rebuilding after the crash

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Marcus...

 

Today's fun in the 15 degree weather. I picked up a Hardinge lathe. These lathes are super precision units. They are used for finish work. The price on this bad boys was free. A retired machinist gifted it to me. A donation to help keep the car going. This lathe is no longer produced. They are sought after machines.

 

nice! did you get tooling with it?

 

Yes. Three retired machinist have dropped off alot of stuff over the last few months. They brought it all home from their jobs. Then it sat around in their way. They just keep bringing over more stuff. There so much now I need to get shelves to organize it all. I tell them you can't just drop things off you have to show me how to use it. Of course these guys can come over any time to use the machines. This is only some of it.

 

The car was painted today. It was three stage paint. It's a candy color. I'm not a painter it's just what I was told. It will get sanded and buffed on tuesday. I will pick it up sometime next week.

 

Lordie; that's some *nice* save. Wish I had friends like that. But my gar/shop wouldn't hold just your tools/tooling, much less anything else... ;( . Seriously glad it's not going to waste.
Marcus...

 

Nice score on the machine shop equipment. Your photos could have been taken at my workstation. I spent more than a few hours standing in front of a Hardinge Lathe or a Bridgeport mill.

 

It's good for a half thousandth he claims. I have to believe him. I told a few machinist friends about it. They can't believe I got it. They all want to buy it. I can't sell it. He trusts me to take care of it along with some of his other items. If you have not seen my 57 barn find vette thread check it out. It's the same guy from that story and the 421 tri power motor story. Somehow and I'm not sure why this guy entered my life. We developed a friendship. He is a long time nitro junkie. He started helping do some work on my car lately. Due to his age it's kind of limited what he can do. I tell him when we will be racing locally. He comes out to help. This has really given him a new purpose at his age. It's all he talks about. I never tried to get a thing from him just be a friend. Now after several years he is trusting me to care for his prize possessions. I'm truly honored that he trusts me to take care of all of this. He is turning 90 soon so he is very concerned about what will happen to all of his stuff. He just wants someone to take care of it and appeciate it after he is gone. You just can't make this stuff up.

 

;

Unfortunately, this is happening more and more. Good that you can appreciate what you've been given.

 

Also glad you're giving him a new(another) reason to enjoy life, longer. Sometimes helping folks is almost as good as doing it yourself - esp iffen you've already done it, at least once. Trust(a 2-way street) is a rare commodity these days.
Marcus...

 

Yes machinery is good to have in my case I never have a big enough Lathe and I have Two,
1927 & 31 , I like to have one swing like 16 ,
I was @ shop over in Pa , there was a set up with 3
Bridgeport , to duplicate what main one was machining, Tracer,

South & East, Fla pretty much year round,
Its 30 here to night ,plain for a little ride & few test pulls .

 

The car was buffed today. It will be waxed tomorrow. There's some weather coming this week so things were moved up. The lathe was moved into the shop today. It couldn't stay outside getting snowed on.

 

And this is how neighborhood machine shops are born. Very cool man

 

All I need is some neighbors. I live in the middle of a corner field. Across the street is a cemetery to the north; cows to the south. My one neighbor across the street owns a fork truck. It's come in handy a few times unloading the machines.

 

The car came home today without incident. The blend is perfect. The entire car was sanded with 1000 grit then buffed. The car glows again. I should get the tubs back any day. This was a huge undertaking. I'm glad it's done. It was worth it. I have good people working with me.

 

Like it had always been that way!

 

Compair the two pics. Alot was cut off. It's almost up to the body line.

 

Pretty dramatic!

 

Looks great Brian.
And, so glad to see your continued posts here.

 

Looks good! You are so fortunate to have that talent readily available to do that level of work.

 

It's taken a lifetime to develop those relationships. Hard work makes it all possible. It's truly a group effort.

 

Looks perfect Brian, I really dig this new look, and those slicks WOW!

 

A follow-up to the above. Took me a while as I work away from home. I took both wheels to a regular tyre shop, and they dynamic balanced them. The first one needed some weight, about where I had bubble-balance it, and about the same amount. So far, so good.

They mounted the second wheel, and spun it up. The young tyre tech went a pale shade of grey, and called his supervisor. The machine was asking for 28oz of weight... more than I thought, and still horrible. Dismounted the tyre, and spun up just the rim - it asked for 3oz, so close to OK for a cast item. The problem is in the tyre. Didn't know whether to laugh or cry when the supervisor put the tyre on the flat, polished concrete floor and it slowly rolled until the heavy side was down.

Off to the tyre supplier to discuss a replacement M/T slick.

Cheers,
Harv

 

Been there on the tires. I got a few bad ones from Coker. The street tires i have road force balanced on a hunter machine.

 

If you get a new tire make extra sure it's the same circumference.

 

Alot is going on today. I ran to Illinois to pick up the wheel tubs. They turned out great. They fit perfect. The car was raised up one inch for more clearance for the tire. The car looks better to. The spare lenco was finished. It has a 1.34 gear. We will test it. If the 1.25 proves to be better I have two spare 1.25s. I will be carrying two extra clutch packs in the trailer ready to go next year. Sunday the cars lenco and Bruno comes out for servicing.

 

While taking pictures i must have bumped something on the phone. I couldn't download pics. It said the file was too big. After a lot of trial and error I got it reset. Here's the rest from tonight.

 

I haven't even wiped it off. It's very dusty from the paint shop. Just look at that shine. It's going to look great on a sunny day.

 

Are you still running a dummy shaft and just one gear set in the trans? If so, when you settle on a combo, will you go to a two speed and a longer driveshaft?

 

The date for the 20th Anniversary World Fuel Altered Nationals has been set: