Los_Control

While in a perfect world the load leveler works fine. In the real world I have to do without .... it would do me no good today. I literally have to lift the engine straight up in my wife car ...... then as a FWD car I need to set it down on blocks and reset the hoist to pull it vertically as much as is possible. I can then gain more space and remove 2 more motor mounts. .... t is designed to be removed out the bottom. While a load leveler is awesome to have ..... It is not a end all cure all issue ..... Many people have them and just as many people never needed them. I would love to have one .... I simply see no reason to spend $$ on one when it is not needed ..... It is a comfort and convenient .... just never required. Unless you do engine swaps often, you will not get full benefit from it. ..... What else you going to spend your retirement savings on? ....

@greg gwould you even consider doing the job without removing the toe boards and transmission cover? Just my impression the original poster does not want to ..... thats fine, I just never would consider the job without removing them.

I want to say it does look original. Here is a photo of my 1950 218 engine T-stat .... looks the same to me. Same time I just use it as wall art, would never put it back in service. .... Same time it is just such a common size that it could fit both a 318 & a 350. .... Just really is a non issue. If it is important to the owner, they might be able to find a NOS replacement on ebay .... just personally something I would not bother with.

Thanks @Sam Buchanan I was going through a bit of a crisis and tossed out a quick short reply without searching for the answer. In the middle of a engine swap on wife car and need to get new/used engine off the stand to install transmission .... then my jack on the engine crane pooped the bed. So while trying to fix it, I made a short post ..... Now the replacement part is ordered and be here next week ..... All dressed up and no place to go ... I got time to look it up now

I hate to say keep searching the forums, seems like it was so easy I found the direct replacement and I never wrote down the number for it. I wish I did. It is something common like a 350 chebby T-stat you get from any auto parts store and the gasket also. When it is time to replace mine, I will just have to get the number off of it and go get another ...... A wise man once said, never remember anything that you can just write down and retrieve later .... I might be a wise man if I wrote it down. There are many threads on modern replacement T-stats.

Fair enough, the photos in your post do not show the base ..... To me the base is far superior to other bases.

It is, but here is the one he is considering on buying .... total different animal. And $200 which is not terrible.

I have the 1000 pound stand and it works ok. First thing I did is make a longer handle for it, just 1/2" Galvanized pipe 3' long. I needed a jack handle for my crane, I started with a 3' pipe sitting in the corner and was going to cut it to length .... just works perfect as is, also doubles as a handle for the engine stand. The longer handle gives more leverage and control when turning the engine over. My original intentions were to weld in a angle brace from post to base to add more stability .... Then I have some scrap square tubing, I was going to make a wider front base. This would give more stability to prevent tipping over. Simple things to do and still may do it sometime. I think so far the heaviest engine I've had on it is my flathead V8 .... It works fine as is. I also have seen others with same stands and have 426 Hemi's ... 440 big blocks complete and turn them over on the stands and not drop them or tip over. I have also seen where A guy rolling one in a garage and get a wheel caught in a dip for a drain and tip it over ..... so they can tip over if not careful. With all that said, the 2000 pound you list is tits! Very stable, foldable for storage .... very professional looking and would be difficult to ever tip over impossible to go wrong with it. .... You will be the talk of the town with that stand Or be normal and use the other stand.

So I got it out of the car yesterday .... Dang spring weather gets in the way and had to spend a month in the garden getting it ready & planted. .... Finally got serious working on it ..... got the engine on the ground yesterday, I need to swap the transmission and order a couple parts .... I'm out of locktite. ...... June 11 the warranty will expire 🙄

Last custom tool I made was to remove the plug on the rear end. When I needed it a 2nd time I could not find it ... I looked everywhere and ended up making a new one. This time I thought I was going to be smart .... I'm going to put this wrench in the right hand corner of this drawer so I can find it next time. In my best Gomer Pile voice SURPRISE SURPRISE! I found the first one I made sitting there.

Seriously there is so much work you can do from the top, makes everything so much smoother for us old folks .... I would not even consider doing the job without first pulling the floor pans. Do everything I can from the top then crawl under and get the rest. My truck needed a new floor pan installed, so I had the toe boards out, transmission cover out, then I rough cut the floor pan out .... It was so nice having all that access to everything underneath .... I hated to actually weld in the new floor and lose the access.

As far as I know The trick to grinding the rivets off is now you can remove the drums without using a special puller. If you have bolts, sounds like to me ..... someone replaced the rivets with bolts. I dunno, maybe someone will come along and correct me. I'm not saying it is a bad thing to have bolts ..... usually what I have read they remove the rivets and do not replace them with anything. This will allow you to remove the drum like a modern car & not need a puller to get them off. So I understand someone removing the rivets .... I just have no clue why they would replace them with bolts .... ... Give it a day and maybe the smart people who go to bed early will answer tomorrow ..... pretty sure never were bolts involved there.

