Honch's Projects
- Thread starter Honch
- Start date
I have a couple of small updates on the Corvette. When I brought it out of hibernation this spring, I was convinced it was going to need brakes and by the end of summer some tires. I have some very aggressive Carbotech autocross pads on the car that are not at all rotor friendly, so I took off the wheels to look everything over and realized the brakes will last the summer and the tires are shot.
Four years ago, when I put the last set of tires on it, I had the wheels painted and they had not held up well. Blasting and refinishing them was going to take too long so I got out my old set of TSW wheels, had them checked for being straight and once that was validated bought tires that would fit them. They are 1" wider all the way around and fill out the wheel well better than the 2014 factory Z51 wheels I had on the car, basically they are flush with the body instead of having a negative offset. I also adjusted the ride height on the left rear so the car would sit level with me in it. it's always been about .400 low on that corner.
I ended up going with Yokohama Advan's, not my first choice but the Hankook tires I wanted were not available. I cant say though that I am disappointed, these are the best handling tires I have ever had on the car. The inverse of that is they will probably not last 20k miles.
I also took the console apart and replaced the cup holder, it's something I had fixed numerous times in the past but was now beyond my ability to repair. It has a cover that is made out of some type of rubberized plastic and using it wears out the cover. It works like a rolltop desk and the plastic hinge points eventually crack and the cover splits. Unfortunately, you cannot buy a new cover, its only sold as a complete cup holder assembly and its about $180.00. Many people just leave it open or take it off, I found a new one for half that price, so I bought it and if I get another 14 years out of it, it's a win.
I have had the center console out of the car so many times that it only took about an hour to change it out.
The last bit of maintenance I did was with the driver's side seatbelt. It's a trick I learned quite a few years ago and it has worked for me every time I have done it. The seatbelt was not retracting smoothly and hanging up to where it was going to get slammed in the door. What I did not realize was the amount of just dirt and grease from your hands and the oil in your skin that builds up over time and gets trapped in the belt webbing. What happens is it makes the belt web actually thicker and won't allow it to retract properly. What I do is get a bucket of hot water, dump in a generous portion of Oxy Clean, pull the belt all the way out and clamp it at the "B" pillar and let it soak overnight. I scrub it with a stiff brush and then rinse it out.
This is just from it sitting overnight before I started scrubbing on it.
It's not magic, and it doesn't retract like it did brand new, but it does retract properly now.
Four years ago, when I put the last set of tires on it, I had the wheels painted and they had not held up well. Blasting and refinishing them was going to take too long so I got out my old set of TSW wheels, had them checked for being straight and once that was validated bought tires that would fit them. They are 1" wider all the way around and fill out the wheel well better than the 2014 factory Z51 wheels I had on the car, basically they are flush with the body instead of having a negative offset. I also adjusted the ride height on the left rear so the car would sit level with me in it. it's always been about .400 low on that corner.
I ended up going with Yokohama Advan's, not my first choice but the Hankook tires I wanted were not available. I cant say though that I am disappointed, these are the best handling tires I have ever had on the car. The inverse of that is they will probably not last 20k miles.
I also took the console apart and replaced the cup holder, it's something I had fixed numerous times in the past but was now beyond my ability to repair. It has a cover that is made out of some type of rubberized plastic and using it wears out the cover. It works like a rolltop desk and the plastic hinge points eventually crack and the cover splits. Unfortunately, you cannot buy a new cover, its only sold as a complete cup holder assembly and its about $180.00. Many people just leave it open or take it off, I found a new one for half that price, so I bought it and if I get another 14 years out of it, it's a win.
I have had the center console out of the car so many times that it only took about an hour to change it out.
The last bit of maintenance I did was with the driver's side seatbelt. It's a trick I learned quite a few years ago and it has worked for me every time I have done it. The seatbelt was not retracting smoothly and hanging up to where it was going to get slammed in the door. What I did not realize was the amount of just dirt and grease from your hands and the oil in your skin that builds up over time and gets trapped in the belt webbing. What happens is it makes the belt web actually thicker and won't allow it to retract properly. What I do is get a bucket of hot water, dump in a generous portion of Oxy Clean, pull the belt all the way out and clamp it at the "B" pillar and let it soak overnight. I scrub it with a stiff brush and then rinse it out.
This is just from it sitting overnight before I started scrubbing on it.
It's not magic, and it doesn't retract like it did brand new, but it does retract properly now.
OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
I've had that seatbelt cleaning process on my list of things to do on my Tundra for about a year...thanks for the reminder!
Car is looking good, I love that color of blue.
Car is looking good, I love that color of blue.
Farmall450
Well-known member
I don't get why HF doesn't approve that. It's pretty bad when there are literally scores of sellers/websites offering improved ones with HF's name in the title...heck I just bought a new HF one on marketplace for $75 (what they used to be before Covidflation) - the improved hook is 40% of that.The new hook I bought fixes clearance issues with the mount bolts, there are multiple sellers on Amazon, just search HF quick hitch and don't spend over $30.00.
Not the best picture but the new one is pinned to the old one they are the same height at the tip of the hook, the new one is just rotated slightly because of the slop in the holes between the two and the angle of the photo.
I might make some, but I'm not sure how well my plasma will cut 1" plate.
It's been a while since I have posted, same old story with work taking priority. I have done a few projects over the last few months that I wanted to share. My good friend who's truck bumpers are in this thread, finally finished his retirement home in the Upper Península last fall. The last week he stayed with us was the middle of October last fall and before he left, he asked for some help with a taxidermy project he had been working on all summer.
He had purchased this fake tree branch and was planning to put a bear cape on it but didn't have a good way to mount it where he wanted it. His initial plan was to cut the log flat on its back side and put moss over the area it was designed to be mounted the problem was you would need to nearly cut the log in half for the branch to angle up as intended. I asked him to pose with it like it was really heavy, the whole thing is made out of foam and weighs 15-20lbs.
I talked him into letting me make a simple pedestal to bolt it to. We really only had just over a day to make something and this seemed to be the simplest solution and only took a few hours to fab up.
After I finished welding it up, it got a quick coat of paint and set under the infrared heater till the next morning when he left.
Here it is installed in his new retirement home.
