The Bitch is Back!

[Ridge Runner 1,113]

Usually when one of my one of  parts becomes a two of ...It's because i just broke it in half .

[RPM 1,190]

Well, I'm glad I haven't accomplished that yet Jim.

 

Decided to get my arse off the football couch and clear the gauge and clock bezel. I used some rattle can 2k urethane I bought from a local paint shop for the first time. Hopefully it'll dry harder to make up for the cost. One can ate up a $20 bill, damn!

 

Backtracking, I had my body shop buddy who painted the car do some body work on the clock bezel, as Ford doesn't need a smooth surface when they attach the wood grain decal. The work done by the shop was less than stellar and I had to do some filling and sanding. Nice. The recesses for the gauges were "fun" sanding and getting good paint coverage while making sure there were no runs. Don't know what I did to cause the font to change.

 

The clock bezel pic has some reflections in the lower left, as the bezel is painted just fine. Overall I'm happy with the results. 

[RPM 1,190]

Hopefully this will be the last time in a while I assemble the gauge bezel.

[Ridge Runner 1,113]

And you even found a tach with your screen name in it !!! RPM  haha!

[RPM 1,190]

Ya Ridge, took me a bit to locate one that had it. I still have a vague memory of when my dad mentioned that my initials were in most cars. Huh? What's an rpm dad?

[latoracing 256]

Ooohh, that there is purdy, especially with the "signature" series of gauges.. Lol.

 

I like the way the silver makes everything stand out. It is going to look even better with a dash pad on top and it will give it depth. Nice!

[RPM 1,190]

Thanks Mike.

 

Got sidetracked changing out the motor on my brother's mill. The 'ol ChiCom motor lasted 30 years before it burned up. Finding a replacement was a pita with frame size, hp and rpm match. I still need to drill a couple of holes for the mounting. The electrical is fun too. The mill has a reverse switch and I'm trying to figure that out, may just not use the reverse feature.

 

So back to work on the upper control arms. Without the mill I had to finger out a way to use the drill press to relieve the arms for the ball joint sleeve. I modified the welding jig to act as a milling fixture by bolting a piece of aluminum to the bottom to mount to the drill press vise. I clamped the arms near the hole and used the threaded tube adapters with bolts to secure the other end.

 

I spaced the arm tubes and ball joint sleeve up 3/8" with wood so I could cut thru the tubes and not cut into the fixture. The lowest rpm on the drill press is 450, which is much faster than obtainable on the mill. I had to cut slowly to keep it from chattering.

 

The old arms were at the max adjustment and had 3 degrees caster. I also had to adjust the lower control arm pointing forward about 1/2". So between the caster adjustment and wanting a larger O.D. tube with thicker walls, I talked myself into making new arms. The new arms with the rod ends equal and the lower arm 90 degrees to the frame rail net 2-1/2 degrees caster with the offset upper ball joint. 

 

I thought I'd mock it up to see if they fit and worked before final welding. I do still need to bend and fit a cross tube back near the rod ends.

 

Ta ta for now.

 

 

[Ridge Runner 1,113]

I wired my lathe for reverse  for reverse threading ...it was a pain in the butt to figure out ,i still don't know how i figured it out but it works .Now the auto feed bar has quit .

 

You need to build a few of the front suspension pieces for sale ,that looks  really good Bob.

[latoracing 256]

I would go nuts if I had a mill and it didn't have reverse. I like to power tap too many things to loose that feature.

 

The arm welding fixture worked quite well as a notching fixture, that looks like fun. Those arms are going to turn out very nice. 

[RPM 1,190]

Thanks guys.

 

Ridge, I can't get my own stuff done let alone other folks. My lathe also has a reverse switch, which I use all the time.

 

Lato, I've only used a Tapmatic on a drill press. What's the process when having to use reverse? I figure it's to back out the tap, but the rest of the deal, speed and such. Looks like the dp just might need a reverse switch.

