MP&C Shop Projects

[MP&C]

I’m kinda tired of the day job getting in the way of what I want to be doing.

But then again, I kinda like them paychecks

A person's gotta eat, right?

Quality job on the install, Robert. Looks great.
Is that a one-piece screen? How big?

Thanks, This is a Planar TVF series, each of the cabinets such as the one in this picture....





......... holds 4 LED modules, this video wall using 1.2mm pixels. Total overall size is just shy of 24' long and 4-1/2' tall. The cabinets are assembled and adjusted/gapped where each LED modules is butted to the next in order to give a virtually seamless screen of whatever the desired size. Largest one we've done to date was summer of 2020, same height as this one but twice as long. It was done on a self-supporting wall we installed made from 8020, but the top attachment to the building trusses required a +/- 2-5/8" travel for truss deflection throughout seasonal change. So here we used a linear slide to give positive attachment to the trusses while still allowing for truss deflection. Per our local 8020 reps, this is the first time this mounting solution had be used for such a requirement, but the mechanical engineers at 8020 gave it their blessing..

 

[MP&C]

Back from the latest round of hanging TV's for the day job, here's some highlights of what we installed and some of the fabrications made in the shop to help out in getting the job done....


Before, a couple of 80" displays





After, a seamless video wall just shy of 24' long... much better suited to this classroom setting..






Our next room gave us a multitude of challenges, the walls here are free standing and we felt they were insufficient for supporting the video wall without deflection. So we opted for an 8020 structure in front of the existing, attached to floor and deck above. Next challenge is to anchor the columns to the concrete above with no access due to the 60" Drywall surround encircling the ceiling tiles.. before:





So I came up with a diagonal bracing that would make use of hinges for allowing assembly of the column and brace within the hole we would cut into the ceiling for minimal disturbance (less drywall repairs)





....which in reality was not as easy as it appeared in print....




















This video wall is just shy of 16' long and uses 0.9mm pixels.


Some of the fabrications made in the shop, a water fall to accommodate an abundance of cabling....











This was our first time using Cyviz touch panels, which were only available as a table top version. The old touch panel was a wall mount, so we either leave the old one in a hole in the wall, fill the hole in the wall, or come up with a wall mount design that Cyviz sorely needs.. One guess as to the option I chose....











Here's the video.. Funny story, one of the tech reps that showed up from Cyviz swore this wall mount was their product...

"no, one of my guys made it in his garage" He didn't believe it...

....and installed...

 

[xtremek]

"HOLY COW, BATMAN!!" That's some crazy install.

 

[RivennHewn]

We did a re-screen of 148 units at Microsoft years ago.

let’s just say there was a lot more drywall repair involved.

 

[MP&C]

So...where we had left off on the wagon, more blocking of primer, fabrication/modification of defroster vents, and wiring.. So a test fit of our fuse panel mounting plate (American Autowire) found that along with our parking brake pedal assembly location and the close proximity of the Raingear wiper motor, things were much too snug. So in looking at the room available under the dash, just to the right of the brake pedal looked promising but one of our newly formed defroster tubes interferred... This one hung down too low....






And, in typical domino fashion, the fuse panel mounting plate would not work where it was not intended.





We made a new bracket of 1/8" aluminum, and bent some mounting ears to be able to place it well above the accelerator linkage. We also designed it to use existing hardware to minimize any additional holes through the nicely painted firewall.








Next, the interfering defrost duct was shortened to provide the needed clearance. Side note: Check out the HAZ difference between a TIG tack on tight fitting panels vs. having to add filler on a slight gap...





Fitted before we do the final welding, this shows to leave us sufficient room...








And now for the fun part....

 

[jjeffries]

One hundred pages ... of awesomeness.

thanks for your sharing, teaching and overall generosity.

John, in Conn.

 

[MP&C]

While we're getting prepared for wiring installation, the instrument cluster was dug out of its box to help us see where all the wiring was going. And there it was in all it's billet glory. This will kinda clash with the ribbed stainless trim we're using for the dash insert, so let's look at adding it to our gauge cluster as well...





Where this gauge cluster was designed with a flush fit in mind, we need to be able to hide the cut edge of the ribbed stainless. So the holes were opened up slightly where the gauge could be installed from the front, and the bezel will now hide our cut edges..








The stainless is in a rather raw form, and to give it more pizazz, perhaps some polishing is in order... So we used some Trizact products on the DA, and ended things on the buffer...








