Thread: What did you do to your car today? Vol 2.0

Originally Posted by idrivejunk

Well (kicks dirt) much obliged. That was my first dip in aluminum and only one toe had to get wet. The idea was the strong part, fab was weak. The request was for steel shields but that didn't make sense. I pushed for getting a sheet of like 1/8" thick ABS plastic initially but once I sawzalled the perfect bedsides off I was like hey theres my material! Duh. They can now leave out the stock wheelwell liner, or trim off the outside edge and reinstall. But as-is, spray coatings could be used in there. The extension sits a half inch from the 'glass and a bubble type edge weatherstrip is ordered to seal it there. I still have to do the fronts which are the stiff carpet type and I want to connect to those so theres another challenge and for it I am eyeing the old rear liners' plastic. As usual, see blog for more pix on it.

The fab was almost nonexistent on those shown. Machines did it but humans worked em. The section of bedside I chose had a lengthwise bend so I made one pass with it upside down in the english wheel then one right side up. So the bend was almost gone, making the strip floppy. Took that to the slip roller, made a single pass and turned it into what you see on the floor there. Made me a happy man! After all the riveting and trimming, I smashed all the rivets flat and they look a lot like the OE welds in the well.

Not that you wanted a back-fill story for your kind sentence but hey. Thats the IDJ way.

the way you people can manipulate flat sheets of metal is so cool. i love watching them custom car shows. them kindig customs guys know wtf they are doing. they even joke, yeah it will all be done in 10 minutes time, watch! and then its about done,,,,tv edit magic lol

they also did a show to compete for a job as a fabricator at their shop. most everyone there was a self taught body person, some better then other for sure, but they would hand you a part like a fender, they would cut it in 1/2 dent it in a few places, then tell them, you got 4 hrs to make this right again lol

the guy who won really knew his crap best too. wasted time thinking about it, made a plan, stuck with it. finished before everyone else most of the time.

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

the way you people can manipulate flat sheets of metal is so cool. i love watching them custom car shows. them kindig customs guys know wtf they are doing. they even joke, yeah it will all be done in 10 minutes time, watch! and then its about done,,,,tv edit magic lol

they also did a show to compete for a job as a fabricator at their shop. most everyone there was a self taught body person, some better then other for sure, but they would hand you a part like a fender, they would cut it in 1/2 dent it in a few places, then tell them, you got 4 hrs to make this right again lol

the guy who won really knew his crap best too. wasted time thinking about it, made a plan, stuck with it. finished before everyone else most of the time.

Whew I would hate to be put in that position but would like to think I could do better than worst. Hungry go-getter types are a force to be reckoned with and to them this is work. To me, every day is like a Saturday night and its way more fun than doing other stuff.

I am odd but think I'll stay that way. Sketching plans and banging mental gears in the peace of home then just working at loud chaotic shop. Had Kindig presented them task test fenders one day, let the guys take pictures of them, then had everybody back next day for the 4 hour contest.... if any of them had a brain you'd see remarkable speed then. I know I have to throttle the urge to just dive in sometimes. The win is in knowing when to play tennis and when to play chess, so to speak. A guy has to stop and think, before deciding to stop and think more or start running tools like hell. If a guy doesn't know five ways to fix that, well he can go ahead and start swinging. Metal shaping is counterintuitive to that guy, but theres a place for him. It caught my interest enough to study a little and the field is full of snobs but... I have totally done that don't blink or you'll miss it thing before and it is a strange sensation.

We can't hardly find dudes to stick around, let alone be good to start with. Got one good recent hire though, solid resto man. As far as competing for status goes, here are two quotes I have recently taken to heart:

Whatever you are, be a good one.

The punishment for desire is the agony of unfulfillment.

With that said, I step off my chair for more refreshments. Its Saturday night. I am currently on a Cannon watching bender. No TV just web.

Oh and I just did a taco run in the GT which qualifies as maintainence.

one of the funny ones was they made teams, and they had a camaro clip in the room. now i want this bumper cut down so its a flush mount to the fenders and front. what a mess. there were a couple teams that never even went to the front clip for test fits as they went, and omg, fired lol

this is all of that show thats on yt, first round, not a damn roller in sight lol make the tools you need he says lol

ff to 9:15 if this starts fromt he beginning.

https://youtu.be/XRItD51dluI?t=524

That cylinder was a good test but the pressure might have blocked my idea. Took about four minutes for me to think up my way... from the recliner.

My way: Make two washers, bend a two foot halfpipe by bumping with brake then split that, tack and trim to perfection, weld / grind. Industry norm is an hour for a foot of dressed butt weld though. I can beat it on that but I didn't see their time limit. She had the right idea because single layer. But hers was that way because she never met shrinky stretchy. He had, and couldn't see past it but that tool has that effect. My way removes more potential shape error but requires the perilous extra foot of weld. Predicting which is fastest has never been something I can do but if I couldn't smoke them two pukes its a sad day lol

Originally Posted by idrivejunk

That cylinder was a good test but the pressure might have blocked my idea. Took about four minutes for me to think up my way... from the recliner.

