... I stayed for the table. Its beautiful. Nice work Mark!
casmurbax
Well-known member
That table looks great.
You know the old saying when it rains it pours. I have had some pretty slow progress on some of the car projects and then all of a sudden I get a flurry of activity. The van has been over in Palm Beach, FL at the shop for the wiring a little over 3 weeks now. At the last minute the old fuse panel was removed and replaced with a new American Autowire panel. The old panel was fine but once the motor was gone there were two many extra wires and it just made sense to replace it. I love organized wiring and I need to get some pictures to show you guys. At the same time there were many other loose ends to tie up. At first we were going to add the customary round tube intake but there was not a location to get fresh outside air. The Griffin radiator is very large and did not allow room to catch air.........we, you know what happens when car guys get together and ideas start coming.......we decided to fabricate our own functional "ram air" intake. Here are some progress photos of the intake that will seal against the hood and pull air directly from the hood scoop. Once its finished I will either powder coat in black or hydrodip it in carbon fiber. We should be able to start the van later this week. We could have started it already but decided we would get everything finished before we fired it up. I am very excited to hear what it sounds like.
Last week I flew up to Vermont for the day to visit Rothspeed. Parts were slow to get and the project lost its momentum. I felt like i needed to put my eyes on it and talk to them face to face. Below is a picture of the motor. For clearance reasons we moved the motor toward the firewall about 7 inches. The downside is we have to modify the firewall so there is room for the motor. The good news is getting more weight distributed to the rear of the car and the extra amount of room we gain in front of the motor. I really didnt plan on traveling the path of a custom car instead of a pro touring Corvette built to more traditional standards. Oh well, LOL here I go again.
Last week I flew up to Vermont for the day to visit Rothspeed. Parts were slow to get and the project lost its momentum. I felt like i needed to put my eyes on it and talk to them face to face. Below is a picture of the motor. For clearance reasons we moved the motor toward the firewall about 7 inches. The downside is we have to modify the firewall so there is room for the motor. The good news is getting more weight distributed to the rear of the car and the extra amount of room we gain in front of the motor. I really didnt plan on traveling the path of a custom car instead of a pro touring Corvette built to more traditional standards. Oh well, LOL here I go again.
The other car project I have been working on is my dually. I bought it new this past year and cant own a truck without it being lifted. Here I am 64 years old and still living the lifted life........I either like vehicles lowered or raised. The toughest part has again been waiting on the parts. Finally everything has shown up and they have my truck..........its been there about 10 days now. Between painting, powder coating, and all the mods its been a decent sized build. The guy in the picture is over 6 ft tall so you can get an idea how tall the truck is. I never thought about being this tall but when you do a 10" lift and 37" tall tires it grows in proportion. By the way, check out the peace sign I had cut into the billet aluminum cap. Old hippies never die! They are what is called floating caps so the center will stay stationary while the wheel is rolling.
Holy **** Mark! That 3500 looks amazing! Thanks for being an example for us all. Lifted or lowered, no matter our age. And if need be we bag it so you we can get in comfortably at later stages in life. 
What did the Mrs say about your truck? Im assuming at least an eye roll and maybe a smile.
What did the Mrs say about your truck? Im assuming at least an eye roll and maybe a smile.
jbmatth
Well-known member
You are always up to such cool stuff. Are you going to black out the emblems on the truck or just remove them?
JB
JB
casmurbax
Well-known member
That van is going to be awesome when its completed.
I hope you were able to lite that fire to get them to work on the vette.
New truck looks great as well.
Thank you for the updates!
I hope you were able to lite that fire to get them to work on the vette.
New truck looks great as well.
Thank you for the updates!
Ha Ha. I like them high and I like them low........I am not ready to grow up yet.Holy **** Mark! That 3500 looks amazing! Thanks for being an example for us all. Lifted or lowered, no matter our age. And if need be we bag it so you we can get in comfortably at later stages in life.
What did the Mrs say about your truck? Im assuming at least an eye roll and maybe a smile.
All the emblems get blacked out. You know so many of the guys do all white trucks from the suspension to the bumpers. Hell I was doing that in the mid 1980s to BMWs and Mercedes. LOL I am definitely not the first person to do the black roof but I thought it would be cool to do a black and white truck. No offense to any of the real bad *** trucks out there but they put so many mods on the trucks it hurts the eyes. I am trying to keep it simple and clean except I am painting the calipers and the lift emblems lime green
I know it sounds weird but I am doing some lime green on the vette and I want the vette and truck to match. I know that sounds like I am a woman to have everything match. Ha ha Please be patient and wait and see if you like it. The truck will be ready this coming week and I cant wait.Will you be able to change that back coil pack if needed?
