The Rodding Roundtable
Motorhead Message Central => Rodder's Roundtable => Topic started by: Crosley.In.AZ on January 01, 2025, 07:16:51 AM
A new year , a new thread.
Home Depot and Harbor Freight are open today in my area. Winning in 2025 already .
TV is on. Hearing aids are charging. Its 5am here in AZ
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I just built a fire in the shop furnace. I will work on the front suspension today but I might take a break and watch some football.
I wish everyone a great, healthy new year.
My wife woke me up this am and said it's getting cold in the house and the furnace isn't kicking on. This has happened a couple times in the last month. I showed her how to relight the furnace. I think the thermocouple is dying. I'll work on changing it out tomorrow. Why wait till tomorrow?
Well, the electric company is turning off the power tomorrow and the company is installing my new backup generator. It's going to take a couple hours, because they're going to have to change the meter base also, as it no longer meets code, I guess (built in '79). Propane and power will be off, so I'll pull the t'couple and head to the hardware store for a new one.
We ordered this backup gennie a couple months ago, but they're really busy installing these. Last week would've been perfect, as it was ~50*, now it's less than 30*. You just can't plan for these things.
My last gas furnace required the thermocouple to be cleaned about once per year. An HVAC guy showed me how to do it by rubbing the surface with a dollar bill. Sufficiently abrasive/absorbent to get the job done, but not too much and it won't contaminate the surface with anything which will be problematic.
Jaybee, I didn't know they COULD be cleaned until I looked it up on the 'net today to be sure I was going to change it correctly. I think I'll try cleaning it first, as it does work sometimes. My understanding is when they go, they're gone.
Just as a note, there is a difference in a flame sensor and a thermocouple. I have cleaned flame sensors but have never been successful with thermocouples.
Some small jobs on my car trailer.. Re-wire the power feed for the break away switch for the trailer brakes. My car trailer has 4 wheel brakes. Trailer is 1990 yr model.. Wires are little dry , brittle.?
I need to pickup my 1948 Simca car from a friends house. he has stored the car for over 3 yrs for me.. He is the guy that recently bought a Rambler wagon project. 1962 model year. After he called local Rambler people and He could not give away the running power train from the Rambler car (196 cid inline 6 , auto).. So he put it on craigs list for phree , come get it. He thought his phone was gonna overheat from calls. :lol:
Old and Slow Construction has been in the house attic again.. Removing the abandoned duct work from old HVAC system. Lot of work to get the metal duct work apart, then down and out the service entry to the attic .. Being old does not help. :lol:
I have my wife on popcorn texture scraping in the halls and another bedroom. She wants to help. I give her simpler jobs , with hope she does well. Have I mentioned she is a bit of a klutz ? I may train her on sheet rock repair for the cracks in various places. It involves sharp tools though. :idea:
Last photo shows entry door hallway after popcorn texture removed. Silver stuff to the right? It is insulation stuffed into the abandoned air return to old HVAC system. I will remove that duct work , sheet rock the hole closed. There are 2 air returns, twice the fun.
We are gonna try that texture splatter process with a Harbor Freight texture spray gun... May be interesting? LOL
Here is my daily process: I work in the house on a few items in the morning. Its cold outside, so I can Not do sheet rock mud work since the water hose is frozen. Near lunch times , I do sheet rock mud work. As that is drying , I work in the attic or what ever in the afternoon
Fun Fact: When we were looking at this place months ago with the real estate agent.. I mentioned the popcorn texture had glitter in it. She says "the popcorn texture is kinda making a come back" ? I looked at her and said "Not in my universe"
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On the furnace service work... I have followed a guy on various social media for a year now. He seems good, common sense process on simple stuff.
You know: Youtube, Tiktok , etc.. He does a lot of mini split installs. Furnace work .. He showed a mini split heat pump that can operate on solar if you have enough wattage panels. Kinda interesting stuff
DIY.HVAC.Guy
Lol SURE the glittery popcorn is coming back! Believe whatever a Realtor is willing to write down.
jaybee, just like everyone selling cars now without a title must be a new comeback.
I'm on the western edge of the storm. We had some ice and some snow but not enough to be terrible. I have cleaned the walks and the ice started to melt. Not very far east of me they received much more snow and the wind. Memorable way to start 2025.
Quote from: 58 Yeoman on January 05, 2025, 08:27:09 AMjaybee, just like everyone selling cars now without a title must be a new comeback.
Yea , that "no title thing" seems to be growing. Couple utility trailers I've looked at online were No title. The owners think that since Arizona placed a permanent license plate tag on the trailer. So.... no title is needed in their mind. So many complete cars I look at online have No title. We have done the bonded title , inspections and related stuff on cars. I will not do that any longer.
This sunday morning I walk into the bathroom off the bedroom.. The floor behind the toilet looks too shiny. Yea , it was water. Hose connection at the tank had cracked, old plastic. The valve at the wall will not move , much less turn off .. We bought the parts. I changed the valve and hose out. Most items in the house are old , tired, need attention. Me too.
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I removed the front end loader from my JD X738 sub compact tractor today, and put on the snow blade, as we're supposed to start getting serious snow starting this coming week. I also ran some wires from the battery to a more accessible spot in the engine compartment for connecting a battery tender. The battery is right above the front axle, and you have to remove the hood to get to it. If the end loader is on it, I can't reach it. I like to keep the battery tenders on my equipment when they're not being used.
The backup generator was installed January 2nd, so one of these days I'll have to put up my HF portable gennie up for sale. It sits outside the shop in a small Rubbermaid shed with a solar charger to keep that battery charged. Seems to work pretty well. My last HF gennie would charge the battery when it was running, but this one doesn't. That's pretty stupid, so I have a small charger plugged into a 110V outlet so it charges it up when the gennie is running.
Quote from: kb426 on January 05, 2025, 06:27:34 PMI'm on the western edge of the storm. We had some ice and some snow but not enough to be terrible. I have cleaned the walks and the ice started to melt. Not very far east of me they received much more snow and the wind. Memorable way to start 2025.
I read a news blip that people are snow sledding down the main streets in Kansas City . Must be unusual?
All we hear about our area is a cold dry winter will happen. Not much snow on mountains, so the ski areas are purty dry.
:idea:
Very first mock up of the frame and body with the wheels and axles. I am learning about quarter elliptical front suspension. I plan to add the power train to this combination later this week.
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I am checking clearances on a 406 sbc for a friend . We are using a scat crank and 6" rods. I have had to machine .065" off the end of the rod that swings past the cam. These are cap screw rods . One has just over .065 clearance to the cam , I have 7 and 8 to check yet . I don't think they will be a problem as the cam lobes are mostly out of the way when the rod journal goes past them , but have to measure to be sure . Motor will have about 11: 1 CR ,heads flow 243cfm @ .500 lift . Using a solid lifter cam 235/255 dur@ .050 , .506 lift on a 108 LSA . Hoping to see near 500 hp .Would be happy with 475 . I have not run a desktop dyno on it but with a half decent job I would guess 480+ .
Got a call yesterday from a guy who just bought the 49anglia I built many years ago . He is looking to find out more details about it . Had a good conversation . Maybe I will get to go for a ride in it some day 8)
C.K., a standard that is repeated is that twice the airflow of the heads is close to the h.p. they can produce. Depending on intake and exhaust, I think that is where your answer will be. :)
yes I know that one . Really well worked out combinations can get about 2.2 hp/cfm . That takes a good bit of intake and exhaust perfecting as well as a perfect cam choice .
If you haven't seen this before, it's pretty good for a cold day. :)
{https://youtu.be/ieGj--tkXIU?si=xoyTtCmE-5dCqykM}
Well figured out static and dynamic CR on the 406 sbc I am building . 11.0:1 CR and 9.07:1 dynamic. Still too high for pump gas even with aluminum heads but owner is fine with octane boost so on we go.
I set up a laser to help measure some parts of an engine. Worked for me.
A buddy came over yesterday and we reinstalled the rear window in the Corvair. I think I posted that it had sagged down because I hadn't had the vent cowl installed and so no rubber blocks to hold it up. We sat in the heated shop and shot the sh*t for an hour or so about our lives and cars. I'll be happy when warm weather gets here again.
just put in the paperwork to go back to work at my old school. I was retired for 6 months! I will be teaching 2 machining classes each morning until the end of June . Kinda nice to get back to the machine shop!
Couple more requests for transmission builds.. Streetrod stuff. I may think about a few builds in 2025 . Not sure where I would get th e time tho?
Couple photos: abandoned HVAC return air vent open in entry hall , then after I removed the vent and sheet rocked it closed. Only preliminary mud work done on it. Its like bondo work on a car. Add mud. Sand. Add more mud.
Only hit 40*F here today, then windy, temp dropped
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Ford says a recall on near 300k Super duty diesel trucks 2020 to 2022 is on the books. Fuel pump problems caused by the biodiesel sitting in the pump for extended time during pandemic. LOL
Kinda interesting since the CP-4 high pressure pumps on these trucks are a known issue for a few years now. I read that Ford uses a low priced biodiesel fuel in the trucks at the factory assembly line. Over 3k warranty items on this group of trucks was reported.
My 2021 F350 truck did not sit at the plant yard very long. 4 or 5 weeks as I recall. I do use an additive that is supposed to aid lubrication of the pump system.
I may sell the F350 this year. Get into an older gasser truck, likely a 1 ton SRW truck or 3/4 ton HD unit. May Sell the RV too. Do not mention this to my wife.
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Been messing with a kit that cuts , trims coax cable and install new end connector.. I was practicing on the old cable I have removed from the attic of this house. Makes sense , right? Use old cable to learn the new tool?
Well , nothing was working , cutting correctly. after 7 or 8 attempts, I trim the cable as needed by hand. Install a new connector on cable. Compress it so the connector is tight on the cable. The connector slides off easy.
Turns out the old cable in the house is not rg6 coax. It is smaller. I took a 25 foot rg6 cable out of the RV , we use for campground connections... The trim tool works like a champ once I re-adjusted the cutters.
2nd item: The drag race group in Show Low AZ.. Has been looking for another venue since the airport property sold over a year ago. Races there were very limited by the new owner.
The Show Low group found a property and been working to secure permissions, paperwork , agreements in writing for a drag strip... Guess what? It is like 6 miles from us here in Holbrook AZ.. winning.
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do you still have the simca ?
Quote from: chimp koose on January 12, 2025, 02:09:41 AMdo you still have the simca ?
Yes. My 1948 Simca is being stored by a friend down in the valley metro Phoenix area. Of course it needs many hours of work to get ready.
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I look forward to your progress reports on the Simca when you get started on it .
I am using a technique that Sumner showed me when he was building his Bonneville lakester. He fabricated a lot of the parts out of wood and assembled the car. Then he could visually see how everything would fit. Then he would remove the wooden parts and replace them with metal. Wood is cheaper and faster to rough something in than metal. I am working on the power train setup currently. I have the dummy engine and transmission and the wooden temporary parts in place. The parts are the main shaft, the coupler, the transmission plate, the front bearing support, the shaft/engine connector, and the engine mount. I will study this setup for a couple of days and then I will change what I have or order parts.
just got an email from the new owner of my old anglia . I asked him what it weighs , 2200 lbs street ready. I knew it was light .
Wood...that's kind of brilliant. I've been working on learning FreeCAD in my spare time. It takes a little effort since I've never done any CAD before, but evidently I'm still capable of learning. I'm finding that it's already changing my way of thinking and visualizing things.
I tried Free cad a few years ago. By them my memory was so poor that it was really difficult to find time everyday to make any progress. I quit but I shouldn't of. All of the really cool stuff requires creating a file in cad and exporting to what ever device you are using. I might have been able to become competent, maybe not. :)
From my research, it sounds like FreeCAD has advanced really dramatically over time, so it's probably a better program in some important ways than when you tried it. A good tutorial makes a big difference in trying to teach oneself anything that's complicated. This is the one that helped me start get it figured out: &t=19s
Today marks a decade since the impatient and never to be punished liar kid in a Ranger made the decision which ruined my life in an untold number of ways. Bumped out a roof dent this morning and was reminded by the numb, asleep, and prickly hand with hunk of arm bone floating around in my wrist. Still love straightening though. :) Career doom on top of career suicide, it was. This also means I've been in my GTP that long, 130K miles' worth.
So the 47 job is as together as it can get and yeah it is down to bumping small dents and getting next phase parts in. It is getting bear claws and a coyote heart. Fit is looking pretty good. :) Yesterday I finished up mods to inner fenders to clear coilovers and control arms. Piece of cake.
Last week was cut short by snow so I finished up a half page sized Fokker triplane drawing I been working on. It is finished, the plane is just flying in fog.
nice work making the prop look as though its moving. 8)
Plane looks good Matt. In grade school, I would doodle drawing the rears of 55 and 58 Chevies. Now I have a hard time making my cursive writing look good. My older brother was pretty good at drawing. And woodworking. Two things I was never good doing.
Jailbars seem to be a love it or hate it truck. That one seems to be on a very good path. If that is the Red Baron, where is Snoopy? :)
Hot on the Red Baron's tail, all guns blazing!
Jailbars, I like that. :) And I pretty much knew there would have to be a Sopwith Camel drawing next, Bill. Twin Vickers .303 guns chattering and dog ears flappin, rat-a-tat-tat. :lol:
Phil I've come to realize the ability to create art is part of the standard equipment gift bundle that is human life. I know if I was retired I would draw or paint as much as I could stand. I wanted to draw one day so asked Pugsy for an idea and got several but liked the triplane one and just did the picture for myself. Doodle for pleasure, whatever floats your boat. :)
CK, good eye. Special effort went into blurring the prop. The white pencil helps blend colors.
Boy howdy the 47 looks different now. After them glam shots I ran a block with 240 over it for pics that quantify the smoothing-out work needed. You all know how stuff looks dandy in fresh epoxy then you lay a block to it and go oh.
You do great artwork, Matt. I wish I had that talent. It would really help me lay down some stuff I have knocking around in my head.
Short version of long story: Had to move my SAT dish from its temporary front yard home to more permanent spot in backyard. Which required me to run two new RG6 cables in the attic to back yard / patio area. Cable for SAT and 1 for internet service.
Had to rip down 2 layers cheap paneling on living room wall (No sheet rock) to get 2 new RG6 cables in. Paneling was coming out any way. Win ?
Bought 2 rolls of 100 foot RG6 cable after I measured 3 to 5 times. LOL NOT long enough for SAT dish. SO I got all that crap handled finally today. I installed 4 new cable ends on RG6 with the tool I fought with a few days ago. ALL worked great. Photo shows cable comes out of the attic , thru the soffit. I installed new ground / lightning connectors too , on each cable.
Public service notice: BlackStone Laboratories has raised their base fee to 40 dollars for oil analysis testing. It was raised to 35 dollars last year. I send in samples of my F350 engine oil
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I always liked the before and after trucks better than the 'jailbar' years, but the '46 I had came up for sale locally for a good price and it was in very good condition. After I painted it, I took it to the original owner, well, the widow anyway, to show it to her. She got a big kick out of seeing it again. She was a local to me farmer, and said that when they got the truck new, it had wooden planks for bumpers and received steel ones later on.
She also said they drove the hell out of that truck and used it for everything. The original owner manual was still in the glove box, and she had written a grocery list on one of the covers.
I have worked on the Harley/Ford some. This should be a photo of the shaft connector that joins the engine shaft to the transmission. Next I will get the flange machined that is represented by a wood block in this photo.
Film by Aussies traveling to TROG and the Gathering at the Roc. {https://youtu.be/nQ7fG8uA1JY?si=dhOyNAe67mtwrzvm}
-35C here today, I am doing nothing outside !
We had another light snow storm today. Lots of wind, little dry fluff snow. below zero temp tonight. Won't be fun going to coffee in the morning. :)
Colder'n a well digging primate in a brass bra in January.
I just saw the Model A with painted hood sides installed. For the first time. :) Computer issues got sorted out so it runs. I hear tell it will burn rubber.
Cold front is moving thru here: 36*F here today , lite wind. Suppose to hit 2*F this evening.
Today we got a large job completed on this house we bought in September 2024. Garage door installed in place of store front that was there for many decades.
18 foot wide insulated door. Opener on the door.
Fun Fact: The tech told us to NOT use a LED bulb unless it IS rated for garage door use. Electronic static of the LED bulb will burn out the logic board in the opener... With incandescent light bulbs phased out , that is really sweet.
Before and after photos. We are happy. Wife is like a kid , jumping happy
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Tony, looks like real progress to me. :)
Looks good Tony. On my garage door openers, a regular doorbell switch won't work like the old openers used to. Now I have to buy a switch made for them. I installed one opener a few years ago that had a battery backup inside it. A couple years ago, the battery was dying, so it kept beeping. We didn't know where the beeping was coming from until I finally tracked it to the opener. I just disconnected it. Hell, if the power goes out, I can open the single door easily.
my garage door opener was giving me fits so I just removed it. I also replaced the top section with a shorter one . I open my garage door a hand full of times a year. not worth the bother for another opener .
With curiosity, I performed a few DuckDuckGO searches for a garage door opener LED bulb: Yikes ! :twisted:
Local Home Depot has a Genie opener brand LED bulb: $12.50 for 1 bulb. Yikes.... Amazon has the garage door opener LED bulbs for a bit less money. The garage door installer told me to buy a Genie brand. Opener is a Liftmaster brand. Liftmaster been around for ever
Any way: I hook a separate 4 foot shop type light to the garage door opener via an extension cord. The shop light is way better in light amount when pulling the car into the dark garage than a single light bulb on the opener.
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There are places in my house/garage where I still use incandescent bulbs, the openers being one of them. Between the house and shop, I have four openers and all use incandescent bulbs. They aren't on long enough to justify LED bulbs.
nice solution . more light less money. A buddy of mine hooked up a tennis ball on a string attached to the garage door so when it is open the ball is down to windshield height . When the door closes the ball retracts out of the way . that way he can fit his big ford into the shop and just clear the door with the back bumper .
CK, I've done that with both sides on the house garage and works well. I drive the truck straight in and it hits the windshield right at the wiper blades. My wife backs the Subie in and the ball hits the rear window. But the latest Subie has a rear camera, so now she watches it and stops when the yellow lines on the camera 'hit' the shelf behind her car.
Quote from: 58 Yeoman on January 21, 2025, 09:59:16 AMCK, I've done that with both sides on the house garage and works well. I drive the truck straight in and it hits the windshield right at the wiper blades. My wife backs the Subie in and the ball hits the rear window. But the latest Subie has a rear camera, so now she watches it and stops when the yellow lines on the camera 'hit' the shelf behind her car.
