What did you do to your non-G body project today? [2022]

[Clutch]

So in all my usual running around I left out that my wife went to the Subaru dealership Friday night without me and turned in her lease... Yeah she did a thing but as I've said happy wife happy life.

And as for me. So far today I overslept but I guess I needed the rest. Got to the shop around 10 and grabbed a da and some 600 and now I have a fresh painted front bumper upper and face bar

I've been saving leftover 8555band didn't quite have enough so I over reduced it just a bit to stretch it out the upper may be transparent on the driver's side in the sun. I'm not sure yet because the light isn't the best in the body shop for examining paint. LoL all good 2 coats of Crest caliber clear and full send it looks way better than it did. Now I'm going to lock up and grab some lunch before I start in on the frame and cab floor. Hopefully the bumper will be dry enough to reassemble before I go home tonight I'd like to not have it sit in the body shop when the guys are here tomorrow.

 

[CopperNick]

So these first three pictures show that Indian wheel post disassembly. The keen eyed will have noted the green masking tape on the bundles of spokes and, for the curious, Indian used spokes of various lengths that were installed according to a particular lacing plan and pattern. Even though these spokes are rusty and corroded, they are original, and someone doing a restoration could theoretically rehab them and build a correct wheel with them.

What makes them so unique is the nipples to which these spokes were mated. They are the .343 diameter version which is war era and the older style. The rim itself bears the stamping of its Manufacturer, Kelsey-Hayes, as well as its size, tire spec, and year of mfg, that being in 1947!

And here is why this wheel would have had to have been disassembled no matter what. At some point in its life it must have been introduced to a curb or shoulder or maybe in an accident because the location where the rim id can be found is also the site of the damage that was done to it. The shoulder of the rim is both peeled back and flattened and you can see the marks on the edge where it took a beating. For this rim to be re-used it would need to be sent to the chromers and stripped down to the bare metal just to be inspected to see how badly deteriorated it has become.. Then it would have to be introduced to a heavy grade dead blow hammer and tweaked back into shape and that verified by a dial indicator. Should it get past all that, then it would have to be rechromed and fitted with a rebuilt hub and new spokes. And you wonder why the 100 point restorations cost so much to create.

Finally, my first choice for instrument of destruction, ah, disassembly. One of the first and oldest tools in my master tool chest, this is a Lisle hammer driven impact driver, a tool that I mentioned in another thread as being useful for "persuading" bolts and nuts to cooperate when they don't want to. The actuator for it was that copper headed heavy hammer shown above, and heavy is not a misprint. it has some serious heft to it and the long handle delivers more strike force at impact with whatever,.

Last shot is my portable vise doing what it does best. In this case It is holding a removable work surface that I used as a clamping base to hold the wheel while I reasoned with it using the impact driver and the copper heavy. To encourage the wheel to stay put, I employed the services of a pair of vice grips (not pictured, we all know what they look like?1?1/) What you see resting on the surface as a show and tell is the hub from that wheel. As I compose this, that hub is resting in a bowl of EvapoRust in which it will remain for a day or so, then get flipped over to do the other end. Once all the crud has been dissolved, I can get a better idea of its condition. Just as it is, it looks like I have a good useable spare for the shelf. The next??? project along this line is for me to rebuild the hub that I just painted and lace it to a !9 inch Dunlop rim, all to be installed on my 47. Yeah, I'm that old.

 

[Clutch]

I'm done for today I'm tired it's all catching up with me. After I ate lunch I scraped rust dirt and paraffin coating off frame rails all afternoon. I talked to one of the detailers at work Leo about helping me later in the week so I'll reconvene with him Wednesday night. I sent my corporate boss a text to let him know I'm not working on it Monday or Tuesday. Then I contacted the owner about why the mechanical shop doesn't have my daughter's Camaro back to me yet. Now I'm going to just chill in my chair until Janet and Lauren get home.

 

[Supercharged111]

I'm done for today I'm tired it's all catching up with me. After I ate lunch I scraped rust dirt and paraffin coating off frame rails all afternoon. I talked to one of the detailers at work Leo about helping me later in the week so I'll reconvene with him Wednesday night. I sent my corporate boss a text to let him know I'm not working on it Monday or Tuesday. Then I contacted the owner about why the mechanical shop doesn't have my daughter's Camaro back to me yet. Now I'm going to just chill in my chair until Janet and Lauren get home.

