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I struggled to get a flat part fixed on my ACC vinyl floor on the transmission hump for an afternoon before I went online to find out the pickups have two different transmission hump designs and ACC only offers it in the kind I don't have. Some poo poo just isn't setup to work right. It looks fine now and yours does too. That's just how it goes.
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Jul 5, 2023 23:52
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IOwnCalculus posted:Oppressive is not doing this enough justice. You're a goddamn madman doing anything this time of year. It's weird, somehow my garage isn't that bad in the summer? I spent about an hour in my dad's on Saturday and was sweating my rear end off the whole time, but then everything was fine when I got back to mine. I might get a Volvo update in here if things get too slow with StormDrain posted:I struggled to get a flat part fixed on my ACC vinyl floor on the transmission hump for an afternoon before I went online to find out the pickups have two different transmission hump designs and ACC only offers it in the kind I don't have. Some poo poo just isn't setup to work right. It looks fine now and yours does too. That's just how it goes. Huh, that makes me feel way better. Thanks! Oh, I forgot one last update from this weekend - we "worked on" the C10.  Welcome to the backyard mangled-rear end frame. Enjoy sitting there until ??? Contrary to the above, moving that thing with two of us and in the sun was quite hot. I should probably take those C-Notches off too.
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Jul 6, 2023 00:07
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I still have a soft spot for 240s despite the fact that mine was a shitbox that wouldn't pass emissions.
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StormDrain posted:I struggled to get a flat part fixed on my ACC vinyl floor on the transmission hump for an afternoon before I went online to find out the pickups have two different transmission hump designs and ACC only offers it in the kind I don't have. Some poo poo just isn't setup to work right. It looks fine now and yours does too. That's just how it goes. I’ve got like four layers of jute padding over the trans tunnel on my Cutlass to pad it out so the ACC carpet fits.
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Jul 6, 2023 00:55
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Quick update today and just the Scout for now. The next post will probably be a one and done for the Volvo since it’s not going to be an ongoing project. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself now. Three new things to show off: 1 - New seatbelts front and rear   I have no commentary about seatbelts. 2 – We threw the AC bar back in under the dash.  Also not particularly exciting, but it does a lot to hide the stuff that’s supposed to be tucked away. Now we just need it to do something beyond blow ambient air. All the AC hardware is present but we haven’t looked at it beyond that. 3 – Much more exciting than the last two, we bolted on some honkin’ fender flares today.    These things were real drat expensive and I wasn’t entirely sold on them at first, but I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. Best of all, rust over the passenger rear? What rust over the passenger rear? I don’t see any rust over the passenger rear.  So yeah, maybe a band-aid fix for that one last bit of rust but whatever. I forget if I did this here already but I stopped to take inventory of what’s still outstanding and for the first time I think we're down to a trackable list of items. That list: -Install door cards (scheduled to be delivered this week) -Install parking brake pedal -Order and install parking brake cables -Redo rear wiring -Scrape, power wash and degrease front half of frame -Paint front half of frame -Rebuild front suspension (yes this should be a bunch of bullet points but I’m sticking with it) -Just drive truck We all know there will be a bunch of other things added later but I’m calling this the list for now. The light at the end of the tunnel is exciting! Bonus non-truck content – This doesn’t fit here at all but I don’t post in Pet Island and it’s my thread so deal with it. Meet my adorable new kitty Beep.       Beep’s interests include watching whatever is on my side screen, (poorly) hiding around corners and jumping out when you walk by, cuddles, standing on two legs and amusingly using his front paws as if they were hands and sleeping under the couch. He’s the best.
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Aug 7, 2023 03:42
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I'm here only for beep now.
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Aug 7, 2023 04:34
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Beep content with a side of good old trucks. 5/5
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Aug 7, 2023 14:38
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StormDrain posted:I'm here only for beep now.
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Aug 9, 2023 06:35
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Today I went to the junkyard and saw something in the van section that reminded me of your thread. Why, you ask?  It's really impressive how good at body work you've gotten, and how quick you've done it.
