Because my wife said yes! 30x40 pole building

[Jcrock]

So... I got an invite from a friend to go country cruising in side x sides. He told me bring my buggy. Apparently the used bfg all-terrains I ran on the back grip harder than the paddle tires on sand, lol. Go figure

Only damage was: exhaust, light whip and my pride. A good time was had by all. Dusty as hell though we need a good rain.




I did find this cup holder fairly adequate, as it only spilled a swig of my liquid refreshment.

 

[Jcrock]

So I got my buggy back together in time to go to the dunes with my buddies.

I went to load it up and low and behold.... no spark. Running around I picked up a new distributor and switched out the condenser and got it going.

The distributor continued to give me fits. Air cooled VW originally have a points distributor... here's a new one on me. The points didn't just get out of adjustment but the rivet that holds spring began to slide on the dizzy shaft throwing all sorts of weird signals.

After we got that figured out she ran pretty well right up until I tree go in my way.



This also revealed that my oil filter had been rubbing on the engine cradle tubing.



I borrowed a spare wheel and replaced the oil filter. I'm amazed a friend would loan me a wheel... I kinda felt like WRECK IT RALPH all weekend. 30 min. into a nice ride in the dunes a friend flagged me down that I was spewing oil. I must have hit that tree harder than I thought because I cracked the oil filter mount... In my defense these are prone to breaking and put the oil filter in a pour location. It was on my to do list to change out to a remotemount thats more protected.

I still had a good time but an expensive trip. Lots of beer and smoked meats were consumed. Also of note, I turned 39 on this trip.
The guys put a birthday girl ribbon on my buggy...It managed to stay there all the way home.



In a very remarkable stroke of sand dune irony... we pushed a high centered green Tahoe with 2 teenagers in it back on 4 wheels. We also some how found a wallet out on the sand and to top it off I managed to occupy the same space as a rzr while running the trails. Wreck it Ralph

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Well happy belated birthday! You CAN NOT borrow any of my wheels

 

[Chrisb62]

Well happy belated birthday! You CAN NOT borrow any of my THINGS

Fixed it for you.......


Happy belated birthday

 

[zmotorsports]

Happy Birthday, "Ralph". With all that destruction I'm glad no one in your party was injured. Generally, with more carnage in a weekend at the dunes eventually comes a major mishap where someone ends up taking a ride in a chopper. Not good.

There are days I still miss my sandrail, then others that I'm glad I don't.

 

[Jcrock]

Happy Birthday, "Ralph". With all that destruction I'm glad no one in your party was injured. Generally, with more carnage in a weekend at the dunes eventually comes a major mishap where someone ends up taking a ride in a chopper. Not good.

There are days I still miss my sandrail, then others that I'm glad I don't.

One of our friends came down for the day. Got in early and went for a ride on his own just putting around because the rest of the group wasn't ready. It was a fortunate ordeal he just happened to come across a wrecked 4-wheeler. Young guy out on his own wrecked pretty good and laid there a couple hours. They air lifted him out. The park ranger came by the next day with an update and a big thank you. Guy had 7 broken ribs and also broke both hips. Long recovery for sure.

 

[Jcrock]

This ugly turd followed me home yesterday. I've been looking for a bus transmission for a while, the few I've found sell quick and I'm never seem to be in the right place right time.

This buggy has been on market place for a while, out of the way and the price kept dropping. I finally talked my wife into letting look at it with the premise I sell my other one.

The frame is rough and it needs some love, kinda like my blue buggy. I just got to have projects I guess. I believe this was originally setup for a pinto engine. The young kid traded a 4-wheeler and none running jeep for it. He didn't know anything about dune buggies.



The young guy was hot rodding it around right before I pulled up and did this to the crank pulley. I felt like I low balled him but we'll see. There will be some sweat equity here but I'm confident I can get it up to snuff.

Check out these meats that came with it. This is said to have aa 1915 vw motor but with out receipts I wonder.

