Hot Rods in the Hudson Valley

UPDATE! 2 years later...

2011-06-15T22:04:00.003-04:00

I have taken up the EV project again with a new blog, check it out:

http://hudsonvalleyelectricvehicles.blogspot.com/

This might be the end...

2009-06-26T23:22:00.008-04:00

...I haven't posted much lately, evidence of my waning interest in the blog. I have already resigned from blogging for the Poughkeepsie Journal. That leaves this blog.
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The original intent of this blog was to chronicle the build of the electric vehicle; a project, in my mind, worthy and interesting enough to blog about. That got cancelled, or at least put on indefinite hiatus, and I moved onto other, more conventional small projects.
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I now feel that the blog has lost it's way. I don't think it's particularly interesting, or relevant, or worth reading. My continuing unemployment means I don't have the money I would like to spend on car projects. That's a big show-stopper. I am making excellent progress on my impending career change, but that is a long term endeavor.
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The car projects I have on hand now are long term projects as well. I do want to get back to the electric vehicle project. I still think this project would be the most unusual and interesting project to write about. I am still very enthusiastic about every aspect of it. I have imagined, over and over, what it would be like to actually drive; what the sensations would be, how it would look, the bright sun glinting off of the metallic green paint. A big, fat, pimped out, truck sized golf cart, zipping down the road, the only sound you would hear is the noise from the tires. I still think it is the right thing at the right time. But again, to do this project decently, I expect it would take possibly $20,000, and I just don't have that kind of dough to invest. I think it could be big. It could become a business. I think it could be the next Boyd Coddington, Jesse James, or OCC. But I never was a big financial risk-taker. Jump off a bridge, yes, I've done that, and worse. But financial risks, no, I'll keep my little copper pennies* right here, thanks.
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So my point is, speaking of having lost it's way, that I don't know if I'll keep on with the blog. We'll see.
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For what it's worth, I got the shifter done in the '58, and it works great. I also took the '58 out today for it's maiden voyage up the street and back, and, let's just say it needs a bit more work. But it did drive!
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Thanks for your interest. Talk to you soon. Or maybe not.
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*Yes, they are really just copper plated zinc. But how poetic would that sound?

Transmission surprise and a new shifter

2009-06-06T22:38:00.019-04:00

I got the motor in the '58 running decently. New spark plugs made a world of difference. I have not even checked under the distributor cap yet, it could probably use a new set of points (this is OLD technology) and some other stuff, but it's running ok for now, so we'll explore that all of that later. Since I now have brakes, I could move on to getting the car to drive.
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The automatic transmission would only shift into forward, I either could not find reverse, or reverse is not working. Not good. I did a quick inspection of the stock column shift linkage, and found it to be all dodgy and worn out. I quickly decided to eliminate it and install a more mechanically direct floor shifter. I began to make a shifter from some random extra parts I had saved from other shifter installs I have done over the years, and some miscellaneous metal materials. All I needed it to do was to move the transmission into the gears, and by mounting a shifter right on the floor, over the transmission, I felt that I could fabricate something that would do the job pretty cheaply. An inspection of the transmission itself yielded a surprising and fortunate find: The transmission is not the archaic stock cast-iron case Powerglide 2-speed, but the more modern and preferable aluminum-case Turbo 350 3-speed! This trans did not come from the factory in this car. This is a swap I was already planning to eventually do, and I happen to have a spare T-350 for just such an occasion.

This is a Turbo 350. While this model of transmission has not been produced for many years, it is still a very popular install in many mild-performance street cars today. It is very well supported by the aftermarket. While I thought I was saddled with the stock transmission in the car, I was not eager to get into a trans swap right away, since I believed I would need a different length driveshaft, which would really mean a new driveshaft, probably a $400 expense. Well, here's a T-350 already in the car, and that sure looks like the stock driveshaft in there too, happy as can be. (By the way, the "Turbo" in Turbo 350 has nothing to do with a turbocharger. The real name for this trans is Turbo-hydromatic 350, and the use of the turbo designation is puzzling to me. Of couse not as puzzling as the shaving razor called "Turbo-something-or-other", which really has nothing to do with a turbocharger, but I digress.)
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Now I am not so concerned about reverse gear. If the reverse truly is not working, I can easily swap my spare Turbo 350 in there. If I still have problems, it will be worth having one of these transmissions rebuilt, since I will be putting money into a viable transmission choice. I am hoping that the reason the transmission would not work in reverse is because the balky stock shifter was never selecting reverse gear properly. I am now expecting that once the shifter issue is fixed, we will have the joy of reversing.
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So after all of this, I was still working on my custom shifter fab. I know I could make a useable mechanism, but would this be worth the effort in the end? Since I feel as if I have saved money on the driveshaft I won't have to buy, I decided to splurge and buy a real shifter. But I'm not just looking for justification to spend money on cool parts (as if I have ever needed any), I have good reasons.

This is a Hurst V-matic shifter. This is what I'm getting. Now I did have an accordian-style rubber boot, an aluminum shifter stick, and even a Hurst T-handle to use on my home-made shifter, so I know I could make it look cool, but anything I could make would on it's best day be a far cry from something like this. This shifter has a reverse lock out, to guard against an unintentional shift into reverse. It has a neutral safety switch, to prevent starting the car while in gear (very important!). It has an illuminated gear selection indicator. It has cable operation (I was making a mechanical linkage) for flexibility in mounting position. It would not require cutting up the car floor and splicing new sheet-metal in (my linkage would require this). It is all new, and reasonably priced. My design had none of these advantages, and I had no certainty that it would even work properly. BOOYAH! New shifter. Should be here early this week.
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Photos: Jegs

Brake rebuild, new 30 year old mirror

2009-05-31T22:40:00.006-04:00

I have been pretty busy doing work on the '58. The brake master cylinder was leaking real bad when I got the car. So basically, no brakes. I have been weighing lots of options for repairing this, most of them centered around upgrading the brake system as well. I was pretty set on going for a brand new front disc brake conversion with a power boosted dual master cylinder. This would be a really fantastic upgrade, but it would run about $500. My last $500. I was about to settle on a new stock master cylinder ($100) when I found a rebuild kit for only $20! This is the stock master cylinder, rebuilt at home. I disassembled the unit, cleaned it thoroughly, and honed out the bore. I found that the compensating port (sort of a bypass port) was completely clogged and the bore was filled with gooky gunk. I assembled it with new parts, filled it with new fluid, and bled the air out. So far, so good; no leaks. I mounted it back on the car without even repainting it. Two things:
1. People, you can put all the teflon tape you like on the threads of the main brake line fitting (that's it there coming out and going to the right) but THIS WILL DO NOTHING. Brake lines seal by the compression of the cone on the line sealing against a conical seat. The fitting's threads just provide the force to accomplish this, they do not seal anything. This is not house plumbing. The previous owner clearly did not know this.
2. Normally bleeding brakes involves forcing fluid all the way through the lines to expel any air.
In this case, since only the MC was leaking, there should be no air anywhere else in the brake system. The only air should be right at this same fitting. I used a trick I learned from my brother Dave. I left this fitting slightly loose, and had an assistant pump the brake pedal. This forced fluid out of the fitting, but it pushed the air out as well. By catching the forced leak with some rags, we were able to bleed the air out right at this fitting, and we did not have to bleed the entire system. This worked great, and the pedal feels rock hard. I think we have brakes.

I needed an outside mirror. The reproduction stock ones are expensive, and I'm not sure I like the look of them anyway. I bought this replacement mirror at K-mart about the time I had my first car. I don't know what it was for, since I clearly did not use it on that car. Now I have had it, still in the box, ever since. Didn't think I'd ever use it, so I have dutifully brought it to every swap meet I have ever vended at, and nobody ever bought it, for like five bucks. It must be destiny, so I dug it out and installed it, a brand new, 30 year old, five dollar, K-mart mirror. See, you cannot buy that fun kind of history if you buy a car that already has the mirror on it. I like it. Oh, the extra hole was already there.

Finally, for no reason, I'll show you this pic of a dog taking a ride on a '58 Impala convertible. Photo: The HAMB, of course.

Seat install in the '58

2009-05-20T20:59:00.016-04:00

It seemed like a good time to install the front seats in the car. These are used seats from a car I scrapped. They are only temporary; they're in great condition, but are too modern for this car. They are also free.

I could only get one bolt out of four through the floor and into a clear area underneath. The other three will need nuts welded into the floor. Drill clearance holes through the floor where they will go. I welded nuts onto thick plates that also have holes in them. I had a couple of welds that were not good. They looked like fat blobs just laying on the metal. I ground them off and turned up the heat. Now they are nice and melty looking. You want welds to look melty, because that's what they are; melted (and fused) metal. A small bracket like this will go bright red hot from the heat!

How hot do you want your welds? Here's a bolt I was using to hold the nut to the plate while welding, and I carelessly tossed it onto my garbage can lid. It melted into the lid and is stuck there. Yes, I use the top of my garbage can as an impromptu workbench.

I welded the plates over the clearance holes in the floor. This much will do. Incidentally the seat was in and out a dozen times getting and checking the fit. All part of custom fabrication.

Here's one seat bracket secured, using a small cutoff of round tubing as a vertical spacer.

One seat in, one to go. It's functional and comfy, and good enough for now. Doing just one seat probably took me 2-3 hours total. There's a lot of fussy fab work, and each corner is different, so they must be fit individually.

The car did not come with a gas pedal. The stock style is available, but to add a racy flavor, I used this competition style pedal from Moon. It's a beautiful piece, and a pretty easy install. It really is necessary, as it is one of the signature pieces of the car. Tell me that is not totally cool. See, you can't.

Believe it or not, there was a time before cars came with 100 airbags in them. And before that, there was a time when cars came without seat belts. Really. Of course that was 50 years ago. Since I wanted to add some seat belts to the '58, I furthered the race car vibe with these competition style lap belts. If you're going to add seat belts, make sure you have thick, wide washers installed beneath the floor to resist the bolts from pulling through the comparitively thin floor skin in an accident. I actually welded small washers over much larger washers to achieve this.

One last thing. I have my excellent wiper arms here, and some brand new reproduction wiper blade assemblies. Well, for what I saved on the arms, I spent to get the blade assemblies; they were $40. They are stainless steel, and what can I say, you just can't go to your local auto parts store for these babies. At least they should last a long time, since I don't plan on abusing the car in bad weather.

Snap, snap, click, click, and they are done. Simple and neat. Good looking too.

Finals week

2009-05-12T08:28:00.004-04:00

I have finals this week at college, so my stress meter is pegged. I have been taking a couple of the toughest classes in my major concurrently, since that's the only time they are available, and that has been limiting my time lately, including time for blogging. I knew you would understand.
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The Rhinebeck show was mediocre, and true to form, it eventually rained on us. It's too bad, I have so many good memories of my younger days there, but it has rained on that weekend for probably the last 10 years, so now I almost dread it. Amazingly I did not buy any parts I do not need for a project I do not have. It's a good place to get supplies, like grinding wheels, and sanding discs, etc, pretty cheaply, so that's what I got. I have really been getting the bug lately to get back to my EV project. If you remember, about a year ago I kicked off this blog to document the construction of a battery powered electric vehicle. For various reasons, the project has been temporarily shelved, but the fire still burns within to do this project. Lately I have been convinced that my original idea, a classic truck converted to EV, is still the coolest way to go (better than the buggy). I have had a lot of time to think about this, and the one major thing I would do differently is to start with only a solid cab and doors for a 53-55 Ford pickup. Buying a whole truck in good condition seemed like the way to go last year, but so many body parts for these are available in lightweight fiberglass, that I would rather use them then the heavier original steel parts. By the time I decided on a full frame swap, there was not much of the original truck I really needed. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no funding in place for this, and no prospect of any, anytime soon. Perhaps if someone wanted to offer a no-interest loan, or better yet a grant, that would be great.

I have also want to build a new dragster, based upon this 1963 Tony Nancy car. I would do the complete fabrication on this one. I've been hot on this idea for about 6 months now. Again, no funding or reason, it's just a desire.

I hope to get to the '58 Biscayne soon. I plan to spend the last of my car fund on a new brake system for it, since there's no reason to get it driving if I can't get it stopped. I already have this leaky brake master cylinder out of there, just waiting for something better. Unfortunately, that is the lasty-last of my car money, so I hope nothing else big needs replaced.

So I've been pretty busy, but not making money, so not much is getting done. At least dreaming about car projects is still free.

Rhinebeck car show this weekend

2009-04-30T11:06:00.006-04:00

The Rhinebeck spring car show and swap meet is this weekend, Friday thru Sunday. This show and swap is the first one I attended on a regular basis, and I still try to attend every year. I vended there for a couple of years, and entered a car in the show one time. I have many fond memories of times I have spent there.

The temperature is supposed to be in the mid-60's, and after some possible light rain Saturday morning, I am sure it will be nice for the rest of the weekend. It's a local show, so there's really no excuse not to attend.

There is a huge car show on Saturday and Sunday, a fantastic swap meet, and don't miss the car corral; a designated area with a wide variety of different whole cars for sale. This is way out back behind the oval track. Insider's tip: if you think a car is priced too high, take down the phone number and call it a week later. I once scored a car at a more reasonable price this way because nobody bought it during the show weekend.

I'll be there Sunday, see you there!

photo: unknown. (People, can we stop putting wacky spacers in our intake systems to make them comically-tall like this? Seriously.)

A glimse of my insanity.

2009-04-26T22:12:00.014-04:00

Here's an example of the kind of insanity I do. Kind of a long one, so get comfortable.
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I have been using a mechanical fuel injection system with methanol alcohol fuel on my dragster. For a couple of reasons, I have decided to change over (or back, really) to a carburetor and gasoline. Basically, the injector and the alcohol fuel system need a lot more maintenance, so I'm switching. This is the top part of the fuel injector. You can see the injector nozzles and lines near the bottom, these spray the fuel directly into the intake ports. The top part is the air metering scoop, or "hat", and the red butterfly valve plates tilt open and let the air in. The red plates and the openings are very carefully machined and fitted. They, and the rest of the system, are much more sophisticated than they look.
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This injector is made by a company called Enderle, and this style and look of injector has been in use for probably 40 years. For what it's worth, it has a serious appearance. When a car shows up with one of these, it means business. Yeah, it's part of the allure.
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Here (below) is the gas carburetor, and a high flow air filter. I love using an air filter. I like the security of knowing no pebbles or debris can get in my engine. Even dust is bad. The only problem, really, is the comparitively pedestrian appearance of this setup. Doesn't exactly scream formidable, does it?
What to do? What to do, indeed?

I made this air filter cover/ air scoop out of .030 aluminum sheet. All it really does is cover the filter, and direct incoming air onto the filter. Kind of crude, but the rounded bends are supposed to soften the boxy look. It's supposed to emulate an injector hat made by Crower, but it's kind of big. That's as small as I could make it and still cover the filter. Notice the word emulate, that will be important later. I still really like this, but it still looked boxy to me, so I tried a couple of more ideas.

Here is a more faceted design model, made of cardboard. The middle shelf would not be in the final design, it's only there for support. I thought the facets, and bent sides would help hide the tall height of the scoop; the filter is 5" tall. I decided this was too complicated, and did not make it in metal.

Here's a half-scale model I made out of file folder material. I really liked this design, and this material and size made the model more accurate, and easier and faster to build. Doesn't photograph well. And yeah, it kind of looks like a McDonalds large french fry box.

I did build this one. I modified some of the angles and dimensions to soften it up a little, make it less radical. One nice feature of these aluminum scoops is that the top surface functions as the top filter covering, they sit right on the top of the filter top edge. This keeps the overall height down.

Here's a rear 3/4 view of the last one. I have this little bench top sheet metal brake (bender). Works good enough for these little projects, I think. Overall, I was pretty happy with this one. It has nice faceting, it tapers towards the rear, it has the nice strengthening bends across the top and bottom of the front opening, and the angled front side openings give it some agressiveness. On the downside, it might be too busy, and I think the overall look is too Star Wars. Not simple enough to fit in with the late '60's early '70's vibe I'm going for.

Finally, this. (Sigh). This is an air filter housing designed to look like an Enderle injector. Guys buy these and put them on their street cars to give them some of the appeal of a real injection system. But obviously, they're fake. These have all the sophistication of the auto accessory aisle at K-Mart. And I hate fake stuff on cars. I really hate fake stuff on race cars. So, what I did was, I bought this used on ebay, and hollowed out the bottom, and made some sturdy brackets so it would fit over the air filter, and well, there you have it. You can see the air filter poking out at the bottom a little, but I don't care about that. Yes, I made a rod from the carburetor linkage so the butterfly plates open as you push the throttle pedal. Good grief, what have I come to?

I know this looks the same as the real injector in the photos, but trust me, it's different, and it's fake, and it's junk. But it does get me some of my cool look back, and that was why I did it. Other downsides: It would take longer to get off and on if I have to do any work on the carburetor. It is connected to the throttle linkage, and why connect anything to the throttle linkage if you don't have to? Finally, it is fake. I'm not fooling anyone, least of all myself. Yet people that know me, know I sometimes like to do odd things just to do them. I don't like to take anything too seriously. So maybe it's okay.

I'm either going with this fakery, or a better version of the first scoop (3rd photo). Perhaps I'll get the courage to just run the air filter alone (2nd photo). I kind of like the simplicity, purity, and honesty of that.

I also found another cardboard model, and of course there were countless sketches. The insanity of this is that I went through all of this, and all of these permutations, and physically made all of these, in only a week's time. I'd be up all night, making sketches. Do this, no I like that, no, I don't like that, how about this, what if this, no, I'll just do something fake. It was crazy, and yet it seemed ordinary to me. It was like I was compelled to do all of this. I couldn't not do it. It's just how I am.

Five Star show

2009-04-20T09:46:00.004-04:00

I went to the show at Five Star Automotive this past Saturday. It worked out pretty well. There was a live band: "Thrown Together", that sounded anything but thrown together. There was free food and drinks; I was happy to have plenty of both.

Cars of all types were displayed on this decent sized site. There were even a couple of full-race dragsters there. The turnout was generous, but not so big that there was congestion and overcrowding. No judging or trophies, just a chance to hang out casually and see some cars. My photos don't do it justice.

Regrettably, I have a bit of a cold, so I was not feeling up to par. Since I had been sick for a couple of days, I didn't have a car there as promised, either. I'm still only running on about 7 cylinders, and I have other committments for today, so I'm signing off early.

First car show event of the season!

2009-04-12T14:06:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine is having an open house/ car show / social gathering featuring free food, and a live band. This is at the Five Star Automotive repair shop on Route 9 in Wappingers Falls. The date is Saturday, April 18, 2009, from 12-5 pm. This is next weekend, people, so get your rides together.

The owner of the business is putting this on as an informal thank-you to all of his fine customers and neighbors in the community.

This is the first event he will be hosting so we don't really know how it will go, but if you want the chance to hang out with friends, look at cars, and swap stories, all while enjoying free food and live music, this is the place to be next Sunday.

I will be there with some kind of neat car, and I'll to get the word out to my friends as well. Hopefully there will be nice weather.

Please act respectfully and drive safely. We all know what a fast car is, but the public streets and parking lots are not the place to demonstrate this. Thanks, and see you there!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-04-01T13:25:00.000-04:00

Photo: The HAMB

Tech: how to install a motor

2009-03-22T23:28:00.006-04:00

I helped my friend install the replacement motor in his Camaro yesterday and today. There are only about 3 tricky parts I had to help him with. No pics today, you will just have to envision this...
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1. Get the motor into the engine bay and positioned properly. While still hanging from the hoist, you want to have the back face of the motor about 1" forward of the front of the transmission case. You need to get the rear of the motor tilted down about 5-10 degrees. Now make sure that the motor mounts are straddling the frame mounts so they will drop down on them. Get under the car and jack the front of the transmission up until it matches the motor's tilt. Now gently wrestle the motor back onto the trans case, inserting the 5/8" dowel pins on the motor into the mating holes in the trans case. Put the 6 trans to motor bolts in and tighten them up. If you have it right, this will be easy. If it's hard, something is wrong. Back it up and start over. Take the jack out from under the trans, and lower the motor onto the front mounts.
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2. Get under and attach the converter to the flywheel. Just sayin', so you don't forget this step. Make sure the converter is sitting on there square and nice.
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3. Install the distributor. Here's how to get the static timing close, so the engine will start. Turn the motor over until cylinder #1 is moving to TDC; top dead center. Turn the motor until the timing mark reaches 12* before TDC, and stop there. This gives us 12* static spark advance. The motor is in firing position. Make a mark on the distributor body where the #1 plug terminal fits onto the body. Remove the distributor cap. Install the distributor so that the rotor comes to point directly at the mark on the distributor when it is fully seated. The motor is now in firing position on the #1 cylinder, and the distributor is in firing position to the #1 cylinder. See how that works?
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Reinstall the other stuff.
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My friend's car fired up immediately and ran smoothly right away. The timing on my distributor install was pretty darn close for that to happen! Thank you, thank you.
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Anyway, he's happy, and I was happy to help. I apologize for no photos, especially since they might have helped my explanations to make more sense. Couldn't find our camera at the time.
Thanks for tuning in. I also have this for you, something I'm selling:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab%3DSelling&item=150334163068&viewitem=

Any guesses of how high this will go?

Tech: How to pull a motor (short version).

2009-03-15T00:55:00.008-04:00

I helped a friend pull the motor out of his 1971 Chevy Camaro today. He had never done it before, and I have lost count of how many I have done, so I was official advisor. I let him do all the work so he'd have the pride of accomplishment. This is a very simplified version of what to do. It's actually not too difficult. My friend already had the motor ready to come out. Disconnect all the accessories, exhaust, intake, fuel line, radiator, belts, wiring (labelling all the wires), hood off, etc. Take out the front motor mount through bolts. It is not necessary to remove the intake manifold, as he has done here, but he will be swapping it to the new motor later anyway. If you're going to use a chain across the top, like we are, remove the valve covers. Drain as much coolant as you can.

