Above 1200 Sq/FT Bailey's Barn Build

[mwbailey]

While the Pandemic of 2020 has kept us somewhat "hunkered down", seems a couple of projects have made some progress.

A bit over 30 years ago, Santa Claus brought my daughter a rather amazing dollhouse. . . KIT. Santa spent many evenings after the usual workday across the street in a neighbor's house trying to assemble said dollhouse. Much of the structural elements were completed and all except the gable was covered with siding. Seems Santa was getting tired when he addressed the gable, because the siding was placed on the wall upside down. There was not enough siding available to complete the build -- and the Internet was not available to search for the right size siding. So, the incomplete dollhouse was played with for a while but never in its full glory.

Since then, the daughter has grown up, gotten three college degrees, and had three children of her own. The dollhouse seemed to have found residence at Dad's homestead for the intervening years.
A few years ago, Dad got industrious and began the process of batch staining and individually applying the wooden roofing shakes. About the time the roof was completed, the faucet in the powder room sprang a leak and flooded the main floor and rained all over the basement contents, including the dollhouse.

As the granddaughters approach an age to enjoy an amazing dollhouse AND siding is easily available in proper dimensions over the Internet, a flurry of activity to complete the project ensued.

From a somewhat structurally complete shell:


the house became essentially repainted outside; painted, wallpapered, and floored inside; and electrified:


The completed house was given to my daughter's elder daughter on her birthday, only to come back to Granddad's home due to their house undergoing renovation!

Oh well, she got to play with in for a few minutes and has a picture on her iPad desktop.

 

[mwbailey]

Seems The Wife might have been a bit jealous of Granddaughter and her hand-me-down dollhouse, so The Wife suggested she would like to have a Little Free Library (LFL) for HER birthday. Another flurry of activity in the garage ensued with the results being a well-appreciated LFL unveiled yesterday on The Wife's birthday.

Much of June was spent between episodes of construction, mistakes, remedies, more construction, and repeat.

First parts, some cut to the wrong dimensions


Then paint, some needing repainting


Then assembly, with some reassembly


Then sealing and mounting,


And finally celebration with LFL cake from Baskin-Robbins -- along with books, masks, gloves and the works:

 

[mwbailey]

With respect to the Little Free Library, an astute observer may have noticed a theme being played out from library, to mailbox, to pumphouse, to workshop, or vice versa. Maybe in a couple of years the LFL will have the proper patina!

 

[Mike.ASC]

With respect to the Little Free Library, an astute observer may have noticed a theme being played out from library, to mailbox, to pumphouse, to workshop, or vice versa. Maybe in a couple of years the LFL will have the proper patina!

"Maybe in a couple of years the LFL will have the proper patina!"

I remember hearing something similar to "if you build it, it will come"

 

[xtremek]

That is so cool. Well played sir, well played.

 

[mwbailey]

Hey Mike, we've actually had a couple of folks come for the books, but only time will tell about the patina. We're trying to figure a way to share our bumper crop of cucumbers and are thinking about using the lean-to on the LFL as a shelf for produce. . . . Maybe even more people would come!

Thanks xtremek; we had fun and The Wife seems to appreciate her b'day present.

 

[Mike.ASC]

I have family members that live in the area that would probably be interested in buying some of your produce if your interested in selling some ...

 

[mwbailey]

Seems our production has leveled off to what The Wife and BIL can eat, Mike. I'll let you know when the next wave comes through!

 

[mwbailey]

OK, back to vehicles in the garage! Still hoping that the "painter" will be able to finish up the body and paint on the 1967 442. Last contact was that he had found he had a squishy spleen, bad spot on his heart, and something else. Requires more testing. But if he has to give up his smoking and drinking to stay alive and keep working, he will. He says to check back after the first of the month and he'll either take on the work or help me find someone that would.

