Above 1200 Sq/FT Restored 1930's Auto Shop
- Thread starter BB767
- Start date
Wokspaces above 1200 squarefeet.
BigAl62
Well-known member
No Tom, I couldn't resist! 
I'm not ignoring you guys, honest. I've got a very packed schedule right now and I'm paddling just as fast as I can to keep ,my head above water!
Between attending races, actually racing, attending/prepping for car shows, help run car shows, designing the new house, lawn care for over 5 acres, doing actual cool shop projects, spending some time with the always charming and delightful Miss Chris, oh yea and flying, did I mention flying 'cause on occasion I do that also? 
Stick with me here, I'll get caught up..................eventually. Thanks everyone.
To Busy To Be Tired -Thomas
Sunbimmer
Well-known member
I'm not ignoring you guys, honest. I've got a very packed schedule right now and I'm paddling just as fast as I can to keep ,my head above water!
Thanks everyone.
To Busy To Be Tired -Thomas
Man, WHERE do you find the time
.... we will be patient Thomas 
I'm not ignoring you guys, honest. I've got a very packed schedule right now and I'm paddling just as fast as I can to keep ,my head above water!
Thanks everyone.
To Busy To Be Tired -Thomas
Anyone else ever notice that Thomas never really uses the word "work", (even when he talks about his job)?
Just an observation, maybe it means something, maybe it doesn't!
Looking forward to the Bonneville story!
markviii
Well-known member
Good observation, oberst.
Every activity is a step toward a goal - having "purpose" and "determination" are not the same as "work" to either of us.
"Working" is a necessity to maintain a lifestyle. "Retired" is not having to "work" every day to maintain the lifestyle you've chosen. I "retired" from teaching approximately 6 years before I took official early retirement at the end of the 2008/2009 school year (now going into my 5th year not teaching). It took lots of pressure (not really the correct word-- maybe responsibility) off me because I didn't actual have to go in to teach if I didn't want to. And I'm busier than ever!
Chris
Every activity is a step toward a goal - having "purpose" and "determination" are not the same as "work" to either of us.
"Working" is a necessity to maintain a lifestyle. "Retired" is not having to "work" every day to maintain the lifestyle you've chosen. I "retired" from teaching approximately 6 years before I took official early retirement at the end of the 2008/2009 school year (now going into my 5th year not teaching). It took lots of pressure (not really the correct word-- maybe responsibility) off me because I didn't actual have to go in to teach if I didn't want to. And I'm busier than ever!
Chris
Stick with me here, I'll get caught up..................eventually.
Thanks everyone.
To Busy To Be Tired -Thomas
I think I have finally caught Thomas in a fib, OK it could be considered a gramatical flourish, but in over 350 pages he has never been "caught up".
Projects finnished - yup with great style
Activities completed - yup with style and grace
Company attended too - yup with friendlinees and grace
Flying - Yup
But caught up never!
markviii
Well-known member
Ahhh...but, goals accomplished on the way to the eventual "catching up".
Chris
Chris
I think I have finally caught Thomas in a fib, OK it could be considered a gramatical flourish, but in over 350 pages he has never been "caught up".
Projects finnished - yup with great style
Activities completed - yup with style and grace
Company attended too - yup with friendlinees and grace
Flying - Yup
But caught up never!
Mike, I'm in Brazil right now and read your post. I'd like to think that I do actually get caught up at times..........momentarily......and then it seems I quickly fall behind again.
It's a elusive goal but I keep trying. At any rate my thanks for a bit of a day brightener for me down here. Thomas
Chris and Thomas
We made a quick strafing run through Illinois (Dwight and Morton Grove) a couple weeks ago to see the moms. Unfortunately we did not have time to make a run through the Center of the Universe. Conflicts on either end of the trip here in Texas kept us confined on time. Hope to make it next time!
I understand the list of list of things to do, just never ending but a lot of fun.