I'll keep ya updated.

 

[Jcrock]

So the more time I dig into this purple buggy the more I'm perplexed by the miss use of good parts. Take for instance the 8 pin crank and fly wheel. Certainly an upgrade from the stock 4 pin. It's designed to handle more horse power but the young kid I bought this from mist have been driving this buggy quite a while with a loose flywheel. Every pin is wallow out on the crank and the fly wheel.

That fly wheel was flopping around in the bell housing of the transmission for a while, I wore through the bottom on the housing. I went ahead a put my impact with a rubber hose on the input shaft and ran it through the gears. This is why I bought this buggy I wanted the lower gear ratios in the 3-rib bus transmission. Gears were fine, and I'll epoxy the hole closed in the transmission.

I've decided to tear down the engine and possibly replace the crank. Hopefully I won't find any more issues. Likely the case will need to be line bored but we'll see. In prep I welded up a mount and have the engine sitting on one end of my welding bench.

 

[Jcrock]

I started tearing down the vw engine.
Ported heads, and for being an air cooled engine they are so clean.



They also have upgraded rocker arms. Very nice setup.



I got called in for dinner but before I did I measured the cylinders: 92mm bore, 69mm stroke. According to my handy little chart that's 1835cc engine. Not the 1915 that I was told but after the upgraded cylinder heads I don't feel totally let down.

We'll have to see how the block looks if it's clearance for a long stroke crank might as well upgrade to a 72mm or 74mm stroke crank.

 

[Jcrock]

Not much going on. My wife and I have been working on something big.

I have a whole bunch of buggy parts purchased and no time to work on stuff.

I did buy some flood likes on Amazon Prime day. Kinda a fun little project thrown together to see if it worked the way I wanted.

Now, to mow the lawn...

 

[Jcrock]

Something from work that I will be tinkering on. This is the motor and reducer on a 20k bushel per hour bucket elevator in a grain elevator. I've been asked to spec in a replacement drive, not that anything is wrong with this one.

That's a 200hp U- frame motor, predates a Nema standard. It's probably pretty inefficient. It's attached to a Foote Brothers gearbox with a date code of Oct. 1958! That gearbox is approx 8' long, 5' tall and 2' wide. Both motor and reducer are mounted on a welded steel base in the shape of an "L" with a concrete pedestal under that.

Now 20k bph isn't that much by today's standards but in 1958 this was a Cadillac. That bad thing is dimensionally nothing
will fit off the shelf. I'll look at all the big boys for option. Dodge, Falk and Nord. Should be kinda fun.

 

[Jcrock]

Well I guess I should make it GJ official... we had an addition join our little group.
Little guy is named Cole. Came to us 2 months ago via 24 hrs of labor followed up with a C-section and some under glow lights!

Both Mama and Babe are doing great.





Man, this little fella keeps us hopping. I'm sure this is a shocker when I say my shop time has been severely limited.

My wife is still on maternity leave and I'll take some time off again shortly. But I did take Friday off and my wife allowed me almost a full day to get somethings done.



I got different seats mounted in this purple buggy. I made engine horn mounts back to the frame, and and oil cooler & fan mount. I still need to play with where I want the turning brakes mounted.

My apprentice made an appearance... I think he approved of my beer signs. He really didn't say much otherwise.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Congrats!

 

[BlakeTheCarGuy]

Congratulations on the baby.

 

[loganb]

Congrats to all! As you progress down the journey, the days will be long but the years short! Only advice I can offer is sleep training ours is the best thing we have done, it's amazing how much better life is with kids going to sleep at 7 and not waking in the night.

 

[JJC]

Congrats on the New little guy

 

[Jcrock]

Since I know you're wondering. My Dad is still tinkering on that Willie's Truck he picked up. He still has his part time retirement gig and this blazing hot summer has slowed his progress.

We had a family get together this past weekend and I was able to admire his progress..... body men do not run in our family ‍♂




The fire wall is already painted the rest of the cab is primed, it's amazing how many flaws show up under an even color.

