Random stuff I'm working on

In the light of day in the morning we found a couple small runs in the clear. Sorry forgot to take a pic of them but you've all seen a run. Not unusual to get one once in a while especially considering Jeff was shooting the clear at night under lights on a convoluted surface with lots of recesses etc. Anyway, some 1200 grit and 1500 grit wet or dry paper blocking with soapy water followed by some light rubbing compound and swirl remover made them vanish. then the cover went out for some baking in my natural S. FL solar baking area. Plastic temps usually run 140-160 and metal can get up to almost 200 depending on color, time of year, etc. We'll leave the cover there turning it around in a circle slowly for a couple hours and do other stuff like I am now. Made brunch and now posting this. There is no need to wet sand and buff the cover and if we did it wouldn't look as much like the rest of the car as it does now. In the close up top pic below you can see the slight orange peel look just like factory paint.





 
After letting the bumper bake a couple hours it was put in the shade to cool. Meanwhile the car was rolled up into the shade on some boards to give additional clearance for bolt installation under the car. Once the bumper was cool it was put on a different body stand that had a moving blanket on it so the grills, driving lights etc. could be installed while protecting the new clear coat. Even though the body stands are foam covered it's better to use a clean moving blanket for protection. Then the assembled body cover was installed pics taken and car returned to owner by 2 PM.

Edit: Forgot to mention base and clear were shot with a SATA JET 4000 with a 1.3 tip.







 
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Thanks Grumpy! We like jobs like this. Get it in, get it done, get it out, get paid. Don't want the car in the way (and be responsible for it) any longer than necessary. I spent the rest of the afternoon fabricating upper control arm mount stiffening plates and sway bar mount plates for 2nd gen F bodies.

Before leaving the topic of plastic bumper cover repairs I'll add this bit I did on a Honda Civic bumper cover a while back. The bumper reinforcement bar had torn a hole in the bumper cover when the car hit something. Since we only had a few days for repairs, had to paint the whole car, and the Civic bumper covers are cheap enough we just installed a new one and painted the whole car. Then later on when I had some free time I repaired the torn section with a hot stapler then went through similar flexible parts repair procedures but stopped with the primer and sold the bumper cover on CL. Yes the buyer was made fully aware of the repair.









 
Got busy and didn't update the thread during the week.

Customer needed some welded on tabs that are spot welded to the upper rockers of 70's cars. They hold wiring that runs under the sill plates in the door openings. Factory ones were rubber coated so I used Plastidip to recreate them which will prevent chaffing the wires. Once the tabs are welded in place the wiring is placed and tabs bent over to hold wires.



I've been making these plates with nuts welded on the backside to be used on 70-81 F body cars. They replace the rivnuts that the factory used for the front sway bar frame mount.



These are all the pieces I'm currently offering to modify 70-81 F body front sub frames. There's been enough demand to create a legit business so I'll be filing for trade name etc. this coming week.



While installing some of the new components on my car I needed a jig to keep my drill straight while drilling out the holes for ARP studs that hold the upper control arms on my car. So I bonded a couple pieces of aluminum together, drilled holes on the drill press so I'd have a large hole that would be square to the piece keeping the bit aligned while I drilled out the frame. Then used a brass drift and BFH to install the oversized studs.







 
Definitely a Market for one off Fabrication .
Some jobs take forever to get done.
What Ed & Me are up against in Joliet.

Daily driver repairs lately too.

Ed wants in & out jobs like you Birdman.

I tried talking him into In Frame Semi Truck Diesel Engine Overhauls.
Brutal Work.
Pays $5,000-7,000 Labor.
Alll work must be done to perfection.
Ed Hates Semi trucks so not doing it.
I will do it on my own in the field.
Had to at my last Job.
Ex Boss got the Big Bucks instead of me.


Nice projects Birdman.
Looks Great.
 
I did about 10 Diesel engine overhauls last job.
So the Boss got lots of Money.
Some were $30,000 total bills.
 
I always question products that claim to have a certain value. So I decided to put my own products through some testing. Most of the sub frame components I'm making are designed to reduce deflection of the subframe in relation to the unibody. So I rigged up a test using a piece of right angle aluminum bolted to the unibody and an indicator bolted to the front of the frame horn. I loaded several hundred lbs. of weight unto the front of the passenger compartment and on top of the cowl. Then used a floor jack under the frame horns to test vertical deflection. Not exactly rock science but it proved the pieces offer a substantial reduction in deflection. With the subframe mounted by itself using solid body mounts deflection was 5/8"-3/4" and wth all of my pieces in place combined with the GEN II G-braces subframe vertical deflection at the front of the frame horns was reduced to less than 1/8" and that small amount appeared to be the floor of the car deflecting where the rear body mounts on the sub frame are attached under the front seats. I will be testing lateral deflection and twist this coming week.

