2 Sluggo's Garage

[rmalkow2]

Well after painting the walls and ceiling, then adding wall covering and decoration, I look at the floor and as you would expect it looks shabby now. My desire would be to get RaceDeck but after getting a quote I really cannot justify the expense.
I need about 480 sq ft so I did momentarily think about finding 479 other family and friends to each order one sample but then realized that might prove to be a difficult undertaking
So looking at cheaper alternatives I've come across this Versa Floor product sold at the big box home improvement stores.


A sample of 12 x 12 RaceDeck on the left top and bottom side compared to the Versa Floor 18 x 18 piece. Both have a similar thickness, both have many molded in underside channels for air and water flow. RaceDeck has their patented snap design and Versa has a simpler wedge shaped set of features that interlock with other tiles. It too seems to connect together pretty solid.



I bought enough to do one corner of the garage where the Harley is parked. I was using an old rubber truck bed mat on that corner so this initial pad is slightly larger than the old rubber mat. It only comes in the color black so if I later want an accent stripe I would have to paint the tiles myself.


I bought mine at Menards during 11% off week so there's that discount on top of the base price being about $1.50 per sq ft cheaper than RD. The jury is still out but I'm leaning towards doing the whole garage with this. I can buy some each time there is an 11% sale and pay it off as I go in smaller increments that way. It seems sturdy enough and provides the air flow underneath. Can be easily mopped to clean up. I just wish there were other colors than black which will show dust and dirt easier.
If anyone has experience with this product I'll appreciate the comments.

Bob

 

[rmalkow2]

Not a great deal of garage activity for me until just recent days. It's still been just too cold most days and then I had a diversion for a few days while having roofers here putting a new roof on the house.

But we are finally starting to get a few warm days now and I was able to work on the silver 2000 Mustang. Put new brake pads, and calipers on the rear. Then switched out the stock wheels for a set of five spoke 17" Mustang wheels I had been saving since last fall.

I've been a good boy and stayed away from many auctions over the past few months but finally gave in this week and bought some items. I've been searching for an older set of body work hammers for a long time and these came up in an estate auction. I got 7 different usable hammers and 4 different shape steel dolly's. Some will need a little refurbishment but I'm happy. It just seems like these hammers don't show up for sale very often.

Then there's the wagon they are laying in for the above picture. I could not resist this old Murray wagon with the curvy body lines and original handle, wheels including chrome hub caps. It will get a good cleaning and become my new swap meet tag along wagon.

 

[xtremek]

DUDE!!!! That wagon is sweet!!!!!! You need to mod that sucker out. Drop it down to about 1" off the ground with some go kart wheels or something similar. I use the stock mounting holes so it doesn't mess the tub up. I'd be willing to trade you one of my toys for that one. Or mod it out, for a small fee.

 

[rmalkow2]

When I first saw this thing in pictures I thought it would be a fun one to modify but after seeing the proportions for real and the overall condition I'm actually re-thinking that plan. First step will be to give it a good wash and clean up if we ever get another 60 degree day. Then I'm gonna stare at it for awhile and see if it stays stock or get modified.

 

[xtremek]

I hear you. On something like that, I wouldn't want to mess with it in a way I couldn't put it back to completely stock.

 

[rmalkow2]

Happy Easter Everyone!

Saturday turned out to be the family gathering day so I waited until Sunday to take advantage of a warm sunny day to get some garage work done. The accomplishments for the day included two big items for me. Getting a couple of the summer toys up and running again.

My Sportster has not run since fall 2017. It died on me then and all last year I spent my spare time working on the hot rod so the HD sat in the corner. I suspected the original coil to be bad so a new one was ordered. There are lots of coil choices but I chose the stock replacement type so it would fit the existing mounting bracket. Everything on these bikes is a tight fit and this was no exception.

Old and new coils.

