Above 1200 Sq/FT The Warthog Hidey Hole

[BUGTHUG]

welds are looking pretty tight

 

[Kenfab]

just caught myself up! nice score on all the old tools, they look like quality gear!

 

[jbmatth]

You mentioned the belt sander was loud. My recollection those things were loud and sounded like they had bad bearings when they were new.

Nice test stand. And it looks to be portable as well. That was a nice touch adding wheels. Is it stable? It needs to be long enough to not tip over forward.

Andy,
I seam to remember the same thing, maybe I should just not fix what isn't broken... maybe just fix one little thing... yeah that can't lead down any rabbit holes can it?

What you might not see, or I haven't shown is the test stand is an entire suburban frame with the rear axle and fuel tank still installed. I don't think I'll have to worry about it tipping over. Tires go flat after a few weeks but nothing I can't handle.

welds are looking pretty tight

Thank you Herb, I've gotten much better at welding, but still have a LONG way to go. Just like most things in life it just takes practice to not be so terrible. That part was all scraps I had in the bin so I didn't spend a lot of time making it pretty other than cleaning a bit of rust for the welds.

just caught myself up! nice score on all the old tools, they look like quality gear!

Kenfab,
Thanks for reading along, I'm really happy with the score and will eventually get them all back to usable shape. Just as soon as I get a couple of other projects knocked off of the to do list.


All,
I spent a little more time tinkering on the engine run stand and wiring harness this morning. I have the OBD2 connector and check engine light hooked up to the rest of the harness. Connected the fuel lines to the engine, tested fuel pressure after hot wiring the pump, and installed the starter, batter cables, and a temp. battery. It turns over still which is always a good thing.

This weekend I'll try to get it started, wish me luck,

JB

 

[oldironfarmer]

What you might not see, or I haven't shown is the test stand is an entire suburban frame with the rear axle and fuel tank still installed. I don't think I'll have to worry about it tipping over. Tires go flat after a few weeks but nothing I can't handle.

I could tell by your comments it was an entire chassis. Have you done calculations to verify it's long enough to not tip over forward or just taking an educated guess?

 

[jbmatth]

Of course I ran the numbers, I tried to pick the rear end up and I counted the number of herniated discs from an unsuccessful attempt, now I can't run with that number of herniated discs. There engineering in real world applications.

JB

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Of course I ran the numbers, I tried to pick the rear end up and I counted the number of herniated discs from an unsuccessful attempt, now I can't run with that number of herniated discs. There engineering in real world applications.

JB

By my experience one herniated disc equals 500 pounds of lift force.

And also one herniated disc equals $25,000 in hospital bills.

 

[Grizz1963]

All those tools have stories to tell.


The pics made me smile deeply in my heart, reminded me of all my dads tools.

 

[jbmatth]

By my experience one herniated disc equals 500 pounds of lift force.

And also one herniated disc equals $25,000 in hospital bills.

War Wagon,
To that effect one welding table for a herniated disc would be equal in value to a VERY nice CNC plasma table, and a mill and lathe. I'm glad I passed on it.

All those tools have stories to tell.


The pics made me smile deeply in my heart, reminded me of all my dads tools.

Grizz,
You are very right sir, lots of board feet have traveled on these machines. I know they will be used again once I get more time to get them going again.

All,
Updates on this weekends happenings to come shortly. No time right now sadly.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

All,
First I wanted to show something that showed up to the house for me that I didn't even order. The owner of the Mercedes that recently did some work out here mentioned it would have been handy for me to have a tall jack for some work. He found this and decided it would be a good way to say thank you, and I have to agree:

Next up I wanted to verify the standalone harness I've been working on for far too long would actually work. I've been on and off of this project for too long and have forgotten too much in the process so kept having to go back through my notes to make sure I wasn't messing something up. Next time I'll take a day and work on it non-stop. Anyway, I installed the last remaining parts and put the harness on the engine:

It took a bit but had everything ready to go and tried to fire it up. Nothing just cranking. Spark tested, injectors were firing, had fuel pressure. Sprayed a little carb cleaner in the intake and it fired up! Sweet! It will run and rev but I shut it off quickly as there is no radiator and the water pump isn't connected.

