Ulu

Guys it is time to start cutting and welding and I am stalling. I am not 100% happy with my design decisions. But I don’t want to spend the last days of my life fixing this car so I need to get it going. So instead I have cleaned up my boat and planned a fishing trip. not a good omen….

Who built those steps? whew! Glad it wasn’t me!

And here I always wanted to do a flip front end. What was I thinking!

Trying to organize things. I have the dance floor cleared.

Hoisting the front body, I used some conduit as a cross bar & the front bumper for a spreader bar. (It was strong and handy. ) It’s a balancing act . . . Can you see the extra weight? The weighting is the hardest part! I had to add a lot of junk to counterweight the back of the hoist. Ok, the front body is up on the cart. Now the body and frame are fully exposed, and I can work on whatever I wish. Like this mess! The bulkhead supporting the master cylinder was completely rotted away and flexible, so I chiseled it away and replaced it temporarily with this system of struts and braces. That stuff has to come off right away.

I built this cart to hold the front body while it is off the car. This was also assembled from old Planhold drawing racks. While I was looking at my work and considering potential framing scenarios for this car, I noticed that my rear axle had contacted the frame braces I added ( during a 3000+ rpm clutch dump under full lunatic launch mode.) There is a ring around the axle and a little dent in each of those tubes. It’s hard to see but I drew a little circle around it. This is going to require somewhat more clearance. I’m glad I didn’t do any more violent burnouts. I really don’t want to screw up those axles.

It became apparent to me that I was not going to be able to build a rig that would allow me to hoist the body off in my garage without hitting the ceiling. So instead I decided to split the body into two pieces, and I hoisted off the back section today and put it on a cart. I wasn’t going to do this because it required disassembling the tail lights and tail light wiring, but I hated that light arrangement anyway, and I wanted to change it desperately. This hoist is heavy enough that I can just turn the boom around backwards and pick up about 150 pounds Without additional counterweights. This part of the body only weighs about 60 pounds. This cart used to be pieces of two different architectural plan carts. Our old engineering office finally went paperless and they gave me all the carts to scrap out. So now I gotta move all this stuff around and hoist the front body off the car, and I don’t have a cart for it yet.

More warts: A while back I wrote that I had arranged the wiring to stay with the plastic body, and not the chassis. Part of this is to help prevent short circuits. Mostly it was to make the body easy to remove from the chassis. There’s also no connectors. I wired this car point-to-point. The one place I screwed up is the front parking lamps and I had to snip the brackets to get the wiring through without cutting it. Those brackets are thin, crooked and malformed, and will soon get chopped.

This is the original gas tank frame which was welded to the car sort of. I chopped it off and bolted it down in a different position with big countersunk screws. Straps used to hold the security screen on someone’s security door but I repurpose them and they are really thin and scroungy even though I burnished & repainted them. You can also see the top end of the steering column in this photo. That’s the slip joint so you can get it in and out. I had to move the outlet on the fuel tank and I enlarged the original ragged hole in the plastic by sort of melting it into a tube, and then I drove in a pipe plug. The ridiculous fuel hose arrangement goes from American 3/8 down to 3/16 which is the only thing that will fit tight on the German fuel line. I roll out the hoist from the boatyard and into the garage, to begin the extraction. I don’t live anywhere near the water. I have to drive for half an hour. The boat yard is just where I store my boat and my old cars.

