Luv2Wrench

Shoulder might be a little better. I'll start some physical therapy this weekend and see how it goes. In the meantime I've been doing some plating. I've decided to look at building a barrel plater to speed up the process. I've got a lot of nuts/washers and bolts to do. I'll still have to clean each individual one but at least I will not have to individually wire them... at least that's the hope.

OK, that makes a lot of sense... keeping the internals and making the body cast. That should look great.

I know I haven't followed everything... but I missed where you decided to do the water pump over. What was the reason?

I've heard you can't take your money with you but you can take your tools... right?

Unfortunately I've been having some rotator-cuff issues and really haven't been able to do anything. It slowed me down last week but it has pretty much stopped me this week. I think my Dr and I have a plan and I'll be able to get to work in another week or so.

Ah, much better.

That really looks good Joe, congrats on a great vision with equally great execution.

Hmm... if they're a British Car shop they've got one or two known good distributors sitting around and swapping it out would let them know immediately. I really hope I'm wrong and Father Christmas brings your engine, otherwise I think you're gonna have to go take your engine back. I really hate to see forum friends getting the run around. I wish you were closer and we could have done your engine together.

Thanks for relating... I've been on the fence on those shrinking discs for some time. The theory is great and the YouTube videos look great, but so does Cold Fusion. Very helpful to hear from someone that really understands what is going on.

Filed down the welds and did some hammer and dolly work... much less than I thought I would have to do. Very happy with the outcome, nice a straight. I practiced for about an hour tonight and made some good progress getting better looking welds. I increased the oxygen pressure a bit and switched back to the smaller tip. I also increase the gap between the two pieces. The combination of those changes and some more experimenting yielding some nice looking beads.

I had a good bit of trouble with the last panel and as a result it did get a lot of heat in it. I did stop periodically and stretch the joint with a hammer and dolly so the overall distortion is minimal. From front to back it is very straight, however, from top to bottom at the smallest section it is still shrunk a bit and will need so more work.

Finished the other side of the scuttle and the lower part of the quarter panel. That's all of the patching that needs to be done. I still need a LOT more practice but I can at least get a solid fusion joint that doesn't take too much effort to get smooth. I need to file down the quarter panel and then go back over all the panels and make sure they are ready for epoxy primer and then 2K primer.

Have you visited the shop to see that the engine is actually complete and running? It kinda sounds like they're just making stuff up. I had never seen one of the SU carbs before in my life and it took me a whole 2 hours to get them pair setup and running together... and that isn't because I have some special skill.

Took a medium cut file to rough down the weld beads and find the high spots. Did a little bumping and then some more filing. Repeated that and then hit it with the DA and 80 grit. One thing I'm noticing is that I could use a little more filler and/or not have it as hot. The low spots you see in the weld are high spots on the other side as it appears to having gotten a little too hot and sagged. Shouldn't be a problem with a little body filler or glazing putty. I'm pleased with how it came out and the minimal amount of cleanup time. If I improve from here then I'm really going to be in a good spot.

That filing cabinet is outstanding!! What a great find.

Did the first patch panel on the car tonight. It is on the scuttle and will be behind the windscreen mount so it isn't really visible and as such, I thought that would be a good one to do first. I felt like I had enough practice. While it didn't turn out perfect, it exceed my expectations by a good bit. It should be fairly easy to clean up. I need to focus a little less on the puddle and a little more on the rod movement. Far too many times I left it too close and it created a little blob on the end that then added too much filler when I dipped it in the puddle. I'm starting to get a bit of confidence and that is giving a better awareness of what the puddle is doing. I'm getting much better at adjusting the torch to get the heat and force combination that I want. I dare say that I'm starting to enjoy it.

Correct, it is a "pre tie-bar Hendey" with plain (straight) bearings. It has a 14" swing (more like just under 16") and will remove a significant amount of metal. The generation after mine had tapered bearings. I added thin needle roller bearings to take up any thrust play so that's not a concern for me. Obviously it is for HSS tooling and doesn't go fast, but it does go deep. It will also go really slow. Cutting threads is ridiculously easy as it doesn't use a thread dial, rather one take the feed in and out of gear without losing sync. You can set stops on the bar along the bottom to mark the start and end of the cut. Shift into forward and let the feed cut the thread, it shifts into neutral when it hits the stop, you back out the tool a bit and shift into reverse, when it hits the rear stop it shifts into neutral, you advance the tool and shift into forward. It couldn't be much easier. The ways are worn around the headstock but it doesn't really affect anything I would do. I needed to make a temporary shaft about 12" long and I got it to within a couple thou over the length, that's plenty for the things I will do. There is significant slop in the cross slide and that you have to pay attention to. I use an indicator on it like Joe does and that makes it tolerable but it is next on my list of things to do for the lathe.

I got the shaper last year right about this time. It has been all I can do to not work on the machines and stay focused on the car. I'm not real good about maintaining focus. I should really not search CL every night....

Thanks Joe! Here is the lathe upon arrival just 4 short years ago. It had a busted up bull gear and other issues. I found another bull gear but it didn't fit the spindle. Joe graciously solved that problem for me and made a new center section for the gear so it would fit the spindle. Next picture is when it first moved into the back room. Last picture is after I built chip pan with an integrated tooling drawer. Fortunately that tooling drawer was immediately overwhelmed.

@chistech yeah, a palette jack would be perfect. I'll keep an eye out for one on CL. I saw one for $50 awhile back and didn't get it because I didn't need it at the time... dumb. Mill and shaper now tucked over in the corner of the main shop area waiting for the MG to be completed and their restoration to start. MG is back in the shop and impatiently waiting for its restoration to continue. I'm still cleaning and putting away tooling. I just built a tooling cabinet and it is already full. I guess that's a great thing.

So all that progress I wanted to make over the break went out the window... a nice Hendey Horizontal Mill was the cause. I have a Hendey lathe and a Hendey shaper, both well over 100 years old. I've been searching CL for years for an older mill that was big enough to do real work but not too big for my shop. On Friday such a mill popped up on CL and it just happened to be a Hendey. Hendey mills are very rare as they just didn't make many of them. This one also came with a lot of tooling. I don't think I could be any happier with it. It will take a fair amount of work to get it back in top condition and it will be some time before I get to it, but it will be a pleasure to work on. For now I need to find or build a dolly that can support 2160 lbs so I can roll it out of the way and get the MG back in the shop.

It is good to have you here Bernie! I've been a big fan of your restorations.

Will you be saving some of the wall paneling for use in your house? That's some fine looking material. I'm not sure you need to worry with new wood, rather some more drywall screws, construction adhesive and duct tape should have it fixed right up. A final coat of FlexSeal should ensure years of work in the future for other craftsman.

I will use calipers to make smaller measurements because it is not only accurate, it is easier for me to read and remember. You can also zero them on one piece and then quickly get the difference with another... ie; how much it needs to come down by to fit. That eliminates my math mistakes. I stop short of using micrometers of course. The one thing I'd love to have from metal work to wood work is Dykem blue. I have a hard time following the lines my awl leaves in the wood and anything I can see like pencil lines are too thick. All in all I do think my wood working accuracy improved some after learning metal work. I enjoy both a lot.

I think they relied on jigs to get the pieces in the exact place each time and then relied on screws to hold the joint. I'm guessing they stamped the panels so they were fairly consistent. It appears the panels provides a bit of stability to the structure as well. The main heavy steel piece that runs front to back along with a steel right angle piece in the middle provides the main rigidity. It looks like with the combination of all of those... you gained consistency from car to car as well as a reasonably strong structure.