I think that is all for the time being. I have a lot of single days of vacation coming up till the end of the year and plan to bring Pinky Pi back in for a little more work. I have some steel and a welder so here goes nothing I guess. I should start moving it over on Friday if it doesn't rain.

JB

 

[Nlped]

I have a couple if those stands and they are fantastic to have when you don’t have any help...which for me is most often.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jbmatth]

I have a couple if those stands and they are fantastic to have when you don’t have any help...which for me is most often.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I pretty much never have any help, and really look forward to using this one. It'll really help out with exhaust work, installing driveshafts, holding stuff where my third hand won't reach. I may have to get another, or at least ask for one from Santa.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

Last night the gentleman with the Mercedes came over to finish the rear suspension link replacement. Turns out he still didn't have two of the correct arms, maybe round 3 will get them all right. We did replace all that we could when we got to the lower ball joints. Here is what they look like installed:

He nor I had the tool to press them out so we improvised. I had a bolt, washers, and plenty of sockets...but no sockets big enough even my 36 mm was too small. So we improvised:

That is part of the front upper control arm off of this car, I cut the end off and pressed out the bushing, add a few extra washers and presto out it comes. I was pretty proud of that bit of redneck engineering. Either way all back together and on his way home. I will say there seems to be a lot of over complication to the suspension on that car. If you haven't seen one this sums it up well:

So lets do a sit. rep. I am done with his car for a while, I have the 5.3 running, I have some steel taking up floor space, and a Project Pinky Pi begging for attention. So this morning I pulled it out and of storage and onto the lift, after 10 minutes here is what it looks like now:
View media item 87693
Yep, some metal shavings, grinding dust, and weld splatter are soon to come and I'm excited.

JB

 

[bj383ss]

Nice. Looking forward to the shoebox chronicle.

Bret

 

[jbmatth]

I just hope when I go back to install the body with the engine and trans in place it will fit. I guess if not I'll just have an excuse to use the plasma cutter.

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Plasma cutters make great clearance holes in newly added metal... believe me, I know!

 

[jbmatth]

Outlaw,
Hopefully I don't have to cut too much of the new metal, the floor has lots of issues and I'm planning to replace most if not all of it. That will be the first place I clearance, I need to pick up a sheet today so I have something to put back in.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

All,
I had half of Thursday off of work and all of Friday, I drove my truck so I could pick up a little steel I needed for PinkyPi frame and floor. While there I made a deal on this little piece of scrap:

It measured 49" x 51" x 1" (1.25m x 1.3m x 25.4mm) That ought to make a good welding table even it it is a little bigger than I needed or wanted. I mentioned it to Andy and we made a deal, I'd bring it over, he'd cut it and take half of it off my hands. I was also supposed to deliver some aluminum to feed his hobby but completely forgot it at home. He unloaded it and got going on the cut:

We visited and told lies, or maybe I'm the only one that was lying...I/we may never know. We tinkered on his purplish car some and took it for a test drive but no photos of that. Then he fired up the forge and he coached me into making a little knife shaped piece of metal out of some old sucker rod:

I had a good time but needed to head home. My girls were running late so I had a couple of hours to cut, grind, weld, and drill on my new table. This is where I ended up:

The next morning I installed a couple of cross bars for a shelf, then mag drilled the top for my 5" Wilton vise to mount but don't have photos of that yet. I also don't have photos with me of the work I'm doing on the from of Project PinkyPi, maybe I didn't really do anything.

I do know I took the Warthog out for probably the last time this year, I met up with my buddy and we cruised around town a while:

All in all a nice relaxing weekend,
JB

 

[1/2 Cup]

JB your welding table is looking fantastic

 

[oldironfarmer]

Great job on welding up the arc!

 

[drivesitfar]

JB: great looking welding table and nice job cleaning up that 1/2 circle cut out cause it looks might smooth now.

just curious if you have ever seen this sort of design so you can move your welding table in and out from the wall if you don't want to pull out the heavy lifting tools all the time.

however you decide to finish it off is certainly up to you and i'm sure it will work great.

looks like you had a pro cutting it in half and hopefully he finds a good spot for his half.