In the meantime, BIL and I thought we should get the engine on the test stand. From its resting place for several years, via cherry picker, to test stand:


A little maneuvering required to get hoist into position but first need to find and attach motor mounts. A few hours of searching they showed up on the floor. . . . Dang it, they need four 7/16 14 X 1" bolts. Seems every other size is in various cans and containers but no 7/16, so off to Advance Auto to obtain supplies for BIL and four bolts.



That worked out great. But the hoist just will not slide under the test stand nor straddle it. BIL suggested removing the wheels on the hoist. Hmm, wonder why I didn't think of that?!


Only a little adjusting needed to get connections between the stand and the engine block.

Seems the hoist still wasn't a symmetrical fit under the stand, but the position seemed sturdy enough for safe use.


Still fighting with exhaust manifolds where manifold connects to exhaust pipe. Two bolts on one frozen; two bolts on the other broken off. Did mange to drill though one of the broken bolts but just might be enough off center to make chasing the threads out a bit problematic.

After all this, checked how others connected all the gauges, water supply, etc., to this particular test stand. Seems most discarded the cheap gauges with too-thin wires for upgrades. Oh, and one guy never mounted the wheels that came with the stand -- got some large wheels from Harbor Freight so his hoist legs would fit under the stand. NOW he tells me!

Made a full page list of additional parts needed to assemble engine for start-up. Would like to get parts identical to original equipment. Got E-mail from Year One with 30% off which seemed like perfect timing. BUT, can't find parts for Rochester carburetor; only Holley and other "off" brands. . . .

Nothing is going to be easy, right?!

 

[xtremek]

I can almost hear it run now. For busted/seized manifold studs, we always heated the manifold up bright red, and ran the studs out with the impact. We never, ever tried to reuse GM studs, they would almost always break. For busted studs, if there was at least a little nub, we'd put a nut in the impact socket, gun in reverse, and push up hard. If they broke flush, we had a kid who could blow them out with the torch. It was a skill I never could master.

 

[mwbailey]

xtremek, I'm sending bus ticket this afternoon for kid with torch to come to Rock Hill!!

 

[mwbailey]

Two of three items from Year One were back-ordered, so this is not going to be fast, trying to test, start-up, and break in this 400 ci Olds engine.

But, still making some progress. Decided to use an "upgraded" pressure gauge for the test stand and not rely of flimsy electrical connections. Picked one up from Harbor Freight! Also picked up a bottle of Lucas break-in oil. Added that to the crankcase and squirted about a tablespoon of Marvel Mystery oil into each cylinder through spark plug holes.


Taped a 5/16 inch socket to an extension and connected to a drill motor. Took a while and a contact to Supercars Unlimited to ensure that oil pump turned counterclockwise.

So, with pressure gauge connected and drill hooked up, got a good 50 psi oil pressure and all but one lifter showing good oil flow.


OK, guess we need to turn the crank a bit to get ALL pushrods flowing oil. But, now need to know which way crank turns AND pick up a 1 1/8 inch socket to fit the harmonic balancer bolt head! Dang, just can't move in a straight line. . . .

 

[Mike.ASC]

Facing the front of the engine the crank rotates clockwise.

 

[xtremek]

^2. The Crank bolt isn't LH thread.

 

[mwbailey]

Thanks guys; that confirms it. Now all I need is the 1 1/8 inch socket. Funny how I have a 1 1/16 inch socket, but need the next size bigger.

 

[mwbailey]

So, just to make things tougher, I picked up a 1 1/4 inch socket. Noticed my mistake on the way to the workshop and had to return to Home Depot. . . duh. Did get a 1/2 inch drive pull handle out of it. I figure on at least two uses since there's still that 383/430 Lincoln to put on the test stand at some point.

We thought the second pushrod on the driver's side was not oiling. Turning the crank a quarter turn and priming for a few minutes over a couple of revs got the second pushrod oiling. Turns out the eighth one is not oiling. Dang. All rockers on the passenger side are full of oil. We'll give "#8" a few more tries before we go into the engine further. . . fingers crossed.

