Tales Of A Mercenary Mechanic

[Rajobigguy]

Cool thread indeed. Looking forward to the pix and stories on the 1940 Deluxe Opera Coupe.


Wedding ring stories. When I was 16, I worked at this restaurant called Garcia's of Scottsdale in Bellevue WA. A Guy was working a fryer dropped his band into the fryer and with quick precision reached in to try and retrieve it. Nothing like 400 deg oil to make a sudden change of heart. LOL.
Back to the cool stuff.

I don't want to take this thread to far off track but I can't resist telling a couple of related tales about jewelry and fryers.
When it comes to rings, my experience was a class ring that I managed to get caught between the + and - cables of my car battery instantly turning my ring into a glowing band around my finger. Yeah try removing a ring when half your finger is blistered and swollen. That took some time to heal, and the ring had to be cut off. Interesting thing is that the emergency ward has a tool specifically designed for removing rings in this exact scenario so I guess it's not all that uncommon.
Now when it comes to watches, I used to work for an outfit that did repairs on street sweepers and one of the things that you do is to refurbish the brooms. The brooms is basically a big drum with a large spiral groove that you lay the bristles on as a cable is fed onto the drum and it pulls the bristles into the groove. So I was unwinding one of the brooms and feeding the cable onto a reel above the broom and a cable clamp on the steel cable caught my watch band and drug me up onto the spool. There is a deadman switch that is supposed to shut the machine down when your foot comes off of it but the damn pedal stuck in the on position and up I went onto the spool with a cable fimrly wrapped around me.
Now last but not least we get to the fryer story. Back many years ago when I was a youth working at a fast food establishment I was cleaning the over head vent hood and when I got the the section above the fryer there was a fair amount of grease build up in the area and I slipped. My foot went right into the fryer. Nothing quite like the smell of deep fried tennis shoes with skin blistering up like pork rinds ( chicharrones ).

 

[monkeyswrench]

With the stock 3.75 stroke it would be 258. This one has a Merc crank, 4.00 stroke...so a whopping 274 and change I think.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Well, on hold for parts. So, no 1940 Ford work. Keeping busy though. Front axle oil seals on a Freightliner chassis motorhome. Nice coach, sat for a long time. Pretty bad, went to drain the hubs, and only one had oil. Luckily, it hadn't been driven far or fast.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Well, from pimp ass diesel pusher...to a lady with more money than knowledge...She bought this "cute little car". Oil leak repair, lots of them. 1976 Super Beetle convertible. I may have to surrender my man card for a little while...

Fuel injection from the dinosaurs, and every BS smog thing known. Tried to talk her into a mild 2275 with a single Del...

I hope the parts get here for the 40 quick...

 

[monkeyswrench]

Well, pressure washed the living hell out of the underside. She isn't the pristine "survivor" the owner thinks. Floorpans still have the stickers on them...welded in recently judging the welds. A few minor leaks to deal with. Have to find out how they park. Was told it has a real bad leak near the back. Well, type 1 motors from the factory don't have a crank seal behind the pulley. If parked headed up hill, the oil goes by the slinger, onto the ground.

My man card should be arriving UPS tomorrow. Parts for the 40 are in route. Be able to put the metrics away....

 

[mjc]

Well, from pimp ass diesel pusher...to a lady with more money than knowledge...She bought this "cute little car". Oil leak repair, lots of them. 1976 Super Beetle convertible. I may have to surrender my man card for a little while... View attachment 850845
Fuel injection from the dinosaurs, and every BS smog thing known. Tried to talk her into a mild 2275 with a single Del...

I hope the parts get here for the 40 quick...

My sister had one of those, pain in the ass points would wear and injection would start to fail

 

[monkeyswrench]

My sister had one of those, pain in the ass points would wear and injection would start to fail

Yep, points with efi...primitive, but still. Previous owner didn't even put in the good ones either.
My wife's first car was a 65 Cal Look bug I resurrected for her. Fun car, ended up with a 1915 and Kadrons. Other than that, air cooled stuff was only for sandcars.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Well, Friday I almost got my man card back. Still no '40 parts, but worked on a truck. The guy has a box truck, and two panels on the roll up door were trashed. He bought two replacements, but they come undrilled, and about a foot too wide.

