Strouty
Well-known member
I like the tester, it has garage appeal for sure.
2 Sluggo's Garage
- Thread starter rmalkow2
- Start date
Grumblebum
Well-known member
Coming along nicely RM, power in the new shop 
GB
GB
Thanks all. Got a number of projects waiting for me back home now. But I'm spending the weekend in Northern California. My son runs the Big Sur Marathon every year. Beautiful weather compared to Michigan but too many Prius for my liking. Ready to be home and start cleaning up the SUN tester and a few more projects.
Well it's been a busy Spring ( if we can really call it that) and a bit up and down with our weather hot one day and freezing the next. Now into the rainy season and starting to mow grass among the other chores.
I haven't posted in awhile partly because I didn't think I had much garage worthy news even though much of my time has been spent there.
As soon as the snow and ice melted in mid-April I had to clean up the yard of rusty treasure and move everything into the now completed barn. I also sold off two vehicles that I confess I was never going to have time for in my project list. So that freed up some space around the place.
The new barn is now packed full and I'm slowly re-organizing when time permits to gain back work space.
One recent addition to the decorations is this 100th Anniversary Ford neon clock. I love the glow of neat and it also has some LCD screens in the 100 that show a firework display in celebration. Most importantly it was in my price range.
I haven't posted in awhile partly because I didn't think I had much garage worthy news even though much of my time has been spent there.
As soon as the snow and ice melted in mid-April I had to clean up the yard of rusty treasure and move everything into the now completed barn. I also sold off two vehicles that I confess I was never going to have time for in my project list. So that freed up some space around the place.
The new barn is now packed full and I'm slowly re-organizing when time permits to gain back work space.
One recent addition to the decorations is this 100th Anniversary Ford neon clock. I love the glow of neat and it also has some LCD screens in the 100 that show a firework display in celebration. Most importantly it was in my price range.
Attachments
jon72vega
Well-known member
Bob,Well it's been a busy Spring ( if we can really call it that) and a bit up and down with our weather hot one day and freezing the next. Now into the rainy season and starting to mow grass among the other chores.
I haven't posted in awhile partly because I didn't think I had much garage worthy news even though much of my time has been spent there.
As soon as the snow and ice melted in mid-April I had to clean up the yard of rusty treasure and move everything into the now completed barn. I also sold off two vehicles that I confess I was never going to have time for in my project list. So that freed up some space around the place.
The new barn is now packed full and I'm slowly re-organizing when time permits to gain back work space.
One recent addition to the decorations is this 100th Anniversary Ford neon clock. I love the glow of neat and it also has some LCD screens in the 100 that show a firework display in celebration. Most importantly it was in my price range.
Nice clock.
I'm also re-organizing and getting rid of some things (car parts) I'll never use.
Bob,
Nice clock.
I'm also re-organizing and getting rid of some things (car parts) I'll never use.
Same here. In fact I'm trying to have a small yard sale today if I don't get rained out. Selling some old extra tools and car parts I don't need. Keeping it small so I don't have too much to move around by myself.
Tractor Saga Part 1:
The other project consuming much of my after work time lately has involved putting back together a 1957 International Cub Lo-boy tractor with a friend who owns the little beast. It's his spring time garden prep machine and winter time snow plowing machine. Unfortunately it's been torn partially apart over the winter as it needed a new part for the speed governor, a new radiator, tune up and other misc maintenance.
We finally got it all back together and tune up parts installed and of course it wouldn't start. Then I remembered I had brought number 1 piston to TDC on compression but, could not remember if I had then properly aligned the distributor to #1. Had to take the diz out to install new points and condenser. What a trip down memory lane that was.
Got the diz re-aligned and it fired right up and ran really smooth but when tested with a load, the governor would not maintain speed. The engine governor drives off the same gear as the distributor. We had it 180 degrees out. Took all that back apart and put together and now it runs like a top and pulls well under load.
The load we were using was his ancient roto tiller attachment. Rusty, broken, bent and not well maintained unfortunately.
And that's where the real fun began……………..
End of saga Part 1.
The other project consuming much of my after work time lately has involved putting back together a 1957 International Cub Lo-boy tractor with a friend who owns the little beast. It's his spring time garden prep machine and winter time snow plowing machine. Unfortunately it's been torn partially apart over the winter as it needed a new part for the speed governor, a new radiator, tune up and other misc maintenance.