Here's how it turned out...

We have some new indicator lights coming for the high beam and turn signals to get away from the tiny LED's that also scream billet.. The new lights should hopefully be here Saturday where we can get this modification wrapped up this weekend..

 

[MP&C]

Today we had a back up and punt moment. The nice chrome bezel on the gauges is far too large to fit in those corners of the instrument panel bezel from the outside. So we'll have to keep it on the backside, but that doesn't help us cover up the cut edge of the hole in the ribbed stainless..








......so let's make some stainless "eyelets" to both hold the ribbed stainless securely to the billet panel, as well as give us a finished edge around the cut hole.. First a punch and die will be needed to press one side of our eyelet.








and we added a 1/2 x 1/2 tang to hold the punch in the press brake...














Back to the south bend to cut out our flange lip.. The punch was snug after the press operation, so it was used as a holding fixture for the trimming operation.








A holesaw in the drill press started the holes for the gauges and then we used our Jigsaw with cruise control to fine tune the openings.





A sheet of phenolic gives us a non-marring surface to pound on, the Snap-on linear stretch hammer swages the flange over and a 1/2" diameter round makes a good punch to flatten out the rest.











Finished "eyelets"








Still have to install the indicator lights, but since I need to pack up for the local car show tomorrow in Leonardtown, we'll finish that up this coming week.

 

[stinkity stoink]

The little things that no one will notice. Great job !!

 

[MP&C]

Thanks Dave.. I figure most will just ask where we bought it from...

 

[MrPink]

That looks awesome! I also need to get indicator lights like that for my cluster, but in black.

 

[MP&C]

That looks awesome! I also need to get indicator lights like that for my cluster, but in black.

They have them in black as well.

 

[MP&C]

We did a test fit of the instrument panel in the car to see what it looked like with the green backdrop...





This stainless will be the same material used in the dash insert "band" that goes from side to side, as well as the insert for the console. Should add some pizazz to the interior... Here's the view with our Alpinetech indicator lights added....

Our OEM retainers for the bottom of the curved side glass had one piece with a bracket broken off. These brackets serve as a place to screw/attach the garnish moldings.








The broken piece was removed and the spot welds ground smooth...





A new piece was cut out of some 19 ga steel and the Diacro press brake made short work of repeating 45* bends.





The new part was media blasted, TIG welder used to plug weld things back together, more media blasting and some epoxy mixed up and brushed on using an acid brush.














On to our glass installation, we had picked up some 3M strip-calk to seal the rubber to the glass.








We found that the full width strip provided a bit too much and some oozage ensued... First is always the messy one, right?











So we laid the following ones on the glass and cut down the middle for a more narrow strip.. More better....





So then a person gets cocky and needs a reality check on the driver's side....





Eh, good a stopping point as any..

 

[PugetDude]

We did a test fit of the instrument panel in the car to see what it looked like with the green backdrop...





This stainless will be the same material used in the dash insert "band" that goes from side to side, as well as the insert for the console. Should add some pizazz to the interior... Here's the view with our Alpinetech indicator lights added....

Our OEM retainers for the bottom of the curved side glass had one piece with a bracket broken off. These brackets serve as a place to screw/attach the garnish moldings.








The broken piece was removed and the spot welds ground smooth...





A new piece was cut out of some 19 ga steel and the Diacro press brake made short work of repeating 45* bends.





The new part was media blasted, TIG welder used to plug weld things back together, more media blasting and some epoxy mixed up and brushed on using an acid brush.














On to our glass installation, we had picked up some 3M strip-calk to seal the rubber to the glass.








We found that the full width strip provided a bit too much and some oozage ensued... First is always the messy one, right?











So we laid the following ones on the glass and cut down the middle for a more narrow strip.. More better....





So then a person gets cocky and needs a reality check on the driver's side....





Eh, good a stopping point as any..

Now we have proof that every MP&C post doesn't always have a happy ending.
Bummer on the broken window.
Amazing work on the little bracket, incredible attention to detail for a part that will never be seen. Reminds me of the old adage:
"Character is what you do when no one is watching"
Proves you're quite a character, Robert!

 

[MP&C]

....Proves you're quite a character, Robert!

I've been called that before, but not sure it was in the same context..

 

[MP&C]

OK, long overdue for an update..

Playing some more with our dash insert, this should look good..





We attempted different processes for folding the hemmed edge trim, but alas none gave a good consistent finish.





