Gas, tires, oil.

Not only did the awful washboard road in Death Valley cause me to lose a power steering line, the exhaust system and a tire on my ‘82 diesel suburban, but when I went to open the rear door, the button pushed in and fell inside the door. To get the spare out, my wife had to crawl in the back and drag it over our luggage. Later back at camp, I used my makita to take off the door panel and retrieve the push button.

Back at home, I pulled the handle off and discovered the problem, a little diecast potmetal tab had broken. It retains the return spring and centers the rod that extends from the back of the button. The spring and broken piece are shown below the handle:

I rigged up a replacement with plumber’s tape (the metal equivilent of duct tape). If you don’t know, it’s a roll of sheet metal that has a series of pre-punched holes and is used to make pipe hangers and such. A little forming with pliers and a couple pop rivets and it’s done:

While I had the door apart, I wanted to add an interior door lock and latch. Stock, the only way to lock the rear doors is from the outside with a key, the only way to open the door is with exterior handle. This is not ideal, when locking the vehicle, you can just push down all the door locks in the front, but you need the key for the rear doors. We also occasionally sleep in the back when camping and you can’t get out the back, you have to crawl over the front seats. I’ve also had the rear doors swing closed while I was in the back getting something, again having to crawl out the front (a problem if the back is piled high with stuff). While the handle was off I saw how the latch and lock works. The rod on the button pushes against a plate that opens the latch. The lock works by lowering the plate so that the rod passes over it. So, first I determined that the little pull things on for door locks use #10-24 screw threads (at least older gm cars and trucks). Therefore I used some #10-24 all-thread (or “ready-rod”, continuously threaded rod) to make the lock (and latch) pull.

To make the latch pull, I just drilled a hole in the door and the latch plate. I used a nylock nut on the end. While the button on the outside of the door pushes, this interior latch just pulls. The lock knob attaches to the latch by the way of a coupling nut that I cross drilled with a clearance hole (see above). Then it was just a matter of screwing on some lock pulls.

I could have used a more traditional door handle, but this was simple and unobtrusive. It sits nearly flush, so it isn’t likely to interfer cargo.

I had an interesting day at the yardsales today, even though I didn’t buy much. At the first sale, I talked to a guy about his truck for a while. I’d seen it from a distance every day when I’m on my way to work, but I wasn’t sure about its actual make up. It’s Ford 1 ton 4x4 flatbed but it seemed to have much larger running gear under it. Turns the guy put in a 500 hp Caterpillar (3408?) v8 turbo diesel and 10 speed ranger gearbox. Then supplimented the suspension with airbags and 19.5″ rims. Said he gets 16 mpg unloaded. We talked diesels a bit, I mentioned how much I liked my 6.2 L suburban and how I’d like to get a Cummins 4bt from a chevy step van.

Then, at another yardsale I found this aftermarket oil filter (from back when cars didn’t come with oil filters):

The guy said he bought it for his truck, which he had bought new 50 years ago and still drives today. And then I looked up and saw a very nice ‘57 Chevy Cameo pickup. He said the stepside was $1800, but he sprung for the Cameo at $2200. He had used this add on filter until 1972, when he put in a 350 and automatic.

He recommended Scott toilet paper (seriously, it’s made so a full roll of toilet paper fits inside).

A few minutes of wirebrushing, then 320 grit on the DA and finally some tripoli on the buffing wheel and it cleaned up very nice. I have to wonder if it would actually work better than modern oil filters, the oil has to pass through a whole roll of toilet paper lengthwise, whereas in a new filter it just goes through a single piece of corrogated paper.
All of my cars currently have oil filters, but actually I want it to remove oil and water from compressed air for painting. I’ve been wanting a toilet paper air filter from TP tools, but I don’t paint enough to pay $79 for one.
I think this one will work fine, maybe I’ll use it with this nice airbush set I got at a yardsale last weekend:

Not bad for $5, its got a lot of tips and a bunch of baby food jars with the fittings already installed.

I needed some rubber washers to mount the gas tank on the trike, but the hardware store didn’t have the right size. I decided to make some myself. First I found an old inner tube that I had stashed behind the workbench, just for this sort of thing. Then I got an arch punch that I had found at a yardsale. I quickly punched out the ODs.

The ID needs to fit a 5/26″ bolt, but I don’t have that size punch. However, when at a recycling center I noticed some empty cartridges in their scrap brass bin. I bought a selection at scap price (and got the bucket for free).

5/16″ is .3125″, so 8 mm at .315″ is a nice fit. This is the cartridge head of an 8mm mauser (or 8x57mm) that I found. If you want you can sharpen the end, this also allows you to vary the size slightly, you can sharpen the inside (with a small round file or chamfer tool) for more clearance or the outside for less. So what cartridges should you look for? Well, obviously 6mm, 7mm, 8mm, 9mm and 10 mm will work for the corresponding metric sizes. An inside sharpened 17 caliber should work for a #8 screw and outside sharpened it should work for #10. The new 204 ruger might work for 5mm or #12. 25 caliber (25-06, 257 roberts, etc) or 6.5 mm for 1/4″ bolt. 8mm for 5/16″. 375 caliber or 9.3 mm for 3/8″, 44 or 45 caliber for 7/16″. And of course, 50 caliber for 1/2″. Good luck finding a 600 Nitro Express for 5/8″. Also, some cheap military ammo uses steel cases, obviously these will be sturdier.

