Ol'fogasaurus black buggy

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Too much dew on the grass and too cold to work outside (and the wife is watching the Seahawks in England right now) so I made some garage time. I started to work on the new mounting setup... similar to the first but got rid of the off-set holes for the turning brake cylinders.

I think I mentioned that the seam is on the short side so it is a "leaning time" again.

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This shows the rough in of the notch and but before the sides of the slot were spread.

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I don't necessarily recommend doing this but it worked. I opened up the end of the notch and inserted the two blocks (shown above in other pictures) and worked then in down towards the radiuses giving assist by a blade style screwdriver and a ballpeen hammer but not bashing it either... just a "get in there you POS"... you know, gentle taps. I also had the blocks somewhat clamped in place by a couple different methods so no nasty accidents would happen.

Once I got it so it would stay pretty much in place then the press came into play. I pushed it down then using the press or a vice I made sure it settled down as close as I could to the bottom. The existing radius did limit some but it was more toward the end of the notch where things got stubborn. I also keep the top of the opening closed into to the blocks to limit that distortion when working the metal.

I slipped the handles up to the notch and things are A-OK. The distance off the floor of the tube is going to be a bit lower than the stock mount as it's material is thicker and no radius. The distance should change by about 1/16th of an inch (1.5875mm) but I don't think this is enough to cause much problem.

The sides are drying from bluing so I can drill the handles mounting holes.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Got my chores done quicker than expected so I had about a half-hour of free time in the garage.

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(tee-hee, giggle, giggle).

[Ol'fogasaurus]

This should be the last on the turning brake photos/discussion for a while... hopefully that is.

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I finished off making then new mount today. All that is left is the straightening out of some supposed to be straight places and figuring out the 4 mounting places then install the threaded inserts for them (1/4-20). I think I will have room to not need some spacers incase the fastener heads ride the radius of the rectangular tube.

I will have to drill the holes on both the top and the bottom sides then open up the top holes to drop the cap head hex bolts in the holes in the bottom then use a hex driver to tighten things up. Then, if the holes on top aren't too big then put some short threaded button head hex head bolts in the close the access holes.

The blue tape marks the areas that I think it safe to drill holes in for the inserts and still miss the shift rod. The gaps between the new mount and the tunnel looks worse than they are but I will double-check things again.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

'Got out in the garage today as is was such a nice spring (?) day. I moved the pan, on the rotisserie, outside then removed everything not tied down so I could start the boxing of the shock towers (necessary... no, not until you break one that is ).

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I started to turn the pan over to look at some things on the bottom side and... no go. The torsion tube end hit the wheel of the rotisserie. Not today but I am going to have to dig out the cherry picker to lift the rear of the pan up so I can rotate either the mount, the pivot or both as the pan should rotate 360° like it used to.

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I knew there would be some final fitting and some bending (heat I think) and this is kind of what things look like. It is easier to see in the pan rotated position.

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I'm still not sure I want to strengthen up the pan to torsion tube like this so I was looking into Hibbard's way of adding support. Not sure I like or am able to weld as fine as he did so I will look into it more.

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This was another thing that has been bothering me. When I drilled through the body lift and the pan for bolts I thought I missed the stock holes as I reached under and felt what felt like the top and side of a threaded insert. Turned out that it was just flashing from the drill-through. Everything is good here.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I forgot, the resetting of the rotisserie is a several hour job I think. The getting the cherry picker out and putting it together is almost half the time then putting it away is about 2/3s that time (my back hurts just thinking about it ). The real work to fixing the connections to the proper place should not take that long.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Well, my guess was 2 hours and that is about what it took to re-assemble the hoist, use it to support the rear of the pan so I could take the mount and rotisserie mount off it. It turned out that I had to rotate the mount 180° and then do the same with the mount after the mount was in place. There were some longer tubes on the converted engine stand than made a big difference as I couldn't fully level the pan out side to side as the stand wanted to lift off the ground and try to tip over as is went into bind.