So some stainless strips were dropped off at Triton metals, a local machine shop we have used before... They will get much better results, still waiting on completion.


Back to our problem child of a window, this last crack occurred as I slightly pried rearward with a metal rule. Exactly where I pried.





To limit the excess squeezed out of the seals, we took the 3M strip-calk in its original form and sliced right down the middle..








Here's a video showing installation of the strip-calk, and another with installation of the seal over the strip-calk.

Installing this one, we had a slight tight area and I asked Jared to push outward and that's when we had a repeat of Groundhog Day..





So, maybe the pry the first time was not the only issue. Fast forward so we can look back, last night we did a dry fit of the garnish moldings around these windows and found that the tack strips holding the headliner were far too thick and pushed the moldings down so far the back side would be visible through the glass. So in addition this was also pushing downward on the window and seal while we were attempting the installation. When we had installed the quarter panel previously, we used plug welds inside this window opening and some had a slight proud. Nothing that I was concerned with at the time and considering had the tack strip been the correct thickness it likely wouldn't have been an issue now. But with the headliner pushing downward, the seal was hanging up on one of the plug welds as Jared was pushing outward on the corner, which made a perfect fulcrum effect for crack #2. Since we aren't pulling a headliner out, we went ahead an cleaned up the plug welds. This meant taping off all the nice pretty paint on the outside and the interior as well..








All of the welds cleaned up, we mixed up some SPI epoxy and used a small brush to add three coats on the bare areas. And to counter the effect of the garnish molding hanging too low, we will now need to make some one-off upper clips that are half height of the ones we just ordered (and have been waiting 4 months to arrive), in order to get the molding up and out of sight when looking through the glass. Story of my life..


Window #3!! We had length issues from the last replacement, let's check this one as well. Hooking our tape measure on the apex of the pointy end, the original ordered with the rest of the glass set shows to be 40-1/16 in length. The new replacement, like the last one (#2), was 40-5/16. So we have a 1/4" to remove.




















So we consulted my glass expert John Glenn the last time we did this, and got the run down of the various methods we could possibly use. Since I'm more of a go slow and sneak up on the end goal, I opted for abrasives, we'd use Cubitron belts on our Dynabride sander. It did a better job of taking down corners as opposed to the entire flat area, so we followed the process discussed in the next video. Then when we had reached the size needed (three hours later), a 320 grit disc on the DA gave a more polished appearance. Safety disclaimer: eye protection and N95 respirators, although not mentioned in the video, were used and are highly recommended !!!

Our installation last night went in relatively painless and crack free. Now to make some upper clips..

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

First, I want to thank Robert for sharing some of the challenges, causes and solutions they encounter. I do have to admit I was a little surprised the side windows were not tempered. I would have assumed the windshield would be the only laminated glass. I have never worked on tri-five glass before. Again, thank you for sharing!

 

[xtremek]

When I start the body work on my truck, I plan on rereading this thread. SO MUCH useful info here it's incredible.

 

[white6589]

I agree xtremek.

His explanations gave me a lot of confidence in tackling my current resto project.

Robert should publish it in book form.

 

[steves_001]

Love the dash panel set in place! Wow, such nice detail. Everything is looking great! The video walls are pretty neat too. Things you never think about you learn here.

 

[RickP]

+1 ^^^

After, a seamless video wall just shy of 24' long... much better suited to this classroom setting..

Not a bad gig for your day job!

I really like how you were able to combine your "work" and "hobby" skills there. That panel mount looks better than factory made.

Funny story, one of the tech reps that showed up from Cyviz swore this wall mount was their product...

"no, one of my guys made it in his garage" He didn't believe it...

Classic!

Absolutely beautiful work on the wagon -- I'm amazed at how much work goes into getting all the details right.

 

[MP&C]

Thanks for the comments guys.. Yeah, may as well share the good and the bad. Cheaper to learn from others mistakes, but only if you hear about them.

 

[22george]

And we do appreciate it

 

[Monza Harry]

Thanks for the comments guys.. Yeah, may as well share the good and the bad. Cheaper to learn from others mistakes, but only if you hear about them.