It definitely did the trick and the motor ran great. I'm now sure this coil had been slowly failing for some time as I used to change plugs each season and the performance slowly fell off. With a weak spark I'm now sure the plugs were not firing well. Given that the coil is positioned right over the hot engine head I should be glad this one lasted 18 years.

First start video:

Next toy to get started was the Yamaha QT50 scooter. This thing was perfect to use at Bonneville last year for getting around the pits and I'll use it again this year. It just needed a bunch of kicks at the kick start lever after setting all winter but it eventually fired up and performed as expected. A whopping 28 mph top speed with my not so petite self riding.

It was a productive day.

 

[xtremek]

Sounds like you had a productive and nice weekend.

 

[rmalkow2]

Big day yesterday for me as I finally had a chance to take the silver Mustang to the drag strip. So far I've done nothing to the car except put on different wheels and tires. I wanted to get a bone stock baseline of performance and then start modifications along with driving skills practice.
My first ever pass down a drag strip, what a blast even considering I did everything wrong. Well, at least I didn't red light or miss a shift. There is lots to learn for a newbie like me. I drove the car to the track, ran it 6 times without any changes, not even tire pressure and drove it home. I only tried to run a couple and let it cool off a bit. Otherwise the changes were all to my driving style.
These are all 1/8 mile distance times.
The very first pass I spun my one (non-posi) tire way too much. Too much starting rpm. I don't remember if I even floored the go pedal the whole distance. That run netted a time of 12:54.


Four runs later and with better controlled technique I got that down to 10:74.


After that we had a couple cars oil down both lanes pretty good so we waited at least 30 minutes for cleanup. My last two runs were in the 11 second range but I blame poor driver reaction time for that.
With more practice at proper launch speed and figuring out best shift points I think I could get into the nines (1/8 mile) still without a positraction rear diff. I'm working on that for a future upgrade.
Now, let the mods begin and see how much we can improve this little stock v6 Mustang. First will be new plugs, oil, and tune up stuff. Also I'll be putting the car on a serious diet to remove weight and make a more free flowing exhaust.

It was as much fun as I expected and I'm now hooked on going faster. Lapeer Dragway was a great place with some very helpful staff and very friendly racers.

 

[jon72vega]

Bob,
Sounds like you had a ball!


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[xtremek]

Sounds like you're having too much fun. You need to give the car to me.

 

[rmalkow2]

Bob,
Sounds like you had a ball!


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

Sounds like you're having too much fun. You need to give the car to me.

It's a thrill when you can put together a good launch, good shifts that chirp the rear tire and blast down the track.
You guys need to get your cars out and give it a try!

 

[1/2 Cup]

Bob, well done looking forward to see how your improvements go..

 

[rmalkow2]

New to me tool for the garage purchased from a local estate sale this past weekend. I've been waiting for a good deal on a full size Oxy/Acetylene torch set and this one turned up in my home town. Acetylene tank still has some but the oxygen tank needs filling. Came with regulators, hoses and one small tip torch. I have a cutting torch that should work with this.
I'm excited to finally have a "Hot Wrench" at my disposal.

 

[Strouty]

I really like the wagon! Sounds like you had fun at the drag strip with the stang. Hot wrench is always a good thing to have in the shop. I hope your weather is better than here, it has been raining way too much, I guess April showers did bring May mud.

 

[rmalkow2]

Weather here is a bit mixed. Yes, getting those April rains then a cold day then back to warm and then back to cold. Can't make up its mind. Gotta find a good local source to fill the hot wrench bottles yet. That may be a task for this weekend. Got the grass cut during the week so Saturday can be used for more fun garage stuff.

 

[rmalkow2]

The auction bug bit me this week and I scored big on early Ford parts from an estate auction less than 10 miles from home. And everything sold unbelievably cheap so I'm stocked up now for my own needs and for swap meet sales.