Thank you Paul. I try to keep up appearances, at least. Well every wire, screw, ziptie and bolt is disconnected and I am ready to pull the body. But I am still working on a strategy because I will either have to build a spreader bar that will work with my hoist in a low overhead situation, or just hoist the nose and build a little gantry to hoist the rear. As I take this car back apart, I am going to try and show you the way I absolutely slapped things together in order to get a presentable car to show the DMV and the CHP and get it passed. I’m quite fortunate that nobody wanted to crawl underneath the car to and look at the undercarriage. They barely looked under the hood. This is a good example. One of the fenders needed fiberglass repair and I took the wiring apart. In the future, these wires will be built right into the fiberglass so they are indestructible, but they were just glued to the fender with little lumps of epoxy. To get this thing operational, all I did was duck tape the wire to the underside of the clean fender, and spray some black paint over it. In that photo you can see the rag joint, and right above it is the area where the fender was cracked and I repaired it with fiberglass. It’s not actually spotted with red paint, but the light shines thru the semi-translucent glass Wherever there is no black by paint below. This thing is made from glass and clear resin so essentially it would be transparent except for the entrained air. The air, which makes it thicker and stiffer, also makes it more opaque and yellow. Here’s a preliminary view of what I did to get the brakes working. The sheet metal bulkhead that anchors the master cylinder was rotted away and I chalked it out completely and attach the master cylinder to the car with a complex system of struts angles and bolts. I did it this way so I wouldn’t have to weld, and I had all these parts just laying around to play with. I did it this way so I wouldn’t have to weld, and I had all these parts just laying around to play with. This is below the rusty toe board I removed, That nut is on the end of a half inch threaded rod that goes clear through the tunnel and has a nut and plate on the opposite side as well. I didn’t make those holes. Those are rust holes and I just opened them out with a chisel. On the other side that threaded rod anchors the bottom of two heavy steel angles pointing vertically. The master cylinder is bolted to those angles with a couple spaces. The master cylinder is bolted to those angles with a couple spacers. It’s difficult to see you this photograph but that half inch rod passes through both vertical angles and then has a coupling nut. There’s a steel clip on the edge of the frame with a bolt that threads into the end of that coupling nut. That arrangement holds the master cylinder down and locates it forward to back. I had to add two struts to prevent rotation. They are made from EMT. The long one on the right secures to the fiberglass body and steel floor pan with a 1/4” carriage bolt. The very short one on the left secures to the original throttle mount hole with a 10 mm German bolt. The middle of the three silver tubes is the brake rod from the pedal. If you look you can see where they just cut the stock rod off and welded it onto a pipe. This is all because the driver and pedals move back about 2 feet from their original position. You can see the largest part of the driver side front floor which is still stuck in the car. It won’t come out until the master cylinder comes out and that won’t come off until the body comes off. I patched the floor together around this mess with bits from the back of an old Maytag. Self drilling screws and carriage bolts hold this mess together and anchor the chassis to the body. I don’t know why I put the battery box back in but it was a mistake because it just made the floor very hard to construct, an weak and noisy. Remember those little metal “crickets” with a bit of spring steel you press to make it go click-click? It’s a child’s toy that soldiers used to use to communicate in the dark. Imagine one the size of a car that goes click-click as the suspension loads and unloads in roll or twist. It resonated that whole sheet metal floor and scared the snot out of my wife a couple of times. One piece is still stuck in the car, but this is most of the sheet-metal floor and the battery box and you can see where I patched this steering column 4 times. I’m not kidding. It was patched in two places when I got it and I had to cut it twice! Anyhow any of you safety mavens can rest easy because this car never got driven over 5 miles with this hokey arrangement.

Well I weighed my car yesterday. I didn’t do any other work on it but I was trying to figure out what shock absorbers I should buy. Of course all I have is a bathroom scale and it won’t weigh a car. I went around to each wheel with a junk-steel fulcrum, and a marked pipe for a lever. 12 to 1 ratio. I stood on the scale and weighed 184 pounds. Then I leaned on the lever until the car came off the ground and read the scale at 160 pounds. 184-160=24lbs Weight at a front wheel therefore was 24×12 or 288 pounds Rear wheels weighed at 355 lbs I find the entire car weighs 1286 pounds unladen, with the gas tank dry. Gross will be about 1600 average. 1800 lbs max. Weight distribution is 45/55 and estimated at 42/58 at max gross wt. She will definitely be a Taildragger. Anyhow I’m gonna go see if I can find some decent shock absorbers suitable for this setup.