 

[xtremek]

Good luck with #8

 

[mwbailey]

Thanks, xtremek! That did the trick. Back out to the workshop this morning for more priming and guess what?! Ole #8 pushrod came through for us; plenty of oil flow and looking good:


Still need spark plug wires back-ordered from Year One (date coded and all) as well as fuel pump and a few odds and ends. YO was having a 30% off sale, so I just ordered tune up "kit" from them, too.

Not in a big hurry, but need to do a little touch-up painting on the engine before attaching the accessories and trying to crank it up.

Sometimes you think you might be "snake bit". When I got the thermostat housing from YO and was painting it, the BIL reminded me that I had another intake manifold under the lean-to. Sure, I KNEW that but I had not thought about the housing it had. Besides, what's the chance that the part would be identical and the part number casting the same. Curious to find out and, sure enough, same IDENTICAL part. Oh well, would have taken some sand blasting and other cleanup to get to looking good.

BUT, wire brushing a couple of cap screws would not be too tough, so let's use the ones in the "lean-to manifold". Would you believe, they are different bolts -- one with a flanged head, one without; and not even the same length. If you're going to use date coded spark plug wires, you can't use mismatched bolts on the thermostat housing!!

 

[mwbailey]

So, what do you do when the pandemic has you hunkered down? A little of this, a little of that. . . .

The BIL thought Old Paint, the Ford 8N tractor, was skipping a little. So, we replaced plugs, points, condenser, rotor, and cap as well as crankcase oil and oil filter. He says it runs better now! Sure wish I had the newer model with distributor on the side so you can get to it. Replacing points etc. requires taking the distributor/coil assembly totally off the front of the engine:


Maybe knock out some small dents on the 442 valve cover, wire brush some intake manifold plugs, install new thermostat, points and rotor, and repaint the engine:





And maybe even start stringing lights for the workshop which ends up with a request from The Wife for a string on the deck railing:



Another string will be added at the workshop today or tomorrow depending on Hurricane Sally's progress. To clear the car hauler trailer, we had to hang the string of lights pretty high. BIL devised a pole from galvanized pipe that was to be used for compressed air system, but was dropped when fancy-dancy system was installed. The poles are easily 15 feet tall. I noticed that only the bottom half had been painted. He said, "I did my half!" I guess that means I climb the ladder to paint the top half

 

[xtremek]

At least the distributor is impossible to put in wrong. And that engine looks too nice to put into a car now.

 

[mwbailey]

So, stringing lights is pretty much complete:



Good clearance over car hauler!

Here they are at the planning stage:



After measuring and laying out string and calculating, we finally just "shot" down the edge of the barn and pulled the tape out to 50 feet. Made a mark and drove the pipes into place. Seemed to work OK.

Hmm, xtremek, don't know which distributor cannot be put in wrong. I've actually put the 8N distributor in 180 degrees off and broken one of the two pegs off that fit into the crank/cam (I'm not sure which). The pegs are just a bit off center, dang it. The little piece of metal is sitting on the bookshelf right above my computer to remind me! Now, the 442 distributor should be a little easier, but still needs a bit of alignment to insert. In any case, BIL and I agree that the engine almost looks like a jewel; we wonder about even cranking it up

 

[xtremek]

I'm surprised the 8n distributor even went in.

 

[mwbailey]

My first try, I didn't know the pegs were off center and didn't even think about the possibility of being off by 180 degrees. So, when I "Mongoed" the attaching bolts, the pin broke off. I removed the distributor to see what happened. . . .

I noted where the rotor was this last time before I removed the distributor but then put the cap on before installing the distributor. That didn't help alignment a lot, but I felt it fall into place! I guess if I do it one more time, I'll leave the cap off so I can move the rotor a little for alignment. Live and learn IF you don't forget what you learned.

 

[xtremek]

What were we talking about?

 

[mwbailey]

Sorry, responding to your comment that you were surprised the 8N distributor even went in. DOH! Right over my head until I reread my comments. The worst of it is when I purposefully place a tool or part somewhere, and then forget where I purposefully put it.