I got 3 flathead engine blocks with heads and a few other parts for them.
Multiple torque tubes with driveshafts for v8 rear ends.
Multiple rear end banjo centers with ring and pinion gears.
9 pairs of heads for flathead engines.
Oil pans, intake manifolds, and a bell housing for flathead engines.
Various other misc items including an early transmission, some radius rods, tire tubes, some trim parts and even a table saw for my buddy for $3.
The flathead engines were only $7 each and the heads were an average of about $10 per pair. Fantastic deals all around. This guy had a huge barn full of mostly Ford parts and I had to leave some behind cause I just ran out of room for more.

Here's a few pics of the day's purchases.

 

[jon72vega]

The auction bug bit me this week and I scored big on early Ford parts from an estate auction less than 10 miles from home. And everything sold unbelievably cheap so I'm stocked up now for my own needs and for swap meet sales.

I got 3 flathead engine blocks with heads and a few other parts for them.
Multiple torque tubes with driveshafts for v8 rear ends.
Multiple rear end banjo centers with ring and pinion gears.
9 pairs of heads for flathead engines.
Oil pans, intake manifolds, and a bell housing for flathead engines.
Various other misc items including an early transmission, some radius rods, tire tubes, some trim parts and even a table saw for my buddy for $3.
The flathead engines were only $7 each and the heads were an average of about $10 per pair. Fantastic deals all around. This guy had a huge barn full of mostly Ford parts and I had to leave some behind cause I just ran out of room for more.

Here's a few pics of the day's purchases.

Holy Cow Bob!
You did very well at the estate auction!

 

[Bob Heine]

Bob, that's a phenomenal haul. The other day, pulling away from a light, my 1947 Ford tudor made a loud noise in the rear end and wouldn't move. Tried all three gears and still wouldn't go forward. Tried being real gentle and was able to get it to move just enough to make the 3-block trip home. Separated the torque tube from the rear end and discovered the coupler was completely stripped. Went to a junk yard to buy a coupler but they would only sell me the whole rear end (for $7). I was surprised that the rear end, torque tube and radius rods fit in the trunk of my '56 Chevy. OK, most of it was hanging out but a rope through the back seat area and around the trunk kept it from falling out. After I had it all back together and a decorative triangle standing next to the driveway, I was relaxing with my JC Whitney catalog and discovered they sold the couplers for $7.95. While I had the catalog open, I ordered a set of 16" whitewalls (tire stores only had blackwall 600-16 tires).

"The other day" was in 1964 when the car was 17 and I was 19.

 

[xtremek]

Great haul

 

[rmalkow2]

Thanks guys. You had me going there Bob. I had my truck keys in hand and the trailer is still hitched so as soon as you could tell me where that junk yard was I was going to road trip to buy a whole load of 47 Ford rear ends for $7 each.

I should have known better.

Love the Tudor. That would be a sweet ride today. Maybe you need to send a Corvette down the road and get back to your roots.

 

[Bob Heine]

Thanks guys. You had me going there Bob. I had my truck keys in hand and the trailer is still hitched so as soon as you could tell me where that junk yard was I was going to road trip to buy a whole load of 47 Ford rear ends for $7 each.

I should have known better.

Love the Tudor. That would be a sweet ride today. Maybe you need to send a Corvette down the road and get back to your roots.

Bob, after you posted your flathead (and table saw!) prices, I thought you deserved a little payback.

When I brought the '47 home it was running a little rough. I went to the local auto parts store and asked for points, plugs and condenser, thinking it was the same as my other cars. Counter guy said they only sold distributors and I almost passed out. Then he said "bring the old one in and it's $5 and change. He showed me the dual point setup and I felt a lot better. With a tuneup the flathead ran so smooth you couldn't tell it was running (300 rpm idle). Parked at the bank and left the car running (you lock the steering wheel with the key). Came out and an elderly man (probably 40) got out of his brand new Cadillac and asked me to start the car. When I told him it was running he laughed -- in his youth he owned a car like mine and he wanted to hear an old flathead again.