Just hard to say if the wheel is sitting 100% absolutely flat against the drum I'm going out on a limb and say ..... NO! this will not work. You can grind the rivets down on the drums and remove them ..... assuring your new wheels fit flat. This is sometimes done to call it a improvement ..... putting new wheels against them can only lead to disaster if not sitting flat. You will need to mount a machinist gauge then check the run out while turning the wheels ..... If not flat they will eventually fail and warble out the bolt holes. Ruining your new wheels. At the very least they will cause vibration and wobble til they do fail.

I think that would be ideal keith ..... My experience with a non ratcheting starter wrench, they work but still only getting 1/4"-3/4" turns at a time .... working but going to take some time. Ratcheting wrench would speed it up.

I removed a starter one time .... boy was it miserable. With my current truck, even with the front end stripped down to the engine sitting in the frame .... I thought about removing the starter just to clean and paint it. Even then I decided against it as long as it is working fine .... I'm leaving it alone. The 1/2 moon wrench does help .... I made a few turns on the top bolt to check it out .... still no cake walk.

Seems that you bought them several years ago, seems more likely they are better quality then today ..... Maybe you just got a bad one? I am not going to talk bad about the quality of fram over others .... I personally use wix filters. In another forum recently we were talking about the quality of wix filters. A guy recently ordered a batch of them and one filter he had no oil pressure when starting his truck. Turned out the crappy filter he had blocked oil flow. The way it was built it was put together wrong, he cut it open and found different quality of parts then expected. The inside of the canister had surface rust on it .... wix uses a decal sticker on outside ... this filter the canister was stamped no sticker. The only conclusion is someone in China is counterfeiting oil filters. Think they ordered them from Amazon. Imitating name brands and poor quality inside. The wix filters I bought locally 2 months ago are fine. I also think wix makes filters for Napa also, my local Napa just sells wix though. I'm going to say that fram is probably just fine ..... assuming you change your oil regularly ..... need to be careful where you buy them. A lot of people are saying the quality of wix is going down also ...... I think the quality of all is going down.

I feel if you want to start welding in patches, it is time to start learning fabrication. Really not hard for the basics. I really like this video to make a pipe anvil. While I do not know the extent of your rusted panel, the basic curves can be made at home. I will post the video below, just showing my version of it .... I do not have room in my tiny space to make the full sized version. I do have a smaller round pipe .... I can unbolt and bolt it in place .... I have some 4" pipe, to be honest I just never needed it yet. If I insert metal into it as is, then pull back on it, I can make a 90 degree bend you might find as a pinch weld on the bottom of the rocker. Then you reset it and push forward and start working a gentle curve .... sometimes a larger pipe helps make a softer gentle curve, the smaller one makes a tighter curve .... you get it .... just junk lying around the shop welded together and you use it as a tool. To be honest, the 3/16" x3' angle iron I have is too flexible for a 90, so I draw a line on the metal , insert it to the line then clamp it down .... works perfect. This photo is really sad .... just showing that I actually fixed this while newer thinner ones were available ..... I needed the practice. I think I counted 13-15 individual small pieces welded together .... that is how you take care of complicated pieces like the dog legs of the pillars welded to the rockers. Not difficult or scary, just time consuming. .... Take your time you will be fine. Every body patch in my truck came from a old school that had some 18 gauge metal shelves missing the legs ... I paid $5 for it ..... Although I do have some thicker metal for braces and such. Once you start bending and creating patches ..... it is almost addicting .... just kinda fun and you're sad once the paint is on and no more panels to create

Have no fear, I was just trying to be humorous and back up @keithb7 opinion on the syncro's ..... With any luck @mlozier76 suggestion with dirty linkage ... Keith has rebuilt his transmission and is familiar with who sells parts for them ..... shipping to Germany is on you though. I would not say it is hopeless though.

Sure you do not want 18 gauge? 20 will work I guess ..... the rockers do offer some structural support .... A & B pillars connected to the floor ..... just a patch 20 will be fine. 20 is a real pita to weld because it is so thin. Modern cars use 20 gauge ..... the replacement floor pan in my 49 Dodge truck is 20 gauge. I have welded 20 gauge several times in the past and feel comfortable welding it .... I just kinda cringe when I think about a upcoming job using 20. I dreaded just thinking about welding in my floor pan ... just have to be extra careful and adjust your welder properly and take your time. What welder do you have? Just if it was 18 gauge I simply would not give it a 2nd thought. and if I had a choice I would choose it.

Worn syncro's will cause them to pop out of gear when you let off the throttle or remove torque. Back in the old days the circle track racers often had a wire hook on the dash to catch the shifter and hold it in 2nd gear. The short tracks they typically put it in 2nd gear and left it. Go roaring up the straight and just when you might want 3rd your into the corner and backing off. Really tough on syncros and not unusual to pop out of gear ..... just when your going into the corner and need both hands to maneuver the controlled slide on the dirt track. Sooo, could just strap it down in 3rd gear and pretend your a race car?