I didn’t bother to sharpen the end and it worked fine.

Here are the rubber washers in place on the top tank mount, trapped between stainless washers. I have previously shown the bottom mount.

And here are the fat bobs finally mounted. The dash and filler are just sitting on top, they’re next.

I have previously shown how I put together a new drivetrain for my ‘52 chevy pickup: a new frame made out of 2″x4″ rectangular tubing, front suspension from a ‘79 formula 400 firebird (with disc brakes and a 1 3/8″ swaybar), a 9″ ford rear from ‘76 Lincoln Continental (also with disc brakes) and it was powered by a built 455 pontiac and 400 turbo trans.

This combination yielded amazing performance, but in spite of lowering the truck about 6″, it was still taller than my boss’s dodge dakota. So how did it go from a daily driver to a 10 year project? Listen and learn.
Eventually the trans started making a whining noise, I think this was because it wasn’t downshifting at stops, but the 455 had so much torque that I didn’t notice. I decided to take the cab off to remove the trans (I had had bad experiences pulling transmissions from underneath). While it was off, I decided to replace the floor; the PO had patched some holes with sheet metal from old appliances. Plus he had cut through the main floor brace to install a floor shifter. This went nicely and I decided to replace the firewall also, both to smooth it and to use heavier metal. The firewall was not made hold the brake master cylinder and would “oil can” when the brakes were used. Then one fatefull day, the cab sitting on the shop floor, I started gauging how hard it would be to chop the top. It started as just some lines with a grease pencil.

As you can see, I took the plunge. The back of the cab was almost vertical; it could be lowered straight down. Next time I’ll show the cuts and how it went back together.

I am trying to get the trike running within the next 2 weeks, so of course I started working on something that has nothing to do with it running. But any progress is good. I unpacked the fender supports (they have been wrapped in a wool blanket for the last 2 years). I set them in place and polished some 5/16 stainless carriage bolts to mount them to the rear frame.

The supports are made from some 3/4″ x 1 1/2″ x 16ga. tubing made for railings. I figured that the half-round edges would make them look streamlined. I formed the tapered ends by cutting out a wedge with a sawsall and bending the edge around, tacking with the mig as I bent it.
The fenders had also been packed up since the move.

When unpacked they looked just as craptactular as I remembered. When I put the final clear coat on, the temperature wasn’t right, it was a very cold Montana night, and I had a propane heater going full blast so one side was too hot and the other side was too cold. So the finish was a little dry. To top it off, the clothes dryer must have come on or something, because I suddenly got a ton of lint stuck to the surface.

Rather than repaint, I decided to see if I could buff them out. First I wet sanded them with 1500 grit paper. Then I buffed them out and waxed them. They don’t look too bad. I’ll show them buffed and mounted next.

Lets finish up on this fender. Last time I showed the wet sanding, now I need to mount it so I can paint it. I like to screw this sort of thing down, below you can see how I made a jig out of some scrap wood. I’ve had bad luck hanging stuff from wires.

I’ve already shown the black base coat and marblizing on another piece, so let me talk about the clear coat. I’m using a ureathane clear, in this case UFC-35 from House of Kolor. Its a flow clear, really made for a final flow coat after a high build clear (UC-35). But I’m not going to be color sanding and buffing, so I’m just using it as a single top coat. I put on 4 coats, you need to wait between coats til the paint is just tacky. You can test a taped spot (or the jig in my case) with your finger. Below, you may be able to see tiny strings stretching from my finger tip. It’s ready for the next coat when it stops stringing.

Here’s a closeup after the last coat:

The paint wasn’t too bad on the fender, so I just wet sanded it with 320 grit wet/dry paper.

I put some water with a trace of soap in an old squeeze bottle, some people use a garden hose, but you have to watch that you don’t ding the paint with the nozzle. Others dip the paper in a bucket, but I have found that grit (sand, dirt or whatever) can contaminate the water and leave scratches.
I like to use a piece of thin plastic foam inside my paper to prevent finger marks from getting sanded in to the paint. Cut the paper in half, then fold it in thirds for hand sanding.

Afterwards, all the water must removed from any crevices, otherwise, it may drip out when you painting and ruin the job. Get the nozzle of an air gun as close as possible and repeatly work over the whole part.

Here you can see a few drops forced out from under a rivet by the air pressure.

I picked up the car-shaped sanding block at a yardsale for a couple bucks (actually, nearly everthing in the picture is from a yardsale, flea market or auction, including the shelf itself).

Maybe blocking out a car won’t suck so much with this stylish block.

Before I put paint on my front fender, I had to tighten up the rivets holding it to the bracket. On the same fender for my trike, I drilled out the rivets and plug welded the holes. On my daily driver, I just wanted it to not rattle, so I peened the rivets on the anvil. I put a piece of cardboard underneath to prevent chipping of the paint.

The bracket was starting to rust, so I decided to paint it too. I removed the rust and scuffed the chrome with some 120 grit on the DA.

Next time, wet sanding, marblizing and clear coat.

I finally got some painting done last weekend. I did a forward control bracket for the trike, the front fender for my sportster and the aol CD case that is the prize for the Name that Tool winner. Today I’ll just cover the CD case.

First, I had to find a way to hold the pieces for painting. I used drywall screws to join some block of wood, then I used a staplegun to attach some duct tape sticky side out. They stuck really well, to remove them I had to cut the tape, then peel it off.

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