Topic: What did you do to your non-motorcycle vehicle today?

[70CB750]

Went to see the wife of a guy that raced with us a lot, +25years ago. He’s not doing so well and she is “cleaning house”. I may end up with my final project…..

Very early 1956 Porsche Speedster. He did a lot of metal work 20 years ago. Tub is all rebuilt, fresh steel, in primer. Everything else needs done. “Some assembly required”!

Looks like a great project.

[BenelliSEI]

Went to see the wife of a guy that raced with us a lot, +25years ago. He’s not doing so well and she is “cleaning house”. I may end up with my final project…..

Very early 1956 Porsche Speedster. He did a lot of metal work 20 years ago. Tub is all rebuilt, fresh steel, in primer. Everything else needs done. “Some assembly required”!

Looks like a great project.

This would be a significant investment (time and money). My son has an early 911 Carrera and is “all in”, as long as I pay all the bills….. They do sell for absolutely stupid money, so I’m thinking about it. Just not sure I want another huge, lengthy project……..

[Don R]

 I went 50 miles to my buddy's house and helped with his 41 Willys. A late friend started the project and passed away, then my buddy bought it but many of the parts were already gone with a 37 ford cabriolet project that left filled with parts.
 Anyway, a Willys used an exposed hood hinge that the PO thought was ugly, there were custom hood hinges made and chromed by the PO who was a machinist, all we got were prototype parts that didn't work. Today I took apart the prototype parts and tried a few solutions, one of which worked. All we need to do now is make the right side to match and begin a few test fits to fine tune the design. I have a couple ideas for the next time we work on it to strengthen it and maybe get some more opening.
 That's a win.

[70CB750]

I went 50 miles to my buddy's house and helped with his 41 Willys. A late friend started the project and passed away, then my buddy bought it but many of the parts were already gone with a 37 ford cabriolet project that left filled with parts.
 Anyway, a Willys used an exposed hood hinge that the PO thought was ugly, there were custom hood hinges made and chromed by the PO who was a machinist, all we got were prototype parts that didn't work. Today I took apart the prototype parts and tried a few solutions, one of which worked. All we need to do now is make the right side to match and begin a few test fits to fine tune the design. I have a couple ideas for the next time we work on it to strengthen it and maybe get some more opening.
 That's a win.

Got pictures?

[BenelliSEI]

Went to see the wife of a guy that raced with us a lot, +25years ago. He’s not doing so well and she is “cleaning house”. I may end up with my final project…..

Very early 1956 Porsche Speedster. He did a lot of metal work 20 years ago. Tub is all rebuilt, fresh steel, in primer. Everything else needs done. “Some assembly required”!

Looks like a great project.

This would be a significant investment (time and money). My son has an early 911 Carrera and is “all in”, as long as I pay all the bills….. They do sell for absolutely stupid money, so I’m thinking about it. Just not sure I want another huge, lengthy project……..

So after 24 hours of research and discussion, my son and I agreed this would be an extremely viable project, with “significant financial rewards”. After sleeping on it, I’ve decided to pass. I have three, manageable bike projects in my shop. Busy farming with my neighbour, and racing the LEXUS with him too….

I don’t need a full time restoration that will burn a hole in my life for the next 24-36 months. “been there, done that” (more than once). I’d rather go for a ride!

[RAFster122s]

Oh well, not like you need a Porsche to make you feel like you are better endowed...

The 356 can be fun, it was a great little car and  like you said, it would have been a massive time sucking hole to disappear into for 2-3 years. Better to enjoy life and the vitality you have now with what you have...

Find something you and your son can enjoy working on that can be knocked out without selling your life to it for a long period.

[Stev-o]

Went to see the wife of a guy that raced with us a lot, +25years ago. He’s not doing so well and she is “cleaning house”. I may end up with my final project…..

Very early 1956 Porsche Speedster. He did a lot of metal work 20 years ago. Tub is all rebuilt, fresh steel, in primer. Everything else needs done. “Some assembly required”!

Looks like a great project.

This would be a significant investment (time and money). My son has an early 911 Carrera and is “all in”, as long as I pay all the bills….. They do sell for absolutely stupid money, so I’m thinking about it. Just not sure I want another huge, lengthy project……..

So after 24 hours of research and discussion, my son and I agreed this would be an extremely viable project, with “significant financial rewards”. After sleeping on it, I’ve decided to pass.

