What did you do in the shop today?

[George N. M.]

My first car was a 1948 Buick Roadmaster and it was a tank, 5200 pounds curb weight, 15x920 tires, a straight 8 engine which gave it a hood about as long as the fore deck of the Queen Mary, and the hood opened from either side (the left and right latches were hinges for the opposite latch).  Oh, and the wheels were held on by lug bolts rather than lug nuts on studs.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[BillyBones]

Nathan, nice truck, even though its made by that one company and not a GMC. ( just funnin ya)

'67 Nova not sexy? That and the earlier deuces were one of my favorite body styles. 

My dad just sold our '66 Mustang. We traded a '67 Belaire for it, now to find us another project. I am pushing for a ratrod. 

George, many European cars still use a lug bolt rather than a nut and VW used to use left handed bolts. 

Like i said, did the brakes on my truck yesterday, a proper truck, a GMC. I hate those chrome capped lug nuts. Half of them had that little bit of rust under the chrome that split the cap, stuck in my socket, got beat out and are now missing the caps. 

[Donal Harris]

65 Impala my uncle had towed up behind his barn. Daddy said it would be an ok car. “Just needs a transmission.”

Daddy showed me how to take the old one off and took me to a junk yard to get a used one and then helped me install it. It too was bad, so off it went. Two tries later, with me having to figure out how to get a transmission off and back on again by myself, I finally had a transmission in the car that worked. 
 

The motor smoked worse than a green coal fire. Daddy said, “Not a problem son. Just drop the oil pan and see if you can slid the pistons out from the bottom. Afte a about a week of me laying under the thing, he finally told me, “I was pretty sure it wouldn’t work, but thought it might be worth a shot.”

Then he told me to get in the truck. He had a friend who might be able to help. When we got there I could see a bronze colored 57 Chevy Bel Air. Daddy’s friend came out and the two of them just stood around talking about a natural gas pumping station. Finally Daddy turned to me and said, “So what do you think it?” I had no real interest or knowledge about natural gas transmission, but didn’t want to appear dumb, so I just shrugged and said, “I guess.”

He said. “You guess?  What kind of answer is that?  Do you want the car or not?” It took me a bit to realize he was talking about the 57 in the driveway  $1,600.

I wish I could say I paid the note, but can’t.  Daddy bailed me out at the end of the summer.  Turned out he and mom had never intended for me to drive the Impala.  He had known for a few years his friend was going to be selling his old 57.  And the reason he made me do all that work on the Impala by myself was he figured sooner later I would be alone and stuck out beside some road.  He said it was better I experience that for the first time in the yard than 100 mile from anywhere alone in the dark.

I loved that car, the 57, not the Impala.

 

 

 

 

[Nathan Kraft]

Yeah, it is quite fancy for a first truck, but we got a good deal on it. I’m super excited and the interior is even nicer to be honest. 

[George N. M.]

Billy, this is a faint memory, it has been over 50 years since I had that car, but it is possible that the lug bolts on one side were left hand thread and the ones on the other right hand.  I was once driving down I-80 in Iowa and had the lug bolts on the left front wheel back out and had the wheel come off at about 65 mph.  Once I got it stopped the flange on the rim had been ground down flat.  Interesting experience.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[alexandr]

Today I finished 2 new works. Chandelier and fireplace screen. My first cars were made in Soviet Union . Now I prefer Japanese.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

51 minutes ago, George N. M. said:

the lug bolts on one side were left hand thread and the ones on the other right hand.

The lugs are like that on my 1953 Willy's Overland M38A1 Jeep. I had to replace the left rear hub and could only find one with right hand studs (note to self) put a note by them to remind me of that.