He had purchased this fake tree branch and was planning to put a bear cape on it but didn't have a good way to mount it where he wanted it. His initial plan was to cut the log flat on its back side and put moss over the area it was designed to be mounted the problem was you would need to nearly cut the log in half for the branch to angle up as intended. I asked him to pose with it like it was really heavy, the whole thing is made out of foam and weighs 15-20lbs.
I talked him into letting me make a simple pedestal to bolt it to. We really only had just over a day to make something and this seemed to be the simplest solution and only took a few hours to fab up.
After I finished welding it up, it got a quick coat of paint and set under the infrared heater till the next morning when he left.
Here it is installed in his new retirement home.
I picked up a few new tools and items for the shop during the Black Friday sales last fall, I bought some items to help with my projects. From Fireball tool I bought his Maximus bar clamps and T-square set. The latter was much more of want than a need, but I will say the visibility on the scales versus my Starret T-square is night and day better.
The bar clamps on the other hand, I wish I had bought them a long time ago they are awesome. I actually learned the hard way to use them with care, it is very easy to damage/crush the item your clamping. I used them to hold the table legs together for my wifes second crafting table I finished earlier this year.
Harbor Freight had their roller stands on sale 50% off. I really wanted one for my horizontal band saw, had looked at them briefly and changed my mind because they were too tall at their lowest setting and I felt like I would have just as much work modifying it as making one from scratch. When the entire unit was cheaper than I could buy a Chinese roller for I decided to get two.
It was actually easier to modify than I thought, I ended up just making a new leg to make it lean back further. Now its easy to cut long pieces of tubing and if I need both of them for my cold saw I can just put the original leg back on it.
I also added provisions to one of my tables for my grinders, I was tired of them always being in the way.
My last item came about by so many of the steel items in my shop rusting much more than normal. I spent the better part of a day trying to find a non existent jug of muriatic acid or or something along those lines before I thought it through for a while and realized how much propane I had been burning last fall. I cleaned up the surfaces before good cold spell and stayed out of the shop for two weeks, no rust. I started looking at radiant heaters that would vent the burnt fumes outside and ran into a couple of things that made it a less than optimal solution. I ended up compromising and buying a portable radiant heater that burns diesel. From my research diesel produces 50% less water vapor than propane at an equivalent heating level. Its a Sunfire SF120 and I wont go into a lot of detail about it there is much better information available from people on the net much more in the know than I am.
My propane heater was the same BTU rating and heated the shop a lot faster because it was heating the air, this heats it slower but it stays warm longer.
It radiates a serious amount of heat where most of the time I would shut it off for periods of time throughout the day.
Two main pros to it are I can fill it with diesel cans, it burns just under a gallon an hour. The second is my moisture / rusting problem is nearly non existent now.
The bar clamps on the other hand, I wish I had bought them a long time ago they are awesome. I actually learned the hard way to use them with care, it is very easy to damage/crush the item your clamping. I used them to hold the table legs together for my wifes second crafting table I finished earlier this year.
Harbor Freight had their roller stands on sale 50% off. I really wanted one for my horizontal band saw, had looked at them briefly and changed my mind because they were too tall at their lowest setting and I felt like I would have just as much work modifying it as making one from scratch. When the entire unit was cheaper than I could buy a Chinese roller for I decided to get two.
It was actually easier to modify than I thought, I ended up just making a new leg to make it lean back further. Now its easy to cut long pieces of tubing and if I need both of them for my cold saw I can just put the original leg back on it.
I also added provisions to one of my tables for my grinders, I was tired of them always being in the way.
My last item came about by so many of the steel items in my shop rusting much more than normal. I spent the better part of a day trying to find a non existent jug of muriatic acid or or something along those lines before I thought it through for a while and realized how much propane I had been burning last fall. I cleaned up the surfaces before good cold spell and stayed out of the shop for two weeks, no rust. I started looking at radiant heaters that would vent the burnt fumes outside and ran into a couple of things that made it a less than optimal solution. I ended up compromising and buying a portable radiant heater that burns diesel. From my research diesel produces 50% less water vapor than propane at an equivalent heating level. Its a Sunfire SF120 and I wont go into a lot of detail about it there is much better information available from people on the net much more in the know than I am.
My propane heater was the same BTU rating and heated the shop a lot faster because it was heating the air, this heats it slower but it stays warm longer.
It radiates a serious amount of heat where most of the time I would shut it off for periods of time throughout the day.
Two main pros to it are I can fill it with diesel cans, it burns just under a gallon an hour. The second is my moisture / rusting problem is nearly non existent now.
One project I worked on over the last couple months was a park bench. A friend of mine gave me the end castings a few years ago and when I priced how much teak would cost to build it, they went against a wall in the corner of my shop. When my buddy moved last fall, he sorted through the wood he had been storing in my shop and decided he didn't want this reclaimed white oak "dental trim". Initially I had just planned to give it along with all the other wood he left to my neighbor, when I came up with the idea of trying to make it work for the bench.
After doing the math, I had enough pieces of the right lengths I was able to make 13 pieces 4' and trim all the "teeth" off. I don't own a planer, so I brought all the slats to a buddy's house who took them down enough to remove all the reddish stain. I located the fastener holes, painted the end grain cuts and coated them in tung oil.
I found some black carriage bolts on AZ and had the bench together relatively quickly.
From pictures I have looked at of this type of bench there should be a rod that connects side to side of the end castings. I had plenty of rebar, so I ground down the ends and threaded them. My initial plan was to weld bolts to the end of it, but my welder was in the shop for a software update. Doing this let me continue on with the project.
This is the point where the fun began, as I was sliding it a few feet out of my way one of the cast legs broke off. Visible in the picture below is a opening running from front to back through the center of the leg. There was actually a spider nest in the center of it.
Looking at the back side of the leg, its apparent that this was a very bad casting, it has porosity all around that area.
At this point I was ready to cut my losses and trash everything, but I decided to walk away from it instead. The following weekend I remembered I still had some nickel rod, so I ground out as much of the porosity as I felt comfortable removing and tried filling it in with the nickel rod.
The area below circled in green is the main part of the leg I was showing in the pictures above, the areas in red are all the additional attach points that broke when the main leg did. Welding this was frustrating, doesn't look great but I feel good about its strength, definitely stronger than it was with all the porosity.
With that completed, I still needed to fabricate a strap to tie all the slats together.
After I finished the strap I put 600lbs of weight on it and pushed it from the side till it slid across the concrete. I figured if it could handle that side loading it would be fine.
