Above 1200 Sq/FT The Warthog Hidey Hole

[jbmatth]

JB: I can FEEL YOUR PAIN, but i'm guessing the learning curve will be a short one and the next one will work fine and maybe even take a bit less time. don't be so hard on yourself cause you're still way ahead of a lot of us for making an attempt to fab up this part so maybe you just weren't quite the ALPHA DOG yesterday.

good luck!!

Drives,
Thanks for the kind words, I didn't mess anything up I can't undo, it'll just be a lot more time to undo it than if I'd have done it right the first time. Oh well, just an excuse for more garage time, there are worse things. To make it better it'll be garage time when I'm on vacation for a couple days from work and the weather looks good with low of 34 and high around 50.

JB

 

[Grumblebum]

Some days you are the dog but today I was the hydrant.

That is the first time I think I've heard that. That's gold (no pun intended)

Keep at it, I've been the hydrant lately more often than not.

GB

 

[jbmatth]

Grumble,
I'm glad you like it, feel free to spread it around all you'd like.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

Well today I was the dog, I beveled the end of the steering shaft that was too short and the portion I cut off of it, clamped them to a piece of angle iron to keep them straight, then welded them up.

Next I removed the U joint that wasn't fitting, cut the end off of the one that would fit, welded them together and boom:

I have a steering shaft that should work. I ran out of time to mount it but I'll get photos when I do. Few problems can't be solved with the suitable application of high explosives. No that isn't it, few problems can't be solved with unlimited time and money, luckily this one only cost some welding rod and a couple of hours.

JB

 

[86turbodsl]

I remember when i was young and uneducated, i used to be scared to death of any vehicle that had a welded steering shaft. Now i don't even blink. Nice work JB.

Back to your regularly scheduled pinkie pi...

 

[slodat]

The metal chop saw I use has always lived on the floor and was a bit of a pain to use so I built a mount on the table where it could live:

It works great there and is level with the table top for one flat surface for cutting material. I then decided to make it more mobile by adding casters that could be raised and lowered when needed. 3 hours later I ran out of welding gas and stopped, no photos until I'm more done.

JB

JB, how does this attach to the welding table. This is an awesome idea!!

 

[jbmatth]

I remember when i was young and uneducated, i used to be scared to death of any vehicle that had a welded steering shaft. Now i don't even blink. Nice work JB.

Back to your regularly scheduled pinkie pi...

86,
It is not my preferred method, but at this 10 seconds I didn't have much of a choice. On the other hand I beveled the shaft down to ~1/16" then weld it back to flush from there. so I know it is a solid shaft around 3/4". Speaking of the steering I have it all back together now and it works. I still need to buy bearings so it doesn't flop around too much but it does work.

JB, how does this attach to the welding table. This is an awesome idea!!

Slodat,
It is welded on, I could have made it easily removable with a lot more time but couldn't see a reason it would need to be. It could still be removed but required a blue wrench to get it off. Here is a little sketch I put together of it:

All,
As I mentioned above the steering is back in and working now. So I decided it was time to mock up the seat to figure out mounting. Deep dive to come soon but I think I've figured out how to make it all work.

JB

 

[drivesitfar]

JB: great looking welding table.

it's good to be the ALPHA DOG some days to make up for the days when we are not. WELL DONE on the stearing fix!

 

[jbmatth]

Thank you Drives, it was a good day, of course any day in the shop is a better day than at work. Which is where I am now sadly, waiting on some parts to get a hydraulic ram working again.

JB

 

[oldironfarmer]

Steering shaft just looks pretty good!

 

[dchance]

JB, if you are at work you have too many Fridays. Need to see if Andy will share.

Dwight

 

[jbmatth]

Steering shaft just looks pretty good!

Thank you Andy, it turned out as well as I could expect for a hack with a saw and welder like me. Also thank you again for the cross member, I'll post up some photos of it when I get caught up from being gone.

JB, if you are at work you have too many Fridays. Need to see if Andy will share.

