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The "What Did You Work On Today" thread

3M views 36K replies 388 participants last post by  cerial 
#1 ·
4 hour work day for me at the shop. Used the time to do a valve body swap on a '01 Jetta 1.8t auto .... I successfully installed a transbrake on the car .... that however wasn't my intention.

Its in 2 gears at once in park, all other gears (R/N/D/2/1) are forward gears.... they all seam to be first gear.

I have it torn back down most of the way. Tuesday I'll actually get the VB back out and see whats up.... but part of me wants to take it out for a test drive the way it is just for the fun of it.
 
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#24,302 ·
Spent 5 hours on a 2 hour job.(1 hour for paint to dry)



My calipers on my 87v10 started to pull to the left so I pulled the calipers, the lines, and the pads. The rotors were still good. The bearings are good and selectable hub great so I left that. Will rebuild those before winter.

After slowly turning a rusted Allen shape into a circle going larger and larger sizes. I grabbed some bolts and welded them to the caliper pins and removed them.

Truck stops great now with no hands on the wheel from 65mph. Not bad for a 31 year old solid front axle truck.
 
#24,303 ·
No need to be jealous, just get ideas and ponder...:cool:
Did that believe me, I looked at every truck there and learned a lot about a few things. One of them is the moulding I have had a problem with on the outside of the doors, seems like everyone has! There were a number of them there with rubber door edge moulding was stuck there and painted. Then there was one with a metal tubing like material welded there and painted. The stock mouldings are not easy for sure!

I am not going to do it but check out how they extended the running boards front and rear around the fenders, very nice.

I can't believe I didn't get a photo, I was so stunned by it I just walked away shaking my head but there was a truck chopped only an inch and a half! It did look damn nice, very cool.

Brian
 

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#24,304 · (Edited)
I really like the running board mods and the extended lip on the lower fenders,,BUT the gap between filler abd bed kinda kills it, look much better than stock or nearly stock.

Spend a little time and fix that,:(

Looks like it mighy be on a C5 Vette chassis ,from the wheels he is using
 

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#24,305 · (Edited)
Got some welds ground, got some sand blasting done, and I am heading off to the Goodguys to look at trucks like mine finished and be jealous.

Brian
Barb and I just got back from the Silver Dollar Rod Run in Pigeon Forge. I spent a while looking at the rear window of a 51 5 window truck like yours that had a stock cab.

Looking at how the window opening tapered out on the ends as the cab began to curve more gave me an even bigger appreciation for what you are doing. You were just about to run out of room to revess that window. Did you set the glass a little deeper?

You are to be commended!:thumbup:

John
 
#24,306 ·
Barb and I just got back from the Silver Dollar Rod Run in Pigeon Forge. I spent a while looking at the rear window of a 51 5 window truck like yours that had a stock cab.

Looking at how the window opening tapered out on the ends as the cab began to curve more gave me an even bigger appreciation for what you are doing. You were just about to run out of room to revess that window. Did you set the glass a little deeper?

You are to be commended!:thumbup:

John

I don't know exactly what you mean but yes the center is in deeper keeping the seam for the rubber flat all the way across.

Brian
 
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#24,307 ·
Got the cab out of the garage for some sand blasting today. With my little compressor it's pretty much a joke but I did get some cleaned up. Out in the sun I also found 374 of welds I need to complete. This was NOT fun work out there in the sun blowing sand all over me, yeow, done for the day. I may feel like getting out there for a few minutes out there tonight but I doubt it.

I got out some "magic coating" rust stuff that I have and I will be using it, may epoxy primer over it but I will be getting out there at the very least tomorrow and start welding up stuff. I forgot I have to put some nuts on the back side ends of the hinge brackets on the cab too. So more work than I planned, I thought I was done with the cab but that was all but a fantasy. Basically I headed out for lunch with Sandra Bullock and ended up being stuck in an elevator with Roseann O'Donnell. :pain:

Another week working on this baby before any epoxy can be sprayed.


Brian
 

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#24,309 ·
All of the images of that car look so great, I couldn't imagine which one to pick. But the only thing I do have an opinion about are the tires, these tires look much better than the wood ones on there now.

Brian
 
#24,311 ·
Vacuum advance diaphragm leaking on CURSE.
What else is new....... :rolleyes:


Picked up an adjustable jobbie and installed it. Hopefully, test drive tomorrow.


