When this truck came into Blue Sky Dynamics it had a supercharged 440. To see the story about how this truck was built prior to opening Blue Sky Dynamics go to John's web site: www.mopar5150.com
John had a HEMI built by Dvorick and delivered to the shop here.
While John used an Imperial front suspension for the 440, he is now going to build the sub frames from 2" x 4" metal tubeing and graft a 1978 Plymouth Volare front suspention onto them.
Here is the HEMI fresh out of the crate!The first step to installing the HEMI is to get the frame ready. The motor was mocked in with the Imperial front suspension that held the 440. It was decided to replace the front suspension with a 1978 Volore suspension to make room for the 2 1/4" primary header tubes. So, out comes the HEMI.
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In these photos we are getting the HEMI ready to run on our engine run up stand. Here we can make any adjustments to the engine much easier than in a car.
On June 2nd the HEMI came to life!
A few busted ear drums later we have a running HEMI. It's amazing how loud this motor is. The primary tubes are 2 1/4" and flow into 4" collectors. Soon this motor will be in the '55.
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The photo on the left is the truck with the old frame removed. We now have a good straight base to work from. The middle photo is the 78 Volare sub frame as we are cutting it to the correct width. The right photo is the frame cut and straight ready to be installed. As soon as we have the frame rails in we can weld this in. One step closer to having the Hemi in!
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These 3 photos show the progress of the new frame rails. We 1st get them straight and square and weld them together. Next we weld them on the truck, again verifying we are straight and level. Our next step will be to weld on the Volare cross member.
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Now that the sub frames are in and level it's time to set the engine mounting plate and Volare K frame onto the sub frames. Here a plastic mock up block sure comes in handy.
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Here we are mocking up the TTI headers. These are just their raw headers before coating. We went this route because we knew we would have to modify them some. Fortunately we got lucky, only one tube needed to be modified. Tube number one was in the way of the oil line as this is a race Hemi block with external oil lines. Once this tube is done it's time to install the engine for more testing.
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The next step is to mount the upper A arms. Here you can see the A arm mounts John fabricated and installed. After this, shock mounts and a rack and pinion steering set up is all that is keeping this truck from driving!
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With all the components installed, it's time to drive this truck! What a better 1st test drive than 12:30am in a foggy airport. Everything went well as far as the engine and front suspension. I wish we could say the same for the 8 3/4 ring and pinion that was assembled by another shop. It grenaded, total destruction. Fortunately we had a spare on hand. At 5:30am the same day John and Chris we in swapping out the 3rd member so this truck could make it's maiden voyage at SouthBay Mopars November meeting. With minutes to spare we made it!