This was way more work than I would have ever imagined, when I stared this, I thought at most it would take me 8-10 hours. I easily have three times that into it.
After doing the math, I had enough pieces of the right lengths I was able to make 13 pieces 4' and trim all the "teeth" off. I don't own a planer, so I brought all the slats to a buddy's house who took them down enough to remove all the reddish stain. I located the fastener holes, painted the end grain cuts and coated them in tung oil.
I found some black carriage bolts on AZ and had the bench together relatively quickly.
From pictures I have looked at of this type of bench there should be a rod that connects side to side of the end castings. I had plenty of rebar, so I ground down the ends and threaded them. My initial plan was to weld bolts to the end of it, but my welder was in the shop for a software update. Doing this let me continue on with the project.
This is the point where the fun began, as I was sliding it a few feet out of my way one of the cast legs broke off. Visible in the picture below is a opening running from front to back through the center of the leg. There was actually a spider nest in the center of it.
Looking at the back side of the leg, its apparent that this was a very bad casting, it has porosity all around that area.
At this point I was ready to cut my losses and trash everything, but I decided to walk away from it instead. The following weekend I remembered I still had some nickel rod, so I ground out as much of the porosity as I felt comfortable removing and tried filling it in with the nickel rod.
The area below circled in green is the main part of the leg I was showing in the pictures above, the areas in red are all the additional attach points that broke when the main leg did. Welding this was frustrating, doesn't look great but I feel good about its strength, definitely stronger than it was with all the porosity.
With that completed, I still needed to fabricate a strap to tie all the slats together.
After I finished the strap I put 600lbs of weight on it and pushed it from the side till it slid across the concrete. I figured if it could handle that side loading it would be fine.
This was way more work than I would have ever imagined, when I stared this, I thought at most it would take me 8-10 hours. I easily have three times that into it.
jon72vega
Well-known member
Great job on the bench!
Saturday, I finished up a metal rack I have been working on. It came about because I needed a better way of storing all the stainless and aluminum sheets I have, I don't even actually know what I have because I have never had a good way to go through all of it. When I initially acquired all of it, I was in our old house and had no place to keep it, I welded some uprights to the back of a rack I had and took it to a buddy's barn where it sat for a couple years. He used it to store his metal scraps on the shelves located on the other side.
There are so many sheets that they are wedged in the rack and even if I was able to find one I could use, it would take a monumental effort to get to it. To remedy this, I started building a dedicated rack for just the sheets.
Three weeks ago, I got my hands on another 6 4x12 sheets of aluminum, 12 3x12 sheets and 7 3x6 sheets of stainless, so this weekend I needed to get the rack finished.
I found some 12' x 1 3/4" tubes at my local drop shop for $10ea to make the rails from and the base is 8" x 3" made from some scrap 2x2 I had.
One problem I ran into is, I didn't have a good way to bend tubing. I tried packing it with sand and bending it with my pipe bender, tried heat etc. The only good way is with an actual tube bender. I spoke with a buddy who I thought might have a tubing bender and he suggested doing pie cuts to make the bends This worked for what I needed but was very time consuming. I wanted rounded corners for the rails so it wouldn't damage the sheets trying to move them on and off the rack. An 80lb 12ft long sheet of aluminum is not the easiest thing to move around.
This is it loaded up with the metal I recently acquired, the rack behind it still has all my original metal and is what I am replacing.
Part of all this is, I had an area in the shop that had wood stacked up against the wall under the Kubota banner, that the previous owner left. I didn't take a before picture but about half of what was against the wall is leaning on my sand blaster. I got rid of about 70% of it, kept a few good pieces and organized and stacked some of it on the rivet rack I set up. The wood went on the top two shelves and the bottom three now hold a lot of metal scraps I took off my old metal rack. With the material organized and spread out it's easy to find what I need.
This is what the old metal rack looked like when I got it back from my buddy's storage barn, I got rid of about 60% of it as well. It was so heavy two of us couldn't even push it.
Once I have the sheets off the back put on my new rack, this one will likely get cut up / repurposed. The new rack is almost two feet narrower and will take up much less of a footprint in the shop. More importantly with the way the metal is stacked it's very easy to flip the sheets to create an inventory and also get to the one I want.
There are so many sheets that they are wedged in the rack and even if I was able to find one I could use, it would take a monumental effort to get to it. To remedy this, I started building a dedicated rack for just the sheets.
Three weeks ago, I got my hands on another 6 4x12 sheets of aluminum, 12 3x12 sheets and 7 3x6 sheets of stainless, so this weekend I needed to get the rack finished.
I found some 12' x 1 3/4" tubes at my local drop shop for $10ea to make the rails from and the base is 8" x 3" made from some scrap 2x2 I had.
One problem I ran into is, I didn't have a good way to bend tubing. I tried packing it with sand and bending it with my pipe bender, tried heat etc. The only good way is with an actual tube bender. I spoke with a buddy who I thought might have a tubing bender and he suggested doing pie cuts to make the bends This worked for what I needed but was very time consuming. I wanted rounded corners for the rails so it wouldn't damage the sheets trying to move them on and off the rack. An 80lb 12ft long sheet of aluminum is not the easiest thing to move around.
This is it loaded up with the metal I recently acquired, the rack behind it still has all my original metal and is what I am replacing.
Part of all this is, I had an area in the shop that had wood stacked up against the wall under the Kubota banner, that the previous owner left. I didn't take a before picture but about half of what was against the wall is leaning on my sand blaster. I got rid of about 70% of it, kept a few good pieces and organized and stacked some of it on the rivet rack I set up. The wood went on the top two shelves and the bottom three now hold a lot of metal scraps I took off my old metal rack. With the material organized and spread out it's easy to find what I need.
This is what the old metal rack looked like when I got it back from my buddy's storage barn, I got rid of about 60% of it as well. It was so heavy two of us couldn't even push it.
Once I have the sheets off the back put on my new rack, this one will likely get cut up / repurposed. The new rack is almost two feet narrower and will take up much less of a footprint in the shop. More importantly with the way the metal is stacked it's very easy to flip the sheets to create an inventory and also get to the one I want.
Over the course of last week, I finally got all the metal sheets off my old rack and on to the new one. They were so wedged on the old rack that I had to clamp a strap to at least four of them to pull them out and free up all the others.