The replacements were metal wrapped wood. Not having a new panel blade, I was afraid I'd chew it up. Basically, I scored it deep both sides with a cutoff wheel.

Next step was to mark and drill a butt load of hole for the hinge pieces. Then, I had to make relief pockets for the hinge knuckles themselves. Since I am not a carpenter, I don't have much in the way of routers or mortising tools. I copied the depth and general shape from the original with the same cutoff wheel.

Next, I installed all the wannabe rivets. These things are pretty cool. The heads look like the big rivets that came on the door. They have about 5/8ths of an inch of fluting. Not knurled, like 1/16th inch wings. You drill the holes 1/4 inch, and then knock these in. They have 1/4-20 threads that you attach the hinges to. I hung the panels and zipped down the nuts with a 3/8ths cordless impact.

...and no, never done anything like that before. Now he wants to paint the other ones to match. Turned out good, no binding or goofiness.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Oh joy...my box full of flathead goodness arrived today, and so did the gaskets for the super-bubble. So, have some important stuff to handle in the morning, then VW sealing in the afternoon. Tomorrow night may be an ass-kicker though. My goal is to get the top end back together, ignition, carbs and genny on, as well as hanging the radiator. Hoping to fire Wednesday morning, re-torque heads in the afternoon, fire and cycle again by that night. If all goes well, drive and shakedown Thursday, load that night. Friday we're touring ASU's Glendale campus with my daughter. (Long story, but she's leaning hard a different way now). So, I'll be down 250 miles before I leave Friday afternoon. Busy week for a guy without a job

 

[monkeyswrench]

Busy day of BS. Did a sump and an oil pump in the bug. Also fixed a tranaxle leak and a fuel return that was not mentioned, and dangerous as hell.

After dinner, went out and started on the 40. Installed all the studs with thread sealant...since 22 of them go into water jackets. Cracked open a jar of Gasgacinch, and went to town. Almost there, button it up in the morning.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Had to hunt down some stuff that didn't make the shipment Distrubuter I was sent had no vacuum brake, turned out the radiator had no draincock, the fuel pump was missing pieces and the flex line from firewall to fuelpump was junk. Now I remember why I hoard some of this old crap. Fired it and ran it to running temp. Tonight I'll adjust the brakes, un-fucker the throttle linkage and re-torque the heads. I'll run it up to temp again tonight, so I can re-torque in the morning. One more cycle tomorrow and it should be ready to load.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Tired and in a Walmartian parking lot. Dropping off the 40 in a few hours. No cool pic outside, snow on the ground at home this morning. Here's how she looked last night before she got boxed up.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Back home...time to shower and sleep. He was happy with how it runs now...I had modified the distributor and carbs a little He has a 1950 I may go back and get in a few weeks. That may depend on the Covid-clusterF...

This week supposed to go look at a couple cars locally a guy has. All I know at this point is airbags setup too low and needs some metalwork for floors...Hell, I can't even tell you what cars...

Stay tuned, I'll know shortly...ish.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Well, the world has gone to hell in a hand basket. Projects from other people have been back burnered, as the financial world has seem to have imploded. Oh well...welcome to the corona virus edition: working on some of my own crap. Today I built kind of a fab cart deal. It has my little 110 wirefeed, a wimpy yet useful self contained plasma cutter, holds 2 bottles (one argon, one mix) and the frame was an old generator basket. Recycled, but makes the stuff easier to move around for misc. chores.

Started on a tool post type stand as well. Scrap metal and an Isuzu npr brake drum. Going to make different tops, shrinker/stretcher, shear and maybe a sand bag tray...don't know yet on that.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Well, the world has gone to hell in a hand basket. Projects from other people have been back burnered, as the financial world has seem to have imploded. Oh well...welcome to the corona virus edition: working on some of my own crap. Today I built kind of a fab cart deal. It has my little 110 wirefeed, a wimpy yet useful self contained plasma cutter, holds 2 bottles (one argon, one mix) and the frame was an old generator basket. Recycled, but makes the stuff easier to move around for misc. chores. View attachment 858322
Started on a tool post type stand as well. Scrap metal and an Isuzu npr brake drum. Going to make different tops, shrinker/stretcher, shear and maybe a sand bag tray...don't know yet on that. View attachment 858323

I’ve gotta do the same thing for my big grinder that I want off the bench.