Wait a sec here.... Your wife backs the vehicle into the garage? :o
Most women I know can barely back out of a parking space. My wife does well , but not on longer backups. It is slap A** painful to watch her at times. 15 yrs ago , a high school gal I still visit with... She was attempting to back their golf cart into the garage. She hit the "outside" corner of the house. 3 feet away from the garage door opening ! Her husband did an amazing job on the stucco repair. Yes, a golf cart !
My wife helped me on kitchen window install on this house. She kept pulling the window out towards her. I said: Keep the window straight up and down. "I am " she says. I show her where , what to look at in the opening and how she was NOT keeping the window mostly vertical. Then she says "oh"
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
I sold a part on the HAMB. After taking pictures of Saturday it I set it down. I sold it Sunday and have been looking for it ever since. Over, and over, and over. It had disappeared! So Josh came over today, and I asked him to look for it. He found it in five minutes. It was where I thought it was, and I had looked there several times, but I just didn't SEE it!
Frank, I've done that more times than I care to admit. I will look for something in the shop, tool shed, garage, basement and even her potting shed. My wife will come to the shop and find it. Sometimes, all she has to do is walk in, and I'll find it. Must be some kind of power.
Yeah, Tony, she backs the car into the garage. We have a contest to see who can get it in the straightest; sometimes I do, sometimes she does. The approach to the door is at an angle, so we only have one car length to get it right. Sometimes it takes a while to get it straight. We back it in because it's the grocery getter and it's easier to unload with it backed in.
Road trip today to metro Phoenix.. Picked up the Simca. What did not go wrong? :shock:
Oh well. What is a good winch? Harbor Freight ? My winch spit bits of teeth thru holes today. Took 3 of us to push the Simca onto my car trailer.
Trailer brakes (electric) were grabby today while empty (aluminum trailer).. I had power turned down to 2. Still flat spotted a near new tyre. dammit.
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^^^
I've never seen a winch do that. Maybe I've been fortunate. :)
I have been happy with my Harbor Freight winch. The wireless remote is really nice to add.
Quote from: kb426 on January 23, 2025, 07:12:50 AM^^^
I've never seen a winch do that. Maybe I've been fortunate. :)
I installed that pos winch in 1991 or so.. Nothing holds up any more. :lol:
On the flip side I do see a lot of syn type rope on winches instead of steel cable ?. Seems like old cars have sharp edges that could damage a rope ?
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I got the midplate made. It still needs a couple more holes but the hardest part is done. I plan to make the three bearing mount bulkheads that will go ahead of this part tomorrow. My machinist buddy is working on those parts that need his touch.
Quote from: WZ JUNK on January 23, 2025, 05:18:43 PMI got the midplate made. It still needs a couple more holes but the hardest part is done. I plan to make the three bearing mount bulkheads that will go ahead of this part tomorrow. My machinist buddy is working on those parts that need his touch.
Looks good John..
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LOL , Public Service Announcement :
We stopped for quik lunch at Burger King in Snow Flake AZ. Meal deal : 7 dollar Pick 3. I got the bacon cheese burger, medium fries, drink.
Photo of the tiny burger you receive. Pepper pak for size comparo, 1 bite out of the burger. Chicken sammitch is larger. My wife figured out the better combo already for us. 2 burger , 1 drink for me. For her: Drink , chicken sammitch, medium fries . We would share the fries.
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Getting ready to head down to Pomona for the gnrs. Flying this time, head out next Wednesday since we are flying out of Bozeman at 6:00 in the morning on Thursday.
It warmed up enough that I could accomplish a little. 2 oil changes on the dailies. Better than I have been. :)
learned the difference between a jockey shift and suicide shift. Chopper will get a jockey shift 8) 8) 8)
Quote from: chimp koose on January 24, 2025, 08:14:55 PMlearned the difference between a jockey shift and suicide shift. Chopper will get a jockey shift 8) 8) 8)
I thought a suicide shift was a foot operated clutch on a motorcycle? My brother did the foot clutch conversion to his Cushman scooter in the 1960s. He would rev the shat out of the Cushman Husky engine , pop the clutch to spin the huge tire on the Cushman scooter.
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I figure you folks may know it is car auction time in Arizona. Craigs List has exploded again with all types of old cars for sale. Nice one s to parts cars ... Most with a bit high price tag.''
It is fun to read these ads. Photos too.
I admit a Studie wagon with the retractable roof section has my interest. BUT: I have a Simca car to finish and get running. Then See if the Simca will pass tech enough to make a pass on the drag strip , then sell it.
A semi complete 1960s front engine dragster chassis has my attention too.
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Tony , I built a front engine dragster from an expired 60's chassis back in 92 when the rulebook had dropped all reference to a FED chassis . Had to refer to div 6 tech director to get answers before doing any chassis work . I had him sonic the whole chassis before I cut it up so I knew which tubes I could use . Moved the engine forward 9" and down 2", made the cage more upright , less of a laydown , also moved the back of chassis farther from the diff. Added 4" to wheelbase . Ended up with 172" wheelbase . That car was a blast to drive . Burnouts are just too much fun . Great bracket car as you can watch both cars' front tires cross the stripe . I won a season championship at my home track with that car in 96 with my mechanics students as my crew . Chassis was retired in 2006 as it had gone 7.02 @ 198 and would not pass the updated chassis specs .New owner was running NE1 good guys and wanted to go pro7.0 .
My understanding is that suicide shift uses a foot clutch and jockey shift uses a clutch lever on the shifter so hand operated . 8)
Yea , as I recall (?) my brothers Cushman required mods to his clutch since the OEM setup was centrifugal clutch... To make the clutch operate as a manual clutch. The Cushman did have a clutch pedal on left side. Brake was on right as I recall. My brother soon changed the clutch back to OEM setup
Today I replaced the breakaway switch on my car trailer for the brakes. I may have not mentioned that the switch took a shat too besides the winch tossing broken teeth out. I tried to activate the breakaway switch for testing when I rewired the feed to it from the battery. I could not get the pull tab to pull out. It broke instead at the connection for the pull cable.
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Continued progress on the Harleyford. The main shaft is now set up with the bearing bulkheads, the flex plate adapter, and the shaft connections to the engine. I have a few more things to do but the bulk of this work is done. My friend who did the machining of the parts did a fantastic job using odds and ends of this and that. Part of the connection to the engine is made from an axle flange, and the flex plate adapter is made from the last few inches of a small block Chevy crankshaft. He is a retired tool and die maker and an incredible machinist. Next week I will work on the bulkheads for the engine mount.
Groan. I had an appt. with the pulmonary doc on Tuesday, said my lungs are fine, and I'm good to go for my skin cancer surgery on my lower eye lids Feb. 13 (have to be under). Got my yearly physical from my VA doc on Wed, said I need more exercise to lower A1c. Visited my regular dermatologist on Thursday and got two biopsies, one on top of my head, one in my left ear for later surgeries. Took my wife in for a 3 hour stress test on Friday, was good.
Tree guy came today and took down one large tree near the house, trimmed a few others and got rid of three or four widow makers left over from the July/August storms. He cuts, and I clean up. I ran the shredder for a few hours, then cut some longer logs shorter for my stove, then piled them up out of the way.
My doc said I needed exercise, but now I ache. Geez...
I bought a car that is old enough that it doesn't have a usb plug. I purchased this bluetooth/ usb transmitter for it. It operates on an unused fm channel like most but most that I saw wouldn't accept a flash drive for music playback. The power point in the car is live all of the time so I have to unplug it when I shut the car off. It does what I wanted so I'm satisfied so far. :)
Yeah, our 2013 Honda Civic is way behind in modern conections for music. I forget: The system will accept my cell phone via cable for music and Not the vintage iPod ? Or the other was around: iPod works , cell phone does not. My wife keeps a few CDs in the Civic. I guess the CD is out dated now too?
I keep the iPod in the Goldwing for music since OTA radio stations out here are like 30% or more commercials now. The Goldwing has XM radio too. I have never signed up for XM $$ service
Visited the new primary care office recently. I guess they are no longer doctors office since you seldom see a regular doctor now. Always a PA person for the simple stuff. I am very low maintenance for a guy in his 70s. Kinda figure I will be fine and then one day just vapor lock, then keel over dead ?
I am rambling, Sorry. Received an email about a class reunion for high school. Naturally a person starts to think about those daze. I found some website about high school classes (Not Classmates).. I look thru the list of folks reported dead for my year of graduation. Geeeez, I remember several of them that died in the last few years.
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The '30 job ain't been seen outdoors yet with hood on.
The '73 job has it's 10 speed auto in place. Looks like 100% of my tunnel work was waste due to owner mind change. Pic is just second mockup going in.
The '47 job is my current filler task. I think the Stude is in primer now.
Quote from: chimp koose on January 25, 2025, 12:07:03 PMMy understanding is that suicide shift uses a foot clutch and jockey shift uses a clutch lever on the shifter so hand operated . 8)
What about the graveyard shift? :lol:
The 47 reminds me of my projects. :)
Quote from: kb426 on January 28, 2025, 10:18:54 AMThe 47 reminds me of my projects. :)
Yep I have not yet met a pro or hobbyist willing to do it bondo free.
Hey but how about that body line across the back of cab? No fill required there. That is uncommonly good.
Todays progress. I made the four bulkheads for the engine mount. I am using the bandsaw that I set up a year or so ago. The saw is over 100 years old and I adapted a treadmill motor that drives the machine. It works so good. The plates are cut from 1/4" aluminum and the saw zips through the metal as if it were wood.
John, I seem to recall a trans comparo back in magazine days that found a TH400 took 60 HP all by itself to get into high gear and a TH350 was like 35. I wonder how much Harley output will remain with a 700R.
Its a neat rig you have going together, the question just came to mind of how much power is there after the fullsize auto trans. Not like its a dragstrip machine, I know, but curious if there was any math on that.
Found out yesterday that my next project is not the old Scout out by the fence like we thought. Mentioned were a '53 five window and a Dynacorn Camaro. I may get to put a tunnel in the Mustang. The guy who did the '47 frame has what I call a "Kennedy" Lincoln (w/coyote already in it) job coming up and the 49 Merc truck he recently finished looks like a million bucks now, to me. Blue suede headliner and all. I am keeping an eye out for a decent photo opportunity for that and the A.
Just passing the time doing cab mud until the next project trigger is pulled because the 47 body job has reached what I call the blank canvas phase... fixed and ready to modify as needed. That is an important juncture on any build since at this point it can be known how much of their budget I ate making their body useable. Plus beyond that, most of the big mud on cab is out of the way. I am finishing up the repair area at bottom rear now. Need to do some door hinge bending yet, to reduce or eliminate door hinge shims.
I mentioned a tire on car trailer flat spotted from electric brakes were extra grabby.. Here is photo. There are more flat spots on the same tire.
Tires are cheapy Carlisle brand trailer tires load range D .. Bought thru Walmart about 4 yrs ago.
Trailer was empty when this happened. I am surprised by the amount of rubber gone. You can feel the thumping at speed , loaded. I will change this tire out with the spare. I bought 5 new tires yrs ago since the previous tires were waaaay rotted.
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I had not considered horsepower loss through the transmission as most of the time it would be in high gear. I guess we will find out. This is just one of the unknowns. The other day a friend was at the shop and noticed the Chevy engine on its stand near the current project. He mentioned that I could just use that engine, it would be easier. Who needs easy!
Easy is seldom interesting or obviously, challenging. :) I just had a thought about the trans: how much drag is the pump in neutral? ????? :)
As my boss used to say "If it was easy, anyone could do it."
Yep if you never reach for a star, you'll never grab one. Thats for sure.
We just happen to have a hog trike here getting a boo-boo fixed and I was curious what they use. A belt driven diff, of sorts. Then I looked at a coworker's go kart project which has a riding lawn mower rearend.
On my go kart that Dad made, it was a V belt and the "gas pedal" just put tension on the belt. :lol:
Torque multiplication experimenting does sound fun. :)
Also yep got latches and other goodies for the 47 today. But. Gonna rain tomorrow so I need to pattern my Mustang tunnel and WAG eyeball driveshaft clearance this afternoon before the engine comes back out.
Challenging ? Easy? Interesting? That is true I agree.
Its weird with various automotive programs on TV and when a automatic transmission item comes up: my wife will be looking at me for a reaction. Unless I have already blurted out : " what a croc of shat "
What ever TV show that Derick Debirdie is on: Made a comment about maybe 5 ppl in the country know how to work on a Dyna-flow transmission. My wife looks at me: " Is that true?" My answer was : " with me in there , I know 3 ppl off the top of my head that can rebuild a Dyna-Flow transmission and that is just in Arizona"
I am rambling again. LOL
Spent about 1 hour on my car trailer doing various items that have been "deferred maintenance items" the last few years. Fixing the latch on the storage lid where the spare tire , battery is located. Battery hold down received some attention. Vacuum out the dirt debris in the storage area too.
Fixed the plastic latch on my very old shop vac with JB Weld epoxy and some tin metal from duct work removed from our house attic. Oh , I used small drill bits in the JB Weld too as sorta rebar to beef up the epoxy. Shift kits for automatics often come with cheapy black drill bits. Over the decades , I have collected a few bits. LOL
We were in Show Low AZ on wednesday. Snow was falling there. Light amount. Chilly air temp about 30 as I recall. Its a 52 mile trip each direction for us. Home Depot, Walmart, Lunch. Walmart was a mad house. I have never seen so many ppl that dont know where the **** they are going. TUrn right, back up , go left, back up. Then the dang Walmart employee shoppers in the way with the large cart.
There was snow storm (mild) on the trip back home. it was north of SnowFlake AZ. Snow falling on the windmill electric farm too.
Have I mentioned my wife is a bit clumsy or a klutz ? We were in McD's place for lunch. We have our drinks. Our number is called. I walk up to counter to grab our food. I turn around and soda is all over our table as my wife is trying to mop it up. I had only been gone 7 to 10 seconds?
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We were in Menard's the other day, (big box store similar to Lowe's and Home Depot for those of you outside the midwest) and my wife says we need a new squeegee for the shower. Okay. We walk down the aisle and see a 3M one for $10, so she grabs it and puts it in the cart. Hmmm, says Scotch on the handle, 3M on the card holding it. Walk a little farther down another aisle, and there's the Scotch brand for $5 cheaper. EXACT same squeegee, both have the same name on the handle. WTF? I'm not paying $5 for 3M's name. We switched them out.
Hmmmm, 3M and Scotch brands. I needed some orange tape for upcoming painting and texture spray on walls around here. 4 roll pack was near 4 dollars less via Amazon delivered than Home Depot. Its Scotch brand tape with 3M on the label too.
The roll of plastic masking film is a 3M brand too. It was same price at Home Depot and Amazon (delivered)... I had the tape and plastic delivered. It all fits on a hand held masking tool used in automotive painting.
I just ordered some cabinet hanging kits for the kitchen. I have used this mounting hardware before, very handy for DIY. The company website says free shipping in USA. Stuff I need is 57 dollars shipping? What? No phree shipping now. On to Amazon again. Found the same company with parts I need to hang the wall cabinets in the kitchen. No extra freight delivery charges.
Weird.
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I'm following sick week a day behind. If some goofy person came along with more than enough money, I'd like to be involved in the prep of the car and some of the tuning. I might find out that the old guy needs to stay home. I'd want to be in at least the 7 to 6 second bracket. :)
I am following Sick Week too. There are a couple of the ones running that were participants in the race I was in a couple of years ago. I have a friend that I am trying to get interested in giving it a go, but I doubt he does it.
We have watched a little bit of Sick Week.. Weather seems a bit of a battle for them?
I know a guy in southern AZ that partakes in Lemons Ralley stuff. I did some reading on the Lemons Rally and its $500.00 to enter the race. Plus travel costs, hotels, etc.
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I watched a video of the Grand National show from bldg no.4. For many, the hobby is unobtainable. But the design and creativity is amazing to me. There's so many cars that have been to death but the talented ones still bring something that makes me smile. When I see pics of real good 32 roadsters, I still want to build one. having no storage has kept me from that. If I found the right project to start with, I could be in trouble. LOL. I was at the 50th and I will watch many videos of the 75th. I don't think I ever would have imagined that this hobby would continue much less escalate. :)
I am burned out on Drywall work in the house..
So this morning I converted a propane bbq grill to a charcoal grill. Removed the burners, cut a piece of sheet metal duct work I took out of the attic here , To fit in the bottom of the grill. Set the charcoal in a aluminum baking pan. Worked great. We ate smoked - grilled burgers for lunch. Actually it was my wife's idea to modify the propane grill.
This afternoon, another chunk of duct work was modified to use as a burn pit. I burned various wood bits removed from this house, dead & dried up bush debris. There is a huge pile of dead plants behind the backyard on this place. Bushes were trimmed, debris was tossed over the chain link fence. Huge piles of dead crap.
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I had nothing to do with this truck but it is blue. I like blue.
Got started on the Mustang tunnel redo. No bead rolling yet. No driveshaft will be provided for mockup. Hence, it cannot be known whether a carrier bearing like the stock donor will be required. Body exterior is ready to mask for paint but no front suspension or rolling stock is in the near future. The wheel tubs, tower notches, and tunnel were all un-necessary.
The Merc was red when it came in? Unmodified?
That's a good looking truck.
Quote from: kb426 on February 01, 2025, 04:39:43 PMThe Merc was red when it came in? Unmodified?
Yes red. Stock except for '66 Tempest tail lights.
Quote from: jaybee on February 01, 2025, 05:47:55 PMThat's a good looking truck.
I think so too. :)
You may not have noticed that I have been absent for a week or so. Last tuesday my wife went to the hospital for some kidney tests. Wednesday afternoon I went to visit her. On the way home a girl in a Mustang ran a red light and I tboned her in my HHR. The air bag went off and all I could see were stars. Shelby lives near where the accident was, came and took me to the same hospital my wife was in. I ended up with all the skin off the back of my left hand, all my fingers cut on my right hand, two fingers fractured on my right had, a fractured sternum and a multitude of seat belt burns. Plus various cuts and bruises elsewhere. I was released about 5 pm today. I have see my GP, a Plastic surgeon for my left hand, and a hand surgeon for my right hand, and my wife is going on dialysis.
Geeez, take care Frank. I hope yur wife does well on the kidney dialysis machine
Gee whiz, Frank, take care of yourself. Hope your wife does well on dialysis, too. My wife's ex was on it for a couple years, but he also had other health problems to deal with. Nice guy, he and I got along well.
I read a blurb the other day that there are black market air bags out there that aren't as good as the real thing. It didn't say if it was only the after market ones or if the mfr's were also getting bogus bags.
Frank, I know it will be really tough for a while. best wishes for you. :)
Frank, um...