 

[jbmatth]

JB your welding table is looking fantastic

Thank you 1/2 Cup, I should have left the 1/2 circle and named it cup so I'd always feel like you were there telling me I could do it better.

Great job on welding up the arc!

Thank you Andy, I couldn't see much reason to keep it so it now just blends in. By the way, that mill scale on the plate is really tough stuff, it took way longer to remove than I would have expected.

JB: great looking welding table and nice job cleaning up that 1/2 circle cut out cause it looks might smooth now.

just curious if you have ever seen this sort of design so you can move your welding table in and out from the wall if you don't want to pull out the heavy lifting tools all the time.

however you decide to finish it off is certainly up to you and i'm sure it will work great.

looks like you had a pro cutting it in half and hopefully he finds a good spot for his half.

Drives,
I think this might be the first time you commented on my thread, thank you for looking in on me. I have seen you post that design before and I do like the look of it, perhaps in version 2 or revision 1 of version 1. For now I'll probably clear out a good spot for it and leave it alone, I leave my cherry picker assembled most of the time because I'm pretty lazy when it comes to moving heavy stuff.

I think it'll eventually get some paint, eventually... for now the surface has a nice coating of cutting oil from using the mag drill, and it isn't like it'll rust through anytime soon.

I only hire the best, and he works for aluminum, brass, and copper, I do still owe him a few pounds though.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I've been plucking away at Pinky Pi lately and do have a little to show for the effort, I made a pinion brace out of some 2" x 2" (25mm x 25mm) square tube, it'll get a rubber/poly bushing between the brace and the housing but I haven't gotten to the point where I know what the pinion angle will need to be just yet:
View media item 87847
I've also started to work on the frame stiffeners. (I'm sure there is a proper term but I don't know it do any of you?) I probably won't weld them in until I get the engine and trans located, and the engine mounts built. I'm finely picking up the trans from my brother this weekend so it shouldn't be long now:
View media item 87846
I'm modeling the frame after a bunch of other track and autocross frames I've seen, it'll end up looking roughly like this one:

By the looks of things I should space the two spines a little wider, they are currently 6" apart. I have some thinking to do.

Keep moving forward,

JB

 

[oldironfarmer]

Great progress on the frame!

The 35 Chevrolet has X-bracing with a relatively small tunnel right at the back of the transmission (not on the 35 transmission, I'm sure) and it is a little tight.

What's the purpose of the bracing you're putting in? If just additional stiffness they certainly can be spaced apart more. I suggest any bracing between them be bolt in.

 

[jbmatth]

Great progress on the frame!

The 35 Chevrolet has X-bracing with a relatively small tunnel right at the back of the transmission (not on the 35 transmission, I'm sure) and it is a little tight.

What's the purpose of the bracing you're putting in? If just additional stiffness they certainly can be spaced apart more. I suggest any bracing between them be bolt in.

Andy,
As always it is great to hear from you, the bracing is to increase torsional stiffness. It is a total swag on my part as to if it will even help but in theory it'll help keep the frame stiff so the suspension can do all of the work of keeping the tires on the ground. I used PowerPoint to lay my photo and the reference photo on top of one another as best I could:

Looks like he spaced them about 8" apart (2" wider than I have them mocked up now) I'll do the same to give more room to work, but also don't want to limit space for mufflers more than I have to. I plan to integrate a driveshaft safety loop that will be bolt in as you suggest, same for the trans cross-member I'll fab as well. I'm sure at some point I'll have to pull the trans and I don't want future me to cuss current me for shortsightedness.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I don't have anything to report on my progress other than scheming up ideas for things I don't have and can't afford. Yesterday at the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Marketing Association) show two very neat things were unveiled, first is an electric motor from GM: 700 HP Electric crate motor

The second is a 426 cubic inch (7.0L) supercharged crate engine with 1000 HP and 950 Lb Ft of torque: #Hellephant

That is all, click the links and dream.

JB

 

[Nlped]

I’m at SEMA too. I bought a tire changer and a hella sandblaster yesterday and will be looking at 4-post lifts today for some vertical vehicle storage.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jbmatth]

I’m at SEMA too. I bought a tire changer and a hella sandblaster yesterday and will be looking at 4-post lifts today for some vertical vehicle storage.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nlped,
I'm not at SEMA, but have been following some of the big announcements via social media. Great to hear you are finding some deals, feel free to post some photos if you'd like.

