So I have made some good progress on my Henry J project even though it doesn't really look like it if you see the car. I do have a lot of parts in the garage though. I thought I'd share what I've been up to.
Not much has happened with the car itself yet, except I pulled the '52 style grill and trim off to make way for the much cooler '51 grill.
I also bought a set of steel OEM wheels from Pete Paulsen. These are reversed 15x7 rims with a 2.5" backspacing. They have an extreme deep-dish look. For now I just went over to the used tire store and had them slap some 205/75R15s on the rims. The size is perfect, but it's a pretty uncommon size. I have also pulled all of the front suspension, so the front of teh car is on jack stands and front wheels are just placed there loose to give an idea of what it will look like.
This car did not come with an engine or transmission, which meant that I was free to pick just about any drivetrain I felt like trying to stuff in the car. I wanted an upgrade over the original flat head 6, something that was relatively period-correct, NOT a small block Chevy, and something relatively economical because I plan on driving this car a lot. I decided on an engine that I always thought was pretty cool, a Buick 215. These are the aluminum block v8s Buick and Olds used in the early 1960s, then went on to be used in Rover and Range Rover cars and SUVs. I found one locally that guy just pulled from his 1962 Buick Special to make way for a newer Rover 4.6, which is a modern version of the 215. I rebuilt the engine myself, with help from Mark at D&D Fabrications in Michigan who is an expert with 215s. I had all of the machine work done at Al Hubbard's machine Shop in Hayward, CA. It's pretty much a stock rebuild, bored .040 over with a mild Crower cam, Edelbrock intake, Pertonix ignition, high-flow oiling and water pump.
The 215 came with a 2-speed Dynaflow auto trans that I sold and shipped to a guy in Denmark who is building a '62 Buick and is having a hard time finding parts in his country. I decided to use a Borg Warner T5 5-speed trans behind the 215. I considered a 700R or 200-4r, but liked the idea of keeping it a manual. I bought two T5s from local guys, one is from a v6 Chevy S10, the other is from a v8 Camaro. I wanted the Camaro gearset and the S10 shifter and tail housing. The S10 tail housing locates the shifter about 9" forward of the Camaro location, which will work much better in the Henry J. Both T5s were previously rebuilt, but I tore them both all the way down and rebuilt both. I now hav this T5 with Camaro gears but with S10 output shaft, tail housing and top cover/shifter. D&D sells a bellhousing that adapts the T5 to the 215. I'm going to use a RAM Clutches hydraulic throwout bearing, which I will get into later.
I had the gas tank cleaned and sealed by Panky's radiator in Hayward, CA. I cleaned up the sender myslef and made a new cork gasket for it. I also found some 2.250" ID fuel filler hose to replace the old piece. This tank is going back in the car today.
Now for the fun stuff: suspension and brakes!
I cleaned and painted all of the suspension parts. I found kingpin and pivot rebuild kits from FCRC Machine/Rare Parts and had the kingpin bushing installed and honed to size by SP Automotive machine shop in San Leandro, CA.
The lower A-arms are with a friend who is modifying them to accept a shock with eye-bolt lower mounting. I found a new pair of Bilstein shocks meant for an '81 Camaro on Craigslist for $80. Awesome!
The original drum brakes were not going to cut it, so I figured out a way to adapt modern GM metric brakes (as found on S10s, blazers, Monte Carlos, etc) to the Henry J spindle. I used GM metric brakes on my endurance road-race truck and they work very well, are very cheap and very easy to source. Here's some pieces I had sitting around:
Adapting them included finding bearings that would interface between the hub/rotor and the spindle. A few hours of online research resulted in a set of Timken bearing that fit perfectly. So, once I knew I could fit the hub/rotor to the spindle, next was figuring out how to hang the caliper. Luckily, I had recently sold a car to a guy who owns a CNC machine shop about a half-mile away from me, and he offered to help me devise some caliper brackets. I made some drawings and mocked up a bracket in MDF, then I took my designs over to him. He created an AutoCAD project for the brackets and milled them from steel billets. His shop is amazing!
We also realized that we would need collars to increase the diameter of the surface for the inner bearing seal to ride on, since I'm using S10 bearing seals. Here are the caliper brackets and the press-fit collars:
Here's how it fits together:
Well, that's it for now. I'm going out to install that gas tank and assemble the spindles now...