For me I think it is personality with knowledge that makes a good content creator. That keeps me interested. A few years ago I watched a lot of videos when I wanted to teach myself to weld. .... I stumbled across DD speedshop channel. He just keeps me interested to comeback and watch more. He works at home in the garage much like I would. ..... He is a mechanic in a shop for a day job. He rarely talks about that. Then comes home from work and works in the garage sometimes until 12:00 midnight. And video tapes it. .... then all day and night on the weekends. He usually works on 55-57 chebbies, has rebuilt a Mopar Cuda ..... Latest project was a 1967 Camaro that had been sitting for 20 years and used as a parts car. Within 3 months he totally stripped the car down in his garage .... replaced every spec of rust in it .... Inside rockers, outside rockers, floor pans, trunk pan, rear subframe & all connectors .... front sub rails, .... everytime he went to fix 1 thing he found 3 more things rusted ..... it's a chebby. He replaced the rear quarter panels, doors,front clip with all new parts and the only original part of the car is the roof. My only point is, he makes it interesting and does it quickly .... 3 months he had that car completely rebuilt and painted, a dyno tested 436hp sbc with a rebuilt T10 4spd and a rebuilt posi 12 bolt rear end. .... 80% rewired and was working on the interior and found out he does not fit in the car. Sitting on the floor, head hitting the roof, knee's knocking the doors and steering wheel in his tummy .... His last video on the car couple days ago was him stripping it down and selling it as a roller that needs a drive train. My only point is this guy made thousands of dollars from youtube making those video's on the camaro. He is currently paying storage on over 20 cars he has built on youtube over the last 6 years. ..... He did buy his neighbors house so he can have 2 garages to work out of .... He rents the house out to pay the mortgage he uses the garage. Which allows him to make more youtube content. ..... While waiting for parts on the vehicle in one garage he is working on the other car in the next garage. Making more $$. Now he is currently liquidating all of his cars and keeping a few of his favorites ..... his goal is to buy a commercial shop in town and build cars there ..... I suspect he will quit his day job and become a professional youtuber. Just like years ago, young men & women flocking to Hollywood to become a famous movie actor ..... Today they are running to youtube ..... some girls are going to only fans .... If the girls are good, they are making $10K a month sitting at home in front of a camera .... While the husband is at work ...... Same thing with the dudes ..... if you are good at what you do, you will make $$ at it while working at home. .... I'm not saying the guy is a genius he does make it interesting to watch and getting prepared to make it a full time job. I'm only suggesting that it is the newest thing to get rich quick and everybody and their sisters want to try it. .... You never know what clowns you will run into.

Bringing up baby was a good one, Katherine Hepburn with Cary Grant. https://rumble.com/v46302b-bringing-up-baby.html Check out pilothouse classic films channel for more of your classic movie itches. Or pilothouse classic westerns https://rumble.com/c/c-5536437 If you prefer the more rough & tumble John Wayne adventures in a movie. What a co-inky dink Los_Control owns both those pilothouse movie channels .... is it possible he would do a shameless plug here? 🤣🤣🤣 Just something I do in spare time. I enjoy all the old classics when the movies still were entertaining ..... Late 50's they were really getting weird. 1960 is my cut off date. Same time I do have some later movies posted there .... But they are good entertaining movies to watch .... Like John Wayne, I have a ton of his older stuff when he was a kid, but 3 or 4 of his newer then 1960 films. .... Same with Randolph Scott, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant ..... But 90% is all pre mid 50's.

Well anyone can have a youtube channel .... does not mean they should use it ..... such is life. About the Left handed wheel bolts ..... not every car manufacturer was as brilliant as Mopar engineers. They actually did things the old fashioned way with studs and right handed threads. ...... Seems even today they still have not caught up with our Mopar brilliance. 🤣🤣🤣 Then Mopars are really the unwanted red head stepchild in the automotive world ..... not really a common vehicle that people drop off at a restoration shop to be restored. Think I was 50 years old the first time I worked on one ..... I had a Uncle beating it into my head, remember the driver side is left handed ...... Not everyone had the same advantages as me though 🤣 The guy may be a total idiot I have no idea who it is or to watch them either ..... I just wouldn't beat up on them too badly for that mistake.

Thats why you get paid the big $$ ..... excellent idea. At least find out what you are working with. Probably depends on what year they sprayed the foam in ..... todays market most would not be flammable. If it was done in the 70's-80's .... good chance it is. In construction we used a typical cheap brand called great stuff .... It really was great stuff to have around. To pass fire code, every protrusion where holes were drilled in the framing for pipes or wires, the holes were then foamed so a future fire could not get air or the fire could not spread to the next cavity through the hole. .... It's job is to prevent fires, along with insulation in cracks,windows & door frames etc.... So it would be difficult to buy flammable foam. In the early days when it was just used for insulation, all bets are off.

Not sure I understand your question ..... original rockers were all steel. ..... Offers a fair amount of support for the A pillar and floors ...... should be welded imho, not riveted. Not sure I understand the po used foam for a internal filler on the rockers? I'm afraid if you try welding to the rockers with foam as a backing .... the foam will catch fire and burn very hot .... unless it is a a fire retardant foam of some sorts .... I doubt it. Again let me say I do not understand your question ..... If the PO sprayed in some sort of foam to protect the rockers ..... I would be worried about it being flammable ... rivets might be the better choice here ..... although welding in patches would be superior.