clutch assembly

Brian had no work today, so we worked on the clutch assembly!  It's so exciting to see things like this come together!

First, he cut apart the assembly we saved from the Dodge pickup so we could use just the part of the assembly we needed for the clutch.

More holes!  ACK!  4 bolt holes to bolt the assembly and a 2.5'' hole for the clutch cable to come through (the gasket required the large hole).  And, yes, it was on the very edge of the firewall.

It is as far left as it could be without altering the pedal itself (which we plan to do, otherwise there won't be room for the other pedals!)

The clutch cable clears the hood, whew! (Straight edge shows where inside of hood will be)

And it doesn't show with the hood closed, yay!

More to come this weekend!

Karin

vroom vroom!

A most painful hole was cut in the formerly hole-less firewall for the steering column!

And now the steering column is temporarily hung in place while we figure out the firewall mount :)

(Steering column/wheel is from a 70's Peterbilt, but I am personally hoping to get a different steering wheel).

It turned out almost the perfect 30 degree angle.  I am very happy how high up on the firewall it was able to exit the cab!

Vroom vroom noises commence!

Karin

we've got gas

We've got gas.

Shielding gas that is!  For Brian's birthday this year, I got him the tank and accessories to turn his wire-feed welder into a MIG!  We had to add a solenoid to the internals, but otherwise his welder was ready for a mig setup.

We've been using a cart from my Grandpa for the welder, and it didn't have a place for the tank - so we improvised!  We added a long plywood piece for a bottom ''shelf'', added a chain to the top to hold the tank in place, and added cleats around the bottom of the tank to keep it from moving around.   We didn't want to have to purchase a new welder cart, and now we don't have to!   I also screwed an old aluminum bread pan to the shelf to keep extra tips/etc.


Brian has been dying to try the 'new' welder out, and yesterday he finally had the chance.  We installed the hinges on the driver's door (had to drill holes for the semi-hidden hinges and make dimples for the bolts), and we copied our passenger side a-pillar hinge support for the drivers side.  This required cutting a long piece of thick steel to width (here is the obligatory 'throwing sparks' pic):

Which reminds me, I need to pick up more cutting wheels this week!


We got the door into place (gap looked great after some effort) and Brian was able to weld the a-pillar door support in place:

I was trying to catch the blue welding glow through the vent as he welded.
Finally got it :)

The tape was spacers taped to the bottom of the door opening to hold the door up high enough for the door gap.  After Brian finished welding, he took off the spacers to test the door swing.  UGH, it rubbed at the bottom!  The door flexes too much at the hinge side.  So, we have to take it back off and work on beefing that up somehow to get rid of the flex.

For the sake of not feeling defeated, we plan to work on something different this weekend - maybe the steering column so we can actually steer it :)  And make vroom vroom noises :)


Karin

The '48 Pete

Brian's brother has decided that he wants to simplify his life by majorly downsizing and selling his house - and that meant giving up his '48 Pete that has been a working rig for many years for him.  It just needs too much maintenance at this point in it's life.

Not that WE have the time/money to work on it, but we do have a place to put it.  Well, we WILL after we get some more gravel to make the driveway wider.

So, Tim gave us the truck with the stipulation that we can't ever sell it.  We plan to just let it sit until we are sure that he is sure about it.  We'll just start it up every once in a while to keep the batteries charged and probably put some fuel stabilizer in it too.  So, for now - it's more yard art.  Which means we need to get rid of our growing pile of steel recycling so we can put gravel there for the Pete.........

Karin