Other side, you can see the exhaust headers are off and out of the car. Roomy in there now.

Get underneath, and disconnect the torque converter to flexplate bolts. There are three of them. This is kind of a tough part. It goes way easier if you remove the spark plugs and have the nice flexplate turning tool, which I gladly lent. Push the converter back into the transmission as far as it will go; about 3/8".

Support the transmission from underneath with a floor jack and a block of wood, like so. Nothing fancy here; block of wood.

Attach a hydraulic hoist, and begin lifting the motor up. You can see how we used a chain across the top of the motor. The motor will tilt up about 2" in the front, then pull it forward about 1" and it will pull free from the transmission. Boop!

I'd rather see this than a dead deer on a hook any day. The hot-rodder and his daughter pose with the removed motor. It is, in a sense, that easy.

Perhaps I'll do a follow up on the reinstallation, highlighting one or two things to watch out for. It's only marginally more difficult to put a motor back in.

Thanks for tuning in.

Tech: Alternator swap, part 2 (plus bonus features)

2009-03-08T21:04:00.017-04:00

Here's the finishing up of the alternator install. I had to modify the existing generator lower bracket to mount the alternator on it. I welded a piece of metal on it, moving the lower pivot point farther away from the motor.

If you squint you can see the part in the blurry photo above. No, squint more. That is actually a good weld, it just looks like a little ploop-ploop in this photo.

I modified the top bracket as well (see the weld). I don't mind the welds showing. Again, the contour of the bracket is better than it looks, and someday I will grind the bracket and paint it nice, and it will look much better. Now is not that day. I just want to get this thing going for now.

That's the existing belt on there for now. I'll get a new, shorter one that will put the alternator more in the middle of it's adjustment, and then a second one to keep in the trunk.

Here's a quickie. A previous owner (henceforth; PO) used a too long, too big spring as a carb return spring, attaching it to the fan shroud. That was only a 50% infraction, but punching a hole in an otherwise unmolested 50-year-old fan shroud with a phillips screwdriver and hammer (I am pointing to the little cross mark) was easily another 50% infraction. Most PO bodges are benign, but this really steamed my vegetables. How cobby. I suppose we are lucky the spring was not longer, or it would be attached to the front bumper. Anyway, a replacement with a proper sized spring, attached to the top of the motor, closer by, solved this problem. No pic. I will undent and weld up the hole when I do the radiator.

Another worthwhile upgrade: New fuel line from pump to carb. The existing line was a kinked, rusty piece of incorrect size tube, with a big ol' length of hose. Using hose is not the worst thing you could do, but it lacks, shall we say, that certain elegance. I bent up a parts store length of straight tube to fit nicey-nice.

Here's how you do it, a tubing bender. I have also used old pulleys of various sizes very successfully. If you take your time, it's not so tough.

New fuel line, topside. Also, new fuel filter. Nothing fancy, a universal type, see-though plastic. If you go for a fancy glass one, it will break someday and spray fuel all over you hot engine, and your car will burn to the ground. That's why I like the plastic ones: cheaper, safer, better.

Fuel line, pump side. Notice the even, factory style bends. Lower radiator hose removed in this photo.

Last one for today. New battery. Advance Auto Parts actually had '58 Chevys in the computer application database, and they had the correct battery in stock. It was huge, so I'm taking a chance on a smaller, lighter one. Yes, yes, I know, no warranty for you! I later theorized that the huge stockers were necessary because the generators were not as efficient at charging, and since I now have a modern alternator, I can get by with this smaller one. We'll see. I made a sturdy mount, rods, and hold down myself. The rods are still long because I want to make a little non-conductive tray that will gang on top and cover the whole battery. That will be a handy tool tray, and cover the positive terminal of the battery, so wrenches and things don't fall on there and cause a massive short. The alternator feed wire is the red wire poking in from the top left there. Done.

Thanks for tuning in, see you soon.

I have to vent about PCV valves

2009-02-27T13:06:00.010-05:00

I will be back with more of the exciting alternator swap later. I haven't finished it yet. But for now, a little diversion based on a question I had from the last post.

One of my readers asked in an email about the function of the odd, nubbin-looking thing on the left, that seems to be leaking oil in this photo:

If you look closely, in the silver and red ribbed cover, there is a protruberance. What this is, is the end of a PCV valve that the previous owner thoughtfully plugged with a vinyl protective cap. Unfortunately, this renders it useless, and crankcase pressure is forcing oil and air out from around it. I will try to give you a simplified lesson in crankcase venting and emission controls relating to them.

When a combustion engine works, some combustion (power) pressure leaks into the bottom of the engine (the crankcase) where the crank spins around, the pistons go up and down, and all the oil sits, waiting to be pumped around to lubricate everything. This "blowby" is a normal, unavoidable condition, but the air pressure buildup must be relieved, or it will cause the oil gaskets to get pushed out, and you will have huge oil leaks.

On early cars, up until the late 50's, the venting was done with a tube that came out of the motor, and hung down under the car, and was open to the atmosphere. The air passing beneath the car in motion would help suck the pressure out, and for this reason this is called a "road draft tube". This also left oil mist all over the underside of the car, good for inhibiting rust, but bad for the environment.

By the 60's, the PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) valve was in use. This is a one way valve that came from the engine crankcase and was plumbed back into the intake, where the pressurized air would be burned up, along with the incoming fuel and air. The name comes from the idea that instead of just letting the pressure force it's way out passively, the PCV system would apply vacuum to positively pull the air/oil vapor out. This was better than just venting it out, but it does have a slight detrimental effect in that it can lead to increased deposits in the combustion chamber and on the valves. We can not make one change to the exclusion of others.

On modern cars, I believe this pressurized oil mist is probably run into a charcoal cannister first to filter it, then ingested into the intake, minimizing intake contamination.

The bottom line is that your engine makes internal pressure, and you have to let it out somehow. The owner of my car probably didn't know that the proper thing to do is to run a tube from the PCV valve into the bottom of the air cleaner, and instead just capped it off. We'll tidy this, and more, up later. Now I have to get back to that alternator install.

If you have any questions, please ask. I will try to explain the basics in a simple fashion.

Tech: one-wire alternator swap, part 1

2009-02-22T16:32:00.008-05:00

I want to upgrade the charging system in the '58 to an alternator. It came with a generator. A generator makes DC voltage, which is what the car runs on. An alternator makes AC, and then inverts it to DC. I don't know why this is more efficient (I am sure my friend EV-Steve could explain it in a snap) but nonetheless, cars have been using alternators almost exclusively for the last near 50 years, so that's what we're doing. This is a one-wire alternator, so called because it has an internal regulator, so it literally needs just one wire to go from the output lug to the battery positive terminal.
Here's the existing generator in place. I only had about an hour to dedicate to this upgrade, and after taking the generator out, I thought it would be easy to swap the alternator in it's place. I don't know why I thought that. I could see I would have to do some mild modifying of brackets and such, and so the upgrade would take more than one session.

Here's a sneak preview of the new alternator. Oooooh, shiny. More soon.

THE DAYTONA 500

2009-02-13T23:13:00.004-05:00

It goes off this Sunday. For years I've hosted a Daytona 500 party, my version of a superbowl party. Fortunately my bro picked it up this year and is hosting, as there's no way I'd have the time to do it this year. Thanks KK! While there is much about NASCAR racing I'd change, no one in power has asked, so I'll skip my laments for now.
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While I'd prefer to see something like the photo above, I still like the competiveness of today's NASCAR, and the TV coverage is unbelieveable. A multitude of cameras shoot from viewpoints I only used to imagine. Much better than the grainy, long shot from the infield which is all I used to see watching Wide World of Sports. I admit I still get a bit of a rush watching a field of 40+ cars come zooming down the front stretch, bumper to bumper, past the green flag for the start. I hope most of you car enthusiasts feel the same, and I hope you all can spend some fun time with friends this Sunday watching.
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As a follow-up to the radiator follies, I will tell you right out my budget fix failed miserably. Or failed fantastically, I'm not sure which. Anyway, it didn't work. I bought a new radiator and put it in Thursday morning. Yes it was over $300, but it's brand new. Also, it's physically HUGE, so at least I got a lot of radiator for my money. No wonder the truck would never overheat, even with a cracked radiator; it holds so much water it could never get hot enough. It didn't take long to change it, and I had all the tools required. I would have had it done in about an hour, but a balky lower radiator hose really gave me a fight. I never feel bad about the cost of putting a new radiator in a vehicle. Instead I feel a sense of security, like, at least I never have to worry about this again for as long as I'll own it. I often drive the truck on long trips, towing a trailer, so reliability is a primary concern. Thank goodness that awful smell of hot coolant is gone!
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photo: Somewhere on the HAMB

Tech; radiator fix, maybe

2009-02-10T16:11:00.009-05:00

So I've been driving the big white truck, and it's been going great. It actually has a very comfortable ride. I've been noticing a faint coolant smell from time to time though. Man I hate that smell. That is the worst car smell, in my opinion. Then I found the coolant leaking yesterday. I took the upper radiator hose off at the radiator end and inspected it. It looked ok, and the radiator didn't appear to be leaking, so I put the hose back on and suspected that the hose clamp had just not been on completely.
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Today I found the radiator leaking again, and a closer inspection in good light revealed that the plastic radiator tank was cracked. Not right at the hose outlet to tank junction like I expected, but right next to that on the tank proper. You see that little curving vertical black line to the right of the hose outlet? That's the crack. I could not get a new radiator same day, so I tried plan B: fix it myself.

I drained the radiator so the coolant level would be below the crack, so it might seal better. I have this siphon pump I use. Get one of these, it's way better than siphoning stuff with your mouth.

I had picked up this pack of epoxy one day at a store for possible future use. I don't remember how long it's been hanging on my garage wall. Today's your day, big guy. I am using the epoxy for 3 reasons: 1. A new radiator costs about $300, and I can't get it today anyway. 2. The coolant system only goes to about 16psi, not a very high pressure. 3. I already have the epoxy.

I sprayed the cracked area with brake cleaner, then sanded it lightly to give it some tooth, again to promote the epoxy adhesion. This is what sanding looks like, in case you somehow could never visualize it. Epoxy. Epoxy. Epoxy, epoxy, epoxy. What an odd word.

After nearly destroying the epoxy pack trying to get the 2 parts out, I finally squeezed some on to this lid and mixed it well with this craft stick. The epoxy had that great chemical smell I remember from when I was kid and my dad would mix up some epoxy for some repair job. Mixing the epoxy up made it look like that nice shiny, pearlescent salt water taffy you can see mixing at the store on the boardwalk.

I applied it liberally to the cracked area, and most of the area around it as well. Mmmm, smells nice. Why did I use so much? Because that's how much I mixed up. Actually, I used the old drag racer's motto: If some is good, more is better, and too much is just right.

I'll put the hose on, refill the radiator, and give it a road test tonight. We'll see it it makes it to Newburgh and back, about a 20 mile round trip.

The King is dead...

2009-02-05T11:04:00.007-05:00

...long live the King. My Dodge died. The transmission went. Again. The original transmission died 2 years ago, and I had it replaced with a used one at a shop for $1500. Now this one's dead, and I don't think we're going to have it fixed. Too complicated to do it myself. It's problems like this that have kept me from blogging lately.

The car had a tick less than 150,000 miles on it, and I wanted to get at least 200k out of it. It was pretty good to me though, overall. It was the right thing to have at the time.

The engine compartment. I am told there is a transmission in there. I have never seen it. Perhaps the sticker on the engine should be "Doh!"

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I'll definitely steal the battery out of it, that's only 9 months old. I'll probably give the winter tires on rims to a friend that has a PT Cruiser, and if he wants the 9 month old regular tires, they are his for the cost of changing them to his rims. If any of y'all want any parts, please let me know.

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For now I am using the white truck. Doesn't get good gas mileage, but it's cheaper than another car right now. My plan is to get the Chevy up and running and on the road, and hopefully use that for the near term. How cool will that be, using a classic car as a daily driver? Can it be done? What is it really like to drive a 50-year old car day-to-day? I haven't done it in 25 years. Back then, I was driving my '68 Impala convertible, and the shift linkage fell off two mornings in a row as I was leaving for work. I was living in an apartment, and only owned a little tool box, so I was unprepared to keep on with it. I bought a brand new S-10 the next week. I am better equipped now, but do I have the patience and time?

If I had to change the transmission in this car, I could do it myself in about half a day. Maybe a full day if everything went wrong. That's old school way; under the car, on the ground, using a couple of floor jacks.
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On the positive side, I am taking a full load of classes back at college. If any of you need a new accountant, please give me a call in about a year.

Year in review 2008

2008-12-31T00:07:00.009-05:00

I began blogging this year about March or so, well intentioned and bursting with enthusiasm to build The Electric Vehicle That Would Revolutionize the World, or something like that. I was very excited to build a workable commuter vehicle that was 100% battery powered around a classic 1955 Ford F100 pickup. I purchased a suitable pickup from Florida, and had already purchased another donor vehicle to use for a full frame and component swap. I lost my job quite unexpectedly in July, and have basically shelved the EV project for now. I sold the F100.

I decided to simplify my life, so I took the money from the F100 sale, and immediately bought a 1958 Chevy Biscayne. See, for a car guy, somehow simplifying your life equates with buying another vehicle. I swear this made sense at the time, although I can’t recall how. The plan for the Biscayne is to eventually turn it into a daily driver. Hopefully it will take the place of whatever I would need to buy when my 2000 Dodge finally bites the dust. This project is stalled due to the job loss also.

I had adamantly planned to sell my Altered Roadster drag race car. I have reversed course on that as well, and decided to keep it for the time being. Since the economy is in the toilet, I doubt I would sell it for anywhere near the amount I’d like to get for it, and there’s no need to take a big financial loss on it right now. I did zero drag racing this year, and I really miss it. That’s not so cool.

I did get to do some work on EV-Steve’s electric vehicle: brake system, new cab mounts, new battery boxes, removal of unneeded 4WD parts, and hydraulic clutch system. This will get him a little closer to getting back on the road.

In the fall, we did the famous plow project. There was 9” of snowfall last week, and let me happily report that the plow “works a treat” as they say in England. It is truly a joy to use, 1000 times better than the snow-blower. Well worth the cost, although you will spend probably $10,000 on a decent truck to attach it to. I already had one. I will reinforce the corners of the plow blade this spring; they got a little benty-bent.

I think my new idea to do my EV as a dune-buggy style vehicle is a good one. The donor S-10 chassis sits abandoned in the far corner of my backyard, cut off from civilization by what is now a vast flood plain. I have not yet been motivated to row out and rescue it, get it inside, and get started on it. I thought I’d let K park her car in the warm garage for this winter instead.

On a personal note, my handyman side business is a complete bust. I did a couple of jobs for what amounted to like $5 per hour, if that. I was hoping Hudson Valley Hot Rods would take off when I introduced my EV project to an appreciative public, but I wussed-out and declined to risk spending the money on completing it once I lost my job. Based on my experience doing vehicle repairs this year, I don’t think I want to do vehicles for a living now anyway. Frankly, it’s tough work, and you can’t really charge for all the problems that arise. I have decided to get a real job, and to continue to do my own vehicle projects as a hobby.

On a more personal note, I have decided to be productive this next year by returning to college yet again, for an accounting degree, and hope to take the CPA exam by this time next year. I figure it’s better than sitting home doing nothing. I enjoy going to college more than I do working anyway; if it paid anything, I’d be a full time student forever. After I graduate, I hope to get some experience in accounting and open my own office within 5 years. Then I’LL be the boss and I’LL get to make the stupid decisions. Gonna have my own office, and commute in my EV, and my ’58, and make a lot of money, and life will be great. And I can never get laid off again since I own the place. That’s the plan anyway.

On a most personal note, K and k and I have had a fun year, and we are thankful for our great friends and families. We have more than we do not have, and for that we are grateful. We miss those whom have passed on this past year, and we pray for those that are struggling, and in a worse situation than ourselves. At a time when the world is in more flux than ever, we optimistically look forward to next year with great hope. I have enjoyed blogging, and I thank everyone that tunes in to read this. I hope I have been at least entertaining, and at best informative. Love to all, and Happy New Year 2009!!!

What I got for Christmas 2008

2008-12-29T17:12:00.009-05:00

I've been a little busy lately, what with k's 2nd birthday, home improvements, doing a little car repair, Christmas, and now plans for a wholesale career change. I did purchase some car-related stuff recently; here it is. First, I got all this stuff from ebay auctions. Many decry ebay for all sorts of evils against mankind, but I still find it useful and worthwhile. How many swapmeets would I have to go to find all this stuff? I found all this (and more I didn't get) in one week! Secondly, I have found that '58 Chevy parts are relatively plentiful and inexpensive.

This is a dash panel for a 1958 Chevy. It is upside down in this photo, and this is the part where the steering column would come out the big hole. I didn't actually need this whole thing, just the upper center part (this is under the column in the car). The scratched paint means nothing, the part is fine. This is not based on immediate need, the car will work without this, but my car is missing this part, and so when I saw this I jumped on it. $9. I could always try to sell the main part.

Ok, these I did need right away. '58 wiper arms. My car only had one, and the spring inside was broken, rendering it useless. I will need these to achieve my next goal, getting the '58 to pass inspection. I don't know how much interchange there is on these, I can't just put any old arms on there, and why would I? I want the right ones. This pair is in really fantastic condition, springs worky-work, and only $26 for the pair. Who keeps wiper arms in near-mint condition for 50 years, and then sells them for only $26? Unbelieveable. 50 years old, people!

Finally, a small STP patch. STP was invented as a motor oil additive in 1953, but really rose to prominence in the early 1960's when Andy Granatelli became CEO and spokesman for the company. Thanks to an immense and unrelenting advertising campaign, by the mid-'60's the STP sticker was everywhere. As a kid this made a big impression on me, and I can recall once getting my father to ask the service station attendant if he had any STP stickers. The attendant went and got one and gave it to us. What could be cooler than being 7-8 years old and getting a real STP sticker? Not much! Anyway, I need a new windbreaker, so I am going to get a red one and have this patch sewn on the front, and the bigger one I previously got at a swap meet put on the back. Incidentally, STP stands for "Scientifically Treated Petroleum", and STP sponsored Richard Petty for probably 30 years. STP patch: $4.

Funny pic of Mic-dog has nothing to do with anything. He's just always sniffing everything. Nose 1000 times more sensitive than a human's, and he's got to get right on top of everything to get enough of a whiff. Does it smell like a camera, Mic? Aw, we love him anyway.

So there you have it, a couple of things I got myself for Christmas for the car. Less than $50, a couple for shipping, but the main thing is I can find what I need and get it here pretty easily, and that's what's still cool about ebay. The wiper arms alone I'd have paid I-don't-know-how-much-for; I really needed them at whatever price, and these are near perfect!

I'll try to do a year-in-review by Wednesday (Wordful Wednesday), since it has been a pretty weird year, even if it is only my first year blogging. Hard to believe where we are considering where we started. If you can't make it back, or forget, please have a safe and happy New Year's.

So who's with me, Biscayne-wise ?

2008-12-06T23:01:00.007-05:00

A very weird thing happened a few weeks ago. I was driving along Rt. 52 in the Wiccopee area of East Fishkill, and I saw a 1958 Chevy off the side of the road in a backyard. It looked like a Biscayne, like mine. It was raining that day, so I slowed down a bit, but kept driving, and made a mental note to come back with a camera, so I could take a pic and maybe blog about how close to home this car is, assuming that it is for sale and in decent shape, etc. I went back no more than 3 weeks later, and the car was gone. Whom else is buying '58's in this economy in the dead of winter? I just figured it would be there for a while. Oh, well, I thought, I have mine, and I like it, and I'm still happy.

Tonight I'm browsing through ebay, and there it is! Why was I browsing through ebay (when I'm 6 months unemployed and my garages are overflowing)? I'm glad you asked why I was browsing through ebay. I was browsing through ebay to...um...I was browsing ebay because I...it...wow. That's a good one. I was browsing...no wait, let's see...I was browsing and browsing for a chrome taillight housing. Hey, that rhymes...

So this Biscayne is now in Highland, and there's just under 6 days left on the auction. Here's the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab%3DWatching&item=290280855680&viewitem= it's item number 290280855680.

From what I can see in the photos, it's similar to mine in condition; better in some areas, worse in others, but overall, 'bout the same. Price is about the same too. I'm not interested in it (if someone wants to secret-Santa me, and drop it off here anonymously, that would be cool, though) I'll keep on with what I have. I feel an uncharacteristic attachment to mine.

If someone around here wants to get it, we can work on them together. We can swap parts, and information, and help each other, and have a little friendship. It'll be cool. Now that we're car buddies, you wouldn't mind lending me that uncracked windshield, would you?

Car Features: 1957 Ford & 1967 Ford Fairlane GT

2008-11-26T07:54:00.014-05:00

Here’s a couple of cars I took some pics of at the Fishkill car show in October. The first one up is a 1957 Ford Sheriff’s car. I originally dismissed this as just a nice car “done up” as a period Sheriff’s car. The reason I did not even consider it to be authentic is that it is a 2-door, and most law enforcement cars are 4-doors. But I did some research and found that before probably the 1970’s, it was not uncommon to find 2-door cars used many times as, that’s right, Sheriff’s cars. So unfortunately, due to my ignorance, I did not really take as detailed a look at this car as I might have.
You can see this car has a permanent “suspect” in the back seat. When people start with the stuffed animals and dolls and such as adornment, I immediately lose interest in the vehicle. This is another reason I dismissed this car.
This car also has what appear to be period-correct roof light and siren. These would seem to me to be difficult to get, but I suppose the right person would know where they are. Perhaps they really are original to the car?
I think it is a huge commitment to have as your personal collector vehicle such a dedicated car as a Sheriff’s car, either as a recreation or an authentic survivor vehicle. I guess some people would welcome this notoriety, but a cop car would be way down my list of cars I’d like to own, if it was even on my list. I’m not sure even the most attention-hungry person would want to always have to tool around in this, when he could have done his car in any of a dozen different styles.