 

[Jcrock]

So we made a 6 hour drive to attend a cousin's wedding this weekend. We gathered several family members in an Air B&B. My brother in-law recently bought a Tesla . We did some snooping around to see if we could find a 220 outlet to charge his car faster.

We didn't find an outlet but we did find this.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Looks like you found the stud rat....

 

[DeeDubz]

Damn thats an old school panel

 

[Jcrock]

Man it's been a bit.

Figured you fellas would like to see my dad's progress on his old willys pickup.

About 6 weeks ago now I drove up to help him mount the cab back on the chassis. When I pulled up my dad in the most stoic dad pose ever, arms crossed hand on chin was pondering the best way to do this.



In case your wondering that's a model '48 dad on a model '58 ford 8N attempting to drop the cab of another '58 back into place.



...and four bolts and 30min later she was done.

 

[Jcrock]

Now ever since then it's been a whorl-wind. I put together my parts dune buggy so I could 1) got on a guys trip to the dunes 2) sell it.




Old aluminum 14" wide circle track seats are gone, I fab'ed up new mounts for these plastic ones, much more comfortable but not suspension seats by a long shot. I also mounted the cutting brake and changed some stuff around for a Beatle transmission.


I raddle canned it all one color. Black. There's at lease 4 other colors under that, a few variations on this buggy. I believe at one point is was set up for a pinto engine, the back has been stretched a little.



I did have to embrace the orange and gave it a few orange accents but really not my color, 5 point harnesses came that way and I'm not buying different ones.

I dropped in the old motor from my other buggy... proven but not high performance.

Between work, kiddo and my wife going back to work this was testing all our patience. I'd be working on wiring and my wife would come out with the baby and think I don't been doing anything. I fought some timing and carb issues that I hadn't fully corrected from my last trip with this engine. I also ran into issues with the turning brake and getting it to bleed correctly since it had been so poorly installed before.

But I made it.

---

 

[Jcrock]

We made it to the dunes. My buddy pulled his out of his storage shed only to find the buggy that ran perfectly a few weeks prior had a locked up clutch.

No worries we got this.



Engine pulled, clutch disk and pressure plate replaced.... only then to brake the clutch fork.

My wife and I both came down with a 24hr stomach bug. My wife was home with the kiddo and I was in a camper hoping a didn't get anyone else sick.

It's a crappy way to spend a few days vacation.

 

[Jcrock]

Ya might get a kick out of this.

Principal is sound need to refine the execution. I rigged up my engine hoist to be a swing. The firring strip you can barely see is hooked to my drill running very slow to rock him. I got a 30 min nap out of him.

This is what happens when mom leaves us unsupervised!

 

[Jcrock]

Holly Cow it's been a year since my last post. As you can imagine our little fella keeps us running and while I've been busy I have pirorized sharing it.

My wife graciously allowed me enough time to finish rebuilding the 1835cc engine for my dune buggy.

Regretfully I didn't take hardly any pictures of the rebuild. My hands were covered with assembly lube anyway. This engine just fought me tooth and nail. 1) ordered the wrong bearings. 2) it went together but was to tight on one of the middle crank bearing so ended up having it line bored. 3) had to put a helicoil in for #1 spark plug. 4) newish fuel pump locked up while sitting. Just lots of little inconveniences.

I also rebuilt the entire rear suspension to accommodate the bus irs transmission. Good or bad I did away with the torsion bars and put in air bags. I studied pictures I found online with places like woodsbuggy.com etc. But no one really mentions some of the details or pit falls of doing this.




I made some mistakes that I'll have to address. I wasn't initially sure of my ride height. Or how to hold my bags in a "neutral" position.



The bags turned out ****-eyed and bulging out one side once aired up. I ran about 45psi out on the dunes and they held up great but I need to change the top mount to true everything up.

 

[Jcrock]

In the mist of everything else.

I traded up drill presses.