We finally got it all back together and tune up parts installed and of course it wouldn't start. Then I remembered I had brought number 1 piston to TDC on compression but, could not remember if I had then properly aligned the distributor to #1. Had to take the diz out to install new points and condenser. What a trip down memory lane that was.
Got the diz re-aligned and it fired right up and ran really smooth but when tested with a load, the governor would not maintain speed. The engine governor drives off the same gear as the distributor. We had it 180 degrees out. Took all that back apart and put together and now it runs like a top and pulls well under load.
The load we were using was his ancient roto tiller attachment. Rusty, broken, bent and not well maintained unfortunately.
And that's where the real fun began……………..
End of saga Part 1.
Attachments
Tractor Saga Part 2:
So the fun with the ratty roto began. The short list is as follows:
1. The drive chain keeps jumping off its sprockets.
2. The chain cover had most of the retaining bolts missing.
3. The differential drive was low on gear oil.
4. The diff drive kept vibrating loose because its missing retaining bolts.
5. The main bracket for the diff drive was rusted and broke in two places where it bends to form flanges that bolt to the deck.
6. The height adjust idler wheel was broke loos from its attachment and had been adjusted all the way up no longer providing its service. This caused the tiller to just be dragged along behind the tractor.
7. Tiller tines loose, general rust and grease, etc.
We managed to get the chain cover off and then adjust the chain tensioner to keep the chain on sprockets. We put some new bolts in the cover. Added oil, Tightened up the existing diff attachments and he tried it out hoping to get one last garden tilled and then junk the whole thing.
That load just broke the diff bracket in two places where it was weak from rust.
So now welding was required so it was loaded on my trailer and brought back to my garage for the welding and other work.
The diff bracket got beat back into shape, the broken flanges on said bracket got cleaned of rust and welded back in place. New bolts put into the bracket with thread locker this time. Drilled and tapped 4 more holes that attach the diff housing to an upright place to add more strength to its attachment.
Welded the idler wheel adjuster back together and, hauled it back over the the property he was working.
One trick I have seen but never tried out myself was removing a bolt where the head was broken off. One of the original larger bolts in the diff bracket had the head broken off. So, I used the trick where you weld a nut to the remaining end of the bolt by welding down inside the center of the nut. then turn it off with a wrench that fits the new nut. It took a couple attempts but the old bolt came out like butter.
All in all we got it patched back together and working again hopefully to complete this seasons garden prep. I'll attach a couple video links showing the beast in action.
So the fun with the ratty roto began. The short list is as follows:
1. The drive chain keeps jumping off its sprockets.
2. The chain cover had most of the retaining bolts missing.
3. The differential drive was low on gear oil.
4. The diff drive kept vibrating loose because its missing retaining bolts.
5. The main bracket for the diff drive was rusted and broke in two places where it bends to form flanges that bolt to the deck.
6. The height adjust idler wheel was broke loos from its attachment and had been adjusted all the way up no longer providing its service. This caused the tiller to just be dragged along behind the tractor.
7. Tiller tines loose, general rust and grease, etc.
We managed to get the chain cover off and then adjust the chain tensioner to keep the chain on sprockets. We put some new bolts in the cover. Added oil, Tightened up the existing diff attachments and he tried it out hoping to get one last garden tilled and then junk the whole thing.
That load just broke the diff bracket in two places where it was weak from rust.
So now welding was required so it was loaded on my trailer and brought back to my garage for the welding and other work.
The diff bracket got beat back into shape, the broken flanges on said bracket got cleaned of rust and welded back in place. New bolts put into the bracket with thread locker this time. Drilled and tapped 4 more holes that attach the diff housing to an upright place to add more strength to its attachment.
Welded the idler wheel adjuster back together and, hauled it back over the the property he was working.
One trick I have seen but never tried out myself was removing a bolt where the head was broken off. One of the original larger bolts in the diff bracket had the head broken off. So, I used the trick where you weld a nut to the remaining end of the bolt by welding down inside the center of the nut. then turn it off with a wrench that fits the new nut. It took a couple attempts but the old bolt came out like butter.
All in all we got it patched back together and working again hopefully to complete this seasons garden prep. I'll attach a couple video links showing the beast in action.
Attachments
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Strouty
Well-known member
Looks like fun, must be a good friend!
