latoracing

Don't know about the smartest nor richest (I'm broke lol) and I bought a field to plant this building and house in, I am sick of raking leaves...

... unless those trees did produce money, then I might plant a few dozen...
 
 

That was before it was all tore up. It was an old horse pasture and was mostly fescue with an abundance of miscellaneous weeds. It grows like crazy and "needs" mowing once a week, but at the time I mowed it every other week. As I have replanted it and filled in numerous holes it will hopefully look better, and will be mowed every week. I love to mow (obviously) and look forward to lots of stripes in the yard :) 

One advice from me; build more than what you think you need.
Built a 54X42 over 10 years ago as my 16x20 shop was getting small; looked like this.

 
Now it looks like this.

Don't know about the smartest nor richest (I'm broke lol) and I bought a field to plant this building and house in, I am sick of raking leaves...

... unless those trees did produce money, then I might plant a few dozen...
 
 

I upgraded my shop recently, went from 1,500sqft to 2,400sqft out in the country away from city taxes and such. You really don't know what all you have until you have to move it in one week. Went from nothing in the way...

... to having to get everything under roof. Our old property sold rather quickly and our new place was on the verge of being completed. A month and a half later, things are starting to get put in place, but there is still a bunch of stuff to go through before it is completely opperational.

Got to get the lift put back together and finish wiring the rest of the building, construct the restroom and small office, go through some more boxes... this is taking forever.

I upgraded my shop recently, went from 1,500sqft to 2,400sqft out in the country away from city taxes and such. You really don't know what all you have until you have to move it in one week. Went from nothing in the way...

... to having to get everything under roof. Our old property sold rather quickly and our new place was on the verge of being completed. A month and a half later, things are starting to get put in place, but there is still a bunch of stuff to go through before it is completely opperational.

Got to get the lift put back together and finish wiring the rest of the building, construct the restroom and small office, go through some more boxes... this is taking forever.

This is a favorite topic on another forum and has been going for almost a year now. Midlife is trying to wake-up the site, because it has been rather quiet lately. I'll start with what I posted earlier today. Your's can be anything- just keep it going!
My garage is mostly done now so I can show the highlights, but as we all know, your shop can never be too big and you can never have too many tools. My house has a two car garage on the main level and what is known in my area as a “boat garage” in the basement. This is a hilly area and at least one side of all the basements are at ground level with windows and doors. I believe I may be unique in my HOA for having a second driveway and pad for the boat garage. I know this sounds strange, but all my neighbors have a 12’ door on the side of the house with lawn or dirt outside. My lower garage is an odd “L” shape and since it’s in the basement the overhead is not ideal and there is one particular post that isn’t where I would prefer. It could hold three cars. The Stang and Vette should just fit nose to tail straight-in (although I’ve never done it) and one more could angle off to the left.

This garage is the reason I bought the house. The kitchen is the reason my wife bought the house, so it worked out well for both of us. My next project is a shed for the backyard to house more car parts with the dryer and compressor, because I ABSOLUTELY HATE the noise that thing makes. BTW, air is routed to six places in the shop, one of which is a reel hung from the ceiling.

This shows typical Home Depot stand-up shelving and shelves I built that are suspended from the overhead. I attempted to cram-in all the storage I could. More about the lift later.

This shows more suspended shelving. Each of the threaded rods will support over 500 lbs. On the back wall of the L-shaped work bench I built, is my old tool board that has followed me to all of my houses. My first wife, who passed from lung cancer many years ago, painted the shapes of all the tools in black on the white board so I could identify what I had misplaced and where to put it. What a treasure. The table with the vice in the foreground has kick-down rollers to move it wherever needed. On occasion I’ve backed it up to a post and clamped it on, when I really needed to go cave-man with the vice and a hammer.

I did all the shelving, benches and desk using my old ShopSmith, shown on the left. It is an all in one: table saw, drill press, 12” sander, horizontal borer, wood lathe, jointer, jig saw, and vertical filer (hew). I think that’s all. I had to rebuild its power head with all new bearings, belts and a gear or two. It’s a 1984 model that I upgraded to newer tables that are bigger and makes it much more useful. The power head uses variable pulleys and belts for adjustable speeds. It was designed in the 50s before electronic motor controls. Directly above the machine in the wire shelving are many of the accessories. On the bottom shelf is a cross-cut sled I built. It allows you to trim the ends off 2x4s (up to 10’ long) very accurately. Behind it on the floor is a jig I built for making tapers while ripping.