Dwight

Dwight,
Oddly enough I worked a half day Friday then had to come in for about 6 hours total on Saturday to work on some problems we were having. Then took Monday off as well. I need to try to squeeze a half day in sometime this week as well.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

Okay, with my steering now "usable" I would like a place to sit when moving the car around. I cleaned out the interior of P.P.P. for the first time. Upon further inspection the floor isn't in nearly the kind of shape I'd hoped. I don't have the time or money now to replace the entire floor with what I have planned for other projects. I decided it was time to make seat mounts to install one of the Silverado seats I took from the yellow 3/4 ton trucks. Sadly I didn't get many photos of the process but here is the seat installed.

I cut the mounts into the floor ~ 1" that allowed me to keep the slider working and it would work for me and my wife as well as taller drivers but if they have bigger legs or if they have a tall upper torso it would be tight. I think the new floor will need to be lowered a good bit to make it work. That means new cross members for the floor supports etc. This will be a very involved project it appears. All the more reason to push it off on future me.

As some of you may have seen on Andy's thread I paid him a visit to get the trans cross member cast in aluminum. Here are some action shots and the final result.

Now to admit an error on my part. When I built the steel cross member I use 1" thick rectangle tubing. It fit and worked fine, Andy offered to make one out of cast aluminum and I happily accepted, sent him the part and gave him the critical dimensions and surfaces. What I failed to do was tell him the 1" thickness was critical as I didn't know it at the time. After drilling the mounting holes it became apparent I should have.

I ended up having to trim .25" off of the bottom of the mount to make it fit the studs in the trans mount. I couldn't easily replace the studs as they were captured by the rubber in the mount. I could have cut them off and welded in longer studs but didn't want to have a one off wear item that couldn't be replaced easily on the side of the road. I'll post photos of the finished product when I get it finished. Sadly trimming it off means part of Andy's name was removed.

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Great work guys, that turned out nice, even if it did require "adjustments"!

 

[1/2 Cup]

JB, / Andy top work.

 

[Finallygotit]

JB, that's a bitchin' mount.


Fantastic work Andy!

 

[dchance]

JB,
I take it that he poured it while you were there. That is great and it looks great.

Dwight

 

[realvc]

That is one of the coolest trans. mounts ever.
You and Andy make a great team.


Vince

 

[drivesitfar]

JB: great job getting that part you made to Andy and having him make you one with his skills. great teamwork that is for certain.

maybe you can re stamp Andy's name on the part after you give it a trim?

i used to see these old 57's all the time in my youth and i could have picked up more than a few for less than a few hundred dollars, but they weren't as fast as my mustangs. too bad my dad didn't have a farm where I could have bought and stored a couple for 40 years.

good luck on the 57 and it's coming along nicely.

ANDY: that was some amazing work making that part for JB!!

 

[jbmatth]

Great work guys, that turned out nice, even if it did require "adjustments"!

Outlaw,
I'm stoked about it, I couldn't ask for a cooler one as you said even with some adjustments.

JB, / Andy top work.

Thank you 1/2, we were both stoked he didn't end up a 1/2 filled mold.

JB, that's a bitchin' mount.


Fantastic work Andy!

I concur Finally.

JB,
I take it that he poured it while you were there. That is great and it looks great.

Dwight

Yes he did Dwight, I was the camera man for that portion of the visit. Then I could take it with me when I left.

That is one of the coolest trans. mounts ever.
You and Andy make a great team.


Vince

Vince,
I agree, if only we could combine our powers to evil then we could take over the world...I wonder who would be Pinky and who would be Brain. Never mind I'm Pinky.

All,
Holes all drilled and tapped as required this morning and I have it installed:

Sadly with other stuff coming up this will be the last I work on Pinky Pi until some other things are done and I finish a turnaround for most of February.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

JB: great job getting that part you made to Andy and having him make you one with his skills. great teamwork that is for certain.

maybe you can re stamp Andy's name on the part after you give it a trim?

i used to see these old 57's all the time in my youth and i could have picked up more than a few for less than a few hundred dollars, but they weren't as fast as my mustangs. too bad my dad didn't have a farm where I could have bought and stored a couple for 40 years.

good luck on the 57 and it's coming along nicely.