You have some really awesome stuff going on around there, the new truck is a monster and that van is way cool
I really didnt intend for the motor to sit back this far but I was already committed to the LT4. I imagine we will mount the coil packs remotely once i get the vette back. I get really nervous when i dont have a solution for something so I am anxious to get the car back and get to work. I really believe this set up has the potential to be really cool.......I hope. Ha ha One thing for sure is I will have plenty of room for a radiator.
I just got back from a 4 day car weekend with my wife. We were in Orlando for the Mecum auction and then went to Palm Beach to work on the van. I have lots of updates and I need to get some pictures uploaded to Photobucket so I can show you guys what was going on. My wife Mary went along and we had a great time............I can wait to share our excursion.
plain2car
Well-known member
mark, neither can we!! did you buy, sell or window shop at the auction? nice that you were able to make it a "family" excursion.... I know that most of us would just want to see the pics of the vehicles & the reasons in which you made the trip... but if some pics of the excursion itself happen to get uploaded I imagine we won't mind either!!... . In general Mark... thank you for the time & stories you share on the board!!
.... I know that most of us would just want to see the pics of the vehicles & the reasons in which you made the trip... but if some pics of the excursion itself happen to get uploaded I imagine we won't mind either!!... . In general Mark... thank you for the time & stories you share on the board!! JC23
Well-known member
Updates???
I did get really hot on a 1960 Cadillac Biarritz convertible. I looked that car up and down. I was going to bid on it remotely but for some reason the car didnt go through. In hind sight I am glad I didnt get it for now.mark, neither can we!! did you buy, sell or window shop at the auction? nice that you were able to make it a "family" excursion
The super exciting news is last Saturday the van started. The sound coming out of the Zoomies doesnt sound like it should come from a van.............a 69 camaro or 70 chevelle maybe. I had a choice to have a louder muffler installed but for now I really like it. The shop has a big parking lot around it so we took short tuning trips around the place. The engine cover was off so once the radiator fans turned on huge bursts of hot air were coming at us in our seats. I have a couple videos but dont know if I can post them on here or not. Anyway this project is over a year now and I am ready to drive this beast. First things first but Doug has to finish tuning the motor and transmission. Oh................the great part is we had very few "gremlins" during the initial stage of firing the engine. The worst thing was we did have to drop the fuel tank to take care of a fuel pump issue but otherwise it was pretty smooth sailing. Funny story a few weeks ago it was time to bleed the brakes. I was really concerned because I have had so many battles with braking systems on custom cars through the years. We had all new brake lines so we were starting from scratch. I went to Harbor Frieight to buy their brake bleeding kit that comes with a hand pump. We were pumping for a while and one of us had the idea of using the air pump we used to vacuum down the a/c system. We did all four brakes and had the whole system bleed in under 30 minutes. I think this is the smoothest brake job I have ever done.
While the van has been over on the east coast of Florida I have been working on the Lincoln. I had some scary electrical issues that werent disclosed in the sale. The electrical system on the Lincoln convertibles were the most sophisticated at the time. Made of up 35 relays, contacts and switches there is a ton to go wrong. My mind took me to the worst case problems and I was kind of scared off of working on it. Without going into the details I found 2 of the worst issues a simple fix.........they amounted to a loose wire or bad connection. Luckily I found them before taking the whole damn car apart.
Although I swore I would never have another vehicle with air ride I am really considering air ride for the lincoln. I am not interesting it as much to "slam" the car on the ground as I am to lower the ride height by 2 or 3 inches. I found a company who makes a air ride kit for the 63 lincoln so its not like reinventing the wheel.
For example when you push the button to open the rear door the window automatically lowers 7" so you clear the front door weather stripping. When you shut the door it is suppose to raise back up. I had the back seats out and everything trying to test all the relys. I opening a panel on the front of the rear suicide door and found a loose connection. Also had an issue with the car battery running down and it ended up a bad brake light switch. I found both fixes by accident but I am still very relieved to knock two what I thought major problems off the list.
Although I swore I would never have another vehicle with air ride I am really considering air ride for the lincoln. I am not interesting it as much to "slam" the car on the ground as I am to lower the ride height by 2 or 3 inches. I found a company who makes a air ride kit for the 63 lincoln so its not like reinventing the wheel.