Hey John... Since you have passed on it, would you mind sending a PM with the details on the car? My good friend and I may be interested. He has two [modern] Porsches but a vintage Porsche would be very cool to add to the collection. Thanks

[BenelliSEI]

Went to see the wife of a guy that raced with us a lot, +25years ago. He’s not doing so well and she is “cleaning house”. I may end up with my final project…..

Very early 1956 Porsche Speedster. He did a lot of metal work 20 years ago. Tub is all rebuilt, fresh steel, in primer. Everything else needs done. “Some assembly required”!

Looks like a great project.

This would be a significant investment (time and money). My son has an early 911 Carrera and is “all in”, as long as I pay all the bills….. They do sell for absolutely stupid money, so I’m thinking about it. Just not sure I want another huge, lengthy project……..

So after 24 hours of research and discussion, my son and I agreed this would be an extremely viable project, with “significant financial rewards”. After sleeping on it, I’ve decided to pass.

Hey John... Since you have passed on it, would you mind sending a PM with the details on the car? My good friend and I may be interested. He has two [modern] Porsches but a vintage Porsche would be very cool to add to the collection. Thanks

Steve….. a restoration shop (from Connecticut) has been chasing the car for +15 years. I raced with the owner for +25 years and we became good friends. He’s 83 and his dementia is slowly taking over (although the other day when I visited was exactly the opposite, to my delight). His wife just wanted me to make sure he wasn’t giving it away. Unless I jumped in, the deal is done.

[Terry in Australia]

Not really much to do with cars, trucks, tractors or ride on mowers, but the last few days I've been working on building a stand for my boring bar so that I can do 4 cylinder engines much easier than with the original system, that was designed for boring single cylinder engines. When I was boring Dion's 750 cylinders for the Cyclex 65.5mm pistons I realised that by pulling the boring head out to the max to reach the middle cylinders I was actually boring them at a slight angle, which effectively ruined two sleeves.

Old boring bar stand by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

So last week at work, bored (pun intended) out of my brain goofing off at work, I sketched a new stand, that would allow for a multi cylinder block to get bored a little easier. I had lots of 30mm x 2.5mm wall thickness square tube in my garage, so I drew up a plan with measurements, and spent a long time cutting it all up with my new Vevor portable bandsaw that I bought months ago and never used, then used the tiny 120 amp MIG welder that Diion gave me to weld it all together. The welds are ugly, but even with my fancy new Eastwood panoramic welding helmet that Don recommended, sadly my poor old eyes aren't getting any better, but the welds are good enough, it won't fall apart.

The most expensive part of the project was the 32mm (inch and a quarter) thick slab of 6061-T6 aluminium plate, but I wanted to ensure that there wouldn't be any warpage. I've still gotta weld in a couple more square tube braces, and work out a quick way to clamp the cylinder block (or top engine case, for oversized sleeves) underneath the table top, but I'm pretty happy so far.

New boring bar stand 27 May 2023 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr     

[dave500]

looks fine Terry,im guessing those welds are too slow travel speed/too fast wire feed?always clean of paint or gal before welding helps aswell,theyll hold fine though,good job,#$%* that alloy plate wouldve cost a few ginger joes?

[RAFster122s]

That’s a stout plate of aluminum…
Would a setup like a hydraulic press for securing your cylinders or block work?

Just thinking if you had a hydraulic Jack lifting the table below for whatever you are boring it could secure the cylinders or block tightly against the bottom of the boring machine plate. An X-Y setup off screws to adjust the bottom table might ease fine tuning the placement of the center. Too bad your boring bar machine doesn’t have a laser to help with the alignment.

[Terry in Australia]

looks fine Terry,im guessing those welds are too slow travel speed/too fast wire feed?always clean of paint or gal before welding helps aswell,theyll hold fine though,good job,#$%* that alloy plate wouldve cost a few ginger joes?

Thanks Dave, I used the world’s tiniest MIG, a little Unimig 120, which was great because I didn’t have to drag my big 220 amp MIG out of the garage, but was otherwise underwhelming on thicker steel. I’ve been welding for over 50 years (and boy, am I tired!) so I know all about wire feed speed, travel speed, cleaning the material, good earthing points etc, it was just too small a welder for the task. Having said that, it’ll be really good for exhaust work, or welding any thin walled steel, as it’s really hard to “burn through”. Of course, being almost blind doesn’t help either, when you can’t see what you’re welding…..