Bob that deserves a "You're the Man" for owning the Boo Boo and a "Thank You" for sharing that and everything else here!
Be thankful that was a Tri-Five Chevy, for my Monza, the windshields are only produced when the have enough requests, what are "Enough Requests?" Nobody seems to know, somewhere around 5 to 10 years! Yes seriously and side glass I'm still looking for 2 rear quarter glasses for over 7 years I haven't been as diligent the last ~3ish though [I have two but they aren't the ones I asked for and returning them was as much as I paid for the glass]. Harry

 

[MP&C]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. Now for a slight distraction in the shop... A good friend of mine has a powder coat business and has been restoring a Kent model KMX850 bmx bike. The bike was found in the woods and was brought to him for repairs, with many of the obsolete parts being sourced from other style bikes and scooters. Here is where he has it thus far..





Once the sun had taken its toll on the seat upholstery, the foam inside became a nice sponge for all the precipitation that Mother Nature could throw at it, leaving much of the seat pan gone. So he needed a seat pan fabricated, and this is where I entered the picture..





His major concern was that we duplicate the impaling spikes to secure the upholstery.





I had attended an estate sale about a year ago and picked up a set of Malco notchers, not knowing what I'd ever need them for, but also knowing I couldn't do without them.











So when I pulled these out of the tool box all fears had been abated..


We started with a piece of 19 gauge AKDQ and used Stan Fulton beading dies to add the center bead.








A piece of 5/8 round stock on the magnetic brake then added the radius for the side bends. Some of the 5/8 round stock was also used to make some post dollies with a welded stop for use in the bench vise..





Basic shape





The Erco kick stretcher used on the sides and the post dollies on manipulating the radius bend helped to provide the kickup needed at the rear.





A solid rod across the rear mounting holes gives us some critical dimensions for layout....











For the mounting holes in the rear, we measured 9/16 from the edge to hole center as per original, and then made a two ended transfer punch that fit snugly between the sides. Once we had our rear measurement and the point aligned to the 9/16 scribe line, we tapped either side to mark the holes.








Once drilled, a rod through these holes lets us locate the front bracket. We reused the bracket to save some time (and money) as it was still good and solid..





Impaling spikes added








All bracket installed and assembly gets media blasted to prep for powder coat.

 

[stinkity stoink]

I am a bit speechless, wow !!

 

[MP&C]

Thanks Dave! It was a nice challenge. Will have to see if I can get pictures when it’s done

 

[Modern Garage]

I'd like to see a picture of how you punched the spikes. Did you use the Malco pliers?
Joe

 

[larry4406]

I'd like to see a picture of how you punched the spikes. Did you use the Malco pliers?
Joe

Agreed. The result is a punch quite far from the free edge. The Malco did not look like the beak was offset enough to do a deep cut for the spikes.

 

[MP&C]

I did use the Malco notchers, the beak does go through first to help start the cut. I had actually cut a couple pieces of aluminum tubing that were a snug fit over the handles to make the initial punch a bit easier. This was more a controlling factor so I didn’t have to squeeze so hard and wind up cutting all the way through. The additional leverage allowed moderation, so to speak.

 

[Modern Garage]

I think I follow. It's a question of scale: the seat pan is smaller than the car stuff we're used to so the Malco reached in to the right depth and the length of the tubing handle extensions allowed just a "punch" and not a complete notch, then I'm guessing you finished off by bending the punched tongue up straight. Right?

 

[MP&C]

Exactly!

 

[MrPink]

Nice work sir!

 

[jimkinney]

Nice.
You can now add bicycle repair to you sig line!
Jim

 

[PugetDude]

So, Robert, how many times did you snag your hands on the impaling spikes when you were punching them? That thig looks like a medieval torture device!
Nice work duplicating the seat.

 

[MP&C]

I punched the entire perimeter and then went back and push the spikes straight in using a small screwdriver. Started in a corner and worked around, I lucked out without a scratch. Still have the upholstery guy to go yet.

Thanks for all the kind words guys!

 

[klhansen]

Robert
You're a man of many talents: cars, trucks, bikes, video screens, whatever. I always see something amazing when I look at your work. It's just too bad that glass is so fragile. I'm dreading the day I get to glass install on my project.

I posted a PM for you over on Stovebolt if you have a few minutes. It's right down your alley.

Thanks
Kevin

 

[MP&C]

Something I forgot to post, We had made a road trip to Virginia a couple weeks back and picked up a Vintage Cengar planishing hammer, in it's factory box with dies..





















This, along with a Chicago Pneumatic pedestal planishing hammer. This had been modified at some point in it's life to add more throat depth for planishing larger panels.

 

[gearhead1960]

Robert,
You act like Virginia is a foreign country....we're only across the line.....

 

[MP&C]

It’s a big state. I stand by my statement.