Projects The bucket of ugly! A de-uglifying thread...

Well, I live in Canada, our government specializes in FOSTERING depression, not TREATING it!!

 

Sad to say, it's not only Canada!

Am I the only one to have noticed, that it's been a long time since a; I hate this, and now it's fixed!
And even longer since a miss jody story hit this thread! They make me laugh sooooo much

 

Well, I don't have a Miss Judy, but I do miss reading Chips minor struggles. They remind me that it's not just my stuff that seems to be cursed sometimes. One of the reasons I hate reading builds in the magazines, is that they never tell about the stuff that doesn't go right. Or how the wrong part got ordered or sent. Or how slaving on a fabricated part is all for nothing, when another idea pops in your head.

That's how we end up with these crazy collections of valve covers, air cleaners, carb linkages, alternator mounts, etc.. Just to name a few.

 

ROFLMAO!! Why is it that I always seem to think of a better way to do something as soon as I finish doing it the "not so great" way!!

 

Ya, it's been a bit. Lately I have been so busy with everybody else's stuff that my car has just been driven - hard. I guess I could I could describe the living hell I have been going through with balancing these front wheels and tires though.

I literally have had the fronts balanced six times each. Every time it would pick up a weird harmonic somewhere else in the speed range and end up with either front wheel about an inch off the groud at some speed. I finally got everything dialed in back at the beginning of the month, but was still fighting a problem where I was losing about 10lbs of tire pressure in the left front every day. That sucked because when the tire pressure changed, so would the balance, and back would come the floppy front wheel effect. So, to avoid having to dismount and rebalance the left front again, I used a tire sealer one of my customers who sells wheel and tire accessories. (you might remember from the opening pages of this he delivered the lug nuts that put the Americans and slicks on. Gary Powell, if you need lug nuts you can't find locally, call him at 602 690 1820 and he'll ship 'em to ya!) Well, I didn't lose any more tire pressure, but damn if it didn't change the balance one more time!!! This time it's at 30 mph that the left front is bouncing like a super ball!!!
So, back over last week to balance that again, and now it's bouncing around at 65... 'Bout ready to fall on my sword on this one.

 

Chip, have you tried the legendary dyna-beads?

 

Chip, not to tell you how to run your thread, but that's the kind of misery a lot of guys can relate to. So, when it happens, write it out and let the collective have a crack at a solution. When I get my coins in a row and drop them on a 3x2 setup, I'm not making a thread about it. I'm dropping the news, updates and anguish, right HERE.

 

Could be much worse... Your best friend could be H.A.M.B. and world in general fabrication and suspension GOD Elpolacko... See, on my own I am noted as a very crafty and talented car builder/fabricator. I run a pretty busy shop with a pretty strong waiting list at this point to get stuff done. I can spend an evening pouring over the design for a bracket to make it as functional, clever and beautiful as it can be, go out the next day and spend what ever time it takes to make that bracket the very best it can possibly be. Install it on a customer car, and anybody that sees it goes nuts 'cause it's just flat bitchin'! Steve (Elpolacko) will stop by for lunch, and look at said master work and say "Well damn, that is cool! But if you did this and this and this, it could have also done this, and that one rough edge that you sweated over wouldn't have had to be there...." Pick and chose your friends wisely... I'm proud that a few of mine seem to run on genius level!

 

Absolutely! That was my first go 'round on these, and my go-to in most cases. Thing is, vintage wheels are notorious for not being the very best of machined items, and it was taking a bunch more beads than I was able to find locally. I can't help but think that if I had dumped another bag in each I wouldn't be in this hell...

No man, I have been trying to share as much of my misery as I can through the pages of this thread. But with this balance issue, I am just flat embarrassed at this point. See, I'm one of the people around this town that folks bring their cars too to FIX the stuff that nobody can quite figure out, and here I am in epic "fail" mode on my own stupid simple problems. But ya, I'm happy to share what doesn't work when it goes wrong most of the time.

 

I know I have mentioned my ( long deceased) mentor, and related this short conversation him on here a few times. It went something like this.
Me: "so Bob, I'm building this sbf with TRW L2450's, do you think it'll pick up any power if I install them backwards?"
Bob: "cant see it'll hurt, if your building it, it'll probably blow up anyway."

He was a little more "taciturn". And some guys on here think I'm curmudgeonly!

 

Heck Fred, you summed up Hot Rod building in the one simple sentenence and made me laugh as I remembered all the things I have so proudly spend time making just to place carefully under the bench amongst other likewise things to maybe use some time other and gone in a totally different way. I too have a friend that builds cars for a living that has such a nice way of telling me that I f--ked up big time and I should of done it this way, but gladly, he is still a good mate.
Thanks Fred and the others for showing the interior photos of seats and E-Brakes, I am now thinking a long the lines of the Lokar type one so that will be number 4 idea. When i purchased the car the handbrake was parallel to the seat base and one had to which down between your legs to get to it but it never worked very well so why I have moved it. Fred I do like your idea of no trim look but I'm going with trim like Keep has used in his Bucket, although I'm hoping to use dead cow.