I did a much needed small but satisfying task today. A good lazy Sunday afternoon job of sorting out these two jumbled containers of nails.
Into one nice separated and organized container for easier use in the future.
And then I broke from family tradition and tossed every bent nail into the garbage. Dad would likely not approve as he never met a nail he could not straighten out and reuse. But I think I have enough nails that I won't miss this small pile of bent ones.
Not a big task but yet very satisfying for a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Into one nice separated and organized container for easier use in the future.
And then I broke from family tradition and tossed every bent nail into the garbage. Dad would likely not approve as he never met a nail he could not straighten out and reuse. But I think I have enough nails that I won't miss this small pile of bent ones.
Not a big task but yet very satisfying for a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Attachments
xtremek
Well-known member
Good job on the tractor and tiller. They look like cool little beasts. So now that you did all the repairs on the tiller, I'm guessing the weather has left his garden to wet to do anything with. If the tiller runs good, will he keep it?
You guessed right about the wet ground. He was trying to till up a community garden for our church and only got about 2/3 done because some of it was too wet to work on. Maybe can finish this week if it dries out a bit.
The fixes on the tiller were just basically band aids to get him done for this season. He says he done with it and wants to replace it. It needs a total rebuild at this point because of past neglect. I keep telling him to find a local guy that can rebuild the thing over the rest of the year because these things are not cheap even used and, he might be surprised at the cost difference.
Bob
Among yesterday's projects I finally decided to tackle hanging two large items in the barn. One is an old Ford tailgate that I did some experimental hand painting on and the other is a 30" x 70" Motorcraft sign I bought last fall.
I decided the corner wall to use would be behind my welding/grinding area and between the two signs I left space for a long power strip that was also intended for that corner of the space.
Some brackets were needed to hold the long power strip to the wall so I found some in the scrap metal cabinet that could be re-purposed with an extra 90 degree bend added. The Finger brake made short work of that job.
I had added some vertical 2x4 pieces for attached the signs to. Got everything spaced out where needed and hung in place.
Corner with all the tools and welding table pushed back in place.
The Motorcraft sign was plywood construction with the graphics being a thick vinyl covering. The edges were starting to get frayed and damaged so I found some aluminum channel at Homer's Depot that was a perfect press fit and framed in the sign to prevent further deterioration.
The last project of the day was to prep another piece of large wall art.
This is the fiberglass body from an older Formula Vee race car that I had bought. The race car frame is destined for a future project I have in mind but I have always wanted some sort of race car or parts hanging up on display and this will be perfect. It was in three very dirty pieces so first they got a good scrubbing and washing off. Next the back engine cover was riveted to the main body. I tied the body side panels together with some 2x4 cross supports that will also serve to help hang the thing. And screwed the nose piece onto the body with wood reinforcement underneath.
I'm pretty sure I have a spot picked on one wall to hang the thing as soon as I can figure out how to lift it without killing myself.
I decided the corner wall to use would be behind my welding/grinding area and between the two signs I left space for a long power strip that was also intended for that corner of the space.
Some brackets were needed to hold the long power strip to the wall so I found some in the scrap metal cabinet that could be re-purposed with an extra 90 degree bend added. The Finger brake made short work of that job.
I had added some vertical 2x4 pieces for attached the signs to. Got everything spaced out where needed and hung in place.
Corner with all the tools and welding table pushed back in place.
The Motorcraft sign was plywood construction with the graphics being a thick vinyl covering. The edges were starting to get frayed and damaged so I found some aluminum channel at Homer's Depot that was a perfect press fit and framed in the sign to prevent further deterioration.
The last project of the day was to prep another piece of large wall art.
This is the fiberglass body from an older Formula Vee race car that I had bought. The race car frame is destined for a future project I have in mind but I have always wanted some sort of race car or parts hanging up on display and this will be perfect. It was in three very dirty pieces so first they got a good scrubbing and washing off. Next the back engine cover was riveted to the main body. I tied the body side panels together with some 2x4 cross supports that will also serve to help hang the thing. And screwed the nose piece onto the body with wood reinforcement underneath.
I'm pretty sure I have a spot picked on one wall to hang the thing as soon as I can figure out how to lift it without killing myself.
Attachments
jon72vega
Well-known member
Bob,Among yesterday's projects I finally decided to tackle hanging two large items in the barn. One is an old Ford tailgate that I did some experimental hand painting on and the other is a 30" x 70" Motorcraft sign I bought last fall.