Not sure what you're using, but if it's not scaled a knotted cup brush in an angle grinder worked great for me. That and a flapwheel.

 

[axisg]

set up another pressure washing rig for work today. Need to drop wifeys car this week to the body shop and grab her a rental. She got tagged good in the back bumper earlier in the week but body shop is backed up. I really like that Camry too. 4x 3" tek screws are holding it together good enuf.

Towtruck guys didnt like it when I showed up to the site with a cordless impact and screws after telling her for 30 mins it wasn't safe to drive

 

[Wraith]

Too much car work and not enough time away from work.

Spent yesterday working with my brother on the Mercury shoe-horning the 455 in place of the old 350, it's getting closer and then spent today working of the Boxster to get it sold, no time for that when I have two more personal projects coming it the next couple months. No rest for the wicked.

Detailed the interior, replaced the bad passenger side window regulator, changed the god knows how old oil (last registered in 17'), and a quick wash for beauty pics to get it gone.

 

[86LK]

So about this time last year i had a box show up on my doorstep that just happened to contain a refugee from E-Bay; to be precise, a complete wheel assembly for a late 47-53 Indian Chief, less the rubber.

As you may have already be aware, the condition of this gem was rather less than pristine, to the point where I gave up on trying to delouse it using regular means and let it sit. This spring I went out and bought a kid's wading pool and 5 gallons of feed grade molasses. The ratio varies from video to video but averages out at between 1/5, to 1/10. That is, 1 gallon of molasses to 5 gallons of water. The wading pool becomes the tank and into the mixture the wheel was to go. (Yeah, well someone git me a shotgun, them pigs are trying to fly again)

Today, because it was both hot and quiet, i decided for no other reason to pop the main door open and drag out the portable vise onto the approach. Added a micro shelf to the vise and clamped the wheel to that with vise grips. Dug out my hammer driven impact tool from the main box in the basement, retrieved my copperhead heavy hammer from under the roller cab, and applied some hammer driven torque to the spoke nipples; Just for Sh*** and G*ggl*s. Took a few major pops to encourage the first few but after that they all seemed to get the message and a few actually moved under no greater influence than a 5/16ths combo wrench.

All together, it took about 5 hours to turn the wheel into a rim, spokes, and the hub. Lost one spoke to the dreaded snap of spoke suicide. Another looked iffy but gave up when I introduced it to a pair of vice grips to control the twist.

Summary: The rim is original and drilled for the the large diameter spoke nipples, .343" in dia, They are old school but still can be had from Buchanans. Same goes for the spokes as the incumbents are nasty; badly corroded and rotten, plus a few that seem to want to imitate boomerangs. The hub needs some serious wire wheel love but could easily be laced to another rim and used as was. Me, I'm picky.

As for the rim, well I still have the molasses in the pail and the wading pool, and the rim is looking more and more like a prime candidate to go for a swim. Good thing about the molasses is that, once done I can dump the whole mess into my vegetable garden as fertilizer for next year. Be kind of neat if I could Rube Goldberg a device to dump molasses on the cats when they come a-calling to use my garden as a latrine.............................. now I wonder................



Nick

what exactly does the molasses do? I'm assuming it's used to remove layers of grunge, etc, but how exactly would molasses do that?

 

[Clutch]

Not sure what you're using, but if it's not scaled a knotted cup brush in an angle grinder worked great for me. That and a flapwheel.

That's the plan but so far I've just been scraping off rust debris and the paraffin coating that's left with a puddy knife

 

[Ugly1]

Don't strip the plug threads! 3v plugs aren't a big deal with the extraction tool. Stripped 2v plug threads suckkk.

Actually came out better then expected. Though I cursed every ford engineer a blue streak for the design. They need design engineers to work 5 yrs on cars before they have them “design”🤬

 

[Ugly1]

what exactly does the molasses do? I'm assuming it's used to remove layers of grunge, etc, but how exactly would molasses do that?

Acts as a light acid ( like coke or vinegar)