Sorry to hear that. Good help is hard to find and a good friend seems to be harder to come by these days. Loosing one that's both is a rough deal for sure. No doubt your shop won't be the same for some time to come. Remember the good times. Seems terribly young to be checking out. I'm sure he enjoyed his time with you.
Dang brother, I’m sorry about the loss of your friend. [emoji853] It messes with your head when death strikes so close. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Wow, 44. Sorry about your friend. I second all the previous comments....each day is a gift and it’s good to cherish every moment with those we love and whose company we enjoy.
Gathered up some steel and a couple of casters and started working on the rotisserie today. I need to grab some smaller casters tomorrow and get some wheels under the framework so I can roll the thing around. In this picture, I just have it sitting on some square tubing to elevate it a bit. I will weld some tubing perpendicular on the ends of the base and mount the casters to that. The metal reel spins extremely easy on those blue casters.
If you wanna borrow the "widow maker" I'll sure loan it to you! Lol, got a new wire brush to go on it
My stepbrother is in the stucco and plaster business. He told me at Christmas he was going to buy a dustless blaster setup and told me if I ever had the need for one to give him a shout. Hopefully that will do away with the need for a wire cup. I have several of them around here as well. I hope to have the rotisserie ready to get the car on it by next weekend. I got some bracing welded into the door openings since the inner and outer rockers are non-existent.
One of those dustless blasting setups would be awesome. There's one guy around this area that does mobile grit blasting but he must not like me. I asked him about blasting a subframe out of an OT Camaro once and he quoted $350 if i brought it to him. I thought that was high, maybe I'm wrong. Hang in there brother, once you start welding them panels in it'll come together quick
Thanks Casper, I was going to message you about that. Did you have any issues with figuring out the mounting and balance points? I would assume they would be similar between the 2 cars.
I just built in lots of adjustment. But I did my 47 coupe first. Balance point was much lower than for the 55 wagon. I had to cut where the body bar welds to the hoop off and raise it 12 inches. The coupe sits about 10" higher than the wagon. I'd guess your sedan delivery would mount close to where I did the wagon mounts.
Got the body totally loose from the frame this evening. I have been trying for weeks to get the steering wheel off so I could pull the column but it just wasn't cooperating. I had to get the sawzall out ( @Lloyd's paint & glass don't be calling mom again!) and cut the steering column off down by the steering box. The box was worn out anyway, and I have an extra from the 4 door car as I bought a 53-54 column way back when from a H.A.M.B.er.(Thanks again @325w!) It has bearings instead of bushings in it, much easier to turn. I'll put the old box on the chassis so I can move it around easier. A couple of pics....one of the gap under the front mounts, and one at the rear of body where it was sitting on the chassis. This is where that pain in the ass 1/8 of a turn bolt resided. You can see the nut from the failed weld attempt laying there. I picked up some 3/16" plate to continue the work on the rotisserie. I am going to build a couple of wide sawhorses this weekend and jack the body up off of the frame, slide the sawhorses under the body, and roll the chassis out from under it. I should be able to start getting the rotisserie ends mounted to the car at that point. I swear there must be 30 pounds of red Georgia clay under this car by now. You can't take any bolt out underneath without red sand pouring out and red caked on clay breaking loose and falling on you. I will be glad to get that mess cleaned up under there. The rotisserie will be very helpful with dealing that part.
Shit Monty! That reminds me, i forgot to call the cats back at glass search!! I'll call them in the morning!
It's a ways from Trenton TX to Owingsville KY. Maybe when the car gets close to needing glass I will take a few days off and trailer it up there and we can put the glass in. I'm always up for a good road trip. I will need to reset the glass in the rear door (which I have) as well as the glass in the doors and the windshield. I get something like 32 days PTO from work after I made my 10 year anniversary last October.
More work on the rotisserie yesterday and today. Ive got the basics done, now I need to get the mounting figured out. I think I will work on getting the body off the frame next. I can then start figuring out how best to mount the body.
I've been working on the project here and there, and have made some progress. Finally rolled it over on the rotisserie today. Thanks again @casper50 for the inspiration! I need to fine tune the adjustments but it should come together nicely!
I cleaned all the tools out before we rolled it over. That's a bunch of dirt dauber clumps, old fasteners and hardware, and maybe some trim. I'll get after it with the shop vac now that everything will end up in a corner at some point.
It will make life much easier. Can't do without mine. Once you find the wire reel it's a pretty easy cheap build.
The Jalopy Journal