(struggles to find words)
This is awful news I hate to hear. I wish you both strength and comfort, wisdom for all the individuals you are forced to rely on, and that the driver at fault dies slowly in great pain.
Sorry to hear of all the recent troubles. Take care and I hope all goes well from here on ,
I cleaned up my Predator generator and relisted it on CL and MP by itself. I also listed the Rubbermaid shed that it was in for free; I've had that thing since the middle ninties and it's showing its age, time to move it out.
Sorry to hear this Frank but hope you are getting better and the same for your wife.
Best wishes for fast recovery, Frank. ...I'm sure there is a lot of pain involved.
I wish the best for your wife also.
Wow Frank. I'm really sorry to hear about the accident. It sounds like you got banged up pretty good. All on top of your wife starting dialysis...wow.
I hope you have a way to make your appointments and things get better for both of you.
I want to know how one actually gets to see a hand surgeon. Never made it past the tattooed lady asking if I enjoy pain with a gleam in her eye then saying my hand has to be chopped off.
I do know of a boy born without hands. Both hands messed up makes personal hygiene difficult or impossible which is one of the more horrible things a body can endure. All I can say is everybody remove your airbag fuse.
I pretty much only have one semi-friend in life and they told me yesterday that they are cancer free again after partial lung removal. This makes a half dozen cancer survivals now.
Yesterday it was 74° and calm here. It was apparently Model A shakedown day. Saw and heard it zipping around and passing by the shop. And barking rubber. FINALLY. Got a giant smirk offa that but then it gave me that power tour feeling of having made a life's top accomplishment and turning to share the glow but the other seat is empty. But it sounds good. I would relish a ride in it but won't get that, never have. But it would be cool.
Best of luck with all the physical and financial challenges you and your loved ones are facing, Frank. Get well soon and continue avoiding the web to keep spirits up. :)
Matt, there is a manager at one of the local Menard's stores where both his hands are just below his elbows, obviously born that way. Seems to be doing pretty well, but I don't know what would have caused that.
Phil, I hear it is fascinating to watch that kid just "be" sometimes. But that behavior issues make it tough. Because he has gotta be tough.
Same thing with a paint and bumper delivery guy I once trained who just had a couple finger nubs on an elbow. No way was he gonna carry any less product into a shop than I could.
Tough to keep a proper context around stuff like that though because we see a loss but they know no other existence and pity is unwelcome because yeah... one finds ways and amazing life goes on. :arrow:
Wife and I are both doing okay, me better than her. She is on her second round of dialysis today. My grand daughter is off on tuesday and thursday, so she has agreed to transport my wife until I am allowed to drive again.
Frank, I'm so sorry you're going through all this. Wow, never rains but it pours.
I finally found the car yesterday. Now I have to go pick it up. 9 to 5 only and I can't drive yet.
Quote from: enjenjo on February 06, 2025, 07:33:09 AMI finally found the car yesterday. Now I have to go pick it up. 9 to 5 only and I can't drive yet.
You found your HHR ? Is the vehicle repairable would be a question to ask ?
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Finally recovered from my trip home from the Roadster Show. We were supposed to have a 2 hour layover in Seattle on Monday morning after the flight from Ontario. In the air they canceled the flight to Bozeman. We got to Seattle and stood in lines until they moved our flight from Tuesday back to late Monday. The flight kept getting later and later, then canceled about 9:00 pm. Finally got out Tuesday about noon. Not a lot of fun.
QuoteYou found your HHR ? Is the vehicle repairable would be a question to ask ?
I doubt it is repairable. It is in a city impound lot right now and has to be moved before storage fees start. I will probably buy it back because I can part it out for more than they will pay for it. It only has 83000 miles on it.
Frank, when that happened to me I bought a twin car. A decade later that still wasn't a bad idea.
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I finished the tunnel in the Mustang and the jailbar is (and has been) ready for fitment with same eng / trans but one employee and the boss are working together to force me to quit. Constructive dismissal. One more month would be 14 years. Profane threats and smartmouth sass is what I get from my employer and constant beligerent provocation from the rest. Even if I ever once did, I no longer deserve my flesh.
Quote from: enjenjo on February 06, 2025, 04:22:53 PMQuoteYou found your HHR ? Is the vehicle repairable would be a question to ask ?
I doubt it is repairable. It is in a city impound lot right now and has to be moved before storage fees start. I will probably buy it back because I can part it out for more than they will pay for it. It only has 83000 miles on it.
Hmm ? Low mileage for sure.
Had a co-worker with a PT Crusier years ago. He was trying to get 300k miles on it. He took good care of the ol PT.. About 260k miles the engine developed an internal hole in the block. Coolant to the oil type hole. He sold it "as is". Then his wife bought a new Subaru outback wagon.
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FML. Went to take my GT for a food run but before embarking on that voyage, I opted to first clear the windshield by running wipers but they then parked in the up position. Is that the multifunction switch or the wiper computer or transmission? My guess is whatever is least possible to fix. Why do wipers have a module? Why is that module in a location exposed to weather?
This year is the pits.
If it is the wiper transmission I may have a new unit here. It depends on the year.
I probably have one myself.
Any ideas how to determine which electronic component is bad, besides replacing all with new?
Pardon me I have a disabling and rapidly worsening mental issue with multiple causes interfering with judgement and sleep. The root is someone at work whistling constantly that I am powerless against. Months and months of severely annoying whistling now. Any suggestions not involving physical violence would be welcome. I have misophonia to an extreme, and no value in my workplace. Boss is insulting. Whistling is likely deliberate. I have had Trump dreams last 3 nights and they are getting worse. No friends are left. Friday I did not work for fear of ending up in jail. Monday is coming. If it stops I'll be fine. Otherwise I may need to check in somewhere or quit my job.
I read a 7 yr old girl was died from head injuries in a NHRA junior dragster crash. Not much info coming out yet.
Reading more info: The girl lost control of the car. Hit a Safety employee and then struck a wall. Employee was in hospital with non life threatening injuries.
Head injuries? I wonder if the kids in jr dragsters have helmet restraints of any type?
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Noise canceling ear protection might help or maybe a headset with music
work place noise can be a problem on different levels. WOrk noise is hard to control. Secondary Noise created by employees can be controlled.
Had this problem at Hughes , decades ago. Radios kept getting louder with 1 faction not liking the other factions choice of music. Several ppl spoke up to lower the volume. Nope. I put a radio headset on. That was froaned on because of possible danger if a person could not hear a warning or similar situation.
Work place noise: When I ran the transmission dyno for testing.. Since I built mostly ultra high HP stuff, The dyno (350 chevy engine ) was often NEAR the rev limiter (4K RPM ) as I shifted the trans. That was a lot of noise.
We Asked for less volume again. No compliance from ppl with loud radios.
I brought in my Technic brand stereo and large speakers. After 1 day , ALL radios were banned in the shop. I had made a point.
So.... The loud folks started singing. My dept manager was pee'd off. He was in my face: See WHAT you did? I told him that in a few hours they willl be hoarse and tired .. Singing will stop. Singing did stop.
I rezoom'd wearing a head set for talk radio.
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Quote from: WZ JUNK on February 08, 2025, 11:34:50 AMNoise canceling ear protection might help or maybe a headset with music
I use JBL noise cancelling earbuds all day every day with death metal at full volume and sprint to phone every few minutes when the music and ads stop, wanting me to confirm I am still listening. The whistling is louder and makes it through. With that setup or earplugs.
I cannot stand things in my ears.
A little back story-
First day of hire, I mention the whistling. It was last spring or summer. Then came loud rap. I have fought this battle with many previous employees. I brought stereo and speakers from home to drown him out because boss has always told me he is above music and that we should sort that out ourselves. Knowing it would be a max volume shootout and it was.
Boss ruled earbuds only. Ever since, spiteful loudest whistling possible in most annoying matter. Have videos. Told boss Thurs of situation and condition and was told to "f'king stay home then".
I can't hold with this. I ignored that and worked. The individual is a Karen ready to scream unconstitutional treatment.
Boy howdy I gotta stop typing soon. Impulse to disembowel rising. Years upon years of barking dogs near home ruined my tolerance and blood pressure is astronomical from enduring whistling constantly all this time. I am at a point of a physical outburst being very near. I have human limits.
It is rude, inconsiderate, disruptive, and destructive intentional behavior directed solely at me. I have endured so so very many hires who come only to "disrupt old people" and figure they will dominate.
Add to this that once animal control apparently stepped in on my street and restored peace recently, I have made lots of healing progress. Now this, destroying that rapidly. From the time I get home until bedtime, I listen to softly spoken sleep stories for calm. And thats all life is now. I dread opening the door to shop.
Am I the a hole? Am I over reacting? To beat down my issues from the flurry of wrecks and ruined hand, for the last decade my main thrust is to mimimize severely hateful flashbacks that occur about every day. Medical pot has been my best friend in countering such. I say put whistler in boss office for a day of invoice writing and parts ordering and compare his productivity that day, or see how many minutes pass before whistler is shouted out of office with threatening screams of profanity.
Tuba Trucks in Fayetteville, like our shop, usually has a CL ad for a bodyman out. Yesterday my boss put up his ad again. Looking for a team player. This doesn't concern me. Prison for violence does. Since my last post I have had two more Trumpmares.
Sorry. Way past ear stuff though, John. Thanks anyway. :)
I wouldn't mention any of that here but my last person who semi-listens has now stopped communicating. I'm just human. Thats all.
Sorry to hear of your work troubles . Sad to see someone get rattled by another's childish behavior . I have a buddy who is considering a new job due to relentless childish "pranks" directed at him . Worst "prankster" is the boss's brother.
CK, when was it that paddling in schools was outlawed? Do you know? Maybe thats what I'm dealing with.
Allow me to try to recenter the topic. Sort of. Best I can.
Thurs AM I finished the tunnel then finished mud on back of 47 cab and had plans to recheck Mustang with eng/trans in and to put cab back on truck so I can do claw type door latch conversion and mock up seals with cab bolted down. Aaand then also the next day maybe set that mill over into the truck to do a tunnel on it. Ten speed auto will get under the seat riser a bit.
Everything was in place. Engine, forklift, space to maneuver on both. Cab has doors tabbed and needs lift to install. While I was grinding tunnel underside, the Blazer frame got put in lift stall so whistler can tear it down next week. Leaving no access to any of my planned stuff and blocking forklift in my stall. I grabbed a rear fender and slung some mud on it. But I'll be working ten feet from whistler again soon as I walk in Monday and while I wouldn't say that will take courage but will say a tremendous amount of resolve and unconditional tolerance will be required. Over all these years, this always happens. Latest hire is top of totem pole. I'll never understand but heres the metal junk and its no sloppier than need be but is fairly so.
Not symmetrical. Originally had a big shifter bumpout on left. I put some beads loosely approximating the size and location of original, and capped trimmed ends of old trans mount brace. Mike fabbed a 1x3" trans xmember. I'll try to hush now. For me, winter and forums just don't mix. Sorry.
Winter is not my friend, either. :) I do selective hibernation but I'm not still employed. I'm sympathetic.
I am kind of over winter .we had a milder Jan than usual and now we are paying for it .
Been windy as **** here in recent daze. About 20 degrees warmer than 2 weeks ago. We were in single digits for a while and locals told us it was unusually cold. Now the last 6 daze it has been unusually warm. Weird. Instead of 18 in the morning , it has been 38 to 40 degrees
I have my shop heat (electric) off , which saves me about 6 dollars a day just to keep it 48 - 49 degrees in there. I turn the heat off in the house during the day and doors have been open , Screen doors in place.
I actually ran the mower around today to pickup 6.2 million leaves in the front yard. Wifes request
;)
I've been staying in mostly, but the temps outside are just above freezing, which makes the yard thawed out for an inch or so, making is slippery as snot. The neighbor who owns land on three sides of me was burning downed trees on an open space yesterday, so I walked over to chat with him for a while, during a light mist. He said one of the downed trees he was burning was 51 feet long, and when he tried to pick up one end of it with his Bobcat, the rear of the Bobcat lifted up. DUH! He was able to drag it though.
Couple weeks ago, I bought a 1933 mantle clock at a sale for $20. It has a pendulum and chimes. It wouldn't run more than a minute or so, so I looked to the internet and found out that if I tilted the clock one way or the other it would run. Tilted 3/4" it would run and keep perfect time and chime on the hour and 1/2 hour. Various people on the 'net also told me how to adjust a wire called a 'clutch' to make it run in the normal position. I have been adjusting that wire back and forth for two weeks, and it will not run when level. I even took a mini course on repairing these old clocks, and still no go.
I guess I'm not cut out for fixing old clocks.
Phil, Dad has kept Mom's Regulator wall clock going and going and going. Barely but yep... theres simply gonna be tired parts so lowered expectations are part of that. Fixing an old clock may be a fairly lost art but success is probably as rewarding as happening to nail the sweet spots of all the levers climbing a hill in a prewar Ford. Study then experimentation required.
No Trumpmares last night. Those were truly vivid and scary and there were five. Looking me in the eye while taking my social security and handing it to Musk off screen. All while defying me to try resisting. Shiver. Thankfully no speaking. I was elderly and sitting in long-gone grandparents' chairs in each. Two of them burned images in my mind for keeps. Thats what I get for reading media and not getting baked enough before bed. Cannabis normally eliminates dreaming. No offense to MAGA folks nor political discussion seeding intended. :)
A wierd thing just happened, walking out of the grocery store. I was gawking at the sin black spankin new murder Corvette parked behind me and kinda lost count of how many flaps and wings were hangin off the thing. That car must be targeted at pilots.
Anyway, kiddo pushing carts in offers to accept mine and I give my default kind thank you sir response. "I like your car." he says.
I look around confused. Did I just put stuff in the Corvette? Uh. No, he was looking at my car. I was probably giving him the are you crazy look. Just a 99 GTP, I say. "I like it. Mine's a G8,". Thanks, I say and off we go.
My puzzled smirk quickly wore away when I realized cart wranglers have G8s. Sigh. I do look like a bad guy. Car hobo.
Good for a chuckle anyhow. :)
Matt, the clock runs great when it's tilted, telling me that it's in good condition bushing-wise, etc. That bending the clutch wire is a hit & miss thing according to the video's I've watched; I guess after a while you develop a knack to it, just like timing an engine by ear or knowing how much heat for welding thin metal. The clock ran fine all night, but it was about five hours behind from all the times it wasn't running. I've also learned that advancing these old clocks with the hands will speed them up (from watching videos).
It's cool outside today, so I'm working on a jigsaw puzzle in the family room while the clock is running in the adjacent room. If I take the weight off the pendulum, the clock runs faster, so it will catch up to the correct time. It's only an hour behind now, so I put the weight back on so I can eat lunch. Will do more after lunch.
AS for your nightmares, try to keep the faith that the laws will keep things on the straight and narrow. I talked with my financial guru last week about my 401k and SS, and he said things should stay under control. He's been at it for over 20 years. But, we've never been in this situation before, either. Hang in there.
Sunday we made a run tom Show Low AZ for Home Depot, Harbor Freight , Lunch for us, food for the F350 :shock:
Stores were very light with customers. My wife exsplained to me it was super bowl game day. Who knew? My perfect record is intact, never watched that tv show.
We bought a few supplies at Home Depot for upcoming project on the house.
At Harbor Freight we bought small items that support tools: bags for shop vac, new full face shield, pliers.. My point here the discounts we received paid for over half the cost on the HF Inside Track Club of 30 dollars a year. There was a 30% discount on most items under 20 dollars, so we made use of that
The group working on the new local Drag Strip near us are hoping for basic runs on the strip by the end of 2025. They list dealing with gov process on permits , roadway work for entrance and exits as the sloooow hurtles to get thru.
More later on upcoming house stuff. Appreciate ppl tolerating my rambling on that.
Did I mention the police were here last week? Someone called in report of smoke while I was burning landscape debris. I was doing nothing wrong. Nice officer, unmarked SUV, altho if you know what to look for they are not unmarked. LOL
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Well wife and i are both out of the hospital for now. ;D Wife is out for her first Dialysis outside the hospital.
I have my wreck here at the house, that was a job. Josh and I took my truck and trailer to the Toledo Police Impound lot. The tow fee was $160, storage was $360, $30 a day. I paid the fees and that was when they told me I couldn't use the trailer to pull the car out of the lot, it had to be a wrecker. That had changed since the last time I had picked up a car there. ::) So I called AAA to pick it up and bring it out to the street. They called back and said they won't pick up a car in Toledo's Impound because of the hassles. >:( Then I had to find a wrecker that would tow it. That cost me another $350. Nothing is cheap any more.
Now I have to deal with the insurance. They are mad because I wanted the car in my possession. Nothing is easy.
You have my sympathies, Frank. That's a lot to deal with when we're young, much less at our age. :)
Ya Frank it is crazy... Seems like a few years ago everything started at 100 dollars . Now it starts at 300 dollars.
Years ago , my brother was told the same thing about pulling his sons car out of a tow lot in Avondale AZ. Had to be a wrecker, we were not allowed to even pull the car out with a chain to the street since it sorta did roll. Those ppl bend you over every which way
Some how my brothers car ended up in Avondale on west side of town , when the crash happened on the I-10 freeway in Tempe AZ which is on east side of the valley.
:o :o
Trying to stay warm, it is 23 below right now. Wonderful Canadian air blowing down. Should be ok in a couple of weeks.
Canadian air , you're welcome . It was -42 here yesterday! 8)
Went for an MRI today for a bulging disc in my neck, courtesy of the VA. Tomorrow we head to Springfield IL to stay overnight so I can go to the University hospital for the skin cancer surgery on both lower eyelids at 7:45am. We're staying overnight because it's a two hour drive and I don't feel like getting up at 3 or 4 am, plus there's supposed to be a big snow storm coming in tomorrow. Fun times.
Tuesday we made the run to Winslow AZ to the Walmart there. Found this truck - trailer situation there at McDonalds. I always wondered why the entrance corner there had larger than usual yellow posts? Now we know. There are also Height barriers just past this to stop trucks from entering Walmart parking lot.
Notice the sticker on trailer door: How is my driving ? Gonna be an expensive repair
:twisted:
Wow, yesterday was bliss. Whistler absence. :)
Engine was hanging in the truck all day, no mount stands. Due to lack of significance I presume, both coyote jobs are ridiculously skewed within a logical order of operations and I shouldn't be trying to work on them.
Be that as it may, today will be day 3 of mudding one rear fender that had "nothing wrong with it". And it looks like stock tunnels woulda worked on both jobs. And today is an ice and salt day, they say.