Fire up that plasma cutter and trim those corners!!

 

[monkeyswrench]

I’ve gotta do the same thing for my big grinder that I want off the bench.

Fire up that plasma cutter and trim those corners!!

Picky, picky, picky
I figure that one's far from done...just a big doorstop at the moment. My buddy cleaned out his garage, and gave me a 20" hitch reciever tube. I'm going to cut that into a few pieces to make some "mounts". I should have worked on it more last night, but decided to do some playing...tried my hand at making slightly radius louvers. Never tried straight ones before either...

Didn't turn out too bad for my first attempt!

 

[lenmann]

Picky, picky, picky
I figure that one's far from done...just a big doorstop at the moment. My buddy cleaned out his garage, and gave me a 20" hitch reciever tube. I'm going to cut that into a few pieces to make some "mounts". I should have worked on it more last night, but decided to do some playing...tried my hand at making slightly radius louvers. Never tried straight ones before either... View attachment 858356
Didn't turn out too bad for my first attempt!

You got a Pullmax hidden in there somewhere. Those louvers look pretty good, how'd you do that?

 

[monkeyswrench]

You got a Pullmax hidden in there somewhere. Those louvers look pretty good, how'd you do that?

I wish! I'd love a Pullmax, but even used ones are beyond my means. I will eventually end up building a power hammer of some type...also from repurposed junk, I'm sure. Thumbnail dies for shrinking would be great.
These louvers were done with a bead roller, and some creativity. I actually slice the reliefs with a 4" cutoff, and then ran them through. I'll try a more obvious/pronounced radius next, cutout with a 2" cutoff on the die grinder. This is a test kind of deal. I know what I want for hood sides on my 31, but I also don't know anyone I can afford to build them. My test panel is 18g, but I'm thinking I will build the hood from 20g. There will be profanity, but at least I'll broaden my horizons a bit.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Ok, fiddle farted around today. Looked at an event trailer for Pepsi. It needs the landing gear extended, so you can crank it like normal tongue jacks. It'll be ugly...but functional. No rush, as there are no events...

Made the top portion for my tool post. Well, the first one. Shrinker and stretcher mounted to a Jeep adapter crossmember. It was a good size, so it came out of the scrap pile.

@HydroSkreamin nope, didn't cut the corners yet!

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Ok, fiddle farted around today. Looked at an event trailer for Pepsi. It needs the landing gear extended, so you can crank it like normal tongue jacks. It'll be ugly...but functional. No rush, as there are no events...

Made the top portion for my tool post. Well, the first one. Shrinker and stretcher mounted to a Jeep adapter crossmember. It was a good size, so it came out of the scrap pile. View attachment 858801 View attachment 858802

@HydroSkreamin nope, didn't cut the corners yet!

I was just trying to keep your ankles safe, that’s all.

I like the look of your louvers, but having done a bit of this before, I’d suggest laying out where you want the edges, laying tape/pinstripe where you want them, then using a tape, make the points where the ends will be. Drill these points. Then cut between the points. Than make a male die by hand to match out of some steel. If you have a backer with a hollow opening as a receiver, you can actually lay the hood upside down on the bench or floor and pound away one at a time. They will be consistent.

You can make a baby Pullmax out of an air hammer and some tubing. Not gonna make full fenders with it but you can flatten welds and the like, and just like in high school, you can turn anything into an ash tray!

Stay safe and keep expanding your talents and capabilities!

 

[Dirty Daytona]

I figured out Ford built a better mouse trap back in 1974. I was working at a machine shop at that time.

We had 80 percent chebby products in the shop at all times. Flat cams, burnt valves and wasted valve guides all day long. The SBC has to be the Worst designed engine of ALL time!

Didn't take long for even my dumb azz to figure out what a POS that engine was.