I had added some vertical 2x4 pieces for attached the signs to. Got everything spaced out where needed and hung in place.
The Motorcraft sign was plywood construction with the graphics being a thick vinyl covering. The edges were starting to get frayed and damaged so I found some aluminum channel at Homer's Depot that was a perfect press fit and framed in the sign to prevent further deterioration.
Lookin good!
I like your sign!
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1/2 Cup
Member Emeritus
Bob it looks a treat.
Thanks guys, I appreciate you looking in and the comments. Man what a hot weekend for end of May. In the 90's the last couple days but I was determined to use the long holiday weekend to get a few tasks done.
Work 20-30 minutes and go back inside to cool off. Put on a dry T-shirt, drink a bunch of water and do it over again.
But I did manage to get more decorations hung up and then organize some tools and parts into better places so I can walk around easier.
Here's a few additional pics.
Got the Nigel Mansell pedal car hung up along with the old Detroit News wagon. Some old beer signs up over the garage door and started putting up some of my license plate collection.
Little by little it's starting to look and feel like home.
Work 20-30 minutes and go back inside to cool off. Put on a dry T-shirt, drink a bunch of water and do it over again.
But I did manage to get more decorations hung up and then organize some tools and parts into better places so I can walk around easier.
Here's a few additional pics.
Got the Nigel Mansell pedal car hung up along with the old Detroit News wagon. Some old beer signs up over the garage door and started putting up some of my license plate collection.
Little by little it's starting to look and feel like home.
Attachments
xtremek
Well-known member
NIGEL MANSELL?!?! YOU ****!!!!!!! That's wicked cool. How did you ever come up with that? I'm more a Professor Prost fan, but still Mansell is still cool.
rubberrodder
Well-known member
I agree about Sir Jackie Stewart. Back when ABC still did "The wide World of Sports", I remember watching him run first place, from start to finish, the Monaco Gran Prix. Don't recall the year, just remembering he became my formula one hero from that point on.
I also noticed your tag line.
Me thinks you have been to a Billetproof show or two?
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1/2 Cup
Member Emeritus
These days when I attend a car show I still appreciate the high dollar billet beauties but I spend more time looking over the cars owned by what I will call every day hot rodders. Those cars that get driven on the street on some regular basis and for at least local shows can be driven to and from the show. Probably have a dent here or there and a few stone chips.
While I would not yet classify myself as a "Rat Rodder" I do really look forward to heading downstairs at COBO for Autorama and seeing what is new in the rusty designs.
My personal Jackie Stewart story is from around 1990 or 1991 timeframe. I was working at the Ford Atlanta Assy Plant and to launch the new cars Ford sponsored a press tour to multiple plants including mine. Part of the week long activities was a track day at Road Atlanta and they brought in all their best Ford Team drivers and experts. Jackie Stewart, Bob Bondurant, Bill Elliott, Dorsey Schroeder and Lynn St James. The company provided new Taurus SHO vehicles and had the Goodyear trailer there to shave street tires down for better grip on the track. The other drivers were really, really good (especially Awesome Bill) but experiencing the driving style of Jackie Stewart is totally on the next level. I could not soak up the things to learn fast enough. When other drivers would throw the cars into turns and muscle out Jackie was as precise as brain surgery. He was perfect and smooth in his lines through a corner and was faster around the track than everyone else.
I consider that ride one of my biggest bucket list items of all time. I will remember vividly the experience as long as I live and fully understand now why he had such a great career.
Cordless Grinder
With Harbor Freight sale ad in hand I decided to venture into the world of cordless angle grinders this past week. It seemed like an ok deal with the sale price but the only nuisance is they don't package it as a set. You have to buy the tool separate, the battery separate and the charger separate. No big deal I guess and maybe I'm actually better off not having to find a place to store yet another blow molded plastic tool case.
Anyway I brought home this Bauer branded 20V cordless 4.5" angle grinder.
The battery charger.
And after letting the battery fully charge up I installed a 40 grit flap disc to see how well this would handle something simple like paint/rust removal.
I took a short video of it grinding on my outdoor steel top dirty work table and it seems to do a good job of quickly taking it down to clean bare metal. It sounds a bit strange to me as it takes a couple seconds to get up to max RPM where I'm more used to instant on with a good corded grinder. But it seems to handle the 40 grit on steel pretty well. To bog it down I would have had to apply unreasonable pressure which is not best practice anyway. Time will tell how this works out. Someday I'll have a larger job to tackle and can give an update.