A Dynacorn 69 Camaro body (coupe? Ain't seen it) showed up Monday and scuttlebutt indicates thats my next victim. Killing time, I peeked at a Camaro forum to check for any valuable insights prior to embarking. Nope! Straight slick vertical stone wall of hate that gets a man shamed for mentioning DC there. :lol: Alright then. Sounds like a cake walk with doors and decklid already installed. I await the green flag prompt on it.
I often wonder how the BR green metallic 69 body I reskinned went once it got home.
The green machine below is back in the painter's hands now, shined up a bit, and thats closer to a checkered flag. I think it just sat half the time we've had it. It looks especially good to me when pulling onto the street as if to go home.
there's no question that the model a is radical. The purist's will have a fit. :)
It is mildly cartoonish. :lol: I played with the gas flap today. :D
Purists are one thing and traditionalists are another, right? Both might be well "fitted" by that car. I'm thinking especially with the dark sparkly color toning it down somewhat it looks fairly mundane but not from behind. Or any angle from which the rear wheel depth can be percieved.
Wanted to raise the hood for a pic of under there but had too much dust on me.
Back when I did it, if I recall correctly ribbed roofs were cliche, taboo, out of style. Maybe ribs can be back in now.
A few days ago, it was below zero. This afternoon was 72 degrees with wind gusts up to 45mph. I was outside doing a few things and took the bike for a ride. I was real careful at stops with the side wind. :) The next few days will be back in the freezer again. Once again, every nice day is one less cold one. :)
I hauled firewood to the shop today. There was a cold wind blowing but I made a quick job of it. Next week the weatherman is calling for significant snow and then very cold temperatures. I have work to do in the shop and the refrigerator is stocked.
As a side note, I am still in awe of the welder I bought. :) :) I sold the expensive Lincoln to a friend. Both of us are happy.
30+ mph wind here All Dang Day. Still windy , a bit slower tho. 4 days in a row of strong wind. I think it hit 50*F today with a feel like: 41.. Light rain too for about 1 hour.
Swapped out the crankcase vent filter oil separator on the F350 with a unit for a 2023 - 2024 6.7 diesel. Supposed to separate oil vapors better , altho it is slightly smaller. Guess we will find out? So much plastic stuff on this engine, which used to be metal compared to older 6.7 diesels.
Ordered up some sand paper on AMazon.. Arrived quickly. It was wrong grit. I contacted the vendor. The refund hit my account in record time . Less that 8 hours. They no longer stock the 80 grit I ordered from their listing. I received 120 grit.
8)
I'm recuperating from my skin cancer surgeries yesterday. Right side of my nose by my eye and lower right eyelid. Dermatologist took two passes on eyelid and three on the nose to get it all, plus took a biopsy on left side of my nose for April surgery. When she did my eye, she put a green contact lens on my eye so I couldn't see what she was doing. On the second pass, I could see her with the scalpel. Fun times.
Then, off to the plastic surgeon to close it all up. That was fun. He put me under for the first part where he cut parts of my upper eyelid for grafts for my nose and lower eyelid. Then he wakes me up as he's sewing my eyelid shut. I talked with him as he was doing it. My right eye is sewed partially shut for a couple weeks. After this heals up, I'll get to have the cataract in that eye removed. Isn't it great getting old?
Wow, good times, Yoeman! Hope you get it all done soon.
Tony, CR England is gonna get a big bill on that one. First the trailer will have to be transloaded. Then they'll need need a crane to lift the whole box onto a lowboy. Another trailer for the tandem assembly. Tearing the wheels out from under the box did a whole bunch of damage to the crossmembers and slider rails. Given that one axle is torn clear off the bogey frame, they're probably going to have replace all of it. I'm guessing that's a $40,000 accident all in.
Phil: heck of a story on the surgery. It sounded complicated when you mentioned it earlier. Take care. My brother had surgery on his nose and top of his ears for skin cancer twice now. That basal cell skin cancer.
I have a cataract in my right eye. It was discovered as a tiny spec almost 4 yrs ago now. Last eye inspection in 2024 , the eye doc said it was still very tiny. I have no problems with eyesight or night driving yet. It is very slow growing.
Wind is still howling here. Tapers off at night. By 10am the next day the fans are turned back on. I blame the wind mill electric farm that is 30+ miles south of us .... If they would leave those fans off, it would be better? :lol:
8)
Quote from: jaybee on February 15, 2025, 09:15:54 PMTony, CR England is gonna get a big bill on that one. First the trailer will have to be transloaded. Then they'll need need a crane to lift the whole box onto a lowboy. Another trailer for the tandem assembly. Tearing the wheels out from under the box did a whole bunch of damage to the crossmembers and slider rails. Given that one axle is torn clear off the bogey frame, they're probably going to have replace all of it. I'm guessing that's a $40,000 accident all in.
I had thought in my mind a figure of 25k $$ or so when all was done. I had Not thought about the trailer having a load or not. If loaded , that would need to be handled via labor , forklift, another semi trailer, etc. Yeah , the costs would add up !
Not in the photo is a post that was ripped out at ground level... Money to fix that too.
8)
Behind my barn I have a 28 ft box trailer that I bought for $100 with the subframe ripped out of it. It was a nearly new trailer. I set it on railroad ties and use it for storage.
Most of the day was between 0 and 5 degrees. We had 2" of light fluff. I scooped off the drive and walks because it's easier than when it starts to melt, in about 4 days. :) No excitement here at all. Phil, that really sounds painful. I hope it's better than I think. Frank, I hope you're healing a bit. Best wishes to all in my least favorite season. :)
Frank, the chemical plant where I worked before retiring would buy retired semi van trailers to use to move product between warehouses or temp storage. One of the workers was backing one of the trailers into the dock one day while making a sharp turn, and the whole box came loose from the frame and tipped sideways(it was empty). They started checking the trailers a little better after that.
Bill, it's my least favorite season too. My wife said it was about -12* last night with the wind chill. I haven't been outside since Friday. Catching up on reading and napping. I'll have to go outside this Thursday as we're going for a follow up with the surgeon. It's not really as bad as I thought it would be. I"m getting by with only two Tylenol pills a day for slight pain.
My older daughter and grand daughter stopped today for lunch. She's in from California visiting her mother. Grand daughter is on break and wanted to see more snow, daughter wasn't so thrilled with the cold, though.
Kinda (?) a milestone today for my brother and me .. It has been 50 years since our mother died suddenly from a brain aneurysm at age 57.
Mom died on my wife's birthday (today) and we buried mom on my brother's wife's birthday. Its weird how life throws little things at you like this.
I never expected to be alive in my 70s since I did a lot of stupid stuff over the years
I am getting ready to fire up the snow blower. We got about 8" of snow yesterday and it is 0 degrees this morning. I will go play in the snow some
42 below in Jordan Montana this morning, actual no wind chill. Still stuck with the Canadian Express.
Snow work is done at my place. It was a very fine snow and realitively easy on the snowplowing machine but not som much the old operator. I will rest some and then do some of the neighbors.
we were at-49C this week (-66F) windchill put us in high -50s. It will be +3C or about +37F by the weekend . We have had wild swings in temperature one week to the next most of the winter. It was above freezing for about 2 weeks in Jan. winters are becoming unpredictable.
ya , weird weather everywhere? Monday it was 27*F here.. Tuesday it was 39*F ... Wednesday it was 20*F . Still hits the mid 50s in the daylight. Altho monday it was 60*F
8)
You guys that are in serious cold have my sympathies. The coldest I have seen in my lifetime is -27. That was back before efi and good batteries and starters. :) At -5 this morning, the 48 started just like it was 30. :)
My wife has been to dialysis five times now. I am not supposed to be driving yet. Of the five trips paid for by insurance exactly none have been successful both ways. One time I had to drive her that day to get there on time. The transport was late one time but only 10 minutes. No one showed to pick her up at all one time so she missed her slot. Today she had two drivers fighting over her for the trip in, and the return driver was 2 hours late picking her up. Friday I am driving her myself both ways. I am done.
Wow, Frank. When I have my skin cancer surgeries, they won't let any taxis, ubers, etc. pick me up. It has to be a family member; something about not getting taken advantage of, I guess.
Funny thing when we went to the plastic surgeon for the first consultation and he took a biopsy of my lower eyelid, then bandaged my eye all up. He never asked my wife with me if she could drive. Luckily she could.
well we may have it cold up here but no poisonous snakes , very few floods and few tornadoes. Id rather get snowed on than flooded . You can just haul snow away or pile it. Our summers are getting different too . More extreme weather than before . We also get Northern lights up here fairly often , that never gets old. Frank , sorry to hear of your troubles , that has to be frustrating .
Quote from: enjenjo on February 19, 2025, 10:17:29 PMMy wife has been to dialysis five times now. I am not supposed to be driving yet. Of the five trips paid for by insurance exactly none have been successful both ways. One time I had to drive her that day to get there on time. The transport was late one time but only 10 minutes. No one showed to pick her up at all one time so she missed her slot. Today she had two drivers fighting over her for the trip in, and the return driver was 2 hours late picking her up. Friday I am driving her myself both ways. I am done.
Yeah , I would be whizzed off too. Sometimes you just have to take care of stuff yourself. On the flip side , so many things in the medical service world are NEVER on or near on time. It seems to be the norm? Sure there is a window of time that is acceptable , but waiting for hours is unpleasant.
Same for air travel. A cousin recently flew back to Tucson AZ from Illinoise. Her 1 hour layover in Dallas turned into 7 hours with plane delays, once on a plane after 5 hours, to de-ice the plane she was on took near 2 hours. Her previous trip to Ill , there was a delay of hours in Dallas too. Dallas is a poorly operated airport? She has elderly parents in Ill.. frequent trips for now.
We moved from the valley of the sun in Arizona for a few reasons: heat was one. Summer 2024 was a bit warmer than usual , drier too. In the mobile home park there were many cacti that dried up and died ! Couple neighbors to our park model, their cactus looked a truck had run it over. So dried up, dead, flat on the ground. Most folks in this park are snow birds. SO the park models are left unattended 6 months of a year
8)
just finished a faux brick wall covering in our kitchen . Looks good , I am sore . Man have costs gone up on that stuff .
I had a Grand Three yesterday, drove them all. Having a warm snap after a cold snowy week in which I didn't work due to having probably the flu. Being well / rested is awesome and not something I'm used to. During that time I figured out what the word is for what a couple people at work are trying to pull on me. Gaslighting. Don't gaslight people, it is mighty unkind.
In other news, a source for 93 octane near my home has appeared. Now I can tune my 455 to the timing setting it prefers.
And, wipers on the GT started working right. That fluke must have been cold electronics.
Well, glory be. I'll have to be sick more often. They gave me a brand new Taiwanese 67 Camarillo body to play with. :)
Oh, also today my boss walked up holding a Mustang Hub magazine with a 16 page feature on his 65 fastback. From a shoot in Wichita a couple years back. 16 pages is braggin rights, man. :-o
What do you get to do to the Camaro, Matt?
Not much, Phil. Welding up the overlapped edges at roof seams first.
Heres a couple pix of that ^^^.
And another couple to show tail ends of quarters. Compare the shapes at top, above the tail panel.
Also note height. The lid is resting on the round flats in the sheetmetal on lid and quarter sides of jamb. No latch or rubber is present and I don't know if a spoiler will be used.
1st impression of the Camaro body?????
Quote from: kb426 on February 25, 2025, 06:01:31 PM1st impression of the Camaro body?????
First? Not terrible, for 12K. But, also 3K to ship and five-six hun for the carton thing (sans wheels)
Second? Mmm, kinda cringey. My understanding is that bodies are assembled stateside, in one place on each coast. Study the comparative pattern in pic to get an idea of the slop amount. Study also the jamb pic showing where Dcorn cut the left qtr at gap and below for about a foot and a half. Theres your telltale quality indicator. (its a mess, I ain't touchin it until I have latch and rubber)
:)
Taking Thu-Mon off, as they just changed the company's vacation policy in midyear. I had to take some time or lose it. Worked out, though. I need to go to a clinic tomorrow to be evaluated for a hernia.
Spent some time on the chopper today . I have made some mounts to attach the seat springs which look pretty good . Used the same dia. tubing as the frame and coped them to fit up to the frame at 90degrees . Machined a solid piece of round to fit in the tube with a 3/8 NF thread in the center . The flat side of the coped tubes sit 3/8" above the frame . The seat springs bolt to them . Base of seat spring is just slightly smaller OD than the coped tube mount . Parts look like they belong there . I am pleased
Busier than a cat trying to cover up a pile on concrete. :lol:
Discovered cracks in drywall at seams in kitchen.. I made an error in dry wall install at door openings. FIxed that. Re-work wall mud. Re - do the texture. Watching it for a couple weeks while I finish dry wall work in hallways.
Removed 2nd abandoned hvac return vent. Work the dry wall. Prep the hall way ceilings for spray texture. Then we Spray the texture. Not happy with it. Re-spray at higher psi and a bit thicker mud mixture. Happy now.
Wife scraped last popcorn texture off ceilings. Found some bad repair work , we suspected since paint and popcorn did not match there. Scrape mud, sand, apply dry wall mud called Plus 3.. Hours later, it bubbles, start to fall off? Scrape it all off. Sand. Prep. Use Hot mud mix on it at thin layers over a couple daze. Looks good now.
Started repairs on wall cracks in the living room. Fixing seams at ceiling and wall inside corners. Settling of house has caused seams to not like each other a bit. Inside Corner paper tape krinkles a bit. I cut it out, re-apply.
Wife has been scraping the remaining bits of vinyl floor covering in garage. Tedious job. Some glue remains. May rent a sander or something to clean adhesive off?
Started prep on changes in our bathroom off the bedroom.. Move a ceiling light, new replacement exhaust fan. One electrical box has 6 romex feeds into it, very crowded ! .. I will change that since I am moving the ceiling light about 2 feet. New boxes, new romex too
In the evenings , a few nites, I have worked on additional lights in the garage lights.. (3) 4 footer fixtures. LED tubes. I installed a switch on the back wall from an outlet to feed power to lights. Ceiling is 13 feet high.
That is a little that we have been up to
8)
I modified my welding helmet so that I could attach a Harbor Freight headlamp. It helps a lot. I am having trouble seeing in low light conditions and when welding.
I built a rotisserie so that when I weld all the aluminum parts together, I can rotate the assembly and make all the welds horizontally. I have been practicing with the new welder and I plan to do the welding tomorrow. I wanted to get the settings dialed in and practice welding the 1/4" material to the 3/8". I preheat each starting point with a torch and that means it will take longer but that's okay.
Josh and I rebuilt a Z spec 2.95 T5 today for his Mustang. Actually he built it and I pointed and said not like that idiot! It took about 5 hours. The first time I have been in the shop for four weeks. My right hand is still tender.
My milling machine runs ! Now to give it a much needed clean up . It has sat in the shop for the last 8 years or so .
Today I made a cabinet out of the old bed from the '51 F-1 5.0 job, for the boss. :)
Wow, four likes! Can't tell who gave em but thanks. Boss liked the lid idea well enough to have me proceed on that. A wood top was what he originally had in mind but it just so happened that the bedside leftovers turned out the exact width of the bed so I had sat them on top. It is all welded up now and theres a finger pull to open the gate with, and he plans to have the guys paint it.
You know I like stuff like that. Good job. I have a fiberglass T bucket bed that I may make into a wall desk.
I'm one of them, and my wife was walking by as I was looking at the pix and she liked it too. Nice work.
looks good . I would leave it with the paint as is if it were mine . Looks like you are getting some fab work again . 8) 8)
Thanks guys, it is intended to be a tuner and stuff table that will be below a wall mounted TV. I enjoyed the task and thought it a good boss cave idea. He asked for 20" depth and the rest worked itself out. I was inclined to crudely hinge the top but that wasn't the idea. It is sturdy enough to stash a big auto trans in with a plywood floor. There is a cross brace. It is heavy, I used the entire bed box! :idea:
And yeah... sent a pic to Dad who thought it was neat and should be mine. But Mom was of course over the moon wanting one.
Probably due to the yeah, antique finish. Which I also like. Gate looks pretty bad though. Hard to tell in pics but the top barely sticks out past gate and interference with bowed gate is what keeps it shut.
As far as happy metal work projects go I have long suspected that I can handle all the metal work. I have actually been doing just that this winter and it seems (to me) that I get way far ahead that way. And fill in with bondo work.
I can be physically comfortable and enjoy doing my 30 hours a week of metal and mud. When I had a newby who does constant bondo help me tote that bed to my stall he said aw so you got a fun day ahead. I said well next Tuesday will begin my 15th year on that slab, so... get in line. :) :arrow:
I like it. Much better than scraping something that has been around that long. Build some more and sell them.
If a guy had a mess of old beds he could probably sell a few done that way, yep. The ol jailbar bed box is out back. Some sort of big wheelbarrow might be another adaptation. Pugsy said he could turn one into an insulated stainless cooler thing in a day. I don't guess I've ever seen one done this way so any idea cleverness credits go to boss man. His thought was to just chop it off and have maybe just a tubing X at the back but I was like nah, shove the ends together so it has four stake pocket "legs". ;)
I like the stake pocket legs. Without it would like those bland beds that some people use like me. LOL.
I am always looking online at old vehicles for sale. Found this old Dodge Van. about 35 miles from us.. Seems like the kayak should be carried on the outside?
Price on the van is $1800.00 .. Seller says it is a roller , altho it is sitting on blocks, no wheels or tires. No title.
:roll:
stripped the 400sbc I was assembling to send everything out for balancing .
I love it, Matt, that's very cool.
I read a few daze ago : Gene Winfield died. Amazing life he had. A pioneer in the custom car building field.
We had some snow saturday early morning. Did not hang around long after the earth rotated our area towards the sun.
It's only been about 7 years ago that I went to an auto show in Kansas City. Gene was in a roped off area at one end of the venue teaching a whole group of younger people how to chop the top on a pickup cab.
"Price on the van is $1800.00 .. Seller says it is a roller , altho it is sitting on blocks, no wheels or tires. No title."
Maybe that means it'll roll over if you push it hard enough from one side.
put a 400sbc crank in the lathe for a polish yesterday . this is another 400 build , much less power than the one getting balanced .
Finally got the junk GP out of my yard and onto death row. Its hard not to be a little sad. :blank: RIP
Does it run and move? Up here, they're getting between one and two thousand for a mover just for demo derbies. But that one looks to be in pretty good condition. I've seen crappy cars being up for sale around here.
I had fun today. I have a gravel 'ramp' that goes to my lower level property, by the dry creek, that I use with my JD tractor for hauling firewood, the log splitter, chipper, small trailers, etc. Today, I hooked up the 5x8 landscape trailer to the truck and headed for the gravel pit on the north end of town for a ton of CA6 to lay down on that ramp to make it better. Another gravel company bought this place and really changed things around. Anyway, an endloader buy directed me to the right pile, and loaded my trailer. As soon as I drove onto the scale, I heard a pop. One trailer tire blew. The scale lady said I had a ton and a half on. Hmm, the guys are usually better at loading a ton onto my 3/4 ton trailer.