ANDY: that was some amazing work making that part for JB!!

I think I'll have to do that Drives, good call and it'll give me an excuse to buy stamps.

I've always kinda like the Tri-Fives but never really planned to buy one when this one fell in my lap. It was about this time 2 years ago I found it on F.B. Marketplace, the guy was moving and had to get rid of it. I was going to pay $1,500 for it but couldn't get that much cash out of an ATM on New Years Eve so I explained the situation and that I only had $1,000 and he said that would be fine.

Picked up my brother near Tulsa, picked it up strapped to the trailer:
View media item 66333
Then less than a 1/2 mile later it fell off of the trailer:
View media item 66334
No damage and it didn't hurt traffic and I didn't get a ticket so I'll call it a win.

Fun trip down memory lane there. I thought it was pretty good for a 4 door but the 2 doors and wagons are out of my price range. Even if some of the ones you'd have stored were rusty you could have still made out like a bandit. You should have also stored a used 427 Cobra or two.

JB

 

[drivesitfar]

JB: WOW that was a close call with it falling off the trailer. were you trying to leave quick before the guy changed his mind and wanted the other $500?

yep the ones i could have bought for a lot less looked a bit better, but that's still a great buy especially with your skills.

here's what i paid $3,000 for with 30,000 miles on it in 1976 and it had a little 428 in it. Nope I don't still own it and sold it about 3 years later for a song cause I ran it into the ground and not slowly either. out on the desert south of Vegas i had the speedometer pegged almost back to zero and those little low spots in the freeway never felt rubber. GOOD TIMES.

 

[jbmatth]

JB: WOW that was a close call with it falling off the trailer. were you trying to leave quick before the guy changed his mind and wanted the other $500?

yep the ones i could have bought for a lot less looked a bit better, but that's still a great buy especially with your skills.

here's what i paid $3,000 for with 30,000 miles on it in 1976 and it had a little 428 in it. Nope I don't still own it and sold it about 3 years later for a song cause I ran it into the ground and not slowly either. out on the desert south of Vegas i had the speedometer pegged almost back to zero and those little low spots in the freeway never felt rubber. GOOD TIMES.

The tie downs I used at the time were just tire nets, I didn't have good straps or chains then, the car rolled forward and the nets slipped to the side then the car could roll right off the back. I've gotten better about tie downs:
View media item 70210
When things don't go as planned and you get home at 3am and cut the corner too sharp. The chains didn't allow it to move at all, but was a real pain to get out of the ditch. As a side note the tire nets were in addition to two 3/8" chains.

That is one nice car, I'm glad the "little" 428 was kind to you. I hope to one day look back and say wow if only I'd have kept the '91 RX7 I had or the Escorts I'd me a millionaire now. Haha not likely to happen.

JB

 

[Bob Heine]

JB, Us old farts who owned classic muscle cars 'way back when' think we should have held on to those cars. I bought my 1968 Pontiac GTO (power steering, automatic transmission, AM radio) for $3,500 and sold in 9 years later for $300 (after the first "gas crisis" in 1973). If I kept the GTO and stored it for 480 months (40 years) without ever driving or maintaining it, it might sell for $30,000 today. If the place I stored the car for those 480 months cost more than $62.50 a month $30K wouldn't even cover the cost of storage. At the end of 1977, the Dow Jones Industrial index closed around 830. Today it's around 24,000. Had I invested that $3,500 in an index fund (which didn't exist in 1977), I'd have over $100,000 today. Still, owning the GTO back then was worth it!