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Sep 4, 2023 09:40
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Big Taint posted:
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Sep 5, 2023 20:06
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kastein posted:It's really impressive how good at body work you've gotten, and how quick you've done it. Hey thanks! The kind words from this thread are always a good motivator to keep things going! That said, my next updates are either a delivery away from really coming together or would be full of boring and frustrating things. So forget all of that and just have more Beep instead! Beep likes to be tall. Climbing on me is a good way to be tall.  Look how long my boy is.   Sleepy.   Hanging out on the back of my desk chair is the best way to derail video calls.  This is my favorite picture of him so far.  And finally - some might ask why you'd let your cat in the refridgerator. I would ask those people how else would he see the beers? 
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Sep 6, 2023 04:44
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Beep beep!
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Sep 6, 2023 05:36
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It’s funny how trying to fix one little thing can spiral into multiple weekends worth of rabbit holes, none of which accomplished anything exciting. Case in point – Scout taillights don’t work. Root cause: this probably. (picture is old and pre-body work) Decades of hacked in trailer harnesses have done a number on the original wiring. No problem, this was expected and it’s finally time to do something about it. Out came the multimeter and on with the probing. Surprise, nothing is right and there’s no brake lights or turn signals making it to the back. OK, let’s continuity test instead and see if we can at least find wires that should do something. The bulkhead connector is on the firewall and not easily accessible from the ground. Who’s idea were these big rear end tires anyways. We eventually landed on this solution so I could lay under the hood and get close enough to the firewall to see what I'm probing. I don’t think ladders are really supposed to be loaded in this direction, but it only made concerning popping noises a few times so that’s probably fine.  Cool, now we’ve got wires identified at the back. Time to chop out most of the old crap, terminate wires with shiny new terminals and finish it off with new plugs. Pretend I have a new picture of all that here. Now it all works, right? No of course not. After much staring at things, we realized the plug diagram we were using didn’t match what was on the truck. Either that or I read it wrong, but I’m pretty sure it’s the former. Out comes the annoying pin removal tools and things get swapped around. Brake lights are good now though, right? Still no. But you know, the front turn signals aren’t fully working either and their wiring doesn’t appear to have been messed with. Also, I only hear the relay clicking in one direction. The relay is only a couple bucks, so let’s throw that at it. Of course that’s not the easy to get to relay on the fuse block. It’s the one that’s way up under the dash. So out comes the dash and a gauge, in goes the new relay and nothing at all changed. But hey, at least that’s new and less likely to be an issue later. After more messing around, the turn signal switch seems like the next most likely candidate, especially since it’s super loose and not positively engaging either direction. Replacement switches are available, but only from the fancy specialty places. We’re too impatient and cheap for that and this ribbon connector sure looks exactly the same as the GM one. It was decided to buy one that looks close enough and give it a try. A trip to NAPA netted us one that looked right. Time to crawl under the dash to plug this in real quick, except despite looking the same the spacing on this connector is just slightly wider than the original. OK, back out from under the dash, fight with the goddamn depinning tools to depin both the old and new connectors, swap the old connector to the new switch, back under the dash, plug things in and prepare for the next thing. Except this time there wasn’t a next thing. It actually works and we’ve got taillights now. So yeah, lots of work and very little to show for it. Fun. Thanks for bearing with me through that large and boring block of text. Let’s do things that are more interesting. Like door panels!  We got these nice vinyl repro door panels from somewhere I don’t remember anymore. They look and feel real nice, though I can’t help but feel the recessed door pull bit should have been centered on the chrome part, rather than the mostly hidden mechanism. Maybe that’s how they were originally? I dunno and can’t be bothered to check. One more part of the doors – arm rests. We never got arm rests and original replacements are nearly unobtainable at this point. However, someone out there is 3D printing replacements. Given no other real option we figured we’d give them a try.  I am admittedly mixed on their quality. Layer lines always bug me and while this picture probably accentuates them more than they appear in real life, they’re there for sure. We debated sanding them down to smooth things out before ultimately deciding to leave them as-is and bolted them on.  Now that they’re installed, it’s probably fine and it wouldn’t have been worth the sanding. With that, the interior is pretty much complete. We’ll eventually sand and repaint the remaining trash paint around the windshield and might add weather stripping, but neither of those are real pressing. Instead let’s rip the entire front end out of the truck!  Of all the filthy parts on this truck, this is the filthiest, combining oil, ATF and power steering leaks and decades of mud into one complete mess. We’re going to need a lot of brake cleaner.  That brings us up to this afternoon. The plan for the front is largely the same as we did in the rear, except with ball joints. Everything will get cleaned up, wirewheeled and painted black. Leaf springs get new bushings, liners and clamps. Brakes will get a once over, but they’re probably fine. The biggest question mark is the axle internals. Right now we don’t plan on a full rebuild like we did in the rear. The ring and pinion both look good and the gear oil showed no signs of anything concerning. That’s nice for a change. That’s it for updates. Volvo update still to come once I am done waiting on a completely incompetent company to ship me some drat wheels. Oh also, I bought a hilariously expensive book.  Last but not least – Beep tax.  