As always agreat fan
We made a quick strafing run through Illinois (Dwight and Morton Grove) a couple weeks ago to see the moms. Unfortunately we did not have time to make a run through the Center of the Universe. Conflicts on either end of the trip here in Texas kept us confined on time. Hope to make it next time!
I understand the list of list of things to do, just never ending but a lot of fun.
As always agreat fan
R1chy
Well-known member
It will be interesting to see how Chris words this question on the test.
To commit this posting to memory the key words I'm using to remember it are "young lady...desperate...paddle...in hand...hero...blushing Thomas", got it
And all this time I though I had compadres out there. You know, buddies, friends, pals, supporters but nooooooo it turns out you're just conspiring to get me in trouble. Thanks a lot but I don't need any help. I manage to get myself in enough trouble as it is.
Now how am I going to explain that one.............
Dog House bound Thomas
HOTFR8
Banned
Bob Heine
ALLIANCE MEMBER
This has worked for me for more than 50 years:
"Honey, you're right and I'm sorry. I promise it will never happen again."
"Honey, you're right and I'm sorry. I promise it will never happen again."
eborcim
Well-known member
Here's Lou's car and his tow vehicle in front in the tech line circa 1953. He's been at this a very, very, very long time!
Thomas
Looking forward to the pics!!
impala4speed
Well-known member
Chris and Thomas,
Thank you again for such a great thread. It's informative, educational, entertaining and just plain fun. Please continue to keep us all posted on all these great events, when you have the time that is.
I just finished reading "Beltsville Shell". It came to me courtesy of dsquires (thanks again Don!) and it is going next to DynoDave. What a great book with terrific memories of a fun time in our lives. Just another neat little bonus you two provided for us.
Thanks!
Thank you again for such a great thread. It's informative, educational, entertaining and just plain fun. Please continue to keep us all posted on all these great events, when you have the time that is.
I just finished reading "Beltsville Shell". It came to me courtesy of dsquires (thanks again Don!) and it is going next to DynoDave. What a great book with terrific memories of a fun time in our lives. Just another neat little bonus you two provided for us.
Thanks!
Hi Denny and I'm glad to hear you felt the same about the book as many of us do. A quick read that packs a lot of great memories of that era in a refreshing and enjoyable way. Well told.
I'm planning on trying to visit author Cary Thomas probably next February at some point so we've got lots of time to keep passing it around before I recall it!Yes I'm booked more solid right now that you can imagine but the posts I've got saved aren't going away. I'll get them on here and they are wide ranging but I believe will be of interest. Chris and I finished a car show today that we both helped run successfully - no drama! Next we will be participating in a Tulsa, OK, Lincoln show in a couple of weeks. In between I'm flying to Brazil several times but I'll still get some material out here. I'm having tons of fun and I'll share my projects too. Thanks to you and everyone else for your support and understanding.
Thomas
markviii
Well-known member
That's what happens when we get busy(ier)! Pics will definitely follow, but they're on hold for now - one of those temporary pauses.
I just returned from the closing dinner with the Chandler car owners who finished up their 100th anniversary gathering. Chandler/Clevelands were the featured marque at our car show this year - I think we ended up with 6 in attendance representing areas from the east to the west coast. They shared their booklet of all the currently documented Chandlers and Clevelands all over the world - including Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, UK, etc. One guy in Seattle owns at least 15 (1 for each year the cars were produced). Holding their club convention here certainly added to our car show! One of our club members owns one that he's restoring and he organized their 5 full days of activities. Tom and I went on their bus tour to Springfield yesterday.
September will be busy with car events until the end of the month - national Lincoln show, drag racing, a local car show ( I run the registration booth for this one), then the Rte. 66 Mother Road Festival in Springfield, IL, to finish off the month. I just hope the weather holds out - so far we've lucked out this year for all the car events.
That should be the end of car events for 2013. We're looking forward to 2014 car-related events beginning with the SDRC in early 2014 TBD (to be determined).