Next to it is a Harbor Freight blast cabinet with all of its deficiencies addressed using Tacoma Company upgrades. Now it can do a beautiful cleaning and then bead blasting at far less than 25 psi if you like for delicate pieces. A Dust Deputy isn’t needed for the vacuum because there is a waste gate on the back to set the negative pressure using the monometer on the top, giving a clear view and making practically all the media recoverable. I typically only pour in a Dixie cup full of media at a time, and then reuse it.

On the right is a Harbor Freight parts washer with pump. I upgraded this with a heater and thermostat which greatly improves the cleaning. The pump and flexible spigot are a known problem on these. The spigot is attached directly to the motor with plastic fittings. I moved the spigot to a separate bracket and used brass fittings to give it durability. The other problem is the pumps don’t always start. After inspection I found that the pump is underpowered and to overcome the problem they designed the impeller to only engage after about 350* of rotation…if the impellor is backed up to the stop. To insure that it is, all you have to do is blow canned air (for cleaning a keyboard, etc.) down the spigot. That backs the impeller up to the stop and allows the motor to turn almost a complete revolution before the impeller is engaged. It works every time. It would be nice if Harbor Freight stuff just did what it was supposed to, but they doesn’t always happen.

This shows the mini mill and lathe. The countertop is Formica so it’s easy to clean-up the oil and metal chips, with an aluminum trim on the edge so stuff doesn’t roll off. The wall behind and the bottom of the shelf above are covered with FRP Wall Board because these machines tend to throw oil and debris everywhere- on the wall and even the ceiling.

Next to my desk and garage computer (again the table surfaces are Formica) is one of those combination metal breaks, shears, and rollers. To the left you can see part of the basement dehumidifier, and various floor jacks and stuff. The basement heater and AC unit and the house water heater are down here too. There is ducting, wire and pipes all over the ceiling. It reminds me of my shipboard military days.

Miller 220 AC/DC TIG/MIG/Stick Welder. I had to rewire much of the basement adding several sub-panels to get power to the welder and rewire for many other circuits that were previously overloaded and always tripping breakers.

My Stang patiently awaiting restoration. You can see from the dust that I need to move the ShopSmith outside before I do any cutting or sanding, but sometimes weather doesn’t permit. I need to get the leaf blower going and blow out the garage again. Wouldn’t it be nice if there as a static system or something that would take all the dust out of the air and deposit it in one place for disposal (besides my car)?

The lift is a two post MaxJax, because it works well with the confining ceiling height, and can be moved out of the way for a rotisserie. Yeah- the columns unbolt and they have wheels on them so you can tuck them up against a wall out of the way. I had the area under the posts sawed-out then jack hammered, and put in a generous pad that is 12” thick with rebar tying into the surrounding concrete. That puppy ain’t going anywhere. You can see all the subpanels I added and the welder 240v plug in front of the Stang. I’ve got a 50’ 8ga cord set so I can do welding on the other side of the shop. That shelf and the one to the right of it holds all the volatiles that I wouldn’t want a spark around. There are four fire extinguishers in the garage and adjoining rooms, and fire sprinklers with Wood’s metal above the cars.      
 

Ran a return line on Vic's '70 vert using stock stainless lines. It turned out ok, but would have been much easier if I had bent the lines myself. Straitening out bends in a pre-bent line is aggravating.  Retaining clips were the other issue, ended up fabricating custom parts. 

Doing quite well, and I hope you are. Thanks for the inquiry. 
As the reality of "nothing last forever" sets in, this site has lost a lot of valuable information with the deletion of thousands of pictures. I am not alone in this issue, and I am greatly saddened by the hundreds of hours of time lost documenting these wonderful builds. I would love to continue documenting my progress here but I am not up for the tons of hours to upload my pictures just to loose them again. A picture is worth a thousand words which should be shared with others. I may look into some type of secure hosting site, but for now, I'm going to continue building but unfortunately will not adding to this thread. 
I will continue to be a part of the 69stang community, and look forward to a good resolution to this issue, 
Thanks to all who contributed to this thread, and I hope to revive it one day.
Mike

Found the missing bolts in a clearly marked zip log bag that was in with my window hardware....  anyway...
Got the top together, like a big erector set.  Finally managed to get it pretty straight, hooked up the new hydraulic pump, lines and cylinders, and it actually worked. 
Video attached.  
 