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Oct 2, 2023 03:57
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Wow, international changed the size of the connector? At least Jeep just straight up used the regular GM one. I found much the same horror show of old SAE connectors and badly done trailer light wiring and previous owner repairs up under the back of my J10, and did the same thing in response. Works great now.
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Oct 2, 2023 04:05
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eh mah gerd that cat  If the layer lines of the printed armrests bother you, I'd see about getting them upholstered in something.
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Oct 2, 2023 04:06
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It is a very cute cat for sure. I forgot to say that, beep is great. Also if you don't want to sand or upholster them, you could look into solvent smoothing.
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Oct 2, 2023 04:14
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The extra strange thing about the connectors is this is the old one. You can see why I read that to mean "same as GM" but the spacing was different enough that they were eventually half a pin width off. I should have taken a side by side picture but it baffled me too. Arm rests - vinyl cover is probably the right way to go. We'll chat with an interior dude if I don't forget about them in favor of 100 other little things.
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Oct 2, 2023 04:33
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Jesus, no poo poo. I would've assumed that's the same one that was on my C10 - mine has the later half-moon style now after dealing with the same issue. It's also such an obnoxious connector for something that has to pass through the steering column.
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Oct 2, 2023 05:06
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... actually, you live in a fairly arid location right? I wonder if the old one literally shrank from having all the plasticizers baked out of it for 50 years.
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Oct 2, 2023 08:36
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poo poo, I had no idea that was even a thing. As best I can tell the truck was is New Mexico before coming here, so that probably counts as arid. That would also make more sense than International skipping the parts bin for once and using a marginally smaller connector for no clear reason.
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Oct 2, 2023 14:32
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WTFBEES posted:poo poo, I had no idea that was even a thing. As best I can tell the truck was is New Mexico before coming here, so that probably counts as arid. That would also make more sense than International skipping the parts bin for once and using a marginally smaller connector for no clear reason. I'm going to bet that it's just different for some third or fourth unknown reason. Either they used this connector for two decades and Delco revised it at some point and everyone else changed. Or this was specified for the bigger trucks like loadstar or whatever. That just seems like a long way to shrink. I'm also basing that on my experience on the lighting sockets for the instrument cluster, they were visually the same but 1/8" smaller or bigger than the widely available ones that you can get at any store and must have been used by GM forever. Older GM products used the oddball size I had and they upgraded in the early 70s.
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Oct 2, 2023 16:01
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My Scout accepted the universal GM under column plug when I got a new column, pretty sure its supposed to be that.