My conclusion is that this is probably an authentic 1957 Ford Sheriff’s car.

This car is a 1967 Ford Fairlane GT. It is a fantastic brandywine color, and the condition of it is impeccable. For the 1960’s, this was considered a sporty mid-size car. I like it’s lean lines, it looks almost athletic to me.
It features a beautiful contrasting white interior, and factory chromed styled-steel wheels. The engine features dual quads (two four-barrel carburetors).
One cool thing to take note of is the original-style windshield-washer reservoir bag on the driver’s side inner front fender. Ford used this flexible bag style reservoir instead of a bottle or canister in the 1960’s, quite different from what I’m used to seeing on my GM cars.
Another thing I like is this factory-original style reproduction battery. Battery? Big deal, you say. When I’m looking at a nice restoration such as this, I want to be transported back in time, and believe I’m standing there looking at this car in 1967. Everything else is refurbished to give that impression, right? Well nothing ruins that vibe more than when I see a car like this with a big green modern Exide or Interstate sealed-top battery seemingly transported 40 years backward in time. These repro batteries are not cheap, but they are available. So top marks to this Fairlane!

Happy Thanksgiving to all !

The electric car lives again!

2008-11-22T10:04:00.009-05:00

Well it never lived the first time, but what I mean is that I have a new plan for my ill-fated EV conversion project. For those of you just tuning in (where have you been?) I was building a 1955 Ford F1 pickup into a battery-electric vehicle. When I was laid off from my day job, I halted the project, since I did not know how far from home my next day job would be. I wanted to use this vehicle for commuting, and BEV’s are notoriously limited in range.
I basically had abandoned the project and sold off the F100 to recoup my investment. I still have the S-10 chassis, which I diligently POR-15’d, and I have a load of other S-10 parts to outfit the eventual vehicle. This got me to thinking: What was some other way I could make my EV? What would be simple, cheap, eye-catching, retro, and different? I am now going to go…dune buggy!

The original dune buggies were fiberglass tub-bodies put onto modified VW chassis. This was a very popular kit car conversion in the mid-60’s; cheap, easy, available, and cute. I will use the chassis I have since it will sturdy enough to support the battery weight. I plan to move forward with construction without actually buying any of the expensive electrical components, such at the controller or the batteries. I will just find out the dimensions of these components and use mock-ups of them, or just “leave room” for fitting them later. Not the ideal way to do design, but sometimes the necessary way to do it.

I plan to make a dune buggy-style fiberglass body myself from scratch. I plan to make the entire body in cardboard (!) first, and then cover it with fiberglass. The fiberglass dune buggy design has some advantages. First, it has no opening doors, this simplifies things greatly. It can be very light, I would save probably 2000 lbs over the F100 conversion I was planning. That’s a lot, and a big help to a BEV. The shape would be familiar, retro, and yet morphed into what I need to fit my plans. Finally, it is a fun vehicle. I am getting into the beach-y Jeep-surrey mode I spoke about before. Very cool.

I had settled on the idea that as a dune buggy, it would be a seasonal vehicle. So it’s a summer run-about, oh well. But after thinking even more, I thought about perhaps a removable canvas soft-top, with zipper-closing plastic side windows like you see on some Jeeps. If I did that, this would still potentially be a year-round vehicle, albeit one that requires the proper attitude to endure in the cold. Would I be up for it? I don’t know. But I won’t know if I don’t try, and at least I would be moving forward. The best part is that I think I can keep going in this direction without a big financial investment.

So, what do you think? Cool or stupid? Overambitious or easy? Let me know. Bye for now.

The great snowplow project, part 3

2008-11-15T21:29:00.017-05:00

Bring it on.

This is some of the 50-odd pounds of metal pieces I cut off of the old plow. I burned through a lot of acetylene and oxygen. There's probably an ozone-layer hole over our house.

I got a couple of driveway edge markers at HD to use as the plow edge markers. They're fiberglass, with reflective tape and rubber caps. Cheap too. Here's how I attached them. Small length of metal tube welded on, a cotter pin in the bottom, and a wrap of duct tape (not shown) to make them fit nice and snug.

I still needed to make a deflector along the top rail that makes the snow curl forward and downward while plowing. Plows come with a strip of flexible yet durable rubber on them for this. I had my own idea of what to use. You know those big rubber mudflaps that you see lying along the highways that have fallen off of big-rigs? Guess who stops and picks them up, and has a small collection of them in his garage for just such an occasion. Go ahead, guess.

I sacrificed a worthy candidate, using a circular saw to make quick, accurate cuts. This worked surprisingly well. A few bolts, washers, and nuts through pre-drilled holes, and it's done. I am very happy with the result.

My good friend Joe V. donated* this small winch to me. I checked the internet, and quickly found a diagram on how to wire a DC motor reversing circuit. The internet is wonderful. I had this hard-wired into the cab, but a couple of problems arose. For one, it was tough to get the stiff 10-gauge wiring to fit into the dash nicely. The other problem was that I could not see the winch while I was operating it. For these reasons, I pulled the wiring back out and made a remote switch box.

* Joe V. is one of a few people with whom I am now at the stage where we just give each other stuff if one of us has it and the other needs it. Doesn't really matter how much it's worth. Perhaps most people are always like this, but I have only come to it in the last 5-10 years or so. It's nice. Nobody keeps score, everybody helps each other. It's just real nice. Thanks, Joe V!

I have to hook up the motor leads manually. I have wing nuts on the terminals, and I have them color-coded with pieces of colored tape.

I also have to hook up to the 12v positive and negative leads to the battery. These are male-female-coded so they can't be mixed up. All of this coding is necessary for the switch to consistently work the way I have it labeled.

I have about 10 feet of cabling, all jacketed nicely inside corrugated wire loom, that I string along the hood and into the window of the cab. I made a switch box out of a house electrical box, and used a rocker switch that Joe V. also gave me. The switch is 2-position momentary, with a center off. I put little labels on there, I had previously markered O/I on the switch for Out/In. Same thing.
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It's nice to be able to actuate the winch from right beside it with the remote box. Just more peace of mind, and to me, simpler than hard-wired into the truck.
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So where are we? The plow is done, I have even done a couple of more mods to make it safer, and easier to operate. Like most projects, this took way more time than I thought it would. I definitely got a lot of practice using my acetylene torch, but that was something I needed to do. Now I'm more comfortable and faster with it. I spent probably $500 on the project, if you're scoring at home. Paid a little for the plow, bought some new steel, burned through 2 bottles each of acetylene and oxygen, some paint, some wire terminals, wire, and a surprisingly large amount of new hardware. I did only use 2 cheap paintbrushes for the whole time, one for yellow, and one for black, by doing the aluminum foil wrap trick! As far as labor, I would not be surprised if I had 80 hours in this. Of course even the painting takes time, and that's not exactly skilled labor, but it is time nonetheless. By comparison, a new personal plow costs about $1500, and I really wanted one. There was no way I'd be buying one this year, but now I basically have one (probably more heavy-duty), for much cheaper. I also figure if it keeps me from having a heart attack, then it was a pretty good investment. Thanks for your interest, back to cars soon.

Special thoughts special edition

2008-11-13T11:58:00.003-05:00

1. I have named our homestead "Stickamucka" from the Iroquois Indian translation: many many many many sticks, which is what is always covering my backyard lawn. More than just could have fallen off the trees, neighbors must come and deposit them there when I'm out.

2. I was at the grocery store and I saw this teenager wearing his pants so low that the waistband must have been mid-thigh, his punk-ass covered by a long shirt. To show these punk kids whom is really cool once and for all, I will henceforth be wearing my pants completely loose and laying down around my ankles. Beat that.

3. It certainly is more palatable to be paying $2.50 a gallon for gas for my lawnmower. Dropping $25-30 bucks to fill a gas can for my frickin' lawnmower really burned my butt.

The great snowplow project, part 2

2008-11-11T23:51:00.011-05:00

The great snowplow project is almost done. I have so much to show you I will have to break this up into 2 posts. Let's get to it:

Here is the plow on the ground. Looks pretty nice, right?

One nice feature I put on the main frame is a pair of rubber push bumpers. This way I can push cars or stuff during the times when the plow is off the truck. I picked these up at a car swap meet like 10 years ago because I always thought it would be cool to have a push bumper on my truck. Now I do.

Here's the business end of the blade. After researching personal snowplows, I found that they are only like 18" tall. I cut about 6" off the top of the blade, and reattached it with bolts as the new scraper part of the blade. This stiffens the bottom edge all the way across, and if it gets damaged in some way, I am just dealing with fixing this part instead of the whole blade surface. What's nice about the short height is that even with the plow raised, the headlights remain unobscured. I don't have to fool with the auxiliary plow lights of any of that nonsense.

This is the same area from the backside. I had to basically cut that horizontal top bar off the top of the 6" piece, and grind it and re-weld it back on to what is now the top. Even things like drilling all the holes for all those bolts took a ton of time.

Here's the brackets and parts that make it all work. I cut a ton of steel off the A-frames to lighten them up. Just getting stuff like the huge 7/8" bolt, nut, and washers that serve as the pivot point took a lot of time. I had to go all the way up to Sarjo in North Poughkeepsie. You don't just get that stuff at the local home improvement store.

I shortened the existing chain that holds the plow in the up position for when you're driving around and such. I re-used the hook that the chain sits in, since I thought the hook and chain were kind of manly technologies. I even had to put a couple of new weld beads on the eye of the hook to restore the amount of material that was worn off of it; now it's like new. Yes, I painted the hook like that because I wanted a...red hook. Incidentally, there is a Red Hook district in lower Manhattan, Dutchess County does not have the only one.

As you can see in the red hook photo, I made adjustable struts to replace the side-to-side hydraulic cylinders. What I did was; using the original cylinder end anchor points, I made these 2 struts that have 3 positions on one end. The steel pin would drop through the two plates on the A-frame, capturing the strut. If both pins are in the middle position, the plow is straight. If the pins are in the shortest position on one side, and the longest position on the other side, the plow is angled towards the short side. Yes, it is a manual, have-to-get-out-of-the-truck operation, but it is easy to do, and I don't know how often you even really change the plow angle. It was necessary to build an angle into the struts so they will clear the A-frame when using the middle or short side positions. I painted the heads of the pins yellow so they will be easier to find in case they get dropped in the snow.

I'm pretty proud of these struts for a couple of reasons. First, I think it is a simple solution to how to angle the plow. The design seems very sturdy and rugged. The actual construction came out fantastic; the pins fit easily yet snugly into each position. Both sides are identical, a rarity in handbuilt applications like these. This is not really too important, but from a design standpoint, it's something I always like to achieve. This way, even if the whole thing is taken apart, it cannot be put back together wrong. And I got a high degree of accuracy despite basically doing this from measurements and chalk marks on the garage floor. Really. Finally, while it would have been nice to use real mechanical steel tubing, my steel supplier is way out by the Overlook area. I took a chance and went to Home Depot. I put one of the steel pins in the end of a piece of 1" black pipe, and it fit perfectly! Two 4' lengths of pipe easily fit into my car, and while pipe is not as nice as tubing, 1" pipe has a hefty 1/8" wall thickness, more than strong enough for this use.

Next time we'll look at the winch and wiring, and some other small details. I hate to say it but I am almost looking forward to the snow.

The great snowplow project, part 1

2008-11-07T19:27:00.017-05:00

I have not been posting as much as I should lately, but I have been busy working on the great snowplow project, and I kind of just wanted to work on it without getting slowed down too much. As I have featured in two previous Wordless Wednesdays, I got this used snowplow from my brother-in-law in return for scrapping his old Bronco for him. The Bronco did not bring as much from scrap as we had hoped, so I gave him some cash for the plow.

I have been considering a "personal snowplow" for a little while now. These are smaller, lighter-duty plows than commercial units that you would use for a business. These are just for doing your own driveway. But they're still expensive, so buying one is out of the question right now.

After looking at this plow for awhile, I decided to convert it into a personal snowplow. I just don't want a big-honking heavy-ass commercial plow on my truck. It's too big, and too complicated. I began by eliminating all of the parts I would not need. I will not use the hydraulic pump, lines, 3 hydraulic cylinders, the valve and cables, or the auxiliary lights. There was still a lot of heavy steel parts that I thought I could do without, so I spent a couple of days with my acetylene torch cutting and cutting, trying to eliminate weight without making it too weak. I eliminated hundreds of pounds by the time I was done. Here is the reworked quick mount parts mounted onto my truck frame. Yeah some parts are a little bent, but believe me I spent tons of time unbending stuff as it is; you can't get it all.
I finished the mount assembly with a coat of black enamel I had left over from the trailer right after I took this photo. You can see it's partially painted.

Here is my great grille-guard/cow-catcher/roo-bumper/winch-mount/push-bar. It's primarily the winch mount for raising the plow. This is all new angle-iron. In retrospect, I probably could have used lighter steel for this, but it's sometimes hard to judge at the time. You want to make things sturdy, but not overly heavy. I am so paranoid that the plow will literally fall off the front of the truck on Old Hopewell Road and cause a huge, fire-y crash if everything is not sturdy enough. I think it will be strong enough that I could burst through police road blocks if I need to. I just hope I don't need to.
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Incidentally, the over-the-road trucks in Australia have massive "roo-bumpers", way bigger than this. They travel at very high speeds over the outback highway, and kangaroos on the road are a big problem. Look at the big trucks in the movie Mad Max sometime and you'll see.

Here's a side-view. I was going to tuck it in close to the bumper and have it shorter, but at the last minute I decided to make it way-tall and have it sticking way out front. I think this increases the redneck styling tremendously! Yee-haw! I hope my little Mack bulldog on the hood there can still pee past the front of that.

Here is the plow proper. I cut about 6" off of the top of the blade. I welded one of the old plates across the top. I am reusing the cut-off blade part as the sacrificial blade scraper part now. That is the part you see up on the stand. I'll go over the parts and functions in better detail later. You can see the nicey-nice new painting I did; 2 coats of Rustoleum bright yellow enamel really make it look almost new. All the frame parts are black. I painted all the parts I am reusing, this took a lot of time to do.
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Most of the scrap metal parts are on the floor there on the right. I can tell you that big inverted angle part used to be the plow blade scraper. It is 1/2" thick steel, like 5" wide. That piece alone has to weigh 200 lbs. I would estimate this plow assembly used to weigh 500-750 lbs total, I will have it down to about 250 lbs total.
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Like a lot of projects, this one has taken a long time before it looks like anything is done, and then all of a sudden things come together and it's nearly done. I hope this at least works decently when it's finished. It figures I'd finally get a snowplow now that global warming is taking effect.
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One nice thing is that I've had a lot of time to think while I have been working on this. One of the things I have been thinking about is the aborted EV project. I have what I think is an exciting idea for that, so please stay tuned for that news.

Car Show: Fishkill, October 21, 2008, part 3 of 3

2008-10-30T22:04:00.016-04:00

Seems like a long time ago I took these photos. It's a lot colder here only 3 weeks later. This is the last of the bunch, so let's get started. 1959 Edsel Villager station wagon. Fantastic example of an automotive icon, and I feel that Edsels have a totally undeserved bad reputation. I'll defend this contrarian view when I do a feature on this car later on.

This '31 Ford roadster is done classic, traditional hot-rod style.

Here's a 1926 Ford with an aftermarket Huckster produce truck body. I'll talk about how specialized vehicles like this come to be at a later date.

This 1936 Ford Sedan sports all the popular "modern" modifications, and would contend for a trophy at any show.

I like the odd and unusual, and it doesn't get more o & e than a 1967 Ford Good Humor ice cream truck, in perfect restored, functional condition. When you see the feature on this, it will knock you out of your seat!

I love these little Ford Rancheros, like this 1961 example, my favorite year because of the grille shape. Would this make a cool commuter car, or what?

This 1961 Chevy Bel Air was in pretty good shape, and the asking price was very reasonable. The '61 was conservatively styled compared to the wild-winged '59 and '60's, but there were still some funky touches. That little lip sticking off the back of the rear window is a rear visor; hard to see here, but we'll take a better look later.

This 1936 Buick custom convertible has many modifications, and the level of detail is first-class. If you have ever wondered what "pearl" paint is, take a look at the blue on this car. That, my friends, is pearl paint.

So many exciting cars...this is a 1958 Ford Retractible. This is a hardtop car, where the roof folds up and retracts and stows in the trunk compartment. All automatic. In 1959. Why? Well, I'm not sure, but this was an actual production car feature. And look at those colors; turquoise and white two-tone. Fantastic!

This 1929 Ford roadster pickup was nice, and eye-catching. But as bright as it is, I became more attracted to it the more I looked it over. Details and details, little trick things you have to study for a minute to appreciate. When I saw on the placard that it was 100% owner-built, I was really in awe of it. Hard to believe someone could achieve that level of finish at home.

I'll finish with this, I believe, 1947 Pontiac, heavily modified and customized. I say "believe", because the info placard was missing. These placards are usually displayed in the windshield, but this one is only 4" tall, so perhaps that's why it's nowhere to be found. I did find "Silver Streak 8" badges on the front fenders, but this was such a wild custom, it was hard to believe it was ever a production car.

This was a really great show, and I hope to have the '58 ready to enter next year. There was fantastic weather, a great location, and it was nearby to home for me. I'm not a big car show guy by nature, but I saw a ton of cool cars here. There had to be over 100 cars in total. I'll definitely be back.

Car Show: Fishkill, October 12, 2008, part 2 of 3

2008-10-26T21:18:00.015-04:00

This 1948 Plymouth sported a late model 318 motor and was equipped to be a true driver car. Fantastic seldom seen car.

This 1970 (?) Dodge Charger has this sedate light green paint, but it is a stunner inside and out.

1969 Ford Ranchero, a pickup-car, or truck really. This one has great modifications and perfect detail.

1964 Pontiac GTO. This year and model car was arguably the first "musclecar".

1987 Ford Mustang. Big deal, right? I think the future will judge this generation of Mustangs to be as important, if not more, than any other in history. I will support this bold statement when I do a feature on this car.

Here's a 1967 Chevy II (Chevy II would later become the Nova). This example was a great low-key driver with a nice surprise we will look at when we feature it later.

1970 Dodge Dart with a 340 mill. I love these small Mopars. My dad had a similar one with a 318 for transportation and I loved driving it.

1969 Plymouth GTX. This was a very special car model near the end of the musclecar era. We'll discuss what it is, and why it's important, when I do an expanded feature about it later on.

1957 Chevy 210. I normally just pass by 1955-57 Chevies, as they have become so ubiquitous. This one is done a little differently, and I think it has some cool features.

A 1967 AC Cobra (replica). A great rendition of a very famous and desireable car. I have been itching to build one of these replicas for about the past 10-15 years. It's an economical way to own a priceless car.

I'll finish up this week with this 1947 Jeep CJ2A. It has a flat-head 4 cylinder and puts out about 60hp. I like it because it is so spartan and business-like. The nice owner explained to me about how this was the model that transitioned from post-WWII models to regular civilian models.

Well that's all for this week. Oh, I almost forgot I saw this cute little guy at the show. I decided to have lunch right after I took this shot.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-10-21T18:02:00.004-04:00

Wordless Wednesday

2008-10-15T17:51:00.009-04:00

Car Show: Fishkill, October 12, 2008, part 1 of 3

2008-10-13T22:21:00.018-04:00

I went to a car show in Fishkill on Sunday. It was right on Main Street (Rt 52) from Jackson Street, almost to Route 9. The weather was fantastic, a great Indian summer day, and the setting was great. There were probably 100 great vehicles of all types there. Yes, I have been slacking a bit on posts lately. The truth is I don't have any progress to report on my projects, and I haven't been out to any events until this one. I shot photos of about 30 cars, and I have enough detail shots to do features on most of them, so at least I have that to tide me over the cold months. I'll give a brief overview of some of the cars for now.

This nice 1957 Ford was done up as a Sheriff's car. I don't know if it was authentic or not, but it had many period perfect details and looked pretty convincing.

A tasty 1967 Ford Fairlane GT in burgundy, with a white interior, and factory chrome wheels.I don't have an overall shot of this 1960 Chevy Impala, but this is the money shot anyway. You have to see this when it is featured. It is immaculate.I love this 1952 Ford Mainline, done up in street-race style. It's an early "shoebox" style car with some cool modifications.

This 1974 Datsun 260Z was one of 3 similar, but not matching, cars in attendance. The "Z" was a very hot car in it's day.
This 1973 Plymouth 'Cuda was one of several Mopar pony-cars there. For this year, and possibly others, it was simply " 'Cuda", and not "Barracuda", as it was earlier.
Well 1966 Chevy Chevelles will always have a place in my heart, as my late grandfather owned one briefly. I'll tell you more about a ride he gave me in it when this car is featured. His was not Marina Blue, like this one, but the lighter blue metallic.

I really dug this 1951 Buick straight-8 four-door, even though it is not a car I'd like for myself. But it was perfect for what it is, and I'll explain what it is when I do a feature on it.

One of motoring's icon's for sure, this early Ford Mustang hardtop was perfect. I regret that I did not note it's year, but it looks like a 1964 or '65 to me. Speaking of pony-car, this is the model that gave that genre of car it's name.

Here's a 1987 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Aero Coupe. This is actually owned by my friend Joe V, who discovered the show as he was driving by, and pulled in. He just came into posession of this car, but under quite unfortunate circumstances. A friend left it to him in his will.

I'll be back with two more posts showing the other cars I shot, and then I'll get to doing some features, giving you some information on the individual cars, and also my critique of them.