I pulled off to the side and told her that I have a spare and an air compressor to air up the other tire, which looked low. I jacked up the trailer and removed the blown tire and noticed that it's shot. Those tires are only a couple years old (4.80x12). These are the second set of tires/wheels since I've had the trailer, 2008. I took the spare and plugged in the air compressor in the truck, and it wouldn't air up the tire. What a POS; new; it went into the trash. I put the spare on, and it's flat.
The scale lady called someone in the yard, and they would come up with an air compressor to air up the tires. I said, hell, I live only five miles down the road, I could go home and get one. Nope. Two guys came up with a PU, a-c and gennie. Started the gennie, turned on the a-c, but had the wrong hose. Okay, we're going to get the right hose. I argued again, but they wouldn't have it. They came back with a floor jack and jacked up the trailer to take the weight off, aired the tires, and said it didn't look good to them, so they shoveled some off and said I could come back another time and get some free. Heck, she only charged me a ton, so I'm good. After I got home and got it spread out, it was just right amount anyway.
So now, I need three new tires. Menard's shows a slightly larger size with wheel included that will fit, but both local stores only have two each. Another store a little farther has three, and it's less distance than going to both stores, so I head out to that one. When I get to that town, I see gas is $2.89.9; in my town, it's $3.29.9, so I fill up the trucks 1/2 full tank. Get to Menard's and they only have two tires. Grrrr. I buy them anyway, and stop at a Rural King store and find the same tire/wheels for about the same price, so I buy the third one there.
Fun day for sure.
Polished up a 4" stroke sbc crank i have that is wounded . One throw is marked up bad . It would clean up if the rods were taken down to 2.0 inch , they are 2.1 now . I would toss it but it is a callies dragonslayer crank internal balanced with Monel metal. They are good to north of 1500hp. It will go to the swap meet for anyone that might want to get it fixed . My racing days are over .
Phil, no it does not run.
Well, Matt, up they would say that it probably just needs a $5 part, but I just don't have the time to mess with it anymore. Want it gone today. Really, that's the way they write the ads, I kid you not.
Phil, theres no title or keys. Thats why I tried to give it away here and to anyone. I have about $700 in it. Reason for moving is my home insurer found out it was in my yard and refused to do business with it there. After being there for a decade. Theres no need for trying to convince me that theres a better way to handle it than how I did but thanks. I don't do FB and don't care to help derby guys. They beg to borrow then just steal and destroy. Having it off my property is as a big mental relief as the seatbelt ticket outcome last year.
The Camaro could be a roller already. Subframe went right in but no upper shackle bushings are present.
Started up the 46 this weekend and had smoke coming out the pipes after I shut it down and found out I was dripping fuel into the barrels after shut down. So, I was trying my hands last night on a Holley 600 full rebuild. Not much of a challenge for most of you guys but I am more of a hammer and prybar type guy. Not a fan of intricate little parts. :lol:
Good man ^^^ 8) Fixing a carb. :)
The Taiwan Special is a roller. Tacked washers to some round tube mockup cab spacers I had on the 47 truck to make shackle bushing simulators. Happened to be the right size. Small amounts of whittling were needed on spring pockets and one foldover nut hole in order to put the rear and springs in. Now... on to trying to tame the chaos at the tail end of the body. :arrow:
Quote from: jaybee on March 10, 2025, 07:37:26 PM"Price on the van is $1800.00 .. Seller says it is a roller , altho it is sitting on blocks, no wheels or tires. No title."
Maybe that means it'll roll over if you push it hard enough from one side.
The ad says all glass is good. I wonder where the glass is since there is none in any openings? Must be inside the van? Guess I find some entertainment from reading some of these ads? Its nothing new with over priced , poorly written ads. I found them decades ago too.
Looked at a 1934 Fjord coupe hotrod 40 - 45 yrs ago. Tires were flat and sunk in the dirt in the guys backyard. He was telling me he had it on the street the day before burning rubber. AND : the price went up 1 thousand dollars from the newspaper ad printed price because he changed his mind. I thanked him , walked back to my truck
8)
Cleaned up a set of canfield heads for the swap meet . I have not had a table at a swap meet in over 20 years . How do you price things ? I have a used set of shaft rockers for sbc that retail new for $2800CDN.What would be a reasonable ask $ ? Same question for program main caps splayed bolt pattern for 400 sbc ? . I also have boxes of valve springs that I will pressure test and list the lbs/in .
CK, what I sell isn't in the same category as what you're selling, but I go to sites (like ebay) that are selling what I have and take an average of items sold that match mine, or close to it. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Seems my excellent condition stuff won't sell, but someone else's junk goes for top dollar. Go figure.
Yesterday, I was out in the yard throwing grass seed and rolling the lawn. Caught two large moles in the same area in the same day. YaY! Visited with a couple friends that stopped by, he was wearing a T-shirt, me with a light long sleeved shirt, brisk wind. Today, it's 30 degrees and a light coating of snow on the ground. Brrrrr.
Yesterday I started putting the ac in my Impala. I am putting and underdash unit in it. The replacement style takes away the air vents and I like having them. The condenser is for my car specifically (vintage air) and it fits great, and the instructions are right on. My back is telling me that I should have quit sooner though. A couple of weeks and I should be done. Also going from and underdash radio, to a replacement in the dash.
I wanted to put one in my 58 Yeoman wagon, but it didn't look like one was made to fit. Ended up I didn't drive it enough to do it. Take it slow and take care of your back.
Aluminum inner frame assembly is welded. I plan to fabricate the starter mount this week. I ordered a bunch of parts yesterday. Tomorrow I am going to remove 1" of the rear Z and see how that looks when I reassemble the suspension.
John: Does the aluminum frame get mounted rigidly to the steel frame, or is it on cushioned mounts?
The aluminum inner frame will be mounted with a sandwich of rubber to the original model T frame. The engine and transmission are mounted solid to the inner frame. I am hoping this will take some of the buzz and vibration away. I believe that the inner frame will also carry most of the stress and the load of the drivetrain. Most of this project is being designed as it is being built. Who knows if it will work. I keep telling myself that it is more of an adult go kart than a real car, but it will be street legal.
I had the windows tinted in the old car today. I do not care for the look so much but my wife has complained that the windows needed to be darker. Truthfully she is right. The Vintage Air unit I have is old and to small for the car. It should make the car more comfortable in the summer. I think the look will grow on me but it makes the car look to trendy.
Looks good to me. One of these days, I"m going to take my DD '14 Tacoma in to have the windows tinted. On some of our hot days, seems like the ac isn't large enough.
looks fine by me 8) 8)
Looks good John.
John: the ol chevy looks good to me. We all have different tastes tho. :wink: A friend gathered up many sets of alloy 5 slot wheels over the decades. He still installs them on his old cars. Some cars look good, some look goofy with the wheels. Main item is he is happy
We've had rain , snow , WIND here at the house. One day it was 43*F , next day it is 65*F , next day it was 74*F.
Photo of the garb I wear in the attic usually. I replaced a p*ss poor exhaust fan install in bathroom off bedroom. Guy used 3 inch flex conduit all the way thru the roof with a vent stack on it. Vent fan barely ran. relocated light fixture (black circle behind my head in photo).. SO the light actually shines in the shower per my wifes request.
Head lamp was phree from Harbor Freight weeks ago. Some promo thing, spend 30 buck$ and get phree lite. It works well to be honest. Still has high, low and flash on the lite. It has 3 AAA battery in it... No USB charge cable to loose. I mis place cables all the time
:o
I'm having a minor blizzard today. Going to coffee early this morning and the wind is blowing from the north at better than 40 mph. I'm headed south and turn right to go west. The wind catches the left hand wiper at the right time and flips it 180 degrees. Anybody that has worked on the late 40's to early 50's trucks knows the wiper system is poor at best. When it flipped, it did chip the paint on the drip rail but there was no other damage other than a bent wiper blade. I had thought about re-engineering that system when I built the truck but my thought was "I don't use the wipers often". That proved to be a bad decision. I will remove the arm and flip it back to the correct position and remember to turn them off when the wind is excessive. :) The roads are closed right now but the storm has stopped snowing and the wind is going down. The forecast is for blowing dirt after lunch. :) Welcome to March weather. :)
Later in the day after the weather calmed down a little, I removed the wiper arm and checked to see if there was any further damage. The arm going to the wiper post is bent. Time for some more under the dash work in a day or two. :)
started machining on a fuel pump drive extension for a cam driven mechanical fuel pump . I am 6 threaded holes from done .
The 47 job is back in the hands of the man who boxed the frame, currently refining engine mounting.
The 73 job got shot.
The Camaro rear and front ends both fit decent now but fenders need a few tweaks. Curves at sides of hood match fenders well and that by itself is remarkable.
:)
This bedroom is the learning - testing room for wall insualtion.
Photos show bedroom wall I tore apart. Slump block wall, fur out strips for sheetrock. No insulation. The block walls are filled with vermiculite material for insulation. Single pane aluminum windows with rotted out seals. I siliconed the windows shut. No air leaks and way less rattles from wind. Old rigid foam board stuffed in the window opening to keep cold out better. New windows are on order.
Installed R6 rated insulation foam board. The OE Wood strips were 1x2 material. I furred that out additional 3/8 inch to fit the foam board. Ceiling popcorn texture removed by my wife 3 weeks ago. Wife ripped out the carpet too. Even with no sheet rock on walls and air leaks around the ceiling , The room feels better, warmer, quieter already.
I ripped all the wood furr strips on the HF Warrior table saw. Felt like 5 thousand cuts, but it was not. LOL
Between that stuff, I fixed my Hitachi leaf blower , gas powered. 15 yrs old or so. New fuel hoses and 22 dollar carb from Amazon got the old gurl running good again. It still needs a little tune , but there are No adjustment screws any where besides the idle screw. RUns a bit Phat... We are at 5100 ft elevation here. That may be the cause??
Added 2 more light fixtures in my shop too. Great additional light on far east wall. Still looking for something to use as a wet tear down bench for transmission work. Wet benches contain the oil. Bench is tilted so oil runs to a drain trough. Then into a bucket.
Changed the setup on the 3 other lights I added couple weeks ago. Hard to explain : added conduit (metal) between the lights. The flexable cord I first used was pulling the lights towards each other with a droop in the cord. That was driving my OCD crazy. So , I used metal conduit and the lights are all even spaced now !
We need to retire and take it easier?
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Looking good, Tony.
It's fun to watch other's projects but not as fulfilling as doing your own.:) Good work, people.
Started on sheet rock for the bedroom we are adding insulation to the walls. Last panels of sheet rock we have here.
I skillfully cut the last filler sheet rock piece incorrectly (too short) . So I stopped for the day missing last sheet rock piece I wanted in place..
Couple weeks ago I was messin with the electric gate opener on our 2nd driveway. It is 12 volt car battery powered. The range on the remote control was like 19 feet. LOL.. I opened the box. Checked some stuff. Search for part and model numbers , etc. I finally unscrewed the coax cable ends that are inside the box. LOL , th e coax cable end was installed incorrectly. Inner wire did not protrude far enough. I whipped up a new cable with my fancy tool I bought many weeks ago. Great range on the remote now !!
Also in the last few evenings, I have been working on my car trailer. I bought a 5k winch for the trailer since my 32 yr old winch spit teeth out the last time I tried to use it. Gotta buy a hook end for the steel rope on this winch. My old winch cable hook is not removable unless you cut it off.
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There is an obvious posting pattern evident here on RRT that I find annoying and have ever since it started elsewhere many years ago, that I just am no longer willing to tolerate. To suggest it is not intentional and persistent would be more rude gaslighting. The bird dog knows who they are. I have done my best to ignore it and continue contributing content but enough is enough and I'm tempted once again to exercise my rights. Just sayin' :blank:
I attempted to repair the wiper on the 48 this afternoon. The arm from the motor to the post is bent from the factory. It was really bent when I removed it. I straightened it and went to reinstall. About 15 times later I had it where it would work. The motor shaft has a 1/4" e-clip to hold the arm on. I spent 30 minutes trying to get it back on and quit for the day. I'm going to look for one of those that has the 90 degree tab on one side to facilitate installation. In retrospect, I must have been really lucky the 1st time I got installed. I do remember many attempts before being successful. :) Working under the dash is better being done by people that can see and are made of rubber. :)
You start out a day of easy does it. I planned on outside work, no interior house work. I have no sheetrock , so I can not hang or cut that wrong again. I only cut the sheetrock once, it was still too short. Till sunday: We make a trip to Home Depot for supplies. LOL
I sprayed bug stuff around the house exterior with those bottles that attach to the water hose. I was burning yard debris in the fire pit, sitting in my outdoor chair. Wife walks up: We have a leak at the clothes washer. Water on the floor. Looks like the hose connection at the washer.. yippie :twisted: Wife had turned the water valve off at the wall.
After looking at stuff, my wife's assessment was correct. 90 degree brass fitting was just a smidge loose. I installed a new rubber washer, snugged it up. No leaks all day so far.
Photo of the shop lights with metal conduit between them. Keeps the spacing even, no drooping cord between the fixtures.. This is actually ver 3.0 .. Ver 1 was a extension cord cut to fit from light to light. That was really awful with cord sag, pulled the lights towards each other. Ceiling is 13 feet high. Lights hang on chains about 3 feet long. My Bright idea ver 2.0 was use romex wire. It is sorta stiff, it will be fine. After a few daze the romex was drooping too.
So , I bought the EMT conduit and fittings . No droop. Fixtures stay spaced even.
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Love the red on that Mustang, Matt. there was a time I just hated those cars. Like a lot of others I thought they were SO massive. Turns out they aren't nearly as much bigger than the 67-70 cars as I believed, and the lines have held up really well with time IMO.
Tony, the house is coming along really well. Regarding the wet bench, are you still doing a little transmission work when you're not playing Bob Vila?
(Edited where I accidentally said Toney rather than Matt.)
Bill, what do you do when a fly keeps landing on your sandwich?
Matt, as you probably know, sw. Kansas is home to a tremendous amount of feedyards and crops so flies are everywhere during the warmer months. So it is customary to shoo them off. :) I'm pretty sure that wasn't your point. :) I was not enthused enough today to tackle the e clip again, today. I went looking for a tool and wasn't impressed at what I found. If there was room for 2 hands, it might be useful. I washed vehicles today and tomorrow the weather maybe be poor again so I'm planning on monday to be the attack day for the clip. :) If I had known that I would be doing repeat work on the wipers, I might have drilled the shafts for cotter keys. :)
Quote from: jaybee on March 21, 2025, 09:20:38 PMTony, the house is coming along really well. Regarding the wet bench, are you still doing a little transmission work when you're not playing Bob Vila?
Thanks, I hope I survive this house re-model. :o
I have a couple of transmission rebuild jobs to do. I still receive calls for work. The wet bench contains the mess , plus is useful for other crap I mess with.
My winch install on my car trailer is waiting on cable ends. They give you wire kit with winch. Of course that never fits the application for me.
Plus my hand problems have returned. Trigger finger in 2 fingers again.
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Trigger finger is no fun ! I have it and need to go back to doc again . I now have it in 5 fingers . I get some kind of injection in the base of my finger and it gets better , lasts about a year and then its back .
I took this photo this morning. There was a cruise night last night and someone left some nice marks across the parking lot. I lined up the old car to take this photo. The car in the photo would not leave these marks. :)
That's almost photoshop, John. :)
My mom had bought a new 60 Chevy BelAir sedan when I was a kid, six cylinder powerglide. When I got my license, I would drive it and go around a corner in town in the summer and floor the gas pedal, kicking it down into first, barking the tires. Hot pavement and nylon tires made it easy.
Quote from: kb426 on March 23, 2025, 08:09:03 PMThat's almost photoshop, John. :)
Photoshop from the rotary dial phone days ?
:lol:
I was moderately successful today. It only took 15 minutes to get the e clip back on the wiper motor post. That included getting things ready to lay under the dash. LOL. I won't be using them in high wind conditions again. :) I'm tempted to remove the arms to avoid the blades from sun baking but I want covers for the knurled posts before I do that. I can put them in the truck for when they are needed but I don't want the pot metal knurls to be exposed.
Some stuff here today. Wire lugs I need for winch on my car trailer arrived today. A hook for the cable on the winch arrived too. Everything takes a week to deliver here usually.
The sheet rock we picked up sunday was cut correctly and the wall rock install was finished.. The weird looking whiteish looking sheet rock in upper left corner? That is remnant of my spray texture testing a few weeks ago. Bedroom work is on hold for a short while. Other whiteish stuff is hot mud I pre-filled some of the larger gaps between sheet edges.
We finally have the kitchen cabinets (most of them). That work was started today (monday). Need cabinets in place correctly.. Then counter top people will come in for cyphering and template building. We are getting closer?
Yea , I have trigger finger in both hands this time. Left hand is more angry than my right. Right hand the bird finger is a big problem. Left hand is the 3rd finger. Doctor told me last year that I do not have arthritis in my hands, he seemed surprised. My question was: Why do my hands hurt like the * in the mornings? I can not make a fist and the pain limits my strength in gripping stuff.
On the flip side: my brother is doing ok since his wife passed in december. It has been 3 months , 2 weeks. SO it is still very fresh. I helped him figure (learn?) out online searches for old friends. He had lunch with a couple folks in recent weeks. He does tell me "being alone sux". I would agree with him. Says he likes his Walmart job now ?
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I am trying my hand at art . I have been making a lamp from an old roller cam , a steering wheel a con rod and a valve cover . the steering wheel is the base with the roller cam bolted to it , then the con rod ( a 6" eagle H beam no less ), is bolted to the top of the cam using a spacer bearing to take up the size difference . The wrist pin goes through the rod into the pcv hole in the valve cover . I have had no end of grief getting the sand blaster to work to clean the valve cover . Eventually when the valve cover is installed I will take a length of aluminum fuel line and route it from one of the holes in the steering wheel up the cam and over the rod , entering the wrist pin to shield the electrical from sight . I have a bulb set up that will work in the valve cover. the on/off switch will be in the steering wheel in the next hole over from where the fuel line was run from . Its an old 13' steering wheel with the 3 round holes per spoke . The lamp shade /valve cover should be able to swivel on the wrist pin .
I am looking forward to seeing a photo of the lamp. I like stuff like that. It is always fun to build something new.