I don't remember when I built the rotisserie but it was sometime in the late 90's I think; pre '97. If I were to do it again I would make 1+ change to it. The problem comes mostly from the frame head as where the beam bolts in it is laid back about 6°; this is for beam caster alignment. I went out and remeasured angles just for the heck of it and the front of the tunnel is 0°, the area where the e-brake is is about 1/2° to 1° and the rear of the tunnel is 1° with the slope being towards the rear; again, this is my pan. I also measured the end of the pickle fork just behind the relief area for the CV joint and it is ~1° up which makes sense for deflection for the transaxle and cantilevered engine.

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It took me about 15 minutes just to tear down the hoist then put the parts in it's storage place.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

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I got the first piece fitting and tacked in place. The arrow points to what things look like when you sidetracked and forget to turn on the shielding gas . Tomorrow the "smoke wrench" applied to the one gap area so I can pull it closer to the rise to the body mount itself.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Got some garage time today so I started final fitting then welding on the left side shock tower (no pix! ) I rediscovered today that I will never be a show quality welder... for sure.

I had to tack the sop piece in place then heat it to bend it to the side that rose to fit the top of the shock mount then I tacked it in place while it was hot. Worked OK but the welds were not pretty as I couldn't brace my hand that was doing the welding. I also had some gaps to fill as the ribs were tapered in thickness down to the main forging.

I figure with some cleanup work and a lot of paint then no one except me and who ever buys it when I am gone will notice . It should be strong though.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

No work done today nor for a few more days as I messed up my back doing house things to get ready for fall and winter. We are in our umpteenth day of fog here. It has about a 1000' height so in Seattle so that the tops of a few buildings and the Space Needle was about the only things showing above the fog.

Anyway, went out looking for some "Bluing" and couldn't find any close by so I went to a fastener shop in the next big town north of us. At one place the guy said to go to the grocery store next door but I said this is for metal not clothes … Oh! No one seems to stock it any more including where I used to get it which has now changed hands. When I did find it the name for it is now "Machinist's ink" or "machinist's dye". They said that it isn't called for much anymore due to the CAD and Machines setup for the converted datasets derived from the CAD program.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

No pix today.

Just got off jury duty and learned a lot from it from both sitting and watching and jurors questioning. I think there were 5 trials being started Monday and for each there were 35 potential jurors chosen to be whittled down to 13 with number 13 being the optional juror so if something happens to any of the "seated" jurors. I started out to be "seated" in both cases. (so much more to this some of which is kind of funny [in a nice way] but necessary... kind of like planning ahead on a project like a buggy.

One case there were 90 people called to be whittled down to 13; it was a murder case. Tuesday there was one of two more started. I got booted 2X as they both were drug cases and one of my stepsons passed (I found him) due to drug use so I wasn't eligible to be on those case. On the second case I was the first of the (I forget the word) defense lawyer's choices and the tone he used was funny. After the judges and both lawyers questioning of the prospective jury members I already had my stuff picked up off the floor and was ready for it ) to be rejected.

A lot of sitting around in the jury room reading and the book I was reading was in a boring, a necessary character introduction , part of the book which made the days longer. The room held something close to 200 prospective jurors and they came and went then came back again during lawyer and judge motions so it was busy that way most of the time. There is so much else but this is not buggy stuff so back to it...

Took a picture of where I am but not going to post it as the welding is so bad. I tried to weld it with the pan 90° to the ground; it was just too far a way to really see what I was doing. I think I had the wire speed too fast also as it welded to the insert piece and to the ~90° side but jumped the seam itself. I have rotated the pan via the rotisserie maybe to 45° but it isn't much better; closer to sitting on a low step stool (my seat with tool box is a bit too high for the 90° as is the other adjustable stool). I am not sure if trying to weld through the motor mounts and the leg of the rotisserie will give better access in this case.

Sorry about going off topic the whole process was so interesting. I still have a couple of other trees to trim before the bad weather really comes in... you know weeks and months of "grey sky's" and hanging or falling moisture here in the PNW . Newbies to the area are already upset about the gray/grey sky's especially after then longer than usual warm sunny summer we had. The trimming of trees and other preparation has to be taken care of before focusing back on the buggy is at the top of the list.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Had some traveling to do so on the way I stopped by the fastener supply store I usually use and got some 1/4 X 20 cap screws. 2 are 1/2 inch long and the others are 1 each of 5/8th and 3/4 inch long. Since I don't know what the grip will be (the "grip" is the dimensions of what you are trying to clamp together) and since I never have installed "threaded inserts" I am not sure how long of fasteners I will need.