I had a 406 I built myself, in a 67 GTA Mustang back in those days. Even BBC powered cars couldn't come close to keeping up.

Don’t forget to mention rear main seals!!!! Why does every Chevy small block have a leaking rear main seal???

 

[monkeyswrench]

Don’t forget to mention rear main seals!!!! Why does every Chevy small block have a leaking rear main seal???

Don't worry, later models went to a 1 piece...they don't leak often.

I was just trying to keep your ankles safe, that’s all.

I like the look of your louvers, but having done a bit of this before, I’d suggest laying out where you want the edges, laying tape/pinstripe where you want them, then using a tape, make the points where the ends will be. Drill these points. Then cut between the points. Than make a male die by hand to match out of some steel. If you have a backer with a hollow opening as a receiver, you can actually lay the hood upside down on the bench or floor and pound away one at a time. They will be consistent.

You can make a baby Pullmax out of an air hammer and some tubing. Not gonna make full fenders with it but you can flatten welds and the like, and just like in high school, you can turn anything into an ash tray!

Stay safe and keep expanding your talents and capabilities!

I've seen the relief holes in the end of the cuts, and may try those next. My layout was definitely lacking. I used a piece of leaf spring I grabbed off the floor as my curved edge, and scratched my lines. No measurement at all, I had never set up these dies like this...didn't really know the spacing. I have also seen guys use kind if a radiused punch to shape the end of the louver...may mess with that too.
For the most part, I mess up on bigger pieces. In a way, that's good. I can usually salvage enough to build something else

 

[monkeyswrench]

More fiddling around...between picking up kids paperwork for school and such. Fixed some bicycles as well as had all three kids in class on how to swap tubes in bike rims...guess I was slacking on Dad detail.

Tried my hand at building my first hoodside. With the 31 being channeled and having a kicked up frame, I don't like the look of the frame. Too "rat rod" for what I'm after. I'm kind of leaning towards early lakes styling on the exterior, but modern stuff thrown in. Been searching out low(er) profile tires and such. Seems easy, until you look for tires for a 20x4.25 rim on the rear...
Anyways, here's one roughed ou hood blank. Going to have to do some knocking on it to turn the edges. Then play with louver layout and trimming.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Ok, got busy doing "normal" stuff. Did a clutch and slave in a Ford Ranger. BTW, follow directions bleeding those...not this one, but learned a few years back Also did something refered to as a 60k service on a 13 Chevy van...which basically means change the liquids, and look for broken stuff. All good.

Spent a few hours today dinking with my hood side experiment. Made a template so I can mirror for the other side.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Well, far from finished, but roughed out. Louvers are in, but not cleaned up yet. They need some finishing near the ends, and maybe a shrink here and a stretch there. Not scrap metal yet, so that's a plus. Doing them by hand, with a die and a receiver was going to be really tough on some of these. They all have a concentric radius. I think the first is around 7", going out to about 24. With the tighter radii, I'd have to have made arched receivers to support the metal. It would have been a lot of time with a jigsaw, for something I'm not too sure of yet.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Made a blank, and started figuring the other side. The first pic shows the first bead laid down. If I were more confident in my machining skills, and the world wasn't on fire, I would try to make a die set for this. That's what the real metal guys do, so I've read and watched. I, am not a real metal guy. To make the wide, shallow bead along the bottom, I ran an 1/8" step, with the offset around a 1/16th. That gave me the radius like a rolled bead. Problem is, I have to flip the dies and run it through parallel for the other side of the step...that's the second pic.

Bellow the bead in this pic is the edge I'm turning over. Giving it a 90 for some rigidity. In a perfect world, a guy would do that with a tipping die on the roller. Well, world isn't perfect. My pedal control died almost a year ago. It's a speed controlled motor deal. I hadn't thought to replace it, because I hadn't tried anything like this before.
Oops.
So, keeping the ball rolling, old school.

The first two are standard issue chinesium hammer and dolly. The other two, not so much. The trowel looking thing is a slap hammer. It can move metal without marring it much. This one I think I made out of a 35 Ford rear spring. The work surface is radiused and polished. The other hammer is about 10oz, shaped like a bullet. It is 1 1/4" steel, half round on one side flat on the other. The handle is an old shifter with shift knob. It's good for rough doming or inside radii...which is why it was out.