Now that I could go through everything, I found easily over 200lbs of "0" heat treat material. Some of it is 6061 and thick enough I can still use it for various projects, the majority is 2024 and 7075, so I'll probably run it to the recycle center. This rack takes up much less room, the sheets are organized, easy to get off, and I can move it by hand instead of pushing it with the tractor. The old rack is in my scrap metal pile, I have a project later this year that Ill likely cut it up for.
Last Monday, I drove my truck to work for the first time in a few weeks, on the way home I heard a grinding from the front brakes. The last time I did brakes about 30k ago, I turned the original rotors and installed ceramic pads. I was a bit surprised they would be worn out already, but the sound of grinding metal was unmistakable. I ordered rotors and pads Tuesday and when I arrived home on Thursday they had already been caringly delivered to my home.
As things normally go, I took the driver's side front apart because that's where the noise was coming from. Finding nothing at all wrong I started checking the hub, CVs etc. still nothing. I went to the passenger side, and at first glance the rotor was fine, but I saw there was no gap on the inside pad. I am fairly sure the pad failed as the squeeler tab didn't wear down it broke off. The last couple times I saw a failed hose it didn't just take out one pad, but when I ordered the brakes I ordered all new hoses as well, they just have not come in yet.
I had trouble finding Delco rotors that were in stock, so I ended up going with Power Stop rotors, mostly because they are zinc coated and everything came as a kit.
Everything went very well except one rotor I had to press off. It also gave me a chance to look under the truck, I am very happy about the level of corrosion after 9 years, its light to nonexistent, it definitely does not look its age.
Now that I could go through everything, I found easily over 200lbs of "0" heat treat material. Some of it is 6061 and thick enough I can still use it for various projects, the majority is 2024 and 7075, so I'll probably run it to the recycle center. This rack takes up much less room, the sheets are organized, easy to get off, and I can move it by hand instead of pushing it with the tractor. The old rack is in my scrap metal pile, I have a project later this year that Ill likely cut it up for.
Last Monday, I drove my truck to work for the first time in a few weeks, on the way home I heard a grinding from the front brakes. The last time I did brakes about 30k ago, I turned the original rotors and installed ceramic pads. I was a bit surprised they would be worn out already, but the sound of grinding metal was unmistakable. I ordered rotors and pads Tuesday and when I arrived home on Thursday they had already been caringly delivered to my home.
As things normally go, I took the driver's side front apart because that's where the noise was coming from. Finding nothing at all wrong I started checking the hub, CVs etc. still nothing. I went to the passenger side, and at first glance the rotor was fine, but I saw there was no gap on the inside pad. I am fairly sure the pad failed as the squeeler tab didn't wear down it broke off. The last couple times I saw a failed hose it didn't just take out one pad, but when I ordered the brakes I ordered all new hoses as well, they just have not come in yet.
I had trouble finding Delco rotors that were in stock, so I ended up going with Power Stop rotors, mostly because they are zinc coated and everything came as a kit.
Everything went very well except one rotor I had to press off. It also gave me a chance to look under the truck, I am very happy about the level of corrosion after 9 years, its light to nonexistent, it definitely does not look its age.
OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
I've used Powerstop on a few vehicles with very good results. Recently I've been running the Raybestos Element3 products. Very attractive heat rating on the pads, generally GG or HH.
I realized after I took everything apart the pad that failed was a Power Stop, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it though even good products have some failures. The truck wasn't at all my plan for the weekend, I've been trying to finish up all my projects so I can tear the corvette apart. The rotors on it are on their third set of pads and the passenger side fuel tank sending unit is failing. Because I need to drop that tank, I'm going to drop the driver's side and change the sending unit and pump in it as well.
Bob Heine
ALLIANCE MEMBER
@Honch, I love seeing first world solutions to problems. My solution to tightly stacked sheet metal or plywood is to tip the whole thing over and then clean up the mess. A Kubota with forks and straps and clamps is so much more elegant.
When I was making repairs to the shed a few years ago, the big box store (I forget if it was orange or blue) delivery guy did me the favor of unloading my stuff and some mulch (saved me a trip) in front of the garage
The mulch and lumber was easy to move with wagons and hand trucks but the 5/8" T1-11 had to wait a day for me to recover. I parked the car in front of it to slow thieves down.
I rolled a couple of 4x8 sheets at a time down the 100' walkway using my manual trolley and a piece of packing lumber that came with the stack.
Lifting the plywood onto the sawhorses proved surprisingly awkward one handed so I built a little frame with a handle using scrap wood that adopted me sometime in the distant past. Oh, there was also a roller stand involved that held the sheet off the frame enough to pull the frame out for the next sheet. Then there was some rinse and repeat involved.
My wife believes the pyramids were built by two one-armed Egyptians who didn't allow spectators so no one really knows how they did it.
When I was making repairs to the shed a few years ago, the big box store (I forget if it was orange or blue) delivery guy did me the favor of unloading my stuff and some mulch (saved me a trip) in front of the garage
The mulch and lumber was easy to move with wagons and hand trucks but the 5/8" T1-11 had to wait a day for me to recover. I parked the car in front of it to slow thieves down.
I rolled a couple of 4x8 sheets at a time down the 100' walkway using my manual trolley and a piece of packing lumber that came with the stack.
Lifting the plywood onto the sawhorses proved surprisingly awkward one handed so I built a little frame with a handle using scrap wood that adopted me sometime in the distant past. Oh, there was also a roller stand involved that held the sheet off the frame enough to pull the frame out for the next sheet. Then there was some rinse and repeat involved.
My wife believes the pyramids were built by two one-armed Egyptians who didn't allow spectators so no one really knows how they did it.
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I like your "trolley".@Honch, I love seeing first world solutions to problems. My solution to tightly stacked sheet metal or plywood is to tip the whole thing over and then clean up the mess. A Kubota with forks and straps and clamps is so much more elegant.
When I was making repairs to the shed a few years ago, the big box store (I forget if it was orange or blue) delivery guy did me the favor of unloading my stuff and some mulch (saved me a trip) in front of the garage
The mulch and lumber was easy to move with wagons and hand trucks but the 5/8" T1-11 had to wait a day for me to recover. I parked the car in front of it to slow thieves down.
I rolled a couple of 4x8 sheets at a time down the 100' walkway using my manual trolley and a piece of packing lumber that came with the stack.
Lifting the plywood onto the sawhorses proved surprisingly awkward one handed so I built a little frame with a handle using scrap wood that adopted me sometime in the distant past. Oh, there was also a roller stand involved that held the sheet off the frame enough to pull the frame out for the next sheet. Then there was some rinse and repeat involved.
My wife believes the pyramids were built by two one-armed Egyptians who didn't allow spectators so no one really knows how they did it.
This weekend did not go as I planned. It started with needing to come to work for one of my days off. Then my neighbor's brother, who lives three houses down, asked if I could do a quick weld job for him on his adjustable basketball goal. The goal is homemade by someone he worked with, the main tube is 6" in diameter and 3/16" thick, the thing is built like a tank. The adjuster crank was rusted and frozen in place and he had no idea where it came from or who made it, so he ordered one from Amazon that was about a foot shorter. It seemed like it would be simple and he had his nephews Lincoln 140 at his house for me to use. I cut off the brackets and had to extend them because the crank was longer, the Lincoln either had something wrong with it or the metal was just too thick. I ended up taking my welder to his house which took a good hour to get it over there. I didn't get any pictures because something I thought would take an hour tops, took over four hours.
Most of the weekend was spent cleaning and organizing in the shop, before I start my work on the corvette. It would drive me nuts to get it in there with as cluttered as it was. I also have issues when cleaning and organizing, I tend to find things that need something done to them and I am off "fixing" that item instead of cleaning.
In this case, when I sorted through all my metal, I found a sheet of 0.063 half hard stainless that was cut to 3'x6' coincidentally the exact size I needed for my other work bench that has a Masonite top. Again, thinking it would just take me a couple hours to take the Masonite off and put the stainless in its place, it took the better part of the day. What I didn't realize is the top was put down with double sided stick tape across the entire table. I spent an hour just getting it to this point.
I tried a heat gun to make the glue softer, but it didn't work so I got out the infrared heater and let it set on each area for about 10-15 minutes. This worked fairly well, and I was able to take the remainder of the Masonite off after about 90 minutes.
The new top made all the work worth it, it looks so much better and will be much easier to keep clean.
Most of the weekend was spent cleaning and organizing in the shop, before I start my work on the corvette. It would drive me nuts to get it in there with as cluttered as it was. I also have issues when cleaning and organizing, I tend to find things that need something done to them and I am off "fixing" that item instead of cleaning.
In this case, when I sorted through all my metal, I found a sheet of 0.063 half hard stainless that was cut to 3'x6' coincidentally the exact size I needed for my other work bench that has a Masonite top. Again, thinking it would just take me a couple hours to take the Masonite off and put the stainless in its place, it took the better part of the day. What I didn't realize is the top was put down with double sided stick tape across the entire table. I spent an hour just getting it to this point.
I tried a heat gun to make the glue softer, but it didn't work so I got out the infrared heater and let it set on each area for about 10-15 minutes. This worked fairly well, and I was able to take the remainder of the Masonite off after about 90 minutes.
The new top made all the work worth it, it looks so much better and will be much easier to keep clean.
Four weeks ago, I picked up 60 bags of 30lb mulch, a minimum of 1.650lbs. My tractor would lift it off the deck of the trailer but not high enough to clear the fender. I didn't really need it off the trailer, so I didn't mess with side shifting it around the fender or taking the fender off. It did make me look more at something I had read about, with increasing the pump pressure. I ordered a kit that came with a nice pressure gauge and 4 different sized shims for the bypass valve.
Last night when I got home, I hooked up the gauge. Kubota spec for my tractor calls out 16.2MPa which is 2350 psi. My tractor read 2365 psi at 2700 rpm.
The mod was as simple as removing the pressure relief valve and, in my case, placing a .004 Kubota shim under the spring. For every .001 shim it bumps the pressure .027 MPa, this took the pressure to 2525 psi a 6.76% increase. I decided to go conservative for now, I can always bump it some more later. I did not do all the math for 2 lifts cylinders ** diameter vs pressure to figure out how much more weight it could lift. What I did do is take it out and lift something.
This picture is from a couple years ago, when I first tested just how much I could lift with it. The barrels are 55 gallon and full of aircraft exterior soap, according to the shipping information they are 525lbs each plus the weight of the pallet. My tractor at max RPM would lift them just over the height of the hood.
Today I tried lifting the same load, it's on a smaller pallet but its built sturdier and probably weighs very close to the one in the picture above. The first thing I noticed was the tractor could lift the load at an idle a few feet off the ground. At max rpm it lifted the load to its max height. I didn't play around with adding any more weight, I have enough time on the tractor to know it was very close to its max lifting capability, it may have handled another 30-40 lbs. at the most.
I also noticed because I have a habit of putting the loader in float when I park the tractor that I need to do it very quickly because the increased pressure at an idle quickly lifts the front of the tractor off the ground and then drops it when the loader goes into float. It never did that before. I'm very happy about the improvement for the cost / effort.
Last night when I got home, I hooked up the gauge. Kubota spec for my tractor calls out 16.2MPa which is 2350 psi. My tractor read 2365 psi at 2700 rpm.
The mod was as simple as removing the pressure relief valve and, in my case, placing a .004 Kubota shim under the spring. For every .001 shim it bumps the pressure .027 MPa, this took the pressure to 2525 psi a 6.76% increase. I decided to go conservative for now, I can always bump it some more later. I did not do all the math for 2 lifts cylinders ** diameter vs pressure to figure out how much more weight it could lift. What I did do is take it out and lift something.
This picture is from a couple years ago, when I first tested just how much I could lift with it. The barrels are 55 gallon and full of aircraft exterior soap, according to the shipping information they are 525lbs each plus the weight of the pallet. My tractor at max RPM would lift them just over the height of the hood.
Today I tried lifting the same load, it's on a smaller pallet but its built sturdier and probably weighs very close to the one in the picture above. The first thing I noticed was the tractor could lift the load at an idle a few feet off the ground. At max rpm it lifted the load to its max height. I didn't play around with adding any more weight, I have enough time on the tractor to know it was very close to its max lifting capability, it may have handled another 30-40 lbs. at the most.
