1941 1/2 ton project Hannah

Rat Rods Rule

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I teach my kids catch and release, we catch 20-30 bugs a year in the house and relocate them to the yard. but brown recluse and black widow, I squash on sight. the family knows what they look like too, no accidental squash of a brown spider or a grass spider. in kansas brown recluse are actually more silvery grey, but they have mud brown fangs and you cant miss it once you have seen it. this is my second bite in a couple years, the first was just the fang marks, no venom, must have been an older spider because the young ones are the ones that pump you full of venom. when we pulled back the first board and there were 20 of them looking at us, we almost stopped. while squishing them there were a few that jumped on me, yes they can jump laterally almost 3 feet, and so I had to knock them off. we considered setting the whole pile on fire but the thought of a bonfire with flaming and angry spiders running out of it wasnt a good one.

here is my bite, lost a little flesh but on the mend. just oozing now.

Screen Shot 2017-12-11 at 9.24.41 PM by Joe Doh, on Flickr
 
Brown recluse are vicious little critters


yes, but they dont go looking for trouble, its more like the guy armed to the teeth waiting for someone to break into his house. :) if you see one you either disturbed his house or he is just passing through

yikes... :eek: Glad we don`t have any of those biting venomous creatures overhere. My goats can jump 3 feet too tho...

I have heard tales of places without brown recluse but they usually have even scarier spiders :eek:
 
work day finally. john came down to sand the fenders

IMG_8067 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

got the radiator in, 19x21 (the 22 wont fit the 41 core) from ebay, came with a free electric fan which is great because I dont feel like finding the super sweet spot for the hoses around the fan or running a filler in the upper hose again. live and learn. put in the camber shims too, need yet another set for the passenger side but getting there.

IMG_8074 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8072 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8073 by Joe Doh, on Flickr


the hood had a big crease in it from sitting in a field unlatched for 60 years and the wind blowing it around. I used a soft piece of cedar and wielded my sledgehammer like the precision instrument it always hoped to be. viola!

IMG_8076 by Joe Doh, on Flickr


cab back on, fits perfect! need to mount the front clip to get the cab in the exact right spot, maybe tomorrow. seam sealed the firewall too, need the steering parts and it will turn!

IMG_8077 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8078 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

heard from chris in pa who bought booger. says the gauges died, so he put in a new set, otherwise still working great.

Picture1224171619_1 copy by Joe Doh, on Flickr
 
we are done with all the christmas projects, did the MIL van all new steeering and suspension and found the water pump was out while in there so did that too. parties are done and visitors have gone home so it should be smooth sailing. johnboy came back today, got some more done. first we cleaned out the shop stem to stern to get the front clip inside for work, johnny worked on the studs for the cab while I clearanced for the rad and trimmed the lower section.

IMG_8100 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8110 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8101 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8102 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

the 19x21 fits perfectly. right in the correct opening on the core, no need for complicated air dams on this one. (the front clip is forward about 4 inches in these pictures still)

IMG_8109 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8108 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

no more c clamps holding the pedal bracket!

IMG_8107 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

looks like the stock S10 seat will work ok, going to have the headrests removed when its recovered this week

IMG_8106 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

got the bed pulled up to be cut down from longbed, and the s10 floor set to weld in.

IMG_8105 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8103 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

should be an exciting week, ordering steering shafts tonight and dropping the seat off!
 
got it on, still have to line the cab up on the mounts and square it, there is a lot of room in the passenger fender haha. the front is being held up slightly by the air scoop pan, I should be able to just give a couple technical taps with my sledge, rather than cutting it out and boxing it back. steering lines line out good too. I am super happy with how this is coming.

IMG_8122 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8126 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8127 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8128 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

while I had the welder out I zapped that crack in the fender.

IMG_8131 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

got the bed floor cut to fit inside the original bed, now I just need to cut the original bed down. thinking of 2 cuts, so the stakes line up.

IMG_8130 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

I needed to put a brace on the pedal mounts, it was plenty strong from the cantilever on the left, and the brake booster on the forward side, but with the column in you could deflect it down on the right side. I drilled two holes in the top of the cowl and made it a stressed member with a bracket going up to it.

IMG_8132 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8133 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

I know that weld looks like a booger weld but its not, there was a through hole there and I filled it like a spot weld.

got the seat in the right spot so it goes to the upholstery shop tomorrow. I have had this vinyl on the shelf forever without a project to use it on, its a metallic black fabric that I think will be perfect.

IMG_8135 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8137 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

windshield glass is ordered and on the way. I am ordering steering components right now. tomorrow I will take advantage of the weather and shorten the bed, and then maybe get the doors apart for the latches rebuild. maybe running this weekend?
 
thanks! I work in fits and spurts!

I dropped the seat off this morning, went with a diamond pattern, removing the headrests. they couldnt use my vinyl but thats ok, I got it free years ago and at least now I can pitch it. they said that type of vinyl wasnt made to have stitches that show. someday I will recover my own seat, just to try it.

did some measuring and decided to take 9 inches out of the longbed. my reasoning is that the 41 wheelbase is 116 and the s10 longbed is 118. on fenix the bed gap was pronounced by the curve of the back of the cab.

