Tweet
Originally posted by Captain
View Post
-
Thanks. The wheels are Torq Thrust TTO which are their return to old style Torq Thrust design. Tires on the back are Towel City pie crust DOT legal slicks. Made on the same molds they've used since the early 1970's. -
Noticed what looked like a crack in the trunk pan the other day while putting my slicks back on. Since weather turned from summer back to spring today, I moved the car back into the shop, and investigated it. I had built a plywood "box" to cover the fuel cell vent line, sending wires, and upper shock mounts in the trunk. Removed the cover, and to my surprise both top shock mounts had cracked the floor pan on both sides!
I climbed underneath and removed the shocks, and then tried to see what caused the cracks. Seems my plates I built to reinforce the upper shock mounting points had simply not been strong enough and they eventually pushed through the old brittle trunk pan. So I spent most of the day fabricating frame mounts from 1/4" plate, and drilling mounting points on the frame to bolt the new top mounts to the frame rails. Took about 6 hours to fabricate them, and install them. Most of that time was drilling out the old 3/8" rivets in the frame rails so I could use bolts in the same holes. Those old rivets ground smooth easily, but drilling them was horrible, even using my carbide drill bits!
But the new extra beefy mounts should not fail like the old mounts did. Now I can get back to more cutting and buffing. Yay? Not!Comment
-
lucky you checked the crack... that could have been a far bigger problemDoing it all wrong since 1966Comment
-
You dodged a bullet there by noticing that crack
Comment
-
Yeah, the shocks could have gone through the floor, but probably not much more than that. Since the leaf springs would have maintained the car, likely it would have maybe bounced around a little, and made some noise as they rattled loose. But glad I had the tires off for paint, and saw the damage before I maybe had to buy new shocks.Comment
-
Sorted out another small glitch that's been bugging me. Play in the steering wheel.
Ever since I got the '39 road worthy I've noticed excess play in the wheel when driving through windy roads, or when adjusting back and forth as you cruise down the freeways. Everything new in the steering, except the used 2000 Chevy tilt column, but I knew it was in great shape.
So I got under it yesterday and put a crescent wrench on the double D shaft, and began to turn it back and forth looking for something that showed play. But nothing moved, and it appeared to be great? Then the light went on in my head, and I remembered I still had the key off so column was locked! How the heck can the shaft turn at all with the column locked?
I moved up to where the DD shaft slides inside the internal DD output of the column, and moved the shaft again. Bingo! There it was staring at me.
I could see the solid inside shaft moving inside the hollow shaft at the steering column! The fit between the two shafts is pretty close, but obviously not a pressed fit. I thought the cross bolt was tightening down enough to take out the slack. But the hollow column metal is so hard that no matter how tight the bolt is tightened it doesn't compress at all, so it allows slop in the steering wheel.
I have a steering joint not far below this junction, so I drug out my mig and put a weld on both flat sides of the DD shaft at the joint where they meet. Got inside and checked the wheel, and zero play now!! Can't believe it was just a simple fitment issue there, and a very easy fix!Comment
-
steering is a nice-to-have option.Doing it all wrong since 1966Comment
-
Sounds like the “plastic/nylon” buttons were gone? We burn them out in the derby cars.Comment
-
No Bob, it's that joint with the bolt through the shaft that I pictured above in post #786. The shaft inside of the shaft isn't a snug fit, so it had slop before it reacted to steering wheel movement L-R.Originally posted by Deaf Bob View PostComment
-
Learn new stuff all the time..
nice when it is an “easy” fixComment
-
Some time a month or so ago I asked around locally for people who did pinstriping and lettering. Got a list of 5 or 6 and searched out phone numbers for a couple where I didn't get them. I began calling to see about getting lettering and striping done. couple people never called back, even after leaving multiple messages. Others called back, but never followed up, again after leaving messages. One actually called up, talked for 30 min. and gave me his email so I could send pictures, measurements, and show the font style I wanted. But once again no response to multiple emails after sending everything to him.
So it seems nobody wants any work around here? Or they're just too busy to do any work?
I finally decided to contact the guy I've used twice before at Signs Now. First time he made the vinyl lettering and images for my Austin. And the next time I had him make up two part stencils to paint the lettering on for my Falcon gasser. The stencils make even a klutz like me able to paint lettering since there's no way to mess up the borders.
Chris at Signs now was excited to hear about the project, and shocked me that after about 7 years he still remembered both cars and my name. I drove right over to see him, and he came rushing out to see the car. Talked about the build for a half hour, and then went over what I wanted to do for various stencils. He took pictures, and measurements and said he'd work up several options, and email the mock ups to me for approval. Then they'll cut them out on self adhesive paper and I can just lay out measurements and apply them to the areas to paint.
Supposed to have the mock ups tomorrow, and then once I choose the patterns in a couple more days. Might still have some pinstriping done later if I'm at a show and there's someone set up there whose doing it at the show.Comment
-
Chris is really fast, and already has the mockup done for my '39. Just called him to give him the go ahead on this mockup, with just some minor corrections. The "EST 1956" was supposed to be 1950. The "A/G" was supposed to be D/G and slightly larger. Only $138 for all the double stencils to do the lettering, and the border colors for both sides.
Called him to make the corrections, and 15 minutes later he sent the corrected image.
Really fast service!Last edited by 1946Austin; May 27, 2021, 03:52 PM.Comment
-
can you PM me his # ? just the fact that you had 3 good experiences with him
is enough to sell me on using his services too, AND the price is very reasonable
as well.
i hate "flakyness", you know what i mean?Comment
-
-
Hotter than heck out there today! Got out before 9:00, but it took 5 hours to do the lettering, and when I finally finished it was already mid 80's. The large door stencils were a PITA to do thee 2nd part that is the thin black line. I finally cut all the excess vinyl stencil back to within 1/4" just so I could see where I was situating them. Also cut the "Miller's" separate from the lower part so I could place them 1/2 at a time. Messed up one "S" on Miller's and had to freehand it with just the outer border as the inner border wrinkled up and stuck to itself! Arrggg! I'm shaky as heck, but by going slowly it worked out.
Here's the procedure. Put tape down to set them the same for both sides, and then align the top and one side to the marked out tape. Then just paint in the stencil.
Then after it dries remove the first stencil, and stick the 2nd stencil down over the painted area, and then paint in the black borders. That is once you've figured out how to align the first with the 2nd!
Let that dry, and remove the 2nd stencil. I had to touch up some red and black both, as I had some run under the stencil patterns. But just a few dabs of color to cover here and there, and all was well.
I just might be done with this project now. Time to drive the wheels off it!Comment
Comment