Chris
I just returned from the closing dinner with the Chandler car owners who finished up their 100th anniversary gathering. Chandler/Clevelands were the featured marque at our car show this year - I think we ended up with 6 in attendance representing areas from the east to the west coast. They shared their booklet of all the currently documented Chandlers and Clevelands all over the world - including Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, UK, etc. One guy in Seattle owns at least 15 (1 for each year the cars were produced). Holding their club convention here certainly added to our car show! One of our club members owns one that he's restoring and he organized their 5 full days of activities. Tom and I went on their bus tour to Springfield yesterday.
September will be busy with car events until the end of the month - national Lincoln show, drag racing, a local car show ( I run the registration booth for this one), then the Rte. 66 Mother Road Festival in Springfield, IL, to finish off the month. I just hope the weather holds out - so far we've lucked out this year for all the car events.
That should be the end of car events for 2013. We're looking forward to 2014 car-related events beginning with the SDRC in early 2014 TBD (to be determined).
Chris
No kidding?!? Where in Tulsa? I live in Broken Arrow, a suburb of Tulsa. Might have to make it out to that one just so I can say hello.
Jeff
Jeff, I'm in Brazil at present but perhaps Chris can supply you with that information. The portion of the show open to the public is on a Saturday so with luck that won't conflict with work. We'd both love for you or anyone else to drop by. Lincoln's are fun to see in age from 1930's to more modern ones. I'm unsure yet if I'll be judging but Chris will be very close to her Mark VIII so you'll be able to find her at least.
Thomas
markviii
Well-known member
The LCOC Mid-America meet will be in Tulsa, OK, at the Wyndham Tulsa on Saturday, Sept 7. Usually cars are on the show field from 10am-3pm. There are always lots of nice cars to view from the earliest Lincolns to the modern vehicles (which must be at least 10 years old to show).
My car is in the Emeritus class, needing at least 97/100 points to earn its badge (easy peasy). In 10 years of showing, the car has only lost <2 points total and almost got Best of Show one year.
Anyone interested in Lincoln & Continental Owner's Club can go to LCOC.org for info. There's one more meet this year in October in Phoenix, Arizona. I show again in 2014 in Rockford, IL. Not sure about the 2015 meet schedule yet.
My car is in the Emeritus class, needing at least 97/100 points to earn its badge (easy peasy). In 10 years of showing, the car has only lost <2 points total and almost got Best of Show one year.
Anyone interested in Lincoln & Continental Owner's Club can go to LCOC.org for info. There's one more meet this year in October in Phoenix, Arizona. I show again in 2014 in Rockford, IL. Not sure about the 2015 meet schedule yet.
I just notice something unusual for this thread. Not a singe photo was posted on the last page.
Interesting you noticed that charlief1. There are two issues at play here. Chris is correct in that it's been an extremely busy summer for us.....but in a good way. Second my laptop is misbehaving so I'm trying out an iPad when I'm off flying. I don't know how to load pictures into it so when I have some time between trips I haven't been able to post pictures from it. I'm confident it'll be a temporary situation but still......
So even though I haven't been able to post pictures of happenings at the shop and elsewhere in a timely fashion I've still been documenting everything and will post those pictures as I can so all is not lost, just delayed.
Here are a couple of little projects I've completed out at the shop.
I've been looking for some time for just the right restroom sign and I found this one about 2 years ago.
It's an original service station sign, double sided, porcelain on steel in excellent unrestored condition.
It uses an extremely simple mounting system comprised of 2 tabs that work perfectly. While I was at it since I used stainless steel mounting screws, I did a quick buff on the heads to polish them and yes the top left screw is not quite clocked with the lower right side one but sometimes you have to make compromises.
Even the sign is plural because the bathroom serves all.
Next up is a present from Lou.
It's an ordinary oversized paint stirrer...
...with several old fashion clothes pins...
...screwed to it in back, seen circled in red.
I drilled and countersunk 2 mounting holes and attached it to the panel I hang my shop coats from.
It's a clever way to hang several hats in a small amount of space.
So this one I owe to Lou.
I have more....
