My grumble, not a rant. I set the car on its suspension and the front end a tad low, Model A front end. I pull the spring out, pull it apart, unreverse the reversed spring and added a short spring because the clamp might've been bottoming out. Put it all back together. Too high. Take it apart, biugger up a bushing in the process and consider swapping the Ford shackles for some of those modern ones with the plastic bushings, I happen to have a set that is missing 1 bushing. I go thru all my stash and did you know those aftermarket shackles are metric! well, I figure I'd just swap them out for some bushings I had that fit except they were 1/2" ID, no problem I could use a bolt. I'm good to go on the shackles. Take the spring back apart and reverse the unreversed spring that I reversed to begin with, reassemble leaving the additional spring in place and paint the spring package. Start reinstalling the spring and realize I can't use the new shackles because I had made the shackle perch to Ford bushing size and the bronze bushings were too large. Back to fixing the original Ford stuff all the while thinking 'I am not going to throw or break anything' I finally get the shackles and spring back on it without blooding myself, reinstall the tierod, wheels and tires to let it back down on the ground. A tad low. Virtually right back to where I started. Sometimes, you just need a break and have something go right. Damn!
Geez, go up the U.P. and go do some fishing, everything will look better afterwards Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Once threw a pliers - nailed a full spray bomb of white paint & handle punched big clean hole. Now know why called a spray bomb. Still have some white paint on tools. Always restrain anger now.
There, right now. Trying to adjust tripower linkage ,fiddling with it better part of two days. Almost there then it binds again!!!!!!
I go through this quite a bit at work and at home. Sometimes it feels like I’m all thumbs and what ever I’m trying to do just won’t happen. Other times it’s diagnostic stuff and I just cant wrap my head around what’s happening or why. Go for lunch, take a walk, go on The H.A.M.B for a bit...... Go back to what ever was trying to slowly kill my and it just falls together !! Or re-look at that diagnostic stumper and go AHHHHHH ....THATS IT !!!! It’s that damn Murphy and his laws...... what an asshole for doing this to us ! It would be so nice if we could do this in real life !
3 inches under the oil pan, That sounds like my old T bucket that I busted the pan on speed bumps twice.
need a break?- no, I break stuff all of the time - post pics of this "custom" spring set up that you are frustrating yourself with
Everyone has a bad day, funny how the bad stuffs kinda waits for that day... Snapped off a head bolt on my flatty on the morning of our rod run... took the broken bolt head out of the torque wrench... turned and tried to throw it through the window... hit the window frame and it rolled back right between my feet... like it was laughing at me... picked it up and threw it through the window so hard it didn't crack the glass, just blew about a 1" hole through it... if not enough, about 2 miles from home with the windshield swung out, one of the radiator hoses let go... right in the face, water didn't have time to boil, but sticky green stuff found its way into and under everything in the tudor....
I didn’t know you could keep reversing and unreversing them. Thought maybe that would weaken the main leaf. Maybe that is why it still sits a tad low.... As to all the problems that you are experiencing, that’s just hot rodding ! When people ask me why it has taken so long to build my car, I tell them that it’s because everything gets done 3 times.......
3" under the oil pan? Sounds like a 4 wheel drive. I actually sectioned my oil pan, it might have 3" under it now, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Hahahahaha! Those are the reasons it took me almost 10 years to put my coupe together. I once worked with a guy who had a nasty temper and would throw tools. Working on a checker cab one day and he couldn't get the wipers to work right...tossed a pair of big channel locks right into the windshield and they stuck half in, half out of the glass. That was his last day.
Ah hell i’m worried if I don’t have to do everything at least three times! Everything goes to shit for me... Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
It's all fun and you got a good story to tell after some time has passed. But it's hard to keep cool when stuff just does not work out. The worst part is, I can't blame anyone but myself for screwing up. Lately I was trying to find a pair of better fenders for a 52 suburban I'm fixing up for my girlfriend . The stock ones were just as bad as the rest of the body so I found a pair of rust free truck fenders just 4 hrs away. So when I went to pick them up the guy also had the perfect front fenders laying around. So I bought them all. I knew I would have to narrow the rear fenders to make them fit the suburban , so I measured twice and cut to fit. When I tried to put them on it really hit me! Although I had cut them at their highest crown they were just too small. The crown on the truck fender was all different from the suburban one... So I swallowed deeply , and welded my pristine cut up truck fender back together and and started digging into the patched, bondoed and screwed up suburban fenders I already had ... Sometimes the easy way turns out to be the hard way... Hahahha , I 'd have saved a lot of time and money if I just fixed what I had instead of cheating my way out... I guess I learned this lesson.... Here are a few pics that proof what a dumbass I am, sometimes...
And then there's the guy you know that does everything right and everything just falls into place and he knows exactly what to do. Of course he has been a mechanic for 30 years. haha The aforementioned mishaps happen to me a lot, of course. Some of it has to do with my increasing lack of confidence that has been getting worse as I get older.
I think you need a good machinist buddy to go and sit and talk with once in awhile. Its always nice to have someone to bounce things off of.
I did the exact same thing when setting up my front end. Remember, if it was easy everyone would have a cool car!
I have had a year like that where anything that could happen has. I took the end of my right thumb off on a table saw last April, after surgery that was pretty much repaired. In October my worn-out left knee locked up and I was on crutches for three weeks until I could get a total knee replacement, after 36 P.T. sessions I have about 110* range of motion. This January my son and I were replacing a 10' high deck and it collapsed with us falling to the ground, I landed on my back on the concrete, hyper extended my neck and had a black and blue butt for a month, thank God no broken bones! I've been working a little on the frontend of my tudor project lately and it has pretty much matched your situation so I'm going to leave it at that..
The Jalopy Journal
