Hey all,
The frameover is going quite well. I've had tons of incredible help from
the local series crowd, incl. lro listers Jim Hall, Mitch Stockdale,
Ralph Bradt, and Dave Gomes.
I've hosted two frameover parties, and all these guys and some others
attended both. I don't know how on earth I would've gotten where I am
w/o the incredibly generous (and knowledgeable) help from these folks.
Before the first party, I had the wings, bonnet, windscreen, roof, doors
and breakfast off.
The day of the first party everyone showed up in the morning (8 folks
plus me working at the day's peak) and unleashed generators, compressors,
and welders--made quite a racket. Total destructive chaos as we tore the
old one apart, put the new chassis on the axles and springs, cut up and
repaired the bulkhead (Jim and Dave did artwork in this dept), mounted
the tranny, then welded the mounts for the Pontiac 151 on the new
chassis.
Then I ran around all over the state getting stuff sandblasted,
galvanized, and getting to know the folks at the local industrial
fastener place quite well. I think I also did some stuff to the truck,
but I don't know what.
Five faithful friends (nice alliteration, eh?) showed up yesterday and we
commenced reassembly. We got the engine in and the galvanized bulkhead,
breakfast, and t-pieces on the chassis. The tub (with freshly galvanized
steel supports underneath) went on there at some point. The new wiring
harness also ended up mostly connected. A day of soldering, riveting,
crimping, and cursing was enjoyed by me, and I think by all. I drove
Dave's G-wagen to the store for more brake lines (he is an artiste at
flaring and routing brake/clutch lines--I cry when I look at these) and
it executed a wonderful backfire right in the middle of downtown by
several cafes w/ outdoor seating. Heh heh.
I hung the middle doors (well, half doors--for my summer soft top setup)
after they began their 2-hr. drive home at 10:30 p.m. and found they
didn't line up. This is after I'd had us bolt and rivet the tub w/o the
rear doors on since there really was no adjustment possible between the
T-pieces and the rear of the chassis. It was disappointing to find a big
ol' gap behind the right middle door.
Tonight I was in there cleaning up the floatsam and jetsam and remembered
that T-piece had been slightly bent at the galvanizers' and I thought,
"what if I stick the hi-lift in the middle of that t-piece and jack it up
some?" It worked wonderfully! So the door's aligned quite nicely now.
But I guess the moment of truth will be in Oct. when I put the roof back
on . . .
This week I reckon the floors, wings, seatbox will go in, with bonnet and
windscreen to follow shortly after the wiring's completed, and the front
doors will go on as soon as I drill out the bolts that were galvanized in
situ and re-tap the captive nuts (I had to leave 'em in to locate the
captive nuts).
Also will install the battery box (a nifty plastic marine battery box
from the local chain auto store for $10) which I'm going to mount under
the seat--taking the old battery mount (cut from engine compt.) to the
welders' tomorrow to have 'em modify it a bit so I can invert it and bolt
it to the frame rail under the seat box, and mount the plastic box to it.
Well, that's the news. I guess the above explains my relative silence as
of late.
bill
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 14 2001 - 02:31:15 EDT