Thomas
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Are you going to be able to drive an of old Route 66 on your way to Tulsa?
markviii
Well-known member
DynoDave- We'll take the interstate directly to Tulsa due to time constraints. DUring the meet, part of the driving tour to the Will Rogers Museum will be on the old Rte. 66 according to the registration info. We've driven parts of it in IL. One of these days (in retirement), we'll try to drive it from beginning to end. We have many of the books written about it, but would really like to see it first-hand (in an appropriate car, of course! hmmm '66 Continental coupe or '66 Corvette -- ).
Another road to explore is US Rte 30 (the historic Lincoln Highway, the first road across America from New York City to San Francisco, became part of US 30).
Chris
Another road to explore is US Rte 30 (the historic Lincoln Highway, the first road across America from New York City to San Francisco, became part of US 30).
Chris
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Sounds like a fun trip either way Chris.
66 from Chicago to LA is a trip I'd love to take some day. While I grew up not far frm a coupl eof alignments of it in Springfield, I've only had the chance to driev it from Dwight down to near Staunton. There are several Route 66 websites I visit daily. One is a blog by the owner of Afton Station. It's about 85 miles form Tulsa, and has a lot of restored Packards. It's a place I definitely plan to visit some day. Actually, she was just talking about Tulsa 2 days ago....
http://aftonstationblog-laurel.blogspot.com/
Now GGB, promise to keep this just between us OK, but that's what I was thinking too. It just makes sooooo much sense on so many different levels.
I'll casually suggest it when the time is right but for now, not a word to her, promise? BTW we're huge fans of the TV show as well. We have the DVD box set of all four seasons and we're slowly whittling away at them. I don't think Chris ever saw it when it ran originally. I tried to watch as many as I could back then but was frequently out-voted by other family members (we only had 1 TV) so I've not seen many of the episodes myself until now. Those boys sure liked fist fights didn't they?
Mum's The Word Thomas
9C1
Well-known member
Ted Brown
MEMBER EMERITUS
Soft top could be folded down under the cover, yes?
markviii
Well-known member
Hope to get word soon on the soft top being completed in Ohio. Then a road trip to have it fitted and finally getting it home all together. Tom's been a bit frustrated with the process, to say the least. You'll eventually get the rest of the story. (and there's always a story...) Thanks for asking Terry. I guess it will help us remember what year the first Bloomington Gold event came to Champaign/Urbana (along with our inaugural picnic in the Center of the Universe for our growing group of Corvette friends!).
And, Ted, yes, the soft-top will fold down under the hard top, making little to no room for any "luggage" when we take to the road. Luckily we travel light most of the time.
Thanks for the link to that blog, DynoDave. I'll look at it tomorrow when I get a break. The few entries I read were wonderful!
Chris
And, Ted, yes, the soft-top will fold down under the hard top, making little to no room for any "luggage" when we take to the road. Luckily we travel light most of the time.
Thanks for the link to that blog, DynoDave. I'll look at it tomorrow when I get a break. The few entries I read were wonderful!
Chris
9C1
Well-known member
I know that soft top has been an epic saga. It is not that unusual for those sorts of things. It goes along with the demise of craftsmanship in our world, sorry to say.
fireman164
Well-known member
Hi Thomas I have recently purchased a walker roll a car 740 all mechanical,inspired by you I have been restoring it and just got it back from the powder coaters , my question is it has two information plates on it that use to be gold and black , how do you restore those back to original ? I polished it and it looks nice but how to paint it but keep the letters gold is the issue , I spent several hours looking through your walker rebuild but didnt see anything on that . Thanks
ZRX61
Well-known member
Hello there fireman164 and congratulations on saving another fine piece of Americana! You say you have two gold and black data plates but on mine I'm only familiar with one Walker data plate...
...which is this one. Even though it's difficult to see in this photo it had a black background with raised bare metal letters and numbers.
This shows the plate cleaned, stripped of paint and ready for restoration. Note: you can see the lettering is all raised above the data plate so when the background plate was painted black as per the original...
...you can see the paint bleeding through the lettering. Note: if you look closely you can see regular Scotch Tape was used to mask off the outer boarders all around the plate. Next it was allowed to dry for an hour or so as I recall. I wanted the paint dry but not hard.