 

[Strouty]

Those are the auctions that get me into trouble, I don’t think about space and I just keep buying, them I figure out logistics later, kudos for you knowing when to stop. Nice looking stuff for sure, I am not a Ford guy, but I would have bought stuff at those prices.

 

[DynoDave]

Dang, that's quite a score. Good day at the auction for sure!

 

[rmalkow2]

A few updates around the garage and shop.

Those flat head motors have been sitting on my trailer for the past few weeks since I brought them home from the auction. I finally got after unloading them today so I can put the trailer away and mow grass where it was and to also get some pictures taken so I can list these for sale.

About 2 weeks ago I had time on a Friday afternoon to get to the welding gas store and trade my empty oxygen cylinder for a new full one. Now my new estate sale purchase is officially a working hot wrench.

First lighting video in the link below.

Another long overdue project for the garage was to set up a vise on a stand that can be moved around and used as needed. I've save the parts for this for longer than I can remember so I finally got busy and assembled it. The base is a cast iron flywheel form a model A ford motor cleaned up and painted. The column is a stainless steel piece I picked up ages ago at auction that had a round plate on one end and a square plate at the other end. Talk about lucky, I'll be danged if the round end plate didn't fit perfect to the recessed area of the flywheel. If I was making the two pieces for this purpose I could not have done better. I gave the stainless steel a good wire wheeling and did the same to an old Wilton bullet and drilled all the mounting holes which was great fun in the stainless. The vise will need future restoration as it led a hard life but is still usable and the beautification will have to wait for another day.

 

[jon72vega]

Bob,
Great job on the vise stand!

 

[Grumblebum]

That will be super handy Bob, I've got a good mess to clean up from cutting aluminium in my bench mounted vise today from last few weeks fiddling around. You'll be able to move that around for far easier cleanup.

I seemed to have missed the quick jack post you did too, that looks great - still like it?

GB

 

[patrickg20]

I am super jealous of your auction scores. I have been looking for some early Ford stuff like that for a little while with no luck so far. Congrats on the score! You can double your money and send it my way if you want. I will even come get it! Lol

 

[xtremek]

The vise is nice. How heavy is the flywheel?

 

[rmalkow2]

Bob,
Great job on the vise stand!

Thanks Jon. It will sure be handy and out of the way when not needed.

 

[rmalkow2]

That will be super handy Bob, I've got a good mess to clean up from cutting aluminium in my bench mounted vise today from last few weeks fiddling around. You'll be able to move that around for far easier cleanup.

I seemed to have missed the quick jack post you did too, that looks great - still like it?

GB

Admittedly I never thought about the cleanup difference but you make an excellent point. I used to hate the mess on a bench to clean up and this will be easier. And for very messy jobs I guess a piece of cardboard under it would really make clean up easy.

I love the quick jack. I've been using it a bunch recently to raise and lower the race car for work to be done. It's very convenient to just raise the whole car. The trade off is they are heavy to move around when not in use and, they restrict your access underneath from the side rocker panel area. But overall they are a good resource for me.

 

[rmalkow2]

I am super jealous of your auction scores. I have been looking for some early Ford stuff like that for a little while with no luck so far. Congrats on the score! You can double your money and send it my way if you want. I will even come get it! Lol

The pricing was a shock for sure and just restores my faith that deals out there do exist with perseverance. The engine blocks and most heads will go up for sale in the future but let's say at a little more than they cost.

As it turns out I'm tracking another potential auction deal this week. We'll see if I get lucky again.

 

[rmalkow2]

The vise is nice. How heavy is the flywheel?

I never actually tried to weigh it but it's really heavy and should keep the vise steady for most anything I do in the garage. I had no other use for the flywheel and according to some model A Ford guys I asked, did not hold a lot of value so this should be a good repurpose.

 

[rmalkow2]

Drag Racing Update

Well after a last few weeks of good progress on the car to get ready for another test and tune day yesterday I managed to screw it up for myself.

First the good stuff.