Powermatic 1 hp. With selling my other one, and older central machine I was only out $100. Only issue is a ding in the head and Crack in the belt cover.

I also added some more beer swag



My little guy really enjoys spending time in the shop with me but man he keeps me on my toes. Had a scare where he popped the cap on some 80-90w gear oil. One call to poison control and 3 or 4 days a really nasty diapers later he's no worse for wear.

 

[Jcrock]

In the mist of everything else.

I traded up drill presses.

Powermatic 1 hp. With selling my other one, and older central machine I was only out $100. Only issue is a ding in the head and Crack in the belt cover.

 

[Jcrock]

Only hiccup was loosing a wheel. I ran a set of larger single rib tires but that rib is harder on the wheel bearings. After this I switched to a smaller set of smooth wheels. It turned so much better with the cutting breaks and through less sand from the tires. However the H-beam dug in more on rougher trails. I need to find a larger set of smooth wheels and I be happy.




It was a good trip and a good few days off.

 

[Jcrock]

I whipped together this brake to bend some tabs for my buggy. It's 24-1/2" long so should be able to do plenty. It was maybe 2 or 3 weeks later my cylinder developed a pretty good drip. She's a big 'ol girl and I'm really not excited about rebuilding it, not sure what I'd find.

 

[Jcrock]

This is the second time this fall I've need to repair a soffit. In the 10 yrs I've lived here I've never has so many rodent issues. I'm not sure what the deal is.

Any idea to discouraged this?

 

[Jcrock]

Man oh man I've been fighting the crud all through Christmas & New years. Maybe my second trip the Doc will finally nip it in the bud. I probably got started to quick and over did it.

I blame my wife for bringing it home from her office.



I was given a couple semi break drums and was itching to put them to use. First was a stand for my porta-band. I made it about 38" tall which I think will work well for cutting tabs etc and not being hunch over. I'll add a plug and separate switch at some point. The other is a receiver hitch on top of a 12" dia pipe I had laying around. I'm kinda notorious with my family about picking up random receiver hitches I find laying on the highway. I have 3 or 4 laying around and used several on my welding table too. I plan on cutting in other receivers into the pipe to hold other vices, jigs and hitches. The down fall on this is I welded the receiver hitch on top with out much thought. I've never seen it before but something pretty hefty must have run over this one because it's racked crooked and won't except a 2" hitch .

A problem for another day.

 

[Jcrock]

I bought 1-1/2" x 240 degree die a while back... I want to build front a-arms for my dune buggy. My plan is to build the a-arms out of 1-1/4 but my changes to the frame will be 1-1/2"

I finally pulled the trigger on a swag off-road. I'd kicked around the idea of building my own and finding a used hydraulic power pack.... I kinda gave up on that idea.



It works pretty go I'd say. I went about 183 or 4 degrees... spring back was a little more than I expected. This is 1-1/2 .120 wall. Made my air compressor work a little.

I have most of this all planned out in my head...now to find time to bring it into fruition.

 

[Jcrock]

It seems like forever since I had any shop therapy. My wife and I have both been incredibly busy with work stuff, it never ends and our 2 yr old kinda body slams us when we get home.

My wife worked all last Saturday to finish requests for a board meeting Monday. Daddy duty can be fun sometimes. Little guy reorganize my work bench... I mean I know it needs help but really

Nut drivers and drill bits everywhere! He loved it.

I whipped a quick little project I had on the back burner. Time has been limited but feels nice to complete something out here instead of just accumulating parts for far off goals.

 

[Jcrock]

It seems like forever since I had any shop therapy. My wife and I have both been incredibly busy with work stuff, it never ends and our 2 yr old kinda body slams us when we get home.

My wife worked all last Saturday to finish requests for a board meeting Monday. Daddy duty can be fun sometimes. Little guy reorganize my work bench... I mean I know it needs help but really

Nut drivers and drill bits everywhere! He loved it.