Video link here:
With Harbor Freight sale ad in hand I decided to venture into the world of cordless angle grinders this past week. It seemed like an ok deal with the sale price but the only nuisance is they don't package it as a set. You have to buy the tool separate, the battery separate and the charger separate. No big deal I guess and maybe I'm actually better off not having to find a place to store yet another blow molded plastic tool case.
Anyway I brought home this Bauer branded 20V cordless 4.5" angle grinder.
The battery charger.
And after letting the battery fully charge up I installed a 40 grit flap disc to see how well this would handle something simple like paint/rust removal.
I took a short video of it grinding on my outdoor steel top dirty work table and it seems to do a good job of quickly taking it down to clean bare metal. It sounds a bit strange to me as it takes a couple seconds to get up to max RPM where I'm more used to instant on with a good corded grinder. But it seems to handle the 40 grit on steel pretty well. To bog it down I would have had to apply unreasonable pressure which is not best practice anyway. Time will tell how this works out. Someday I'll have a larger job to tackle and can give an update.
Video link here:
Attachments
1/2 Cup
Member Emeritus
Bob thanks for sharing.
I don't have a cordless grinder but when you think about it, it would be handy..
I don't have a cordless grinder but when you think about it, it would be handy..
Bob Heine
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Bob, I have quite a few Harbor Freight tools and most have been satisfactory for my home/hobby use. The cordless tools are the exception. I bought a cordless multi-tool and an extra battery years ago. Because I was not using them all the time, the batteries would discharge and I would re-charge them too long. Totally my fault the batteries died but because they stopped selling that model they no longer carried the battery or stocked it as a replacement item.
don long
Well-known member
Thought I'd drop in today and do a little catching up.
It's always fun to have a project like the old tractor to work on with a friend.
Your garage is looking good with the new additions. I like the race car hanging too.
It's always fun to have a project like the old tractor to work on with a friend.
Your garage is looking good with the new additions. I like the race car hanging too.
I would agree with your comments on HF tools Bob. Most of the ones I've been selective about owning have worked pretty well. This too is my first cordless tool from them and I figured it will be some what an experiment to see if it will perform like other name brands. The Lithium Ion batteries should hopefully last since this is a pretty mature technology I think. Time will tell I guess.
Thanks for stopping in Don. We did have some fun getting greasy on that old tractor and as my first experience with something like that I learned a lot. That was just as rewarding for me as seeing it work again.
I'll have some more goodies to hang in the garage soon as I went to a great auction this Saturday.
Bob
Saturday's Picking Adventure
I went to a big live estate auction on Saturday and came away with some new decorations for the garage. And some will also be useful for hanging parts or tools.
Lots of signs and oil cans and Nascar stuff. Also a fair amount of advertising displays were for sale. A lot of the smaller stuff went cheap as the big bidders were waiting for the large signs to spend their money on.
When I saw Awesome Bill stand up in life size form along with Nascar legend Junior Johnson I knew it was coming home with me. It has a little water damage in places but still ok. The biggest stain is on Bill's sleeve and the front of Juniors white shirt looking like he was eating BBQ for lunch and spilled some on his shirt front. Kinda funny I think.
AMMCO Brake metal peg board display, Kasey Kayne Budweiser display car and Rusty Wallace sign, Valvoline display sign with stand was new in box and never used, a little Champion bucket to hold my work gloves, the CarQuest rack will be useful for holding misc items, and the Cooper Tire display stand.
Then after the auction I spent the afternoon in Midland at a big swap meet there and found a decent Hurst shifter (not pictured). It was a good day of picking.
I went to a big live estate auction on Saturday and came away with some new decorations for the garage. And some will also be useful for hanging parts or tools.
Lots of signs and oil cans and Nascar stuff. Also a fair amount of advertising displays were for sale. A lot of the smaller stuff went cheap as the big bidders were waiting for the large signs to spend their money on.
When I saw Awesome Bill stand up in life size form along with Nascar legend Junior Johnson I knew it was coming home with me. It has a little water damage in places but still ok. The biggest stain is on Bill's sleeve and the front of Juniors white shirt looking like he was eating BBQ for lunch and spilled some on his shirt front. Kinda funny I think.