A little closer. Maybe mark and cut it. Then set up for louvers...

 

[monkeyswrench]

Ok, messed around a bit. Going to need some playing around, but not bad. Not cleaned up yet either. Got everything within a 16th of an inch of the other...a whole lot better than I thought I'd get. Less cussing on this one.

 

[boatnam2]

I don't want to take this thread to far off track but I can't resist telling a couple of related tales about jewelry and fryers.
When it comes to rings, my experience was a class ring that I managed to get caught between the + and - cables of my car battery instantly turning my ring into a glowing band around my finger. Yeah try removing a ring when half your finger is blistered and swollen. That took some time to heal, and the ring had to be cut off. Interesting thing is that the emergency ward has a tool specifically designed for removing rings in this exact scenario so I guess it's not all that uncommon.
Now when it comes to watches, I used to work for an outfit that did repairs on street sweepers and one of the things that you do is to refurbish the brooms. The brooms is basically a big drum with a large spiral groove that you lay the bristles on as a cable is fed onto the drum and it pulls the bristles into the groove. So I was unwinding one of the brooms and feeding the cable onto a reel above the broom and a cable clamp on the steel cable caught my watch band and drug me up onto the spool. There is a deadman switch that is supposed to shut the machine down when your foot comes off of it but the damn pedal stuck in the on position and up I went onto the spool with a cable fimrly wrapped around me.
Now last but not least we get to the fryer story. Back many years ago when I was a youth working at a fast food establishment I was cleaning the over head vent hood and when I got the the section above the fryer there was a fair amount of grease build up in the area and I slipped. My foot went right into the fryer. Nothing quite like the smell of deep fried tennis shoes with skin blistering up like pork rinds ( chicharrones ).

Poster boy for OSHA lol

 

[monkeyswrench]

Poster boy for OSHA lol

As a former construction dork, I'll admit OSHA has their place...unfortunately, I had to deal with them too. I think fry-boy has me beat though

 

[boatnam2]

As a former construction dork, I'll admit OSHA has their place...unfortunately, I had to deal with them too. I think fry-boy has me beat though

Pretty solid stories lol

 

[TomD]

Like the hood side panels. Dare to be different!!!

 

[monkeyswrench]

Heading further down the road of shit I know nothing about. Pedal down and hold on I guess. Messed around the other day with making some struts to fasten the hood sides to. Eventually, they will also help to locate the radiator...eventually.

Tonight I messed around making a hood top. I was more worried about the tapered radius than much else. Now, have to sneak up on one end, and then the other. Threw it on before I came in to see if the idea is coming close to what I had pictured.

 

[TomD]

The vision is getting clearer.

 

[lenmann]

Heading further down the road of shit I know nothing about. Pedal down and hold on I guess. Messed around the other day with making some struts to fasten the hood sides to. Eventually, they will also help to locate the radiator...eventually.

Tonight I messed around making a hood top. I was more worried about the tapered radius than much else. Now, have to sneak up on one end, and then the other. Threw it on before I came in to see if the idea is coming close to what I had pictured. View attachment 865898 View attachment 865899

The hood looks good. Seeing the whole car now, I am digging the arc'd louvers more. Kinda reminds me of a 50's Citroen 2CV.

How did you form the tapered radius on the hood?

 

[monkeyswrench]

The hood looks good. Seeing the whole car now, I am digging the arc'd louvers more. Kinda reminds me of a 50's Citroen 2CV.

How did you form the tapered radius on the hood?

I'll have to look up a Citroën...don't know much about the older ones. I got the idea from a 30 Deusenburg. They tapered to follow the fender line, and also radiused.

The hood is really just bent over pipe. It's too big to go in my slip roll, and I suck at making consistent tapers with it anyway. Probably later I'll get a picture of my sheet "bending pipes". Some day I'll get back to working on my english wheel project. For now, still finding parts.

 

[lenmann]

I'll have to look up a Citroën...don't know much about the older ones. I got the idea from a 30 Deusenburg. They tapered to follow the fender line, and also radiused.