IMG_8139 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8140 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8142 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

I will weld it up when I have a little more room inside, the front clip has to come back off to do the steering and the air pan mods.

the glass will be here tomorrow, aside from some glass setting tape I think I have everything I need now. the windshield frame was in pretty good shape, just a little bit of rust, so just like all my projects here is a how to from someone who has never done it but thinks he can!

I separated the halves and got the glass out, pretty easy. the rubber gasket was just like stone, but luckily I had something like this on the last truck so I used a slicer blade on a grinder to just cut it down the center and it almost fell out.

IMG_8143 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

what happens is, water gets in between the glass and the steel and freezes, splittng it and exposing it to rust. only one side has cracks, and I have a good plan for welding it up. the water also rusts the joining bars, luckily they repop those.

IMG_8145 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8146 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8147 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8148 by Joe Doh, on Flickr


here are all the parts after wire brushing them and getting the cracks ready to weld. I need to pick up a narrow wire brush wheel to clean the inside channel where the glass goes, and some glass setting tape. the glass will be here tomorrow and I need it to know what size tape to buy. you can see the repop bars there on the pile. I think I will pick up a new center bar too, the rubber in the original one is pretty hard and the screws are snapping.

IMG_8150 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
 
glass showed up today WITH rubber setting tape already on it! woot! not bad for $110 bucks

IMG_8182 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

since I didnt need to find glass tape, I went and picked up the center bar from bowtie bits. at the price, its cheaper than buying JUST THE RUBBER PIECE that goes behind it! and its billet aluminum so a little more durable than stainless. I stopped by homer derpo and got some channel cleaning tools, a wire brush for the drill (and a new drill!) which worked just ok. the hero was the wire brush for the grinder, holy crud that cleared out the.. crud. I also picked up a thin grinding wheel to cut the welds back after I made them

IMG_8198 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8196 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

I did the worst half first, the other half I didnt think was cracked turned out to be cracked after wire brushing. before and after pictures of the two ends

IMG_8193 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8194 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8192 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8195 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

I still need to squeeze the open ends shut a little more but the bottom is the right size. one thing, these things are stronger than you think, I was grunting like a caveman to get them shut that much. that means ice is a lot stronger than you think, stretching them out like this.

adding it up, it was $35 for the gasket, $36 for the connectors, $85 for the division bar and $110 for the glass. I spent about $50 on materials at homer derpo, and have about 3 hours in stripping it and welding it. I will have another hour in drilling out the stuck screws and another hour in assembly. so maybe $500 all in? all I have learned is that the rebuilt one is $750 and a freaking bargain haha. but hey! I did something new.
 
Progress

Nice work repairing the windshield frame. I bought one of those wire brush wheels also. Good stuff. Not sure I would have the patience to work with those cracked frames. I will be watching that bed fab work. Mine will be very similar I expect. S10 seat looks good in the cab.
 
still a bargain for the new windshield, and I will tell you why.

first, the original connectors were rust stuck in place, so badly that I had to cut all my fresh welds right down the center to get the pieces out

IMG_8199 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8205 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8203 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

second, the butyl tape that came on the glass is way to thick, barring some magic I think tomorrow I am going to pick up some glass urethane and some shims and just put it in myself. my reasoning is, yes it makes future glass changes a pain but it will seal all the pinholes I am sure exist in the channel.


oh and I got the seat! rest assured it looks a lot better than this washed out picture. I wish the diamonds were puffier but I didnt specify when I dropped off, so my fault there.

IMG_8201 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
 
you know, its not bad!

finished the windshield. thats all I have to say about that.

IMG_8259 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

still have to put the outer seal on but that will be super easy comparatively.

fixed the torn section of the firewall where the cowl rods attach, havent sanded it yet need to check it

IMG_8258 by Joe Doh, on Flickr

also welded up the last of the floor inside where it was just tacked.

time for steering, since the steering hole is over the valve cover I need a heim bearing.

IMG_8260 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8261 by Joe Doh, on Flickr


have to decide where the double joint will go, top shaft or bottom. probably top.


I got a new car last week, was browsing craigslist new ads (does everyone do that? push enter on a blank search bar and it shows you new ads as they are listed) and I was literally the first to call within a minute of it listing. I have been looking for something nostalgic to drive, the saturn is nice but not really me, so I thought of maybe a nice 3rd gen camaro or even an older BMW.

I cant believe my luck though, its what aficionados call an M3/4/5, a 4dr, 5spd manual M3. only two years production and there were a lot more automatics made than manuals. It runs perfectly and the interior is mint. it needs the hood repainted (clear is peeling) but considering its 21 years old, its just my thing. I have been taking long drives in it, its addictive. 240hp doesnt sound like a lot but it is a 3200 lb car.

IMG_8237 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8240 by Joe Doh, on Flickr
 
Having a hard time getting caught up....

Very nice work JD.... the Beemer isn't bad either...sounds like a good driver...[cl
 

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