Or, like when I plugged in the light string and said, "Ooops, that's not good; no bulbs lit up." BIL says, "Did you turn on the light switch?" Well, no. No I haven't. Guess I'd better do that.

I try not to let any of that get back to The Wife. . . .

 

[xtremek]

Thank you Sir. That was a good laugh to start my day.

 

[mwbailey]

The pandemic keeps me close to home, but I keep piddling. Got tired of squinting to read the BIL's clock over by "his" bench, so resurrected a clock by replacing the works, painting a clock hand that was black, and installing a cell:


A little here and a little there and a couple of door casings for the doll house get installed. I never wanted to be a finish carpenter but I think the granddaughter will be OK with it -- covers some raw wood, anyway:


The guy doing some more N-scale modeling of the "textile corridor" near downtown Rock Hill continues to amaze me. Most of his modeling is totally scratch built, but the detail is excellent.


My part is to build the legs for the layout since he's supporting the piece with ropes so he can haul it up to his garage ceiling and pull his car in under it. Started with a pile of 1X4's, 1X2's, lauan plywood, and wood screws and wound up with 12 legs, six for the second phase of the layout and six more for the last. We'll move the second phase out in early October to make room for third phase construction.





Yes, of course, I noticed the exhaust system behind the "stack of wood". Today I messaged the "potential" 442 painter who went through some major medical issues; wanted to check on his health. . . .

 

[xtremek]

The legs looks nice. Now hurry up and get that Olds running.

 

[Mike.ASC]

Nice work on everything. Seeing that dollhouse reminds me that since I now have granddaughters also - I probably will have a project like that in the not too distant future.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Hope your friend does not have a cat. When I was a teen we had a train layout suspended from the ceiling of the garage. One night the cat apparently climbed a ladder and jumped to the layout, starting it swinging and then crashing to the floor - fortunately the car was not in the garage at the time.

 

[mwbailey]

Xtremek, thought I had responded but couldn't find it in the thread. Got a call from the potential painter who has had some health issues. He said he expected to get back in his shop next week. Maybe that will speed me along. . . or maybe not!?! I did notice the exhaust system just waiting patiently behind the "stack of wood" for the legs.

Granddaughters are great, Mike, and as a granddad you might have more time for them than you did for your daughter

Don't think the "master builder" has pets, Jeff, but I can claim to have mice checking out my layout. With a "cotton industry theme" I had a wagon of cotton on the layout. Soon it was empty and I'm guessing a little mouse has used it for bedding somewhere!

 

[mwbailey]

Why do all projects have to have hurdles?! BIL wanted to install new spark plug wires, rotor, and cap on his 1990 Chevy K1500. The dang distributor is almost out of reach at the rear of the engine with wires, hoses, and fixtures galore. We both felt the cap would be attached with the press and rotate clips we were familiar with -- nope, little cap screws. With great plans to keep wires on old cap as we installed wires on new cap, we leaned over the fenders -- BIL on a Windsor chair, me on a 4X6" block. Cap screws were either small Phillips or 7/32" socket. The screwdriver would have worked well, but the screws were too tight. Socket would have worked well, but the head of the wrench was too big to approach screw head straight on. Didn't want to strip the screw head, so began a search of 6-inch 1/4" drive socket extension. Only took 15 minutes and back to cap.

That worked. But getting the new cap on created the hurdle -- took many tries to get one screw inserted and snugged. Could not get the second screw started. We gave up due to back and stomach muscle pain after maybe 30 minutes of leaning over the engine bay.

To get access for the new cap, the old cap with wires attached was moved a number of times. . . and, yes, the spark plug wires starting coming off. Well dang. One photo of distributor innards makes one wonder what Chevy was thinking for this design:


Taking an overnight break allowed some additional Internet search. NObody complained about difficulty of alignment, but a few similarly rusted distributor innards were seen. Fortunately, BIL was not quite ready to replace the distributor, itself. Wanted to try rotor, cap, wires first. OK with me.