Today I finished up the installation of the mini starter. I modified the gm mini starter by drilling 3 holes through the mounting flange so that the starter now mounts flat against the motor plate instead of the normal attachment for gm starters to the engine block. I also had 1/4" milled off of the starter flange to allow for the thickness of the motor plate. The trick was getting the three mounting holes drilled so that when the starter engaged I had no more than .035 between the two gears. That was made harder because the holes had to be marked on the engine side, transferred to the transmission side and then drilled. I got it. I have video of it working but I am not sure how to post it here. This has been something that I had concerns about when I started this project. I am glad to have it behind me.
Machined an enderle 110 pump today so the clamping ring could go further up the pump . Local racer who is getting a couple altereds ready for the car show next month and then racing this summer .
had students help me design and build a master cyl mount and coil mounts for the chopper today . They will finish their designs tomorrow . Get a kick out of seeing how empowered they feel when I ask them "what do you think " and let them make what they/we feel is the best idea . I have a really nice coil mount shaping up and it was NOT the idea I had.
Busy couple daze here. I spend a few hours a day on kitchen cabinet installation. I use a wall mounted rail system Hang-it-yourself dot com product.
Upper cabinets on 2 walls are sorta done, only final trim out to be done. Missing door you say? Stripped hole in hinge mount. Tooth picks and glue is drying.
3rd wall for cabinets is on the right , not seen in the photo. I am waiting for last cabinets for that wall. Suppose to be here end of next week. LOL
Base cabinets begin thursday.
I burned some landscape debris this morning. No police here again. :shock:
Tuesday nite, I worked on my car trailer a bit. I made up 2 of the battery cables from the battery. Used my Harbor freight hydraulic press tool on the wire lugs. I shortened the wire harness for the cable plug the the hand held control box plugs into. Still Need to mount that cable plug.
Tired old guy I am ... LOL. I sit down and nearly fall asleep for some reason? weird
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Cabinets are looking good, Tony. You guys are getting to do all the fun stuff. Last Thursday, I had the last stitches out of my eyelid surgery which was done in February. Three hour round trip for 10 minute session. Monday I went in to the local dermatologist (30 minute drive one way) and he cut a large hole in the top of my head, 5.2 x 3.5cm to get rid of a basal cell cancer. Told me I have another bad spot right in front of that one that will have to be taken care of after this one heals. Stitches will come out April 7. Tuesday went in for a CT scan to see if the enlarged aorta they found last year got any larger; it didn't. Then had to go for ultra sound on both legs to see if there were any blot clots. Nope. Good to go.
Took both vehicles in to Costco today to have all the wheels balanced and rotated, both done at the same time. We walked over to Target to do some shopping, as we did shopping at Costco yesterday. Takes them an hour and a half. I guess they want you to spend time in the store to spend more money?? We're staying home tomorrow.
Most of the aluminum welding is done.
Finally took the time and finished the winch install on my car trailer. Built the last two power cables. Drilled hole for the connector to hand held controller.
Black square gizmo under the winch is the relay that powers the winch. All the wires run to this relay. It works well.
Harbor Freight winch. I waited till it was discounted $$ a few weeks back.
As I recall? My old winch was a rate 4K ? It lasted 32- 33 yrs I guess. I doubt I will be around at age 105 to replace this winch if it lasts?
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:twisted:
Progress on the kitchen has been slower than desired. Have the micro wave mounted. Range Vent exhaust tube hooked up , that required a visit into the attic. I had the 4inch tube in place weeks ago in the attic.
Lower cabinets in place. Attached to the walls. Fitment around the electric range set. I have to set - move cabinets a bit. Capped off Natural gas pipe behind the range keeps the range forward an extra 1 inch. I brought the lower cabinets forward slightly so the range does not sit out further, goofy looking.
I have started on the cabinets behind me as I took this shown photo. 2 pantry cabinets, upper and lower cabinets there too. Wife seems happy with setup so far.
Weather has been wild. 1.75 days of 30 mph winds. Clouds. Rain. Hail. 2 day of 62*F temps, this wednesday it was 50*F with 15 - 20 mph winds.
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Looking good, Tony. It'll all be worth it when you're done.
Break from kitchen work ... We have a spot in the front yard that grows toadstools. A lot of them. This is the 3rd time I have dug out these things. The dirt starts to "hump up" , I know more toadstools are there.
The area is where the previous owner removed some plant or tree? Filled in the area with peat moss dirt or similar. ?
You folks know what split rail wood fence is? Common item here in the desert. I dug up a few wood rail stumps in the same area. The previous owners lived here 50 yrs. Lots of stuff changed in the yard.
lastly: We had rain , hail , snow, wind here on thursday. On the I-40 west of Winslow the hail was so heavy , the road looked snow covered in a few areas.
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Today I spent 40 minutes looking where I set down a part for the chopper that would take 45 minutes to build again ! Made weld on mounts for the pegs and forward controls .
Spent all day thrusday and friday in the kitchen , mostly . :arrow: :shock:
Set pantry (2) cabinets in place on right. Moved fridge in place checking for door opening interference with fridge or other stuff. Spaced bridge cabinet (over fridge) 1 inch from pantry for more space. Spaced 2 walll cabinets over 3 inches for more space to open doors.
Counter tops are 4 weeks out. Which is sorta OK.. I am going to install new drawer slides on the cabinets. Slow close , smoother slides than the oem stuff. These cabinets may be (are) low end units from a home improvement store that has Depot in its name. ?
Fixed more stripped holes for hinges in wood. Must be friday afternoon built cabinets?
Can not get some doors to adjust up into place and gaps set. Measure the doors.. Couple are not same widths as other dooors? Weird. More friday afternoon built stuff?
Worked on the bedroom wall again.. Remove sheet rock from around the window.. That went sorta smoothly. I have glue and clamps on pieces of furred out wood that split apart as I muscled the sheet rock off. ALways something. LOL New windows are not here yet. Some windows we a ordered were discontinued. Plan B activated on that.
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Looking better all the time, Tony. Since we sold the backup generator and got rid of that little shed, the mrs. said I may need a new shed there to hold the overflow stuff from the shop, like rakes and shovels (because we don't want rakes and shovels in the shop). She said it would be an early Birthday present. Found a nice resin shed at Costco; https://www.costco.com/suncast-6-x-4-vertical-shed.product.100656654.html, which is way cheaper at the warehouse. Anyway, there is a 1 1/2" water drain running outside the shop, right where that shed will go. It has frozen up on me once or twice, so I thought I would heat tape it and insulate it before building the shed.
Man, you'd thought I wanted to buy a new car for $1000 trying to find that insulation in this area. It has to be 1 7/8" ID to fit the pvc pipe and no one carries it, and to special order it, you have to buy the 15 pack for around $75. Think I'll pass and just cross my fingers like years past.
The weather is supposed to drop below freezing again tonight. I'm waiting for constant warm weather. I don't like cold weather. I want to be outside.
Quote from: 58 Yeoman on April 05, 2025, 07:11:56 PMMan, you'd thought I wanted to buy a new car for $1000 trying to find that insulation in this area. It has to be 1 7/8" ID to fit the pvc pipe and no one carries it, and to special order it, you have to buy the 15 pack for around $75. Think I'll pass and just cross my fingers like years past.
Phil: can you find pool noodles in the area? Would that fit the pipe? just a thought
Out here , I have seen small and larger pool noodles at wally world and various other stores
:idea:
Phil, have you checked Amazon?
Pool noodles aren't hollow. Around here anyway. I checked Amazon, but the ones they sell say they're for pipe insulation, but also for roll bars, exercise equipment, etc., and they aren't split with the glue edges. Yeah, I know, petty. They're also almost four times as expensive. I'll probably end up getting three of them from Amazon for almost $40 when I could've gotten them from Menards for around $15, if they still sold them individually.
It just ticks me off that everyone says 'buy locally' and when you go to the store, it's 'sorry, we can order it for you, but we don't carry it.' Well, duh, why would I make the trip when I can order it and have it delivered to my home for free?
On the bright side, I'm going to the dermatologist on Monday to have the stitches taken out of my head. That was a deep one, and is still painful, but that's the price I gotta pay for not wearing a hat or using sunscreen when I was young.
Taking the Subaru in on Tuesday for a fluid change on the CVT. First one I've ever had, and I've been pleased with it, other than it feels like driving a snowmobile when you kick it down. We bought the car when it was three years old with about 30,000 miles on it, so I don't know if it had been changed or not. I haven't had it changed, as we usually trade her car before it hits 100k, but when we walked into the dealer in January to look at new Subies, the salesperson ticked us off, like she really didn't want to sell a new car. And that's what I told the service manager last week when I made the appointment for the fluid change. He asked me "was that at this dealer?" I said yep. Anyway, I hope it doesn't screw up the trans with new fluid in it. I'll have to be buying new tires for it this fall too, as these won't make it through the winter.
Got a lot of mileage out of them, BFG's. We put them on shortly after buying the car, IIRC. Forgot to write down the miles. Might have it in the file cabinet. The Tacoma will need new tires this fall, too. Michelin's with about 70,000 on them and looking good, but will not be good for snow. Getting the windows tinted on the Tacoma this Thursday. Tired of the hot sun beating on me, plus the glare. He's going to keep it legal at 35% on the door windows (in Illinois), but is also going to tint the whole windshield. My stepson had his done on his GMC and my wife really liked it. Not really legal, but hard to tell it's done.
Quote from: 58 Yeoman on April 05, 2025, 11:08:48 PMPool noodles aren't hollow. Around here anyway.
Out here pool noodles mostly have holes in the center. I suggest you buy a large pool noodle. Cut it in half. Carve out the center. GLue it to the pipe with caulking material, use zip ties too. The 60 year caulk may work well?
I would not own a vehicle with a CVT if you paid for it.
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My Subaru Outback has 200,000 miles with the cvt. I did not know you could have the transmission fluid changed. I will look into that. I just put new tires on mine. I guess I am an optimist.
From what I saw on a video, it's complicated to change the fluid in a cvt, not like a powerglide or C6, etc. That's why I'm taking it to the dealer and pay the $350 + tax. I didn't think you had to change the fluid, but it seems it's supposed to be done every 30k? Didn't do it that often, if at all on regular automatics.
I guess I could buy the Amazon insulation and cut it with a razor, put it on and glue it together. It's the small jobs that are always the hardest.
Our 2013 Honda Civic car has a regular 5 speed auto in it. It has a drain plug, no pan to remove to replace filter.
After 30 or 40k miles on the car I started to drop the trans fluid with each engine oil change at 5k miles. Transaxle drains out 2.6 qts of DW-1 Honda transmission oil . I figure it is a good thing to change partial transmission oil. I have skipped a trans oil drain , so it was drained at 10k miles. Not often I do that.
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Quote from: 58 Yeoman on April 06, 2025, 08:02:23 AMI guess I could buy the Amazon insulation and cut it with a razor, put it on and glue it together. It's the small jobs that are always the hardest.
Phil: Just another thought here on the pipe insulation:
When we rebuilt the interior on our park model place in the mobile home park... WHen you flushed the toilet the noise from the water flow thru the 3 inch drain pipe under the unit was enough that it bugged us.
At the home improvement store I found some foil backed butyl roll of material. About 1/4 inch thick, foam like material with the butyl material too... Butyl material is sorta an adhesive too . I wrapped the drain pipe with this stuff. I put zip ties around the material too. It reduced the water flow noise a great deal. That may work with the heat tape on the drain pipe ?
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Tony, sounds like that's the direction I'm going to go. I went on Amazon this am and lo and behold...no 1-7/8" insulation. WTH happened overnight? What I did find was close, like 2" for over $20 for 6'; not going to happen. I guess they're jacking prices up overnight for the tariffs.
Quote from: 58 Yeoman on April 06, 2025, 10:22:15 AMTony, sounds like that's the direction I'm going to go. I went on Amazon this am and lo and behold...no 1-7/8" insulation. WTH happened overnight? What I did find was close, like 2" for over $20 for 6'; not going to happen. I guess they're jacking prices up overnight for the tariffs.
Kool... We were at a home improvement store today. It is a place called Lowes. Actually we were at the Home depot place first. Did not have All we wanted. Lowes is across the street, all in Show Low AZ.
Lowes stuff is called Duct insulation in rolls.. They had the butyl stuff I used and a fiberglas insulation type material too.
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Went into the attic of the garage today and brought down more stuff for the upcoming swap meet . Now I have no room to move in the garage .
In my wonderin around in for sale stuff on the facebook marketplace.
Listed as a camp trailer: $300.00
Not sure about camping. Not much info given.
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MY H.F. trailer was new in 2006. I decided it was time for new tires. The old ones didn't show any age but why would you take a risk in today's tire world. :) I ordered the wrong size the 1st try. Brain damage again. :) 2nd try, right size and job completed. The old tires were 2 ply. The replacements are 6 ply with an M speed rating. I hope the plies aren't made from used toilet paper. :) I've been working on small items that aren't worth mentioning. Very boring. :)
I've spent the last two days cleaning up brush from when the tree guy topped and cut trees in January, as the weather was right. I also cut down a lot of honeysuckle bushes that are growing on the side of a ravine that runs though the property. I'm going to plant wild flowers in the bare spots to help the ground cover. We lost a lot of trees, so more sunlight to help the flowers which will help the bees, and make it look better. Now, I'm tired.
It was 81 here in Holbrook today... While we were in the Sun City AZ area today it was 93 at 1pm. The traffic is just NUTZ there!
Yeah we are in a small town. Limited stuff here. 33 miles west or south for a larger city. Yet we are so happy to be here, retired, do what we want (sorta). LOL
I have not searched for some items like steel tube , angle iron, flat steel materials yet. The house needs more work. LOL
Since our park model mobile home in Sun City AZ area is not selling, we decided to sell the RV.. WHen the RV is gone , I do not need a dually F350 diesel , so the truck will go too.
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Quote from: kb426 on April 09, 2025, 05:15:34 PMMY H.F. trailer was new in 2006. I decided it was time for new tires. The old ones didn't show any age but why would you take a risk in today's tire world. :) I ordered the wrong size the 1st try. Brain damage again. :) 2nd try, right size and job completed. The old tires were 2 ply. The replacements are 6 ply with an M speed rating. I hope the plies aren't made from used toilet paper. :) I've been working on small items that aren't worth mentioning. Very boring. :)
If you have not seen it. Harbor Freight is pushing a new trailer they offer. 5 x 10 unit. 2k weight rated. It has options for ramps , tie downs , top rail kit, tool box. Price starts at 1K $$
Still uses smallish tires 13 inch
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Did a small bit of work in the bedroom I have been ignoring for a while. Ripped off the remaining sheet rock around the window.
Of course a mishap popped up. The wood furr out surround of the window split apart. I had to glue the board back together. Used that TiteBond brand wood glue. I have used that glue for years.
I had some longish adjustable clamps on hand. You know : those tools you have for decades and use every 7 to 9 years?
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Today Had a mis-step . So the drywall work I planned on, did not happen.
Yesterday afternoon changed the basic cheapy drawer slides on the kitchen cabinets to full extend , self closing slides. 7 pairs of them.
Today after the Amazon delivery , I changed out 26 hinges on the cabinet doors to slow close hinges. Tedious. PITA . Adjusted the doors close to even.... Couple more stripped out door hinge holes on the same cabinets that had other stripped out holes. More glue and toothpicks ..
Now : somebody needs to install the handles on the cabinets. Counter tops are still 3 weeks out. i suspect 6 weeks is more likely. I am always the optimist !
Still need trim on the cabinets. Scribe trim , toe kick trim, crown trim. Then floor tile , ceramic stuff. The eggcitement gets me !
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A few months ago, my wife's Durango was attacked in a parking lot incident. Nobody around to report it when she got back to her car. I decided to repair it instead of dealing with the ins. people. I removed the bumper cover today and found 2 more plastic parts that were broken than I had ordered. Not a surprise or a big deal. I put enough back on to make it drivable and and ordered the parts. In about a week and a half, I may be back to work. :) This happened in a Walmart parking lot. I asked the security people to review the camera footage but never heard back from them. Without documentation to file a claim on the person who hit the car's ins., I decided it would cost me less than the deductible on the policy for parts to repair it. After all, I work cheap. :)
I too had a bumper cover repair that I completed recently. I was coming onto the freeway at about 60mph, using an onramp which turns into an exit to another freeway about 3/4 mile beyond. A semi coming up on my left barely waited for the two strips of asphalt to come together before merging into my lane...way before the solid white line even ended. I was forced to slap the brakes to avoid being taken out by the trailer tandems or squeezed into the guardrail. The pavement was wet, my wheel was slightly turned when I had to brake, and the result was a lazy fishtail I couldn't quite get to straighten out. By the time I knocked one end of the back bumper cover off, speed was so low it put a mark in the paint but the body was undamaged. Someone was looking out for me that day.
The hard part turned out to be finding the plastic bracket that holds the cover to the body on an 18 year old Focus. The foam understructure was slightly out of place, but none of it was too tough.
Same as your Durango, I figured I'd be better off keeping the insurance company out of it. Particularly with a car that only takes me back and forth to work.
A few years ago when I was still working, (retired in 2014), I got a cracked windshield in my car. I called the insurance agent, and she told me that the windshield was less than $300 installed, so I should have it done on my dime so I wouldn't have a claim on my insurance. That was nice of her.
Well , it happened. Couple days ago We were moving a sheet of drywall into the house. My wife stumbled, fell. She hit the floor with her head. Here comes the blood. She never blacked out.
She said take me to the hospital in Winslow . A fast road trip there.
No stitches or staples. Doc said a deep abrasion was cleaned, treated. A brain scan shows no problems, blood , etc anywhere.
I have worried on this, since she is a bit of a klutz . Even tho we move slowly. She insist on helping me.
So , I bought one of those grabbing clamp tools for moving panels. As you lift the panel the tool grabs the panel more firm. I use that now to move the sheet rock by myself.
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Sorry to hear that Tony. I'm glad it wasn't something worse.
Wow, Tony, sure hope she feels better soon.
Sorry to hear about your wife, Tony. She and my wife must be related. My wife told me they used to call her Grace. She has helped me on various projects and has gotten hurt on a couple, the latest while I was cutting down very small trees that were in the wood line, and shading our garden. I kept telling her to stand back when I cut them, but one did twist and the brush just caught her and knocked her down, causing a large bruise on her thigh. She was sore for a couple days, but made it through.
She did help me get through yesterday's surgeries on my left eye/nose; more mohs cancer surgery. First mohs surgeon took a spot off near my eye, opposite side of my nose as two months ago, then two more spots further down. The two spots ended up being one larger one. Took three passes for each to get it all. Then to the next building for the plastic surgeon to do his work. In at 7:30, out about 2pm. He had to take a graft from my eyelid for next to my eye, and a graft from the end of my eye for my nose. I was going to post a pic, but it's pretty gross.
We hope all goes well for you Phil in recovery of the surgery.
I feel bad with my wifes recent fall. Its my job to protect her and I failed. We move slowly with the sheet rock , but her upper body strength has decreased a bunch. She has other bruises from the fall. She wants to help to the point of getting in the wrong place and not thinking. I've had to point out bad things to her often over the decades.
The panel grip device helps me move the sheet rock by myself. I have reasonable good health at my age, but my hands are starting to fail after years of abuse. Time will tell me when to slow down or not.
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Just stay active, Tony. I'll be 75 in a few more weeks, and sometimes it just takes more time to do things, plus I bruise more easily, but still heal pretty well. This is the last major surgery I'm having this year, other than I want to get the cataract done in my right eye so I can get new glasses. I'm tired of being in constant pain.
On a side note, I seem to have lost my VA hearing aids yesterday. I called the hospital recovery room, and they will have the day shift look to see if they are there. IIRC, the VA will give me one new set if I lose mine, so I'll wait to see if they show up first. If it's not one thing, it's three others.
Phil : keeping active right now is unavoidable. Hope you find the hearing aids. Maybe they are covered for loss.. Its just a PITA to deal with in my experience for the process to replace the aids.
I finally got the sheet rock hung up in the bedroom. Pre-fill of the mud into the gaps has been finished too.
Actually been trying to organize stuff in my work shop. Yes , I used the O word. Organize.
Friend is telling me about his hand doctor for my problems. His doc is not in my network , so that will not happen yet.
A long time friend from cruising Central Ave in the 1970s passed away in March. He had a kidney transplant and the infections could not be over come. Kidney transplants are common in todays world. Dang infections just never give up. He helped me with my first V8 install in a 1972 Vega wagon about 1975.
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Wife won't let me be active for a couple more days (doctors orders). Playing games on the puter get old after a while. Weather is warm outside today, so I'll venture out there and walk around and get some fresh air.
I called the VA and talked to one of the techs, and she had no problem with ordering a new set. She said if the old set turns up, I could still use them, but if they get sent in to Phonak for repair, Phonak will keep them and not send them back. They aren't going to show up, I'm sure. Should take less than two weeks for the new ones, and I said I would go in to pick them up instead of sending them to my home. The wire for my right ear has to have a longer one on it anyway. They have my settings in the computer for download.
I'm waiting for when I can lift again, as I need a couple bags of sand for the base of a plastic shed my wife bought for me for my birthday. It's going where the gennie shed was next to the shop. Can't have too much storage you know.
loaded my table at the swap meet tonight . Swap starts tomorrow , I have already made a few sales .
Found another gem near me. 1976 C10 truck. $1500.00 as is. No title. No doors. Does not run. No tires-wheels..
We had heavy snow friday afternoon. About 5 inches. Lost electric power at 8:40pm friday eve.. Power returned at 4:10am saturday morning. Power did flicker a couple times about 7:30am.
May need solar panels and batteries or genset back up power here? The house got a bit chilly overnite. It was low 30s outside. WHile outside friday eve after power went out.. I did hear a few generators running
heavy snow again saturday morning.. Then it turned to lite snow. Suppose to warm up and rain later?
Ah , I cut and installed some more rigid foam insulation board in living room wall. Fixed a drawer slide in the kitchen that I mis-installed. LOL.. Easy to fix them since the counter tops are still weeks away. Nothing moves quickly here in the high desert
I dunno, that square body comes with that nice topper...
No rust, that would be a $5000 truck here in Ohio.
No square bodies for me. I used a 77 crewcab 3/4 ton for my race car hauler one year. No good stories. :)
Went to the Subaru dealer today to pick up our free tree that they're giving away to owners. We got an Eastern Red Bud tree which is pretty common in this area. It's in a pot and is about 18" high. We have a spot picked out for it. I guess they grow kind of fast at first, then slow down a bit. We've lost a whole lot of trees in the last couple years. When we moved here in '08, you couldn't see the house from the county road; now we're out in the open. No more running around naked, I guess.
Quote from: enjenjo on April 19, 2025, 05:39:51 PMNo rust, that would be a $5000 truck here in Ohio.
Wow. $5k ? .. No dash, no steering column in the truck. No under hood photos. Likely stuff gone from under the hood too?
the price has been lowered to $1300.00 , camper shell is an option to buy oir not. LOL
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did the swap meet yesterday . Sold all my steering wheels and some gasket sets and hub caps , Gave all my remaining merc truck parts to a guy I know that owns a dozen or more of them . I got tired of getting up to talk to people looking at the same $5 steering wheel so the next guy that picked it up I just gave it to him . Had one of the closing time vultures tell me my callies crank rated for 1500hp was junk and offered me $50 . The crank needs about $600 in repairs to correct 1 journal.A new one would set you back around $3500CDN. Met a lot of nice people , guys who had Anglias in the past wanted to swap anglia stories when they saw my anglia fenders . Sold 1 merc fender , gave my number to half a dozen model T guys about those parts , but other than the truck fender had to bring all my fenders home .People were just buying small stuff. ::)
Yes, $5000. No engine rust buckets are going for $3000 just to get a title. That body and chassis and any needed aftermarket bolt on sheet metal will build a nice truck.
Square bodies are one of the hottest things in the market these days.
When I scrapped my square body 20 yrs ago it was worn out but not too rusty . if I calculate what it would be worth today I would have to consider adding 20 years of sitting and rotting . I replaced it with a Merc truck 20 years older , still have it . Around here you could get $2000 for a 65 merc 1/2 ton with a tree growing through it.
Quote from: chimp koose on April 20, 2025, 12:26:22 PMdid the swap meet yesterday . Sold all my steering wheels and some gasket sets and hub caps , Gave all my remaining merc truck parts to a guy I know that owns a dozen or more of them . I got tired of getting up to talk to people looking at the same $5 steering wheel so the next guy that picked it up I just gave it to him . Had one of the closing time vultures tell me my callies crank rated for 1500hp was junk and offered me $50 . The crank needs about $600 in repairs to correct 1 journal.A new one would set you back around $3500CDN. Met a lot of nice people , guys who had Anglias in the past wanted to swap anglia stories when they saw my anglia fenders . Sold 1 merc fender , gave my number to half a dozen model T guys about those parts , but other than the truck fender had to bring all my fenders home .People were just buying small stuff. ::)
Sounds like my typical swap meet sales process. The early vultures always jump in on me as I setup in the early mornings. Not many swap meets here allow a setup the nite before as they used to years ago.
We have sold at local parts swap for decades and I remember many of the regular vultures and call them out as they try to bs me on their parts interests. I know they are flippers looking to only make money. As they shoevl the bs , I will say something like: Oh really? You and I both know you are gonna try to resell this at twice the price. and I add a bit of laughter too. SOme of them take it in stride , others do not. I dont care either way
Sunday we made a trip to Home Depot as we often do.. 3 incidents of people crowding us as we look at items with NO one in the aisle till 12 seconds later when people arrive after us. LOL
I was standing - waiting in the sheet rock aisle. Wife was in the bathroom. No bpdy around but me with a regular cart buggy and a flat bed cart with sheet rock on it. Off to the side near the dry wall tools. guy walks up and of course he needs to get to the dry wall tools. I move the buggy out of his way as I apologize to him. He ignores me like I was not even alive. Yes: my wife pointed out that I have a magnetic personality.
I must getting feeble looking? (I am) ;) As we walk out towards the parking lot to load. A fellow asks me if I need help with the sheet rock. Wife tells him thanks, we got it.. He looked older than me (I hope). As we near the F350 , another fellow asks the same question : "you need help with that?" 8) Oh well. Helpful folks are common around here.
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Went to Springfield last Monday for that skin cancer surgery. While in town, we followed one of those old Chevy vans that looks like a loaf of bread with the tail lights up high. The right rear tire was flat, the body was all banged up, both right side doors were open and held closed as much as possible with some kind of straps, and it was actually driving down the streets. I figured he was taking it to the salvage yard.
Had to go back to the surgeon today to have him remove SOME of the stitches. Go back in about a month to get the rest removed. We were leaving town and followed that SAME VAN, only this time the rear tire wasn't as flat, and there was a carpet strapped to the roof. Wish I could've gotten a picture of it, but I wasn't wearing my glasses because I didn't have a bandage on my nose for cushion. Wonder if we'll see it again next month.
We had to go uptown to the pharmacy to pick up a script, and two blocks into the town, there were about five people at an intersection, with a young woman at one corner with a dog that looked like it had blood on it. An older woman across the street was sitting on her front step crying and someone talking with her. Sheriff's car headed that way a block away. When we were coming back, there were four squad cars and an ambulance parked there with lights flashing, the young woman with the dog was still on the same corner, and the woman still on the front step crying with muddy pants, while so many police standing around. Don't know what happened, and the local paper probably won't cover it. We met another sheriff cruiser heading that way as we neared home. Small town excitement when there's nothing else going on I guess.
I sold some stuff to the early vultures as I didnt want to take stuff home . I had an old EElco rectangular gas pedal along with a bunch of chrome badges from the merc truck . He had 5 items and offered 20 for each , the classic bundle deal . I went for it knowing the pedal was probably worth all of that but I saw no reason to hang on to it and didnt care about the merc badging . I have bought things from this guy before he is a young guy , polite and respectful and I know he funds much of his car habit by selling at swap meets. He actually owns a flip front chevy II that I used to own . He took it from a parts car to a magazine car. Also sold a bare powerglide case early , the guy actually only wanted the tail housing , I told him the swap has not begun yet , strip your parts off and sell it for what you paid me . I was not about to disassemble anything to sell pieces .I sold a 25TT cab once before a swap started about 20 years ago , could have sold it 5 times that day as it was left at my booth for the whole swap.It was re sold the same day by the new owners . I made more off extra parts sales that day than I had paid for my26T coupe so didnt care. All the parts came with the coupe when I bought it . My coupe body was basically a freebie.
Yeah, various swap meet stories: At a Good Guys event in AZ about 20 yrs ago. I bought some Crosley engine cores, parts etc. I had no way to carry the heavy stuff. We set the parts off to the side and I went looking for help. I got back about 20 minutes later and the guy had loaded up all his remaining stuff (my parts too) and was about to leave.
I gathered my parts from the back of his truck. Of course he "forgot he sold me the parts"
We have given stuff away too. I've told ppl : "this is not a museum , stuff is for sale. make an offer"
Sold a set of early aluminum Trick Flow Heads about 25 years ago. Many tire kickers on those with low ball offers.. Heads were off my 383 cid SBC engine from my 1971 C10 truck. Pulled the 383 and installed a ZZ4 crate motor. I still have that 383 short block around here some where. Guy that built it used non chamfered bearings on the Scat crank to fit the rolled radius. That all was fixed decades ago. Never been finished or fired since
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Found an early Bronco shell listed for parts only. $3,000.00 . No title, no frame, as is. The driver side does not look better.
There was a guy that built , bought , sold early broncos in metro Phoenix years ago. At Hughes Perf we built the C4 transmissions, a few T-cases for the Broncos. This guy was a friend of the Hughes owner. Bronco shop did the installs .
EVERY install of the trans and T-case had problems. Linkage wrong, bolts loose, No vacuum line hooked up, oil line leaking, converter bolts loose... Yet us guys at Hughes were the problem per the owner of the Bronco shop. I had the owner of Hughes inspect a few of the bad installs so he knew we were not at fault. Yet: we were always told "fix it" by the boss.
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Today I worked on the chopper. Made the gear selector forward control . Just have to make a shaft to hook them together 16" on center . Worked on the steering stops but I dont like where its going so a re think is due . Tomorrow I will work on the brake side forward control . I will save the steering stops for last and then its time to paint the frame .
Got the birthday shed built yesterday. You can see how I insulated the outside sink drain; I used that bubble wrap, then covered it with actual insulation covering I got from the insulation guy at work years ago. I didn't do as good a job as he did, but it wll do. Got my wild flowers planted in the bare spots across the 'ravine' also. Then we had a good rain, so that helped.
We went grocery shopping today, and hit Costco second. Saw they had a lot of shrubs like we need around the yard, so we had to come home and get the truck and trailer and go back. Got eight Junipers for one area, and seven lower shrubs for another area. Got four Junipers planted today, will get the rest done tomorrow, plus the smaller ones.
One of these days, I'll get back to working on the Corvair; sanding it and getting it ready for paint.
By the way, I can't get into my profile to remove the Corvair Sport Sedan that I sold. Anyone got any ideas why?
I see that CTC Auto Ranch in Texas is crushing out all their cars and closing. They were kind of like DVAP but better prices.
Quote from: 58 Yeoman on April 23, 2025, 07:07:01 PMBy the way, I can't get into my profile to remove the Corvair Sport Sedan that I sold. Anyone got any ideas why?
I was told a few months ago: there is a glitch in the board software . All I get is a blank page when trying to get into profile changes
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Thanks, Tony.
spent the day getting my Koi pond ready for summer .
I read engine builder Ed Pink has died. Age 94
I think I have figured out a good way to make steering stops for the chopper . Last couple of ideas were not to my liking .
Last week I spent a day regrouping most of our base kitchen cabinets. The counter top guys finally came out to measure for the counter top.
Smart, fast , accurate guy. Laser measure equipment was used. Altho I had the base cabinets all level and square with in 1/16 of an inch..... The floor was a tad over 3/8 drop left to right. That needed to be corrected.
I bought a Skil laser self - leveling device. Raised the worse end a fuzz over 3/8 inch. Cut custom shims since the large amount of correction needed.
Then: A few daze later the phone calls started from the counter top company. The actual square footage of tops needed was "more" than figured by Home Depot measurements .. Which is not a big surprise. "But", the new measurement must be submitted to Home Depot for correction. Then: Home Depot must call the contractor and confirm.. Then: Home Depot calls us with correction and of course more money. Then the counter top contractor can be paid correctly.
Sounds complicated? It is. Yet , just a bunch of phone calls. We "hope" things more forward again. SUppose to be about 3 weeks now for install. LOL , yeah , right. LOL
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My house was built in 1979, and the outside faucets are leaking and squeaking, plus they aren't siphon proof. What do I care, but I figure in a few more years when we go to sell the house, the realtor is going to say they don't match code. Well, we were at Menard's, so I bought two 12" freeze proof sillcocks, plus I bought a NIB Mansfield for $5 at an estate sale a couple weeks ago. The two at Menard's cost $49 each. Ouch. My wife finally got done with her planting flowers outside and went shopping today, so I'm changing the faucets. Did I mention that my house is brick, and the dang things are mortared in? I worked on the one in back first, as it's the worst.
I used my air chisel and it took a long time, but I got it out and set it along side the new one. What? I was never good at math, but 12" in 1979 is over 13" in 2025 and almost 14" whenever that Mansfield was made. WTH? Luckily, the PVC plumbing had enough 'sliding' give that I didn't have to do any cutting and gluing. The other two will be fun, but at least they aren't above a suspended ceiling.
Got the the steering stops done on the bike today . Happy with the results 8) 8)
Phil: the middle sillcock in your photo is the same one I installed here a few months ago. Woodford brand. As I recall (CRS) it was about 12 inches long to fit thru the slump block wall here.
Took the Goldwing for a run wednesday on the I-40 to burn off some olde gasoline in it. Filled it up with fresh gasoline. Added some Lucas gas stabilizer too. Altitude around here is 5,000 ft more or less. The 1800 still pulls hard into the triple digits , it pulls harder at lower altitudes. :shock:
With the snow , rain , warmer temps after that, we are fighting weeds around here like crazy. We buy gallon jugs of ground clear type stuff. I use a sprayer that threads onto the water hose to cover more area quickly. This house was empty for several yrs as the owners aged out. The 3 sons did little if any maintenance of the yards or house.
Wife has been focused on the utility building out back. Its about 8 x 12 feet. It is 2x4 construction on concrete pad. It was nice when built decades ago. Rough shape now, huge crack in concrete floor, floor tile is very rough. Sheet rock was falling off the ceiling. Easy removal of remaining sheet rock with garden rake. Most of the electrical was removed by me. Will be updated of course. Wife has scrubbed the sheet rock walls with a mop and some powder product. Primer - paint all in one to cover the yellow walls and purple cabinets in white. Romex is so olde..... 12ga with ground wire. The ground wire is half the diameter of the 12ga power wires. Never seen that
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Josh and I put my Ferguson To3o back together and started it up. Some fresh gas and it fired right up. It has been setting for about 18 months, I just go busy.
Koi fish are now in the pond . Did a calculation and the pond is about 1500 gallons give or take .Thought it was a lot more but its fine for the number of fish . 8)
Ok. I'm having a hard time trying to figure out to post an image. Can't see an attachment icon or find anything in the search menu on how to do it. Can someone enlighten me. I'm aware of the size limitations. Does the photo have to be hosted off site ? Thanks bc
Quote from: 34ford on May 03, 2025, 10:56:20 PMOk. I'm having a hard time trying to figure out to post an image. Can't see an attachment icon or find anything in the search menu on how to do it. Can someone enlighten me. I'm aware of the size limitations. Does the photo have to be hosted off site ? Thanks bc
You clik on the box REPLY and everything is right there. ADD FILES is where you add a photo, then clik UPLOAD
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34ford, or after typing in what you want, hit the preview button and there will be a way to add images at the bottom. Add your image then post.
We removed more carpet from this house. All that remains is the main bedroom carpet. Tedious work. Icky, dusty, worn out carpet. We found vinyl tile under carpet in one bedroom. At one point this house had red - orange colored carpet in it.! Found a few remnants of it under current carpet.
Installed new main bathroom exhaust fan. Never had a vent. New vent. New hole in roof. New 2 gang wall box installed for switch to fan. New romex wire run of course. Old shingles did not want to bend much as I cut the hole and fitted the roof vent in place. Plenty of Henrys black goo was used. I was very careful.
Started removal of chain link fence that lines the driveway to back yard. Its 11 feet wide. Difficult to back my car trailer into. Olde & Slow Construction guy used a sledge hammer to break some concrete. May need different faster option on the concrete.?
Grayish Box near fence entrance is control and battery (car 12v battery) for the gate opener. Last week the gate would only open 3/4 of the way.? Had to unhook the gate motor , then open the gate fully. It was 5:30am and I was less than thrilled with the gate opener.
I figured out: the battry was low. It would only move gate so far. I charged the battery up. It works fine. There was electric feed to the gate that I removed. It was poorly hooked up in the attic. Romex wires spliced and taped together. How this house avoided burning to the ground from an electrical fire is amazing.
My operational phrase here is : When in doubt , take it out.