Thanks for sticking around when it got a little thin there. JK

Wordless Wednesday

2008-10-08T16:28:00.010-04:00

Special thanks to my sister-in-law Carole; I stole her idea of WW.

http://carolesthoughtfulspot.blogspot.com/

Oh dear, it's not really wordless now, is it?

Changing some things around

2008-09-28T14:28:00.011-04:00

I began taking my drag race car apart in preparation for selling it off. While I have acquired the bits and pieces for it economically over time, I still have a decent amount of money tied up in it. Nonetheless, I began taking some stuff off to sell separately.This is the air intake of the mechanical fuel injector. This is not just a "scoop", or air-scoop; the red butterfly plates that swing open are actually precision parts that meter the air very exactly(this part is called the "hat"). Believe it or not they flow enough air like this, nearly completely closed, for my big block motor to run at idle. You can barely see a little opening at the bottom of the center butterfly plate.

Anyway, the injector system has some drawbacks, and I have never been completely satisfied with it. For one thing, it only works in two modes, idle, and wide open (and not really well at idle). Part throttle is difficult, so it's hard to drive the car around the pits and to the starting line, and so forth. While the system looks complicated, it's actually pretty simple, but maybe that's just to me since I understand how it works. The other thing is it uses methanol alcohol instead of gasoline. The alcohol makes huge power and keeps the motor temperatures very cool (the cooling effect is the main reason I run alcohol), but you have to drain the entire system at the end of every day or it will corrode the internals.

I took a couple of shots to show how the lines and components run, just for some sort of unknown reference, I guess.

Here from the other side.

I took the whole injector system off the motor. That left the bare block in the car, so I put my old faithful gas carburetor and intake manifold back on there, just for kicks.

It's missing a couple of hoses, but you can see how much simpler the carburetor is. Again, just for kicks, I hooked the throttle cable up, it went right on after I made one simple bracket. The exhaust is removed in this photo, I have rags in the ports to keep moisture out. The carb set-up is not as trick looking as the injector for sure though.

This got me thinking. I have made no progress on the Biscayne since I am in voluntary austerity mode right now (basically put: I don't want to spend any money on it since I'm not working). So that's not running yet. I want to sell the altered so I'd have some money to spend on the Biscayne, but I don't want to sell it into a recession and lose a lot of money on it. That would just be foolish for no reason. The time to sell race cars is when the economy is humming along. Finally, for the cost of a couple of small parts, I could always race this thing again with the carb set-up. I have let my competition license and the car's chassis certification lapse, but they are only needed to run sub-10 seconds. I could easily adjust the throttle stop, and slow it down to run low 10's in the slower class. So we'll see. Besides, little k says she wants to see the purple car go "vrooom".

I am getting very antsy to get back to work. Not because I'm excited about working, but my life is on hold right now, I feel like I can't do anything, or spend any money until I have some coming in. Most car events are closing up for the season, so I'm having a hard time coming up with things to write about. This may be a long, cold winter.

EV-Steve's S-10 update; it's now rear wheel drive only

2008-09-17T15:38:00.003-04:00

In our last episode, Super-Dave came over and helped me get the front axles out, remember? We weren't done.
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EV-Steve helpfully reminded me to reinstall the outer axle stubs to support the inner bearing races. I disassembled the outer CV joints of the axles and reinstalled the outer axle stubs. Pretty easy.
What was not easy was getting the front differential out. After a few hours disassembly and fighting sometimes nearly inaccessible rusty bolts (you were correct again, Steve) it became clear that the differential was put in the chassis from the top side, before the engine would have been put in above it. It was like one of those bent nail puzzles where you keep rotating the parts, but you can't get them apart because something is always in the way. Bottom line: it was not going to come out the bottom easily. A quick poof-poof of one little bracket with the torch and it fell out. Yes, I not only got a nice new torch tip, I got a spare one as well.
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I put the unneeded parts on the digital scale I bought for weighing packages right before I stopped ebaying stuff, and the grand total was 95+ lbs. With gear oil, fasteners, cut-off brackets, and rust flakes, call it 100 lbs even. Doesn't sound like much, but in EV's as in drag racing, every little bit of weight removed helps.

EV-Steve's S-10 gets saved by Dave

2008-09-14T22:27:00.012-04:00

Sorry for so long between posts, hot rod fans. I had my father-in-law and his wife as guests from Florida last week, so we spent a lot of time with them, and I did little else. Also I have had a headache for four days now, so that can't be good. Yes, I'll call the doctor first thing tomorrow, if I make it.
I have been doing a little more work on EV-Steve's S-10, but frankly I have not been giving it the priority it deserves, so thanks for your patience, Steve. I am trying to get the front wheel drive parts off, since they are not used, to save weight. I have had one side partly apart for awhile now, but I just didn't know how to finish this job. I have never done independent front axles before. My brother Dave came over to help me this evening. And when I say help, I mean he did the whole thing himself, despite my protests. He jumped right in and got filthy, while I ran tools to him. I was trying to take photos and notes, so I'd know how to do the other side, but he worked like lightning. I literally could not take notes fast enough. Dave has been a professional mechanic all his life, probably 25+ years, and you can tell. He works for a major luxury car dealer. Yes, I had it mostly apart, but watching him finish this thing with speed and confidence, was like watching a magician. Tools are going zip zip, and things get disconnected, and parts are flying off, and before you know it, he's done. He has this amazing trick to getting ball joints off that literally happens so fast you can't see it. It would take me 10 minutes to get my ball joint press set up and working. He just whacks the spindle casting with a big hammer, tap, tap, WHACK! and the ball joint pops off that fast.

Here's my cousin Pete, fellow drag racer and all around good guy, holding the passenger side axle. Yes, it's heavy, so this is all going to be worth the trouble.

Here's Dave, head down and working. No gabbing, just work. I must also say that this afternoon was probably one of the most humid days I have ever felt. I mean it was brutal! I felt so bad for Dave. I positioned a big box fan to blow right on him, and got him cold drinks, but it was just so humid out, he must have felt like he was in a jungle. Fixing a truck.

My nephew Tyler, Dave's youngest son, was able to keep cool though.

If you look close, you can see one of the many sweat beads ready to drip off the end of Dave's nose. He never complains either. He is one tough dude. My head is still pounding, so I try not to complain either. Hope it doesn't asplode.

With one side done, he decides to do the driver's side too. Probably didn't want to see me taking another five weeks on that side. Only problem was, I had already returned the 36mm socket I had borrowed from him previously. There was no way we could get it, or a new one, this late on a Sunday. We decide to torch the axle nut off. Unfortunately, my torch tip is fubar, and I had meant to replace it, because it doesn't work right. Poor Dave spent so much time trying to get the POS torch to work. Patience of a saint.

We further decide to cut this side axle shaft in two, so we can just pull the parts out without so much disassembly. A little grindy-grinding, and the shaft is in two. Both parts come out with little effort. See, I would never think to do it that way. Very crafty.

Here is the pass side with the axle shaft out, before complete reassembly. It used to connect from the circular flange in the upper right (see the threaded holes), to the hub on the left, where the wheel studs are. Kind of hard to describe something that's not there, but it is cool and weird to see the big 'ol axle BOOYAH! out of there.

Here's the driver's side axle cut in two and out. Don't worry Steve, we won't be needing that anymore. I'm pretty sure.

Next I'll go for the front differential and front driveshaft. I have preliminarily looked them over and that part looks pretty straightforward. Hopefully.

Well, I hope that I have adequately conveyed my admiration and appreciation, my love really, for my brother Dave. And I am not just saying that because he always helps me out with my car problems. But he always does. I often think of him and hope he does not remember the times when we were kids, that I may have taken advantage of the fact that I am three years older than him, as kids are apt to do. Anyway, I love him dearly, but he's not the kind of guy you just say that to, so I said it here.

Thanks, Dave.

Some poking around on the '58, pt. 2

2008-09-06T13:00:00.004-04:00

While I was in an adventurous mood, I decided to check the oil. I pulled the dipstick, and the oil was low, suspiciously thin, and it had an odd smell. Time to drain the oil and see what's going on in there. The drain plug must be under that goop somewhere. As I have said before, I would rather see a nice wet oily underside than a crusty rusty underbody (do not think of that sentence in any way other than how it relates to old cars).

There we go, the plug is out and "it" is draining nicely. You can see the oil filter is the older canister style with the replaceable element instead of the one piece spin-on style. The PO said this was a 1964 motor, the oil filter style supports this claim (perhaps the motor and front seat came from the same car). I said "it" instead of oil, because the fluid was not all oil. There was a very strong gasoline smell to it. It was very thin in viscosity, as if it was half gas, half oil. Something is up.

Now the previous owner was all paranoid about what does indeed sound like a sticky lifter tapping in the motor. Not a big deal to me. First of all, it's not a fatal problem, and I could have the motor apart and swap the lifter in a couple of hours if I wanted to.

Anyway, it is possible that he added kerosene, or some other solvent to the oil in an effort to free up the lifter. Which of course did not work anyway.

A second possibility is that the fuel pump is leaking internally into the engine. A pushrod from inside the motor activates the fuel pump, so there is a passage where it could leak. An uncommon malady, but possible. That would explain why there seems to be so much gas in the oil, and it would also explain why the car came with almost a whole new fuel system; the PO was chasing a fuel delivery problem caused by the pump itself, which he had not yet replaced.

Fuel pumps are easy to change, so I'll get a new one just in case that's it.

HERE'S what you use to clean out a motor of unknown previous use, misuse, and abuse. I filled the motor with 4 quarts of new oil, and 1 quart of automatic transmission fluid. Yes, really. I took the photo in mid-pour just to prove it. ATF has a very high detergent component, it will literally scour the inside of an engine clean. Well, cleaner. I have done this on other used cars and it works great. Do this a couple of times, changing the oil early, like at 1000 mile intervals, and you will not believe the gunk and junk that comes out of the pan each time.

DO NOT pour ATF into the intake of the motor as I heard one person insist he does, unless you wish to cause a huge smokescreen in the neighborhood, and actually add to the deposits in the cylinder head. This goes in with the oil, not the gas.

I'm going to get an adapter to change the oil filter over to the later, easier, and more common spin-on style as well. I'll report back on these fixes after I actually get some parts and get fixing.

Some poking around on the '58, pt. 1

2008-09-03T23:03:00.004-04:00

I did some poking around on the '58 last weekend. First thing I did was to pull this awful front bench seat out. It is not a '58 seat, it doesn't fit right, it's too low, and it's in just awful condition. Wasn't even bolted down. I now believe it is a 1964 Chevy front seat (there was an ID tag underneath), so that makes it perhaps valuable to someone. If you want it, or know someone that does, come get it by this Saturday. It's loaded in my truck to go to the dump. Do I feel bad about trashing a 34 year old seat? Yeah, I guess, kind of, but I'm not in the mood to bother to sell it, as we know from before, so Hoo-yah, out it goes. Not, as they say, my problem.
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Oh, yeah, if you want it, it's in excellent condition (forget what I was saying before) and it's fifty bucks.

I have loosely installed the seats from my mom's old Geo that we scrapped. At the last moment I took these seats out merely because they were in such good condition, I had no use for them at the time. I wanted to use the plastic racing bucket seats for drag cars, but they are kind of floppy if the backs are not up against a roll bar, and I'm not planning a roll bar, at least yet. These look kind of modern for what I am planning, but with the headrests off, they don't look too out of place. Plus, they are really light, they have the adjustable seat tracks, they kind of match the red outside paint, they are in great shape, and they are my favorite price: free. So be it.

While sitting in the loosely installed new bucket seat, I noticed a big wet spot on the floor where the driver's feet go. This was not alarming, since the car is outside, and most of the weatherstripping is shot. While wiping it out, I noticed that most of the fresh floor paint was coming loose. The liquid had a faint, familiar smell too. Brake fluid. It's not water, it's brake fluid. Brake fluid is notorious for loosening paint, in fact I have used it as a quickie paint stripper. But how was it getting in the car?

Here is the ancient brake master cylinder in the engine compartment. Probably original. All four brakes are fed from the single line exiting in the lower right. This is a single chamber type cylinder. The problem is, if any part of the brake system leaks, all the brakes fail at once, since all the fluid passages are connected, the fluid will all leak out the one hole. Actually, it's more like you will be unable to build any pressure at any other brake, and you need a lot of pressure for any brake to work. Newer (from the mid-'60's on) systems separate the front and rear brake systems, these use dual-chamber master cylinders. So a leak in the front leaves you rear brakes, and vice-versa.
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The spark-plug wire retention method is a nice touch. Hope you didn't put too much time into that mod, bro.
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The previous owner said in his ad, that in his opinion, the entire brake system needs to be rebuilt. So he was basically covering his A. I believe the master cylinder is leaking out the actuating (push) rod in the back, and dripping down the brake pedal, and puddling on the floor. A new master cylinder would cure this, I'll upgrade to a dual-chamber cylinder while I'm at it.

No sense waiting for the rest of the fluid to leak out, so I'm using this hypodermic thingy to suck the remainder of the fluid out. This thing works great. I also have a turkey baster for bigger pools of unwanted fluid. Seriously.

The battery has gone dead, I noticed the PO was leaving it disconnected. Perhaps it has a slow drain. Perhaps it isn't charging. This car has a generator (DC). Oh look, you can just see a little black wire and a little red wire that aren't hooked up to anything. That doesn't seem right. I'll bet they're supposed to go to something. Just a guess. I'll bet if I hooked them up, it might actually charge.
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I'll pull this thing out, and put in a one-wire alternator and be done with it. One-wire alternators work great.
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I'll follow up when I get the parts to fix up this stuff. I also broke "poking around" into a second part, since the simple "check the oil" got so unbelievable I have to give it it's own post.
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I know I do a lot of complaining, and bashing, and sarcastic-talking, when I do these first fix-up things on a vehicle I just got. Maybe that's the "I can't believe what the PO did" factor, but the truth is I really do like doing these fixes, because in just a few weeks, I can get a barely driveable heap into decent shape. Most of it is small stuff; the PO just cheaped out, or didn't want to do the tough work, or just maybe didn't know better. It's almost a fun, detective, archaeologist, Mr. fix-it type of work. And it looks like I have plenty of fun ahead of me with this car.

Car Club: NETO; North East Timing Organization, pt.2

2008-09-01T20:52:00.027-04:00

Folks, I'm sorry I missed the mid-week post I usually make. I had a nice handyman job this past week that ran about twice as long as I expected, so I was tied up with that. If you missed the last post (and why would you?) you should probably go back and review it for background info. Amber has had a refreshing drink, and is ready to see more NETO cars in the pits, after their first time-trial run, so let's get to it.

This wild Fiat-based altered runs a big injector in the Comp class. I'm not certain, but I expect this car would run in the 7's.

Here's the immaculate early Corvette of the club President. He is a professional engine builder, and this car runs deadly-consistent 8.50's

This Corvette is more of a street/strip car; I believe it was road-raced extensively in the past by it's current owner. Early Corvettes are well represented in NETO, there are quite a few.

How about a blown and injected big block 1967 Chevelle, alcohol fueled, no doubt? A serious hitter in the Comp class.

Good advice is not too far away from the driver of this roadster.

Drag cars have to start their engines many times over a day, and usually don't run long enough to recharge the battery fully. These battery chargers ensure that the trunk-mounted battery gets topped-off. Mounting the battery in the trunk takes a big chunk of weight from where it hurts the car's performance, and puts it where it helps the car's performance.

Ford Mavericks, originally considered a compact economy car, are unusually plentiful, this is the first of three on hand this day.

I believe the owner of this fantastic Chevelle joined NETO on this very day. He lost a head gasket in the first time-trial and was done. He'll be back.

Another immaculate Nova. The '68-'72 Nova is by far the most popular car type in NETO. Then again, even I like them, and it's easy to see why: Great styling, available, affordable, nice size, good visibility, etc. If it's not the best bracket car platform out there, it's at the top.

There are so many great classic cars in NETO, I feel like I'm repeating myself. Here's yet another; show car good looks, blown small block, and 9 second performance. What's not to like about this 1968 Camaro?

This 6-cylinder Maverick is a long time class-legal NHRA car. I've seen the owner display 4 NHRA "Wallys" it has earned over the years.

The Chevrolet cowl-induction hoodscoop (so named because it was open at the rear, near the cowl) was originally about 2 inches tall over the hood surface. As induction systems became more exotic, this scoop style has morphed into 5-6 inch tall monsters like these. Works good though.

Oh my goodness, my dad had one of these Dodge Swingers. I loved driving it. I thought it was quite peppy with a stock 318, imagine how fast this one is.

A little racer trick is shown on this early Camaro: draping a cloth over the rear tire that is in the sun to prevent the heat of the sunlight from expanding the air inside, which can increase the pressure and change the diameter of that tire slightly. Does it matter? In drag racing, everything matters.

This '70's-model Corvette is a great drag racing platform. The engine sits back pretty far in Corvettes, this is good for weight distribution and traction.

When you run an alcohol-injected 528 Keith Black Hemi in an altered, you need a small crew to help out. Times in the 7.50's is the result.

Oh, I love this early, early Thunderbird. Classic styling, it's different, and it's a good size package with a relatively long wheelbase. If I was more of a Ford guy, richer, and shorter, I'd get one of these (I don't fit in these smaller cars well). I like this car because it has the cool 8-stack injectors, vintage paint, it bangs a 4-speed manual trans, and it runs 10's, the advantageous fast end of it's class.

And now for something, as John Cleese would say, completely different. Forgive me if I am wrong, but I believe this is a Mazda RX-7, with a Chevrolet V-8 small block, with dual 4-barrel carbs on a tunnel-ram intake. It's wheelbase is SHORT, looks to me like about 90 inches, so this must be a real handful to drive. It certainly is creative and different, and probably inexpensive, relatively speaking. I'll have to talk to the owner some time and get more info.

If you look closely, you can see the wear of thousands of passes on this class-legal NHRA 1968 Camaro. There is something about these veterans that just captivates me. It is just so interesting to see the nicks and scratches, and the faded chrome and aluminum, from sitting in the hot sun during hundreds of days at the drags. I know, nice paint is nice, but there's just something about these warhorses that I totally dig.

Here's the third Maverick as promised. Period color, Cragar S/S mags, vinyl top; it's perfect, and a great bracket racer as well.

If you're ever at a show or race and you see this booth, please go over and talk to the nice people of NETO. You don't need to own a car to join, and it is a family-friendly, fun organization. I'll be back with them next year with my big '58 Chevy, if all goes well.

Thanks, and I hope to be back with more mainstream street-car coverage next. Also, some early exploring on the '58, so I'll have lots of tech articles coming as well. Bye for now.

Car Club: NETO; North East Timing Organization

2008-08-24T19:58:00.023-04:00

For my first car club feature I am showcasing NETO; the North East Timing Organization. It's pronounced neat-o, because it is neat-o. This club focuses on sportsman nostalgia drag racing. This is organized drag racing for cars earlier than 1974-year models, in a traveling club format. Although I am sitting out this year, I have been a member of NETO in the past.
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This is not sitting around some shopping center parking lot in lawn chairs, these people are out there pushing their cars to the limit in actual competition. Here are some shots I took of a meet at Island Dragway in north New Jersey on Sunday, August 24th. Here's two typical NETO cars in time trials; a vintage '55 Chevy and a Chevelle muscle car.

Don't let the unassuming looks of this early Ford pickup fool you; it runs 11's.

The finish and detail of some of these cars rivals that of any show-car. Yes, drag parachutes are sometimes needed to slow these cars down.

Remember the Chevrolet Vega economy car? Don't mess with this one, it will do 9 seconds in the quarter mile.

1966-67 Chevy II's (Novas) are popular drag cars.

This show-quality '69 Camaro packs 502 cubic inches of big-block power.

Here a competitor sprays cold water from a garden sprayer onto a hot radiator to help cool down the motor in this classic '55; a time-honored tradition in the drag pits.

Where else are you going to see a Ford Fairlane sitting so low? At the drags, of course. Low ride height aids stability and reduces aerodynamic (air) drag.

Have you ever wondered where all the good early Camaros have gone? They're at the drags too.

This Nova looks like it's smiling. Perhaps it's because it knows how clean and fast it is.

The interior of a full-race car is an all-business environment. The steering wheel is temporarily removed via a quick-release hub for easier driver entry and exit.

This photo does not do this beautiful and fast Mopar justice. Another 10-second car.

Even Amber the wonder dog had a good time at the NETO drag meet. I am wondering whom she scared right out of their shoe.

I have more photos of this event to post mid-week, so please check back later.

NETO; the North East Timing Organization is a wonderful club, dedicated to fun competition of nostagia-style drag cars, in a low-pressure atmosphere. If you would like more information about NETO just e-mail club president Tony at tonyfeil@aol.com, or leave me a message in the comments.

In with the new

2008-08-20T09:31:00.012-04:00

The '58 Biscayne is here. My mom was game enough to go with me to Virginia and back Monday to pick up the car. Only 800 miles, 16 hours of driving. We didn't stay over, we "cannonballed" it right back after loading up the car. It wasn't so bad, she is an excellent navigator, and having company made the time fly. We only had one close call with a freight train.

The car is in decent condition. It is both better and worse than I expected, depending on where you look. I think most people would consider it "rough", but I'm up for the challenge.

" Looks good from far, but it's far from good", as the joke goes.

Custom trunk securing device. This was necessary because every little piece of trim from the interior has been taken out and is laying in the trunk floor. Under normal circumstances I would have passed on this car, since much of it had been taken all apart, and it needs so much work, but what can I say, I really wanted it. It's like I bought the car a total rookie would buy. I don't care.

k seems to think it's just fine...

...K is not impressed with the dead bugs and other debris.

The car did come with a complete new fuel tank, sending unit, tank straps, and all new stainless steel fuel lines, which I promptly installed. This was a $500 bonus. The car fired right up and ran decently. The car also had all new floor pans installed in the interior, about a $1000 bonus, and the work looks to have been done well enough that I don't need to re-do it. New trunk floor pans came with it, they need to be welded in. I can do that.