15 hours ago, George N. M. said:

My first car was a 1948 Buick Roadmaster

My first car was a 1936 Chevrolet Tudor sedan. I bought it off a farmer for $25 who had it sitting in a field with a broken R rear axle shaft. Went to the junk yard and bought an axle for $50 and put it in right there in the field. My brother towed me home with a chain and found out the brakes still worked. The speedometer worked and showed 36,000 something miles. I put a new battery in, checked the distributor cap, points & rotor, carburetor and added 5 gal of gas to the tank. It started right up and I drove it back & forth to school and around town for "cruising" on a restricted license. Then one day a guy who wanted to turn it into a "hot rod", by chopping and channeling it, made me an offer I couldn't refuse. He paid me enough that I was able to buy a 1950 Chevrolet 2 door fastback with enough left over to install a Crane cam & kit and dual Weber side draft carburetor's. Boy was that Chevy fast.

[Donal Harris]

You like black, I take it. My little Ranger (The King of Baby Trucks) is goldish, sort of like the chandelier. If it ever decides to stop running, I will probably try to find a 1976 Jimmy. That was the first year they had a half-cab instead of the fully removable top. 

[alexandr]

12 minutes ago, DHarris said:

That was the first year they had a half-cab instead of the fully removable top. 

Are you about this Jimny?

[Chimaera]

alexandr- how did you color the chandelier? Is it painted, or brass brushed or something else?

[BillyBones]

A couple years ago a guy brought a Yugo into the shop. Of course my first response was this thing is still driving !?! Then You really want to fix it !?! Well it needed rear wheel bearings. The ones on the passenger side were held to the axle with a left handed nut. I found this out the hard way of course by hitting it with a thousand pounds of breakaway torque. Ok, call the parts store and get a new hub, no big deal right? Except that it was an '84 Yugo and the parts guys were all You got a what? They really want to fix it? Took a while but we finally got it fixed. 

[alexandr]

12 minutes ago, Chimaera said:

Is it painted, or brass brushed or something else?

Hi! 

Painted. Golden paint.

[Chimaera]

Alright. Thinking about it now, I realize that you can't really brass brush such a large piece. However, it is perfect for highlights, such as on that fireplace. If you have not already, you may want to look into it for accent work.

[Daswulf]

Beautiful work Alexandr. The style goes really well with the fireplace. 

I really enjoy everyones car stories too. 

Early in my auto body career, there was this ugly green 70's mercury monarch in for mechanical work. Another tech was asked to bring it in the shop for the night. We were standing there and he comes screaming in squealing and screeching tire and almost hit the bosses 60's vet we were restoring and then almost through the paint booth doors. We were in disbelief thinking he was being reckless. Turns out the throttle stuck wide open and it was everything he could do to stop it and not hit anything. Lol.

The throttle ain't what it used to be. Now it's completely regulated or even just an electronic switch. 

 

 

[Chimaera]

Did my first real knife grinding. Hard work, but I think it turned out alright. Got it ready for heat treat! 

[Goods]

Alexandr, beautiful work on the chandelier, but not really my style. Now, that fire place screen really is quite good, and just my type of piece!

David

[BillyBones]

12 hours ago, Chimaera said:

knife grinding

The reason i decided i did not want to be a blade smith. 

[Jobtiel1]

Spend the whole day packing up and hauling my entire shop in the back of a combo, at least most of it. you only know how much stuff you have acquired when you try to move it all. Tomorrow I will be moving everything to our new house.

My first car was a 1996 Mazda 323F, the thing was three years older than I was, very nice car with low Km count, and it was painted Ferrari red. Too bad I only had it for about a year. After that an Opel (Vauxhall, same brand) Astra from 2003, still have that one.

~Jobtiel

[HondoWalker]

Fixed my blower finally by finding a dc motor that fit and an old laptop power supply to make it go. Set out to make a ginseng hoe but run out of gas and it ended up being a rock hammer. Took me two hours to get the hole made. My punches kept sticking to the steel. Was going to try to make a bigger hole but the angle was wrong on the biggest punch and it did nothing.  