 

[drivesitfar]

JB: it's more for you like a piece of land, an old truck or some old tractor rusting in the field than those little rice burners, but you are young so just have fun and do the best you can with your abilities. it must be nice to have a camera to take pictures of all the MIS HAPS during your life cause in my day it we only had a polaroid (if we could afford it or borrow our parents) or some fancy camera we never had on us daily to take a few pictures with.

keep up the great work on your 1957 and even though I wish you were restoring a 1956 pick up i'm watching and learning and i'll stop in to poke fun or ask a dumb question now and then.

good luck

BOB: yep it was fun wasn't it!! also FREE is not FREE if you have to store (or pay to store), think about it or move it a hundred times is it?

 

[Grizz1963]

JB, Us old farts who owned classic muscle cars 'way back when' think we should have held on to those cars. I bought my 1968 Pontiac GTO (power steering, automatic transmission, AM radio) for $3,500 and sold in 9 years later for $300 (after the first "gas crisis" in 1973). If I kept the GTO and stored it for 480 months (40 years) without ever driving or maintaining it, it might sell for $30,000 today. If the place I stored the car for those 480 months cost more than $62.50 a month $30K wouldn't even cover the cost of storage. At the end of 1977, the Dow Jones Industrial index closed around 830. Today it's around 24,000. Had I invested that $3,500 in an index fund (which didn't exist in 1977), I'd have over $100,000 today. Still, owning the GTO back then was worth it!

I love your maths.


JB. Bandit.


Love the car.

 

[jbmatth]

JB, Us old farts who owned classic muscle cars 'way back when' think we should have held on to those cars. I bought my 1968 Pontiac GTO (power steering, automatic transmission, AM radio) for $3,500 and sold in 9 years later for $300 (after the first "gas crisis" in 1973). If I kept the GTO and stored it for 480 months (40 years) without ever driving or maintaining it, it might sell for $30,000 today. If the place I stored the car for those 480 months cost more than $62.50 a month $30K wouldn't even cover the cost of storage. At the end of 1977, the Dow Jones Industrial index closed around 830. Today it's around 24,000. Had I invested that $3,500 in an index fund (which didn't exist in 1977), I'd have over $100,000 today. Still, owning the GTO back then was worth it!

I've done the same math before Bob, and it rarely ever comes out that keeping the dream car at a dream price 30-40 years ago ever is worth it. One of the examples would have been a used 427 Cobra in the early 70's I don't know the value then but new they were just shy of $10,000 which would be $290,000 today with a current value of $1,000,000 plus. That would have been a good investment! One recent example was the 05-06 Ford GT. When I graduated college they were near bottom at $120,000, now 10 years later they are $270,000 plus. I should have bought the GT instead of the Cobra.

JB: it's more for you like a piece of land, an old truck or some old tractor rusting in the field than those little rice burners, but you are young so just have fun and do the best you can with your abilities. it must be nice to have a camera to take pictures of all the MIS HAPS during your life cause in my day it we only had a polaroid (if we could afford it or borrow our parents) or some fancy camera we never had on us daily to take a few pictures with.

keep up the great work on your 1957 and even though I wish you were restoring a 1956 pick up i'm watching and learning and i'll stop in to poke fun or ask a dumb question now and then.

good luck

BOB: yep it was fun wasn't it!! also FREE is not FREE if you have to store (or pay to store), think about it or move it a hundred times is it?

I still respect some of the rice burners, there were a few around that were pretty tough including a Neon SRT 4 that made 450 HP to the wheels. (Even if they were the wrong ones.) I saw it race an 80's Mustang making similar power and it got destroyed because of traction alone. That was a fun night of street racing in the middle of nowhere.

Through high school I didn't have a camera on me all the time either, I didn't get my own personal camera until 2006 or so and it was a point and shoot digital camera. In some ways I'm glad there weren't many then, I'm glad there isn't evidence of some of the things I did.

Personally I'd rather have the truck too, but this was planned all along to be a family cruiser hence the reason for 3 point belts in all of the seats, better tires, suspension, and brakes compared to what I pulled off.

I love your maths.


JB. Bandit.


Love the car.

