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Green SandRail gets some attention

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  • #31
    So every parts store looked at me like I grew a third head Friday afternoon when asking for that shim/bushing thing.......

    So I just went with my normal methods and rigged something. One of the door bushings in the assortment blister pack was nearly perfect.

    You can also see my custom nuts in this picture. Don't google custom nuts either



    Here is the back side of the casting that I modified to be flat for the washers and nuts to seat against.



    Bracket on for trial fit.





    And everything back together.




    Dad and Jim stopped by to pick up some stuff. I added 600# of stuff to their truck load (can you haul a couple of thing for us Dad? Hehe.. )



    Later guys. Watch the dog.



    And on to the front rims.

    3

    Nasty nasty nasty inside. Here the silicone bead is visible still stuck to one half. That goop is a aluma-seal/antifreeze sealant mixture, but the leaks were not in the tire so it wasn't effective enough. All this stuff wipes right off.



    Here is what the Green Tire Slime does to aluminum rims. DO NOT RUN IT IN YOUR ALUMINUM RIMS, IT IS CORROSIVE! This corrosion happened 8 years ago.



    Silicone band.



    Forgot to snap a picture of the 5015 sealant. Its pretty neat stuff, deep purple in color.

    Bolted them back together, bolted to drum for extra clampin, and let sit overnight to thoroughly dry.

    Popped them back on the beads this morning. We'll see if they are at the same pressure tonight.



    Mounted the paddles tires while waiting for stuff to setup. I love the look with these on, looks half-naked with those skinny street tires on the back in comparison.

    Of all the paths you take in life - make sure a few of them are dirt.

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    • #32
      very cool - I heard the sand dune quiver a bit last night
      Doing it all wrong since 1966

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      • #33
        On a spirited ride, I found a material weakness in Dads setup.




        I feex!





        Having run this machine both before and after the addition of the silver shock.........I am impressed. Our buddy Jim has a twin setup on his, only without the smaller 2nd factory shock, and the longer shock just really seems to work great. Its cheap too, rear shock from a '78 Chevy 4x4 truck, even comes with the handy lower mounting stud.


        So my kindergarten setup that I did when I was 16 (back in 1988) is going bye-bye.



        Ironically the 26-year-old KYB gas-adjust shocks - which were overheated many times and had physical damage from frame and tire interference - were in good functional condition. I cut the remains of what looks like a lower reservoir off the right one, its all window dressing just spot welded onto a standard shock as a marketing ploy. Interesting.



        Bye-bye!




        Piece of scrap from work becomes new lower mounts. Layout, chopsaw, drill, heat-n-beat to final shape.




        And another work-sourced piece becomes a pair of upper mounts. This was a spring sleeve for a DMI tillage point breakaway setup before I cut it in half and ground the powdercoating off.




        New upper and lower mounts welded in, primed and painted and shock installed. Can't wait to compare its effectiveness in the dunes.






        Friend Jim stopped by with his "new" truck. LS 6.0 4L80E Blazer frame with a Nova subframe up front and parallel 4-link with track bar in rear. He just finished it and went for a drive to check for bugs.










        Continuing with sandrail improvements, the red rail had to be towed out of the sand. Crested a hill, clutched it to bring the front up, and instead heard a big BANG followed by a severe lack of being able to shift or control engine speed. Looked back to see the engine/transaxle doing some weird kind of modern dance with no restraint.

        The front transaxle mount gave up the ghost.



        This breakage must be common. Common enough that the aftermarket has geared up to cast new nose cones from aluminum instead of magnesium.

        Installed.




        But something must have caused this. Several other of our rails have been running identical mounts with severe abuse for many years without trouble. Only thing different about this one is it is Type IV powered. The Type IV is the big block of the air-cooled VW world, all the woes of the Type I were addressed by Volkswagen. Its a far beefier setup stock, and it gained some weight in the process.

        Maybe enough extra weight hanging off the rear to cause issues like our broken nosecone? Hmmm.

        Well, if movement is the problem we can certainly address that issue.

        Tore everything down for access to factory mounting points.



        Found some extra stuff in there. This complete engine was purchased from a running rail, we drove it around then yanked the engine, paid the guy and beat feet outta there. Dad never did anything to it except install it and give it heck, and its always been a mystery as to what displacement it actually is.

        This was my first foray into the Type 4. I'm impressed, its a neat engine. That pulley and idler pictured above are behind the cooling air shroud, and are for air conditioning. The idler is from an aftermarket add-on air condition setup, while the main pulley is a factory piece.

        I'm taking all that stuff out. Makes cleaning the sand off easier.




        Weird how the bottom of the engine cages never have any paint left on them.



        Fabbed up a mount that welds to the lower cage and bolts to a bracket on the engine to make future engine removal easier.

        Taadaa.