For example when you push the button to open the rear door the window automatically lowers 7" so you clear the front door weather stripping. When you shut the door it is suppose to raise back up. I had the back seats out and everything trying to test all the relys. I opening a panel on the front of the rear suicide door and found a loose connection. Also had an issue with the car battery running down and it ended up a bad brake light switch. I found both fixes by accident but I am still very relieved to knock two what I thought major problems off the list.
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jbmatth
Well-known member
Great success stories all around. To post the video click the button in the typing window between the smiley face and the quote marks then just paste the link.
JB
JB
I didnt have any success uploading a video. I use Photobucket and pay for the extra plan but they say I cannot upload one. In the meantime my chevy dually is on its 3rd week at the 4wd shop. There were quite a few different areas we are changing from suspension, wheels, bumpers, lights, and of course train horns. Here is how it looks now.......
casmurbax
Well-known member
Mark, the truck looks great, the van is awesome and that Lincoln is just spectacular, I happened to see one the other turning into a restaurant the other day and I swung back around to look at it closer. the wide was like wtf are you doing? She thought it was awesome, I showed your car to her and she loved the color .
Hello Mark! Your car & truck collection is off the charts! Some day when our Covid syndrome has settled down I would really like to visit you to admire your fleet! I live in Parrish, FL so I’m really close by! Thanks have a great weekend, stay dry! Bud
Thank you. I hope to be getting the dually back tomorrow. It has been a 3 week project so far and I am ready to test it out. I really didnt intend for the truck to be this tall but with the electric steps i will have one big step to get into the truck. It should be good exercise.
With my other cars in shops I have been spending lots of time on the Lincoln. I talked earlier about some electrical issues I managed to solve. I had to run some errands this past Friday and thought I would enjoy cruising the Lincoln. I was returning home from my last stop and with the gas gauge at 1/8 of a tank the car acted like it ran out of gas..........damn on a friday!!! I called AAA but they were 2 hours away from getting me. After a while I got bored and decided to have my wife pick me up as I had fuel at home already in a can. We came back and I got 3 gallons of gas in it. Still wouldnt start.............in another hour in started!!! Yaaaaay I drove down the street and filled the lincoln up with ga at the nearest gas station. I was leaving the gas station feeling like I finally got the issue behind me and the car died again. Well, I call AAA again and 2 hours later at 6pm during a torrential downpour the AAA flatbed shows up. Unfortunately the front of the car was sitting in 8 inches of water. Nevertheless the good spirited tow truck driver loaded the Lincoln and we got it home. I have diagnosed the problem after putting 2 and 2 together is vapor lock. It explains all the symptoms. I am working on a solution to get the lincoln back on the road. The fuel pump on these 430 cu in motors is located in the front of the block at the top and the fuel lines are laying on the motor. I found a 1/8 inch return line that runs all the back back to the tank. I plan to hook up this line and use it as a return to bleed off any pressure after the motor heats up. Hopefully circulating the fuel will help
casmurbax
Well-known member
Mark, stinks about the car dying on you, Hopefully you figured out the issue and will be able to rectify it.
Bob Heine
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Mark, the easy fix is to put insulation on the fuel line but I suspect you have a more elegant solution and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do.
I went back to look more closely at your Lincoln and it occurred to me that 1963 was the pinnacle of full size American car design. The big 3 had beautiful designs up and down the range. It's hard to find an ugly car from that year (not impossible but hard). It wasn't all downhill from 1963 but the interior on a '64 Lincoln looks pretty plain, compared to yours.
1963
I went back to look more closely at your Lincoln and it occurred to me that 1963 was the pinnacle of full size American car design. The big 3 had beautiful designs up and down the range. It's hard to find an ugly car from that year (not impossible but hard). It wasn't all downhill from 1963 but the interior on a '64 Lincoln looks pretty plain, compared to yours.
