A '54 named Busty

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by LT7A

You guys just derailed a good portion of my last hour with a stage dive into British heavy metal. Aces High. Hell Bent For Leather. Green Manalishi... I hope you're happy. I should be working in the yard.

"Many have tried to prove that they're faster, but they didn't last and they died as they tried." JP/HBFL

Right on! Priest, nice, love them. so sorry I missed this post the first time, my browser did not refresh, (yup I'm going with that excuse...)

I usually like to shove the following line up into my six CD changer high fidelity stereo shelf unit:

1. METALlica (Metal Up Your @55)
2. METAL Church
3. IRON Maiden (ofcourse)
4. MOTORHEAD
5. Rage Against the Machine
6. TOOL

[LT7A]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Right on! Priest, nice, love them. so sorry I missed this post the first time, my browser did not refresh, (yup I'm going with that excuse...)

I usually like to shove the following line up into my six CD changer high fidelity stereo shelf unit:

1. METALlica (Metal Up Your @55)
2. METAL Church
3. IRON Maiden (ofcourse)
4. MOTORHEAD
5. Rage Against the Machine
6. TOOL

That lineup will put some led in your pencil.

[Gregski]

so today I needed to build some pedestals on top of the frame horns for those radiator frame brackets to sit atop..

... but instead I decided to blacken my hood bolts using the torch and engine oil technique

now heating up metal weakens it by altering it's tensile strength but in my case I don't care this is holding up the hood it's not like it's holding the cab to the frame, and there's redundancy, there's four of these bolts

I use Denatured Alcohol to clean the oil off of them as the last step, work's great

introducing the starting line up, from left to right, original bolt as found, middle is a bolt after it's been cleaned by a 4 1/2 wire wheel on an angle grinder (pronounced fast RPM) not on a drill, and on the right is the finished product after the hot oil bath, and a rinse in alcohol

[Gregski]

DISCLAIMER: I completely do NOT recommend this blue propane aparatus, it sucks, not only does the flame burn out every 20 seconds but it doesn't heat up enough to turn the bolts red, don't buy it, don't use it Update: one month later, it's not the tanks fault it's the trigger, see later thread for update with the TH8000T new trigger, what a difference!!!

[Gregski]

then it was time to take some measurements for evenability between the passenger and the drive side, and remove the fender and inner fender from the passenger side first to expose the frame horn

we're using a welding blanket so we don't get dead!

[Gregski]

first we clean it up a bit so we can weld, cause you can't weld rust, and we C clamp the bracket to the radiator frame for stareability

we're going kinda high with this bracket to match the other side later, which has to go over the power steering pump

originally I just wanted to use the two bottom bolts that hold the inner fender to the radiator frame, but those may get cut out on the driver side, I'm not sure yet as they like to hug that steering box

[Gregski]

so after careful consideration I grabbed the first piece of scrap metal that I tripped over walking to the metal shop

if you are reading this after the Apocalypse you will understand why I couldn't just run to Kmart and get me some fresh metal, ha ha

[Gregski]

so we lop off that stick em up piece and womp it in half, this will be the top of our brackets

[Gregski]

alright now let's make them tall dark and handsum

I am doing it this way for 3 reasons:

1. I don't have 3" square tubing, I wish I did

2. this way the legs can slide up and down to level off the tops (you will see later what I mean) since the frame horns are polywhompus

3. I don't care... ha ha

[Gregski]

and here are the twins, don't they look kinda cute with their Will Smith red ears

[Gregski]

here's what I mean by leveling them, this one is just staged for a pic so please don't judge me if it looks crooked here, it was removed and put back on again before final welding, (ok, shoot, it fell off, ha ha)

[Gregski]

and here it is all weldered up, nothing to write home about, it is opened facing the frame, I probably should have made it opened to the outside to put the nut on the bolt easier but oh well, it was easier to weld it this way

I also weldered up the openings in the front of the frame rails, I honestly do not understand why people do that, it don't ad no horse power, but monkey see monkey do (I know they tell you it's to add strength and prevent flexability, but I call BS on that, it's benign)

... wait do I spy with my little eye in the background of that last pic a supped up LS enjin ready to go in to this beauty waiting on the sidelines !!! [move along folks, nothing to see here]

[Gregski]

ok so here is a mock up of the monstrocity, the bracket will pivot on a rubber grommet which will in turn sandwich the top of that square pedestal,

what?

one rubber grommet will go inside that square box the other on top of it, think Oreo cookie

I'm sorry these pics are craptacular

[Rusti]

Grate work man.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Rusti

Grate work man.

thanks, I appreciate the encouragement, I'm just winging it!

[Gregski]

next it was time to clean up that front passenger side inner fender (or what's left of it - think Camaro front clip swap, so it involved some trimming)

[Gregski]

let's dance !

[Gregski]

there are many reasons I like to clean my parts, but finding staples wasn't one of 'em... I knew they existed just I thought I already got them all

my hands thank me

[Gregski]

.. and five minutes later - I had most of the rust transferred from the inner fender on to my body!

remember the goal is not strip it down to bare metal, that's for 17 year olds, and as a 47 year old I just knock off the loose rust and let the paint over rust primer cover the rest

(don't even try to recommend POR15, that ship has sailed after my '68 Mustang engine bay ended up blotchy, and the frame on my '74 dime started peeling in pieces the size of a 3x5 cards - I called the company, and they go "Yeah, sometimes it just does that!")

[Gregski]

next it was time to flatten out the bumpies so that our newly crafted brackets would butt up nice and flat against this sheet metal

[Gregski]

to lay them down nice and flat and keep the metal from fighting itself I decided to cut some relief cuts, now I've never done did this before, so if I did it wrong let me know

[Gregski]

with the cuts made, I did some hammering (aka the fun part) and saw the gaps close up and even buckle in some places - very interesting, shows the process is working

[Gregski]

so I followed the same lines and re cut them open for the second time

... and the beatings continued, until morale improved!

[Gregski]

and pretty soon we had what we was after, a nice flat surface for mountability of our brackets

that post looks crooked in one of the pics, but it won't be bolted down, the factory holes are also on that curvy part so I am not worried

[Gregski]

trade of the tricks