The car is very solid, just like the F100 was. By that I mean that the frame, underbody, and most body panels have at most a light surface rust, no deep scaly rust or rust-through. This is important, since that is the foundation you are literally building upon. If that stuff is bad, nothing else you do will be worth anything. I have a lot of modifications planned for this car, so I won't feel so bad modifying it like I would have with a better car.

It looks like the focus of the blog will be changing a bit. I don't know when I am going to be able to get back to the EVs. But what can I say, this is the car I have always wanted since I was a little kid, and I'm not getting any younger. I hope I will still be able to keep this interesting enough to keep you tuning in. Thanks for your interest everyone.

The End?

2008-08-16T10:21:00.012-04:00

"This is the end...my only friend, the end..." I'll spare you Jim Morrison's psychedelic rambling, and get to it: The truck is gone. The F100 is gone. Done. Outta here. I decided it did not fit my plans any longer, so I listed it on ebay. A guy came and looked at it and made me an offer I liked, so I pulled it from auction, and sold it.

Here K & k give it a last look, Mickey stands guard. It was easier for me to just load it up on the trailer and bring it to the guy; so much for one last ride.

Here's me and k. She is so cute, she always used to point at the truck and say: "truck-truck", or lately just: "blue". Hope I'm not scarring her for life.

Here is the proud new owner(s). Cliff, on the right, is the guy that came and made the deal. I was happy to get a big envelope of C-A-S-H and an easy transaction from him. He even gave me a free t-shirt from his business: "Electric Snake", a video plumbing diagnosis service. Bonus.

Here's Cliff again, and Jake, his one grandson. Lucky guy, his 10th birthday present is a classic F100. I hope they have many many hours of fun together enjoying the truck. It was a little easier to leave the truck knowing what it's future would be. Really a nice ending to the story.

If I get back to doing an EV, or shall I say: "when", I plan to do an S-10. I still think the F100-EV was a viable project, and would have been extremely cool. Now I feel that I would be satisfied with a moderately cool S-10 EV.

I have kind of missed drag racing this year. Probably watching Pinks All Out on the Speed Channel hasn't helped. I was talking about replacing my altered with a simple doorslammer(1) bracket-car(2)with my friend Joe V. Something maximum fun, minimum hassle. Not long after that, we went in on this little beauty:

A 1976 Nova hatchback. Joe V wants the motor and trans, and I bought the rest. Not a particularly cool car, but the price was ridiculously low(3), and the car was in amazingly good shape. I figured I could transplant many of the race parts from my altered into this, and be on the track by next spring. Cheap too. Just what I wanted.

1. Doorslammer: A drag race car based on a full car, with operating doors. Not a dragster or altered or roadster, where you climb in.

2. Bracket-car: A drag car specifically designed for handicapped amateur drag racing. Not for all-out unlimited classes.

3. Ridiculously low: $300 for the whole car!Here's Joe V pointing out all the good features.
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The Nova is an excellent candidate for the purpose. So I have that to consider. But I have been thinking about how much work goes into these cars, and I have surprised myself about how fickle I have become at the same time. If I'm going to put in this much effort, perhaps I should get something I'm more attached to. How about my favorite car of all time:

A '58 Chevy! I'm looking at this little guy right now. What better way to get over the loss of one old car, than with another old car? You know, it's like crashing a motorcycle off the road into a ditch; you have to get right back on that motorcycle, if only to get medical attention (and I would know). Someday I will tell you the story of how I got hooked on '58's. This one is a Biscayne, not the top-of-the-line Impala like I favor, but the Impalas have gotten prohibitively expensive. Like 50-grand expensive; 25 for a piece of junk. I'll go for the lower-line Biscayne, Bel Air, or Del Ray instead. I want what I want, but I'm not dropping that kind of dough on any car, Impala or not. I'm hoping I can snag this and get it here before Joe V finds out; he might be a little miffed that I sold the F100 after he helped me with the sweat-fest of a trans-job we did. How that guy still likes me I will never know.

I still have plenty to do on EV-Steve's S-10. For myself, I'll either build the Nova, or hopefully the '58 Biscayne. I plan to expand my show coverage and car features as well. So there's still plenty to tune in for. I apologize to anyone if you got attached to the F100, and for the demise of the original project. Change will occur whether we are ready or not; hopefully things are still headed in a good direction.

More work on EV-Steve's S-10

2008-08-09T21:46:00.007-04:00

I redid the passenger-side frame mount on EV-Steve's S-10. This was in somewhat better shape than the first one I did, but it was still pretty bad. Before, above.

After. The paint is still wet, makes it look kinda bad somehow. It actually came out as well as the first one, although the experience of having done this before did not translate into any time savings on the second one, as I had hoped.

Keep moving, not much to see here.

Quickie tool tech:

To drill the opening in the floor and get at the nut-plate, I had to lift the interior floor matting. But first, I had to get the door-sill molding off. This can be a difficult task on any car older than a couple of minutes. The screws that secure these are exposed to moisture and road salt from dripping shoes in the winter, and direct outside exposure since they sometimes protrude right through the floor to the underside of the car body. They get dirt and gungo packed into the heads, so it's hard to even get a screwdriver in them.

First, insert a phillips screwdriver if they are phillips head, as most are. Whack on the top of the screwdriver to seat the point, and hopefully knock the screw loose from it's rust. This works for many. Oh yes, use a rust-lube spray on them too.

For the stubborn ones, get an Impact Driver like the one I have here. This ingenious tool is like a combination screwdriver, ratchet, and chisel. This is designed to be hammer-whacked. Seat it in the screw head like so. Whack it HARD with a hammer. No, a bigger hammer. And hard! When you whack this tool, there is a mechanism inside that twists the tip as it is hit, so the twisting torque is delivered at the exact moment that it is being pounded into the screw head by the hammer blow. Ingenious, right? This gets most of the tougher ones.

I had to actually go in from the side with a chisel and knock the head off of one that refused to loosen. Sometimes brute force is all these guys understand.

See ya soon. JK

I am now a "Radio Personality"

2008-08-09T09:39:00.005-04:00

My radio interview was great! Bob Miller of Mix 97.7 is a great guy, and it was nice to meet Irwin Goldberg, Digital Editor for the Poughkeepsie Journal, as well. Irwin has been pleased with the PJ blog, which is nice recognition. In case you missed it, audio clips are available here: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=blogs&template=1col

Regrettably, I did not bring a camera to get a pic of the event, but like radio itself, you can use your imagination. Irwin told me he would like me to do more radio spots in the future.

I MUST again thank my sister-in-law Carole, who first alerted me to the PJ blog opportunity. Without her help, none of this would have happened.

If the weather is nice, I will probably go to the Gracie's cruise in Arthursburg tonight. See you soon.

More F100 fixing and I'M ON THE RADIO FRIDAY!

2008-08-06T20:00:00.007-04:00

I will be on the radio this Friday morning, August 8th!!! Please tune in to 97.7 fm, Mix 97, the Bob Miller morning show. I will be on with Digital Editor Irwin Goldberg, from the Poughkeepsie Journal, to promote the Poughkeepsie Journal Classic Car Blog, which I write. We will have two spots, at 7:35 and 7:50 am. I'm excited, this should be fun.

I took the F100 to the Smokehaus cruise in Hopewell this past Monday. It was pretty good, there was a good selection of cars there. K & k met me there, and we strolled around, and then had an ice cream. Sorry no photos, since it was getting dark.

The F100 has had a bad howling noise in the lower gears, that goes away in high. Classic symptoms of a bad trans input bearing, I have heard and cured this before. It was bugging me, and really takes the enjoyment out of driving the truck. With my good friend Joe V helping, we pulled the trans out Tuesday (Joe V has a vehicle lift, and is like a mechanic-guru). I was lucky to get a replacement bearing the same day. It looks like the one above, and it is a biggie, like 4" across. So far, so good.

We finally got the trans heaved back into position, ready to go onto the bellhousing. But it would just not go in the last 1/4". We struggled with it for about an hour, there was no way we wanted to pull it back out. This is a heavy duty truck transmission, it is an IRON CASE 4-speed with the granny low (super low) first gear. This pig must go 200 lbs. It is heavy. It is even heavier over your head. We finally relented and pulled it partially out.

The bearing retainer, like above, was cracked. I must have cracked it putting it on, and it spread open just enough so it wouldn't go into the bellhousing bore (it is a very tight fit there). I was going to get a new retainer, but since the one we had was already cracked, Joe welded it up to see if that would be ok. We decided it looked good enough to try. I test fit it on the trans, when I discovered that the new bearing had an outer snap ring that was larger than the old one, which no doubt caused the retainer to crack! Who would think to check that? (This is not shown on the bearing 2nd photo above, but it would be on the outside of the outer bearing race). I swapped the old retaining ring on the new bearing and the welded retainer fit perfectly. We finally got the trans in and I finished putting the truck back together this morning. I thought this job would take about 4 hours, it actually took about 10. Whew.

One last fix: The engine had a miss. I found one spark plug was fouled. I made sure the plug wires were engaging properly. No fixey. I put in a new plug, and the miss went away. Ran so much better I had to lower the idle speed a bunch more.

I drove the F100 around today, and it was so nice and quiet! It purrs like a kitten.

I fixed the vacuum leak on EV-Steve's S10 (it was a tricky one), and ordered him all new mirrors.

That's all for now folks, thanks and listen in Friday morning.

photos: radio: artmarket.com; bearing: bestbuyparts.com; retainer: quad4x4.com

The F100 is on the road

2008-08-01T22:11:00.014-04:00

I have been driving the F100 around all this week. It's cool. Did a lot of small things to it. Figure I might as well use it for now (more on that farther down). I put a new antenna on it. The radio works. Mostly I drive it around with the radio off though. That cowl vent in front of the windshield throws a lot of air onto your feet when the truck is moving. Very neat.

I was going to check the rear brakes when I discovered that the rear wheels have a locking lug on each. Oh-oh. They're supposed to keep people from stealing the wheels. But the truck did not come with the adapter tool. How am I going to get those off? Look at how they sit in there.
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I actually drilled them out, starting with a small drill bit, and increasing the size until I was up to 7/16". By then there is so little left they break off. You have to get that first hole centered real well though. It's a lot of drilling. Another way is to weld another nut on top of the lock, then turn on that. No real room to do that here.

The exhaust system was crap; the half that had not fallen off was held on with that thin peforated steel strap that plumbers use. It was just looped over the framerails, and under the pipes. The local muffler shop was out of 2" tubing (likely story) so I went to the house of Tony Stewart and got 10' of 2" rigid conduit. I just love makin' stuff out of welded conduit. I got some real exhaust clamps and hangers, and fabbed up a full set of dual exhaust that goes all the way out the back. Not show quality, admittedly, but good enough for this, for now. And cheap.

I made up a set of sign boards for above the bed sides. I'll letter them up to advertise my businesses. Pretty trick, right?

Avert your eyes now if you get queasy from viewing burned body parts...

...OH, TOO LATE! This is what happens when you roll onto your just-used acetylene torch tip. Only what, about 1000 degrees there? That's a full inch across, and yeah it hurts.
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The F100 actually passed inspection, so it is legally on the road. I have decided to do some fixing and just keep it around for now. So it has gotten a second chance. Some would call this indecisiveness, in politics it's "flip-flopping". I prefer to think of it as adaptability, or open-mindedness. I am going to keep it around in case the circumstances allow me to go ahead with the EV conversion. In the meantime, it will continue to get closer to being ready, should that time come, while still having utility as a second car, or just a pleasure vehicle. Ok the exhaust will not be needed, but it is needed now.
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Still to do: I need to put a new input bearing in the transmission. The brakes work, but the truck darts around under braking. The clutch may need replacing. All the wiring works, miraculously, but the electrons are the only thing holding it together; a complete re-wire is in order. I am even thinking of continuing with the frame swap, while keeping the gas motor and trans that are in it now. That would solve a lot of current problems, and still keep to the original project plans.
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I plan to go to some car "cruises" (they're more like parks) with it, to hopefully get some car work side jobs. Despite driving like a 53 year old truck, it is a lot of fun. I had forgotten how cool it is to tool around in a funky old vehicle. It is, as they say, "my bag". I've done probably 100 miles in it already. It certainly is an attention-getter, too. Might be useful to keep it around.
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Kieran, '55 or so Ford, and 2 late 40's cars of unknown make.

Tech- Fabricating frame-to-body mounts, part 2

2008-07-31T22:54:00.015-04:00

I've got some meaty tech for you today, and it's a lot of work, so let's get right to it. I received the body mount parts. I gave the bare steel parts a quick spray painting.

I didn't have any 4" wide steel, so I took 2 pieces of 2", and welded them together on both sides to make a 4". This material is 1/8" thick. I happen to have a spare S10 chassis handy to take measurements from, you could just refer to another body mount on the vehicle.

Here's the steel clamped securely onto the drill press. I'm using a 2-1/8" hole saw. Get the best quality hole saw you can. Expensive but worth it. Turn the drill speed down to as slow as it will go. Slower is better. Use a lot of oil and go to it.

Here's the hole, and I have rounded the edges off with a bandsaw and grinder. I have formed the side piece into a matching radius using my ultra-sophisticated garage-support-column tool.
I welded this up with a nice hot weld. I ended up keeping the welds mostly unground because I like the Frankenstein look.

Here, I have marked the piece for an angled cut like the stock mount had. I have it securely clamped into my bandsaw. I had to stop it to reposition the clamps, but the cut came out perfect. Oh, the things I have done with that bandsaw.

Boy, are we to mock-up already? What I have glossed over is the endless fitting, and sneaking up on cuts 1/4" at a time, and fixing tools that break, and waiting for welds to cool, and running to the store for the exact size holesaw, and the metric #12 nuts, and resetting the circuit breaker a dozen times because you have the welder up so high, etc. It took me probably 6-8-10 hours to get to this point.
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The remainder of the stock mount was toast, so I ground it all off. I used a floor jack to hold the parts in position and give me a little lift on the body. Looks good, so we'll give it a little zip-zap tack weld and remove the jack.

Here we go, all welded on there nice. I have some inside welds, and some outside welds. I painted it up nice, and then installed the bottom plate and hardware.

I finished the interior by screwing a small aluminum plate over the access hole. I hate to bury things permanently. It's doubtful we'll ever need to get to this again, it's the best part of the truck now, but you never know.
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Well that's it. Easy right? Thanks for tuning in, and if your car is coming gbhbghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnhbmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmb8
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000006 excuse me, my little girl k was helping my there. If your car is coming dismounted, give me a call and we'll get you reconnected. Thanks.

Carburetor clean-out update

2008-07-27T16:08:00.002-04:00

I was very disappointed that the truck would not start after my meticulous carburetor clean-out. I began basic troubleshooting and discovered that I had inadvertently broken the positive side coil wire off from it's terminal. Badly crimped wire terminal; how surprising.
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A quick strippy-strip, and a crimpy-la-do-da, turn the key, and the the engine roared to life. The carb is really running nice now. It was running so much better that I had to turn the idle way down. See, when an engine begins to have problems, one way to keep it running is to turn up the idle. This merely masks the problems and is not correct.
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I drove the truck around for awhile to get a feel for it. I think it needs a new transmission input bearing (not a tough job), and some brake work, since it darts around under braking. But it drives pretty cool. Probably looks cool too. I think I'll take it to some cruise nights soon.

Tech- Fabricating frame-to-body mounts, part 1

2008-07-26T09:27:00.006-04:00

I don't expect everybody to run out to their driveway today and copy this tech piece, it's fairly involved and requires some expensive tools. But I want to present it so you know what's possible and how it's done. Just because you don't do heart surgery doesn't mean it's not interesting, right? This is a typical cab mount on a pickup truck. Most classic cars that are body-on-frame construction are similar. The frame is on the right, and the hoop-like mount is welded to it. A bolt passes through a big washer, a rubber/steel biscuit assembly, and into the floor of the body above.

Here is what they look like after time and corrosion has taken their toll. Pretty gruesome, right? You can see the hoop-mount is half rusted away. The biscuit assembly is not really resting on anything. The floor pan looks bad but is pretty solid. I think I can save this.

Cranking on the bolt produced some promising turns, but after a few, it got completely loose and would not come out: something was broken. At the factory, these bolts are assembled up into a threaded plate. After rust fuses the bolt to the plate, the bolt will break, or the plate will just spin. The car manufacturer does not care that you can't get these out; they will, however, be happy to sell you another car.

I had to cut the bolt head off with an acetylene torch. The biscuit came off, but the rest of the bolt was still stuck on the threaded plate above the floor pan. The threaded plate actually rests in a pocket between 2 layers of steel floor, so you can't just lift up the carpet and pull it out, it's in there good. Now what?

More destruction. I took a big holesaw and cut an access hole right through the floor from inside the vehicle over the mounting area. It's big, like 2-1/2". From there, I could pull the plate and bolt shaft out. Here you can see the rusty devil itself. It looks like I made more work, but sometimes it takes work. After I'm done, I'll weld or screw a patch over the hole, seal it, and it will be the best part of the floor. It actually does look like heart surgery now.

I shop-vac'd a ton of junk out of the pocket area. It's not owner negligence or anything, cars have lots of pockets like this that collect road junk and deteriorate. Rust happens.

Here are the remnants of the biscuit assembly and the rusty parts that fell off. Boooooooo! I ordered replacement items for all of this. In part 2, I will fabricate a new frame hoop-mount out of steel plate, and weld it onto the frame. I'll assemble the mount parts and restore the whole area. A challenging and fun project. Thanks and stay tuned.

Some work on EV-Steve's EV

2008-07-23T08:00:00.002-04:00

My friend EV-Steve was kind enough to give me some work doing some mechanical fixing on his EV. It is a 1985 Chevy S10 that was converted to electric by a college as an engineering project, and he bought it sometime afterwards. I have been enjoying working on it for him. I have an affection for these little S10's, as I owned one for 12 years and 219,000 miles.Here's my little tip for today: Sometimes I like to set up my little doctor's operating-tool table. It's just a scrap of plywood set on a stand. I use this to set my tools on while I'm working. As I fetch tools from my toolbox in the rear of the garage, I put them on this table so they are handy, yet out of the way. I stand between the car and the table, so I just have to turn around to get what I need. You can lay parts, supplies, or whatever, on the table. On this piece of wood I even have some numbers markered on as notes from some other project.
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This is WAY better than the lay-the-tools-on-the-car-as-you-work method. I hate doing that. Yes I eventually have 50% of my tools out on the table, but it's still the 50% I need.

I redid most of the brake system so far on this truck. Another project I did was to replace the alternator. I had to take some electrical components out to get to it, but it wasn't so bad. Not the worst I have ever done. In this view, you are looking into the "engine" compartment (now motor compartment) from the front of the truck. There is a set of 4 batteries up front.

Behind the batteries is the main component board, lifted up slightly here. You can see the body of the electric motor, it has a slight coating of rust on the outside of the case. As a point of reference, the brake booster and master cylinder are at top right, in their stock positions.

I do dig working on this thing. The familiarity of the S-10, and the coolness of the EV. It'll be here for a while, so if anyone wants the 5c tour, come on over and check it out.

Talk to you soon.

Carburetor clean-out

2008-07-19T18:49:00.010-04:00

The F100 will not start. I took the carburetor off to see if there was a fuel problem. I pulled the carb apart enough to find this little gem, a 1/4" lock washer, jammed in the air door assembly of the secondaries:This was no doubt accidentally dropped in when someone was working near there. The secondaries would never work right with that in there, but it could have been worse; it could have dropped into the venturi, and gone down inside the engine. That would leave a mark. Besides, this is not the reason it will not start.
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I found a lot of dirt inside the carb. A surprising lot. I was going to take a photo of it, but I figured you know what basic dirt looks like. I cleaned out all the little orifices I could, generally cleaned everything else, and checked for broken parts. When it came time to reassemble it, I found that the center gasket was unsalvageable; a careful disassembly had nonetheless torn it apart. This is a problem with taking a carb apart, the body gaskets tear very easily and are rarely reuseable. Since I did not have spares for this carb on hand, I mail ordered a pack of 5.

Here's a new gasket on the left, with the top of the carb upside-down beside it, and a tube of white grease at the bottom. The black paper gasket has a light glare on it in this photo, but it is indeed black.

Here's what I do; I smear a light coat of the white grease on both sides of the gasket before assembly. Sometimes, this will keep the gasket from sticking to the parts the next time they are taken apart, so the gasket can be reused. It's not just a cheapness thing; if you dug into the carb as part of a roadside repair, you'd likely tear the gasket, and not have a new one to replace it.
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Anyway the white grease doesn't always work, but it's worth a shot. Errant grease will dissolve in the gas, so don't worry about it. Might help your mileage or something, I don't know.

Here is the carb all back together. You can see the thin white line going around the carb body where the new gasket is. I am still getting familiar with this style of carb, it's similar to the Rochester Quadra-jets that came on many GM cars. One nice thing about these is part of the design: the main carb top comes off, as shown in the 2nd and 3rd photos, and most everything is accessible right there. The carb top gasket that we've been talking about is horizontal, not vertical like the 4 separate gaskets on Holley carbs, and it's above the fuel level, so it should never leak under normal conditions.

I did not have time to try starting the truck, so cross your fingers for later in the week.

I'll leave you with an additional bodge I found while troubleshooting. The silver-colored end of this coil wire is supposed to look like the brass-colored end. Instead, it's all folded and crimped up to fit (jammed) into the coil end terminal. Sloppy fit, and I'm surprised if this ever worked better than intermittently as it was was doing for me. I mean, who does this?