Then it was just a matter of carefully removing paint off the tops of the raised letters and numbers and leaving it on the background plate. This was easier to do if the paint was still soft, hence the short drying time before removal.
The removal was done with a combination of tools as seen above. I used either lacquer thinner or mineral spirits (depends on the type of paint you use for the background paint). The thinner was sparingly put on the ends of the paint "daubers" to remove the paint off the raised letters or numbers a little at a time. The gray handled "dauber" had a fuzzy end about the size of a head of a straight pin. Verrrrrry small which was useful for the small numbers on the bottom of the data plate. In some cases I used the Exacto knife to scrape the paint off, it just depends on what's working for you at the time. This is slow tedious work. To remove the paint off the letters and numbers took about 3-4 hours. If you have a lighted magnifying glass on an articulating arm, that would be very helpful.
I waited to do the data plate restoration until I was in a proper frame of mind. If you're in a rush you'll make mistakes which will just frustrate you. I spent an afternoon in the shop with good tunes on the sound system, took frequent breaks and just enjoyed the process.
I felt having the data plate on that jack restored properly was important to the project and was prepared to do it. Here you can see where Walker rebuilt the jack on the right in the 1950's or 60's and installed a replacement, rebuild data plate, at that time which is different in appearance from the original one on the left.
Now that's how I did mine but yours sound to be slightly different with the gold coloring. Detailed pictures of yours would be helpful or you can always just swing by the shop with it and we'll take a look see.
Additionally, perhaps we can solicit help from our good friends here to come to your aid. Be patient and we'll get it figured out once we take a look at it.Thank you fireman164 for your interest and question. Don't forget to post some before and after photographs of your Walker either here or elsewhere with a link for us. Walkers seem to be a favorite subject around here!
Thomas
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Epic saga is a perfect description Terry. You're acquainted with the beginning of the story but it's still evolving. A resolution however, is at long last in sight. The top frame has finally been corrected/repaired/restored and the fabric top installation scheduled for mid-September. "Demise of craftsmanship in our world" indeed!
You'll read more about it here when it's all completed.
Patient Thomas
So what else has been going on here. Among other projects I have completed the Chevy II clutch installation for umteenth time in preparation for the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race Sept 13-14th in Stanton, MI. It turns out the previous clutch was defective which lead to it's premature failure. See page 346, post #6909 if you wish to relive that, um...mis-fortune.
Moving forward, before a new clutch is installed, it's standard practice to have the flywheel face cleaned up.
This is the machine, a flywheel grinder, which is used to clean and true up flywheels.
The flywheel is placed...
...and then secured on this mounting surface.
On the bottom of the grinder is a grinder wheel covered with industrial diamonds which does the all the work.
Here, in the foreground, you can see coolant is flowing on the flywheel before the grinding operation begins. The coolant also helps flush ground material off the flywheel during the grinding operation. Note the grinder has been lowered into position just above the flywheel at the top.
The flywheel is revolving on the mounting plate and the grinder wheel is also revolving as it's lowered onto the flywheel. Light cuts are taken to prevent removing too much material off the flywheel at one time. That minimizes heat build up. If the flywheel and grinder are always in motion it helps prevent flat spotting.
When finished, the flywheel looks like this, coolant is still on it. We're looking for a flat surface and with a certain smoothness. Engineers or machinists refer to the roughness or smoothness of a surface as expressed in RMS, Root- Mean -Square.
RMA(RA) Root- Mean- Square(Roughness Average), it is a term used to measure the roughness of a surface,RMS 63 is a smooth surface finish, RMS 125 is an average manufacturing surface, RMS 25 is a very clean smooth surface finish.
Surface roughness of texture is the measure if the finer surface irregularities in the surface texture and is composed of three components: roughness, waviness and form. These are the result of the manufacturing process employed to create the surface.
