Ulu

I expected to fit & tack up the side rails today, but some things hit me, that of course needed attention first. I had to flap sand everywhere that I need to weld on the crossmembers and that that took a little while because I had put a considerable amount of paint there. I also figured out that once I attached the side rails, there was no way I could clean and paint the inside of these tubes. I had burnished the outside so nicely, but the insides were still really rusty. Now they are painted inside for the first time since they were cut, about 1980.

I’d maybe rack the bike horizontally, like a second wing. You’re going to have a wing, right?

Well today is a special day in the boat yard and I’m having a special Shandy to celebrate. I did a bunch of last-minute grinding and tuning and squaring up. Hours, truly. I cleaned up the pan edges and the flutes as nice as I could get them now. It was 98°F in the boat yard when I finally put on my leather jacket and gauntlets. I fired up the Primeweld TIG225 and I got the crossmember assembly tacked on. Here it’s on the temp clamps and rail. I attached it to the tunnel and pan in six places before I stopped. I did not want to weld anything up solid until I was sure it was square. I stopped to check everything with the trammel and level: it came out beautifully. You can see that I took off the clamps and the crossmember and it’s really, finally attached to the tunnel. Yippee! I think there will just be a little more pan trimming for me and I can start installing the frame rails. This is a real milestone in the project. I went from cleaning, fixing and making parts, to the actual assembly work. BUT… is it square? Is it level? Oh yeah! The crossmember wants 0.9 deg counterclockwise rotation. The frame wants 1.2 deg counterclockwise, so she is square within 0.3 deg! The tangent of 0.3 is 0.0052 and the crossmember is 13” tall, so it will lean forward about 1/16” at the top: A trifle. So far, that is. It is still just tack welded. I haven’t warped it all up yet. Still, this deserves another shandy. Cheers!

Yep. A Tesla will burn in outer space.

You gettin’ psychic on us ? I just had to change the rollers in my Maytag dryer too. Also the idler and belt were shot.

Out withe the old and in with the new. My door hasn’t been this quiet in 20 years. Today I finally achieved alignment on the VW frame assembly. I tuned up the pans some more and now I just need to tune up the weld gap at the tunnel. My last trim was not perfect, & needs just a little hand filing. I want a nice consistent weld from the tunnel to the crossmember.

Imagine a machine of aluminum and magnesium alloy, carbon and glass-filled plastics, full of lithium batteries, and it takes a hit. You’d be jumping from a flyable aircraft because of the toxic smoke. It would sink to the sea floor, still burning. WW2 Volkswagen military cars had magnesium engine blocks. Those things burned like a flare gun once they got lit. I don’t think that changed to aluminum until the late 1950s.

Holy miracle! The driver walked away from the crash. That truck was 95% gone. As was the tree he hit. Tesla sent a cleanup team.

Well it was inevitable. A Tesla electric big rig ran off the freeway, into the Sierra Nevada national forest, and is attempting to set the forest on fire. Fire crews have been pouring water on to the trees to save them since 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning, but the batteries themselves will have to burn out because there’s no way to extinguish a lithium fire. Of course the fumes are voluminous and toxic, so fire fighters are forced to wear breathing apparatus. They are managing to save the trees from fire but nobody knows about the potential toxic effects of the offgassing on trees. Meanwhile hundreds of truckers and tourists are stuck until I-80 reopens. Edit: news reports did mot mention the driver. I fear he did not survive impact with 90’ tall trees. So was this a steer-by-wire issue? I don’t know much about the Tesla Truck, but the Cybertruck is by wire and people say it steers great.

Yesterday, I had to change the rollers in my clothes dryer, which were starting to seize and squeak. I also changed the belt and idler. I had all these low-time parts saved from my previous machine, so I didn’t have to go buy parts. This is the 3rd nearly identical Maytag dryer I have had, and the spare parts all came in handy. I trimmed a bit more on the car chassis and it is nearly acceptable. It’s a pain to trim the tunnel, requiring 3 different grinders and a sawzall. A nibbler trims the floor like magic. My paint is cured, so after I tune up the fit a little more, I can start tacking things up. But not this morning. The new rollers for my garage door showed up on the porch.

I’ve never actually worked on any of those foreign bikes, except late 1960’s Raleigh, so I only know what I read in the funny papers, and on the bicycle club forum.

This door went about 4-8 cycles a day for 22 years. I’m surprised it works as well as it does. The closer motor is even older. Maybe 25 years. But I have the closing force adjustment maxed, and my torsion spring is not. It could be tighter, but it works. I am hoping the new rollers and a clean track will be the trick to backing off of the closer force. Then the closer motor & bearings may last a bit longer before I need to change all that.

These rollers should have ZZ style bearings. Which have metal shields both sides. @Los_Control I understand the lube situation. I have bought 100’s of skate bearings from around the world. The ones from China had some poor waxy lube in them. Yet they made some very good bearings for the price. The Mile High Skate Shop made lots of cash buying 1000’s of Chinese bearings cheap, then putting a good lube in them. Their famous “Blue Balls” have blue plastic shields, and were as fast as the most expensive skate bearings I ever bought. Unfortunately they are closed up, maybe 10 years ago.

Again, I am being delayed by the petty problems of daily life. Not much progress. I did dig out the old master cylinder and clean it up. I have a new one already, but I need to set one up with the pedal assembly, cables, and pushrod, and make absolutely certain it all works, and without hitting the new fuel line etc. Currently, the accelerator is gonna bind on the tunnel. I still need to tune that area up too. I am super-anxious to get on with the welding, and the danger is I will jump the gun. I must make sure. Better to delay and not spoil things than to cut it apart again.

