Short update for today. I spent most of the day powdercoating some wheels for a fellow who is building a neat 53 Ford F100. Since I had the gun loaded with gloss black and the shop was already dirty, I decided to work a little personal project into the workflow.
The bellhousing came with a clutch lever which I'm hoping to use when I swap the bellhousing. But, it needed some real help before I'd be ready to use it.
Notice the giant grooves worn into the ears there....
The grooves were worn so deep that the ears had bent under the pressure since the material was ground so thin.
First step is to straighten the bent ears. Out comes the Crescent wrench and the bench vice.
Then weld up the worn areas and sand smooth with a flap wheel.
Now, remember I said I already had the gun loaded with black powder ? An extra part hanging in the oven never hurt anything so...
One more part ready to go. One piece at a time. Hopefully when the time comes, I'll have all my ducks in a row.
I'm kind of dragging my feet on the bellhousing R&R. I'm going to do a lot of interior work at the same time (reason why will become obvious when I get to that point) so I have a lot of stuff to round up and decisions to make.