I also noticed because I have a habit of putting the loader in float when I park the tractor that I need to do it very quickly because the increased pressure at an idle quickly lifts the front of the tractor off the ground and then drops it when the loader goes into float. It never did that before. I'm very happy about the improvement for the cost / effort.
I've been working on my corvette for the past few weekends. It's something I have been dreading, but there was no other way around it. The passenger fuel tank sending unit started failing last summer, it gives me an error code P2068 Fuel Level Sensor "B" Circuit High. This is from a sulfur buildup on the sending unit contacts. I was able to use some fuel additive, and it went away for a couple months but was basically a band aid. I did some research on changing it and many people claim it was the most difficult task they performed on the car. After doing it, I would agree.
The fuel tanks are located behind the seats and have a steel corrugated "crossover hose" running between them. It is basically a shroud for the actual fuel lines that run between the tanks and allows fuel to go from the driver's side to passenger side during fueling. The tank itself is held in by a thin plate protecting the bottom of it. The difficult part in all of this was accessing the crossover hose and disconnecting the fuel lines inside of it. The red arrow shows the crossover tube, and the green arrow is pointing at an evap line that took me about 3 hours to disconnect. Both sides are basically the same.
The crossover tube is like a big spring that's pushing into each tank. The lines inside have nothing retaining them to stay connected but the Orings which is more than enough when you can't actually touch them, and they haven't been apart in 14 years.
This is the crossover tube removed:
This is the tank side of the connection:
Because of the difficulty of taking this apart, I decided in advance to pull both tanks and replace the fuel pump along with both sending units just because I didn't want to take it apart again. The passenger tank does not have a standalone fuel pump, it uses a jet pump to maintain an equal fuel level between the two tanks.
The fuel pump and sending units were very similar to any modern fuel injected vehicle except for the extra fuel lines coming from the other tank. These had to be fed into the pump carrier while it was halfway into the tank otherwise it wouldn't pull any fuel from the passenger side.
In order to reach the evap lines and the crossover tube I had to remove the cats and x-pipe to be able to move the tailpipes out of the way. This is when I found the still functioning aft 02 sensors had their connectors melted from the cats. I have no idea how this one was still functioning.
This is the protective sleeve that came with the headers to prevent damage to the connectors, I did not cut it to take it off it had melted to this point.
I ordered some new connectors and some lava sleeve from DEI. I also decided while I had everything apart, I would try one of their heat shield kits for the torque tube tunnel. The tunnel has an aluminum plate that is about 0.060 thick and does a great job of taking the heat from the cats and transferring it to the underside of the shifter boot. The main problem being the big wide area where the header collectors are is the factory position for the cats. Putting headers on the car moves the cats farther back in the tunnel and it does not have the same level of heat protection.
Once I cleaned everything up and sandblasted the tunnel plate, the DEI kit was very easy to install. I am excited to see how much it cuts down on heat around the console and shifter.
Before I reinstalled the exhaust, I wrapped the O2 sensor lines with some sleeving I had for a turbine engine EGT harness. I don't know the temperature rating on it so I went over the top of it with two layers of DEI lava sleeve. This was a total pain in the **** because the DEI one was like a Chinese finger handcuff and every time I pushed it together to make it larger it would unravel more on the ends. It's rated to 1200° and should help the connectors live a bit longer.
Part 2 of this coming when I have some more time to post....
The fuel tanks are located behind the seats and have a steel corrugated "crossover hose" running between them. It is basically a shroud for the actual fuel lines that run between the tanks and allows fuel to go from the driver's side to passenger side during fueling. The tank itself is held in by a thin plate protecting the bottom of it. The difficult part in all of this was accessing the crossover hose and disconnecting the fuel lines inside of it. The red arrow shows the crossover tube, and the green arrow is pointing at an evap line that took me about 3 hours to disconnect. Both sides are basically the same.
The crossover tube is like a big spring that's pushing into each tank. The lines inside have nothing retaining them to stay connected but the Orings which is more than enough when you can't actually touch them, and they haven't been apart in 14 years.
This is the crossover tube removed:
This is the tank side of the connection:
Because of the difficulty of taking this apart, I decided in advance to pull both tanks and replace the fuel pump along with both sending units just because I didn't want to take it apart again. The passenger tank does not have a standalone fuel pump, it uses a jet pump to maintain an equal fuel level between the two tanks.
The fuel pump and sending units were very similar to any modern fuel injected vehicle except for the extra fuel lines coming from the other tank. These had to be fed into the pump carrier while it was halfway into the tank otherwise it wouldn't pull any fuel from the passenger side.
In order to reach the evap lines and the crossover tube I had to remove the cats and x-pipe to be able to move the tailpipes out of the way. This is when I found the still functioning aft 02 sensors had their connectors melted from the cats. I have no idea how this one was still functioning.
This is the protective sleeve that came with the headers to prevent damage to the connectors, I did not cut it to take it off it had melted to this point.
I ordered some new connectors and some lava sleeve from DEI. I also decided while I had everything apart, I would try one of their heat shield kits for the torque tube tunnel. The tunnel has an aluminum plate that is about 0.060 thick and does a great job of taking the heat from the cats and transferring it to the underside of the shifter boot. The main problem being the big wide area where the header collectors are is the factory position for the cats. Putting headers on the car moves the cats farther back in the tunnel and it does not have the same level of heat protection.
Once I cleaned everything up and sandblasted the tunnel plate, the DEI kit was very easy to install. I am excited to see how much it cuts down on heat around the console and shifter.
Before I reinstalled the exhaust, I wrapped the O2 sensor lines with some sleeving I had for a turbine engine EGT harness. I don't know the temperature rating on it so I went over the top of it with two layers of DEI lava sleeve. This was a total pain in the **** because the DEI one was like a Chinese finger handcuff and every time I pushed it together to make it larger it would unravel more on the ends. It's rated to 1200° and should help the connectors live a bit longer.
Part 2 of this coming when I have some more time to post....
OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
Yikes, I think they do similar to that with the CTS Cadillacs.
I will try not to complain about dropping the muffler, and drooping the rear axle on my Z28 to change out a pump next time.
I will try not to complain about dropping the muffler, and drooping the rear axle on my Z28 to change out a pump next time.
