Random stuff I'm working on

I'm forced to pay flood insurance but not specific hurricane insurance.

Interesting bit I learned the hard way. Flood insurance only covers rising water from say a nearby river, not falling water from say a hole ripped in a roof or broken pipe.

Loves302Chevy said:

That guy should probably not be working on cars.

Click to expand...

Loves302Chevy, Here's what he wrote.

"Got them all set up for welding. I used a crayon as that was what I had on hand. It went very well except for the crayon part. It almost immediately washed off with the wd-40 despite being far away from the holes. I think a scribe would work a bit better."

Well he may not be an experienced mechanic but the pics he sent looked like prep and alignment/clamping was done nicely AND he knew what a scribe is. He's going to have a bud do the actual welding. There's a lot of guys that have grown up who never had the opportunity to learn but want to build a car. Everyone's gotta start somewhere with what ever they have handy. You wouldn't believe how many guys think you can rebuild a car with a 3/8" socket set, hammer, drill, adjustable wrench, and a couple screwdrivers. That's why I'm listing tools required and writing such detailed instructions based on the most basic tools. There's a lot we take for granted while a new guy doesn't even know the correct way to put an open end wrench on a bolt or that he should use a box end or socket when possible instead of the open end wrench to start with..

NOT A TA said:

You wouldn't believe how many guys think you can rebuild a car with a 3/8" socket set, hammer, drill, adjustable wrench, and a couple screwdrivers. That's why I'm listing tools required and writing such detailed instructions based on the most basic tools. There's a lot we take for granted while a new guy doesn't even know the correct way to put an open end wrench on a bolt or that he should use a box end or socket when possible instead of the open end wrench to start with..

Click to expand...

Yeah, the 1960s are gone and we are closer to the 2060s now. Gone are the days when you could work on your car with a basic set of tools. You learn quickly after busting a few knuckles.
I'm glad you are writing detailed instructions, but don't write them in cursive. The schools don't teach that anymore.

I work on cool cars and test drive cool cars but haven't had one of my own registered since I sold my Wildcat two years ago. Since I don't have a customer car here at the moment my 67 Camaro got some attention. So a new battery and fresh gas got it fired up, but the carb was peeing all over from dried out gaskets. I ordered a carb rebuild kit and of course received the wrong one, or it was missing parts. In either case I got enough gaskets to stop the leaks and what not to seal it up with a new accelerator pump and chalked it up to "I guess I loose on the carb kit" since there's stickers on it about no returns after opening........ Well how do you know if it's correct or all the pieces are included if you don't open it? I gave them all the numbers on the carb and they determined what rebuild kit to send me, so it's not my mistake. After putting the carb back on the engine and firing it up it ran great, no leaks.



So with it running good I took it out to the street for a quick test and to turn it around. When I got to the end of the driveway I felt the master cylinder go bad and the pedal went to the floor. So I carefully turned it around and drove into the garage.

Now the background story is that when I bought this car I knew it needed new rear springs. The front spring eye bushings were shot allowing the rear to wobble so I never drove it far or very often. I doubt I put more than a couple hundred miles on it since I bought it. About 10 years ago I bought some Global West rear springs from a member on a forum that went a different direction on his car so they were just used for mock up. I've been promising the car I'd put the springs in for years and figured since there's no customer car here now it's a perfect time to do the spring install right? Oh ya, and I now need to do a master cylinder as well, but that's no biggie either right? It's like people tell me..... " all's ya gotta do is....... ". So I figure once it's done I can put the registration back on it and drive it this winter, it's beautiful weather to drive a vert here in the winter.

But as I warn others "Once I take apart, there's no going back and it might be a can of worms". So down the rabbit hole I went. I figured start by removing the springs to see what I might need to order and add a master cylinder to the list. So I got the car up and started removing the springs. Every single bolt, sleeve, and bushing was rusted solid, sooooo out came the Sawzall, the 4 1/2" grinder with a thin cutting disc, and a die grinder with grinding disc to cut and grind the springs, bushing bolts, and hardware necessary to get them out of the car.

Unfortunately, my truck is starting to look like that.

look at all those worms crawling every where wait who opened that can??

that rotted spring pearch and body work, is just one more, examole of an endless list,
of darn good reasons why every serious hot rodder
,benefits from having a good air compressor and die grinder with a cut-off wheel,





and sheet metal cutting tools, or a plazma cutter.
and any serious person, in this hobby NEEDS to own a decent quality welder and develope the required skill set to use it properly!
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First step was to get the spring pockets out to see how rusty that area was so ground off all the bolt heads since every U nut was rusted out and spinning. You can see how bad the spring eyes were. On one side the spring end slid right off the bushing because it was so deformed.





Once the spring pockets were out it was obvious I was going to have to do some surgery to repair rust damage in the torque box area where the spring pockets mount. So I got out the wire wheel tools and got after them to see how bad they were. On the drivers side 2 of the spring pocket mounting points where the U nuts slide in were rusted out. The spring pockets are sandwiched between the floor pan and rear frame rails so to replace the torque boxes the rear rails have to come out. Rear frame rails are also welded to the trunk pan. So I figured I'd better have a look under the trunk mat to see how rusty the trunk was having known there was some rust there when I bought the car long ago. Well the rust hadn't fixed itself and had gotten worse, no surprise there! So I cleaned the rusty stuff and made the trunk look really bad ahaha.

