2021: What are you doing today

[WZ JUNK]

Yesterday my wife drove the Ranger pickup with the 460 engine to the local Lowes store and bought bags of mulch for the flower beds.  She said the young man who loaded the truck was impressed.  I am very fortunate to have an understanding wife.  She makes me smile when she says stuff like "I am going to Harbor Freight, do you need anything?", Or "The street is clear for you to enter after this next low rider pickup" or " Was that a 59 or 60 El Camino?"  My brother in laws always had hot rods and between them and me, I guess she just had to adapt.

[chimp koose]

Just got back from a visit to my son . Have not been out to see him since August because of job and covid . Restrictions in his area are getting more strict so the visit was unknowingly timed perfect. Have not seen a computer screen in 4 or 5 days .

[Bruce Dorsi]

Just got back from a visit to my son . Have not been out to see him since August because of job and covid . Restrictions in his area are getting more strict so the visit was unknowingly timed perfect. Have not seen a computer screen in 4 or 5 days .

My wife has relatives in P.Q.  ...Some of the covid mandates, curfews, and restrictions are insane!  ...The posted fines for infractions are mind-boggling.

Trudeau's quarantine/internment policy seems a little drastic.

How receptive are Canadians to the policies in effect?

[kb426]

I have the seat back in the 72. The wrinkling on the corners is still present. I installed the old dash pad and the new dash cover. All the junk on the top of the dash is to hold it down while drying. The cover comes with silicone adhesive. It didn't lay down flat in the middle. I have good exp. with gluing with silicone so I'm optimistic on the outcome.

[chimp koose]

Yes some of the restrictions are pretty tight. Each province has the right to set their own restrictions so it is not really up to Trudeau exactly . The real problem is that of vaccine procurement . I heard on the news today that Canada is ranked as 44th in the world for vaccine rollout  In an effort to save money our feds cut back on Canadas ability to manufacture vaccines many years ago. My wife got her shot today but if you are under about55 yrs old you are going to have to wait. When you compare our covid numbers to the USA we do not look that bad until you compare the populations . We are about 34 million in all of Canada. Ontario and Quebec are about the worst for infection but also have the largest cities and population densities .  The restrictions there are pretty tight but likely justifiable . In Saskatchewan we are about 15% vaccinated and we are ahead of most provinces in that regard .

[chimp koose]

Rip VW I do not think I have seen a T on a deuce frame before . It looks even better than a 29 on deuce rails. Must be the steeper slope to the cowl , but man that looks GOOD !    

[RipVW]

Thanks Chimp.

I had to notch the rails just above the reveal so the body would fit flat on the frame. The duce frame angles up a bit from mid frame and of course the T body is flat as Kansas on the bottom. The notch is visible but not to noticeable. Yeah I am liking the way the body fits and that took several weeks to get it to set where it is now.  On mounting the body I used crossmembers located below where the T body rails were to take advantage of factory mounting methods. I did not use wood on the mounts but instead made some metal blocks with a layer of 1/4 inch rubber belting to give the body a little resistance to sound travel but still not be loose.

Tomorrow I am going to cut a wood panel for the front floorboard so I can get the column and brake pedal mounted.  I originally thought I had set the engine in the frame low enough so I wouldn't need a cover over the bellhousing but alas not quite low enough so I am going to have to find one as I want something symmetrical so I will look for some floorboard parts like a bellhousing cover if that is what it is called.

If anyone has a good source of these bellhousing curves / Transmission humps or what ever they are called let me know as I really don't want to make one but if I must I will.  

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Ripped out more lumber on my front porch today..  The quote from the roofer came back lower than we were thinking.   I asked for a time line to start the work.  I figure he is a few weeks out minimum. No answer yet..  I hope to have the lumber replaced  this weekend. I already need more plywood.

Attended a funeral service this morning on the far west end of the valley .. 110 miles round trip.  A long time friend, her  father passed in his sleep at 94 years young. Talking to her husband (he is building the Studebaker Champ truck)...  His mom is still going well and will be 97 in a week.

[58 Yeoman]

We got our second Maderna shot yesterday. Our shoulder is a bit tender this am, but other than that, no problems.

[chimp koose]

Rip , I used a wheel barrel to move the firewall back in my Anglia build . Maybe you could look at something like a stainless steel dog dish or an oven tray for the floor hump . I have seen a small aluminum cookie sheet used as a dash recess for mounting guages before .

