Not much to share tonight. Spent a couple hours on the intermediate shaft this morning. Cut off the area where the cross pin used to be, and shaped what was left to match the rest of the double D portion of the shaft in case I need another 1/4” or so. Once it is final fitted with the new column and u-joint, I’ll trim off the excess length. I couldn’t find my can of Krylon Dull Aluminum, so it was sprayed with Martin Senour Iron Cast Gray instead. I think it will look much more attractive anyway when bolted up to a polished stainless Borgeson joint at the bottom of the chrome steel column.
I pulled all the removable steering column attachment pieces from under the dash and wire wheeled them to bare metal. Finished that up just about the time the sewing room pegboard and garden windmill arrived, which explains why I forgot to take pictures of the parts all stripped to shiny bare metal.
The windmill consumed the afternoon. By the time I got back to the truck stuff it was dark outside, so no windmill photos tonight. Our previous version was a cheap Chinese model that held up remarkably well for about 10 years. The new aluminum version has very little in common with the old one other than both were 8’ tall. The legs are made of tubing, are farther apart at the base, there is about twice as much bracing, and all the fasteners are stainless steel. The fan/wheel is 2” bigger in diameter and everything fit perfectly with no bad language needed during assembly!
Before cleaning up for the night I washed all the column parts with wax & grease remover a second time. They were shot with Rustoleum black lacquer, and all five items came out smooth and shiny:
I was going to spray them with satin finish, but I thought the high gloss black might look better against the chrome column. The only two items left to accomplish before the column shows up is to paint the emergency brake cable and clevis, and sand the dash opening around the column and get that repainted.
I’ll probably do the dash touch up tomorrow and solicit my wife to finish the brake cable, as it requires a lot more bending and twisting than my back likes to tolerate.