How do you guys do it ??? Mini rant

OK - so TODAY's the day I'm gonna drop the motor in the digger. Measure everything and at first glance it seems OK, but then it hits me - WAIT those numbers are BACKWARDS -which means the converter does NOT have enough clearance to the flexplate. I look - I measure - I measure again - I diss***emble - nothing nada. Nope this **** just don't fit - TCI trans/converter with a JW UltraBell and flexplate. All this AFTER I already had to get another THINNER adapter
In any event it's a NO -GO these parts ain't gonna work as is - no way no how - so I chuck it up in the lathe - true it and cut .093" off the spacer.

Next the damn bolts are hitting the converter. SO I machine .055" off the heads of the bolts.

Now everything at least measures OK - so I drop it in the car. Took all day ***embled it a couple times to measure everthing. Kinda pisses me off as these parts were SUPPOSED to work without mods, but the thing I really gotta wonder about is - how in the heck do the guys without access to machine tools survive?? I am fortunate that I could whittle on these parts and get them to work, but in the days when all I had was a hack saw and a grinder - how on earth did I ever survive???

Ok Rant OVER.

Motor is IN!!! finally!

 

We don't.
We get pissed. We toss things. Then we let the project sit for 6 months.

Then we sell the motor and ****** to some other poor slob and buy a matched running unit we can go see and hear.

 

Yep. Then buy more parts.

 

they come over to me and get me to do it..

 

Stick with a tried and true formula. When you're mixin' you have to almost expect to have to fab.

Look at the bright side, when someone post about the problem that matches yours, you get to be the hero.

 

Us poor saps trow things and go back in the house and let it sit for a day or two. Come back out and do it right this time and everything works perfect or as Hog say buy more part to replace the one we broke ofter it did not fit.

 

you got it done. you over came the obstacles and did what you needed to do. thats what we all do. back in high school i would file parts by hand til they fit. its no different. you just do what needs to be done. thats hot rodding!

 

Don't get me wrong - I got no problem - doing what needs done. I've been working on this car for YEARS - literally started with a pile of tubing. What ticks me off is PAYING good hard earned money for
parts that don't fit. I've fabbed a bunch o **** for this car - some stuff I HAD to buy 'cuase it had to be SFI approved - that's ok, but how in teh heck do these companys stay in business selling stuff that don't work.

But you're right - It's done fineto -moving to the next mountain to climb!!!! - starter lokks like it's gonna be a issue!!

 

i see your point now. i thought you were asking how average guys build there cars. how companys that sell poor fitting junk stay in business is an entirely different question. i wonder about that too!

 

Grinder................The poor man's lathe!
Same problem here, every time I order something.

 

My grinder, die grinder, drill press, files, Rolling Rock, rest, think about it and repeat the above process untill it fits.
and if push come to shove I have to hire sombody to mill it ect.

and yes even the store bought rear panhardrod bracket for a for 9" , I hade to redrill one hole to get it to fit. And how many year did they make Ford 9" rears.

 

Glad to hear its in...........this is one of the reasons I do not built anything untill I have all the actual parts to be used, and have done a complete mock up with them, then I build........it is hard enough to stay steps ahead, modification is a part of the game, and having the correct equipment is a luxury..........Littleman...building anything is nothing but solving one problem after another........some times it takes the fun out of it, but we all go back for more........

 

In light of my prolific friend Fat Brian's idea....I have a cheap set of wrenches. When I cant get **** to fit and Ive tried everything, I put down the Snap On wrench, pickup the cheapo Chinese wrench, and throw the **** out of it.

 

a description of all aftermarket hot rod accessories [and My motto]:


remember.....Nothing fits Nothing.

 

standard in the hotrod parts business.....One part fits nothing. I'd rather 'make' the part than 'remake' the part anytime. Funny thing with hotrod parts too. The more expensive, the more they need to be reworked.

 

At first, I could not do it. Then, after failing many times I got so I could do it poorly. And then better. And today I can usually figure a way to do it or a way to fix it. Even so, sometimes I get stumped. And when that happens I turn to my friends. Someone always seems to know what to do or how to do it. Or has the tool that I can not afford. Hot rodding is a social disease.

 

Don't forget the part where your customer comes in and says " you haven't been doing much today I guess by the looks of it". If they only knew.

