MP&C Shop Projects

[MP&C]

Here's a fabrication I did for the day job, with a good tech tip on spot welding. We had a galvanized hat section to make, any my spot welder would burn through at a minimal time setting. We needed another option. Here's the official napkin sketch drawing...








Our panel cut out in-the-flat...





Next, we had to make a clamping fixture to keep the metal panels tight together and an alignment collar for using the TIG, and a #5 cup. Due to the flange on the edges of our hat section, we needed a clamping device with a bit of reach. Looks like another c-clamp vise grip is lost to a specialized tool..





The "collar" is sized for clearance for the #5 TIG cup.








a 1/2-13 bolt was machined to form a post for our 1/8" thick copper cap











The TIG in process,

 

[rbgearz]

Nicely done.

 

[MP&C]

Some updates on the shop truck... When I picked up the vintage farm tags in Delaware the gentleman was having a men's yard sale with plenty of car parts, etc. I picked up some stainless hub caps and trim rings, I just needed to hammer out some dings and paint the letters.








I had installed a used SUN tach to keep track of the rpm's. Not the one I wanted, but you just don't find used Rotunda tachs sitting on a shelf. Or do you... a couple weeks after installing the SUN I found a gentleman in Idaho that rebuilds the Rotunda's. He did have one rebuilt, ready to go. I will say the Rotunda is like a fine Swiss watch when compared to the Sun, a high-quality movement.





The Rotundra did come with a stainless flat mount for installing on a dashboard, and I needed a column mount so let's fabricate...














Another thing I was looking at doing was to fill out those rear wheel wells with a bit more tire. I had searched far and wide for a 15 x 8 stock steel wheel but they always seemed to have the wrong back spacing. I finally had more luck when a friend said he had some Jeep wheels in that size, with the correct bolt pattern. A test fit showed the back spacing to put this one about as dead center in the wheel well as you can get.













Now we have the wheels media blasted and dropped off for powder coating.











The tires installed should have about 3/4" clearance on either side..

 

[Damon L.]

Did you do a tutorial on stainless hubcap repair? I have some sombreros that could use a bit of that sort of work.

 

[MP&C]

@Damon L. I haven't done what I consider tutorial worthy as they were limited repairs. The hub caps I did were a driver quality, and all I did was to lessen the size of the dings/creases. They're a bit tattered when viewed up close, but fit the charm of the truck perfectly.

 

[TimeWarpF100]

Some updates on the shop truck... When I picked up the vintage farm tags in Delaware the gentleman was having a men's yard sale with plenty of car parts, etc. I picked up some stainless hub caps and trim rings, I just needed to hammer out some dings and paint the letters.








I had installed a used SUN tach to keep track of the rpm's. Not the one I wanted, but you just don't find used Rotunda tachs sitting on a shelf. Or do you... a couple weeks after installing the SUN I found a gentleman in Idaho that rebuilds the Rotunda's. He did have one rebuilt, ready to go. I will say the Rotunda is like a fine Swiss watch when compared to the Sun, a high-quality movement.





The Rotundra did come with a stainless flat mount for installing on a dashboard, and I needed a column mount so let's fabricate...














Another thing I was looking at doing was to fill out those rear wheel wells with a bit more tire. I had searched far and wide for a 15 x 8 stock steel wheel but they always seemed to have the wrong back spacing. I finally had more luck when a friend said he had some Jeep wheels in that size, with the correct bolt pattern. A test fit showed the back spacing to put this one about as dead center in the wheel well as you can get.













Now we have the wheels media blasted and dropped off for powder coating.











The tires installed should have about 3/4" clearance on either side..

Fantastic truck!

 

[steves_001]

Amazing work as always! The wagon is beyond art at this point.

 

[zmotorsports]

Robert, loved the idea on the TIG spot welding clamp modification. Thank you.


Also, great find on the Rotunda tack and nice job on the mount modification. Looks like it came that way, which is the best kind of mod.

 

[MP&C]

Thanks guys! Well, it's about high time we got back on the console...








We had designed the "hoop" to go around each leg of the horseshoe shifter, and to hold bulb seal rather than a strip brush, for a cleaner look. When we ordered the shifter it came with the new clear bezel for gear indication, but since we didn't have the factory console and it's matching parts, it was a bit much for us to incorporate into our fabricated console. In an attempt at simpler is better, one of the hoops was made with a wider flange for adding gear indicator nomenclature.