David, I’ve seen some boring bar tables using a jack to secure the cylinders to the table, seems to work ok, but mine will be less complicated. Probably just bolts and knurled nuts. And yes, that 18” square plate would buy around a month’s supply of Ginger Joe, and that’s if I’m really thirsty……

[BenelliSEI]

Fixed my “weed whacker”. New switch ordered…..

[BenelliSEI]

……. and of course the Amazon delivered the new switch two hours later.
Piss me off?

[Terry in Australia]

I finally caved in and had the RACV come out and install a new battery in my old Subaru. I can’t complain about the old one, it lasted 9 years, which must be some kind of record. The “Technician” said that the old battery was too big and tried to sell me a smaller, cheaper battery, but I figured that the extra “Oomph” of the old one contributed to its longevity so I ponied up the dough for another big one. At $253, (around 150 USD) it cost just over half of what I paid for the car in 2015, but it’s otherwise been a fantastic daily driver so worth spending the money on.

[CycleRanger]

Fixed my “weed watcher”. New switch ordered…..

That looks perfect! Stylish and functional.
Yeah, I do a lot of weed watching around my yard too....watching them grow that is. 

[dave500]

Fixed my “weed watcher”. New switch ordered…..

ha! i did that once to mine but found a similar replacement in a dumpster in my travels!

[BenelliSEI]

Fixed my “weed watcher”. New switch ordered…..

ha! i did that once to mine but found a similar replacement in a dumpster in my travels!

While installing the new rocker switch, noticed it “clicks” ON-OFF. The original only shut OFF when you held it down. Instantly popped ON, when released. Busted from day 1.

[Terry in Australia]

Well the new boring bar stand is just about done, which is good, because it's been holding up a couple of other projects.

Boring bar mod 2 Jun 2023 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I drilled the top for the CB750 cylinder block hold down bolts and loosely mounted the boring head, then realised that I somehow had to "clock" the boring head to the mounting block, so bought another piece of 90mm machineable round bar and first turned it to 86mm for that big hole in the table top, then bored it 33.3mm for the boring "quill", so that I could centralise it in the exact middle of that big hole.

Boring bar mod 2 Jun 2023 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Boring bar mod 2 Jun 2023 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Of course, the whole point of this was to ensure that I was gonna be able to bore CB750's (or Z1's, etc) dead centre, so I turned up another tool that was 86mm OD to fit in the big hole, 33.3mm ID to fit the quill and centralise it in the big hole, and 60.9mm on the other end, to then ensure that the quill (with cutting tip) was centralised in the CB750 cylinder when I bore it out. While I was at it, I turned the other side down to 63.75mm, as I'll "rough out" sleeves that I'll eventually bore to 65mm (836cc) to 63.75mm on my lathe, which cuts much faster than the boring bar, then just reinsert the sleeves back into the cylinder block and "finish" bore them on the boring bar.

Boring bar mod 2 Jun 2023 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Boring bar mod 2 Jun 2023 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Everything fit like a glove, I tightened down the boring head, and now I'm ready to do some boring!

Boring bar mod 2 Jun 2023 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I also need to bore out a cylinder block to take some 970cc sleeves shortly, so once again the new setup will work well to precision bore the alloy block for the wider sleeves, and if I need to increase the size of the sleeve holes in the top engine case, I can do that now as well.

Apart from a young d1ckhead crashing into my car @ 60 MPH on my early morning commute, I had an otherwise reasonably happy day, and picked up this ancient Aussie built battery charger from a local FB seller, as I plan to do some electrolysis rust removal in my Fireblade tank as the Evaporust didn't do much of a job and the rust has grown back. more on that later.

Boring bar mod 2 Jun 2023 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

[Stev-o]

Went to see the wife of a guy that raced with us a lot, +25years ago. He’s not doing so well and she is “cleaning house”. I may end up with my final project…..

Very early 1956 Porsche Speedster. He did a lot of metal work 20 years ago. Tub is all rebuilt, fresh steel, in primer. Everything else needs done. “Some assembly required”!

Looks like a great project.