When I wanted to retire, I wasn’t focusing on what the government was going to do for me. You usually can’t trust them. They don’t have to consider your humanity. Only the money, policy and politics. To them you are “another case.” Focus on what God has shown you to do. There is no other path. You know that.

I didn’t see any guarantee that the laws wouldn’t change. People have been claiming forever that the Social Security system was going to go broke. The way our government spends money like water I am surprised that it hasn’t. I saw no guarantee that laws would continue to favor me, so I got out while the getting was good. I retired at 61. I had some health problems but they were minor. I knew would have been taking a larger benefit if I had waited to retire. I also knew that inflation would always continue to eat that up. Cost-of-living adjustments would never be quite enough to make it up. Anyhow you can calculate and calculate, but what you can never figure is what the government will do in the future. Don’t think about them and what they will do. Everything can change. Unless the Lord is telling you there is some work you need to do now, take the money and retire.

So I got out and drove the car to the Volkswagen shop Wednesday afternoon and I learned a few things in the process. The first thing I learned is this tiny car is the most fun you can have without actually driving a go-cart on the city streets. It’s elbows out, all the way. I noticed some oil seeping at the right cylinder head so the head bolts are probably loose. She is parked! Next, That dented wheel cover that I thought was never going to stay on? Well it didn’t. I now have three and I’m going to toss them soon. I have been shopping for some appropriate custom wheels for this car but in the immediate future I might just strip the stock rims (which are in very nice shape) paint them mustard yellow, and put some chrome caps and trim rings on. The steering works pretty well, and it has no more slop than a typical Volkswagen. I still want to change it completely. in addition to the rag joint, it needs a real u-joint. Also I was driving it without front shock absorbers which was actually not as bad as you might think, compared to how it rock-stiff was with the shock absorbers on. This is a very light car in the front so it doesn’t bounce around like crazy, but it bounces enough now that you can really see how having un-equal tie rods (Just like a P 15) Makes the car twitch under certain conditions. The brake pedal felt a little soft when I started the car but it pumped up right away. When I got home I saw spot of brake fluid on the floor. The master cylinder was leaking, and so I bought a new one yesterday. Fortunately I was able to get a nice one manufactured by a German company in Denmark instead of a crummy one manufactured by a Mexican company in China. It was $80 versus $40 but when it comes to brakes you pay the price. One way or the other. I won’t be installing it quite yet because when I put it in it will be mounted in a different spot. This of course means changing some brake lines. Volkswagens used bronze brake lines, so they don’t rust like the old Plymouth. All the rubber lines were already replaced at some point and are in very nice shape. I need to tighten every bolt on this engine, out of the car. What I’m going to do instead of R&R the engine is remove the body. It’s time to rework the frame. It will probably be apart for six weeks. It’s hard to paint everything in the winter. Also, in order to take it off fully assembled, I will have to build a flying jig. I will weld a truss structure That allows me to lift the entire body at once, with my engine hoist. At the same time I will check everything on the engine, and change the intake manifold. I should straighten out the bent exhaust system. I will probably just buy a new one. many other things will happen at the same time which is why it will take six weeks. The actual construction and welding of the frame should not be more than 7 days. Once I build the jig I should be able to remove the body from the car in less than one hour.

Well nothing that’s happened to me has prevented me from staying out of the hospital. That’s my main goal in life. Somewhere down the list is working on my cars. I would be doing that now but I just didn’t sleep well last night and I’m feeling more like planning than grinding and welding.

Yeah, & there’s a history of arthritis on my mom’s side of the family, but I also have a history of sports injuries. I got hurt playing basketball, riding skateboards and motorcycles, and just doing things about the shop that involved me getting bashed by something. Knee injury from football, ankle injury from doing yoga. I’ll be 67 soon & I just kind of collected these things over time. If they don’t kill you outright, they fill up your capacity to absorb abuse. But of the things that bothers me most is a bone spur on the right elbow that I got from sitting at a computer desk for about 40 years. It seems to of abated somewhat since I retired from that.

