2024: What are you doing today?

[WZ JUNK]

Matt, that one is new to me.  Most of the ones I have been around are not street driven.  Nice looking Henry though.

[idrivejunk]

The guy said he was the car that ran right before the Okie Twister met it's demise. Kyle I think it was. Came from a nearby shop asking about some tooling in the mech shop.

It has the same back tires as my GP. 

Well I started teardown of the GMC chassis today. It had half a dozen frame rivets missing or broken or loose around the spring mount and steering box area but no cracks found.

How does the RRT collective repair such? I replaced rivets with 3/8" grade 5 bolts, nice and tight, but opinions in the shop vary widely on what is adequate or honorable. Any inputs?

[WZ JUNK]

I am planing to replace some rivets in an older frame myself.  I had planned to use bolts and then an additional tack weld.  It will be interesting to see what others have to say.

[idrivejunk]

Well, I'll tell ya my first thought. Same as yours. Perhaps one tack on bolt head and one on nut. First I thought I'd use lockwashers but just nut and our shortest bolts fit with very little exposed threads and I liked that. So thats how it sits.

Race / offroad guy says just use grade 8 bolts but added that boxing of the area is best for offroading with big tires and hard use, and pointed out the typical crack spot on these.

Rod & custom guy said plain bolts and perimeter weld the parts to rail. Then remove bolts and weld the holes maybe.

Guy who used to do limo frames said cherry the loose rivets and C-clamp those. Bolts for the rest.

I believe a couple small edge beads strategically placed would yes prevent any part movement but question how necessary that might be considering the amount of flex that is in a long bed frame and how weld areas may become more brittle.

So I seek a broader consensus. I am OK with how it sits now, truth be known. But I have seen a 73-87 durn near rip the steering box area out of the rail.

So opinions or experiences are welcome but I'd be OK calling it done now.

In the pic you can see the crossmember in the box area. That whole end was almost free from the rail, with one rivet broke in half but both halves still present, and the other one badly wallowed out. It was an eye opener when with that crossmember end freed, I used a short tool in a rail hole to realign the top hole. About the whole front half of the rail could easily be twisted. Hmm.


Side note: 73 Mustang job gets first polyester primer on the body today. It has been patiently awaiting that for months. Activity is to resume on that job since goodie-buying is back in full swing.

I sat the GMC cab aside with unsanded glaze on the roof. Far as I can tell, my pace is doing fine.

[jaybee]

Matt, The frame material and rivets are both softer than a grade 5 bolts and way softer than a grade 8. The cross sectional area is a little less than a rivet due to the threads, but better material so that's fine. On the other hand, rivets completely fill the space available, so there's no chance of motion unless they loosen up with time. No reason to stop you from replacing the missing rivets with bolts. If you have some that show rusty dust or other indications they've loosened, maybe heat them slowly so the heat can get deep into the rivet and retighten them with a bucking bar?

[enjenjo]

You can buy the rivets from McMaster Carr.

 Here is a hot rivet setting tool

https://kensironstore.com/products/rivet-bucking-tool

You can make one too from some bar stock, a drill, and a round nose grinding wheel.

Cut the rivet so about 1 1/2 to 2 time the head diameter sticks out. Heat the end red with a torch, buck from the head side, and form the new head on the other end. Do a couple test rivets in the same thickness material to see how much stick out you need.

Here is a video for home made tools. He heats it too much on the second try. You pound on the shank end and buck the head. You can hold the buck on the inside of a frame with a bolt and nut pushing against it. Ionia Rod Shop used to build all their frames this way. He is a little anal about the rivet fitting tight, it will swell to fit unless the hole is really off. And you should only heat the shank end and not the head unless the hole is really off size.

I learned to hot rivet in shop at school many years ago.

[idrivejunk]

Thanks for the info and suggestions, gents.

I found half a dozen more at the trans crossmember. There were none on top of rails so I am calling that four missing, out of eight. But they must have been gone for a long time. Two on bottom have bolts instead that were still tight (thats all that was holding the xmember) and the other two rattled. So I put six bolts there.

If we had any 7/16" bolts or nuts, I might have enlarged holes to that size but we don't. The 3/8" filled the holes fairly well.I don't believe theres anything to worry about now. The consensus leads me to believe that not welding anything is fine.

Busted rivets on frames just isn't something I have run across much. This one just had a rash of that, in important spots.

I have two (good ones, out of six) more to remove out at the tail crossmember so it can be relocated for a gas tank. About half of the good rivets still can't come out even after grinding off both sides so the remainder must be drilled out. So yep when they are secure they are secure. But those long floppy rails exert a lot of leverage.

I made the mistake of trying to tighten up a slightly loose one cold but it only took one swat and bounce of knuckle inside a rail to convince me that wasn't an option.

[idrivejunk]

One rusty splined rear upper shock mount stud was a spinner so I researched a little beforehand and decided a couple plug welds through the bracket would do. Studs and threads on them are fine despite appearances.

[idrivejunk]

Mustang body in poly primer finally, woohoo!

[kb426]

I bet the mustang owner is getting excited.

[idrivejunk]

I bet the mustang owner is getting excited.

Lighter pockets do put a spring in one's step.

I did get the frame stripped of parts. A couple rear shackle bolts were extremely hesitant to leaving their homes but the job is done. X measuring it on jack stands bare went OK but as it sat, one corner was up 3/4" and the opposite was up by 1/2". As I began to ponder corrections I leaned on a rail end and oh my goodness the whole frame is about too floppy to even measure accurately. It twists super easy. So, calling it good. 

[idrivejunk]

Crapshack. Forgot pic again. Meh.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Watched the live feed from Speed Week today... New guys doing commentary this year?

Sound came & went. Still fun to watch it.

[chimp koose]

We got started wiring up my lathe and mill today . Wrong size cable was sent for the lathe so had to remove it  from the ceiling and wall . Proper gage should be here tomorrow . I can then install it and wait for electrician to do the hooking up . VFD was sized to the mill by the electricians engineer buddy so all is good . I may be using my machines by next week ! Mill will use twist lock plug in and compressor will be on a switch rather than using the breaker all the time . Lathe and MIG welder will share an outlet . I have enough heavy extension cord for the MIG to weld about 30' from the garage if needed. Not done organizing my shop as I have all of my stuff home from the school I retired from this year. Going to try and set up the back 10' of my shop as a machine shop only.

[kb426]

C.K., have someone show you how to upload pics so we can see your metalflake.