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Oct 2, 2023 20:21
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Thanks to Calculus’ indisputable logic and the fact that the Scout is laid up having the front end done up essentially the same way we already did and detailed for the rear, let’s do a Volvo update. Meet my 1988 Volvo 245 DL as it entered my possession.    204k miles, everything meaningful being factory original and only one owner before me. It’s not showroom quality, but it’s probably as close as you could hope for given it’s spent the last 35 years going most of the distance between here and the moon. Oh, and in case you didn’t notice, it’s a manual. I figure no car purchase needs justifying around these parts, but reasonable people may ask why exactly I bought this thing. A couple reasons: 1. Wagons rule. More people should buy and drive wagons. 2. I’m really over modern cars. Yes they’re better in every measurable way including safety, reliability, performance, and anything else but I don’t care. They’re also way too big and boring. Pretty sure I’m preaching to the choir here, so moving on. 3. I wanted to take something that almost any normal person would ignore at best and make it cool. You all can be the judge on this. I expect mixed opinions. One goal I do not have is speed. I won’t pretend it’s not laughably slow and the thought of an LS swap hasn’t crossed my mind. But it’s plenty fast to keep up with traffic and any running around town I’ll be using it for. Besides, any money spent on making the Volvo fast would be much better spent making the Corvette faster. It’s just a cruiser. So we set off to making it cool. As everyone knows, the coolest thing in existence are race cars. Not to spoil the upcoming fun, but you may notice a theme of race car stuff as we move forward. First things first – lowering. In hindsight I probably could have gotten nearly the same visual result with a set of lowering springs from IPD but instead spent way more and went with a full coilover setup from BNE Dynamics. Let’s get them on.  The 240 has very obvious and useful jackstand points. Thanks Swedes.  Ooh fancy.  A bit less fancy, but does the job. I recently learned it’s recommended to swap the spring perch to the top and move the dome… thing… to the bottom. Need to do that sometime. The result:  Better though admittedly not as low as I was hoping / expecting. I’ve got more adjustment on both ends and need to mess more with the height, but I left it here for now. You may also notice the chrome gradually getting blacked out as we move forward. Almost all the chrome has been covered with 3M wrap. I’m happy we did this, but I would not do it again. Without anything to wrap the vinyl around, every edge has to be cut nearly perfect to not look bad and either bridge something or have chrome peek out. We are not perfect and it’s a pain that took forever. Next up – what else but speed holes? Race car, remember?  This is the only permanent mod we made to the Volvo. This will anger some people as it’s very silly and “ruined” a finite and diminishing resource. If I were to do it again, I would not drill five 2.5” holes in the bumper of this car. Instead, I would drill five 2.75” holes in the bumper of this car. It would have looked cooler and faster if they were bigger. Also note black grill. Next up – flat black hood. I don’t care what anyone says, every car looks better with a flat black hood. I expect some to disagree, particularly given the paint on this thing is pretty nice all things considered. Whatever, let’s try wrapping something with some actual surface area.   This was the first real wrap we ever did. Not to be immodest, but we came real close to nailing it. It doesn’t show in these pictures, but it’s peeled back a bit at the very front edge of the hood where three hard angles come together and we had to stretch too much. Whatever, still looks rad. Oh yeah, we did the windshield banner too. Depending on lighting, the match against the paint varies from “ehhh” to “hey, that’s pretty darn close.” Last and very much not least – wheels. There was a time I debated painting the steel wheels black and calling it done but I found a set of wheels I really liked at a price that was good enough. I’m going to skip the full version of this story, but I cannot recommend ordering from Redblock Society if you want your own silly pretend Volvo racecar. It took over 5 months for these wheels to be delivered, and that was after having to choose a different finish that is no longer available (despite STILL today being available on their site to order) and, being told they shipped 3 different times and only finally getting them after threatening a credit card chargeback. Whatever, after all that they’re finally here!  Chief Wheel Inspector Beep approves. Time for tires. I debated quite a bit on tire sizes. Someone, somewhere said they fit 245-40s on here, but I was pretty apprehensive to go that much wider than the stock 175s. These wheels are already hilariously wide compared to the stockers, so I erred on the side of caution and went 215-35s instead and ordered them up from Costco. I’m actually happy I did, because I like the little bit of stretch they end up with on an 8.5” wheel. When the tires came in, I loaded the wheels in the back and headed over. The auto counter guy was quite confused by my request to install +4 sized max performance summer tires on an old Volvo. Head auto counter guy eventually came over and said they could mount and balance them, but couldn’t install them on the car. Bunch of cowards. No matter though, I’ve got cargo room for days.  All said and done, here she is:     I’ll probably do a few other little things (yellow tinted headlights!), but this should be largely it. From here I’m just going to use it the day I commute to work and whatever little runaround stuff I need such a practical vehicle for. And now the part you’ve all been waiting for – a Beep update. Beep got big. Day 1 vs. the other day comparison on the same cat bed.   Even crazier – I’ve learned Beep is a Turkish Van, which is not only a very rare breed, but also a really drat big one. The internet tells me it’s not uncommon for males to reach 20 pounds after a 3-5 year maturation process. So uh, so much for my little dude. Don’t worry, he’s still the best though.  Still lays funny too.   That’ll do it for now. Hopefully we’re putting nice new suspension in the Scout next time around.