Thanks Grizz, and I like maths, it was my favorite subject in school since the auto shop was only offered for people going to vo tech.

JB

 

[drivesitfar]

JB: don't get me wrong there were many many many nights I'm very happy for not having cell phone cameras or youtube videos around.

i really don't know how the younger generation doesn't go bonkers more than they are with all that in their lives.

yep i'm very happy driving an old honda that i put in gas and go now, but i'm still thinking an old 50's truck might be nice.

with your empty roads down there I bet some burnt rubber happens now and again.

cheers

 

[jbmatth]

Drives,
I think a nice 50's truck would be good for you, something mostly done that you could tinker on and just drive around to get a cupa tea.

I don't think I've ever burned rubber on the road or broken the law in any way I haven't already been prosecuted for, but on my regular trips with the Mexican Racing League... JK Having empty roads does lend itself to a bit more tomfoolery.

All,
I received a few boxes from Santa yesterday, I should have taken photos of them stacked up but I'll just share the contents of one of them:

My favorite box was heavier and had the smell of escargot...

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Sounds like turbo to me....

 

[jbmatth]

Sounds like turbo to me....

Well that didn't take long, good job outlaw:

My goal is to move Pinky Pi to the leanto side, clean the main bay and by Christmas start pulling everything off of the Lil Blue Truck. The parts are stacking up and to say I'm excited is an understatement.

JB

 

[Grizz1963]

I meant I love Bob Heine’s maths.

But anyone else who uses the same formula


Anyway, been on Andys thread and love what the two of you have created.


Awesome work.

 

[jbmatth]

I meant I love Bob Heine’s maths.

But anyone else who uses the same formula


Anyway, been on Andys thread and love what the two of you have created.


Awesome work.

Grizz,
I know I wouldn't expect anything else from an IBM Tech Writer, everything he does is well thought out.

Thanks, I'm very pleased with it as well, I couldn't ask for a better group of friends and neighbors even if some are hours away.

All,
A bit of a sad day this morning as I moved Pinky Pi over to the storage side of The Warthog Hidey Hole. It'll be there for at least a few months while I work through the updates on Lil' Blue but having a bit of change in the scenery will be nice.

JB

 

[bj383ss]

Fun stuff about to happen. Curious why you went with Brian tooley springs and valvetrain and not one of his cams? I have been reading nothing but good things about them.

The new crossmember looks awesome by the way.

Bret

 

[jbmatth]

Fun stuff about to happen. Curious why you went with Brian tooley springs and valvetrain and not one of his cams? I have been reading nothing but good things about them.

The new crossmember looks awesome by the way.

Bret

Oh yeah, I'm dipping my toe in the forced induction game by diving head first.

The cam is an interesting story, I contacted Little John Motor Sports and he spec'd the cam out for me and suggested the BTR (Brian Tooley Racing) springs , retainers, seals, etc. rather than what I'd planned to buy. What I assume they do is have Comp. Cams grind their cams.

To complicate things even more LJMS and BTR almost share a building and all of the warehousing and shipping is in one of their buildings for both companies. I say that to basically say I don't think either one is a bad choice and they are both well respected in the LS community. If I'd have known from the beginning LJMS would recommend the BTR parts I probably would have just started with BTR.

Thanks for the kind words on the cross member, it was 99% Andy's handy work and 1% me butchering it into its current state.

Ya'll have Happy Holidays and a great New Year, here is to a wonderful and powerful 2019

JB

 

[bj383ss]

Merry Christmas JB!

Bret

 

[BBChevro]

Merry Christmas JB

Sent from my SM-G950F using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[drivesitfar]

JB: looks like you got your Christmas presents early. have fun!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and have a great 2019 which looks like it's off to an early start heading that way with those boxes.

cheers

 

[1/2 Cup]

JB thats some nice shiny gear you have got there, it will be interesting to see how your foray into forced induction goes..

Merry Christmas and a great New Year to you and yours..

 

[Redwolf947]

Merry Christmas JB