Finally, this am we gave up on getting the cap screw to start (after another 15 minutes of trying and leaning). Hated to do it, but pulled out the engaged screw and looked at cap. Ooops, looks like there's a grove at the back of the cap that probably needs to be lined up with a "flange" on the distributor. By now wires, old cap, and a couple of other pieces were out of the way and aligning the groove and flange put the cap screws right where they needed to be.

Fortunately, we had a printout of spark plug wire locations, firing order, etc. Worked through that and seemed to get everything in order. Truck started with no problem, so apparently we followed the diagram correctly!

Cap and rotor didn't look too good, so here's hoping there will be an improvement.


In the meantime, progress with the N scale railroad layout. Moved Phase I out of the White Home museum area to the new Knowledge Park area for temporary storage. Moved Phase II from builder's house to same storage. Now he has room to complete Phase III.

Since the builder has the layout suspended on ropes in his garage -- allows him to pull it out of the way to park the cars -- we had to add legs.


Only minor alignment issues with wiring interference with attaching legs. But that is complete, covered with plastic, and good until a more permanent protection can be constructed.

 

[mwbailey]

Gee, been quite a while since I visited TGJ! Dollhouse was delivered, with lighting:


Younger sister of dollhouse owner wanted a treehouse the next time she visited:


N Scale layout we've been dealing with is now encased for display:


Even started an extension to my layout; a 2X8' "switching layout" that will represent a pulp and paper mill in Panama City, FL, that my father procured pulpwood for in the mid-1950's:



A little upgrade to "Ole Paint" with new carburetor, sediment bowl and valve, solid metal fuel line, and repainted air cleaner:

 

[xtremek]

That's quite the doll and tree house. What scale is your RR? I've been debating whether or not to put the external part of the air cleaner on the Old Mule. Do you get much dirt in the air cleaner bowl?

 

[mwbailey]

Hello, xtremek! My RR is HO scale and is a very small layout -- 4'X6'4" originally. So, the 2'X8' addition will increase the area by over 60%! I can almost see the HO scale equipment. The other layout I've only been doing a little scenery plus providing temporary legs is N scale. No way could I work with details of structure, rolling stock, etc.

Not much dirt in the "cyclone" separator, but there's not much dirt on the place now that my nice gravel drive has been paved. As an engineer, I've enjoyed the scientific principal involved so I left it on. Need to clean up the whole vehicle sometime soon.

Thanks for stopping by; I need to do some checking around other threads!!

 

[mwbailey]

I wasn’t convinced yesterday that Annie was correct about the sun coming out tomorrow. A few things are between me and getting my daughter’s 442 painted.

One is moving my son’s 442 out of the workshop. Last time cranked, it was leaking gas pretty heavily at the top of the carburetor. With a second carburetor on the shelf waiting for painting to be done for daughter’s 442, we decided to swap. But, a fuel inlet fitting was needed for the second Quadrajet since the other one was JB Weld-ed into the carburetor body. Request to Quadrajet specialist got a fitting, but it seemed a bit too long. E-mail contact suggests a used one is available, but communications have slowed. So, Advance Auto to the rescue. On the website (not available in store), the delivery confused me. The order summary calls out 1 day to get ready for shipping and 3-4 days for shipping. But, there’s a caveat in the description that I didn’t see: Processing and Shipping time for this product may take longer than normal, even with expedited shipping options. Found out about the delayed shipping after placing the order and hearing from UPS – may take almost two weeks. Well dang. . . .

The second is having reliable tires on the car hauler to get daughter’s 442 to paint shop. One tire blew bringing Old Paint, the 8N tractor, back from a Christmas parade two Decembers ago. Two blew out sitting on the ground since the parade. One blew out recently bringing Old Paint back from some electrical work some 45 minutes away. Getting tired of paying for replacement tire AND rim, so figured keeping rim and remove/remount tires may be the way to go. Ordered exact replacement tires that were on the trailer when new. .. about 15 years ago (no wonder they are dry rotted and popping on their own accord). . . along with a tire tool. Tire tool arrived almost the next day. Got multiple messages from UPS and Amazon that shipment was delayed. Even heard at one point that the tires would be arriving on different days! Well dang. . ..