IMG_7401.MOV

Let me say some more. Many of our representatives are flipp'in spineless!  Everyone knows that this election was filled with fraud. Even the Democrats know this. It was their scheme all along. You can't change laws over night and you can't send out all those mail in ballots that require no signature verification and not know there will be fraud. And, even a little bit is bad. An election should be fair and without contestation. But, Democrats stand together in all things, even when their actions are based off blatant lies and falsehoods, i.e. .....Russian Collusion, Kavanaugh nomination, etc! Republicans, on the other hand, won't even stand together for truth! Right now, many are throwing our President under the bus and siding with the Democrats in impeachment! I despise them more than I do the Democrats. This is an outrage! I was not happy when Trump made his recent comments about VP Pence, but you know what, the more I thought about it, the more I think he was right. At the State of the Union Address, Pence stood right next to Pelosi as she tore up that speech. I don't believe for one minute that he did not see that. Right there, on the spot, he should have called her out. He's spineless. 
Yeah, we're screwed now and there is no going back. Democrats will now, unopposed, do exactly what they want to do with the full backing of the lying media and the censorship of social media. The fact that the censorship is going on right now, even unto our President, should speak volumes as to where we're headed. Moreover, the Dems are going after Trump even after he leaves office. And not just Trump, but those loyal to him. I feel for the future of my children, that they will not know the America that I grew up in. What's left? Prayer! 

Now you're gona make me blush... I have been inspired by so many other's who have talents much greater than mine, and many of them I've had the privilege to train. I'm just a little OCD :)
It was a pleasure to serve, and I appreciate everyone's efforts.

Oh forgot the eccentric bolt.   It has an allen wrench hole where you can rotate the eccentric and it moves the top frame up and down.  There is a small dimple in the connection area that prevents the rotation of the bolt head.  Works kind like a lower control arm camber adjustment nut.
Last pic is something I recently found at Advanced Auto Parts that I really like.  It is Flat Black primer/paint made by Rust-oleum, and it has a small brush applicator.  I found it with the auto touch up paint.  I use it to finish some of these old bolt heads/nuts after I am done working on them.   I wire brushed/cleaned most of these by hand, as my original top was pretty rusty.  
 

I have installed a few cowls and I prefer to install them in two pieces. When you weld in your lower portion you can prime / paint the lower section and the inside of the upper for a little more corrosion control. The lower portion has all the rosette welds ground smooth so when you weld your upper part on a little wire brush on a drill makes short work of the areas that need to be bare metal for a good weld. I do not see how one can get really good paint coverage on an assembled cowl. The inside of this one was bare metal in several places when I disassembled it, as it was spot welded together when I bought it. 

I have installed a few cowls and I prefer to install them in two pieces. When you weld in your lower portion you can prime / paint the lower section and the inside of the upper for a little more corrosion control. The lower portion has all the rosette welds ground smooth so when you weld your upper part on a little wire brush on a drill makes short work of the areas that need to be bare metal for a good weld. I do not see how one can get really good paint coverage on an assembled cowl. The inside of this one was bare metal in several places when I disassembled it, as it was spot welded together when I bought it. 

I had to post a pic of how this project started when it came to me. Its come a long way since and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of getting it to drive out of my shop. I can't wait to see it all painted up and going to it's first cruse.

I did templates of the areas to fill in and cut them out of some leftover 11ga. I also fully welded all the seams on the shock towers before installing the plates, then fully welded them in place. The big block reinforcements were also fabricated (these are out of 7ga) and fully welded and blended. The inner brace was more 7ga, fully welded.
 

I did templates of the areas to fill in and cut them out of some leftover 11ga. I also fully welded all the seams on the shock towers before installing the plates, then fully welded them in place. The big block reinforcements were also fabricated (these are out of 7ga) and fully welded and blended. The inner brace was more 7ga, fully welded.
 

Take measurements of everything before you tear it apart. Some of the after market parts are close to stock, but might be off a little, and cause problems. I have replaced the entire rear of my '70 FB, except for the rear frame rails, and half of the trunk transition. I still have it up on jack stands, just used some extra bracing here and there, along with checking the measurements frequently. I also screwed the entire rear of the car together with sheet metal screws before I welded anything permanent, to check the fit of the various parts. Take your time, measure and check before major trimming, or welding. It will be like new in no time.

