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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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#7,062 ·
Haven't been around for a while. Had to go to Florida for a few days to thaw out. Here's my rental car...:D

It's on the ocean sand beach with the hotel we stayed at in the background...:cool:



Cool, hope you are having as good a time as it looks like you are.:thumbup:

Brian
 
#7,065 ·
Could you keep the project but find a different piece of property.

John



Pugs before you sign anything , find out what the legal minimum distance is from a roadway to a dwelling. Eight feet seems pretty close.

BB :thumbup::thumbup:
Thanks.

Waiting for a call back from a lawyer now.
Eight feet is the porch, another six feet, so about 14', maybe less, I was so pissed I didn't study it so exactly.
 
#7,067 ·
man, exhausted today. Played basketball 3 days in a row after work and my game is hustle, and at work I've been the only guy there for the past 2 weeks...I'm beat! Prepping will get you tired! Been feeling good about work this past two weeks cause I'm doing everything but paint, but think that's going to change soon. Hopefully I get to paint this GS, I deserve it. I work harder than anyone in this shop and my work is the cleanest by far. Just not so confident in my paint abilities til I get my hands wet again. It's been a while. Anyhow, started the day by final prepping two fenders front to back and almost done but will cut out an upper rail and support the second half. Hoping I can leave the condensor and radiator in there loosely if anything to keep the floors clean. Man, can't wait til friday!
 
#7,068 ·
It's been as slow as molassis at work the last week. WHOOO HOOOO it's nice to not be running like a crazy man 10 hours a day like it has been around there the last few months.

So being it's slow, the restoration projects got pulled out. The boss' '67 Chevelle, and a 68 Camaro that has been sitting around for many months waiting for a time like this.

It was owned by an old friend of mine who sold it off and all of a sudden it ended up in the shop. Anyway, it's an old "show car" from decades ago and it is ROUGH holy cow is it ROUGH. I can't believe the money that was spent on chrome, only to bolt it to CRAP. My God, it is so damn rough, I just can't believe the money that was spent on this car. The paint job was done by a very well known local custom painter. I had always known him to be a little rough but man this thing is a mess.

Anyway, I know these cars like the back of my hand so it was funny how one of the youngsters was pulling it apart and he went off to lunch and was blown away at how much I had gotten off while he was gone. LOL It's such a trip working on this thing, my ex-wife had one that I did a cosmetic restoration on 35 years ago!



You can barely see but all the suspension is chromed, steering linkage, damn I wish I had the chrome budget for the truck that was put into this car! All the bumper brackets, hinges, geeeez.



The rockers and bottom of the quarters were cut to clear the tires. :rolleyes:





This is all gennie stuff, check out that fender, looks pretty good!







Check out the chrome cowl panel, GAG me with a spoon!



A chrome rad support bolted to THIS? OMG what a hacked up mess!



 
#7,070 ·
It's so funny you should mention the mouldings because that IS where I came in. I asked the "kid" (he's 29) if he had the moulding removal tool. He didn't know, you see this kid use to sweep the shop and when his dad retired 10 years ago his son simply moved into his dads tool box and started repairing cars. He really is damn good, he is really good at repairing metal and filler work. So we walked over to the box and went thru the drawers until I found the tool and went and removed the mouldings.

Brian
 
#7,071 ·
yeah, it's just a matter of being used to it. If he's good at metal and mud he'd be good at restorations. Today I cut out an upper rail and don't get me started on what I had to remove just to get the fusebox to scoot over just a couple of inches to get to a couple spot welds. If it was an older car I'd probably already be done.
 
#7,072 ·
He would be right at home in a restoration shop, he is very good at REPAIRING stuff. He really is a darn good all around bodyman with replacing quarters and what not too. But he is the guy in the shop that is given the tough repair jobs and never let's us down, he loves it.

Brian
 
#7,073 · (Edited)
I replaced seats one more time to get them to sit closer to the floor,my floor is flat ,no trans hump but it has a riser built under the seat so I removed the infinity seats and installed the BMW 535 seats, these should work fine as they sit 3 in lower and I can use factory backets as they bolt straight down ,Now I guess I will have some to go on craigs list,:D
 

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#7,074 ·
I replaced seats one more time to get them to sit closer to the floor,my floor is flat ,no trans hump but it has a riser built under the seat so I removed the infinity seats and installed the BMW 535 seats, these should work fine as they sit 3 in lower and I can use factory backets as they bolt straight down ,Now I guess I will have some to go on craigs list,:D
That truck turned out real nice. I just hope mine is half as nice!

I am still stuck on sanding doors. Every time I think I am done I find more
more spots to sand or tap. I have to have a talk with myself. At this rate I am going to be back down to redoing the bare frame by spring. Yesterday I had myself convinced to strip the cab to bare metal. I still might strip it. Well maybe just the roof will be stripped.
 

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#7,075 ·
Thanks for the comment ,but I still like a lots of work ,it is going to be a little harder to get the interior installed as I have so many changes from original floor pan back panel behind seats even roof panels ,and I will be using full door panels as well,,some day I will get it finished,Or do we ever get it finished,

one problem I have was my knees were to close to sterring wheel,so I put the BMW seats in and I will be installing a tilt column,for more room ,,I am 6,3 so I need room

hang in there we will make it.:thumbup:
 
#7,076 ·
That truck turned out real nice. I just hope mine is half as nice!

I am still stuck on sanding doors. Every time I think I am done I find more
more spots to sand or tap. I have to have a talk with myself. At this rate I am going to be back down to redoing the bare frame by spring. Yesterday I had myself convinced to strip the cab to bare metal. I still might strip it. Well maybe just the roof will be stripped.
Strip it to bare metal. You never know what's under there waiting to bite your new paint in the arzz.

And keep tapping away and fixing that metal. The time you spend now will come back two fold when it's time to skim only a sliver of bondo on. :thumbup:

The more you do it, the faster you'll get. Do you have a shrinking disc?
 
#7,077 ·
why just strip the roof? Around the drip rails are suspected rust zones but other than that there won't be much rust, if there is then that's a pretty good indication of the other rust zones and you'd better get out some sheet metal for the fenders down low.

Anyhow, today it's a little basketball and then hollowing out my stump some more, and will got get some 7/8" washers and shaft collars and bushings to try to make some art dies for my bead roller. Still haven't reinforced it yet but will. Today I'm just going to tack the washers onto the collars gently as I don't have my welding helmet. I can then clean up the surfaces on an angle grinder and die grinder in tandem. If it works I'll start messing around with 49er logos to practice for my 49er bike project. I can also start stump shrinking the fenders and smooth em out a little in the planishing hammer..and am still waiting on that darn english wheel!!!
 
#7,079 ·
you're the man! I can' believe how easy it is to form these flame dies. I got so lucky in that the angle grinder already calls for a 7/8" ID so it holds the washer on perfectly straight. I just turn it on and hold one of those cheap grinding stone disks that come with them. When I'm done I'll just put some grits on a block and do the same, stepping it up everytime. WOW! how easy
 
#7,080 ·
you're the man! I can' believe how easy it is to form these flame dies. I got so lucky in that the angle grinder already calls for a 7/8" ID so it holds the washer on perfectly straight. I just turn it on and hold one of those cheap grinding stone disks that come with them. When I'm done I'll just put some grits on a block and do the same, stepping it up everytime. WOW! how easy

So, you've turned your angle grinder into a lathe, eh?
 
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