I’m still waiting for my frame paint to cure, but I got some more measurements made, and it’s all coming together pretty close. I had planned for 1/8” clearance from the frame to the fiberglass body. If I can live with 3/16” I’ve got a good alignment. To get the full 1/8” I need to shorten the tunnel and floor at least another 1/4” I will possibly bite the bullet and do that. I would also have to trim off the fiberglass body flange a bit.

I have a Martin style 7’x16’ garage door with 10 rollers. I ordered this door with ball bearing rollers, 22 years ago. I didn’t notice until later that they installed the solid nylon rollers. No balls at all. The rollers are really shot, so I finally ordered a set of nylon rollers with sealed ball bearings. The price difference is minimal, but now I wonder which actually will last longer? If this set goes 22 years, and I do as well, I will be 91 and probably won’t care. YET, I need all your roller wisdom, experiences and opinions.

They often said, “things are on the fritz” if the radar had trouble. (It also applied to the associated computers.) It was code-talk. They would never actually say anything like “radar trouble” or “computer’s dead”. Such words were never spoken aloud inside. It’s like they always assumed they were being bugged. I just remember that little, from being inside the blockhouse with my dad in the 1960’s. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, right out of Dr. Strangelove. Anyhow, I finally have my frame rails straight, clean, and painted inside. 95% of that paint should survive TIG welding, when I box the rails. They will get touched up several times, I am sure.

I have the trimming mostly done, and it all fits, maybe. The cross member is 1/8” too long. I can shorten the tunnel or trim the crossmember, or let the frame be a bit fat. I only have 1/4” total clearance to get the body on. Meanwhile, I started burnishing the frame rails and I put some rust converting paint inside the rails before I weld them. I only did half & I will do the rest today. They’ve been sitting for months since I welded up the holes, and had collected some new dirt and rust. I saw this and it reminds me of working at the junkyard in 1972.

There’s a difference. I think the brits had 26 tpi BB cones and the Italians were 24 tpi. I think French were 26 tpi but with no left hand threads. Anyhow, either Italian or French, some important things won’t fit the Raleigh.

Bummer about the Robin Hood. I did one of those old cottered crank bikes, and everybody loves the thing. Zero accessories. Thin tires, very light, and with new aluminum hoops. It’s my second favorite of the dozen or so bikes I have had. That is my number three granddaughter, Simone. She’s selling cars in Idaho now.

My daily driver is a 2012 Tacoma with 55k on the clock. It’s on it’s third battery. I have been running group 24F because Walmart doesn’t carry group 27F anymore. It doesn’t freeze here, so that’s plenty of battery, but the tow package has a big tray and a 27F. That is what my truck should have from the factory. Using the F (Ford style) saves about 4” of ground strap. Otherwise why would Toyota do it? Crash testing. Using an F also puts the ground close to the fender. (Two birds/one stone.) Of course I will just change the battery cables. So I can put in a regular group 27 that you can buy anywhere. But now I’m sure to feeling sorry for people who drive classic Fomocos & must dummy up the battery cables. I had a ‘66 Ford, and a ‘63 Mercury, & both came with the 27F. It’s also what we used in the International Scout. So what brought on all this moaning and groaning? The battery on my Tacoma went dead and I had to take it in for a new one. It is very convenient for me to buy batteries at Walmart and they have good ratings from what I have read. I’ve had good luck with the ones I bought for my boat and my previous cars. But the 24F I bought today will also fit in my Camry and that’s where it’s going to go. By coincidence, that battery had exactly the same date as the one that just went dead. There is a huge NAPA store, only a few miles farther than Walmart, so I might see if I can get a 27F there by any chance. The closest thing to me is O’Reilly’s and they didn’t carry one either. I might try Costco too, but I let my card lapse during covid.

I blew it. When I installed the shift rod the bushing wasn't snapped in tight. I discovered this while I was strapping all the tubes together in the tunnel. So I had to disassemble the coupler while crawling underneath the chassis, and then fish the whole rod back out through the front of the tunnel. Because it wasn’t properly snapped into place the bushing came out with it. I cleaned everything up and re-greased it and snapped the bushing back into place. I checked it carefully before I reinstalled the rod and the coupler. I put the frame rails all back together and set them up so I could start measuring and trimming again. I put the big trammel back together as well. It’s virtually impossible to work with one person, so I’m going to have to draft my wife out there sometime when it’s not 100° in the shade.

I wanted a Hemi and all the parts are too expensive.

The 3/8” fuel line is in. Why 3/8”? Someday this car might have a bigger engine running methanol. VW fuel line is only 4mm. About 1/8”. I left it in to run my vacuum gage.

I got the shifter rod back in the tunnel, and the coupler on. Then I put in the new rear brake line. This pre-made line fits a stock Volkswagen bug but it will also fit my car. It comes straight. I have to bend it myself. My dad bought these tubing tools when we body-swapped the Scout in 1974. They do come in handy. I drilled a 1/2” hole through the frame closure, just below the throttle cable housing. That tube has to make a literal corkscrew. And there it is. I first made a bent wire model of this, then one from scrap tubing. Finally the full tube was installed and bent. I panicked when I first looked at this (inverted) photo, because it appears that I have kinked the tubing (!) but this is not true at all. I just happened to shoot it from a funny angle. Bends on the other end will have to wait until the master cylinder is installed. Next I have to put in the new fuel line.