Well, we have been waiting awhile for our turn in line at the machine shop, and that day finally arrived








Next was the layout of the locations...





The ends of the slots were cut using a 5/8 diameter RotaCut, joined together between with a Milwaukee M18 14 ga shear, and trimmed afterwards using Wurth snips.

Then the 4-way power window switch was added to the rear, using the same process.








And lastly, our AC vents added. I didn't have any RotoCuts in the 2-1/2 diameter, so we opted for using a hole saw. They can be sketchy when cutting through sheet metal, with the pilot drill wanting to pull the hole sideways. So we sacrificed an extra holesaw arbor to make a bolt-in guide, and changed the pilot bit out for a piece of 1/4 round stock.














Holes deburred and vents installed..





Final version

 

[PugetDude]

Fantastic truck!

Focus, Randy. Focus.

 

[MP&C]

Randy does need more 66’s

 

[zanyad]

Beautifully done!

 

[Bears Fan]

Two thumbs up on all your fab work

 

[TimeWarpF100]

Focus, Randy. Focus.

Can’t you “see” that is exactly what i am doing?
My focus is now on the 66! GTD who?

Randy does need more 66’s

When does delivery to my place take place?

Ok, i do have a slight wander in my eye for seeing ‘55 done too.

 

[zmotorsports]

Artwork Robert, pure artwork...


Thanks for the tip on making a guide for the holesaw. That will come in handy as I have had the same concerns with holesaws on critical surfaces and don't have an annular cutter large enough.

 

[txvwnut]

Right after I got my 66 race car towing ready a friend of mine shows up at the shop and says I got your tires and wheels for your truck. I reply what wheels they're on the truck. He says you're not driving it with stock hub caps and skinny tires it needs the wheel wells filled up better. He tosses four chrome wagon wheels with 275/60-15's on them out. I said thanks what do I owe you? He's says nothing use that money for power steering as your gonna need it.

 

[MP&C]

Right now steering isn’t too hateful. And here’s a sneak peak, tires getting mounted today.

 

[MP&C]

Right after I got my 66 race car towing ready a friend of mine shows up at the shop and says I got your tires and wheels for your truck. I reply what wheels they're on the truck. He says you're not driving it with stock hub caps and skinny tires it needs the wheel wells filled up better. He tosses four chrome wagon wheels with 275/60-15's on them out. I said thanks what do I owe you? He's says nothing use that money for power steering as your gonna need it.

Have you got pictures of those wheels on your truck?

 

[PugetDude]

Right after I got my 66 race car towing ready a friend of mine shows up at the shop and says I got your tires and wheels for your truck. I reply what wheels they're on the truck. He says you're not driving it with stock hub caps and skinny tires it needs the wheel wells filled up better. He tosses four chrome wagon wheels with 275/60-15's on them out. I said thanks what do I owe you? He's says nothing use that money for power steering as your gonna need it.

40+ years ago I had a '68 Ford F-100 4x4; when I bought it it had shiny new chrome wheels with then-new 31-10.50's all the way around. No power steering. Driving it was ridiculously difficult, between the oversized tires and a sketchy steering box it was more of a herding exercise than driving. My wife couldn't and wouldn't drive it at all. One day I was in a tire shop and the owner offered to trade the fancy chrome wheels and big tires for a set of used steelies and biased ply 7:50-15's. Threw in a set of dog dish hubcaps to seal the deal. It was like buying a new truck. Smiled all the way home, suddenly I could turn without being hunched over the steering wheel, using both my arms and shoulders for leverage.

 

[MP&C]

This sure did change the attitude…

 

[Bears Fan]

Beautiful

 

[Rockable]

Much better! Any plans to lower it?

 

[MP&C]

Much better! Any plans to lower it?

Possibly.

 

[Ohmthis]

Wow!

 

[Ohmthis]

Possibly.

Robert when you come up with some ideas I’d love to here them. I did the CV swap on my 66 and I also want to lower the rear without an axle flip and/or c notch. I plan a spring hanger flip and might take some leaves out of the spring, but am very cautious of what will be enough vs toooooooo much.