[chimp koose]

Yard work . I uncovered my fish pond and will have to rebuild the end walls before fish go in . There is still some ice in the yard and the bottom of the pond is still a block of ice so I will have to wait until it thaws . We are supposed to get 4 to 8 inches of snow tomorrow! Also have been working on my 92 sierra . Its time to sell it as I have not driven it since June and I have 5 trucks in the driveway . Spent some time with a power polisher and will clean out the interior later . I still think of it as a newer truck but its 29 years old !

[chimp koose]

Watching it snow

[chimp koose]

Milling machine time tonight . Made the bracket that mounts to the ds head and holds the wide part (pivot hole ) on the alternator . I took it home and mounted it and the belts seem to line up real nice . I will take the bracket off and pretty it up on the mill tomorrow . Sure is nice to have a big hunk of 1" thick aluminum to whittle on . I am thinking I will make a tensioner out of a bar with lh and rh threads in either end and matching rod ends to draw the belt tight . Need to send this alt off to get cleaned up and rebuilt .

[RipVW]

Thanks Chimp.

I had to notch the rails just above the reveal so the body would fit flat on the frame. The duce frame angles up a bit from mid frame and of course the T body is flat as Kansas on the bottom. The notch is visible but not to noticeable. Yeah I am liking the way the body fits and that took several weeks to get it to set where it is now.  On mounting the body I used crossmembers located below where the T body rails were to take advantage of factory mounting methods. I did not use wood on the mounts but instead made some metal blocks with a layer of 1/4 inch rubber belting to give the body a little resistance to sound travel but still not be loose.

Tomorrow I am going to cut a wood panel for the front floorboard so I can get the column and brake pedal mounted.  I originally thought I had set the engine in the frame low enough so I wouldn't need a cover over the bellhousing but alas not quite low enough so I am going to have to find one as I want something symmetrical so I will look for some floorboard parts like a bellhousing cover if that is what it is called.

If anyone has a good source of these bellhousing curves / Transmission humps or what ever they are called let me know as I really don't want to make one but if I must I will.  

Well well well, I made a rough mock up of the floor to establish where the bottom of the firewall should be but during this task I found some problems with the trans interference with the floor board. The trans is 3/8 of an inch higher than the bottom of the floorboard. So that means the bump or hump for the bell housing will have to go almost to the front of the seat.   Then I realized I will need more room to clear the shifter and linkage so that throws a wrench into the works.. I did find a trans hump/driveshaft tunnel at speedway Motors that will fit the bill for giving me the clearance I will need. So much for a completely flat floor!

I removed the floor board and decided to bolt the shifter on the trans and get an idea how much room the shifter needs to clear.  So about 5 years ago I ran across a "Craigslist find " of a Lokar shifter supposedly to fit my Ford FMX transmission.  Well when I went to bolt it on it wouldn't fit on my transmission and finally determined the shifter was for a chevy 700 series transmission.  So I called Lokar and talked to the tech there and explained what was going on. The tech says no worries we will sell you the parts needed to make it a FMX shifter. They make a kit to convert their 3 speed auto shifters to fit whatever you need it too. The kit isn't cheap at $118 bucks but he assured me everything I need will be there. So I ordered up a kit and will get it next week I hope.   So back to the height/bellhousing problem and found a fiberglass Trans tunnel sold to fit TBuckets and looks like it will solve the clearance problem. So I ordered that and that should be here Friday.

So another problem I found was with my floor board template. It seams there are 2 different angles on the side rails from the front of the floorboard and I missed that and made the sides straight so the fit on the sides is real sloppy so I have to correct that when I build the final version of the floor board. Tomorrow I am going to clamp the brake pedal in place and see how much real estate is available for the column to fit.  

So a bit of setback but a good recovery is in store.. Sometimes the setbacks really set me back but so far no complete show stopper.. Onward to the bench!!!

[idrivejunk]

That stuff all gets left out on TV shows, eh? Try working through a mechanic and boss.

No project to report. Did try a snort of the 93 octane I found, in the 455 other day. Having a health issue myself, not covid but no covid deaths in my area for a few days and my family is healthy.  

I got the A front fenders bolted to frame at front today and cut metal for bigger blisters. Eliminated control arm / eccentric interference w/fends by moving them in. Shapes of the two fenders vary greatly all across the front. Its like the grille and fenders aren't even for the same car. Oh, wait...

First thing I did was make grille shell brackets that bypass the radiator. Shaking my head the whole time thinking why would anyone even back then mount body to radiator core? I don't understand. My brackets go under the same bolts and are sandwiched by rad and frame and allow fitting panels without rad and grille in the way. Radiator available for mockup was fitted to a deuce vicky.

Interior looks snappy, Bill. Them coverlays are great on some applications. Never had to bust open the silicone on my Ventura.