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This is what the threaded insert kit looks like. The second biggest thread size is 1/4 X 20 (the 20 is threads per inch. 5/16 X 18 is the largest I the kit of 4 sizes which I think too big), which, since there is going to be 4 bolts and the most of the handle pull/load will be along the length of the mount and tunnel so this should be OK (I hope, I hope, I hope ! ). The reasons for choosing the small head is that since the shifter runs through the tunnel in the same area and I don't know the depth for sure I think the 3/4" max s/b OK. Whicle the head is a bit taller than normal especially for the handle end I think it is going to be OK too.

I will try to put the front pair of fasteners to the rear of the handles but accessible w/o the need for an access hole; the rear pair will be not too far in from the rear relief in the tube with a pair of access holes in the top of the mount for the driving tool to mate to each of the rear fasteners. Complicated but not too complicated I think.

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Because I also have to stay wide to clear the unknown position of the sifter rod, which seemed to be a bit off-set to the driver's side which means I may have to be close to the inside radius which is another reason for the cap screw and the split/lock washer. "Riding the radius means the hole and the head may be intruding on the radius which also means a special washer with a big radius on one side (hard to find if you could or you'd have to make your own washer or spacer with the radius) hence one of the reasons for the type of head I chose.

I've been kind of lazy lately and haven't drawn things out... which I probably should do. Still trying to get the yard work done between cold and rainy weather and before the OMG stuff comes in .

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... 8&t=118833

I stumbled on to this today: its been there for years I guess but scanning down I saw something of interest, looked at it and there was one pix is germane to what I am trying to do.

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This is both ends of the shifter in the tunnel but in the first case since the connection end of the shift rod is not attached the distance below the tunnel is not measurable.

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This is the picture I stumbled on this am found in the URL at the top of this post. What is shows is the mount for the shift rod to go through (sans the bushing) and that, like I thought, is it off-set slightly to the driver's side.

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I think I took this photo while the trans was installed but not positive on it but it does have some relevance I think.

The next two pix are what might be called "discovery pictures". They are more of interest than solid facts but have to be taken care of.

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This is the shape of the area I am playing with. Notice the taper to the rear which is where I have been most concerned with.

You can also see the fill area; the problem I had here was that the filler piece I used was not of the same quality as the tunnel material so I got blow though at the rear of the filler. Too much heat and apparently there was paint residue in the grain of the tunnel so I got a lot of spitting. My bad!

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This is a bit more interesting as it is what the shape of the area I am working in looks like. The one side looks to be straight up and down but isn't as the pan is now sitting on the rotisserie at a 45° angle so I didn't get a perfect flat trajectory as I pressed down on the duplicator tool. It does give an idea to the shape though.

Mu concern here is not only the shift rod being in the way (I think it is too low to be of a problem) but more so the radiuses of the tunnel which I have to stay inboard of. The underside radius will be slightly inboard of the outer radius.

For what it is worth.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I rotated the pan via. the rotisserie and got a good copy of the shape.

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This is a tracing of the shape of the tunnel with a tracing of the shape of the new mount on top. Not perfect but close enough to figure things out.

I show the holes in the two pieces about 1/2 in in from the OML (outside mold line) but it could be about 1/8th inch closer to the OML. You want to stay way from the stretched metal in the bend for strength. I still have to try to find a video of installing the riv-nuts before I get too carried away with this.

Lee

Update: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=vi ... ORM=VRDGAR

I referred to them as threaded inserts but I think riv-nuts is a more common term.

[Leatherneck]

I need to get on my computer, the phone isn’t showing pics.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Yeah, I have been having problems too. I just got an iPad that allows me to draw among other things but I can't set it up to connect here as my Ol'fogasaurus name as it has a " " " (symbol) in it. Go figure. The same with trying to post a video and some pix. They don't match what the forum now allows.

Lee