Technical What did you do today?

Today ( 1\1\20) I got up at 4:40 am and went to work for 16 hours at double time and a half. Gotta finance the indoor building season somehow!

 

Getting ready to head out and find a stash of stuff I saw 5 years ago. Should be fun since I only kinda remember where it was and now it's under piles of snow.

 

Fed my cows. and cut and hauled a load of firewood. now fixinf to play with the grandsons. Got a Rea Magazine in the mail. My 3 year old grandson Deano is looking at the Harbor freight page of tools. picking out the stuff he wants. Ive already fixed him up with a tool box and a good sized assortment of tools.

 

Had to move the Galaxie so the insurance company can retrieve my pickup truck. Did some fiddling and got the pieces together to rebuild the driver's side defrost cone. Previous owners yanked it down and left the metal tabs behind. Some glass cloth and epoxy and we'll see what happens. Fortunately no windows shot out in last night's festivities.

 

pulled the rockers and sump on my 348, but its still stuck ..

 

coffee, Rodders Journal ( re-read it ), checked out The SkidsKings VBC club New Years Day ride in Old Town Tacoma( annual happening along with other rides) check it out ..It's a Hoot !

 

Got motor/trans and exhaust installed on my 31 chassis.

 

That looks like fun.

 

Worked on the tear down of my '37

January 2nd 2020 Emptied Deerslayer's bed slowly as I organized the parts so I wouldn't loose track of them. Removed the tailgate and puzzled over the logistics of moving the heaviest items, the two Latham superchargers. The Positraction rear end chunk was lighter but still heavy from this geezer's perspective.

I was hoping I could dismantle the bed from the top down. I knew it was wishful thinking. Like all old pickup beds, the bed boards are held in place by bed strips attached by a grid of carriage bolts and fender washers. The hex nuts are all accessed from the underside.

First thing I discovered was that a few of the carriage bolts were above the gas tank. It would have to come out. It's still full of corn squezzin's stuff that used to be ethanol gas. It's heavy. Positioned my transmission jack under it for support and took off the tank strap hex nuts inboard, next to the axle, because, as Murphy would have it, they weren't halfway up the threaded rod as the more accessible outboard strap anchors were. Dirty work. Cut the fuel line with shears and rolled the tank out.

Deerslayer's builder, Tony, had connected the sender with blade terminals so I didn't have to cut the wires. He also fashioned a vent line that resided in the rear, right-side, stake pocket. Pretty neat.

 

I JUST found the reason my turbo 400 quit shifting properly!! I installed a toggle switch long ago... 1985, or so: to activate the electric passing gear kickdown. I've checked and tried several things to see why it suddenly quit shifting normally... wouldn't come out of first unless over 3,500 RPM!
Up until now, I hadn't even thought about that kickdown switch as I very seldom actually used it.
I decided to got test the car with that switch ON to see if it made a difference.
I got in the car and looked at the switch... it was already on!!
I turned the switch off; fired it up and took off for a test drive.
I worked great as it always had in the past.
I'm just tickled that the transmission is OK!
A great start to the new year!
Very Happy Al

 

It's those little things that we forget that tend to drive us crazy, Al. Glad the transmission is good to go. Makes you want to celebrate with Ice Cream.

 

The starter went on my Ford on 12/20. Got to wait for a warmish day to get a few people over to turn the car around so I can have access to it. Hoping it will crank if I whack it with a hammer...

 

Went thru my stash to find the Nison GMC cast exhaust I hid about 30 yrs ago. Found them behind a stack of clutches and flywheels. One flywheel was a brand new 37-39 Chev- 228-270 four bolt aluminum for a 10” disc. I have no idea why I have it. Also have 3 SBC’s one is steel, also no clue. Also 3 solid discs. 1-10 spline and 2-28 spline. I know why I have those. All were behind a Howard 12 port.

 

grand sons where awake at the first light. fed them and played on the puter some. Fed wood stove .cows and other critters. Then cleaned up and went to a old friend that's my age Funeral. That makestwo in less than a week.

 

finished building the stairs in the new shop. got the OSB up after insulating the wall. Ran 85 feet of #6 THHN from the house to the new panel. 45 degrees today, unusual for Jan. so we got a lot done. Lots more to do.

 

January 2, took a load of copper & aluminum to Lajoie's in Norwalk, five minutes into the ride home I spotted a Cunningham C4-R Coupe in oncoming traffic. They built ONE, and there are THREE continuations . Sign of a very good year ahead! Bob

 

Dang Bob - you didn't wip around to follow it.....man that was cool period of racing !

 

Took out the trans hump plate on the Studie truck......and so it begins.......

 

I was in shock, I've seen the Roadsters at Lime Rock but the Coupe was just outstanding. I've got to find a site with some information on it. Bob

 

Finished building and installing a front panhard bar on the '41 Merc. First test drive in a moderate crosswind was much improved. Tomorrow I'll know for sure if I did any good!

Terry

 

Working my way thru a Carter AFB rebuild for my 302 Jimmy.

January 3rd 2020 The Carter AFB is a touch different from the ones being rebuilt in the videos I've been studying and I've been coping with that best I can. When it came time to reinstall the jets, the primaries were located as in the video but the secondaries were not at the bottom of the fuel bowls where they are in the video and I removed them so long ago I couldn't remember where they came from. Eventually located them at the bottom of deep wells under the secondary venturi mounts.

I had to go into Deep Ponder Mode to figure a way to re-install them there. Hit upon an idea to use a thin pipe cleaner by putting the jet on the end of the pipe cleaner and using the pipe cleaner to get the jet started in the threads where a long screwdriver could finish the job. It worked well.

Accelerator pump jet housing, check weight, primary and secondary venturis and their assorted gaskets were next. These items were gritty and dirty and I couldn't remember why at first. Slowly dawned on me that I had not figured out the best way to clean these small parts and keep them organized at the same time when my activity ground to a halt. I did, however, get a fresh gallon of Chem-Dip before that happened and it beckoned now.

Started cleaning parts with a thirty minute bath as I needed them. Got the pump jet housing and venturis in place. Many parts will interchange and you can get things wrong and I did, occasionally, so my efforts had to be repeated a couple of times.

 

Made a few leather welding /machine shop aprons and vehicle registration column pocket out of leather.

 

Except for the funeral.Today is gonna be a repete of Yesterday. this rain and Humidity has all my joints hurting and Debbie is complaining of the same thing. The grandsons are running jumping and bouncing around like little goats.

 

Got the Galaxie street legal, forty minutes at the tax office and the DMV total. Not really roadworthy yet but I have to stay a step ahead of the code enforcement assholes. Insurance folks still haven't picked up the totalled pickup.

 

Worked on replacing the rotted out windshield frame and roof.

 

Got the Vette underside all sealed up.

 

Got my rocker arm shafts for the 390 Cad back from Rocker arms unlimited, had them hard chromed and centerless ground. Everything looked great and I assembled the rocker arm assembles for installation tomorrow. Good day in my book.

 

The kid decided to start on his Unibody today, so I helped him get the seat and gas tank out. And figure out what metal panels to buy that wouldnt be worth taking the time to make ourselves. So I kinda showed him how to shop around a bit and he placed his first order today! Should be fun, this is his first project, so I'll be there to help plan and guide him.

 

Having to go to our LAST Christmas get together. Been enjoyable but will be glad it will finally be over for another year!

 

I saw where that car was sitting on Signal Mountain in the sub-basement with the garage door that opened onto a 10 foot wide ledge over a several hundred foot sheer drop with no retaining wall. How in the hell did you get it out of the garage and up to street level?