I started by giving the engine compartment a good degreasing and clean so I don't have to stick my hands into old grease and grime every time I want to work on something.

Then i was onto weight reduction. Typical estimates say that every 100 lbs is equal to 10 horse power so that's a pretty cheap way to increase performance.

The cold air intake is replaced with a free flowing lighter weight version than this old original.
Piles of plastic parts, air conditioning parts, the radio, the center console, and many little pieces that have no purpose at the race track. I also replaced the AC compressor with a free wheeling pulley that saved about 10 lbs all by itself.




I've replaced the front wheels and tires with some skinner drag front runners and lightweight wheels. That change alone saved 38 lbs of unsprung weight.

All total I've so far taken out 160 lbs and there is still more to remove from the interior.

Now the bad news.

On Thursday I got a last minute whim to make one more easy weight reduction and cut off the muffler and tail pipe. I figured the better flowing exhaust is a goal someday anyways so a couple bolts cut and one saw cut through the pipe bend over the axle later it was off and I was happy to save the 20 more pounds of weight. Unfortunately this made the exhaust exit under the center of the car right below where the park brake cable exits the floor pan and that is not sealed well enough. Tried running the engine with windows up and it lets in too much exhaust to the interior. I didn't think to try this until late Friday evening and with no time to fix this properly I had to scrub the plans to run at the strip Saturday morning.

Live and learn I guess. It's 2 weeks until the next test and tune so I'll need to fabricate an exhaust pipe that exits near the outside edge of the car body which will meet rules and be safer.

 

[rmalkow2]

It bothered me yesterday about screwing up my exhaust so I took the parts that were cut off.

And cut them up even more to make a new pipe that will angle the tip over to the right side of the vehicle and allow exhaust to exit near the rocker panel. Just tack welded for now until I can test fit it later this week and make some hanger brackets.

Hoping this will solve the issue for the near future.

 

[xtremek]

maybe finish off the exhaust tomorrow and still hit the Test and Tune?

 

[rmalkow2]

maybe finish off the exhaust tomorrow and still hit the Test and Tune?

The next test and tune session is next Saturday June 22nd morning so I'm aiming for that date and then again on July 6th.
Tomorrow I'm off to another cool auction so wish me luck.

 

[xtremek]

Did you bring home anything cool?

 

[rmalkow2]

Did you bring home anything cool?

Today I went to the Jeff Begg auction in Springfield, MI near Battlecreek. Just a huge private collection of motorcycles, cars, midget race cars and literally tons of vintage race or speed parts. It was a very professional auction and the biggest single collection I've seen get sold off. I went there hoping to score a deal on one of the midget race cars and some extra parts but most everything was bid up out of my league. There were some heavy hitters there with very deep pockets.

I saw a pair of very rare Winfield carburetor sell for 20,000 and a pallet of Ardun flathead parts for an unbelievable $92,000.

I came home with some midget car body parts to repurpose and 3 engine stands. Not much for the drive and whole day but it was fun and educational to watch others spend the big money.

 

[rmalkow2]

A couple of new projects actually got completed in the garage over the past two weekends and to my surprise even with all the normal chores to get done around the house.

First was another vise stand but this time as a gift for a buddy of mine who just built a new shed. I had been helping with that project too. We demolished the old tiny barn roof shed and built a bigger and taller peak roof shed.

So as a shed warming gift I grabbed an old steel car wheel for the base and cut a section of square tubing for the upright and welded those together.

After everything was welded from both sides and cleaned up I gave it a coat of black Rustoleum.

Added a wider top plate cut form a piece of 2 x 12 lumber and painted that black. Then cleaned up and lubricated a Sears 4 inch vise I had on the shelf.

Job done and awaiting his surprised look later this week when it is presented. Hopefully he saved enough room in the shed for this thing.
If the base needs more weight we will fill it with cement.

Project #2 continued on next post.

 

[Strouty]

Looks good, will make a great "shed warming" gift.