It should come as no shock that Davin has little resistance to a bit of wire-crossing. The Honda Trail 70 restoration proves that. The engine is on its way back together, which means that the charging system needs a bit of love before things can get finalized. Luckily, it’s only a few tools and a dab of solder to have this stator ready charge.

The stator of a motorcycle is akin to the alternator of an automobile. Because motorcycle engines tend to be compact, the stator gets tucked inside the case rather than bolted on the outside. Like its bigger, automotive relative, a motorcycle’s stator is comprised of just a few parts: copper windings, a large magnet, and the wiring to direct the created current. The Trail 70’s stator was actually in acceptable shape when the bike arrived on Davin’s workbench, but that is not good enough for the Redline Rebuild expert.

A couple screws and a dab of solder to make the final connection, and the Trail 70 is ready to charge again. Assembly continues next week and if you don’t want to miss an update, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel.

Thanks to our sponsor RockAuto.com. RockAuto.com is an auto parts retailer founded in 1999 by automotive engineers with two goals: Liberate information hidden behind the auto parts store counter (by listing all available parts, not just what one store stocks or one counter-person knows), and make auto parts affordable so vehicles of all ages can be kept reliable and fun to drive. Visit RockAuto.com to order auto parts online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and have them conveniently delivered to your door. Need help finding parts or placing an order? Visit our Help pages for further assistance!

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The projects that Davin works on change pretty regularly—and often quite quickly. However, nothing changes quite as quickly as this week’s project, the Frankland quick-change rear end for the ’37 Ford race car. It’s all cleaned up and ready for assembly, but where does that washer go?

There are a couple tricks to keeping all the various parts and pieces of your project in a tidy order, but sometimes the world conspires against you and those information-packed pieces of paper go missing when the times comes for reassembly. Such was the case for Davin and the rear axle for the ’37 Ford. The Frankland Quick Change unit is fairly simple on the surface, but it still needs to go together correctly in order to work properly and last like it should. Luckily, Davin has a pretty good memory.

The first step is pressing bearings and races into place. Heat is Davin’s best friend when it comes to this step. The bearings go in the toaster oven to heat up, and thus expand ever so slightly, which allows them to just slide into place and cool to a perfect press fit. No hammers needed. Commenters have been telling him about using the opposite technique for the races, so Davin put the shop freezer to work. Unfortunately, the shrinkage was not enough to make the bearing race fall into place, so a little pressure from the press was in order.

From there it is all about setup and preload. The roller bearings in a differential like this Frankland need to be set correctly to ensure a good long life. The trick is to tighten the pinion nut a bit, then use a torque wrench to measure the rotational drag. It is a bit of a touch, but this spec can be found for most rebuildable rear axles. That was also the “proper” spot for the one washer’s location, which Davin had forgotten. The witness marks on the washer aligned with how it would be assembled there, so there it goes.

The final assembly of the axles and hubs is going to wait until after the heavy unit is final installed in the car. To see that and the remaining steps required to get the Ford back to the starting line, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel for weekly Redline Updates.

Thank you to our sponsor, RockAuto.com. RockAuto.com is an auto parts retailer founded in 1999 by automotive engineers with two goals: Liberate information hidden behind the auto parts store counter (by listing all available parts, not just what one store stocks or one counter person knows), and make auto parts affordable so vehicles of all ages can be kept reliable and fun to drive. Visit RockAuto.com to order auto parts online, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and have them conveniently delivered to your door. Need help finding parts or placing an order? Visit our Help pages for further assistance.

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Snowball’s Ford dirt track racer is still in process, and this week Davin is tackling the wheel hubs. It’s not an overly complicated process, although a bit repetitive. New studs and bearings need to be pressed in and the brake drums need to be cut. With a little help from Randy at the Hagerty Learning Garage, things should go smoothly and these Cerakoted hubs should be ready to get installed back on our race car.

There are certain staples in the Redline Rebuild garage, and dad jokes rank right up at the top of that short list. So, in that tradition, Davin and crew eschew “Hump Day” and labeled last Wednesday “Hub Day.” The whole week seems to revolve around Wednesday sometimes, and we harnessed that energy to make great progress on our 1937 Ford race car. It’s now one step closer to rolling again.

The hubs on this racer are aftermarket pieces from Franklin. This means that the hubs have aluminum brake drums that bolt up to them, while the cast aluminum hubs are merely bearing holders that keep the whole operation concentric. Of course, aluminum brake drums would not last long in a race environment, so there are steel liners pressed in. Before we can shift our focus to those liners, we have to first address the wheel stud that holds the two pieces together.