Tech- Give yourself a brake

2008-07-18T14:42:00.007-04:00

See, I said brake, because I'm talking about hydraulic brake systems, not giving yourself a break, as in: "to relax"...so brake here is the...um, that is, it's like a different meaning than the ah.....(sound of crickets chirping)......ooooo-kay.
Sorry for the late post, HRitHV fans, I got a one-time side job this week, so I had to take it.
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This is EV-Steve's S10 EV conversion, an '85 model that's been laid up a while. He asked me to go through the brake system and get it up to snuff. The 3 large white boxes contain some of the batteries that power the truck. He runs 120 volts now; 20 6-volt batteries.
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His truck needed some brake parts replaced, and some hard lines replaced as well. The hard lines get rusty eventually and leak. Replacing hard lines on an assembled vehicle can be a challenge. It's part tough work, and part art form, really. The factory puts them on way before anything else is in the way; actually before the body is on the frame. The ones for this truck were relatively easy, because the whole bed tilts up as shown. Nice.
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You can get hard lines at any auto parts store, they look like this, if your eyesight is bad:
They come in 10-inch incremental lengths, and there are coupling nuts to make really long runs. The nice thing is they already have "double flared" ends on them. You need double flared ends to withstand the pressure in a hydraulic brake system. This pressure can average 2000 psi.
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Here are some of the lines I did on EV-Steve's truck. You can see the sweeping bends and how you must go around obstacles. The brake hose is new as well. The whole system must be good to work properly.

To make the lines really nicey-nice, you sometimes have to shorten the length to make them fit well. If you doubt your abilities, you can just make a sweeping loop with the extra length. This way you don't have to make a new double flared end after cutting, which requires special tools and some experience, or at least practice. If you make a leaky new end, you are no better off than before.

I personally could not bear having the too-long lines on there. In my view it is bad workmanship and therfore unacceptable. I was not satisfied with the look of the lines I did, so I cut them shorter, and made new double flared ends. Now they are the correct length, and they look great and function perfectly.

Sometimes the fittings will leak. This is especially prone to happen on any double flared ends you make. Get out your line-wrench (you do remember I taught you about these special wrenches, right?) and give the fitting a good tightening. There. Still leaks don't it? Frustrating. No no no, don't just crank on it more, you'll strip it!!! Jeez. You want to make another flare, but then the line will be too short, huh? Forget that.

Here's the tricky-trick secret to all of this (aren't you glad you stuck around for the tricky-trick secret? I knew you would be): Loosen the fitting, then tighten it again. Repeat. Repeat again. Notice that every time, the fitting will tighten a little more than before, with less effort. This is the flare bedding in. Keep doing this until the leak stops. Yes, it will.

Now just bleed the brakes, and stop confidently and safely.

I have a good carburetor story from the F100 coming up. Hopefully we can get that running soon. Thanks for tuning in.

Tech- Mirror glass replacement

2008-07-11T23:27:00.010-04:00

I broke the passenger side rearview mirror on my trusty big white pickup a while ago. I somehow backed it into a branch of a neighbor's tree that's near my driveway. A rarity; I pride myself in my backing abilities, but I was attempting an extremely difficult backing-up trailer-turning maneuver and ran out of space.

I bought this replacement-glass-kit-thing at the local Advance Auto parts store. It is actually a plastic, not glass, mirror that's probably about 1/16" thick. It's somewhat flexible, and the idea is that you can cut it to fit your mirror. Don't know how well it will work, but at only $7, we'll give it a try.

The first thing to do is to get all of the remaining pieces of broken mirror glass off of the mirror back. To do this, I had considered repeatedly backing the truck into the same tree branch, since it did such a good job at removing most of the mirror glass in the first place. Hmm, that might be too tricky, even for me. I settled on using a 1" putty knife and a razor-holder tool to pick the pieces off manually. The razor tool was to slice through the adhesive holding the mirror parts stubbornly to the backing plate.

WARNING: when you do this, you will inevitably cause many small sharp pieces of mirror glass to litter the ground. This could cause someone to get a nasty cut at sometime in the future. So I drove to the parking lot of the place that fired me and did it there.

I somehow did not cut myself doing this. So even if the replacement mirror doesn't work, that was a major achievement.

Next, hold the mirror panel up to the mirror back plate, and draw around the outline with a marker. Make sure you are doing the correct side! One side is pretty blurry; this is the back side. The other side is covered by a thin plastic protective sheet, lift up a corner and you'll see the nice clear reflection; this is the front side.

This is the blurry side.

Cut out the mirror. I am using a set of big tin snips. I love this tool, it cut the plastic easily. You may have to do some sandy-sanding around the edges to get a nice fit. Take some time here or everyone that ever sits in the passenger side will comment on what a poor job you did. You know how they are.

The kit comes with some double-sided tape (my brother D once pointed out that ALL tape is double-sided, only some are sticky on both sides). Peel and stick the tape onto the back of the mirror, put it in place, and you're doney-done. As a bonus, on my truck, the mirror backing plate itself is curved, so the plastic mirror panel can adapt to this and now has the good convex shape like the original glass panel had.

This would be an easy fix on most cars, even older cars for which replacement mirrors or glass is not available.

Tech- Painted the open trailer

2008-07-11T22:54:00.008-04:00

I was looking at my open trailer the other day, in anticipation of using it to bring EV-Steve's S10 down here to help him with some repairs. The trailer was looking kind of shabby; too many winters outside, and too many summers in the sun had taken a toll on it. Fresh from the glory of Por15-ing my S10 chassis, I decided a quickie repaint was in order. This trailer is more like equipment than a vehicle per se, so a finish befitting industrial equipment was planned. I took a trip to the Tractor Supply store in Highland. Man I love that place. You feel like a rough and tough cowboy, or at least a rugged, rural farmer just walking in the place. It's all farmer/man stuff, a modern day version of a general store in the dusty old west. I got a gallon of gloss black truck & trailer enamel. Enamel! Where else could you get enamel paint anymore? The big box home stores don't sell it. This is the kind of stuff a farmer would brush paint on a tractor or something. Real man paint.

I washed the trailer off and gave it the once-over with a floor scrubbing brush. I rolled the main deck of the trailer with a big roller, then went to a 3" roller, and finally a trusty chip brush for the detail areas. Probably took less than 2 hours to do the whole deal and it looks like brand new.

No, this was not a high priority, but it's actually nice to be able to take the time to do a project just because it would be a cool thing to do. If I was still working I would put this way at the bottom of my list of to-do items.

Yes I still have to wash and detail the tires and wheels.

Tech- Fabricating a new throttle linkage

2008-07-08T20:27:00.017-04:00

Well, I'm back! I know it's been awhile. I've been on vacation, and I needed some thinkin' time. I have decided to press on, at least for now. At this point, I will turn my attention to some projects on the F100 itself. I am going to try to get it on the road, as cheaply as possible, with the gas motor that's in it. I will save the S10 chassis as is for now, until I decide what to ultimately do. All this could change at any time. But first...some ice cream:Carole, I know you try out different ice creams. Try all the ones you think you might like to try. Then try this one last. After this, you will not want any other, ever, ever, ever. I decree it to be the best there is. I will never need any other. Done.

The throttle linkage on the F100 is the most pathetic, laughable, sorry piece of crap that I have ever had the displeasure to see on a vehicle. When I first saw this I literally could not stop laughing for about 5 minutes. I'm serious. I don't know who made this, and how they could have managed to spend so much time and effort and yet have such a poor result. I think the only thing that could be worse is if it was made from a length of string, except that string would at least keep proper tension. Take a look at this gem while I point out its 'features':

First note the material: wire coat hanger. The bends needed to clear the carburetor no doubt flexed a great deal, so reinforcing bars were soldered across the bends to stiffen them up. This actually kind of works. Kind of. You can just barely see in the back the loose bolt connecting to the pedal linkage. The main piece of wire must have been too short, so another was connected to it with a bolt and nut, you can see them just to the left of the bigger curving black hose. From there, the coat hanger extension goes somewhat cleverly through a 3/8 bolt and nut that is also extremely loosely positioned in the carb linkage hole. You can see how much bigger the carb linkage hole is than the bolt going through it. I can't believe this worked at all.

Also please note the two throttle return springs, a surprising example of over-engineering, except to say that the rear one is extended to its mount by a length of tiny, tiny wire, so that will be a major subtraction of points.

Here's what I'll use to make a better linkage: 1/4" steel rod, a small steel tab with a hole, a couple of bolts, a couple of washers, and some nuts. The nut second from left is a "coupling nut", much longer than a standard nut; I used this so I had more area for welding. I had all of this junk on hand in the garage.

I have been turning the current setting and wire speed on my welder up much higher lately, and my welding has improved immensely. You can't be afraid to turn it up and really blaze with that thing! Man I love welding.

Here I have the tab welded onto the steel rod already. I have bent the rod to fit around the carburetor. I am holding the rod in it's approximate position, and I have made a small black mark at the center where the rod must connect through the carb linkage hole.

From here I cut the rod, and welded a length of threaded 1/4-20 rod (really a bolt with the head cut off) onto the end. This will give some adjustment to the linkage. I welded another bolt onto the coupling nut at a right angle. This is the part that goes through the carb hole.

Here is a comparison of the existing floppy linkage, and the new beefy one I made.

It's hard to see the details, but this is really just a recreation of every mid-'60's factory throttle linkage I've ever seen. I made a bushing that fills the carb linkage hole and allows my linkage to pass through snugly, eliminating all the sloppiness. It's just a 3/16" slice of 1/2" diameter aluminum bar with a hole through the center. Thanks for that bar of material, Mr. big blue computer company.

Here it is test fitted into place. You can maybe get a better idea of how it works from this shot. I will take it off and give it a nice coat of semi-gloss black, my favorite, and of course use nyloc nuts during reassembly.

A little artful grinding, a nice coat of paint, and it looks and works fantastic! Best part of the truck. I am not doing it justice by not showing it painted.

This would run about $100 (materials included) at Hudson Valley Hot Rods. If I can get this pile running and driving, I'm hoping to go to some local cruises, hand out some business cards, and hopefully get some jobs.

More soon, thanks for waiting, y'all.

Chassis is done

2008-06-28T17:05:00.011-04:00

I got another quart and pint of Por15. I couldn't find the foam brushes at the home store closer to the house, so I got these "chip brushes" instead. Chip brushes as I know them are used to brush the chips of aluminum or steel or whatever from machinery like lathes, mills, and presses. I don't know how many machine shops get these there. Perhaps chip brush is just the term for any inexpensive brush not really meant for painting. They actually work better than the foam brushes because they are more durable; they last until you have to stop. It's only like $6-7 for a pack of 15, so when a session is over you just chuck the used brush. I was able to do about 2 hours more during the week. You get used to the gloves after awhile.

Saturday morning (today) I got to work again. I only had about half a day available, as we are leaving on vacation tomorrow. It was a brutally humid and hot day. I don't know how hot it was and I don't want to. I was going to do this anyway. I still had the front of the chassis to do. I set up a box fan and got to it in the shade of the garage. After all of the top was done, I got out the engine hoist and rigged it up. Just getting that thing set up was exhausting. I raised the chassis onto it's side like so:

I had planned to flip it completely over, but when I got it on it's side, I decided just to leave it like that. I could get to the top rail by standing, and the lower rail by sitting. Very comfy. You can see the places I still need to do on the undersides. It was actually quiet stable like this, and the trans and rearend didn't leak out the vents. I kept the hoist hooked up as a safety. You can see the shade from the house starting to come onto the chassis. As the day gets later the shade moves out farther, I was hoping to use that to work in. I got a new brush and want at it.

I was hoping to get as much done as I could today. It would be nice to have it all done today just because it would be a nice milestone to reach before we left. I worked diligently but quickly to some '60's-'70's music. The neighbors now know that I know all the lyrics to Mountain's "Mississippi Queen", among others.

Almost without warning, a disaster: RAIN. I was panicked that all the new Por15 was getting ruined with water spots, or who knows what. By this time I had the upper 2 tires off, so I couldn't just push it over and roll it in. I tried shuffling the chassis into the garage as it was by alternately raising and lowering it on the hoist, moving the hoist a little each time. No good. The chassis was too heavy, and it was taking too long. Soon the rain was coming down pretty heavy. Not a cloudburst, but pretty heavy. I scrambled for a tarp, but by the time I got it, it was clear that the chassis was covered in water beads. Putting the tarp on now seemed like too little too late. The neighbors now also know my vocabulary of words-of-frustration.

All those little bumps you may see on top are the water beads. With nothing else to do, I just left it. Almost like magic, 15 minutes later the rain stopped, and the sun began to poke out. I got out there and kept going. I was running out of time. Most of the parts I still needed to do really hadn't gotten wet, since they were hard to get to areas. Soon I had beat the shade and was out in the sun, but I didn't care. When I was done on this side, I put the 2 tires back on and just pushed it over until it was right side up. I hooked the hoist up to the other side, and raised it up onto that side. There was actually little left to do at that point. I probably did 75% while it was upright, and another 20% while it was on the first side, so there was only like 5% that I couldn't get to the first two times.

By the time I was done, I had just finished off the quart can. Perfect. I still have the pint for other parts and touch-ups. The water actually doesn't seem to have affected the Por15, so all that worry for nothing. Hoist disassembled; another sweat-dripping wrestling match. I flopped the chassis down, and rolled it into the garage. Done, and all before vacation.

It cost maybe $100 for the Por15, and took about 15 hours to paint the chassis. It was a lot of work. Easy work, but a lot of work. But it looks fantastic. Totally worth it. Of course everything that looks fantastic and is totally worth it is a lot of work.

Some of the front brake parts look useable as is. Next time hopefully we'll start on the brakes and suspension rebuild.

It will be good to have a week away to think about things. Thanks for tuning in, see ya soon.

Off Topic- Good news, bad news

2008-06-26T10:17:00.011-04:00

Good news: I'd like to do a special shout-out: please help me congratulate a friend, and probably our biggest EV blog fan Kieran; he got a very high grade and easily passed his Regents exam! Good going bro! I am glad to see that some hard work is paying off. Also it is on or near his birthday, so that is very cool too. I hope you have a fun and relaxing summer, you deserve it.

Bad news: Many of you will soon find out about my recent employment bump-in-the-road. Basically, I am fired.

I am not sure how this will affect the EV project. I can keep working on it for awhile, since I already have a lot of things paid for and in place (more Por15 came already). But I had planned to use this as a commuter vehicle, and EV's usually have a limited range. So if my next day job (ugh) is too far away, the vehicle would be kind of pointless for me.

I could keep going and finish the project and hope to sell it when it is done. This might be a way to start doing EV conversions as a full time business, which I secretly hoped would happen. I don't want to get too much into a "maybe-someone-will-buy-this" business idea, especially since it would still require a substantial financial investment to buy the electrical components. I flat-out would not spend the money I need to on this without another day job.

If it comes down to it, I could just sell off the truck itself and do something else, it is still pretty much all together. This would be a very disappointing end to what I thought was an extremely cool thing. I mean very disappointing.

I will be cashing in our winning scratch-offs today and reinvesting that in some Mega-Millions tickets.

Other than that, I am open to suggestions.

Edit: I had an astounding 63 visits yesterday, more than 3 times any other day. I'm not sure what was so interesting, but thanks to everyone that tunes in. Way cool. More drama now though, right?

Steering box swap

2008-06-24T09:01:00.016-04:00

I finally took the power steering box off. I'll show putting the manual box on even though I'll take if off quick to Por15 the chassis underneath. I apologize in advance for the poor photos; my camera doesn't take close-ups well, or I just don't know how to work it properly. I'll have to check the camera manual soon.

Remove the pitman arm from the center link. The pitman arm is the arm that connects from the bottom of the steering box to the steering cross link. It changes the rotation of the steering into the side-to-side motion of the front wheels. I have a matching pitman arm on the replacement box. If you don't have the pitman, you'd remove the pitman from the box, and attach it to the new box. This is a little more work.

First remove the stud nut. I used a little heat from a propane torch to expand the metal of the arm from the stud. Then I hammered a pickle fork separator into the joint. This worked easily with the help from the torch.

Incidentally, I once did this for a friend, and we didn't have a separator tool available, but I had an idea. I heated the pitman arm end up the same way, with a torch. Then I took an ice cube and set it on the end of the stud that goes through. The center link stud compressed from the localized cooling and literally dropped right out! No hammering. It was neat. Isn't science wonderful?

The box unbolts by 3 long bolts that go from the outside of the frame, through the frame, through the inner frame rail, and into tapped holes in the steering box. This is a pretty simple remove and replace. But I have one more trick to show you.

The threaded holes in the manual box were loaded with dirt and gungo. You should never jam bolts into threads like that. You're better than that. Normally I'd run a tap through the holes to clean them out nicey-nice. I suspected these were metric threads, and I don't have any metric taps. So I just made thread-cleaning bolts.

Clean the bolt threads with a wire wheel. Secure a bolt in a vise. Then fire up an air-powered cutoff wheel, and cut a groove into the threads, along the axis of the bolt, starting at the end. In a pinch, you could use a hacksaw, but it's a little more difficult. I have done it this way. I love my pneumatic cutoff wheel.

It only has to be like an inch long. Do this to all the bolts, one groove each is fine. Man, these crap photos are BUGGIN' ME!

Now when you thread the bolts into the cloggy steering box threads, the dirt gets scraped into the slot in the bolt, just like it's the flute in a tap. You can insert and remove the bolt a couple of times, cleaning out the groove in the bolt each time, to get all the dirt out. This usually works great, and the bolt will not be appreciably weakened by the small groove.

Class dismissed. Maybe I'll redo the photos if I have time.

Por15 update...so this doesn't come off, right?

2008-06-22T10:13:00.001-04:00

Alright, maybe I got more on me than I thought. I didn't see these parts.

Began painting the chassis...with Por15

2008-06-21T22:29:00.009-04:00

In a perfect world, I would take the chassis completely apart, have every part sandblasted, then prime and paint each part, before reassembling them with all new hardware. However, I am not doing a restoration, so I didn't do that. But I do want to refresh the chassis, and make it nicer than most. The chassis is solid, with surface rust on it. I don't want to sandblast it all, since that's time consuming and expensive, but just painting over the rust is not going to last for long.

I had this small can of Por15 I had bought at a swap meet probably 10-15 years ago. Never did try the stuff. I began by wire brushing some of the frame and suspension parts. I stirred the Por15 for a long time, then I began applying it. It is a rust converter. This is a coating that is similar to paint, but it has chemicals in it that react with the rust on metal, turning the rust into an inert, hard, um, substance. This stuff is well known in the hobby for just this kind of use. It supposedly works best on lightly rusted metal. Bingo!

No, I do not know what became of Por's 1-14.
I will be honest and admit that I soon pooped out on the wire brushing part. Borrrring.
I painted the stuff on with inexpensive foam brushes. It was actually kind of fun, and as I say, I just sort of kept going, only wire brushing very scaly areas, or to get dirt off.

I wore latex gloves, as this stuff reportedly will not come off skin until it wears off. Nonetheless, I did get some on me, as well as some on my wife and daughter (don't ask). Anyway, I put on some Creedence Clearwater Revival, and soon got into a bit of a groove. It is kind of difficult to do an assembled chassis, but I am putting it on literally everything that's attached, so no need to be overly neat about it. It dries in just a few hours.

I just kept going until I finished the entire pint, and I had used 11 of my 12 brushes by then also.

As you can see by looking at the pictures, I got somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of the frame done. It is hard to estimate, since I didn't get a lot of the inside of the frame rails done, and I want to do all that too. I still have to do the front suspension, and there is more to that then the rear. Finally, I am going to flip the entire chassis upside down to do the complete underside! I did about 3 hours today, so I am estimating 10-12 hours for the chassis painting.

As soon as I had begun this today, I was wondering if I should bother with it at all. I would bet that 99% of the people that do an electric conversion don't bother. It is a lot of work, and it will not make the truck run any better. But hopefully it will be worthwhile, when people ask to see the electrical parts, and they see an immaculate detailed and painted chassis. I may be off on my own here, but this is going to be so cool.

I don't know if I'll have any more for your this weekend, as I have to order more Por15. Hopefully more next weekend.

Related- The next race car

2008-06-18T09:49:00.007-04:00

I've been interested in many facets of cars over the years. I was very close to going dirt circle track racing more than once. But I feel like I will always be a drag racer. I'm taking a brief hiatus right now, and I plan to sell the Altered when I can; I doubt it would sell with the economy like it is. I do want to build another drag car. But what to build?
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I know some parameters; mainly, build a 10.50 car. In other words, a car that will run mid-ten seconds or slower (the altered I have now runs low 9's, almost in the 8's). This eliminates A LOT of regulations and hassles (and expense). I really want to get a door-car; a full-bodied car that is easy to get in and out of. But they are kind of big and heavy, I don't like that.
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Lately, I have been thinking about a more nostalgic and slower altered. In the photo is the Burkholder Brothers Fiat altered from the late '60's. I could do something like this, carbureted instead of supercharged of course. I could have opening doors, and a big wide cage inside; build it like a door-car. Full windows, as required, and make the door windows roll up and down so I don't cook like a chicken in a pot in there. I know small wheelbase cars are squirrely to drive, but somehow I got the Vega I used to own down the track, and that was short too. How did I do it? It was a 10-second car! Slow it down, and it's easier to drive. More competitive too. I did some good racing in the Vega. With the altered I have now, things happen very fast.

So that's this week's car-I-want-to-build. Next week it'll be something else, I'm sure.

I have to get this electric truck project done so I can get build another drag car.

photo: unknown

Edit:

While I had this post sittin' in draft mode, waiting to be published on Wednesday morning, I remembered that I already made rather elaborate plans for a slower, T-bodied roadster dragster. In fact, the basic kit I was going to use was already on order from Speedway Motors in January, when I decided to build the EV. This would be similar to the Davis & Ingram "Jewel T" shown here, except with the rear wheels moved back about 10". I planned to reuse a lot of components from my current altered. Yes, I would still have the climbing-in-and-out of a non-door-car, but I would make the cage wide, and the slower speed potential would mean less safety gear is required; again, this makes the whole deal more manageable. I already have solutions worked out to solve all of my complaints about my current altered; things like a built-in glove box, helmet holder, removable sun-shade, etc. It was going to be cool. Darn, now I'm really itching to get back to drag racing.