The hood is really just bent over pipe. It's too big to go in my slip roll, and I suck at making consistent tapers with it anyway. Probably later I'll get a picture of my sheet "bending pipes". Some day I'll get back to working on my english wheel project. For now, still finding parts.

Do you have a frame for your wheel project? I got a wild hair once about 7 years ago and decided I was going to use this old bandsaw frame to build a wheel. It's vintage late 1800's American cast iron, plenty heavy, and could easily be fitted with one of the wheel kits out there: https://www.tinmantech.com/products/forming-machines/english-wheel/english-wheel-rolls.php

I am over it now and looking for a good home to place it in. Its your's for nothing if you want it, just gotta come to NorCal to get her. I hate to scrap it.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Do you have a frame for your wheel project? I got a wild hair once about 7 years ago and decided I was going to use this old bandsaw frame to build a wheel. It's vintage late 1800's American cast iron, plenty heavy, and could easily be fitted with one of the wheel kits out there: https://www.tinmantech.com/products/forming-machines/english-wheel/english-wheel-rolls.php

View attachment 866226

I am over it now and looking for a good home to place it in. Its your's for nothing if you want it, just gotta come to NorCal to get her. I hate to scrap it.

I had started building a frame already. I think that ended up on my ChittyChittyBangBang thread. Those band saw frames are stout. I've seen a couple guys even turn them into louver presses. If I were closer, I'd make a run for it. I could either use it for a wheel frame, or a power hammer frame (also on the list of stuff I want to build) I am looking for a good wheel to polish up to make a top anvil. I can't finish the frame I have until I know what spacing will be. I'll probably end up ordering 2 sets of Harbor Freight lower anvils, and using them.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Well, sneaking up on it some. Need to suck in the front a little tighter, and loosen the rear up. Getting there though. At least when this is done, I can use it to mirror a pattern for the other side.

Here are some pics of my bending thingamabob...really don't know what you call it. It's just some 4" tube, with a retainer on one end to hold a smaller tube. Was going to hinge it and make a wing nut retainer. That was 5 years ago. The whole thing is hinged on the old Pexto slip roll. It just gets swung behind it most of the time. I built this for doing trans tunnels and stuff like that with larger radii.

 

[lenmann]

Well, sneaking up on it some. Need to suck in the front a little tighter, and loosen the rear up. Getting there though. At least when this is done, I can use it to mirror a pattern for the other side. View attachment 866332
Here are some pics of my bending thingamabob...really don't know what you call it. It's just some 4" tube, with a retainer on one end to hold a smaller tube. Was going to hinge it and make a wing nut retainer. That was 5 years ago. The whole thing is hinged on the old Pexto slip roll. It just gets swung behind it most of the time. I built this for doing trans tunnels and stuff like that with larger radii. View attachment 866337 View attachment 866340

That's pretty crafty right there, thanks.

 

[monkeyswrench]

That's pretty crafty right there, thanks.

A long time ago I read in one of the dry lakes racing books about Don Blair running his lakester in the roadster class. They took down a street sign and bent it around an acetelyne tank. Done that a time or two. Seen all kinds of setups. One of the better ones was about an 8ft length of heavy pipe, welded to a stand on each side, like a big saw horse. Mine was all scrap I had, and happened to be about 40". Really simple, but works pretty decent.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Tweaked hood a little more tonight. Had to get creative. The bottom edge has a lip that turns under, about an inch, and maybe 120 degrees? Used the brake and got the 90...but even that was tweaking the hood.

Panel flanging pliers would probably have worked, but I had no clue where mine have ended up. Sooo, sacrificed a chinesium wrench, and welded on two pieces of 3/16" that I think was a leaf spring...now an adjustable, portable, low clearance sheet metal bending thing...that was available at 9pm...