AMMCO Brake metal peg board display, Kasey Kayne Budweiser display car and Rusty Wallace sign, Valvoline display sign with stand was new in box and never used, a little Champion bucket to hold my work gloves, the CarQuest rack will be useful for holding misc items, and the Cooper Tire display stand.
Then after the auction I spent the afternoon in Midland at a big swap meet there and found a decent Hurst shifter (not pictured). It was a good day of picking.
Attachments
Sun Test Stand Refurb
I've started some clean up and restoration on the Sun Motor Tester station I bought awhile back. I do not have any intention of making this functional again, only to clean it up and restore the outside appearance. It will become partially a storage cabinet in the lower base unit and partially just a cool garage decorative piece from a bygone era.
So far I've been using some product to try and breath new life into the paint. A glaze/scratch remover compound on a 3" foam pad that's chucked up in my right angle drill. It's working pretty good on the parts that have the least deterioration.
The topper piece to the tester box had good original paint yet so this has cleaned up nicely.
The upper cabinet that holds the instruments pods also has pretty good surviving paint so I think this will clean up as well.
The bottom cabinet is in much worse condition with the original blue paint color turning green and increasing surface rust as you go down towards the floor. I started polishing in one section of the cabinet front and was initially encouraged by the change in appearance.
But repeated attempts on the lower section of this area proved to be too much for simple polishing to restore the paint. And, this section was one of the better preserved areas. Other sides of the cabinet have a lot more surface rust. So at this point I'm on the hunt for close matching blue paint and will sand this cabinet exterior, spray with rust converter, prime and re-paint. It looks like Rustoleum Hammered Effect in light blue may be a close match. I'm gonna see if I can find a can of this later today and give that a try.
I've started some clean up and restoration on the Sun Motor Tester station I bought awhile back. I do not have any intention of making this functional again, only to clean it up and restore the outside appearance. It will become partially a storage cabinet in the lower base unit and partially just a cool garage decorative piece from a bygone era.
So far I've been using some product to try and breath new life into the paint. A glaze/scratch remover compound on a 3" foam pad that's chucked up in my right angle drill. It's working pretty good on the parts that have the least deterioration.
The topper piece to the tester box had good original paint yet so this has cleaned up nicely.
The upper cabinet that holds the instruments pods also has pretty good surviving paint so I think this will clean up as well.
The bottom cabinet is in much worse condition with the original blue paint color turning green and increasing surface rust as you go down towards the floor. I started polishing in one section of the cabinet front and was initially encouraged by the change in appearance.
But repeated attempts on the lower section of this area proved to be too much for simple polishing to restore the paint. And, this section was one of the better preserved areas. Other sides of the cabinet have a lot more surface rust. So at this point I'm on the hunt for close matching blue paint and will sand this cabinet exterior, spray with rust converter, prime and re-paint. It looks like Rustoleum Hammered Effect in light blue may be a close match. I'm gonna see if I can find a can of this later today and give that a try.
Attachments
1/2 Cup
Member Emeritus
Bob, you have some cool scores there.
Your tester should come up a treat..
Your tester should come up a treat..
jon72vega
Well-known member
Holy tomole!
You got some good stuff at the auction!
You got some good stuff at the auction!
xtremek
Well-known member
Here you are filling up your barn with artsy fartsy stuff when you could be filling it up with my stuff 
Seriously, some very nice scores. Does the Sun station not work? It'd work good on your hot rod.
Seriously, some very nice scores. Does the Sun station not work? It'd work good on your hot rod.Here you are filling up your barn with artsy fartsy stuff when you could be filling it up with my stuff
Sounds like you need to have a garage sale too! I'd have to see "your stuff" to get an idea of it's up to my artsy standards. Clean out your garage and advertise a sale. I might have to take a drive over to check out your bargains.
But thanks, and the SUN station test modules possibly could work again but would need all new wiring and leads. I have so many easier ways to run similar tests it's just not a convenient machine any more but, I really like the looks of them and the era they represent. And it was a good deal I think.
If you watch American Pickers you'll see Mike buy one exactly like this in Minnesota except he only bought the top half with the test instruments. Sitting right next to the piece he bought was the base rolling cabinet but he completely missed that because it had an STP decal on it. I recognized the cabinet style and the cast aluminum trim/handles. He overpaid in my opinion but, will likely still make a few bucks in his store.
xtremek
Well-known member
I don't need to have a sale, I just need to get some projects completed. The problem is that the running things won't stay running long enough for me to get caught up on the current non-running things.
