TKO 500 into '63 Marauder

[chilly460]

i threw some seats in it and took the maiden voyage last night at around 11pm, been working out a few bugs.  Clutch engages way at the top so needs a little adjustment but overall that finally worked out.  The effort is ridiculously heavy now though, knew this would happen with having to lengthen the pivot arm and losing all the leverage.  It's livable but I'll be avoiding high traffic areas. 

Love the deep first gear, it feels so much more responsive and snappy.  I expected a big change going to the 3.3x first and got it.  Shifter is in much better position which is a nice bonus, not as smooth as the T10 but not bad.  Barely got to use O/D but seeing 2900rpm drop to 1800rpm or so was a beautiful thing.  It was not real happy at 60mph or so in O/D, 1500rpm just not enough for the carb.  Not a big deal but VA has great secondar two lanes where I usually drive, may get a little shifty getting behind Sunday drivers poking along in that 55-60 range. 

[chilly460]

Final bit of the project, the shifter hump.  The fiberglass hump I got from one of the aftermarket vendors no longer works, so I decided to make the new hump out of sheetmetal.  I hate working with fiberglass, probably could've cut off the flange from the old hump and grafted on some fiberglass matting, but I actually think the sheetmetal work was easier.  I had to do a little metal "sculpting" for the transmission tunnel, but this was a bit more involved.  I cut a flange out of 1/4" plate for the shifter trim ring, then built out from there.  A little tough juggling the opening with the offset shifter, but it worked out fine.











It's pretty loud driving around with no carpet, decided to take the opportunity to lay in some sound deadener.  It's all Butyl generic, much cheaper than Dynamat but worked well, definitely knocked down heat and sound.