This would be a significant investment (time and money). My son has an early 911 Carrera and is “all in”, as long as I pay all the bills….. They do sell for absolutely stupid money, so I’m thinking about it. Just not sure I want another huge, lengthy project……..

So after 24 hours of research and discussion, my son and I agreed this would be an extremely viable project, with “significant financial rewards”. After sleeping on it, I’ve decided to pass.

Hey John... Since you have passed on it, would you mind sending a PM with the details on the car? My good friend and I may be interested. He has two [modern] Porsches but a vintage Porsche would be very cool to add to the collection. Thanks

Steve….. a restoration shop (from Connecticut) has been chasing the car for +15 years. I raced with the owner for +25 years and we became good friends. He’s 83 and his dementia is slowly taking over (although the other day when I visited was exactly the opposite, to my delight). His wife just wanted me to make sure he wasn’t giving it away. Unless I jumped in, the deal is done.

Hi John...totally understand and it's prolly for the best anyway.   

Coincidently, a buddy spotted a '69 GTO convertible sitting in an RV park when he was at a BBQ recently.  Knocked on the door and asked if he'd consider selling it, he was a little reluctant at first, but in the end a big stack of 100 dolla bills changed his mind!!




Borrowed a truck and trailer and an hour later we were on our way with the "Goat"!!




The color is horrid [in my opinion], every body panel is showing rust, but there is so much potential and it's a '69 GTO!  [the original and most iconic muscle cars from the 60's].  400 Ram Air with a Muncie four speed and Hurst shifter are the pros, the con is it hasnt run in 5 years. What a pity.  It went straight to my buddy's shop and next week I will buy a battery and first thing is a compression check to see where we stand and go from there... 

[ekpent]

Nice find on the GTO, sounds exciting. This popped up today on my wife's facebook and I got a kick out of it.Not the best year maybe being 1971 but still neat to see the prices.

[Stev-o]

Nice find on the GTO, sounds exciting. This popped up today on my wife's facebook and I got a kick out of it.Not the best year maybe being 1971 but still neat to see the prices.

Thanks Eric...will be a fun restoration but I'm sure frustrating. On a good note, I just found a re-pop hood for $450.

That is a cool ad, is your wife shopping for a Mopar?!  BTW -that '71 Sassy Green Cuda in excellent condition would fetch around $100K today!

[ekpent]

Nice find on the GTO, sounds exciting. This popped up today on my wife's facebook and I got a kick out of it.Not the best year maybe being 1971 but still neat to see the prices.

Thanks Eric...will be a fun restoration but I'm sure frustrating. On a good note, I just found a re-pop hood for $450.

That is a cool ad, is your wife shopping for a Mopar?!  BTW -that '71 Sassy Green Cuda in excellent condition would fetch around $100K today!

Yeah that was kind of my favorite also with the 426 which I assume is a Hemi.

Nice find on the GTO, sounds exciting. This popped up today on my wife's facebook and I got a kick out of it.Not the best year maybe being 1971 but still neat to see the prices.

Thanks Eric...will be a fun restoration but I'm sure frustrating. On a good note, I just found a re-pop hood for $450.

That is a cool ad, is your wife shopping for a Mopar?!  BTW -that '71 Sassy Green Cuda in excellent condition would fetch around $100K today!

  Yeah that was my favorite also with the 426 Hemi.  Probably would not refuse the 440 six pack "citron yellow" either though !!

[grcamna2]

Stev-o, I had a 69' GTO 400/4-speed when I was 18.
I bought a 69' Torino GT convertible as my first car;it had a 302 auto and was very nice all the way around;so,being a kid, I traded my nice Torino GT for a black 69' GTO 400 4spd ! that had been hit in the front-end and needed some bodywork plus it needed a clutch.. 
The things I learned.. I left it parked and drove my Yamaha RD350.

[Don R]

 I got the 40 chevy out of storage and put a plate on it again after 10 years of being an outlaw. My sister stole my vanity number so it's generic now. Last fall I got it home and replaced all of the rubber hoses, they had gone soft and leaked as well as plugging up the carburetor with soggy rubber bits.
 It flooded and died at one stop sign but cleared out and ran fine afterwards. It's sitting in the shop now with a battery charger on it.
 Tomorrow morning is the Car Show in Lincoln Park Galesburg Il. that we started in 1980, there are still two of us original members (OG) left in the club but I'm hoping a few of the other old guys will show up for a photo.