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Nov 5, 2023 01:55
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WTFBEES posted:Next up – what else but speed holes? Race car, remember? Vitamin J, is that you?
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Nov 5, 2023 03:34
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Whole-heartedly approve of catte and Volvo. I would've fought harder to keep mine viable if it was a longroof manual, but at the time it was just an automatic sedan that my HOA hated and I couldn't love enough to make pass emissions reliably.
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Nov 5, 2023 05:05
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Cool update in between Beep updates.
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Nov 5, 2023 14:30
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Beep is awesome and my cats do the same funny poses. Does Big Beep still try and sit on your chair back the way Baby Beep did?
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Nov 13, 2023 18:22
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Nystral posted:Beep is awesome and my cats do the same funny poses. Of course! He pays no mind to being four times his original size, including still hiding under that gray couch. He can only do that by laying flat on his belly and clawing himself in and out. It's very funny to watch. 
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Nov 13, 2023 19:13
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WTFBEES posted:Tools++ Holy cow, somebody remembers Rogue Wave! I worked there. Cool people.
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Dec 12, 2023 04:50
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Sometimes you enter a car show on purpose. Sometimes you're just trying to get a burrito and enter a car show accidentally. 
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Dec 17, 2023 01:18
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WTFBEES posted:Sometimes you enter a car show on purpose.  This is an excellent story, and an excellent car.
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Dec 17, 2023 02:21
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Oh hey thread, long time no post. I’ve taken drat near no truck pictures since the last update (from October apparently, jesus) because every thing we’ve done has been greasy, muddy or both. A dedicated garage camera would be a nice luxury. Words without pictures are pretty boring, so I’ll try and keep this high level. The overarching project was to redo the entire front suspension and steering along with paint the front half of the frame while everything was apart. If you want to skip the rest of this post, that’s all pretty much done. If you want some amount of detail, here are some bullet points: Front end come off. That’s pictured somewhere above. Clean / prep frame for paint. This took at least three weekends because drat it was a mess of oily mud, ATFy mud and power steering fluidy mud (which was probably just ATFy mud). Paint frame. We used the same Chassis Saver as we had on the back half, though it didn’t turn out nearly as nice. There’s a weird texture to it, unlike the back that was all nice and smooth. My hypothesis was that it was much colder this time around vs. the first and it didn’t like that. We knew a bit of a mismatch was a risk when we decided to do it in two parts, so avoid that if you can. Realistically though it won’t really be noticeable when it’s got any amount of dust back on it. Undercoat as needed. The bottoms of the floors were still in primer and things needed touchup here and there. We used the same 3M rattle cans as before. Paint all the suspension, axle and steering bits. Replace everything we could think of that wears and then some. The list I can remember:
Leaf spring rebound clamps and liner things Ball joints U-joints U-bolts Wheel bearings, races and seals Tie rod ends (well, one of them at least so far. The other is out of production and very hard to find, but I think I’ve got a line on one) Front diff, trans pan and transfer case gaskets Transmission filter(!) Steering box (the old one was a leaky mess and we found a reman for cheap enough that it made more sense than trying to rebuild ours) Trans cooling lines. Surprisingly the old ones did not leak, but they were also a hack DIY job that were one of the lowest hanging bits of the truck. The new ones instead have bends in logical places and fit up real nice. Trans cooler fitting when the old 45* didn’t work with properly run lines. I ranted about this elsewhere but boy was this hard to come by online. NAPA came through with one on the shelf. Brake calipers and pads Probably other things I don’t remember. Who knows at this point. All of that made this:   That second picture shows off the funkiness of the paint finish. Oh well. What still on the to-do list? Well I’m glad you asked. Here’s the whiteboard.  