I whipped a quick little project I had on the back burner. Time has been limited but feels nice to complete something out here instead of just accumulating parts for far off goals

 

[Jcrock]

I got another little project knocked out.

Several years ago I pulled this old garden bench out of dumpster. It was a little worse for wear but still very functional even with a broke slat.



This past winter did little to improve it's condition and with weather being nicer a fella might want to sit on a bench and enjoy a liquid libation.

I had a few ideas but generally tare it apart, clean it up and put it back together. The cast end pieces were wire brushed and rattle canned in epoxy black.

For the slats I thought about redoing then in the same white oak or maybe teak or some weather resistant. Instead I found a deal on some 1x1-1/2 aluminum tube. It took some elbow grease to get the oxidation off and the I rattle can them in some clear coat. We'll see how long that lasts.



I ran out of material with 2 slats left to go. I considered getting some 1x4 material and plasma cutting some ornate design but in the end I duplicate the other slats in steel. Simple and cheaper than my other options.

Now for drinks

 

[Jcrock]

So I picked up that powermatic drill press a year ago. It was a dent & scratch deal. It'll never cared for the keyless chuck I've changed out the drive belt but cannot get the motor to stop slipping. I can literally reach down and grab the arbor and slip the belt. This is on the lowest speed setting, 250 rpm. It gets better at faster speeds but I really like lower speeds for larger drill bit sizes through metal.

Enter a deal on this craftsman drill press. It had been in a storage shed on a farm for several years.



Shocker....another scratch & dent deal. I'm a tightass...what can I say.

I epoxied the switch cover back together and figured out the cobbled up wiring.



I'll get some abs plastic sheet and redo the bottom attachment point but it works for now.

The inside was full of mud-dobbers. To the point the throw was only 2". I tore apart the rack mechanism and cleaned all the crud out. Regreased and reassembled, it works very well.



I had to track down the right belt sizes and bought a cheap gear chuck from the local tool store. I'm into this less than the powermatic, the motor is tagged as the same HP and it goes down to 150 rpm. In addition to the larger more stable base & table. I'm a little ahead.

In the meantime I have a powermatic fir sale lol.

 

[Jcrock]

My dad has been slowly knocking out his willys pickup. Even with all the heat this summer he got doors and bed done. The rear fenders are rough & taking alot of time. It's a fun progression to watch.

 

[Jcrock]

Well this summer my 2 yr old really enjoyed climbing up on my car trailer...thats all fine & well until he found the rotten deck boards. Que the referb.

I replaced a couple mangled stake pockets and added rub rails. I debated heavily on making the fenders removable but in the end left them alone. I didn't find a clean/functional design I liked.


I removed the fold up ramps, the catch alot on wind. I can always put them back on if needed. I got some 3/16 diamond tread plate and decked the beaver tail. I also picked up some aluminum ramps and built a cage to hang under the back of the trailer.



I mixed up some VanSickle tractor paint using mineral spirits & their hardener. I fought some issues with my paint gun but as a whole I like the way it turned out. I ended up rolling on the underside of the rails, axles, ect. Good thick coat and for a cheaper paint option I like how durable it seams.



I wire wheeled the wheels and raddle canned them with some Aluminum paint. Got some replacement decals and she looks brand new!

 

[Jcrock]

I had some pretty effective help while redecking the trailer.



I went ahead and put some sealer on all four sides of the wood. I used some grade #1 treated 2x6s. The lumber yard just got a fresh load and man they were wet. I cut the about 3" long for the opening. I used some scrap blocks the bend these boards into the opening. I used 5/16" self tapping trailer decking screws. I ran into a few issues hitting the old decking screws that I'd either cut off or rusted off. I didn't use quite as many as before because I thought a lot of the boards rotten out starting at the screw holes I did put some boards down across the deck in a few spots and ratcheted them down while the boards dried out. I'm not sure if it did anything to keep the boards from warping.



Little big man approved thats all that matters. Lol

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Nice work on the trailer!