I didn't mention the correct way to remove them is to disconnect the torque tube at the bellhousing, disconnect the rear suspension, and drop the rear subframe along with the transmission. Then you can more easily reach the crossover tube and evap lines. If I had a lift, I may have gone that route, mostly just to justify why I had spent so much money on a lift
Bob Heine
ALLIANCE MEMBER
@Honch, that job or a clutch replacement costing $2,500-3,000 makes that lift seem like a must have tool. First time I replaced the evaporator in our 2004 PT Cruiser it cost me ~$100 for the parts and another $125 for the test and refill of the 134A refrigerant. Second time I paid a guy $1,600 to do the job. II didn't mention the correct way to remove them is to disconnect the torque tube at the bellhousing, disconnect the rear suspension, and drop the rear subframe along with the transmission. Then you can more easily reach the crossover tube and evap lines. If I had a lift, I may have gone that route, mostly just to justify why I had spent so much money on a lift
Part 2
After driving the car to work and into town a couple times three weeks ago, I decided to go for a Sunday drive. I got the wife and headed to the gas station, filled the car, started it and the gauge read 0, shortly after the check engine light came on. I went back home put the OTOFIX on it and it had the same code P2068 Fuel Level Sensor "B" Circuit High. I realized at this point I had never put enough gas in it after finishing the job to put much of any fuel in the passenger tank much less fill it. Now with both tanks full it went back up in the air and I pulled the passenger tank back out. This was much harder than the first time because the access on that side is less, but I didn't feel like taking the driver's side all apart again.
Once the tank was out, I checked the sensor travel and resistance, everything was fine. I checked the grounds on that side and found nothing wrong. Before I put it all back together again, I spent some more time on the corvette forum and found 3 other people that had the same problem. Unfortunately, with no resolution. One of them had spent $1,500.00 at the dealership having the sensor replaced and his solution was to never fill the car again. I am guessing there is some programming with the BCM for the sensor when the tank is completely filled but I haven't found anything yet to fully support that. It seems to be a common problem and once about a gallon was burned down in the tanks everything worked fine.
Last weekend I was extending our pool sump drain that runs along the edge of my property line. I bought 50' of pipe the day before and tried to get on it before it got blistering hot out. I got the tractor and ran my subsoiler where I wanted the pipe to go, but when I went to get the shovel I couldn't find it anywhere. Eventually when I did find it, it had been placed in the corner of the garage and fallen behind some cabinets where it wasn't readily visible.
After getting the pipe laid out and covered, I decided to address the shovel issue along with every other garden/hand tool we have in my shop and the garage, basically scattered everywhere.
Two years ago I bought some planning boards at the airport auction very cheap for the steel they were made from. I brought one in from my boneyard and cut the uprights off of it.
This is the first time I have had a good reason to use my new plasma cutter and I am very happy with how easy it got into inside angles where my angle grinder would have struggled to make the same cut.
I didn't take a lot of pictures of what I did, but basically I left the overall size of it the same. Its larger than what I wanted but making it smaller would have taken 4-5 times more work. After cutting the uprights off and one of the cross angles, I hit it with my pressure wash sand blaster. Gave it a couple of coats of paint and attached two pallet rack shelves.
This was fairly quick and easy, with it being on casters already it also is very easy to move if necessary. Most importantly I know where all the shovels, rakes, sledge etc. are.
While I was working on this, I noticed my compressor making a lot of noise. It has always had a very slight rod knock sound since it was new, but this was much louder. After getting the belt guard off and checking the belt tension I didn't find anything wrong and more as an afterthought before I put the belt guard back on, I took a look at the pulleys. I found a big blob of what appeared to be some type of sealant or RTV. After digging it off the "knock" went away, I like easy fixes like that.
After driving the car to work and into town a couple times three weeks ago, I decided to go for a Sunday drive. I got the wife and headed to the gas station, filled the car, started it and the gauge read 0, shortly after the check engine light came on. I went back home put the OTOFIX on it and it had the same code P2068 Fuel Level Sensor "B" Circuit High. I realized at this point I had never put enough gas in it after finishing the job to put much of any fuel in the passenger tank much less fill it. Now with both tanks full it went back up in the air and I pulled the passenger tank back out. This was much harder than the first time because the access on that side is less, but I didn't feel like taking the driver's side all apart again.
Once the tank was out, I checked the sensor travel and resistance, everything was fine. I checked the grounds on that side and found nothing wrong. Before I put it all back together again, I spent some more time on the corvette forum and found 3 other people that had the same problem. Unfortunately, with no resolution. One of them had spent $1,500.00 at the dealership having the sensor replaced and his solution was to never fill the car again. I am guessing there is some programming with the BCM for the sensor when the tank is completely filled but I haven't found anything yet to fully support that. It seems to be a common problem and once about a gallon was burned down in the tanks everything worked fine.
Last weekend I was extending our pool sump drain that runs along the edge of my property line. I bought 50' of pipe the day before and tried to get on it before it got blistering hot out. I got the tractor and ran my subsoiler where I wanted the pipe to go, but when I went to get the shovel I couldn't find it anywhere. Eventually when I did find it, it had been placed in the corner of the garage and fallen behind some cabinets where it wasn't readily visible.
After getting the pipe laid out and covered, I decided to address the shovel issue along with every other garden/hand tool we have in my shop and the garage, basically scattered everywhere.
Two years ago I bought some planning boards at the airport auction very cheap for the steel they were made from. I brought one in from my boneyard and cut the uprights off of it.
This is the first time I have had a good reason to use my new plasma cutter and I am very happy with how easy it got into inside angles where my angle grinder would have struggled to make the same cut.
I didn't take a lot of pictures of what I did, but basically I left the overall size of it the same. Its larger than what I wanted but making it smaller would have taken 4-5 times more work. After cutting the uprights off and one of the cross angles, I hit it with my pressure wash sand blaster. Gave it a couple of coats of paint and attached two pallet rack shelves.
This was fairly quick and easy, with it being on casters already it also is very easy to move if necessary. Most importantly I know where all the shovels, rakes, sledge etc. are.
While I was working on this, I noticed my compressor making a lot of noise. It has always had a very slight rod knock sound since it was new, but this was much louder. After getting the belt guard off and checking the belt tension I didn't find anything wrong and more as an afterthought before I put the belt guard back on, I took a look at the pulleys. I found a big blob of what appeared to be some type of sealant or RTV. After digging it off the "knock" went away, I like easy fixes like that.
Don't we all!
I have not posted since August, I have a lot going on at work that has kept me busy and no real noteworthy projects at home.