When the car came to Davin, the front axle had different sized studs then the rear. While functionally acceptable, it makes service a bit of a pain in the butt. For a little additional strength Davin elects to upgrade to 5/8″ studs which means enlarging the holes in the hubs and drums ever so slightly. For the task, he uses the Bridgeport since it has a nice large table and allows for slightly lower drilling rpm. Once the holes are sized properly it is over to the press to shove the studs into their final place.

With the hubs and drums together, it is time to have the CeraKote finish turned off the braking surface. Doing this also ensures the braking surface is centered to the spindle centerline for maximum brake shoe contact. Turning brake drums is less common these days because production of rotors has become relatively affordable and thus, for many applications, it is easier to replace than to resurface brake parts. Luckily the Hagerty Learning Garage has a brake lathe in its small machine shop, and Randy is happy to chuck up the drums for Davin and get them ready for mounting.

All that is going to have to wait though. There is still more suspension work to be finalized before the assembly of either axle. If you want to see this racer come together and hit the track, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel and tune in each Monday for more updates.

Thanks to our sponsor RockAuto.com.

RockAuto.com is an auto parts retailer founded in 1999 by automotive engineers with two goals: Liberate information hidden behind the auto parts store counter (by listing all available parts, not just what one store stocks or one counter-person knows), and make auto parts affordable so vehicles of all ages can be kept reliable and fun to drive. Visit RockAuto.com to order auto parts online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and have them conveniently delivered to your door. Need help finding parts or placing an order? Visit our Help pages for further assistance!

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The action continues as the world’s largest monthly car show goes up for sale to the highest bidder.

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Join Caffeine & Octane hosts as they preview a premier private collection and watch as Mecum pushes for a $15 Million dollar sale.

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Enjoy Season 5 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Davin is particularly excited for this latest episode of Redline Update, as the Redline Rebuild garage takes delivery of a new piece of equipment. The fresh acquisition will speed up restoration involving of all kinds of mechanical parts that would previously have to be sent out.

So what is it that has Davin grinning? A new blast cabinet from Vapor Honing Technologies, of course, which gets unloaded from the truck and unwrapped to everyone’s delight.  Wait a second, are those windshield wipers? Yep, Vapor Honing uses liquid water to carry an abrasive media, eliminating blasting dust and cushioning the part from aggressive media.

The result, as Davin shows, is a media blasting method that still reaches into tight corners and around complex shapes, but preserves details and underlying surface finishes. The before and after shots of the Honda Trail 70 hubs and engine castings are pretty shocking because even though the parts were not awful to begin with, just a little crusty and oxidized, they come out looking new.

Be prepared to see this latest addition to the shop get lots of use in future projects.

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Though the chassis of the ’37 Ford race car is making progress, the Chrysler 440 V-8 that belongs between its frame rails has been languishing in a corner … until now. Davin tore the powerplant down a while ago and now the 440 is finally getting its day in the sun—or, at least, its day in the machine shop.

Before the massive hunk of iron can get dropped off for final cleaning and machining prep, Davin attends to the little things that separate the best engines from the rest. Any engine builder can chase marginal gains in horsepower; that’s not Davin’s goal. Rather, he’s cleaning up the casting flash to improve oil drain-back and to prevent any large chunks from breaking off and getting pumped through the bearings with the oil. The process takes a bit of time, but peace of mind rarely comes free.

The engine is then declared ready to go and hooked into the back of the ’46 Ford pickup for the short drive over to Thirlby’s machine shop. Typically this would be its final stop, but for this Chrysler, Thirlby is only the initial destination. The cleaning will take place here; final assembly and dyno testing will occur at Apex Tuning. However, first the block needs to be preserved a bit to ensure that all the work done to clean it up is not wasted.

The first step is to oil down the block. Thanks to modern aerosols, this is an easy step and keeps the block from becoming a rusty mess after a few days of sitting in a plastic bag in the corner of the shop. If you’re also at this step with your own engine project, don’t be shy: This oil should be seen as an investment. Right before the block is machined, Davin will wash it all down and then the chips can fly to make way for new, oversized pistons. That’s for a later episode, though, so be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to catch the episode as soon as it goes live.

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Ricky catches speed at The Driving Club at Road Atlanta and racer Katherine Legge chats racing history with a Model A racer.

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Stranger things have happened. Bryan checks out some Hollywood stars with Picture Car Productions

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Enjoy Season 5 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

The real star behind Ford v. Ferrari makes an appearance and we roll out the red carpet for a Koenigsegg Regera

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