Obviously some of these things are a bit more critical than others. Some items of note from the list: Brake hoses – Standard length hoses are readily available but aren’t long enough to work with the lift. At least, not if you’re a sane person. The hoses that were on it were standard length and, as best I could tell, functioned as limit straps when the suspension drooped more than about an inch. That uh, seems bad. We’ll have to spring for specialty extended stuff and pay the associated tax. Exhaust – What if we just make our own stainless exhaust? That can’t be hard, right? Should that fail, there are probably bolt-on options out there, but I do want to take a crack at it. We don’t usually keep the whiteboard updated, but spent some time on it today for two reasons: 1 – We’re getting pretty close to being “done.” Of course projects are never actually done and there are a million little things that didn’t make it to the list, but it actually being usable isn’t far off. My dad doesn’t know this yet, but it’s getting kicked out of my garage once we get there. That way he can use it for whatever running around he wants to do and I can buy something else I don’t need. 2 – Hey that Reunion truck show is coming up again. Last year we brought a vehicle that was frankly not roadworthy but made it work. This year I think we’ll be in a much better spot with a reasonably respectable truck to show. And maybe it won’t break down almost immediately! (or maybe it will. We will see) If anyone is in the area and open on March 23rd, come join in. I’ll do everything I can to not leave early this time (sorry Calculus, I still feel bad about that). Also, hey look it’s us on the registration page. https://reuniontruckshow.com/2024-truck-registration Amusingly, this picture was taken in the couple hundred-yard window before the throttle cable broke last year. I’m quite certain I was in the middle of grumbling about how stiff the pedal was. Last bit of update – hey look it’s Beep!     Thanks for reading!
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Jan 29, 2024 04:03
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HEY CAT HOW ARE YOU I bet no one will notice the frame difference too. I wouldn't have if you hadn't mentioned it. On the stainless exhaust, you already order the stuff for it? I got all my mandrel bends and tubing from Columbia River Mandrel Bending, which fellow goon Slow is Fast turned me on to in like 2015. Got 304 16ga tubing there, 308L MIG wire elsewhere, and all my flanges and hangers from Ace Race Parts. As luck would have it they all shipped from the PNW within 2hr of where I live now, but to my Massachusetts location because I ordered it all in 2018. At least I don't have to wait anymore next time I do an exhaust I guess. If you've never worked with stainless, here are a few things to keep in mind. Abrasive cutting is going to be your friend. I tried using my band saw and only chewed up blades till I got tired and just started using my angle grinder. Was I trying to go too fast? Maybe, maybe not. Stainless is kind of hard to cut nicely because if you go too slow it doesn't cut worth poo poo and if you go too fast oops you heated it up and now it's harder than diamond and where did your bandsaw teeth go oh well. It's really loving annoying to drill. It's cake to cut and grind with abrasives though. You really want to use trimix gas if you are MIG welding it but my 75/25 welds came out alrightish. A bit boogery and a bit splattery sure, but my aim was to never have to replace an exhaust again not to make it pretty so I didn't care. Buy extra material to practice and dial your settings in for sure if you care how it's going to look. Anyways weldors (I am but an amateur) seem split, you either want pure argon or trimix argon/helium/co2 for 304SS. It seems it even depends on how your welder is set up and what pulse duty cycle it uses blah blah blah I have no idea what I'm talking about at this point. If you care what it looks like you really will want to get stainless tools as well. Your cutoff wheel, grinding wheel, wire wheels or brushes, etc should be stainless ones and should never touch regular mild steel, or it will cross contaminate and you'll get blotchy rusty spots on your exhaust. I didn't give a rats rear end (and honestly forgot) so I just used regular steel wire wheels on mine and sure enough, the 3 inches around each weld is now surface rusted. On the brake lines, are there vehicles with a similar banjo fitting on the caliper and a similar flare spec at the frame end you can use lines off of? Us Jeep guys really like to use Dakota brake lines for example because you can get them anywhere but they're the same fittings as our stuff and several inches longer.