Over the last couple of weekends, I was able to work on and complete a project I have been wanting to do for quite a while. Two years ago, I got my hands on some aircraft floor beam extrusions. These are the main floor support structure with an integrated L track and are used either for cargo tie downs or mounting seats in the main cabin. My plan was to cut out the L track for use on my equipment trailer. It works great for hauling equipment, not as much for other loads that need strapped in the middle of the trailer. There are no tiedown points from about the middle to the end of the trailer, specifically where the wheel wells are.
These 20' floor beams have been sitting next to my shop for the last two years.
About 3 months ago I also got my hands on 17 L track ratchet straps, they have the specific connector as part of the strap and are generally used for aircraft cargo which have the above L tracks mounted in the cargo pits.
After I got these, I had nothing other than my time from preventing me from working the project. The big-time sink was going to be cutting the L track sections out of the floor beams and cleaning them up. Even with a plasma cutter it was going to be a big undertaking, so I started questioning wither it was even worth all the effort and decided to look and see the availability of the L track commercially. I did find a company called Mytee, that I have purchased my other ratchet straps from, sells various lengths of L track that is powder coated very cheap. In this case $29.09 for an 8-foot section. Three days later I had 40' in my driveway.
Next, I pulled out the end deck boards on the trailer, this actually only took about 15 minutes by myself, obviously working very safely. My plan was to dado the area I was installing the seat track, initially I was going to router it out but the wheel wells and the D rings welded to the front and rear of the trailer would be in the way.
Once I had it out, I set up two adjustable height tables along with some roller stands to feed the 18' deck board through my saw. This did not work at all, maybe if I had four people helping and something more substantial than a jobsite table saw. It had plenty of power, but the weight of the deck plank slid it on the floor and keeping the board flat was next to impossible, making the dado look like rolling waves, so it was on to plan B. I clamped a fence to the boards and used a 1/2" router bit, it only took 3 full depth passes to make the slot. It took a lot longer, but the slot came out very good, I then stained the planks and reinstalled them.
Because my plan was to bolt the L track directly to the boards and I was outside of the screws holding them down I decided to run some 5/16 deck screws into the trailer rails under the L track. The deck boards were installed with screws every third rail, I installed my screws on every rail.
The L tracks had a counter sunk hole every 5 inches or 20 every 8 for piece. Originally, I couldn't find any hardware at home so I ordered some online, not what I wanted but it was what I could find. After the shipment got lost and it took over a week to get the screws, they were 80-degree countersinks which so worthless for this. I went back through all my hardware and found a bag of NAS7204U18 screws, rated at 160,000lb tensile strength. The strap, track, board and trailer will all break before one of the bolts fail. These screws are also close tolerance, so I drilled all the holes to .246 which allowed me to install all the lock nuts underneath without holding the screws.
The screws do sit a little bit high because of the powder coating but not enough to interfere with the cleat on the straps. The track itself is about an 1/8" lower than the deck board and well below the outside rail, so they shouldn't interfere with anything I put on the trailer.
I will probably end up using these more than the D-rings because I can put straps wherever I want now.
Now I made a couple clean spots and need to wash off the deck once it warms up a bit, always more things to do....
Over the last couple of weekends, I was able to work on and complete a project I have been wanting to do for quite a while. Two years ago, I got my hands on some aircraft floor beam extrusions. These are the main floor support structure with an integrated L track and are used either for cargo tie downs or mounting seats in the main cabin. My plan was to cut out the L track for use on my equipment trailer. It works great for hauling equipment, not as much for other loads that need strapped in the middle of the trailer. There are no tiedown points from about the middle to the end of the trailer, specifically where the wheel wells are.
These 20' floor beams have been sitting next to my shop for the last two years.
About 3 months ago I also got my hands on 17 L track ratchet straps, they have the specific connector as part of the strap and are generally used for aircraft cargo which have the above L tracks mounted in the cargo pits.
After I got these, I had nothing other than my time from preventing me from working the project. The big-time sink was going to be cutting the L track sections out of the floor beams and cleaning them up. Even with a plasma cutter it was going to be a big undertaking, so I started questioning wither it was even worth all the effort and decided to look and see the availability of the L track commercially. I did find a company called Mytee, that I have purchased my other ratchet straps from, sells various lengths of L track that is powder coated very cheap. In this case $29.09 for an 8-foot section. Three days later I had 40' in my driveway.
Next, I pulled out the end deck boards on the trailer, this actually only took about 15 minutes by myself, obviously working very safely. My plan was to dado the area I was installing the seat track, initially I was going to router it out but the wheel wells and the D rings welded to the front and rear of the trailer would be in the way.
Once I had it out, I set up two adjustable height tables along with some roller stands to feed the 18' deck board through my saw. This did not work at all, maybe if I had four people helping and something more substantial than a jobsite table saw. It had plenty of power, but the weight of the deck plank slid it on the floor and keeping the board flat was next to impossible, making the dado look like rolling waves, so it was on to plan B. I clamped a fence to the boards and used a 1/2" router bit, it only took 3 full depth passes to make the slot. It took a lot longer, but the slot came out very good, I then stained the planks and reinstalled them.
Because my plan was to bolt the L track directly to the boards and I was outside of the screws holding them down I decided to run some 5/16 deck screws into the trailer rails under the L track. The deck boards were installed with screws every third rail, I installed my screws on every rail.
The L tracks had a counter sunk hole every 5 inches or 20 every 8 for piece. Originally, I couldn't find any hardware at home so I ordered some online, not what I wanted but it was what I could find. After the shipment got lost and it took over a week to get the screws, they were 80-degree countersinks which so worthless for this. I went back through all my hardware and found a bag of NAS7204U18 screws, rated at 160,000lb tensile strength. The strap, track, board and trailer will all break before one of the bolts fail. These screws are also close tolerance, so I drilled all the holes to .246 which allowed me to install all the lock nuts underneath without holding the screws.
The screws do sit a little bit high because of the powder coating but not enough to interfere with the cleat on the straps. The track itself is about an 1/8" lower than the deck board and well below the outside rail, so they shouldn't interfere with anything I put on the trailer.
I will probably end up using these more than the D-rings because I can put straps wherever I want now.
Now I made a couple clean spots and need to wash off the deck once it warms up a bit, always more things to do....