And that is why I don't mind having some Horrible Freight stuff laying around.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Well, the front gap along the top of the radiator shell was horrid. Part of it was my hood building skills (or lack there of), and part of it is using the cheapest 32 shell ebay had to offer 5 years ago...the rear lip leans forward at the top. So, no big deal...just add a pie shaped piece, fire up the tig, no problem...
Wrong!
Two things against me. The first, really haven't fired up the tig in about a year. Think I may have done one or two aluminum repairs, but no low temp mild steel sheet metal. The other thing, my left hand. I had really just got back to feeling comfortable with the nerve damage from my car accident...been almost 15 years, but took a lot of time where I just flat didn't try. Numbness in feeding the filler rod is a bitch. If you tig, or torch weld, you know there's a lot going on. Well, I had that little dog issue in February. Tore my left thumb all to hell. Turns out, back to not being able to feed filler steady again...crap!

So, the hood top is not ready for it's closeup yet. It needs to be ground, and persuaded a little.

Good news, I found a roll of craft paper that will work for making a pattern. That's the main reason I was adding metal tonight, so it will be good to go. At least there's no rush on this one...car has been a pieced together project I've had for 8 or 9 years!

 

[monkeyswrench]

Still not purdy, but trimmed to fit in the openning now. You can see the top of the grill shell kicks forward about 5/8ths...not the normal, even plane that it's supposed to be on. The pie piece is in, and flapper wheeled a little, but no dolly or tapping yet. Got anxious, and wanted to see how close she'd get. Haven't touched it since my last post...had a little issue.

With the honey-do list in full effect, built a planter and moved a fire pit. Also, leveled out some sand and place border stones...in the sand, with wind. Well, currently playing pirate with a patch on my right eye. Scratched cornea...woohoo. So, that being the case, not going to swing a hammer and tweak things until I have both eyes in agreement.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Went out tonight and pulled the hood top, and sat it up on some coffee cans. Took a roll of "craft paper", some magnets and one of my kids crayons and went to town.

Now, in theory, I should be able to flop this over, and make the other side....in theory. For now, it's on the shop fridge. I'll cut a hood blank tomorrow and see how far I get. Maybe "breaking out" tomorrow afternoon...Haven't been to the river in months. Hopefully I can get something running and in the water. Either way, going to get hot, have to set AC and such.

 

[TomD]

Looks good!!!! That front end is something you don't see everyday. Like your style man!!! Adapt, improvise, overcome!!!!

 

[monkeyswrench]

Looks good!!!! That front end is something you don't see everyday. Like your style man!!! Adapt, improvise, overcome!!!!

The front end is sitting at "full dump" right now...air bags inside the frame rails, and mounted to a floating crossmember between the wishbones. The other reason it needed a hood...to cover the not so old school stuff going on.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Ok, starting with the blank. A little tip for those who don't know: have right and left cutting tinsnips. The normal yellows do both, but a right and a left actually have the cutting blades opposite. This means the selvage will either peel up, or down. A friend taught me this. You can nick the ends of your scribe lines to be sheared. With the ends turned down, it will catch on the cutting edge. It makes it a positive stop when the lines are hard to see.

This will also work with one pair of shears, just have to tweak them with needle nose pliers. This works good when you don't have a shear, but can take it to someone who does. No mismarked or misread cuts.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Ok, roughed out, and filling the hole. Not fit or finished by a longshot, but at least the general concept.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Tweaked, cut, bent and modified tonight. Kind of got it sitting how I wanted, then trimmed off some excess. I put the drivers side through the bead roller to step it.

Then I took my Roper Whitney Jr punch and made some holes in the passenger side. Fit it, and used those to mark the holes on the driver side. I may run more, don't know yet.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Today was a mercenary kind of day. Did new seals and rings on outrigger pistons for an older Case backhoe.

Once I got the end cap loosened, I "gently" removed the lower pin...with a 3# singlejack. Propped up the cylinder on a block, and removed the cap and piston assembly.

Here it is getting cleaned up. Sucker's about 50-60lbs.

That's an inch and 7/8ths bolt torqued to "Holy Crap". Big impact wrench... The piston had been marred by someone putting it in a vice, so took some time deburring it with a tooler's file. All new seals installed on the outriggers. It has more leaks, but not as bad as these were. Probably be a reoccuring role here...some of these leaks may be bigger fights. Cross that bridge when he wants them done.