 
Once the front clip is back on Deflection may be net Zero.

Road Race hardware but wondering how it would work street racing at night in straight line & at Dragstrip.

A few 2nd Gens here in Illinois have 60' footed 1.1 -1.0 on factory leaf springs.
 
Still lots of 2Nd Gen Camaro guys out there.

Out number us early 1970-1/2 -74 Pontiac F guys.
 
I would think that because the pieces are stiffening up the platform overall it would be better because of weight transfer much the same way frame connectors work. While I was testing the deflection in the upward direction when a car launches off the line the force is in the opposite direction. The pieces would also limit travel in that direction.Here's a pic with full array of pieces installed.



Since I'm creating a new business I need to promote it. One of the newest medias available is the 360 degree and virtual reality videos. If you haven't tried one you'll be amazed at how cool it is. The sphere on the tripod below is a 360 degree video camera. I'm working on filming short videos of each of the component I'm making describing the benefits of the part and how they are installed. The vids will get posted on You Tube or Photobucket where people can watch them. A lot of new phones have the 360 capability. You just move the phone for a side , top, or bottom view.

 
Good Luck With Your Business Venture Birdman.
Going back to work soon.
Finish my T/A then.
Miss Driving my Old Friend.
Trickiest part of Street Racing is hooking up clean and fast.
Tires are dirty.
No water box to clean off.
If time allows thrown down Clorax Bleach.
Burn them . Race Fast before 5.0 shows up.
 
Huge HP & Torque hard to put down on street .
4-speed helps. Adjust Stall easy & feather clutch & gas same time.

Stiffer chassis likely help.
 
Do you have a store front/website or someplace you sell from?

Good luck!

I had a website set up for the custom wheel center caps that could do sales back in 09-10 at the bottom of the recession. By the time I paid for permits, website set up, monthly hosting, credit card services etc. there wasn't enough profit to pay me, so I shut it down. I didn't have enough extra money to put into advertising to generate sales and because of the economy people weren't buying "extras" like custom caps. I still have inventory that I can list along with all the new items and could have more of the caps made at any time.

Went to city hall today to register trade name etc. and found out that no home based businesses are allowed that do any type of fabricating, manufacturing, shipping, receiving, or other business related stuff. Basically the only thing you can legally do in a residential zoned area in this city is a home office, so I've gotta figure something out. Meanwhile the sales I've been making have been to members of various forums and through word of mouth. I've also been contacted by people who would like me to provide restored and painted "bolt on" modified subframes. There's a huge gap between the people who want to just bolt on performance lowering/performance kits and the guys willing to spend 20 grand on a complete DSE aftermarket subframe with all the trimmings. The products I've been making help fill that gap but a lot of folks don't have big compressors, welders, die grinders, etc. or aren't allowed to do those types of things in their HOA's etc. and would rather just buy a subframe already done.

I have bought the domain name I want and others that could be used as redirects. I'm not a web expert so I'll have some learning to do on how to best go about 2016 e-commerce.
 
Your going have to rent a Business space or a Wharehouse Birdman.
Or Find a Farmhouse property that you can rent the Barn and Free range 24/7/365 days a year.
A Buddie.
2Nd scenerio I did myself for 12 years.

Wish we were closer.
I have the Farmhouse property.
5 acres big.
Like a City subdivision .
 
Farmhouse & property are Zoned Agricultural here.
No Litigation rules.
 
Its good you have your own website too Birdman.
I haven't done much with mine other than upload lots of photos.
Haven't posted anything new live to view.
Waiting. My T/A back up & Running.

I can tell you that competition is there in the Pontiac world.
Max.

All want to be #1.

Its the way all of us Pontiac guys are.

I love Street Racing.
The Fastest cars can be knocked down & You can Win.

Earn some extra $ I may buy a few Goodies from Ya.

With your own site no one can hang their Pecker out & Wizz on ya.

Always ok on Grumpys here but the site is small.
 
The Wifee' does all my IT work on my site for me.
IT administrator she is.
 
I've submitted all the legal paperwork and registered the trade name. As long as everything goes smoothly I'll get the official Okey Dokey in a couple weeks. The official name of the company is Laboratory Fourteen, Lab-14 for short. Now I've gotta start making company logo's etc. and figure out website stuff. I won't be actually making production parts myself. Just designing and prototyping new items while I have the other parts made by metal fabricating companies with laser, plasma, and water jet cutting equipment. Today I worked designing upper cowl supports to be used with G-braces on 2nd gen F bodies.
 
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