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Tony, the last house I'd bought in 1999 was built in 1936. It was a really nice English cottage style, and I bought it from the original owner/builders daughter. Some rooms had four layers of carpeting, with the bottom being reduced to a sand like quality. The latest carpet was shag, ala 70's style. The daughter lived next door to her mother. I asked the G-man how to get rid of all the carpet, he said to cut it into two foot strips, roll it, tie it and put out a couple every week for pickup. Took a while to get rid of it all.
Quote from: 58 Yeoman on May 04, 2025, 09:54:25 AMTony, the last house I'd bought in 1999 was built in 1936. It was a really nice English cottage style, and I bought it from the original owner/builders daughter. Some rooms had four layers of carpeting, with the bottom being reduced to a sand like quality. The latest carpet was shag, ala 70's style. The daughter lived next door to her mother. I asked the G-man how to get rid of all the carpet, he said to cut it into two foot strips, roll it, tie it and put out a couple every week for pickup. Took a while to get rid of it all.
Phil, We have been cutting the carpet up like you mention for a long while. We ordered another trash tote container and we put 1 trash lawn bag full of carpet and padding in each tote per weekly pickup. When we travel to metro Phx area to our Mobile home park , we take 4 or 5 bags of stuff in lawn trash bags. We place them in the dumpsters at the mobile home park.
We had a phree trash day for residents last week. We loaded the F350 with carpet, padding and metal duct work that was removed from this house. It was a community clean up weekend for Holbrook. Many tons of garbage was hauled into the trash transfer station from various neighborhoods. This could be done every 90 days to help clean up the Holbrook area. Its pricey to have trash hauled off here. So folks just pile shat up in their yards.
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Picked a batch of Morrell mushroom in the yard yesterday. Enough for a couple meals. I am started cutting up what is left of my HHR.
Oh yum, Morrells! Lots of woods around here, but it's not really morel range. I've been seeing an older couple out mushroom hunting every night as I leave work.
Wow, Frank. I've lived in this wooded area since 2008, and I've found exactly TWO morel mushrooms. I used to hunt them years ago when I lived where I grew up, but don't know who owns what property around here, so I buy them from hunters. There's a lot for sale around me, just haven't had time to connect yet. I did call one local, but she said she was out.
A few food items in our house are not popular. Likely due to growing up in the desert? Mushrooms and shell fish will make my wife exit the room. Weird, she is Cheecago born? Only lived there 7 years. :shock:
I have the bathroom vent fan operational. Photo of the attic work. Had to set a electric box (lower left) to supply power to the fan switch. Very quiet fan. It will hold a half sheet of paper towel to the vent screen. Not a crapper roll paper sheet. Real paper towel. These new exhaust fans for bathrooms, do not simply "come on".. They ramp up in speed slowly, About 3 seconds or so as the fan speed ramps up. The new fan I installed in the bedroom bath is the same way. Different brand and cfm rating.
Rained overnite here. We have another tire kicker on our park model trailer in Sun City. Maybe this guy will buy it? He is a single guy, we are told.
2nd photo: rolls of carpet and pad removed from this place.
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Did the last welding on the chopper frame . Chain tensioners are finished . tomorrow I pull the engine and paint the frame.
C.K., what color of metalflake?
LOL. By the way, pics or it didn't happen. :)
I accidentally pulled a few fence posts out today. LOL
Gate entrance to my back yard is too narrow 10 - 11 feet. I am opening it up to 14 feet. We have a call into a guy for an estimate on breaking up the concrete. My tired bones dont want to break up concrete.. That narrow strip of concrete shown in F350 with chain on fence post. About 30 feet of concrete to remove so i can widen up the entrance.
Main corner post I easily jacked it out of the ground with a bottle jack. No concrete around it for some reason.
Other posts were pulled via the F350.. Last photo shows I throttled the truck up slightly.
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frame is painted rustoleum semi gloss black . Metalflake is going on the tank and fender!
I rented an electric jack hammer for a half day to do about 25' of sidewalk. That was enough for me. Then used my SCUT to haul off the concrete chunks to dump into a ravine on the property. Still have the four end pieces to do when I rent the sod cutter to cut out the sod, then putting down rock so we don't have to cut that area. We'll have some kind of flagstone spaced as a walkway. This is behind the garage where the backup gennie is installed, just about where I'm standing.
Well I removed the original ( I thought ) sprocket from the bike today to change over from the original 6 30 to 5 30 chain . The new sprocket was Identical to the old one and the old one can not be very used as it showed no signs of wear . Spent money on a sprocket I don't need but on the plus side I have most of the chain I need . Never really looked this stuff over before but it looks like the chain was changed with the sprocket ( actually had to be as its non stock 5 30 ). I am going to pressure wash the engine before it goes back in , then its time to hang the chains . I tried cleaning with that Dawn spray on dish soap and it appears to work pretty good .I also bought some stuff for cleaning Stainless steel appliances . It contains acetic acid , so I am going to try it on some inconspicuous place and see if it plays nice with aluminum . Anyone have other product suggestions that would work well for the clean up ? I have oven cleaner too , left over from the last engine cleaning I did .Our school car show is in a few weeks and I would like to have engine in , chain on ,speedo functional , and brakes working before the show . That would basically leave wiring and paint to finish . Getting pumped to actually FINISH a build as the last few I have started ended up sold before completion ( life gets in the way ) 8) 8) 8)
I have used Simple Green with good results on dirty greasey stuff. At near full strength or slightly diluted with water. It the grime is hard dried , kinda baked on, the Simple Green does not work on that too well in my eggspearience.
Road trip on wednesday. 510 miles round trip... On the I-40 we saw a 1964 Impala low rider (on trailer) . It was white, chrome wire spoke wheels with tiny tires. 1969 RS Camaro on a short car hauler. Then a 1971 ish Blazer 4x4 , no top, on a another short car hauler.
My hearing aids are in repair shop jail. LOL .. Make sure you type louder so I can read this stuff. Costco has the aids. Sent into repair under warranty. Months ago both aids seemed to stop providing sound to my ears. The various chimes worked when you push the buttons for louder - lower, on - off. Like the microphones quit working. Now my right aid is doing the smae thing again. SO , both aids are in the repair shop.
I must have told my wife 9 times yesterday: I can not hear you. I can not understand you. People do not understand hearing impairment unless you suffer with it. I have extreme tinnitus too. Without the aids , my ears ramp up the tinnitus noise .
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cleaned the engine with Dawn spray on dish soap . The stuff worked well ! Spray on ,rub it in and rinse off . Engine was not super dirty so a paint brush a gasket scraper a brass pipe cleaner style brush and some elbow grease and it cleaned up well . Engine goes back in tomorrow . Also buffed out the rear wheel spacers and rear caliper mount .
I am gonna wait for the estimate on $$$ to demo the concrete.. To rent the electric jack hammer is $125.00 a day plus a charge for the bit. I found a rental company in Winslow AZ, 35 miles away.
Tonight I argued with a Rustoleum spray can of flat black paint. Tip clogged up. Its only been 2 yrs since I used that can. Sheesh. Could NOT clean the spray tip out to spray black paint. I had another Rustoleum paint and that tip worked !
Happy to report our park model mobile home in Sun City has SOLD ! Money is in the bank. I dont need that job at Walmart now. :shock:
I lightly trimmed the tree in the back yard. I cut most of this tree down last year. It was half dead, very messy leaves and seed pods. I bought a Harbor Freight electric 16 inch chainsaw a couple weeks ago. On sale of course with the HF Inside Track club discount. It was 60 dollars plus tax. It is new , the chain is new and sharp. This chainsaw cut this tree up like a mad dogg.
I plan on building a table top for the tree stump. So I cut the tree down to table height.
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I am on ver 4.0 with my ceiling lights in the shop? I added lights near the back wall with a switch on the back wall. I wondered if I would often forget to turn those lights off as I walked towards the entrance door. I did. It was a PITA to walk back , turn the light off.
I added some EMT on the ceiling. I hooked into the lights near the work bench area. Not pretty , but it works. Now I have the 2 switches at the door that control all the ceiling lights. All lights are now LED tubes.
Weather has been great since thursday storms. High 80s. Some wind as usual.
Hearing aids are still in repair shop jail for 1 week now. Weird how I can hear so little, but adjusted to the change now. My tinnitus is crazy high levels now. Can not understand most of what is said on the TV. Closed captioning sucks most of the time. But that is not new. CC has sucked for years with the AI crap in control.
I may look into some type of TV Ears listening device.?
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I read Kieth Black died on May 13th 1991... I did not recall he died so long ago? Other day it was anniversary of Smokey Yunick's death in 2001. These 2 guys were amazing
Going to the hearing DOCTOR today, not audiologist. All my hearing aids sound like people are talking through a kazoo, so I want to find out if it's something in my head (haha).
Guy coming to replace the front rain gutter that was damaged last July in major storm. Insurance company didn't want to pay the last 1/2 of settlement; took nine months of fighting with them to get the check. Thirty plus feet one piece gutter. Insurance replaced these gutters years ago after another major storm, was supposed to be just the front. My wife was working from home at the time, I was working at the factory. Guys were replacing part of the roof, and she went out to see how they were doing, and the gutter guys had all the gutters off. She said 'you were supposed to just do the front.' He said that now you got them all done, same price to us.
We switched trash haulers last week, saving a bunch of money every quarter. They still haven't picked up their wheeled dumpster. We bought our own for the new hauler. Maybe I should start charging storage fees?
Been on the search for an air compressor. 60 gallon tank , up right type. Between price , size , air produced I narrowed down to a Dewalt brand unit. 11 cfm at 90psi claimed. Single stage. 155psi max claimed. I would turn that down to 130psi max or less... That size would be plenty for my future needs.
Any thoughts are apreciated.
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Tony, if you decide to do automotive projects, that might not be enough. If you're running an air stapler or another air tool, that would be fine. I don't remember seeing single stage at better than 125psi but it has been a couple of decades since I shopped for a compressor. :)
Tony, back in the 70's I bought a Sanborn 60 gallon, 5hp compressor that lasted me until about 2015 when the bottom of the tank rusted out. I abused that machine to no end with sanding and sand blasting, and obviously not draining it enough. I went to Menard's big box store in '15 and bought another Sanborn for less than $500, only this one goes higher in pressure. I abuse this one also, but drain the water every time I use it. I don't use it as much as I did the other one as I'm not doing as much work now, but it seems to keep up with me. Being a single stage it's noisier, and I wish it was at the other end of the shop, but the 220V was at this end, so here it sits.
I looked at Menard's site now, and they don't even offer a 60 gallon any longer in that configuration. Starts at 80.
The ENT ear doctor did some test today and told me my left ear is beyond hearing aids. He wants me to have an MRI to be sure there isn't a tumor or something inside that's causing problems. Suggested cochlear implant may be in my future.
Got home to find a couple large PU trucks and trailers in my driveway. Had to have one move so I could get in. I talked to one of the guys about the rain gutters, and how much it was going to cost. He said about $950. Okay. Are you going to haul off the old one? Yes. Are you going to be done today? He said it's already all done. Really? Okay, send us a bill. Got a call just now from the owner making sure he has the right $$ amount; $915 for the gutter install and both ends and replace all the gutter screens. I said yes, just send us the bill.
The contractor that had given us the estimate for the insurance company had quoted $1400 for that job, so we got a deal. Some days you're the dog, some days you're the hydrant. Today, we're the dog.
Quote from: kb426 on May 13, 2025, 06:50:05 PMTony, if you decide to do automotive projects, that might not be enough. If you're running an air stapler or another air tool, that would be fine. I don't remember seeing single stage at better than 125psi but it has been a couple of decades since I shopped for a compressor. :)
I agree , a single stage compressor rated at 150psi makes no sense to me either. If you view the photo Phil posted of the ratings on his Sanborn unit.. Those rates are the Same as many compressors I have looked at. Same rating as the Dewalt brand I am considering.
Couple of items I also keep in mind: How much electric I have here.
There is 100 amp service in the shop. Former "oil phree" compressor was on a 30 breaker. I can switch that over to a 40 or 50 amp breaker since the 220v heater is no longer used.
I do not see many paint jobs done here any longer. No air powered sander running for days in a row?
Local Tractor Supply carry the Dewalt brand at $700.00 plus taxes.
Some brands have an aluminum pulley on the pump. Some folks say you want a cast iron pulley to reduce vibration?
On the flip side: Costco called me. My hearing aids are ready for pickup. Thankfully my wife is traveling to the valley of the sun to visit her elderly sisters today (wednesday). SO the aids can be retrieved. I will admit: I am not sure I am gonna wear them. It is nice not hearing many noises the aids amp up. Ignorance is bliss? LOL
Couple hundred buck$ I can buy some hardware to listen to the TV better. I try to explain to people and doctors that some of the words coming into my head are all garbled up. My hearing is real bad , but the processor in my head seems to be goof'd up too. Some words run together or over each other ? The brain does not sort them out like the old daze?
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Still looking at air compressors... Found another company that will ship to me. Puma brand compressor. 3 cylinder, 15cfm at 90psi, Single stage pump, 240 volt, 5hp motor from Air Compressors Direct. $1100.00 .. Shipped and delivered. I figure at least 250 dollars is for shipment?
Weeks back with my car trailer, I was checking stuff. Pulled the breakaway switch cable and the switch broke apart (plastic), it was OEM to 1990 trailer. I re-wired stuff with the new winch install , battery cables, etc.
Not too distant future I will be putting the car trailer to work again , so I am checking stuff. Tested the breakaway switch for working brakes. I had NO brakes. Checked stuff. Looked. Scratch my bald (ing) head. Then I see that I never added a new battery ground from the battery to the trailer. So NO the brakes would not work if the trailer unhooked from my truck.
I checked the wheel brakes on the trailer that had flat spotted the tire while empty. I found nothing different or seemed wrong, adjustment seemed the same as other wheels. I had the brake controller set at 2... Other tires were not locking up.
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Took a nap this afternoon (I'm old and tired), and when I got up, my wife said she had watered some plants outside, as we haven't had rain in a while. When she turned off the new outside faucet in front of the house. the handle broke off with the shaft. What's it been, a week? I told her that faucet is cemented in. I'll have to go to Menard's and buy a new one and switch the shafts. Fun times.
I welded up a friends exhaust for a 29 model a sedan today. That's as close to hot rod work as I have been for a while. :)
Quote from: kb426 on May 15, 2025, 07:10:01 PMI welded up a friends exhaust for a 29 model a sedan today. That's as close to hot rod work as I have been for a while. :)
I walk past my 1948 Simca daily.. Does that count? LOL
installed back wheel on my sons chopper . Chain sprockets line up perfectly!
I walk past my Corvair almost daily. Mentioned to my wife that I"d like to get it painted this year and back on the road.
We had a large group of motorcycle riders gather up here at the school yard across the street on thursday. Part of the "Run to the Wall" folks for memorial day Veteran Ride. Probably 80 bikes of all types, 2 wheel and 3 wheel.
Still not happy with my hearing aids. Left one likes to "feedback squeal" since the replacement from Costco. A mild level squeal. I may just go without the aids , which my wife is not happy about.
I found the extreme squeaky hinge and wheel on my 10x10 garage door in the shop. I moved the truck out, grabbed the remote to the door , the ladder. I lubed every place I could get to. Found a hinge that black crud flowed out as I sprayed in silicone and lithium grease in.. The screech noise is gone.
We gave up on the guy that "would call" and drop by to break up the concrete so we can widen the driveway entrance to the back yard. Rented a jack hammer in Winslow. $105.00 a day plus taxes. Of course the fellow we have used to haul off all the crap we removed from the house dropped by. He offered to haul off the concrete $$$.. But I knew better. Holbrook setup a phree concrete dump site a few months ago. There is a crushing plant a few miles west on the I-40. They send equipment over and remove the concrete debris to process it.
Square metal frame in front of the jack hammer? The base mount for the gate opener battery box.. It was cemented into the ground before the additional concrete run was poured on top?. The F-350 yanked that out of the ground
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Hooley called today to inform me of the passing of Norris Anderson. Norris competed at Bonneville for most of the years that we competed on the salt. Many of the members here remember Norris and Alan pitting next to us often and helping us from time to time. Attached is a shot of Norris's white Studebaker truck with our 974 Studebaker. The photo was taken right after both teams had backed up their record runs from the previous day. Norris was an incredible driver and builder. He will be missed by anyone who knew him and competed against him. Gods speed Norris
Went to the step-grand-daughters high school graduation last night near Chicago. Very smart and talented young woman who will be going to Notre Dame in August to study engineering. They always have outdoor ceremonies, and last night the winds were 30 to 40 mph with dust storm warnings. Well, they weren't warnings, it actually happened. The news this am said that they haven't had a dust storm like this since the dust bowl days.
I had to mute my hearing aids as the wind blowing past my ears made hearing impossible anyway, and what I could hear was the thunder like sound of the wind passing the microphones. Not an enjoyable ceremony with just over 300 students. At least, they did move it along quickly.
Quote from: WZ JUNK on May 16, 2025, 08:54:04 PMHooley called today to inform me of the passing of Norris Anderson. Norris competed at Bonneville for most of the years that we competed on the salt. Many of the members here remember Norris and Alan pitting next to us often and helping us from time to time. Attached is a shot of Norris's white Studebaker truck with our 974 Studebaker. The photo was taken right after both teams had backed up their record runs from the previous day. Norris was an incredible driver and builder. He will be missed by anyone who knew him and competed against him. Gods speed Norris
John : I remember the truck and crew. May Norris rest in Peace. Best to the family and friends
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I listed the engine and transmission from my HHR on Facebook, and within 5 minutes I received a reply from an old buddy that I hadn't seen in about 30 years interested in the engine. He happens to own a shop building fiberglass boat hulls and so forth. So with a bit of dealing he wants my engine and trans and the body shell and is willing to trade a pair of fiberglass pickup bed sides and a hood for the parts. It sounds like a deal to me.
Josh and I loaded the HHR shell on to my car trailer yesterday. That was fun with no front cradle on it.
O&S Construction is tired. I loaded up concrete pieces onto my car trailer .. Drove to dump site 2 times. We are getting closer to a stopping point (for now) with the driveway widening project. I took a nap friday afternoon. I try to Not take daily naps. LOL
THere was a section of larger concrete where the chain link fence was. Turned out to be larger than I knew. The harbor freight hammer drill came out. Drilled 5 holes thru the concrete so I could break it up with my sledge hammer
Phree concrete dump site is all dirt. So I put my truck in High range 4x4. Its only the 5th time I've had the truck in 4x4 since we bought it 3 plus yrs ago. I have never owned an electronic shift while moving 4x4 vehicle.. About 3 mph , you move the dial on the dash. Automatic hubs kick in too. The hubs do say : Lock or AUTO on them
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