Surface roughness average (Ra), also know as arithmetic average (AA) is rated as the arithmetic average deviation of the surface valleys and peaks expressed in micro inches or micro meters. ISO standards use the term CLA (Center Line Average). Both are interpreted identical.
Where Ra is the arithmetic average value or departure from profile front eh center line, the equation for four as-measured values:
Ra = CLA = AA M1+M2+M3+M4/4
Where:
Mx = measure value
Root Mean Square (RMS / Rq / Rs) can be calculated by:
RMS = square root of- M1 squared + M2 squared + M3 squared + M4 squared/4
The ability of a manufacturing operation to produce a specific surface roughness depends on many factors. For example, in end mill cutting, the final surface depends on the rotational speed of the end mill cutter, the velocity of the traverse, the rate of feed, the amount and type of lubrication at the point of cutting, and the mechanical properties of the piece being machined. A small change in any of the above factors can have a significant effect on the surface produced........but I digress, I'm just a simple pilot.
I had the flywheel ground to approximately RMS 30 finish. Too smooth and the clutch disc will slip on the flywheel, too rough and it will tear up the clutch disc. RMS 30 I'm told is a good average finish for a flywheel.
So with the flywheel completed the rest of the installation was done....again and now I've driving the car every chance I can to break the clutch in before we go drag racing.
Stand by..................
Thomas
Moving forward, before a new clutch is installed, it's standard practice to have the flywheel face cleaned up.
This is the machine, a flywheel grinder, which is used to clean and true up flywheels.
The flywheel is placed...
...and then secured on this mounting surface.
On the bottom of the grinder is a grinder wheel covered with industrial diamonds which does the all the work.
Here, in the foreground, you can see coolant is flowing on the flywheel before the grinding operation begins. The coolant also helps flush ground material off the flywheel during the grinding operation. Note the grinder has been lowered into position just above the flywheel at the top.
The flywheel is revolving on the mounting plate and the grinder wheel is also revolving as it's lowered onto the flywheel. Light cuts are taken to prevent removing too much material off the flywheel at one time. That minimizes heat build up. If the flywheel and grinder are always in motion it helps prevent flat spotting.
When finished, the flywheel looks like this, coolant is still on it. We're looking for a flat surface and with a certain smoothness. Engineers or machinists refer to the roughness or smoothness of a surface as expressed in RMS, Root- Mean -Square.
RMA(RA) Root- Mean- Square(Roughness Average), it is a term used to measure the roughness of a surface,RMS 63 is a smooth surface finish, RMS 125 is an average manufacturing surface, RMS 25 is a very clean smooth surface finish.
Surface roughness of texture is the measure if the finer surface irregularities in the surface texture and is composed of three components: roughness, waviness and form. These are the result of the manufacturing process employed to create the surface.
Surface roughness average (Ra), also know as arithmetic average (AA) is rated as the arithmetic average deviation of the surface valleys and peaks expressed in micro inches or micro meters. ISO standards use the term CLA (Center Line Average). Both are interpreted identical.
Where Ra is the arithmetic average value or departure from profile front eh center line, the equation for four as-measured values:
Ra = CLA = AA M1+M2+M3+M4/4
Where:
Mx = measure value
Root Mean Square (RMS / Rq / Rs) can be calculated by:
RMS = square root of- M1 squared + M2 squared + M3 squared + M4 squared/4
The ability of a manufacturing operation to produce a specific surface roughness depends on many factors. For example, in end mill cutting, the final surface depends on the rotational speed of the end mill cutter, the velocity of the traverse, the rate of feed, the amount and type of lubrication at the point of cutting, and the mechanical properties of the piece being machined. A small change in any of the above factors can have a significant effect on the surface produced........but I digress, I'm just a simple pilot.
I had the flywheel ground to approximately RMS 30 finish. Too smooth and the clutch disc will slip on the flywheel, too rough and it will tear up the clutch disc. RMS 30 I'm told is a good average finish for a flywheel.
So with the flywheel completed the rest of the installation was done....again and now I've driving the car every chance I can to break the clutch in before we go drag racing.
Stand by..................
Thomas