So at this point I'm trying to get some sheet metal pieces to fix it. I need a trunk pan, trunk drop offs, frame rails,gas tank brackets, and torque boxes. I don't want to cut out any of the old sheet metal till I have all the new parts in hand. Meanwhile I've got some body/paint work on small pieces to do for a customer and I've got all the parts that came out of the Camaro that'll get some love before they get re-installed.

yeah, unfortunately the rust issue your displaying is hardly rare in older cars and Ive had to pass on several cars I'd have loved to restore.
simply because of extensive rust issues and in many cases the lack of O.E.M,aftermarket or easily found original components for replacement.
replacing the parts is not that difficult in many cases, and if your rebuilding something thats popular like a corvette or camaro theres a good chance most or all of the body parts are easily located, but if your rebuilding some of the less popular cars it can be much more difficult to locate things like quarter panels,door sills spring perches,frames, trunk floors and fenders, fire walls and roofs.
No mater what car you intend to restore, taking a day or so to research parts availability and cost will generally be time well spent, and may make the higher asking price of a car in better over all condition seem a bit less exorbitant , and make carefully and detailed inspecting of the car while its up on a lift, and having a small magnet handy, to check for extensive "BONDO" much more important to you before you hand over all the cash!
EXPERIENCE is an expensive instructor,and you could easily find that "KILLER DEAL" on something like a 1969 440 wedge, 4 speed, road runner could cost you thousands more than you expected in sheet metal and frame/suspension components to get it back to factory show room condition, if you don,t inspect its carefully before the purchase.

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Replacing sections like this is more time consuming and difficult than most people think and is one of the reasons sooo many projects stall out once the owner tears down the car thinking they're gonna "restore" it themselves. After all...... "All's ya gotta do is!" and TV shows make it look easy right? If those dumb asses can do it then it can't be that hard? There's thousands and thousands of cars sitting in garages all over the country that got torn down and then the owner finds out they're in over their head. In a case like this you can't just put it back together because the rusted suspension mounting points get torn out removing the suspension.

Just to get to the point my car's at now requires removal of exhaust, rear end, traction bars, springs, gas lines, electric, fuel tank, brake lines, driveshaft, Convertible floor brace, spring pockets, and shocks before bracing the body so surgery can even begin. That's a lot for most guys with limited tools, space, and skills never mind then cutting out the back half of the car and welding new in.

Ordered new metal yesterday that should be here beginning of the week.

Yeah! I've purchased more than a few
"hopelessly damaged project cars" that were basically abandoned , mid restoration, because of similar issues,
and in many cases all that was needed was a couple days with a die grinder lots to precise measuring and a bit of skill with a ,mig or TIG welder to turn the "HOPELESS PROJECT" into something the original owner never imagined could be accomplished....I honestly can,t imagine having any realistic expectation of working on cars without a decent
an assortment of MECHANIC TOOLS, many guys get intimidated when faced with panel or frame replacement , but if its a fairly common car that's popular ,chances are good that the replacement parts are available or plans to fabricate replacements are easy to locate,you need to do some research and get the parts
FLOOR JACK
12 TON JACK STANDS
MECHANICS CREEPER
WELDER,
DRILL PRESS,
HYDRAULIC PRESS,
BENCH VISE
AIR COMPRESSOR,
DIR GRINDER, and a SAWS-ALL

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I like the nature made access hole there you never know when you need to get to that wire

Strictly Attitude said:

I like the nature made access hole there you never know when you need to get to that wire

Click to expand...

It's got a matching one on the other side! Those are the reverse lights that are in the lower tail pan on RS models.

oh yeah let me know if you ever need stencils made or stickers for your company I have a 36"inch cutter and could easily and cheaply make you up a bunch. I have paint mask material along with regular vinyl.

This might help you. https://www.detroitspeed.com/1967-1969-F-Body-products/040110-leaf-spring-pocket.html

Id like to see the installation instructions ,
but that replacement spring support looks like a darn good idea

The DSE reinforcements are nice and already have the Adams mod built in. They're more for use with a 4 link and overkill for my convertible. I'm not trying to make a race car/hot rod out of it and have actually taking it back more toward stock in some respects. My Firebird and Malibu are more modified cars.

Big box finally arrived Wed from NPD. Was shipped Fri from Ocala to Delray beach. Not impressed with the trucking company since it's only 250 miles. Box was packed very well and the parts look nice. Most of the pieces are supposed to be from Goodmark and a couple small ones from Spectra. Will see how they fit.





While waiting on the parts I worked on cleaning up all the smaller pieces to get them ready for paint after my regular work. Can't do the trunk pan etc and put rusty looking parts back in. A section of the big parts box made a great place to clean the rear end.



Never cut till you have the new parts so you're sure of exactly what needs to be done. Once the parts arrived I set the car up square on cribs and made supports for the rear to prevent anything sagging or going out of square once all the structural support is removed. I use chalk to make lines as a rough guide because once sparks start flying it's hard to tell if you're cutting straight.

any time your required to weld, or paint or use gasket cement or gasket sealers , on your car, parts prep is critical to doing the job correctly,
you'll need to carefully clean and de-grease carefully re-clean and dry the surfaces.
this can require several steps before a parts clean enough to be used.for smaller parts this is a sand blast cabinet I have in my shop, for small things like alternator brackets and crank pulleys it does a good job
http://www.harborfreight.com/abrasive-blast-cabinet-62144.html



http://www.harborfreight.com/5-hp-60-gallon-165-psi-two-stage-air-compressor-93274.html




this is slow but if your patient it does a reasonable job on many larger parts like differentials that won,t fit in the blast cabinet
http://www.harborfreight.com/21-oz-hopper-gravity-feed-spot-blaster-gun-95793.html


HAVING A SOLVENT WASH SINK SURE HELPS
http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/40-Gallon-Parts-Washer

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Grump, you have that awesome shop & tools. Any projects going on in there?

I normally won't work on modern cars but who could resist getting paid for the opportunity to do the final assembly on a fully electric BMW concept car with LED lights, MP-3 etc?

those can be modded also there is a whole website dedicated to performance power wheels upgrades

You had me going there, until I got to the last pic!