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Jan 29, 2024 10:56
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Exhaust - I have yet to buy anything, so this is perfect conversation! I do have a TIG welder though with a tank of argon. I need to do plenty of practicing before thinking I'll make anything usable, but that's fine. Oh, I understand backpurging to be a good idea too, so I probably need a two headed regulator. Cutting tools - All I've got that could do the job right now is angle grinders with death wheels but I don't think cutting by hand is going to do me any favors when fitting pieces up. I'm open to buying a saw if that's the right way to do it. I was thinking a horizontal bandsaw would make sense, so good recommendation to not go that way. The internet seems to say a cold saw is the way to go? I didn't know such a thing existed and probably need to look at that. Other tools - I never would have thought about cross contamination, so good call out. Brake lines - I think the calipers are shared with similar year Fords now that you mention it. Maybe they have less of a specialty markup on them. Jeep would be even better, so I'll check them too. Thanks!
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Jan 30, 2024 02:31
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At least in my experience, getting your cut square to the tube is by far the most important part of doing exhaust work. I've seen people 3d print templates and jigs for cutting square and marking square even on bends in the tube. You'll definitely want to back purge. I didn't but I didn't really give a poo poo about looks. If you can, do. I tried tig welding it first and realized I absolutely suck rear end at tig welding and pulled out my mig welder. I would go by your local metal supplier and buy whatever drops they have of your desired thickness and alloy out of their scrap bin and drop stack and use that for practice. I've paid anywhere from "buy us some pizza" to per-pound price and it's definitely better than scrapping out a bunch of tube before you get the hang of it. Then move to straight tube sections etc. You can get some pretty neat tubing clamps for jobs like this these days. I only have the basic one that is apparently called "pipe welding pliers". They work alright I guess, I use them to hold my work in place while I get 3 or 4 tacks on it and then pull it out to full weld. kastein fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Jan 30, 2024 |
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Jan 30, 2024 02:48
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Remember last time I updated and posted a completely reasonable to-do list with ample time to finish the critical stuff? Since then we have wasted the entire month of February plus this weekend trying to make the brakes work and making absolutely zero progress. A more meaningful update to come when I can stand to think about it more but gently caress brakes.
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Mar 3, 2024 23:37
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Hey good news - the Scout now has brakes thanks to the nice people in the Stupid Questions thread. The calipers were swapped side to side. Fixing that helped quite a bit though I'm still not real happy with the pedal feel and overall power. It'll do for now though. In the meantime, we've somehow used up all the weekends before the truck show. We'll poke at it here and there throughout the rest of the week, but no last minute mad thrash needed this year (at least I hope not). Reminder if anyone is in the Phoenix area and wants to see lots of trucks, come to the show on Saturday the 23rd. I'll try to actually stick around for a while this time (sorry IOC for last year). https://reuniontruckshow.com/ Last but not least - the crossover content you've all been waiting for:   
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Mar 18, 2024 14:52
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Shop cats best cats. I will not be taking comments.
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Mar 18, 2024 15:16
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Well it appears the truck will now pass Arizona emissions inspection as it has a cat
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Mar 18, 2024 17:40
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Hey, tomorrow is ReUnion Truck Show day! You should come and see exciting new updates like these fender badges! This blurry antenna!  Tie down points in the bed!  The actually installed dash pad!  This rad race car rear view mirror!  Two whole side view mirrors!  Freshly painted top of the windsheild to make the last big chunk of yellow go away!  “Shiny” “Paint”!  And maybe even this high angle shot that I had to stand on the workbench to get!  Yeah ok, throwaway update for all the little things we’ve done lately but the show actually is tomorrow. If you’re in the area you should check it out whether you care about our junk or not. But if you do come, PM me so we can say hey. And if you don’t, I’ll at least post back here if we break down again. https://reuniontruckshow.com/ kastein posted:Well it appears the truck will now pass Arizona emissions inspection as it has a cat Ha!
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Mar 23, 2024 00:58
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I'm out of town or I'd be down again. Looking good though!
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Mar 23, 2024 03:07
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