Great work as ever, Robert. I thought you were getting a cast iron wheeling machine, what's with the new wheels?
Yesterday we took delivery on an 8' piece of pipe, 4-1/2" OD with 1/2" wall thickness. Will come in handy as the column for the pedestal planishing hammer build.. A bit more clearancing for the header tube. Perhaps this fine tuning will also add a few HP... Didn't show too much detail on the Explorer brake install last week, so let's see if we can do better today.. The "kit" was designed for the big bearing rear housing with the Torino ends. As luck would have it, the Lincoln Versailles used a big bearing early style, so we'll need to align and enlarge some holes.. Bolted in place using two opposite holes and the included metric bolts, we used the axle bearing as an alignment tool for the backing plates.. Then used a right angle drill for better access in drilling the holes.. This worked for all but one hole that was directly in line with the axle pad.. So we had ordered some shorty 1/2" bits, and still had to take another inch off the length and step the diameter for the drill chuck. Backed into a corner? No problem! And here's our final version on the brake hose anchor bracket, by popular demand! Then this will get epoxy primed along with the other bare brake parts and we'll just touch up the plug welds after welding in place..
That bracket looks good Robert. I've been able to "sharpen" a bit to get it to drill three sided holes in the past but I've never mastered the 6 sided hole bit, very impressive!....(-;
A step drill was used to open a hole the same size as across the flats. Then I found a triangular file that was the same width as the flat on the hex, and filed the top and bottom until the "radius" was now flat. Then used the corner of the file straight into the sides of the hole to mark the midpoint, and filed between the corners until the remaining flats appeared. Or something like that... With the new brake parts all prepped for paint, and the owner not too keen on blue Monroe shocks (I told her it was Ford blue just to instigate), time for some more Epoxy this evening.. Meanwhile Kyle worked on repairing the cross piece for my brother in law's press that we tore up the other night. seems the "peg" hanging down didn't have room for the long axle under, so I put it next to it. We cracked the weld around the peg and pushed it in pretty good. So to make sure he'd let us use it again, we got some replacement parts... The brake anchor brackets had been spread apart and a quick coat of SPI sprayed on the inside, then clamped closed with NNVG for the remaining spray session. Quite the clamping conglomeration... ....and the rest of the parts... After the shocks first coat of epoxy had flashed, they got two coats of the silver Imron...
Well soon after the 35 Chevy returned from GNRS, Cody had it blown apart again to tackle more items on the to-do list.. One of them being inner fenders, which he had asked if we would punch some louvers in those as well. He hand fabricated these parts, seen here: He had quite a bit of work in these and had suggested shipping them down, but we aren't that far apart so I suggested meeting in the middle to pass off the parts rather than trust them to shipping. So we guessed on Parole, MD as being close to a good midpoint, and picked the Double TT Diner to grab some breakfast and catch up on his trip to Pomona. Kyle and I arrived and had made about one lap through the parking lot when Cody pulled in, so this worked to be a good halfway point between Southern MD and Milford DE. Here's what we picked up.... This has a tighter radius than what we had done for the hood sides, so for the punch to better follow the contour, or sit perpendicular to the point of punch, we plan on a rotational fixture attached to the linear slide that the "trough" of the inner fender can be rolled from side to side.. More on that to come.. On the way home from Parole, we made a stop to look at an old fire truck that was slated for a total restoration. We did a quick survey of the truck and made some recommendations to the owner.. While we were there, also stumbled across another 35 Chevy. These 35's are coming out of the woodwork it seems.. Back in the shop, getting ready to re-assemble the rear. Test fitting the rear axle bearings, as the brake kit had come with some .250 thick spacers... My vernier depth gauge showed that the actual distance was .203, so some trimming was in order... With all the parts now test fitted, we took the rebuilt press parts back and gave them a trial run... With the press back in business, the only thing left to do there is to add it in the mix the next time we spray some epoxy, and I generously offered some of the leftover orange from the trailer wheel painting, but my brother-in-law seems a bit apprehensive. Brake line brackets were removed from the paint stand, and this is the first time I noticed these Vise Grips had a Gene Winfield fade paint job on them.. Brackets were plug welded to the housing, welds scuffed and touched up with some SPI epoxy.. Newly painted shocks were reinstalled, and rear brake parts all installed.. A bit closer....