Time to get back to something funner, filling in the quarter marker lights. I can't just grab a piece of sheet metal and weld it in place, well, I could but Vic wouldn't be pleased with the results. I cut out some templates of the area for filler material shaping and to check the shape after everything is welded in place. The templates were of the passenger side quarter as the driver's side has some damage, which i'll get in shape before I install the patch.

Using a orange stripper wheel revealed a bunch of previous "repairs" that were covered in filler. The tail light panel has a fairly good size goose egg shaped divot close to the tail light opening, its pretty bad. Might as well get that back in shape while I'm here. Cut out another template and checked the profile of the area, not good.

In order to fix these areas the paint had to come off on both sides, more orange striper disc time. 

The upper section had been pushed in as well, so it was pulled and hammered back in to position. I have been using a shrinking disc for over a year on different issues, mainly self inflicted distortion when fabricating parts. It is nothing more than a stainless steel disc with a backing plate on my 4.5" grinder. It is not abrasive, but when you use it on the dented area (mainly on the inside of the trunk panel) a little soapy water helps lubricate it. Keeping the disc flat to the surface, as much as possible, you run it over the area with enough pressure to keep it on the part, no more. This heats the metal enough to quench it with the soapy water solution. Wipe off the excess water and repeat until the dent is gone. 

A little work, some pulling by hand and a little hammer / dolly time it looks like this.

This area had a bad oil canning to it when you pushed on the panel. That is now gone and as you can see the shape is really nice. I have some more little areas to planish out but this could be shot with filler primer and blocked out. I like my shrinker disk

I did templates of the areas to fill in and cut them out of some leftover 11ga. I also fully welded all the seams on the shock towers before installing the plates, then fully welded them in place. The big block reinforcements were also fabricated (these are out of 7ga) and fully welded and blended. The inner brace was more 7ga, fully welded.
 

I did templates of the areas to fill in and cut them out of some leftover 11ga. I also fully welded all the seams on the shock towers before installing the plates, then fully welded them in place. The big block reinforcements were also fabricated (these are out of 7ga) and fully welded and blended. The inner brace was more 7ga, fully welded.
 

Yes, stock parts will work fine without interference with your wheels and tires.
As long as you have a good spring compressor, you shouldn't have any issues removing and replacing the springs. 
 

The B302 gusset would be my first choice for reinforcements. Use poster board for your template and get it fitting like you want it. You can easily cut out your own plates from 1/8" material with a grinder / cut off tool. Your 140a welder should be able to handle this with ease.

If you're wanting to do the big block style reinforcements it might be a little more difficult, but some 3/16" plate and some creative bending will result in quality parts. Fitting these pieces will take a large hammer to adjust various components, trim and tack weld in place. This thicker material may be a little much for your welder as you will have to run it wide open. Bevel all weld joints to help with the lack of penetration.

A little grinding, and it will look better than factory.

If you are wanting to go a little overboard, you can reinforce the UCA attachment area. More cardboard templates and 1/8" material will be needed to build your own. Fully welding all factory seams and using several small filler pieces to fill in the recessed areas then plating over all of it, fully welding all seams with added rosette welds in the middle, and re-drilling your holes, you'll have some pretty strong towers.

 

The B302 gusset would be my first choice for reinforcements. Use poster board for your template and get it fitting like you want it. You can easily cut out your own plates from 1/8" material with a grinder / cut off tool. Your 140a welder should be able to handle this with ease.

If you're wanting to do the big block style reinforcements it might be a little more difficult, but some 3/16" plate and some creative bending will result in quality parts. Fitting these pieces will take a large hammer to adjust various components, trim and tack weld in place. This thicker material may be a little much for your welder as you will have to run it wide open. Bevel all weld joints to help with the lack of penetration.

A little grinding, and it will look better than factory.

If you are wanting to go a little overboard, you can reinforce the UCA attachment area. More cardboard templates and 1/8" material will be needed to build your own. Fully welding all factory seams and using several small filler pieces to fill in the recessed areas then plating over all of it, fully welding all seams with added rosette welds in the middle, and re-drilling your holes, you'll have some pretty strong towers.