I wonder how many hours he has just in posting on this thread. This thread is almost like being there.
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55 Wagon Progress
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Old Dog, scared to add it up...
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i used to keep a clipboard and log time in/out and charge $20/hour
and "friends" and family STILL stiffed me on the bills so now i only
work on my own stuff, f@rk everyone elses stuff take it to the shop
and pay $149+ an hour for shittier work.
funny how friends/family screw you the most.
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More console progress today, started off using Rotacutter to put a hole in the transmission tunnel for the shifter cable. The bulkhead seal that came with the cable has some mounting holes, we'll use some AVK style rivet nuts for ease of installation/replacement.
More anchors welded to the floor, some "crossmembers" fabricated, and welded into the console.
To locate the holes in the crossmembers, some spotters are set in the anchors, console placed, and crossmember tapped from above to mark.
Next we need to close off the front of the storage cavity to give us an anchor point for the latch. So we started the fabrication but found some limitations in our acute dies for the press brake.
Not quite enough bend, so we opted for a piece of sharpened 12 ga cold rolled to give us a bit more....
Trimmed and welded in place...
Video version:
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We were originally going to hinge the console lid along the passenger side, but thought it would be better accessible from either front seat if it was hinged at the rear. We're using the same hinge as we used for the widened glove box door. In our attempt to add a torsion spring to keep the lid upright in the open position, we couldn't find the size to fit our 1/8" diameter hinge pin with enough torsion to hold the lid open. (Yes, even McMaster failed us) So we decided to wrap our own. Here's a fixture we made for the Aloris tool holder on the South Bend to act as a guide for the 1/16" music wire.
We also installed the older 3 jaw chuck, but not before adding a "wire catch"
Here's a video of us wrapping the spring... As my South Bend lacks slow enough speed for such a task, we opted for manual rotation..
Here's the positioning and function of the hinge with torsion spring installed...
With our hinge now positioned, we also found we needed to move the hinge closer to the rear edge for better lid clearance while open. Back up and punt you say?
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Didn't get as many pictures this weekend as I'd have liked. While I worked on some final details on the console, Jake made some cardboard templates of our rear armrests. These will also serve to hide the seat belt retractors for the front buckets, as well as the rear speakers.
Here Jake transferring the pattern to some 19 gauge cold rolled, cleaning up some of the lines as well...
I was welding in the front cross piece that Jake made to the console and had some underside welds to do. Sometimes we make it easier on ourselves, especially if we can't weld upside-down all too well..
Suspended from the door track...
The hinge at the rear now moved rearward, metal added for mounting the hinge and securing the "storage recess".
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OK, here's our update for the past couple weeks..
We're working on getting the seats ready to go to the upholsterer, and these 2002 Monte Carlo seat belts just aren't cutting it...
This these belts are riveted to a bracket that stands off from the seat, and we'll need to stand off our replacement as well. So the rivets are removed and the new seat belt gets bolted to the same bracket using 1/2" bolt, grade 8. The "new" seat belts look much more vintage correct.
With console in place and bezel checked to proper height, anchors are set in place for welding to the floor pan. Bolted to shifter plate for proper alignment and standoffs used to provide space to get in there and weld...
Next, our replacement for the parking brake pull handle didn't fit just right so an extension was added that will use factory holes, we do need to drill the firewall for the studs out the front end..
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Jake's progress on the rear seat kick panel...
Tipping wheel on the Fasti folds over the top flange that will hold our arm rest..
Bolting bracket that will secure the kick panel to the inner quarter..
And here we're cutting out our console lid...
Thinning bend lines for a more crisp bend...
A piece of round rod in our magnetic brake gives us radius-ed corners...
A few passes in the Tommasini Wheeling Machine gives a bit of crown for better support
Corner details TIG welded in...
Corner detail test fit...
There we go, all caught up!
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More work on the lid...
Lid hangs over slightly in the front to serve as our only pull/lift for opening the lid, nice and tidy. It will be held closed using rare earth magnets.
Video version:
Our kick panels for the rear seat also need some support against the inner quarter panel to help hold the arm rest.
Jake bent up a 1 x 1 angle out of 19 gauge and used the Erco to match the contour of the kick panel. In order to not block off the window mechanism access panel, we'll bolt it to that panel.. As we have yet to install all of our interior/carpet/upholstery, we made the support adjustable so we can match the kick panel height at installation.. Video version:
Arm rest support at inner quarter panel. We made this height adjustable so we can match kick panel height when upholstery is installed. Bolts to window acc...
More details on the console, we had hemmed all the edges to help protect the upholstery when it gets wrapped, but the tunnel cutout at the rear still needed an "added" hem. Then our hem is tacked in place, edges adjusted with a drum sander, and the two edges fusion welded together using the TIG.
....and sanded smooth..
Next, layout and folding the insert for the console. Some parts needed to fill in voids will be added later..
Test fit....
Video:
Last edited by MP&C; February 25, 2018, 06:42 PM.
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Finishing up our floor weldments so we can visit the local Line-x for "undercoating" this coming week.. Our bucket seats have one bolt that went through the floor, and we wanted to eliminate the need for two people to install/remove the hardware.. We came up with a plate fitted to the floor pan channel that we welded a hex nut onto. This plate will allow us to plug weld to the floor...
The rear quarter also has some bolting pads where the side ears to the rear bumper is bolted through. We needed to make stiffener plates to strengthen this area.
We made use of some tubing in the scrap pile to make a punch and anvil... Everything's a tool...
Alignment marks in the centers of the tubes..
Ready for Line-x
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