I imagine you keep a running total of hours spent on the 55 for billing purposes can you give us an idea how many hours has gone into this fantastic build?
Of course you and Cody know each other . Some sort of master metal league, like super hero metal men with Gene the over lord . Love the work ! Blue
Professionalism and craftsmanship. You rarely see both at the same time or in the same person. That's why I love this build.
After finishing some louvers this morning, we turned our attention back to the wagon. We started installing the brake lines and found the "kit" the owner had purchased was far from a direct fit. here's the booster and master cylinder we're using... As the kit had no lines to fit a 9" rear, we used a stick of stainless tubing that was left over from the Fairlane job and bent our own.
Adding the rear axle vent hose, we needed a spot to anchor the second vent fitting to keep the hose from flopping around... Which is threaded with a 7/16-20 thread With Loctite added to the threads... More SS brake lines... With the rear brake lines complete, the rear wheels were bolted back up.. And for our lessons learned, this is what happens when you cut 12 gauge steel with a square on the other end of the shear. Dan, the blades are still sharp!
Thanks again for sharing Robert. Just curious, will you use MIG or TIG to put the square back together, and what filler wire works best for that??..(-;
Ha! Please show us the final result of the square repair. That would be a great lesson for your apprentice. It'll teach him to keep his tools orderly.
Hey Robert. Have not talked in a while, excellent workmanship as always! But you know I think it has been like 10 years or so, Get some paint on the wagon, the suspence is killing me !!!!! LOL I am still keeping tabs on you! Larry of L&L Custom Performance fame. Or was that disaster I forget.
Hey Larry, good to hear from you again!.. Unfortunately the day job for the past MANY years has included extensive travel, so when one does return from that, there are those HoneyDoLists to address first and foremost. If I weren't working for peanuts in the shop I would likely already be full time there and completed this project long ago. Thanks for the kick in the pants though!
Robert, amazing attention to detail and amazing workmanship. Question. The drive shaft angle looks extreme. Is that a optical deal with camera lense?
We started on an ashtray delete mod for the wagon, starting with this... a bit wider opening... Now to remove the glove compartment door "skin"...... Then used these to flatten out the flanges... Looks like someone may have kneed the glove box at some point... The inside looks real nice for 61 year old metal, still shining! Now time for the post anvil... Here's our widening method for the inner door and the outside will get a new skin made up..
Well Robert as any happily married car guy will tell you "a happy wife, a happy life" so always keep the honey do list on top of "the to do list"! As far as the shop deal .; Well you and I had this conversation years ago when you asked me if you should expand the shop and go "main street". And you know I went from a one man 4000 sq. shop in the country behind the house, to a six man plus a receptionist 10,000 sq. shop on the inner state. And now I am back in the old shop by myself and so much happier. But even with just lights , heat and insurance being my overhead and charging $45.00 per hour, { The big shop was $75.00 , and my accountant said it should have been a $100.00!!!} it is still tuff to get customers to understand that a 100 hours of time is still $4,500 and if two guys are working on it is 200 hours! And you know how fast a 100 hours burns up doing top shelf work. So even if your day job sucks ! You have a great hobby shop to come home to! Unfortunitly for me I only know how to be self employed! Keep up the great work and above all keep Honey happy!!! Larry
Kyle continued on reshaping the opening for the glove box, and I got started in trimming the filler panel for the inner glove box door.... To try and keep our shape around the lock cylinder symmetrical, we cut out a profile template... Adding the bends.... Looking for a proper sized circle pattern, Mickey Thompson comes through... Some bead roller action... Some TIG welding, we'll finish this up next time..
Thanks guys! Spent some time in the shop tonight finishing the other weld but I was on a roll and forgot the in process pics.. Have to get a new photographer, this one just isn't working out.. Or the motion picture... The new Tommasini Wheeling machine is on it's way north from Rock Hill SC, we'll be picking it up this weekend. Once it's set up we can whip out the new glove box door skin..
The front brake line distribution block showed up, so let's get the front lines finished up.. My tubing bender was not getting the nice small radius I was looking for, so time for a new tool. Here's a pulley out of the furniture and hardware parts bins at the local Ace store.. Here's the comparison to the tubing bender.. Bending the tubing...
Cool idea Robert. You were able to bend stainless tube like that without any follower on the back of the tube and not have any kinks? Must have maintained pretty significant tension on the tubing as you pulled it around the die.
The Jalopy Journal