 

Go for it. Get it how YOU want it.

 

What I should of said is I like the idea of keeping as much space inside the body useable and where you have chosen to use a deck liner type product which looks simple, clean and affective, I do like the idea of " Keep's " hardly padded trim on the inside of the body. Why I mention this is that I gained atleast 4" each side of the interior space when I removed the '80's style large padded roll of cloth around the top of my body and then the buttoned trim under it so want to keep as much interior space for me and passenger.

 

Louvers: Mysterious unobserved tire-bubble? One wheel w/a weight or ding or align issue?
Bushing wear, steering box slop? Sounds like something is setting up a harmonic.

 

Ya, been over the tires about 100 times each, and no anomalies that I or anybody else can find. Dis mounted everything and spun the wheels up on a friends lathe and dial indicated everything, and all was well within what normally be called spec. The chassis is checked, double checked, then checked again just to appease my crazy, and all is well there too. I have tried every toe in from + 1/4" to - 1/8" in 1/16" increments, and it's happiest at + 1/16", so that's where it has stayed. Steering box is all new and adjusted as tight as can be driven with. caster has been run everywhere from 5 degrees to 9 degrees, and remains at a "standard" 7 degree setting. Spindles shimmed tight, and all ties rod ends and such new. I've covered all the bases.

At this point, just adding the sealer through the balance out on the left front, so I am relatively sure it's a balance issue. just changing that makes a dramatic difference every time we re balance stuff, or even move the weights inward or out ward.

The last shot might be something inside the construction of these tires that is making them crazy.

 

All the specs sound good, 1/16th toe has never led me to trouble.
I've seen breaking down, and remounting after clocking the tire rotation
to help, just as a last ditch effort.

 

Another "last ditch" effort involves replacing the tires completely or even trying a different tire - wheel combo.

 

I had a tire go bad invisibly once due to an internal ply separation which allowed part of the tire to "grow" a wart at speed but looked normal at all other times. Drove me crazy, too. It eventually disassembled itself in a dramatic fashion. No damage done, but could'a...

 

Yup. Many decades ago, same thing with a buddies Vista Cruiser. Untraceable vibration due to an internal ply separation.

 

Just a thought, Chip have you swapped sides with the tires to eliminate some sort of chassis input generating the issue with setting up the hop?


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Might be a long shot and probably already checked, but I chased the same issue last year. Turns out my king pin bushings were off.

If you put the kingpin in all the way through the spindle, it was tight, if you only put it in one end, it was loose. Turns out they were reamed incorrectly. I installed new ones and had the local machine shop ream them to fit the pins, and no more wobble.

 

Been through all of the above at some point or another. The fact that I had it in balance before adding the sealer juice tells me that I am chasing a balance issue however. Just have to keep futzing until I get it back to where it needs to be...

 

You're going to find it...then award us all with your solution!
Something about; inquiring minds?

 

Chip,
One thing I didn't see mentioned....do you have access to an old school bubble type tire balance machine? If so, break the beads and move the tire around the rim till you find the most neutral balance spot, then seat the beads and spin balance. I also hear they have these new balance machines that can spin balance the tires while their on the car, but I haven't seen one in person yet. Might be worth calling around to see if anyone there has one. I have had to have a tire shaved before because it just wasn't quite round. Only places that do that anymore (at least around here) are semi truck shops.

 

Borrow some wheels with tires mounted from a friend that knows they are o.k., and take a test run.

 

Okay. Hopefully Chip won't mind if I open the top-or-no-top discussion once again...with a twist. I bring my question here because there are a couple of greybeards like myself who understand that it's not a matter of fashion but of survival.

Now that I have experienced something akin to Chip's "115-degree topless in Phoenix" experience with my new car in Texas, and have already had multiple chunks of skin removed from my head so driving without some sort of sun protection is not an option, what does one do for a hat that will stay put at highway speed?

 

That is a problem. I just usually tighten the band on my ball cap and keep my head down. I've tried caps with chin straps but in the right wind it just whips around you and pulls it off from behind. I guess that's another reason for a top on your roadster.

 

Wonder if the bubble-type might also help IF a drum was 'involved.'

 

Motorcycle doo-rags are about the only thing I found that works. Beanies when its cold.

 

I can say from personal roadster riding experience and having a bald head that you need a snug fitting Flex Fit ball cap.
I have one and it is super comfortable and stays in place during open top runs.
http://www.flexfit.com/about