If you want to come over and help finish a few, I'll pay for your gas and provide food and beverages
of your choice.
I don't need to have a sale, I just need to get some projects completed. The problem is that the running things won't stay running long enough for me to get caught up on the current non-running things.
But then your todo list would get smaller and mine would just get bigger. And I would eat too much and drink too much and just get fatter.
We could pack up all the non-running things and trade and at least we'd possibly have a new and different pile of non-running things.
Hmmmm…..must look up cost of two 20 foot U Haul trucks one way to St. Johns.Bob
SUN Test Stand Refurb….continued.
This past weekend I got after this project and have basically completed it for display and light use. I'll call this a light restoration because I simply wanted it to look presentable as a display/storage item in my garage. I don't intend to restore it functionally except maybe for the volt meter if that's simple to do. The other instruments I would never use and I just like the overall look of old SUN test stands.
Here's the before look:
The bottom cabinet paint was not savable. I tried to polish it to look respectable but there was just too much surface rust. So it got sanded all around and inside compartments then sprayed first with a coat of 3M Rust Preventer which turns all the previously rusted areas black and leaves a nice paintable surface.
Then I gave it a coat of black primer purposely to start with a dark base. The only close Hammered effect blue paint I could find locally was a little lighter than the original color so I was hoping to tone it down as much as possible. Not sure if that trick really works but it went on as a smooth primer base at least.
Then I gave it a good coat of the final blue color which turned out pretty good. The only sad news is regarding the front door decals. I had carefully masked off the two decals hoping to save them. they were somewhat torn up and had pieces missing already but I would have kept them original if possible. But unfortunately they were so fragile that even the easy release painters tape puled off more of each decal. The top smaller one used to say 6 & 12 Volt and that is almost completely gone now. The bigger SUN Star logo had portions missing originally but now has more pieces torn off. So I'm looking for replacements now. I've found a local guy that prints the big decal on vinyl and I'm hoping he can also replace the smaller decal for me as well.
Here's a picture found on the web of what the decals should look like.
For those of you that remember Linoleum floors, the base cabinet top surface is a black Linoleum piece that has fake marble streaks through it. Definitely '50's era design and it cleaned up pretty nice and got a coat of vinyl/rubber protectant for a little shine.
It will make a good addition to the garage and I'll enjoy looking at it every time I go out there. It also has enough storage capacity to be a bit useful as well.
This past weekend I got after this project and have basically completed it for display and light use. I'll call this a light restoration because I simply wanted it to look presentable as a display/storage item in my garage. I don't intend to restore it functionally except maybe for the volt meter if that's simple to do. The other instruments I would never use and I just like the overall look of old SUN test stands.
Here's the before look:
The bottom cabinet paint was not savable. I tried to polish it to look respectable but there was just too much surface rust. So it got sanded all around and inside compartments then sprayed first with a coat of 3M Rust Preventer which turns all the previously rusted areas black and leaves a nice paintable surface.
Then I gave it a coat of black primer purposely to start with a dark base. The only close Hammered effect blue paint I could find locally was a little lighter than the original color so I was hoping to tone it down as much as possible. Not sure if that trick really works but it went on as a smooth primer base at least.
Then I gave it a good coat of the final blue color which turned out pretty good. The only sad news is regarding the front door decals. I had carefully masked off the two decals hoping to save them. they were somewhat torn up and had pieces missing already but I would have kept them original if possible. But unfortunately they were so fragile that even the easy release painters tape puled off more of each decal. The top smaller one used to say 6 & 12 Volt and that is almost completely gone now. The bigger SUN Star logo had portions missing originally but now has more pieces torn off. So I'm looking for replacements now. I've found a local guy that prints the big decal on vinyl and I'm hoping he can also replace the smaller decal for me as well.
Here's a picture found on the web of what the decals should look like.
For those of you that remember Linoleum floors, the base cabinet top surface is a black Linoleum piece that has fake marble streaks through it. Definitely '50's era design and it cleaned up pretty nice and got a coat of vinyl/rubber protectant for a little shine.
It will make a good addition to the garage and I'll enjoy looking at it every time I go out there. It also has enough storage capacity to be a bit useful as well.