Yesterday I was expecting it would be several days before the sun would come out and we could make more progress. The least we could do – we being BIL Johnny and me – was remove flats from rims. After a little fighting with the tires, we had them removed:

 

[mwbailey]

But, Annie was right – the sun DID come out. Woke up this morning with nothing to do, so decided to take a bicycle ride before it got too hot. Lo and behold, the UPS truck arrived bringing BOTH tires AND an inlet fitting by the time I got back from bicycle ride. Being surprised by an early shipment is great, but not so much if an intermediate response gives a disappointingly long delivery, correct or not.

I did take the time to review YouTubes of people changing tires. Saw a “trailer aid” that allows changing wheels on tandem axles by pulling the good wheel up on a ramp -- $50 or so. Then saw a DIY ramp from cut up 8-foot 2X6 for much less. Showed the latter to BIL and by the time ride was over, there were the parts for a DIY trailer buddy, for $0!! He was with me when the small jack carried in the trailer did NOT want to lift the trailer – on the way back from electrical work. The trailer aid is a great idea.


In a flash, we had the DIY trailer aid complete and both tires mounted. OK, maybe not a flash, more like 1 ½ hours.



Also checked the fuel inlet fitting and found out that it fits just fine. Funny how it takes five pieces of metal to find ONE that will work!?


Turned out to be a nice day with enough time for a little catch up on GJ posting. Oh, AND, the third section of the N scale railroad layout at the Rock Hill Museum of Commerce and Industry is being delivered tomorrow. We’ll need to wire it to the existing sections and it should be good to go. The fun never ceases.

 

[Bob Heine]

I did take the time to review YouTubes of people changing tires. Saw a “trailer aid” that allows changing wheels on tandem axles by pulling the good wheel up on a ramp -- $50 or so. Then saw a DIY ramp from cut up 8-foot 2X6 for much less. Showed the latter to BIL and by the time ride was over, there were the parts for a DIY trailer buddy, for $0!! He was with me when the small jack carried in the trailer did NOT want to lift the trailer – on the way back from electrical work. The trailer aid is a great idea.

Also checked the fuel inlet fitting and found out that it fits just fine. Funny how it takes five pieces of metal to find ONE that will work!?

Turned out to be a nice day with enough time for a little catch up on GJ posting. Oh, AND, the third section of the N scale railroad layout at the Rock Hill Museum of Commerce and Industry is being delivered tomorrow. We’ll need to wire it to the existing sections and it should be good to go. The fun never ceases.

MWBailey, I have one of those trailer aids but don't have a trailer. Before I acquired a low profile floor jack I used my 2x12 trailer aid to get the Corvette high enough to get the regular profile jack under the car.

The original design didn't have the plywood extension and every time I tried to drive the Vette up on the ramp it pushed it several feet. Once the tire is on the plywood there's no more sliding. The Plywood extension was also a perfect place to cut a carry handle into the ramp.

I think everyone who works on Quadrajets has a collection of those inlet fittings. Even when I ordered what I was certain was the right size the thread pitch was wrong. I think each GM division had their own Quadrajet inlet fitting.

 

[xtremek]

I thought there were only 3 different inlet fittings, on e for the sintered filter, one for the short paper filter, and one for the long paper filter. That tire was crazy. I've had some bad tires, but never like that. I never made the tire ramp thing, but like Bob, in order to get a jack under the f-150, I have to dig through the 2x6 scraps to build a temp ramp I think when lumber prices come down, I'll make a pair of them.

 

[jollygreengiant]

Your barn looks great! What did you use for exterior finish? I would like to get mine to a similar colour as yours, maybe a bit lighter.