Metal Work Pictures

[IHKeith]

 Today I made an adapter plate for pulling rear wheel bearings on a Toyota Tundra, in the past I have torched them apart, which is nasty, this truck is the first since I've been self employed, I looked for a proper puller, it was last Thursday or Friday, couldn't get the one with the adapter plate or pattern for this truck this week, but could get the same one minus the one adapter plate for about $100 less and delivered by Sunday, mint, I'll make the plate Sunday and do the job Monday or Tuesday, the truck owner works for my parents so he's on the property throughout the week from 8-5

As it really happened...  didn't get to the Tundra right at 8 this Thursday morning, more like 10, before 10 I looked at and sold another day's worth of work on another truck and finished a car that took a couple hours later than expected last night, got the Tundra apart and verified I had all the right parts just before noon, busy as heck!!!

My Wife had the day off today, we previously planned on going out for lunch, type of thing we seldom do together.  When she saw my workload around 11 she suggested we could go to lunch next Tuesday, I almost agreed, but thinking about it for less than 3 minutes I realized;  what lie am I believing that I'll be less busy another day, in the past 15 years she and my kids have waited long enough on broken cars, the cars can wait an hour or two every week or two from now on, the four of us had a good lunch together today

At around 1pm today I started making the plate for the Tundra, far cry from Sunday afternoon, but got it done and got the truck fixed, here's some pics of the plate and some exhaust pics as well

[IHKeith]

[stronger800]

You’ll have to explain that bearing puller plate to me. You said rear, but that looks like a front unit hub bearing there to me, I’ve never used a puller on those. Didn’t happen to snap anymore pictures did you?

[hardtail]

Good for you both for going out on your own and making priorities early on in the game, your going to need to cash that chit in many times in the future

[IHKeith]

8 hours ago, stronger800 said:

You’ll have to explain that bearing puller plate to me. You said rear, but that looks like a front unit hub bearing there to me, I’ve never used a puller on those. Didn’t happen to snap anymore pictures did you?

These are some pictures I found on the web of the setup on the Toyota

[stronger800]

Huh, thanks . I am not familiar with Toyota technology. On a GM, you’d pull the pin/snap ring and slide it out 

[IHKeith]

11 hours ago, stronger800 said:

Huh, thanks . I am not familiar with Toyota technology. On a GM, you’d pull the pin/snap ring and slide it out 

A Ford 9 inch or a GM 10 bolt with bolt in axles are a similar idea, a Ford 8n has a similar setup as well

[IHKeith]

I was cleaning up today and decided my puller plate should be painted 

 

I changed a pitman arm on a 2016 Chev 2500 tonight, I slice the old arm with an air saw and split it with a chisel to remove it on these trucks, the cut and split on this truck was the best one to date, I think I owe that to experience and the recent change from L style to V style hi flo air line fittings 

 

[IHKeith]

Building a derby car, found some unexpected rust in the frame 

[IHKeith]

[stronger800]

Looks good.  wouldn’t be allowed up here though, I don’t think. Kid that worked for me got disqualified for having a plate welded onto his frame once. It was just holding the shackle on, but they called it “reinforcement”. 

[IHKeith]

[IHKeith]

I’m pretty proud of the bolt in cage I made for my derby car, as pictured in the previous post

My first run in 5 years with it wasn’t good, my ignition coil wire fell off a minute in, I got beat up well enough while sitting there dead, a couple repairs and I’ll run it again this Sunday 

[stronger800]

I don’t think anything like that exists in NY.  Although I’ve never watched a derby, I see the cars getting towed around in trailers, and the metal tube and rod that you used above I’m sure would cost more than the entire cars that I see. They are scrap 

[nepoweshiekfarmalls]

That is how Rednecks recycle cars!

[IHKeith]

On 9/21/2022 at 8:34 AM, stronger800 said:

I don’t think anything like that exists in NY.  Although I’ve never watched a derby, I see the cars getting towed around in trailers, and the metal tube and rod that you used above I’m sure would cost more than the entire cars that I see. They are scrap 

It definitely exists somewhere in NY, I’ve never been active in that scene but it is similar from what I’ve heard, what I did is pretty “standard” and even relatively tame in the realm of a “stock” build, the cage is only attached to the body save for the 2 threaded rods that go from the seat bar through the frame as support and additional body mount, typically the max diameter of pipe/square tube allowed is 4” and it seems common to use 2-3”, if you use 4” you are an over builder, lol, it’s humorous  how intimidating 4” square tubing can appear, and I love it, I figured if you’re only allowed to securely fasten your cage to the body and not to strategically reinforce the frame that it is still a benefit to make it heavy for increased ballast 

To say that this 91 town car is stock, it only has the body shell, frame and suspension/steering linkages

Chevy 350 engine, turbo 400 transmission, 10 bolt Chevy differential with bolt in 12 bolt axles and 4:56 gears, sliding splined driveshaft with farm PTO yokes for increased oscillation and travel, Chevy front springs make the front end higher, 75 Cordoba front bumper, seam welded, collapsed/compressed bumper shocks, double tires(one tire inside another and tubed) 

I already had the car, engine, diff, driveshaft, tires, transmission and a couple other bits 

I was very fortunate for the deal on the steel for the cage, I got it all for under $150, heck of a deal, beyond the cost of materials like grinding wheels and welding wire put about another $1000 into it in incidental materials

it seems ridiculous but this is what your local derby legend does at minimum to try and get 10 minutes of glory if they are lucky  

 

 

 

[IHKeith]

 

I’m really happy with how this one turned out 

[stronger800]

Well yes, that right there, is something I’m much more familiar with. Very nice.

the derby car though, never seen or heard of anything like that 

[IHKeith]

1 minute ago, stronger800 said:

Well yes, that right there, is something I’m much more familiar with. Very nice.

the derby car though, never seen or heard of anything like that 

This black Chevy is different too!!

[IHKeith]

My friend dropped off his 56 Chev 210, it’s a good performer, quite faster than most vehicles on the road

The later model Ram Hemi and Ford 5.0 half tons with a plug in tuner seem to be capable of 400 horsepower or more, and have 6 or more gears, really perform impressive at the stoplight, say can wallop a 300-350 horsepower small block Chevy powered 82 Monte Carlo that once was the fastest car around

Bob’s 56 body is mounted on a 90 Caprice frame, with a 6L/4L80 from a 2000ish 2500 Silverado pickup, he was the one of the first ones to LS swap an old car around here, he did it all in the old hot rodding way at first, building it with what he had and not spending money but lots of time, no fancy tuning and wiring harness or swap brackets and such, he put the whole truck harness in the car for the lights and all, used the truck steering column because it needed it for security system to work, it has hydroboost brakes, I have heard old guys criticize his execution because of the amount of 3/4 ton truck present, or the caprice frame, they were just jealous that Bob did it cheap with junk and a welder over the winter, their 55-57 Chevy or other classic doesn’t exist or doesn’t have power steering, power brakes, or a motor that will beat a 400 horsepower newer truck 

This car has gone through stages of burning through diffs, blowing the driveshaft and eating a transmission, they have been built back stronger, the 400000km engine still keeps ticking, dyno’d at 374 horsepower at the wheels 

I’ve probably spent about $7000 and tons of time trying to beat this car with a 4.8 and then a 5.3 in my truck, and with a 355 camel hump headed, high compression small block in my Oldsmobile, which I had high hopes for, but was disappointed with, it has all the right parts for a street able SBC in their glory but is still only 300-350 horsepower at the flywheel, could be better utilized with a looser converter and lower gears at the expense of drivability, I have a 1980 Buick with a vortec headed 350, just a junkyard build with an edelbrock cam and carb intake, it pulls harder than the 355, it really works well, I modeled the build close to a GM 350HO crate motor, rated at 330hp

I can remember before I went for power, when I was proud that I could rebuild a quadrajet, and getting all of the 140 horsepower that the 305 had was great, never bought into the “quadrabog” reputation, a quadrajet with electric choke is mint, vs any other 4bbl carb I’ve been around it’s the only one that usually  defaults to not giving enough fuel when it’s dirty instead of brutally flooding it, I find most 2bbl or 1bbl carbs ok, I don’t mind carter afbs or Holley 4bbls where they belong, the indiscriminate plunking of an edelbrock or Holley in place of a dirty quadrajet usually is terrible, factory original fuel lines hacked in favour of rubber hose, throttle linkage jimmied, overfueling, local armchair experts saying that it’s because of the 600cfm carb on a stock small block, when the stock quadrajet was probably 800cfm

we can only work with what the general gave us my shop foreman would say back in the my GM dealer days, and the general gave camel hump heads, then quadrajets instead of Holleys with transfer tubes, then vortec heads and then the LS, that was enough,  no need to progress past 2005

long ramble here, it was started in the spirit that a 6L can be metal worked into a car to really run, but rambling on about quadrajets makes me feel like I need to mention that it’s pretty hard to beat an 80s GM with overdrive, electric choke and a quadrajet for economy with a v7

 

 

 

 

[IHKeith]

[IHKeith]

[IHKeith]

Here some IH not far from the garage

my cousin is ready to fill the grain bin