Also, installed a new kick down cable yesterday. The car had a TV cable on it.
We had a rain day here Saturday, so I wasn't able to do any yard work. Was actually a blessing. We needed rain and I spent some time on my lawn tractor. The grille has been slowly breaking apart for years and last fall, it finally fell off. The replacement is obsolete, so I bought one for the next years model. It looked the same in the pics, so thought I would take a chance. Saturday, I took the original hood apart and discovered all the differences in the 2. I immediately thought of you. Not that it was a curse, but how every time we try to do a "simple" fix, other issues arise that turn the job into a day long affair. In the end I had to cut up and sculpt the headlight cover in to 2 pieces to fit the recess on the new hood and extend the 4 piece hinge system to extend 1 5/8" forward, as the new grille slopes out as it goes down and the hinges were too short. I did check on-line for the correct headlight covers ($52 EACH) and the correct hinges, another $200...:eek: It took 4 hours to make all the changes and get the hood fitting and looking at home on the tractor, but I saved over $300 by doing that.
 
#24,314 ·
It's so funny as I was watching the Autocross at the Goodguys this weekend with Nick and there was a 1990 car running out there. 1990, 1990, I bought the socks I was wearing in 1990, NO JOKE! And then it hit me that car was 28 years old, 2 years OLDER than the age my 48 Chevy pickup was when I bought it in '74! WOW!


Brian
 

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#24,315 ·
I agree about the tires as well.
Those plywood meats do look a wee bit thin, ha.....
They may not eat fat but they have feels. Over seven years I have endured wood wheel cracks now.



I been over at the RVA final fitting the left quarter bottom rear patch. Made it too short where it meets the front part of the trunk drop.
 

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#24,316 ·
They may not eat fat but they have feels. Over seven years I have endured wood wheel cracks now.



I been over at the RVA final fitting the left quarter bottom rear patch. Made it too short where it meets the front part of the trunk drop.

Too funny.


I wish I hadda seen these wood wheels before I bought rims and tires to roll my rod around.
 
#24,317 ·
You'd have made metal ones. These lowly woodys do have a fairly prestigious position as wheels go, they may not handle well or look like fat meats but they sure launch builds like crazy. If you car gets to wear them, you will probably be in Vegas some November.:thumbup:

Past due trunk pics-





I am blaming motormouth coworker next to my stall for the epic weld gap at the triangle at rear. Why must they speak the entire time, and why is the other side of the shop wide open?:confused: Turblo dude went to an import shootout and was yacking unstoppably. They have a contest for how loud your exhaust pops on the rev limiter second step.:rolleyes: Why? And why would anybody think I gave a crap about that, let alone watch it on your phone? Or hear how you hung with a SS Camaro on a third gear pull. Vomitus. Wheres Brian's puke pic we hadn't seen in awhile? Whew, at least Monday is gone now.

 
#24,318 ·
More Chevelle right door work. There was a nice rust hole under the door seal when I pulled it off. I had to cut a lot larger slot to get the wheel in the recess of the donor door and didn't want to butcher the replacement door that bad, so welded the patch on top.







Moved on to the rust hole in the rear corner patch. I had to chase it a little ways to find good metal, but I had figured I would. Turned out pretty nice.





Put the hinges on and threw it on to see how the lines were. Looked good to me, so I welded the slots I had to cut in the skin closed. The patch is now done.





Flipped it over to address the pin hole in the skin. There was a slight bubble along the edge that was there before I started working on this. I didn't want to weld or cut with that high spot and have the skin go ape crap and warp, so I tapped it down with a body hammer, but the high spot just moved inboard a few inches. I hit it with the shrinking disc and water twice and it leveled off almost completely.



Then I cut a small piece of old door skin and tapped it in behind the inner brace as a backer behind the pinhole, so it wouldn't blow out. That worked very well, as I could see the thin area of the skin dissolve in the arc, but the hole filled right in with the backer behind it.





The last thing to do to this door, is get the mirror backing plate out of the old door and into this one. I cut all the non-body guys crappy welds and pried the new AMD skin off. Then I had to drill out the 16 plug welds I had made to hold the reinforcement strip on so it would be really strong and NEVER come off...:mad: Once the strip was off, I had to locate the 3 plug welds holding the plate to the strip. Got it off and ready to install in the new door. That's tomorrows job. I had to go mow the yard after all this.







 
#24,320 ·
not much going down here but a few things...

this "work bench" was not working. Besides, I didn't want something stuck against the wall and have things mounted to it where metal shavings fly everywhere and even directly in the path of foot traffic to the side the door. So I got something mobil so I can put it in the middle of garage and get to clean it off better. I even added a power supply to it so you don't have to fidget with plugs. Added a belt sander as well.

Tool Machine Machine tool Wood Hardwood


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