1963
1964
It looks like I will be picking the van up on Monday. I cant wait! So many things left to do so I am anxious. In the meantime I started another project in restoring my Bobcat back to its original luster. I bought it 10 years ago when we started building the houses. I grated, moved dirt, dug trenches with my backhoe attachment unloaded semis, I have demoed homes when I was in business, torn out concrete driveways you name it. Its been used but I only have 1200 hours on it. 6 months ago I put new tracks on it and the only thing left was to paint it. We have sanded most of the machine down, removed the interior windows as I have AC in it and started to work on it. I painted the rear door first as you see pictured and yesterday painted the cab the charcoal color. The last thing will be to paint the white which I will start prepping today. Luckily I used the Bobcat paint. Its a xylene based enamel and hard as nails. It dries in about 30 minutes or so allowing me to get 3 to 4 coats of paint on everything. Oh, by the way I was originally going to roll the paint on. I thought well heck its just a Bobcat after I rolled the door I sanded it back down because I wasnt happy with it. I am using my HVLP gun and its coming out beautiful. I dont know man I just cant do something half assed.
after I rolled the door I sanded it back down because I wasnt happy with it. I am using my HVLP gun and its coming out beautiful. I dont know man I just cant do something half assed. Boostingaz
Well-known member
What HVLP gun do you have? I am in the market and can't decide on which one to get? I tend to research things too much and then can't make a decision haha.
plain2car
Well-known member
boost, I know this is geared towards Mark & I am sure he will have a great recommendation, I recently bought one for my '86 C10 project. it is from TCP Global. They are not a name brand, but I have used it a couple of times now & feel like it is a solid performer... just FYI for you.. Mark please provide your recommendation as I am interested in what you prefer as well...
Boostingaz
Well-known member
plain2car -
I will look that one up. Thank you!
I will look that one up. Thank you!
boost, I know this is geared towards Mark & I am sure he will have a great recommendation, I recently bought one for my '86 C10 project. it is from TCP Global. They are not a name brand, but I have used it a couple of times now & feel like it is a solid performer... just FYI for you.. Mark please provide your recommendation as I am interested in what you prefer as well...
Together we have a wealth of knowledge on this forum.
Sorry for the late response. I wasnt getting the post notifications by email and just saw your question. I purchased a unit from Fuji Spray Systems. The model is called the Semi Pro 2. I sprayed all of the cabinets I made for my wife's pantry with this gun and had great results. This is also what I am using to paint the Bobcat. Once was a lacquer based paint and the other was Xylene and this gun really layed down a nice finish.
Boostingaz
Well-known member
Not a problem. Thanks for the reply.
What are your thoughts on an "all-in-one" system like that Fuji system vs just a gun and air compressor?
I have been driving my dually for barely a week now and love it. I keep forgetting this dually is taller than my red one and we I hop off the side steps its a lot farther to the ground. LOL. They had my truck a little over 3 weeks. We did the suspension, tires, wheels and bumpers. There was lots of color matching painting lights, flares, emblems etc. All the running lights were smoked and yellow lenses replace any of the yellow ones. Oh, almost forgot the train horns and underbody LED lighting. It is hard to imagine I have the same amount of money in parts on this dually as I got selling my red dually. I am pretty lucky my wife didnt hang me but I wanted it all done at once. I took it by the Chevrolet dealership where I bought it and showed off the dually. They all really liked it.
Bighead38
Well-known member
What you did is cool. What Chevy did is not.
bepjrfan
Well-known member
Going to jump in on this question as I also have the Fuji Spray SemiPro2 setup. It is a great system to use. I have used it on cabinets mainly myself but it is very easy to setup and use. I'd have to say the whole fuji system is great in that it is very simple to use. The turbine gives constant, consistent air feed, so all you have to dial in is the paint/air mix on the gun. Don't have to worry about having a large compressor to maintain air flow. The fuji system is unbelievably easy to use, just takes a little tuning for various finishes.
BTW Mark, this is one of my favorite threads to follow. The attention to detail that you have is something I strive for as well. Very nice work!
Sick truck as well!
Boostingaz
Well-known member
Bepjrfan
Thanks for the input, appreciated.
My biggest "concern" right now is storage. I am really trying hard not to unnecessarily clutter the shop with things that will see relatively little use. So my thought is a gun is smaller and easier to store away. I will already have air lines run to mounted reels, so no extra storage there. It would be literally just be the gun and whatever supplies to store away in a drawer.
I have not looked yet to see what the specs are on that Fuji system, but these are my compressor specs. I have so far just been looking mostly at the Devilbiss guns.
Thanks for the input, appreciated.
My biggest "concern" right now is storage. I am really trying hard not to unnecessarily clutter the shop with things that will see relatively little use. So my thought is a gun is smaller and easier to store away. I will already have air lines run to mounted reels, so no extra storage there. It would be literally just be the gun and whatever supplies to store away in a drawer.
I have not looked yet to see what the specs are on that Fuji system, but these are my compressor specs. I have so far just been looking mostly at the Devilbiss guns.