JB

 

[drivesitfar]

JB: now after this post it looks like i've posted one more time on your thread than I have on Jack's 12 Gauge Garage thread that I tend to look at a quite a bit. I used to post mainly on the vise thread, tool threads and welcoming new members and I think at one time i was up to 5,000 subscribed threads (I deleted a bunch of old ones and still have 3800 now). I stayed off the Free Parking threads cause I got tired of reading all the BS and arguing and that has changed some so i go in there at times especially for my (our) Get Healthy thread. I also stayed off the garage gallery threads cause I tend to buy a lot of stuff I like and damn you guys have a lot of cool (and expensive) stuff.

that said i've always enjoyed reading your posts on Andy's and other threads and i'll try to watch and see what i can learn from you cause your skills like most of the guys around here are WAAAAAY ABOVE MINE.

speaking of skills I remember you had that Quality Cheap labor guy stop by with his BOB(cat) last year and cut you a berm or drainage around your shop and wondering if that worked or if you still need to improve on that?

take care and keep up the great work!!

 

[jbmatth]

Drives,
If you have posted more on my thread than Jack's I feel honored. I have to limit the amount of time I spend on here, I don't want "the man" to think I take too many "smoke breaks".

Andy and Bob the Cat did excellent work, We have had some pretty bad downpours and I haven't gotten any runoff in the shop from that. I do still have leaks in the roof I need to fix but they aren't tooooo bad. That will be a pretty significant amount of work and a decent amount of money but really should be done. May be worth taking a few days off next spring to get it taken care of.

JB

 

[bj383ss]

Wow those 2 new crate engines are wild. I would have never thought GM would do something like that and let alone put it in a COPO Camaro.

Bret

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Glad to see progress getting made. In the mean time, my project truck gathered more dust.

The good news is that a lithium mining company wants my property. I will be buying something with a shop, or building one.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Glad to hear you haven't had any more rivers running through your shop!

I was surprised to see GM's electric motor was hooked to a conventional transmission. I wonder if they are single speed motors? With a VFD you hardly need a transmission. I think. So I am.

 

[Grizz1963]

Progress is always progress

 

[Ole Slewfoot]

Glad to hear you haven't had any more rivers running through your shop!

I was surprised to see GM's electric motor was hooked to a conventional transmission. I wonder if they are single speed motors? With a VFD you hardly need a transmission. I think. So I am.

I got the chance to drive a 1300 lb car with one HVH 150 motor. They arent that high revving, so the trans will he needed to reach 9 sec worthy top speeds. We only had a 360V pack, I'm sure 800 helps. Wonder how many passes you get on a charge?

 

[jbmatth]

Wow those 2 new crate engines are wild. I would have never thought GM would do something like that and let alone put it in a COPO Camaro.

Bret

Bret,
I'm with you, typically GM lets others innovate then reacts shortly thereafter. As of now I suppose it isn't actually a crate package they are offering, but the potential is there that they could in the future.

Glad to see progress getting made. In the mean time, my project truck gathered more dust.

The good news is that a lithium mining company wants my property. I will be buying something with a shop, or building one.

That is great news, hopefully they are paying enough to make it worth it. Always nice to find out you are living on a gold (lithium) mine. Congrats and hopefully you end up getting a nice new shop out of the deal.

Glad to hear you haven't had any more rivers running through your shop!

I was surprised to see GM's electric motor was hooked to a conventional transmission. I wonder if they are single speed motors? With a VFD you hardly need a transmission. I think. So I am.

I agree Andy, few electric powered cars I see have a conventional trans. I have seen a quiet a few retrofit conversions that will use the transmission the car originally came with mostly because the electric motor being used is under powered compared to the original I.C. engine. I'm not familiar enough with how electric motors work to know if you turn them slower if they use less energy. I may have to ponder on that one a bit.

Progress is always progress

Agree

I got the chance to drive a 1300 lb car with one HVH 150 motor. They arent that high revving, so the trans will he needed to reach 9 sec worthy top speeds. We only had a 360V pack, I'm sure 800 helps. Wonder how many passes you get on a charge?