My way: Make two washers, bend a two foot halfpipe by bumping with brake then split that, tack and trim to perfection, weld / grind. Industry norm is an hour for a foot of dressed butt weld though. I can beat it on that but I didn't see their time limit. She had the right idea because single layer. But hers was that way because she never met shrinky stretchy. He had, and couldn't see past it but that tool has that effect. My way removes more potential shape error but requires the perilous extra foot of weld. Predicting which is fastest has never been something I can do but if I couldn't smoke them two pukes its a sad day lol

dont think they had a break to use, but ive seen that move on another show, they used the English wheel to get all the lines out of it and final shape it.

that girl actually got second place. last test iirc was they gave you a empty 40' style grill shell. now make me a grill. heres was pretty good, but not as good as the other guys, as his was more finished and cleaner.

they had em make roll pans for a truck, again the truck bed was in the shop with em. most hardly did test fits as they went, those people left early lol was a good show. hope to see the new guy on the tv show, if hes actually got what it takes to work there. i seen the avg cost of one of their cars is 250k workers make like 80k a year. thats a lot of cars to roll out a year.

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

dont think they had a break to use, but ive seen that move on another show, they used the English wheel to get all the lines out of it and final shape it.

that girl actually got second place. last test iirc was they gave you a empty 40' style grill shell. now make me a grill. heres was pretty good, but not as good as the other guys, as his was more finished and cleaner.

they had em make roll pans for a truck, again the truck bed was in the shop with em. most hardly did test fits as they went, those people left early lol was a good show. hope to see the new guy on the tv show, if hes actually got what it takes to work there. i seen the avg cost of one of their cars is 250k workers make like 80k a year. thats a lot of cars to roll out a year.

I thought I saw a brake on one wall but just a glimpse. They all had a piece of pipe so must not have been one. Thought other host dude was describing using it but he may have been talking about what would be my plan C. Good old bench vise. Curl the long piece some like the point they all reached but then tack your washer-like caps once on a corner of the long piece then rotate/ clamp/ repeat until ends meet. Like rolling a doob only don't lick the edge, weld it. Done carefully, the caps could keep it honest.

But I felt sorry for dude who was in the can when time ran out. The girl had better mojo, she threw the first one loudly, pondered, started over and won. Chicks we have hired work fine and try hard but don't stick with the job.

In the second part where old foghead clown made a Pringle's chip had me thinking he must require a joint first. My sympathies there as well. But the few seconds of bumper tuck shown in the preview was oh my goodness wtf happened.

Saw they had 3 hours on the cylinder, I was curious. I am confident that I could satisfy that just fine. One way or another!

Its probably best that I don't watch that stuff. Makes me yearn to learn but also to earn. I don't get half that but do get tolerated putting in just thirty hours and change per week. Laid back is worth a heap to me.

def so many way to skin a cat. as long as we get whats needed. its a win.

yeah they might have a tool in the shop there, but sometimes they are limited to what they can use, why he told them to make a tool if they need to.

later on in the show where the dented the fenders, well it was a pick axe, so dent and hole. most cut and shaped a square patch, but 2 went with round hole saw, both of them came out way better looking.

Oh man! Definite FML moment

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Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

def so many way to skin a cat. as long as we get whats needed. its a win.

yeah they might have a tool in the shop there, but sometimes they are limited to what they can use, why he told them to make a tool if they need to.

later on in the show where the dented the fenders, well it was a pick axe, so dent and hole. most cut and shaped a square patch, but 2 went with round hole saw, both of them came out way better looking.

Metal shaper dudes use an e-wheel to do slip roller type things, I hear.

"Picture frame" patches (butt joint on all sides) are a good test too. Because welds shrink. Proper fit-up is key, TIG users want to fuse things with no gap but a gap is needed using MIG. You might dig the hood on my Feb blog, I am back to that but today am assembling the F250.

Took the large one out for spins last weekend. The GTP is just racking up miles and mud like a champ but there are some un-nerving noises happening lol.

Installed my mps only to discover that I pressed it on too far. Got in a hurry and couldn't hold the snout shaft from spinning, so put my pulley on to be able to hold it and pressed the hub on too far. Hoped it wouldn't leak but alas it did. Now I guess I have to pull the hub back off and replace the seal.

Forgot to drop heat ranges on the spark plugs and got kr hoping it goes away with dropping to 104's. Always something with this car. Or maybe it's the operator lol

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its impossible to push the hub onto far if you used the right pulley tool.

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

its impossible to push the hub onto far if you used the right pulley tool.

I put the pulley on the hub to hold the shaft from spinning and it pushed it on too far. Think about it, with the bearing and flat washer plus the Allen head screws in the pulley that equals about 3/4" extra that you can push the hub on. First time problems. I had a extra blower so I pulled the snout off of it and put the mps on it and put it on my blower.

AL 104's helped some with the kr but I need to pulley up a size I think but I might just keep that one one for when I switch to E85. Unless my tune needs adjusted. Which dealing with intense is a bit of a challenge because of the delay in communication. Pretty much wish I had gone with zzp for my tuning.

Seeing 4.5 degrees of kr top part of second gear at wot. Had zero with stock pulley and headers so it has to be the pulley.

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Originally Posted by FordMan77

Drove it through the snow on the way to work on Wed. New Continental tires seem to do well in light snow/slush. I can hear the rockers rusting from here, lol.

On the way home today I noticed that it stumbled twice on me. Felt like it cut out. Not sure if it's the TPS since it seemed to happen around the same pedal position/speed or if the crank sensor is starting to take a sh*t. I'll have to keep an eye on the tach I guess. After 409K mi. the sensor could be dying. Not a good time if it is since it's supposed to be below freezing for the next week + more snow. My hands don't appreciate the cold like they used to.

damn with all them miles that car owes you nothing. its a trooper!