Halfway Floored

there’s something to be said for momentum, something like “if you keep pushing at just the right time…” at least get half the new floor installed.

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nothing bolted down, still nudging and budging (technical term for “bigger hammer”) but within 1/4″ all around.

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still need to deal with the wheel covers, they are galvanized steel, and completely corroded away at the sides.  another reason not to bolt down yet, i’ll slide some new steel under and then bend and rivet to the original.

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second sheet in,

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and third sheet (of six) in.

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not sure what, if anything, i’ll cover it with, for right now it starts to feel like a workshop.  can you see it yet?

 

 

Hose and Wire.

i always carry a bit of fuel hose and bailing wire with me in the truck.  been doing it for years. why? lots of liquids in an automobile runs better when they stay in.  so here’s the blown out transmission cooler bypassed with hose and wire.  i used the “2 x 2 x 2” wire method.  2(1) separate pieces of wire to make 2 “clamps” on each side.  each wire gets 2(2), and only 2, not 1, not 3 or more, just 2 wraps around the hose, and each wrap gets only 2(3) twists to snug, not over tight where the wire stretches or breaks.  got me few hundred miles till i had time to put in a replacement cooler just in time for the heat!!!

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Solstice Success

on the longest day, i finally got over the halfway point with the project fondly named “Two”.  i am now officially “putting back together” more than i am “taking apart”.  There is still plenty of floor to remove in the back still, but here is the first and hardest sheet of new plywood floor installed.

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but first, the torn swing out step frame had to be fixed.

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one of those things easier to work with on a bench, so cut out the whole thing, along with the frame pieces it was attached (sorta) to.

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i could see making this a lift-gate door now, or a drop ramp…

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but no, lets go with sturdy box tube door frame that i can add a step to later.

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sorry, no closeups of the flux-core 120vac welds, you can just imagine yucky gross blobs and splatter. will hit it with gas mig when i do the step.  after its rolling again.

tomorrow, weld a brace at the 2/3 seam, sheet #2 then goes in, and #4 can come out.  this project is Zen forcing my “lots of littles” discipline game.

 

 

oxide cleanup

removed all the trims, borrowed a good friend’s pressure washer, down to the bare metal is as far as it goes.  can see clearly now how previous owner took off too much of the AlClad pure Al layer with something rotary (sander?).  bozo flat headed all the backed rivets and shook half of them loose too.

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the steel lights did the worst damage to the aluminum.  only way to find out if it there is enough aluminum left underneath is to remove all the oxide layers.  i’m kinda fascinated how the Fe (iron) migrated onto the aluminum, the lights might have been plated (Cr) or dipped (Zn)….

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above before and below after quick hit with medium wire brush wheel.

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no, actually the worst damage was the tweakers.  my lock will be easier to open than that one was…..

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three sheets

finally back to work on Two.  the wet winter and missing roof vent covers means the remaining floor is coming out fairly easily.  the original plywood is in amazing strong shape where the over cover chipboard didn’t rot it away.   since i’m not taking the shell all the way off, this is as far as i can do at once, three sheets of new plywood, then do the other half once the front shell is re-attached.  THIS is my summer art project !!!

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frame is in good shape.  time spent now on the frame before laying the new ply will be time well invested. some cleaning, wire brushing, sulfuric acid, primer, seal coat, yeah.  whole lot of littles ahead !!!!

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and then all again on the back half…

Vintage Brakes

so these are called Warner electric brakes, designed by the guy who designed magnetic speedometers standard in pre-computer automobiles.  clever design, but i think the standard modern setup is in the plans.

here’s the hub off, friction pads inside the hub, and magnetic coil is the ring around the spindle.

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closer look at the hub pads,

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i assume it works like: give coil juice, it gets torqued by pulling these pads to it and then the doughnut is forced to turn a little bit.  that turn then pushes on the pad ring to engage the hub.  heres a closeup of the tab that sticks out of the coil ring where it can push on the ring on either side (forward or backward same power).

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so yeah, i’m back to the wordpress blog thing, which copies automatic to fbook.

 

 

santa screwed this year?

ya ever notice how an iced drink behaves on a hot day? the ice gets smaller sorta steady like,  then theres a pause, where the cubes are about 1/3 their starting size, and they don’t change size much for a bit.   then, suddenly they’re gone?  saw a version floating on the net without any attrib, so this version of the graph is direct from  NSIDC, the folks who actually count the icebergs.

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and why ? well it seems the ocean warming has warmed right up to the doorstep of the icepack, and the “plugs” in the straights aren’t forming.  see the really dark red spots in the bering straight? and like all from Greenland to russia?

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don’t worry, Santa has water pontoons on the sled.

too bad for the reindeer tho,

http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/12/11/20160466

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Perigee Moon Scores

SuperMoon.  harumph.  bullies shame the smart, and american schools teach to the lowest common denominator.  well, it ain’t common, it’s called “Perigee”, when the Moon is closest to Earth, as opposed to “Apogee” when it’s the furthest.  One of these days we’ll rid the earth of the last of the science shamers…

whatever, tide was SUPER LOW, and that is SCIENCE WIN!!!!

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