Slewfoot,
I don't remember if you've commented before this but if not welcome to my thread and the conversation. The only electric car I've ridden in was a Tesla Model S, he drove it about 100 miles to where we were then made multiple hits with 4 people in the car. That was a freaking awesome feeling, I kept waiting for the shift and was tensed up in preparation but it never happened. So I suspect they will get a good number out of each charge but that is pure speculation at this point.

I'm excited to see where it goes from here as a lover of fast cars. But as someone who works in the oil industry I hope we keep using I.C. engines for a few more decades at least!

JB

 

[oldironfarmer]

"I'm excited to see where it goes from here as a lover of fast cars. But as someone who works in the oil industry I hope we keep using I.C. engines for a few more decades at least!"

Nobody can predict the future, but I can see cheap commuter cars being made very inexpensively: blow molded body, two motors, a computer, battery pack and a few additions like steering and brakes to take over after electrical braking. When thousands are built each month the gasoline supply will become constant surplus. We used to have two and three gas stations on every corner, I can see very few stations in the very near future.

In other news, I haven't screwed up an engine yet today.

 

[jbmatth]

"I'm excited to see where it goes from here as a lover of fast cars. But as someone who works in the oil industry I hope we keep using I.C. engines for a few more decades at least!"

Nobody can predict the future, but I can see cheap commuter cars being made very inexpensively: blow molded body, two motors, a computer, battery pack and a few additions like steering and brakes to take over after electrical braking. When thousands are built each month the gasoline supply will become constant surplus. We used to have two and three gas stations on every corner, I can see very few stations in the very near future.

In other news, I haven't screwed up an engine yet today.

I'm with you to a point, but with all of the safety regulations that are not going to let up anytime soon I don't know how cheap that can happen. Plus sadly they don't really make any super basic only what is required by law cars. That is why I still drive my very basic only what is required by laws 20 years ago car and it is still getting over 45 MPG. To do that with a new or newer car it would cost significantly more than what it takes to maintain mine. Or not because I only fix stuff on it when it is truly broken and is necessary to still drive. Struts are blown completely out, not gonna fix it, AC goes out and power steering leak, take them out completely, no one uses the passenger seat, remove it.

That is good news, I haven't screwed up an engine today either, but there is still time.

JB

 

[Grizz1963]

Good to talk to you this morning.

Trust you got loads done.

 

[jbmatth]

That is was, but funny you should mention that, I was off on my time a bit. I got out to the shop and my alarm started to go off to get changed for work. Oops.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I made it back from my trip to Missouri for the Bass Pro Marathon event they hold. Three of my brothers, a friend, and I ran the marathon relay again this year. We managed to win even though some of us were not in great shape, I'll take it either way:

I'm the short one.

Really the only reason I say that is to say I didn't do much this weekend, but one big benefit of going was to finely pick this up:
View media item 88021
That is the transmission I bought in June that my brother has been holding onto for me. It is a TR6060 which is 6 speed manual, it came out of a 2014 Camaro SS 1LE that was pushing 800hp when he broke the engine. One of the big reasons I bought this one was because of the clutch:
View media item 88022
Terrible photo but it is a Mantic 9000 twin disc clutch, it is rated for 1,010 hp at the crank. I won't be pushing it that hard but I mean why not have it right? The sad thing is the trans fell over in the trunk of his car and trans fluid got on it. I'll clean it with brake clean and see if it will work, if not the rebuild kit is $1,000.

Either way I connected the engine to the trans and mocked them in place on Pinky Pi:
View media item 88023
I ended up moving the engine forward about 4" from here, got it centered and started building mounts and made a way to mount them to the frame that was easily removeable:
View media item 88025
What I did was I marked the holes from a frame side mount onto the frame, drilled them out and welded nuts to the frame as seen above. Then built the frame side mounts:
View media item 88024
I'm mostly done with the engine side mounts now, just lots of time to make, fit, and repeat on each little part. Once those are done I'll keep going on the frame stiffeners and the trans mount. Slow going but progress is progress and I've waited a long time to get to this point.

JB