[RPM 1,190]

No update other than updating no progress :(

The first pic is when I last saw the 69. The second pic is my d/d last week in Denver. We don't see that much snow in Bakersfield in 50 years. I don't believe I'll stay the 6 months I originally promised them. I miss just sitting in the shop looking at the Mustang.

[Ridge Runner 1,113]

Let it snow  let it snow  let it snow ...Snow ball fight !   No progress and you still made more progress than me .

[Silver_69_Coupe 31]

Snow would be nice right now. Way better that 10 degrees... Too cold to snow.  and an inversion.

 

But the frost growing off the trees looks really cool.

 

30 in the garage and Stang work comes to screeching halt.

 

The entire valley looks like this.

 

[RPM 1,190]

Ah Jim, you did make me laugh, which I needed.

 

Silver_69_Coupe, where are you located. The pic looks really cool.

[Silver_69_Coupe 31]

Boise Idaho.

 

Yeah it sure is nice to look at from your window.  After about 10 minutes outside, your bones start to hurt.

 

We just started our regular 2 to 8 week winter freeze. Looking forward to several days or weeks below freezing. and probably most of those nights in the single digits or low teens. BRRRRR!!!

 

We got a white Christmas and then it froze solid. At least the roads cleared up before it froze this year. Nothing worse than driving on ice for a couple of months.

 

Thankfully we haven't had the 300 plus car accidents in one night this year. Or another foggy freeway catastrophe. Hopefully we won't.

 

The fog and ice are a really bad combination.

[Ash 145]

Thankfully it cooled off a little here too on Christmas day. The weeks before we've been having days in the mid to high 40's and bumping 50. That's in Celsius though which I think is around 120F. Want to swap places? The heat and I don't often see eye to eye.

[Ridge Runner 1,113]

Got down to 27* last night ,pretty heavy frost here this morning .The dogs went ice fishing in their little pool this morning for real ice .

And fiberglass will not harden ,had to run the heaters all night .

[Ridge Runner 1,113]

Snow would be nice right now. Way better that 10 degrees... Too cold to snow.  and an inversion.

 

But the frost growing off the trees looks really cool.

 

30 in the garage and Stang work comes to screeching halt.

 

The entire valley looks like this.

 

winter-wonderland.jpg

Now that is a post card !

[Ridge Runner 1,113]

Thankfully it cooled off a little here too on Christmas day. The weeks before we've been having days in the mid to high 40's and bumping 50. That's in Celsius though which I think is around 120F. Want to swap places? The heat and I don't often see eye to eye.

Here you go Ash.

[Ash 145]

Here you go Ash.

 

 

If that were to happen here, Ridge, it'd be a rock or a horse apple. That's about all you'd find on the ground. ha

[RPM 1,190]

Got down to 27* last night

27°? Oh, poor baby!

[Ridge Runner 1,113]

Hey ,it gets below 70* i put my jacket on .27* i could freeze to death .

[Silver_69_Coupe 31]

8* when I went to start my car this morning.

[RPM 1,190]

8* when I went to start my car this morning.

I think it was 4° when I started mine yesterday in Vernal Utah.

 

Hey ,it gets below 70* i put my jacket on .27* i could freeze to death .

The older I get, the more I resemble that line.

[RPM 1,190]

Well, my time in Denver was short lived, 1 month. While the pay was quite nice, at my point in life I have no need to put up with idiots. I also forgot how negative an environment insurance adjusting is. So I'm back to subbing at the high school down the road. With no snow in my way. We had a nice rain today, much nicer than snow. Ok, I admit I'm a Cali cry baby.

 

Picked up some sound deadening material at a local stereo shop where my son Kurtis used to work. Bought a roll and a half, and installed all but 10 foot. Figured might as well apply 2 layers. Still need to do the cabin floors and wheel wells. No tin can sound now. The inner and upper quarters was fun. The doors were pretty easy sans the glass.

 

I had to at least get the roof material installed as I'm awaiting delivery on the MTF headliner. Once the headliner is in I (glass shop) can install the front and rear glass.

 

I dropped off the headers at the local chrome shop to be zink coated. Should be done in a week. Then I can install the headers and complete the exhaust system.