 

[txvwnut]

Have you got pictures of those wheels on your truck?

I do or should have if they are not on the computer that died.

New wheels look great. Reminds me of a guy I went to high school with, he had 67 that had that amount of tire in the rear maybe a little bigger. No one noticed it nor did they catch on to the nitrous kit under the hood.

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

I like the look; it reminds me of my dad's truck that we drove to Alaska and back during the 70s.

 

[gba2331]

Hey @MP&C ! You need these to go with the truck, just up the road from you!

Vintage Auto Shop scopes.​

$700 · In stock
Listed in Mechanicsville, MD

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[MP&C]

It’s all I can do to fit the truck in the shop…..

 

[zmotorsports]

This sure did change the attitude…

It certainly did Robert. Greatly changed the attitude and for the better. Just gives the hint of a mod, yet stays with the OEM theme. I like it very much.

 

[MP&C]

was looking through my Snap-On body hammer inventory and noticed one that appeared to have some tiger stripes.. A bit hard to see with their dark spray on stain, but it was there. So I pulled the handle and sanded it bare to look at the true beauty of the tiger striped hickory. Now there's only one hammer we can put on this handle, so a vintage BF615 was cleaned up and polished for the occasion. Finished product:



















Videos:

 

[Bears Fan]

Dang!!! Never thought about collecting body hammers until I started to follow your thread

 

[steves_001]

I need something like that to frame and hang on the wall! Way too pretty to use it. Very nice as usual!

 

[jimkinney]

Be careful, or the hammer **** police are going to come after you!

Nice hammer, oh, and nice looking wheels.

 

[MP&C]

More progress on the wagon...





We've been working on the wiring, starting with the gauge cluster. A loop was added between the gauge's mounting screws to provide a bit of strain relief for its harness.














Some of the bundles coming off the fusebox were excessively long, so we made use of fresh connector contacts to shorten the length so we won't have a rat's nest to hide under the dash. We did find the wires to the dimmer switch were too short by a couple inches, so the wires were re-routed too the side of the fuse box for a more direct approach.








The addition of the FI Tech and HyFire 6A ignition components gave us some challenges for power feed wires, so some circuits were changed to "keyed" in order to provide the additional battery circuits required. The original text is easily removed with a few scrapes of a utility blade. My lettering skills are nothing to write home about, and given the size, I used a double stack of lens for these old eyes in the form of reading glasses and a cheater lens inside the welding helmet. First time I've used a welding helmet to paint something.











We needed a mounting location for the Ignition module, and I still can't bring myself to drill holes in this firewall and hang such a wart on it.








Since we had shaved the radio location to clean up the dash, this provided a bit of real estate directly behind the dash.





Our stainless trim insert we made for the dash provided us some hardware for a mounting plate, but the thread length was a bit short.





Some 8-32 rivnuts were selected to match the dash hardware, and 10-32 hex nuts were drilled to accept these (press fit). The rivnuts were trimmed to length, pressed in the hex nuts, and fusion welded using the TIG around the joint.





The plate is .09 thick 6061, and press nuts were used on the back side for bolting the Hyfire to the plate.





Installed....

 

[Rockable]

Awesome as always, Robert. Is there a projected show where and when this will be unveiled? Can't wait to see it!

 

[stinkity stoink]

Oh man I haven’t seen some Info on this in a bit. Great to see some work on it

 

[RickP]

You do really beautiful work!

The wagon looks like it's coming down the home stretch. Are you planning to work on your shop truck a bit, or do you already have another client project lined up?

 

[zmotorsports]

Hey @MP&C ! You need these to go with the truck, just up the road from you!

Vintage Auto Shop scopes.​

$700 · In stock
Listed in Mechanicsville, MD

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I learned how to diagnose using a Sun Diagnostic machine in High School. Then when I began working in the Industrial Maintenance field, my boss at the time who turned out to be my good friend and mentor over the years, has one in his home garage that he used doing side work. Really wanted to buy it when he passed but missed out on it. My friend/mentor had purchased it new and it was still in like new condition when he passed in 2017.

 

[Bowtie4life]

The car is coming together really nicely. The truck is looks good with the wider rims too.