The handle is from a walking stick I cut in West Virginia about 12 years ago. It was 25 and only an inch and a half wide. So I figured it would be a pretty strong handle. Until next time.

[George N. M.]

Jobtiel, we never realize how much stuff we have until we have to move it.  We all think that we are still students who can throw everything we own in the back seat of a Volkswagen but it isn't true, by several orders of magnitude.  We are still moving stuff from our old house 150 miles (250 km) away to our new (and last) house.  Covid has prolonged the process.  Even though we probably have 85% of our stuff in both the house and shop here it is frequent that when we want something it is in the other location.  This is one of the reasons why this will be out last house.  The only way I am leaving here is feet first.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

My late FIL always said "three moves is as good as a fire".

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

My first car was a used 74 Plymouth Gold Duster, it was my oldest brother's first car too, and he bought it new. I gave it to a friend around 3 years ago. 318 with an 1982 360 intake and Thermoquad, Hooker headers, and 3 speed manual on the floor.  Manual steering, manual disc brakes, mechanical secondaries, manual windows, even had the windshield washer pump that you pumped with your foot. The fold down rear seat and hatch to the trunk made hauling long items easy.

That was around the time I contracted a terminal case of carowner virus.  Today I have 20 plus vehicles.....and looking at a few more fun ones.

As to left and right hand threads on wheels. Driver's side would have right hand, passenger side left hand. The passenger side studs will be marked with an L on the end. Some newer medium duty trucks are like that.

Hoping to get my 48' semi trailer hauled up from San Diego to Fairfield and load all of the machine tools next week, and the last of what is at the house.

 

[Jobtiel1]

George, We have been moving other stuff around the house for a few weeks now. I've lived here for 22 years, and now every little nook and cranny has to be emptied and packed. Luckily in the Netherlands, a 250 km drive will get me to the other side of the country and halfway back. our new house is the next island over, about a 40 minute drive so whenever i needed something during renovation I could always just go and get it.  

My shop was one of the last things to go, and I thought I could pack it in an hour, but I guess that barely a year worth of smithing has left me with enough stuff to warrant at least two trips (and now 5 hours of packing it all up, and counting!). I can't imagine the amount of stuff I'd need to move had I been doing this longer. The good thing is that at the new house I'll get a bigger space for the shop, and the forge will finally be inside. Now I can set up the anvil and vise in a triangle too!

I'm not looking forward to moving it all again in a year when I'm (hopefully) done studying.

~Jobtiel

[Frosty]

1 hour ago, George N. M. said:

The only way I am leaving here is feet first.

Uh . . .  George: I can't think of a form of transportation, be it: car, truck, boat, airplane, sulky, rickshaw, anything, where you aren't traveling feet first.

Jobtiel: In your situation with another move impending in only a year I think I'd build a shop that was easy to move so all I had to do was level a spot and have a mover put the whole shop in it's new location. 

When Deb and I moved here I'd lived in a mobile home for a good 10 years and had a pitiful amount of storage but it was still a major move and got stowed in a connex while the house was being built. We built the "barn" first, it used to be a 2 car garage that had to be torn down and we got it cheap. I tore it down and a friend and I set it back up and added a wing. we stored a lot of stuff there.

Deb on the other hand lived on a 40 acre "hobby" farm with a herd of Pygmy goats. We bought a 23' van truck and stuffed it to the gills. We hauled the rest in a large trailer behind her mini van and shipped the goats and last things.

I do NOT look forward to moving from here. I'm a natural pack rat and have 15 acres and 23 years to collect and stash stuff.

If it were any more daunting, my next move would be when archeologists recovered my fossilized bones. I wonder what they'll think of a cloissone, steam punk, happy face?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Glenn]

Jobtie, as you unload at the new location, put everything you can on wheels, especially the heavy stuff.  The shop can now be set up to be project specific, and when finished, moved back to the walls.  Makes rearranging the shop a whole lot easier.  Besides you can sweep the floor that way.