Tools and more Tools!

A short update, no real progress to show.  Received a few new tools.  3m grinding disc

Work pretty well, I read somewhere they last a long time.  My first impressions a skeptical on length.  Here is an unused next to the one I used on a few spots.

 

Here is what was ground down

and

 

I also got an air saw, will come in handy in tough spaces.

and finally a shrinker/stretcher tool from eastwoods.  Now I can replace the window corners on my own.  

Here is my first attempt with the tool.  Stretched it a bit far in sections and separated the metal.

I have read a few tips and tricks on better welding techniques, so hopefully soon I can try them out and make some visible progress on the bug.

Project Gobstopper

First dry and semi-warm (49 deg) day since the snowpocalypse, so I decided to try out my new toys.

A new more powerful sander

and a new grinder.

Started with the sander, about 5 minutes of work and this is what I get

Because of the 3-4 paint jobs the car has had the sander takes some time to chew thru them all.  It leaves a nice clean finish on the metal.  Now the grinder on the other hand tears thru the paint but isn't so nice on the metal.

I didn't take all the paint off on purpose.  I might use the grinder to get thru the first few layers and then come back over it with the sander.  Ran out of sunlight to try the sander on this section.

Also worked on the inside of the a-pillar with no success.  I cut out the piece that is no where near matching up.  I tried to make a patch panel but the complex curve was getting frustrating so I gave up on it for now.

 

I did finally get the outside inner fender well patch made.  Just tacked it in for now, and will come back later and finish welding and grinding on it.

If its not broke don’t fix it…yeah right.

it finally warmed up over 40 degrees today so I made the best of it.  I started with the creation of my copper spoon, cut apart the pipe and banged it flat.

Works amazingly well.  It is nice I can bend it to fit the panel I am working on.

Here were the holes I filled it with it.

and cleaned up the disaster of a hole I made on the panel.

 

It should make for an interesting patch panel.  After that I moved on to the inside of the door pillar, there was less wind sitting in the car over the open garage door.  Still have alot of grinding left before that section is complete.  The panel doesn’t line up very well.  It will be hidden behind the kick panel and a speaker so I am not to worried about it.

At this point I found I had hit my welders limit on the duty cycle so I turned my attention to the recently removed shifter (today).  It looks like a Hurst shifter but the inlays don’t have any label on it.  not sure if it was a sticker or a look-alike shifter.  Will have to do some research on that.

So as the title suggest I cant leave well enough alone.  If it can be disassembled you are damn sure I am going to disassemble it.  You would think a shifter can be that complicated, but with a reverse shift lock out in the handle it adds a few cables and springs over a Plain Jane unit.

   

In the last pic you can see a tiny (.07mm) wire that pulls up on the release to allow you to shift into reverse…well I broke it.  I pulled the whole thing apart and cleaned and checked every part, start to put it back together and forgot to add one of the white plastic pieces before locking in that cable, so I proceed to remove the cable and broke that bent over piece.  Now it is in short to work.  Now I get to play the fun game of wandering lowes to find something I can use to replace that cable.

During this whole I the shifter bar itself was in bad condition.  The chrome was all pitted and in some spots missing and covered with rust.  I decided to grind all the chrome off the bar and either have it re-chromed or painted or something.  Once I ground it down it looked kinda cool in its brushed look.  I finished the main piece and then proceeded to the lock handle.  Because it is more complex then the main piece I had to break out the dremel, and all I had was a finer grit paper, so it is now a different (shinier) look then the rest.

You can see the reflection of the flash is greater on the lock out handle.  Still haven’t decided if I look the handle.  Either way it wont be going back in the car because of the 901.

More welding

Not much to add, welding patch panels in the passenger wheel well.

Progressive pics…

I had the patch for the house looking hole but when I tried to weld it in it didn’t fit very well, so I cut it out and will try again another day.  If you notice in the last pic a “new” hole appeared.  I was filling in the last pin hole and I guess I ground to much and blew thru the metal.  Had a few choice words at that point.

Went to Low.es tonight to buy a copper pipe, I am going to cut it open and make my own copper spoon.  Will see how well it works.

3/4”x6” copper pipe = $3.97
Copper spoon at East.woods Co = $29.99

Hopefully just saved myself ~25 bucks.

Patch panels

To save money I tried my hand at making a couple patch panels.  I am pretty happy with the way they turned out.  They are almost done the front one needs to be trimmed at the door and the rear needs few more tweaks to the bottom and it will be ready.

  

Starting to look whole again

Not much to say, continued my welding work and now have the inner door pillar in, and started the outer panel.

Trip 2 to Alexandria

So when I am all said and done with this project I should right a book about how to buy and build a car on craigs.list. So far I have bought about 90% of the parts for this car on craigs.list. Here is my newest addition.

a 902/1 5 speed porsche trans

The other box was designed for a mid engine car which required a new nose cone and shifting linkage, which they sell online for $250. I found a complete and working 1965/66 902/1 (ser: 231068) box which “bolts in” for $125…you do the math.

This boxes gear ratios are slightly different and might be better suited for the car

3.091 (a)
1.889 (f)
1.318 (m)
1.04 (s)
0.8571 (x)

Edit: Found a casting # on the case of 7/66, which I have been told is a week/year casting date. So translated late Feb 1966, and probably installed April/May.