        All ready to go back to the "testing facility".









        Last edited by STINEY; July 28, 2016, 10:09 AM.
        Of all the paths you take in life - make sure a few of them are dirt.

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        • #34
          Seems like every ten years the headers rust away from the inside out. I spied a crack - which is how they tell you that complete failure is imminent. Last one I welded the crack up only to have the whole collector fall off while unloading at the dunes. Not this time. Ordered up a replacement during a Christmas sale and put it on this past week.

          And yeah, stainless baby. Little pricey but hopefully no more rusty pipes.

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          Of all the paths you take in life - make sure a few of them are dirt.

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          • #35
            OOoohhhhh - Super Trap! And shiny, too.

            Dan

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            • #36
              you know stainless from China rusts? don't ask me how I know this... you'll get bad words
              Doing it all wrong since 1966

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              • #37
                It’s gotta last longer than mild steel from China........right? And it lives indoors.

                Of all the paths you take in life - make sure a few of them are dirt.

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                • #38
                  After last run of awhile, pour some diesel in the carb(s) and flood it. Should coat everydamnthing with oil..

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                  • #39
                    i love pipe buggys.... did one way back in high school with a FWD olds toronado
                    455/th400 transaxle mounted in rear. had to add 400lbs of weight to front end so it
                    would turn..........

                    you literally couldnt drive it without it wheelying all over the place. sure was
                    fun, and on a long canefield road it felt like the millenium falcon making the
                    jump to hyperspace, everything stretched out and elongated in vision. crazy.
                    Last edited by fatguyzinc; July 10, 2019, 12:06 AM.

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                    • #40
                      Originally posted by STINEY View Post
                      It’s gotta last longer than mild steel from China........right? And it lives indoors.
                      see if it's magnetic (430 stainless).... if it is, it'll rust, if not, you should be fine.
                      Doing it all wrong since 1966

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                      • #41
                        Was where the rail is last weekend. The stainless passed the magnet test - absolutely no attraction properties.

                        In other news one of our product specialists stated that stainless tends to lose its stainless properties the more it is worked. Similar to work hardening, he claims the molecules tend to align and opens the door to corrosion.

                        Built a shelf, put kids crap on it (and some of mine), hung a water trampoline from the trusses. Sandrail is much more easy to quickly access.

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                        Of all the paths you take in life - make sure a few of them are dirt.

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                        • #42
                          One of the components of a microwave tower is a strap of stainless3/8"X 1-1/2" by 3-4 ft with studs welded every 2 inches.. Grinding that flush was a major bitch
                          Then it is not straight from heat warp. There was special jigs made to hammer them straight .. Never had one become magnetized from hammering..
                          They cannot be magnetic due to microwave interfeerance.
                          I made a bit for the fence post auger.. Took forever.. Stays "sharp" quite some time...

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                          • #43
                            Originally posted by STINEY View Post
                            Was where the rail is last weekend. The stainless passed the magnet test - absolutely no attraction properties.

                            In other news one of our product specialists stated that stainless tends to lose its stainless properties the more it is worked. Similar to work hardening, he claims the molecules tend to align and opens the door to corrosion.
                            the more it's worked? ummm, stainless is a very hard steel, it works once... it's not like spring steel, it does not tolerate going one direction more then once.... so 'worked'? maybe he meant heat cycled? then it still doesn't corrode, rather, it cracks.... it's also the point of purge welding - though it is fun seeing some of the YouTubers try to explain why they purge weld. To be clear, if stainless gets impurities in the weld, it creates a failure point. Usually the impurity is oxygen which is caused by metal that wasn't thoroughly cleaned. When you purge weld, you're displacing the oxygen so the weld doesn't oxidize.... the other choice is being clean and/or using a chill bar. Had I even thought about it back in the day - we'd weld dishwashing table's (restaurant) seam with a chill bar to reduce warping - but its other benefit was we'd have a mirror of the weld dimes on the back of the part. Of course, to finish it we'd flip the table over, run heat down the weld so that the weld would drop and be flat with the top surface... thus removing any back-dimes.... but ultimately, the point of purging is to displace oxygen brought in through contamination. if there is no oxygen there is no need to displace the gasses. And finally, the only reason for argon at the torch is to keep the tungsten from oxidizing... the material that's being welded doesn't care.

                            that tl;dr is the heat affected zone will crack over time unless you displace the oxygen. That said, without some expensive heat treating, a stainless weld will crack eventually.
                            Doing it all wrong since 1966

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                            • #44
                              SBG's post also reminds me why I was stuck with that job, could straighten it with 1-2 bangs of the hammer onto a thick walled pipe... Other guys bang 5-10 per post... The studs were stainless too and they WILL mess up the pipe anvil.. So the engineers were happy I could do it..
                              Seems like they torqued them somewhere near 400# per nut.

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