I've GOT to get on with this EV!

photo: Bob Wagner

No progress again this week

2008-06-15T21:43:00.002-04:00

Well, I didn't get much done again this week. I had some obligations, some people to help, etc. K & k gave me a party on Father's Day, that was fantastic.

I spent most of Saturday attempting to repair a torn CV boot on K's car. I really thought this would be pretty easy (see how simple it looks in the photo above?). Let me speed through this; Wrong boot new boot need tool Sears socket rain f-ed up sway bar end f-ed up ball joint no fixey. Basically, I spent the entire day on this and messed it up worse, and had to bring it to a repair place anyway. Now instead of just the boot, it needs the boot, a sway bar end, and a lower ball joint. Very discouraging. I hate working on new cars.

I did get up to Steve's place late Saturday, and saw his S10 conversion in person (also rained there). It is pretty cool, much as he has described it before. I liked the battery box construction, and took note of how the insulation and hold-downs were done. They were not as I had planned to do mine, so I'm glad I saw his, to see another method of doing it. It's also cool to see a full body, all metal S10 conversion in person, knowing that it has been successfully used for years. It's just more reassurance that this whole concept actually works. So that was important research really.

I hope I can get started on the chassis next weekend.

photo: Automedia.com

Related- Other EV's I'd like to make

2008-06-12T21:39:00.010-04:00

I was on my way home tonight and I saw one of these babies. Ford Bronco. Late '60's to early '70's. I 'forget' about these because I'm more of a Chevy man at heart, and GM really didn't have a competing model to this at that time. The Chevy Blazer was humongous compared to this. This was more the size of a Jeep. These have a loyal following. They are cool for all the reasons early Jeeps are cool. I suppose the International Scout is similar (no photo, I just thought of it). My grandfather had a Scout, and he loved it. So anyway, a couple of more good candidates that are old enough to be cool conversions. I wouldn't really say I feel the burning urge to build these, but I could certainly envision it.

Besides, Hank Kimball on Green Acres tooled around in a gold colored one with cut-down side doors; it was his town assessor car. And he's cool, right?

photo of bronco: broncos.com

photo of hank: unknown

Hey Kieran, if you're out there (and I think you are) good luck on your Regents test, bro!

Attention! The post following was drafted before this one, but published later. I can't re-order them, so you may have missed it! See below. Thank you.

Related- Cleaned out garage

2008-06-12T21:01:00.011-04:00

It only took about an hour Monday night to get the garage cleaned out enough for now. I was able to roll the chassis in. I don't know why I feel this is important, since I will probably roll it back out to do the cleaning and painting. There's more room outside, it's easier to clean up after, etc. For one thing I just like having it out of the driveway. I don't want the yard to look like a junkyard, but more importantly I prefer to work out of sight, in secret, sort of. Ain't nobody's business what I'm doin', you know what I mean?

Another option that is nice is I can set up a box fan inside and work out of the summer heat. It actuallys stays pretty cool in there if I keep the door closed. It's not easy working is such tight confines, but I've done it before. A lot of times I have an idea or want to check something late at night, so I can just go downstairs and do it without going outside. I did this very frequently when I was building my last car. Also nice for winter working, or if it rains, obviously.

I have the truck in the other side of the garage, you can see how crowded it is on that side.
I HAVE to roll it out to do almost anything, it is very tight on that side. And yes, I have begun the dreaded "load stuff that you don't know what to do with into the project vehicle itself" deal. Ideally you are not using the project vehicle as a storage area. I will need those big cardboard pieces to put down when I do the chassis cleaning.

Here's a shot of the chassis, showing the factory motor mounts. You can see them with the bolts in them. I will try to make brackets to attach the electric motor to them. They're already there, why not use them?

See the big greasy spot on the left? That's good. Normally I'd say, yuck, you get filthy working around that. But boy does it keep the rust away! Give me an old car that had a major oil leak it's whole life anytime. You get it cleaned off, and it's like brand new metal underneath.

See that hosey-hose poking in on the right side? It's connected to the power steering box. We'll be rid of that soon enough. I'll get you yet, my pretty...and your little hose too!

Mickey approves of the work so far.

Diesel's not so sure.

Related- Other EV's I'd like to make

2008-06-10T17:31:00.013-04:00

I am constantly thinking about potential EV projects.

My EV friend Steve (Hi Steve) was kind enough to take me to an area meeting of EV enthusiasts a while ago. While I was there, one car that really caught my eye was this Suzuki Samurai conversion. I liked it's small size, and it's utilitarian vibe. Very spartan, very World War II Jeep-ish. I just could not stop thinking about it, and wondering if I really wanted to build the Ford. I realized I do want to continue with the Ford; because the classic deal is more what I'm interested in long-term. So my mind may wander, but I still come back to the Ford.

In my mind-builds, I've been considering Jeeps. The Samurai was maybe too small for me. The newer Jeeps are probably too heavy and loaded with gadgets. Maybe an earlier one would do. So I did a little research on a Jeep I knew existed, but did not know a lot about.

The Jeep Surrey Gala was built beginning in 1959. It came in pink, light blue, and aqua green. The genesis for this was when a resort in Acapulco Mexico converted a fleet of 2-wheel-drive Jeeps for it's guests' use. Jeep later offered these as their own actual model. You can see it's an open-air runabout type of vehicle. The pink is a little feminine for me, but I'd roll in the blue or green.

Here is a shot of the Acapulco resort, with one of their Jeeps. Remember, they did this first, on their own.

I have always wanted to build a beach-buggy-type car. Something I would own if I lived near the beach. Something that is fun, and nimble, and not too serious. I've considered a resurrected '60's VW-based dune buggy, or more recently the early Jeep Wagon (no photo now, maybe we'll get to that one later). But since I don't live near the beach, and I don't know if I'd ever get to live near the beach, it's just a fun what-if, really.

Now I want to build a Jeep Surrey style beach bomber, but as an EV. I could build it with a full removable soft-top and doors for winter (?) use. Again, I like the industrial-ness of Jeeps. Door hinges exposed, hood latches on the outside, almost race-car like in their intentional crudeness. Perhaps instead of the stripes, I'd go with a tropical-patterned cloth top top and seats. Pastel, or sand-colored, or an island graphic paint scheme. Deep-sea fishing pole rack on the front bumper. Surfboard on the roof.

There's only one big problem. It doesn't fit my life. I just don't know how I'd feel about it in the winter, and driving to work, and such. Seems like it would be like wearing a straw sun-hat and white zinc oxide on my nose to work, in the winter; way out of place. It might be too whimsical for everyday use. It's more "Daytona Beach" than "Poughkeepsie, NY".

Of course, there's always this...

...the chicks dig it.

Photos of Jeeps: source unknown.

No progress...it's too hot

2008-06-08T16:21:00.004-04:00

I console myself all winter with thoughts of the eventual warm summer. BAM, now it's 95-100 and I'm sweating my A off. I like it hot. But when it jumps 20 degrees to the nineties in one day, I don't have time to get acclimated. It's just too hot to do anything.

I had a lot of other obligations this weekend, helping people with things mostly, plus some projects around the house. Considering this heat, I actually did get a lot of things accomplished. We woke to a power outage Sunday, probably caused by my own air conditioners knocking out the grid. It was just kind of an off weekend. The best I can tell you is I began cleaning out the garage so I can use it for doing work on the S10 chassis. Didn't even get that completed. Just too hot to keep at it.

I was at a drag race last year, late in the year, and it was hot. We were at Lebanon Valley. I hadn't checked the weather. But I should have known it was going to be hot because I had to load some stuff up before I left in the morning, and I was sweating good, and it was only like 5:30 am. I got up there, and made a time trial run. By the time I got back and got out of the car, and out of the racing suit, I was nearly delirious. I was sweating so bad, all I could do was sit in the shade and try to keep calm, and hope I didn't pass out. I drank everything I had. I had to withdraw from the race, and I just loaded up and hung around for awhile.

I decided I would never do that again. I've been to the races when it's too cold, and many times when it's too hot. When you're a racer, you figure, there's other guys doing it, I can do it too. You just like to be there, and you just want to race. But I do it for my enjoyment. If I'm dead from heat stroke, or a heart attack, how am I going to enjoy it? I ain't no kid anymore. I'll be honest and say it; I just can't hack it. I'm more selective now. The same with this project. I'm not going to be completely miserable while I'm doing it. So no real progress this week.

Photo: geomorph.sourceforge.net

Removed the ABS valve thing

2008-06-03T20:40:00.008-04:00

Here are the brake parts still attached to the chassis. The ABS valve is on the left, master cylinder is in the middle, and power booster on the right. The power booster is what gives you "power" brakes. I'll be removing and discarding the ABS valve. I made a quick sketch of where each line goes from the ABS valve. I don't know why I did this, as I will not be reusing it and will not need this information. Old habit I guess. I make a lot of sketches and notes as I take a vehicle apart. Can't hurt.

No, the car in the background is not falling off a cliff, the picture is a little tilted.

Here I am about to loosen the lines from the ABS module. For disassembling any type of tube fitting, you should use a Line Wrench. This is like an open end wrench, but it wraps farther around the fitting for better grip. Look at how it wraps 3/4 of the way around the fitting instead of 1/2 way like an open end wrench would. This is 2 extra points of the hex it grabs. That matters. This wrench is less likely to slip and strip the hex, and it also prevents crushing the fitting, which can happen if you 'gorilla' them like I do. After you have broken them loose, you can switch to a regular open end wrench for faster work.

Line wrenches come in a set of four or so. Get 'em. For every fitting you don't booger up, your brakes will thank you.

Here is the ABS valve, sittin' in the pan like a big fat ripe appendix. I wish I had dumped it at the scrapper, it's got to weigh 20 lbs (the valve, not my appendix). Is this really necessary? Do people really not know how to stop a car to the degree that this thing has to be on there? You should have seen the amount of wiring that was attached to this thing too. Pathetic and ridiculous. Pump and steer, people, pump and steer. Sounds like an ale and steak house, the Pump and Steer.

I was considering putting in a combination valve from an earlier model S10 where the ABS valve was. But I am thinking that the brake bias will be permanently different than a stock truck. The estimated 1500 lb battery load will see to that. I think a simple solution will be to put a proportioning valve like that used on race cars on it. All you do is hook up the brakes, front and rears separated, and do a panic stop. Note whether the front or rear wheels lock up (go into a skid) first. Usually it will be the rears, but with the rear load this truck will have, it may be the fronts. Install the proportioning valve in the set that locks up first, and close the valve a little. This restricts the amount of fluid that can pass, delaying that set of brakes from locking up, until they all do at once or more nearly at once. Get it?

Here are the parts we will be reusing, the master cylinder and power booster. Now sitting on the previously mentioned small pile of parts. I believe that is the sun visors it is dripping on there.

A small task, but I have done enough ambitious projects to know that you get them done the way you eat an elephant: One little bite at a time. Plus now you know what a Line Wrench is.

Now I'm hungry.

Scrapping the S10

2008-05-31T09:43:00.008-04:00

A quick update. Took the S10 to the scrapper today. It was a major accomplishment to get down there without anything falling off of the trailer. You can see the bed going away on the loader. That loader is the only one I've ever seen with those completely untreaded tires. Bet they're expensive.

Dead S10 motor, unceremoniously pushed out of the truck and onto the ground. "Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio, a man of infinite jest..." How'd I do?

The motor has been pushed aside by the loader. I'm now waiting to leave. I'm scrapping a neighbor's car next weekend. If anyone else has a dead car I can scrap, I'll give you $100 for it.

Here's a pile of parts I saved for possible use. I also have a second smaller pile. It was having access to all of this junk that made getting a whole truck the way to go. At least the yard looks a little better with the S10 carcass gone. Next we'll get started on the chassis.

Stripping the S10 is completed...with just a small fire

2008-05-30T21:09:00.018-04:00

Well here we are. The motor is out of the S10 frame. There are only a couple of small brackets and things left to remove. You can see the face of the transmission as it hovers there, it is the big dark circular thing in the middle. The power brake assembly is lying on the front tire for now. I have figured out 2 possible ways around that massive ABS unit that is lying on the front of the tire.

The motor removal was quick and simple. Probably one of the easiest motor removals I have ever done, and I've done a few. Of course, it almost never happens that the motor is sitting on a bare frame out in the open like that. Nonetheless, a half dozen bolts removed, and the motor pulled free. I apologize that I do not have photos of the motor out and hanging off of the hoist like a dead tuna. I could not find the camera at the time. I justified moving forward without photos because I have done so many motor pulls that it is not a big deal to me, even thought it might look impressive to the readers. Also this was the time slot I had available, so I had to keep going.

Here's the same basic shot from the back. You can see the fabricated trans mount from last time in place and holding the trans up nicely. The stock rear trans mount is out of view. You can see the shifter, and the lower steering column in place; it has an odd orange sleeve on it.

It seems like a lot of work just to get to this point, and it was, but I am very psyched to get on with the frame refurbishment. I can't wait to see it all redone and ready for the body swap. Also I know it seems like I am not using much of the original truck, and that's true, but I also have a whole big pile of parts I am keeping for reuse. I also needed to be sure I got all of what I needed, and in good shape, so I felt that a complete truck was the only way to do that.

I made a preliminary parts list for the brakes and suspension, and then looked up the part numbers and prices on-line. Now I can go to the local auto parts chain store and have them just double check the part numbers when I go to get the parts. The prelim cost is about $550. If I don't need replacement brake rotors and drums, that would save a lot of money. I don't like to cheap out when I'm replacing parts though. It's usually more work to replace related parts later, and the new parts work better if they are not working with other worn out parts.

This rig is going to be heavy when it is done. The battery pack alone will weigh about 1500 lbs! It will be like driving around with a full load of dirt or something in the bed the whole time, so I want the brakes to be up to par.

On something like brake and suspension work, I usually figure a shop would charge the same amount as the parts cost again for labor (maybe more!), so in this case it would be $1100 total. If I do the labor, I feel like I can spend more on replacing more parts. Trust me, shops are not bashful about charging you for labor.

Here is what's left of the S10. All of this will be going to the scrapper. I almost feel bad about taking a decent truck completely apart. Almost. Got to keep your eye on the end goal. Some must be sacrificed so that others may live on, and become electrified, or something like that.

Ok. Here is the baby. The S10 motor. I drained the oil, to be environmentally friendly. This is headed to the scrapper too. I put some ads on Craigslist for all of the unneeded parts, including a running motor, but I didn't really get any responses. To be honest, I'm kind of burnt out on trying to sell stuff anyway. It's a BIG hassle. People don't know what they want, try to haggle on give-away prices, then still complain, etc. I don't have the time for that nonsense. I'll get maybe $50? from the scrapper.

Not shown is the flywheel, clutch disc, and pressure plate, or clutch hat assembly, I took off of the rear of the motor. They all looked like they had been replaced recently. I was curious when I saw tool nicks on the attaching hardware. When I pulled it off, all of these components looked really fresh. This is a nice find; the replacement clutch parts would be about $200. Hey, it's better than having to pay for that too.

Oh, I will save the proselytizing (never thought I'd get to use that word) about removing one more foul, polluting gas motor from circulation, and how I will be single-handedly saving mankind and the planet with the replacement electric motor, blah, blah, blah. Not up for it right now. Maybe later. Although, get a good look at that motor. It's there, under all the hoses, and belts, and wires, and pulleys, and gizmos, and the oil stains, and the grease blobs. Remember it, to compare with the nice, efficient, clean, simple, pretty electric motor that will replace it. Kind of makes the old gasser seem pretty pathetic, actually.

Lastly, we have...well, it's like this: I wanted to cut out the sheetmetal where the brake booster and clutch cylinder mounted, to splice into the firewall of the F100. Then these would just bolt up later. Easy. Figured it wouldn't hurt to have the steering shaft hole and gas pedal mount too.

This is looking at it from where the motor was. The main wiring harness is on the right, still firmly entombed in the dashboard on the other side.

So I fired up my plasma cutter. An electric arc jumps from the gun nozzle to the body panel, and at the same time, compressed air shoots out and blows the molten metal puddle away, leaving a small hole. You move the gun along, and an open line forms, cutting the metal. You can see the line on the panel in the photo. It burns very hot, and you can see the scorch marks from the paint catching on fire.

Two things: First, I was waiting for a phone call about my bro's medical test while I was doing this. The call came, so I went to answer it. I look over and there's smoke billowing out of the cab. The cab's on fire! I had a bucket of water ready for this, and I calmly kept trying to put the fire out, but it would keep restarting. The dashboard was so convoluted, that I couldn't get the water all the way in to put it out. Some foam rubber had caught fire, and it was proving to be very tricky to put completely out. I wasn't worried about the cab, I was throwing that out anyway. Since it was already on the trailer, I considered just towing the thing down to the firehouse and asking them to put it out. Kind of silly, I guess, so I didn't do that. Would have been funny though. After about 15 minutes, I got it put out, before any American Indians showed up wondering what the poorly phrased smoke signals were all about. Boy was that stinky.

The second thing is, the sheetmetal area I wanted turned out to be heavily braced from the dashboard side, and I could not cut it all out without a lot more work. So I made some measurements of the holes, drew some diagrams, and that part of the project was abandoned. I'll just make new holes.

Got a lot done it just a couple of hours.

A shout-out to Kieran, whom I hear reads this blog. Shouldn't everybody?

Tech- Fabricated rear trans mount

2008-05-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

One of the big advantages of the frame swap is that I'll be using the entire driveline, from the flywheel back, as it is. This means the rearend, driveshaft, and transmission will stay in their stock positions. For one thing, repair and maintenance will be routine, since it will all be stock. Also important is that driveline phasing will not be affected. Phasing is the relative angular positions of the driveline components along their axis'. In basic terms, if the angles get messed up, the driveshaft u-joints will not work properly, and the driveshaft develops an imbalance (or perhaps it is really a binding) that causes vibration, humming, and in some cases a bad vehicle shake. This can be troubleshoot(ed?, troubleshot?) later, but it can take a lot of shimming and trial and error. I once had this problem and it only happened at certain speeds; never did get that fixed properly. So I am hoping to avoid the problem.

One thing I have to maintain is the position of the transmission. It is held up in the front by being attached to the motor, and has a single mount under the back part all the way at its rear. Taking out the motor will leave the transmission flopping about. Not good. I decided to fabricate a bracket, sort of a bridge, or girdle, to keep the transmission in position when the motor is removed. With the transmission secured, I would only have to make new motor mounts for the electric motor.

In the lead photo, you can see I made a straight bar that goes under the two stock trans-to-motor bolts. I did some grindy-grinding to make reliefs for the vertical trans strengthening ribs. I'd rather take the material out of the bracket than the trans case. Frankly, I don't think it'd matter either way. I made angled pieces that go down to friendly spots the frame rails, and welded them onto the horizontal piece.

I made two tabs to weld onto the frame. The main bracket will bolt to these. I didn't want to weld the main bracket directly to the frame. This way, if it ever needs to come out, it will be easy to do. Plus I am assuming for now that this will clear the F100 floor and firewall. If the whole thing interferes later, we will have to do something else, but at least it will maintain the trans position for now, so I can remove the motor. The tab on the left has a scallop to match where it will go on the frame .

I used through holes and did not tap either the bracket or tabs with threads. I like the simplicity of bolts and nuts.

I also like round the corners off with a "big" radius; notice it does not go tangent to the sides, but still has corners at the junction of the radius and sides. This is the sort of thing you normally get with a mass-production stamping machine, and I prefer that look over the fully rounded ends you would expect with a custom made piece. So I like the unexpectedness and irony of it. Looks more industrial too.

Here is one of the tabs clamped into position for welding to the frame. In reality I had to swing the clamp up to make room for the welder nozzle. You can see that radius detail I mentioned.

I used beefy 1/4 x 1" steel bar. I had considered going with only 1/8" thick material, to save half the weight, but decided against it. This mount will be holding up part of the motor weight too, so it will do a fair amount of supporting. Angle material would give more stiffness along the beam, but there is really only vertical and rotational (radial?) loading, not front-to-back, so the flat bar will suffice here. Look, I'm not going to have to justify every design decision here, am I? Jeesh.

Here you can see one tab welded to the frame, and the bracket in position behind it. I am going to use a transfer punch to mark the bracket for drilling the matching holes. A transfer punch is a center punch that is at the end of a particular diameter rod. These come in a set of many diameters, and you select the diameter that fits tightly into the hole in the first part, in this case, the tabs. You then whack it with a hammer, and you get a center for drilling your matching bracket hole that is exactly centered with the tab hole. This is a big improvement over the "trace the hole with a pencil and try to make an accurate matching hole" method I have used for years. The center punches have vastly improved my fabricating; parts fit together with better alignment and less slop. Way more professional.

Unfortunately they have not improved my ability to focus a camera.

Here is the bracket installed, bolted to the trans and the frame tabs. I took it off and gave it a little zippely-zoot with a spray paint can, and it's done. I like semi-gloss (semi-flat? no, satin) black, it has a factory stock look, and again is also an understated industrial look I dig. It didn't show up well in the photo after being painted. I can now remove the motor and bolt the trans to this in preparation for the rest of the conversion.

This took about 2 hours total to make. Maybe less, but I did other things while I thought about the next step, and I was trying to take photos and plan this post as well. Fabrication is the part I really enjoy most anyway, so why rush through it just to be done?

Off topic- The Glider

2008-05-26T07:00:00.001-04:00

So I built this thing...I'll call it the Glider, late on Memorial Day. I had picked up a discarded small girl's bicycle a while ago to do this. This is a replica of something I had seen for sale online once. The real ones are $100 new.

