Drilling, sleeving and polishing 32 wishbones.

I have been wanting to do a tech thread on this for awhile, and when fellow HAMBer inquired about having his done it seemed like a good time. Drilling split wishbones is nothing new and most consider lightening holes a nice detail. Some just drill holes and leave it at that and others like to weld in sleeves, both ways work fine, it's just a matter of preferance.

This pair has had some modifications in its life so it will be a repair thread also. This pair will have a sleeved slot for the tie rod to pass through, SO-CAL speed shop sells them with this feature too. The following text and pics is not the only way or the best, it's just how I do them. I have done 16 or 17 sets and have developed a few shortcuts to help save time.

Let the cutting begin!!!

 

Too much text!! We need PICS!!!!

 

Here are the bones as received, I took them to the blaster to see what I had to work with.
I wanted to bring these back to stock 32 length so I pulled some donor wishbone material out of the stash pile. I cut up the bone far enough to get back to the unmodified area and will attach the two. The previous hot roder put in a later pinch threaded sleeve and clamp and re-welded the main seam, all will be removed and redone. It's hard to tell but there is some deep rust pitting up by the clevis end, but most will be lost to the slot and the holes.

 

I took some round solid stock and ground down the sides to give it the oval shape so it would fit snug in the bone. The donor wishbone was a later one and has a thicker wall, i cut a sliver out and then clamped it tight to the slug and used a straight edge, then tacked it all together. After welding i went to the press and put the hurt to it to get it back to round after the welded joint. Using a the straight edge again i could see where i needed to fill, I layed down a few welds, let it sit for abit and repeat some more until it was high enough to start grinding. Using the angle grinder and flap disc I got it pretty smooth and finished with a flat file. There are still some small areas to go over but it's looking much better.

 

The owner had previously sent his 32 axle to 296 V8 to have it dropped and filled, he then sent it to me. Using some 32 spindles and a mockup tie rod I ran the spindles through their movement. I drew a pattern for the slot and took it to my buddies to have them water jetted out of 1 1/4" plate. I layed the freshly jetted slot pieces on the bones and marked them. I put the bones in the mill and drilled two holes and then used a grinder with a cut off wheel to cut the straight portions. Tomorrow hole layout and drilling.

 

I'll be watching this one.

 

I layed out the hole saws in 1/8" increments and marked their location. After drilling all the holes i gave the bones the first rough polish before fitting and welding in the sleeves. I use a 7" diameter flap wheel to polish the flats inside the clevis as the smaller ones won't reach. I only take off enough to get a smooth surface. I needed some more sleeve tubing so I went down to my local steel supplier and bought some short pieces of the diameters needed. You can't get tubing in 1/8" increments, so I use water pipe to fill in the sizes between tubing.

Next, sleeve cutting, fitting and welding.

 

Lookin good lots of work but well worth it

Heres a link to the ones I did http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=388265

 

I cut all the sleeves on the chop saw and then cleaned them up on the disc sander. I grind the outside as well as the ends to clean of all surface rust. I use an electric die grinder with a carbide tip to run the inside edge of all the holes removing any burrs from the hole saws. I then use the carbide bit to add a chamfer to the edge of the holes to give some depth for the weld bead to lay in. I do the same to the edge of the sleeves. Leaving the sleeves to long gives you a weld back stop and helps to keep from burning over the edge causing time consuming repair. Before fitting the sleeves I make sure to blow out all debris as I don't want the bones to sound like a Native American rain stick. I weld them all in solid and less than beautiful looking weld beads are no problem as they will all be sanded smooth.

Next, weld, weld, weld and more grinding......were getting closer.

 

I like your bones....well done. Im intrested in the steps you take to get it polished and ready for chrome.

Rob

 

Looking good, dude.

 

Nice work, Harv.

 

Great Post

 

Using a 60 grit flap disc i sanded down all the welds and the sleeve edges making sure to keep the top 1/4 of it FLAT at all times. Rolling on the edge or dipping into one of the holes will create a time consuming repair. After careful welding there is always some low areas, I weld them all in and sand again. Some of the holes are less than 1/5 the size of a pin head. These would easily be filled with primer but being these will be chromed they have to go away. I used the die grinder again to sand the inside of the holes and remove the factory weld seam, it takes abit but it goes away. The clevis area has a nice peak I just smooth it and leave it. Even the inside of the cup gets a good polish. All sanded areas will be gone over again with a finer grit.

 

Great job and nice work, Harv!!

 

I bevel the end of the bones and weld the bungs in, grind and fill any low spots. After grinding down all welds and filling any tiny pin holes its time for the final polishing. To give them their final finish i use 7" scotch brite pads on the angle grinder, coarse and then medium. I also go from 60 grit to 120 on the die grinder flap rolls. The first part i polish with a new pad is the cove at the clevis, i attach the pad offset so it hangs over the edge of the velcro backing. Doing this allows it to flex into the cove and make a nice polished transition. I go over the clevis area as well as the holes with the 120 grit wheels on the die grinder. When this is done the rest gets a final going over. The finish is polished, yet hazy, and will make the chrome platers job easier.

I haven't mentioned this, but doing a set of these is VERY time consuming and is torture on the wrists. I do some work on them for an hour or so than do something else in the shop. Later in the day or the next I go at them again, repeat. Doing the sleeved holes may not be for everyone, but it does give them a little style. This is a fairly straight forward procedure, but you do need a few specialized tools as shown.

I hope this may have answered any questions someone had, and inspired you to try it yourself.....now get busy.

 

Those are almost too pretty to actually put on a car...

Nice work, -Abone.

 

If the devil is in the details, you sir are Satan.

 

I've been wanting to do this too mine, I just have to find the time to spend on them. Thanks for the great write up, they look amazing!

 

beautiful!

 

I really like the peak behind where the perch ins go. Nice touch.

 

Wow outstanding work!

 

Very, very nice work... thanks a ton for posting!!!




Malcolm

 

Excellent work.

 

Nice work!!!

 

Artwork for sure, you are a MASTER! thanks for posting.

 

THANKS guys. It's rewarding to breathe new life into vintage parts, and get them back to work. Original parts RULE!!!!

More tech threads coming.

 

Wow, very nice. Presumably there is the rest of a car built to the same standard? Can we see it?

 

very nice work.
Al.

 

Those things are works of art! I wish I had more DIY customers like you who actually make the welds nice and understands why it is so important. It makes it easier on the plater to give top notch plating for sure.

Since you have gone through the effort of that much prep, why not bring them to a buff? Another question, have you sealed up the bones completely or created some drain holes? The last wishbone I polished and plated was a stock unsplit 32 and the factory drain holes were too small and poorly located. I had to soak them in a diluted metal cleaner solution overnight after plating to get all the acidic solution out of them.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=266041&highlight=32+wishbone&page=13