I was only able to get in and out a little bit the past several days myself, but I have been mostly grumping around the garage and the house with a very stiff neck and unexplained inflammation. It did not stop me from welding a shaft or going out for car parts, but I didn’t sleep well either. I have wanted to spend some time practicing with the TIG welder and making parts for the project car but I haven’t felt good enough for that. I don’t think this is about Covid because I’ve been breathing normally. I haven’t had any fevers. At least it seems to be going away. My wife went for a Covid test and she was negative so I’m assuming I don’t have it either.

I heard that engine run, Paul. It sounded so bad I thought the crank was broke! The crankshaft is no longer round and smooth. It must come out. If you pull the oil plug you can probably watch the number six rod bearing run out on the ground like little gold and silver glitter. In an emergency you could probably pack that rod With some tough leather, and if you cut the RPMs down you might get that engine to go another 500 miles. Right now I would bet money you couldn’t drive from your house to my house without it blowing up. That’s less than 50 miles.

Well it looks like I stumbled into this problem myself. I have a 230, but I have the balancer, transmission, clutch, fly wheel, bell housing etc from a 218. Maybe. This stuff was all well worked on when I got it in the 80’s and 90’s. Rather than cut the bell housing I would shim the fly wheel out 3/16, but I have a genuine 230 fly wheel. it will need to be reconditioned but it appears that the 218 clutch will fit right on it. Is that a good idea, will it not fit, Or are they just the same?

I like Deep Creep by Seafoam for tough stuff. PB blaster is cheap and the old standby. WD40 is a solvent more than anything. It will melt cured OneShot right off the fender.

Paul, I am very sorry to hear you’ve been feeling so poorly. I don’t want to imply to anyone that I don’t believe that covid is real. I had the shots and I may or may not have had the disease. It’s hard to tell, as the symptoms are so common to all such maladies. I never had a test either. My wife did and she tested negative twice. This would seem to tell me that I haven’t had it, because she would’ve got it from me.

A new resolution: I will not post herein my political opinions on the Covid business. People would be scandalized. The thread would suffer. I would be censured. If you really wanna know or share these things which are not appropriate here, you can check the Mossberg Owners forum. I have a different name there but you’ll recognize my cars. Otherwise, I said I would fix up the Scout this year and I have started on it already. I have uncovered it and opened it up and looked it over and pumped up the tires and pulled out all my IHC shop manuals and Scout literature.

I ran a prototype shop for a couple years, at Vendo, and as a manufacturing engineer I had my hand in from start to finish. There were complaints from the union, that “engineers weren’t supposed to spend so much time on the shop floor.” They claimed “excess supervision” and other silly things. It wasn’t the prototype crew though. It was guys from the punch press shop next door.

Well the best laid plans always have a flaw. I didn’t make my cover plate quite large enough and once in the exact position it wound up being 1/2”farther forward than I originally imagined. So it didn’t quite cover up the damage. It’s a plastic car so I stuffed some epoxy putty up from underneath and touched it up with red paint. It’s just a tiny spot and you can’t see it in the photograph at all. I’m going to have to make a larger plate from scratch and a new gasket as well. Not a big deal. The big deal is the steering column. I couldn’t figure out where to put the screws until the steering shaft was installed but once the steering shaft is installed you can’t install the fourth screw. Catch 22! It all has to come apart. That of course is not the worst of it. I must make a complete new steering shaft for this car because mine is cobbled together from bits and pieces. The number of pieces was made worse by the fact that I had to cut it to remove it from the car last time due to a broken screw that was in the position I simply could not drill. This car really needs a brand new steering shaft and a U-joint and a secure column bracket. I would also like to ditch the Volkswagen steering column completely. I’m not trying to use modern control stalks. It’s just bulky and unnecessary and ugly as sin.

That looks like a pretty heavy sash. What kind of hinge did you use? 20 years ago I designed some very heavy operable prison windows, and the hinge pins were 3/4” hard steel.