The concept is to make a non-pedaling bicycle with a very low seat height. A young child can sit astride it and push themself with their feet, and glide along on it. It is supposed to teach the child how to balance themself on two wheels, without the complication of having to master pedaling at the same time. Once they are good at balancing, they can move on to a real bicycle. I think it is a great concept.

I cut the seat mounting post way down. I cut the upper struts from the rear wheel and layed them down. I cut the handlebars all apart and made them flat and low (can't really see that from the photo). I took off the pedals, sprocket, and chain. An hour or two with a hacksaw, grinder, and welder, and it is done. Maybe I should have taken a before photo so the changes are more evident. To give you some idea, the seat is now at about half the height from the ground as it was before. It's 14 at inches now.

I do somewhat remember learning to ride a bicycle. I seem to recall that it took me a long time. I don't know if something like this would have helped me, and I don't know if it will help "k" either, but I saw the promo video online and the kids on there were zipping around like it's the greatest thing.

Ultimately, I think this is still to tall for k right now. She is only 18 months old at the end of this month. She's only been walking for like 6 months. Perhaps by the summer she will be more ready for it. Maybe I should cut it and mount the seat even lower. She did see it tonight, and she stopped to look at it and touch it, so she is interested in it. I didn't want to set her on it, as it was time for her to go inside and have her dinner then anyway.

So it took an hour or two, but it was a fun little diversion. Didn't really cost me anything. Hopefully she will be able to use it. Knowing her, this will be too "easy", not enough of a challenge, and therefore she will not want to use it. Either that, or after an hour on it I will see her doing wheelies. Daddy's little daredevil.

Almost done stripping the S10

2008-05-24T22:43:00.008-04:00

Usually when I get a project car the gas in the tank is of questionable age. I drain it into containers and wonder what to do with it. I mean who ever has to get rid of gas ? It's a real problem, because I don't want to put it in the tank of anything I own, but I can't just dump it either. So I have all these 2 liter soda bottles in the garage filled with gas, and I don't know what to do with them.

Rich told me he had just put gas into the S10 recently before I picked it up. He wasn't kidding. There was 3/4 tank! Cha-ching! I drained probably 12-15 gallons of fresh liquid gold from that thing. Filled my 2 portable cans, and I put about 5 gallons into my car too. Bonus.

I got the cab loosened from the frame after a couple more hours. 2 body mount bolts needed to be torched off. I broke a couple more sockets too. BAM! Cracked socket. Craftsman too. I know they're free replacement, but I don't want to waste time and have to go all the way there. I'll work around it for now.

I rigged this up. It's a lifting strap, connected to a 2 x 4 through the cab, lifted by my engine hoist. I must say this worked exactly as well as I had hoped. Easy.

Here's another angle. I have the hydraulic clutch cylinder out. That is going to be so easy to retrofit. It's like a brake cylinder with one plastic line. Simple.

So by the end of today, Saturday, May 24, this is where it stands. The hoist made it easy to drop the cab onto my open trailer. Done. Probably did 6-8 hours today. I have about 20 hours total into the demo. Don't know if I'd do this again. This is not as simple as the 60's and 70's cars I used to do. Either this is tougher than it used to be, or I'm getting old. Or both.

After this photo I took the exhaust off, the fuel tank out, and some miscellaneous brackets and lines off. I have the brake and clutch pedals out. Boy was that a wrestling match. Brutal.

What else...seats are out. Wiper motor and mechanism out. I'm saving lots of miscellaneous small stuff on the chance I might need it.

I think the wiring harness is a no-go. The majority of it is still stuck in the cab. I have uncovered so many sensors and plugs, wires and connectors. I mean it is crazy what is on a modern vehicle. I did a preliminary schematic during the week, and it doesn't look too complicated to start from scratch anyway. Probably still be better than reworking the monster harness in the S10.

I am making a bracket to hold the transmission in place for when the motor is pulled. Then I'll pull the motor and whatever's left that has to go. Almost done. It's been a lot of work, but I keep thinking how nice it will be to have that modern drivetrain, brakes, and suspension in there. Ahhhh.

My hands are beat. Just cut up and skinned to all heck. It's been a long time since I've done this. Broke some tools too. And there's a couple of parts I couldn't figure out how to take off. Still got time for another try though. I'm tired. Looking forward to relaxing at Wilcox tomorrow.

PS: To take a break, I mowed my lawns. My MTD riding mower threw the deck belt off, and I can't get it back on. Does anybody know how to do this and can tell me or show me? Yes, I know, how surprising, it's broken again.

Swine mower.

Still stripping the S10

2008-05-24T21:46:00.011-04:00

I took a half day from work Friday and got some time in on the project. Here's the handsome devil gettin' ready. The camera adds 10 lbs. At least. You can see I have the front sheetmetal clip loosened here.

It may not look like much, but the manual steering box came this week. Thanks Rich!

By the end of Friday I had the front clip off. I have been doing a lot of wire labelling, but I don't know if I'm going to use it. It's a pretty complicated harness. Hard to see but I had to cut the front bumper mounts off the frame with an oxy-acetelene torch. I bought a torch rig a couple of years ago, and it has come in very handy. I literally don't know what I'd have done at that point without it. The power brake assembly is just lying on the tire, but it is all there and ready for reuse.

Here is what the interior looked like by the end of Friday. Steering column is out. Didn't get hit by the airbag. Lots of the dash is out, but the harness is sort of literally built into the dash. Don't know how I'm going to get it out, and the remainder of the dash is very difficult to remove. Kind of tough going in here. I have probably 12 hours into demo at this point. Seems like I have a lot done, but it seems like it has been a lot of work as well.

Related- What if gas cost $10 a gallon?

2008-05-21T14:09:00.012-04:00

A bit of an unscheduled post. One of the self-imposed rules I have for this blog is to keep it light; no conspiracy stories, no doom and gloom. Well that didn't last long. Since I'm not even sure anybody is reading, I guess I can step over the line just this once.

I came upon this article today at MSN:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveonaCar/WhatIfGasCost10DollarsAGallon.aspx

Basically outlining how our lives might be if the price of gas suddenly jumped to $10/gal. I think this is a real possibility, and sooner than later. And no, I don't think my one electric vehicle is going to make a whole lot of difference at that point.

But anyway, if you'd like, check it out.

If you'd rather ignore the whole thing and pretend it's not happening (a position I may not admire, but I do understand), you can look at the picture of the pretty flowers instead.

(Sorry for the condescension. BTW oil is now $132 a barrel).

photo: karachisnob.com

Related- Please don't take your cars apart people

2008-05-21T07:00:00.001-04:00

Philosophy today folks. A little kick back and ponder time.

What I want to mention today is a dangerous phenomenom of the car hobby. It afflicts many people and their project cars. I have done it too, so I'm as guilty as the next guy. What this is, is...well, I'm not sure there is a name for it. But if there was, it would be along the lines of: "Taking a project car completely apart with the intention of fixing it up, but then abandoning it, never to get it even remotely back into some semblance of a complete car".

I will tell you that taking a car apart is kind of fun, in a non-destructive, exploratory sort of way. I suppose entropy, the tendency towards a natural state of disorder, is on your side here. It's easy to undo bolts, strew pieces about, to break stuff if you have to, all in the noble pursuit of car "restoration".

I understand how it happens, most project cars are disassembled with the best of intentions. All it takes is an old car that someone purchases, and becomes somewhat attached to. No harm there. They go to a car show and see all of the beautiful cars in pristine condition. They get the dream of getting their car into show condition as well. This is where the naive get into trouble. It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to fix up a car nicely. Do not underestimate this.

I am not against car restoration, or complicated projects. Far from it. I want people to enjoy the hobby, and to take little ventures into fixing up their rides, and to gain experience and have fun. What I am saying is this: DO NOT COMPLETETLY DISASSEMBLE YOUR CAR. I see too many people go way too far once they get started. It sometimes looks as if there's some magical, unknown, key fastener that inadvertently got unscrewed that caused the entire car to fall apart at once.

I personally know of a car that has been apart for over 30 years, still waiting for reassembly. I know of a guy that took a project car apart and became overwhelmed. He bought another car to have something to drive, but again, the urge was too much. He took that apart too, and now has 2 cars COMPLETELY apart, and nothing to drive. Hey, I understand the reasons. Lack of money. Lack of time. Can't find the parts. Don't have the proper space. Don't own the proper tools. Got a hangnail. Whatever. And no you can't sell it like that and just get out of it. Maybe for pennies on the dollar. Maybe.

Let me tell you some realities. If you think a project car itself takes up a lot of room, you'll find out it takes up about 4 times that amount of room once you've taken it completely apart. Parts get lost. You need specialized tools. Replacement parts cost a lot of money. You'll need professional help at some point, that costs real money. Oh, and if you didn't bag your bolts and label parts as you were doing disassembly, and neophytes rarely do in the heat of the moment, you reduced the chances that you'll ever get those parts back together by like 90%.

I could put your project back together for you, but I'm not going to do it for free, either.

What I'm advocating today is this: Just drive your car. Sure, do reasonable upgrades and improvements. But keep it together and functional. Enjoy it. Embrace it's battle scars and aged patina. Don't worry if someone owns a nicer car than yours. Don't you think a car would benefit more from being driven for 30 years, even in imperfect shape, than sitting as parts, dusty and unused, like the bones of a skeleton at an archaeological site? Older cars are so rare now that I have to smile every time I see one in traffic, no matter how ratty it is. Keep your heap together and get it out on the road this summer. Make me smile. Make yourself smile.

photo: treehugger.com

First work on the S10; bed removal, keep the wiring harness?

2008-05-18T13:00:00.015-04:00

I got to work on the S10 Saturday afternoon, after doing some errands and chores. I only got about 4 hours in, but I made some progress. The main thing I got done is removing the bed. It isn't that difficult, but taking it off makes such a difference visually that it looks like I got a lot done in a short time. A few friends (thanks guys) helped me physically pick it up and take it off on Sunday. The bed is surprisingly light; I would estimate no more than 250 lbs. I expected it to weigh about 500. Interesting.

I do as little work under stock vehicles as possible. Mainly because it is inevitable that I will get at least a little grit in my eyes, and my contact lenses are very unforgiving in terms of comfort if I get even a small bit of grit in them. Glasses don't give me great vision, and goggles are uncomfortable, fog up, and grit gets around them anyway.

The work I was doing required that I get underneath, and of course I got some grit in my eyes, so it was not great fun after that. I was spurred on by the fun of disassembling the truck though. I also got some of the wiring harness disconnected. I am planning on using it to rewire the F100, so I have been diligently marking EVERY connection I undo with marker on a masking tape label.
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By the time I got into the underhood area, I began to realize how complicated the stock wiring harness really is. Hoo boy. There are A LOT of sensors. There are airbag sensors (and airbags inside. I don't know how I'm going to get them disconnected yet). The truck has ABS. The brake combination valve is ganged onto a huge complicated valve body of some sort that has like 3 wiring harness connections going to it. I assume I will have to substitute a non-ABS combination valve later, since I am not going to use ABS. All that mumbo-jumbo just because people don't know how to stop a vehicle. Unbelievable. There is an underhood computer with more connections.
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I was able to do a bit more on Sunday. More wiring harness labelling and disconnecting. I want to reuse this harness, but what a job this will be. I now expect that I will have to trace a lot of wires and make "jumpers" to complete circuits that have sensors that I am not using. I could just clip off unused connectors, but I doubt I could be satisfied with ghost wires (wires that lead nowhere) left in the harness, so I would end up taking the harness apart and rebundling it at some point anyway.

I began taking the dash apart, but did not get too far. I keep looking at the airbag in the steering wheel, expecting it to blow open at any second and hit me in the head, snapping my neck and killing me. Not good. I don't know if this could happen without power, as I have the battery out. But maybe there's a capacitor in there storing energy in case of battery loss, I don't know. Don't want to find out.

I have done a couple of complete wiring jobs on race cars, even using relays for higher load circuits and such. I think I could do this vehicle as well, but wiring a car from scratch takes a long time too. I look at time spent on this project in terms of real world labor cost and opportunity cost. A new wiring harness kit for the F100 is about $300. Professional auto repair rates are close to $100/hour. A pro shop would likely start with a kit anyway and the labor would be tacked on from there. So if I get the kit and install it I'm saving $100/hr.
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How much could I earn at my job in an hour? It's no $100, but it's something. How long will I have to mess with the S10 harness to get it to be useable? 10 hours? 20? Time is precious to me now. That's the opportunity cost; the cost of what I can't do during the time I'm working on the project. My point is this: it looks like reusing the stock S10 harness might take more time and effort (and $ value) than getting a new harness kit. I'm cheap, $300 is as much to me as it is to the next guy. But why rebuild junk to save a buck? The problem with doing so is that at the end you just have rebuilt junk that you wasted a lot of time on. I'll keep working on the stock harness for now and see how it goes. A lot to think about though.

Picked up the S10 donor; should I just convert that?

2008-05-14T07:00:00.010-04:00

I picked up the donor S10 this past Saturday. Rich, a real nice guy, was there when I arrived. Young guy, like 20. Between him and his family, there was a ton of car projects sprawled about the large property. The truck was NICE. Way nicer than I expected. I mean the whole thing had a used look about it, but overall it was still very decent. A quick peek underneath, and I was really happy. The frame, the main thing I am interested in, is in excellent shape. He started it up, and drove it right up on the trailer, so I didn't have to winch it on. He reported that the fuel pump was intermittently failing, and that was the only real problem with it.

Rich asked why I didn't seem particularly interested in the details he was mentioning. I told him that as nice as the truck was, I was going to use the chassis and some other parts to re-frame a 1955 Ford F100. He said his brother is in the process of the same exact thing on a '56, and that we could look at it. What an incredible coincidence. We finished strapping the S10 down, and exchanged cash for a title and keys. Done. Just the way I like these deals, easy and fast.

We strolled over to an old 40' semi-truck box that was lying on the ground and being used for a storage shed. He opened the door and we made our way to the back. Sure enough, there was a mostly disassembled '56 F100. It was hard to see in the dark, and mostly obscured by the various body parts; hood, fenders, etc, that were piled on it, but sure enough, it was indeed sitting on an S10 frame. Rich told me that they do a lot of car projects there (I could see that) and that the S10 frame was a popular swap donor for many of them. He said they were easy to do and rode great. This was a nice thing to hear.

I considered happening upon their '56 project, 100 miles away from my own '55, yet right where I came to be standing, as a cosmic sign of reassurance*. Clearly the car gods were smiling upon me. On my way out of his long driveway, I passed some old vehicle carcasses lying off to the side. Could that be? Yes, it is, another S10 frame. He wasn't kidding that they were into them. Has the manual steering box too. The one thing about the truck I bought that was unsuitable was that it has power steering. I need manual. I ambled back to the house and summoned Rich. Was he interested in selling me the manual box? I gave him $20, and another $20 to ship it. He assured me that he would send it out this week. How easy was that? The one thing I thought I'd need to be scrambling about for, I find on the way out. Done!

* This seems to happen to me often. I will go on a long trip, and finally get out of the vehicle, just to be standing in front of some incredibly coincidental thing. Drive 100 miles to where I've never been before, get out, and BAM, some cool thing, right there. No other examples spring to mind, so a bit of a let-down there.

I took a cursory look at the S10 the next day. I tell you, for the $50 for a new fuel pump, and half a day to pull the tank, this would be a nice little driver. If I was ever going to (wimp) out and abandon the F100 project, this would be the time! This would be a perfect electric vehicle conversion candidate just as it sits. It didn't help that I saw an S10 at the tire store that morning that was done really nice; pure white paint, lowered all around, camaro IROC wheels. Very similar to the one I had years ago.

If I was just going to do a straight S10 conversion, I swear I'd be half done by now. Probably be strapping in the batteries next weekend. These look like a perfect platform to convert. If anyone wants me to do a conversion for them, and you like these little trucks, let me know. Looks like it would be so easy it would not even be a challenge.

Anyway, it didn't take me long to realize that I might be temporaily satisfied with a straight S10 conversion, but it was really not my dream. It was not what I had planned and envisioned myself driving. The biggest appeal of doing the electric vehicle conversion was the old truck aspect of it. How cool would it be to drive this '55 everyday? No, how cool would it be to drive the '55 as an electric vehicle every day?

I'm back on track.

Related- New tires

2008-05-11T10:27:00.006-04:00

Two weeks ago I shopped for tires on the internet. I found that my local tire store has an excellent interactive website. You can search tires by many different criteria. Maybe doesn't mean much to the average person, but I dug it. Tons of specs, too. I had noticed that you could "reserve" tires and make an appointment online to have them installed. So I did. But there was a $20 "shipping and handling" fee FOR EACH TIRE to have them delivered from the warehouse to your local tire store. So now that's MY responsibility? Alternately, you could have them delivered free to your house.

Last Saturday I was in an extremely bad mood because of the home repair problem I was dealing with. I had to get a part at the local plumbing supply, and the parts counter guy was kind of a jerk. Ooh, you know more about plumbing parts than I do, so you're a big man now. Jerk.

So I stopped by the local tire store on the way home after that to check prices in person. I already knew that if I got any lip from these guys I would go off! So I go to the counter and the guy asks if he can help me.

Me: "I'd like some prices on tires"

Tire guy: "$74.99, $89.99, $95.99..."

Me: "No, I'd like prices on tires for my car"

TG: "Oh, what kind of car is it then?"

Me: (starts laughing!)

My point is, his timing and delivery were perfect, and his little joke was exactly how I think most of the time, so it struck me as very funny to have it done to me, especially when I wasn't expecting it and since it wasn't done in a mean tone, just like he was having a little fun.

So I asked about the online pricing and he outright admitted that the in-store prices were $20 higher for each tire. He said the fee was a ploy to keep the prices low, and yet be able to charge the customer more to cover the increased prices of gas and materials. Wow. His candor was so refreshing that my respect for the guy instantly increased. For once a counter person that told the truth. I had suspected the real reason for the fee, and it made me feel good, one; that I was right, and two; that this guy wasn't trying to BS me about it.

I mentioned how this fee didn't apply if you had the tires shipped to you home, but that was puzzling to me since most people don't have $10,000 tire mounting and balancing machines. He laughed and agreed, and said that people would have to bring the tires in to have them mounted and balanced anyway, so they just charge more for that. Again, exactly what I figured.

So my mood was instantly lightened, I suppose by the knowledge that my assumptions were correct, and that at least my local tire guy wasn't going to BS me about it. None of which made the cost of the tires cost any less, unfortunately. Be prepared, the price of tires has gone way up.

I had the tires put on yesterday, at my appointed time, quickly and without drama. See the nice little nibs? I got Kelly Navigator Golds (ooh, gold), and I am happy with them. I remember I had Kellys on my S10, and got like 70,000 miles from them. I must be easy on equipment or something. I looked up the last time I put tires on the daily-driver and was shocked to discover I got about 70,000 miles from them as well. Nice.

Testing...

2008-05-09T13:38:00.006-04:00

Testing inserting multiple pictures to show multiple steps, as in a tech article, for example.
For now you can look at a photo of an overloaded donkey cart.

A photo of an awesome snow cat made from a bus...

And finally a ship that has foundered (not floundered. I think you 'flounder' when you cook a flat fish. Alright I looked it up, and flounder is correct for a less severe loss of control, such as losing steering, or taking on water. To 'founder' is to sink, lose total control, or become incapacitated. You flounder, then founder. So see I was right).

A ship that has foundered.

So you load the photos is reverse order. And you can add the text after. Now I know.

And I seem to lose the extra line space if editing after the original posting. So I have to add a dash to keep an extra line space, like this...

Photos: unknown

Related- Tools

2008-05-07T21:23:00.014-04:00

Tools. Man do I love tools. I love investing in tools, I love using good tools. I take care of my tools. I don't buy everything, but I have a decent amount. Some trick tools, too.

Ok, so sometimes my quest for tools, combined with my penchant for frugality, lets me down. I bought 2 big sets of 6-point, deep well, 1/2 inch drive, impact sockets at the tool tent at an auto swap meet. One SAE, one metric. For like $20 per set. Cheap. They have served me well for the limited amount that I use them. Until yesterday.

I was taking off the winter tires on my late-model daily driver. I have them on a set of dedicated rims, so I can swap them myself at home. For some reason, the lugs were especially tight. I mean really tight. No problem, I have tools! I had the 19mm impact socket on my 24" breaker bar (big time leverage) and I hunkered down for a big pull. I know for a fact that I can pull harder with that than my wimpy impact gun can, even on it's highest setting, with a full air tank.

I lifted up on the breaker bar, and the entire corner of the car threatened to lift off of the driveway. PING! One loose. Again. PING! Whew. Again. Hmmm. Seems to have slipped off or something. Oh rats, galled the corners of the lug nut over. Big time. That looks like, well, we'll go back to that one last. Another. Hmmm slipped off again. Oh no. Galled another one. Geez, I'm dripping sweat all over here, and I can't even get one wheel off. Alright, number five, and...what the hell is this? (Look down at the end of the socket) Holy...I ripped the entire side of the socket open. I mean I knew I was strong, but...that's supposed to be hardened. Who is THE MAN!? Oh, wait, that was that Chinese tool set. Crap.

So I picked out the closest SAE size, and finally finished without any problems. Lots more sweating, though. No, seriously.

Cheap tools are a gamble. I'm gambling a little money that they will work decently for a while, maybe longer. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Although in retrospect, these sets might not have been even a justifiable deal. For example, the sockets go down to 3/8 inch hex. These are supposed to be impact sockets. Who would use an impact gun on a teeny-weeny 3/8" hex? That doesn't even make sense.

I'll get a good quality socket to replace that one (only that one, because I'm frugal), and that will probably solve the problem. I don't use many metric tools.

For brevity, I will shorten the story up as time goes on. "Well one time I sheared an impact socket clean off. Just gripped it in my hand, and gave a mighty twist. Made a CRACK like a gunshot...'course I was pretty strong then."