 

quote from fatman fabrication to my uncle after ordering a mustang ll for his 50 chevy pick up and him calling because something wasnt right,,,....

"welcome to the world of customizing"

,,i thought that was cl***ic

 

This is the EXACT reason I've spent a good deal of my life working to buy the equipment I have in the shop. I like doing things myself so having a couple of lathes, a Bridgeport, a surface grinder. 3 drill presses, 2 sheet metal brakes, 2 verticle bandsaws, cutoff saw, industrial tubing bender. a horizontal mill, tig welder,2 mig welders, oxy/acc setup , profile torch setup, power sheet metal shear, 10 ton press, 3 shot bags, a small english wheel, 2 planishing hammers, dozens of metal shaping hammers and 4 double roller tool boxes filled to overflowing, and a couple of cabinets full of power hand tools lets me get MOST of the jobs I encounter done with the least effort. Even then I rely on a few local craftsmen who's talent I'll never be able to match if I live to be 100 years old.
I used most of this equipment to make a living for the last 35+ years. It's nice to still have it to "play" with now that I'm slowing down. I'm a blessed person to have my hobby be my job, it usually doesn't work to have it that way.

Frank

 

Yeah, I know what you mean.

The first time I ran into this was as a kid; I bought an Edelbrock linkage adaptor to put MoPar kickdown on a Holley 0-1850. It didn't fit, but came with instructions (gee, thanks Vic!) on how to take a rat tail file to the mounting holes to make it work. It was a simple ****ing bracket that was sold to adapt ONE kind of kickdown onto ONE kind of carb.

But it hasn't changed. I just bought a brand ****ing new 7/8" stroker crank for my pickup... got a call from the machine shop - it's got .0015" taper on all 5 mains. Called the shop that sold it to me; they're not going to have one to replace it for 3-4 months. So, off to the crank grinder goes the new crank. I'm almost afraid to check the rods.

I was talking to a cylinder head guy last week; I had been (note tense... had) thinking about buying a set of heads next year from the shop that sold me the crank. But, I'm expecting I'd have to rework 'em in order to use 'em. The castings are $700/pr or come complete for $900/pr. But who knows how much to make 'em work.

So, I asked what about other heads... The eddie RPM's usually get about $500 (half in porting, half in correcting problems) before they leave his shop; Indys require some work too. The factory Mopar aftermarket heads take all kinds of money to straighten out. Note that these are all sold as "ready-to-run" heads.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind having to do work on parts, if they were sold as 'semi-finished'. But I'm with you, it's a pisser when the stuff that's supposed to work OOTB doesn't.

-bill

 

Sounds like race car parts to me. Look at it like your building the "advanced modelers kit model".

 

HAHAHAHA!!!!! SUbconsciously I do it myself, but my god it feels good to see it put into words! HAHAHAHA!!!

 

You start off doing things the hardway, filing and other **** jobs, then you buy cheap machines, drill, lathe, etc. Then you find your still filing because the cheap machines don't work that well. Then you buy better machines, then you hire an apprentice, then you teach him how to file and grind by hand. Because you now know that machines make life easy and parts accurate, but, real knowledge comes only by using your hands first. When the poor guy has that "why me" look on his face, you know the look, he wants to use the $30,000 lathe
and you've just handed him a file. Then you start to tell him the stories of how you had to do it and the time your nearly cut your thumb off etc, etc. Now you have him convinced he is continuing a fine tradition, you just have to keep him at it and his spirits up while you use the you-beaut machine to do a less complicated job. Ahhhh,
they don't make em like they used to.

 

too funny! I used to be a wrench thrower too, some of them I never did find. What finally cured me was when one I threw bounced and knocked my own cars headlight out, felt like a total fool in front of my dad, who never gets upset at anything. Now I just go play the drums a while.

 

Shoving the project in a dark corner for some amount of time usually helps 'fixing' the issues I sometimes have... LOL

But,
HemiRambler.... Why TCI?

 

I am pretty fortunate to have a local shop to be good friends with. Other than that i rough everything. I dont have any fancy files, or grinders... Maybe one day!
But until then, its me and 10,000 sheets of 36-400 grit sandpaper.

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of hot rodding. i don't think it will ever change

 

You should re-post this concept for tech week.

 

Bfh.

 

I got to start thinking this way..