Hot Rods The "Whatever" project

The finished piece

 

That looks great! I spent a couple of hours getting more of the greasy, grimy stuff off. Next some reassembly. Then a plug or 3, and I'll have at it...

I like it nice and shiny, I'm thinking that instead of black, I'd like Chevy orange from the water pump to the tailhousing, and all of the parts in between. That and engine turn the engine plates/firewall assembly. The body is going to be refrigerator white, just like my race cars were. Spray bombs are cheap, easy, and just as easily retouched when needed.

Another thing I have to take care of is a shifter. Gimpyshotrods recommended Core Shifters, he's used them frequently. Made in the USA, and reasonable price to boot. But I don't know how long the stick needs to be. So the next step is to get the transmission together and back in the car to determine shifter choice. Then back out for clean-up. Paint or ??? Can wait, because you know, whatever...

Pictures tomorrow

 

Dave, make sure you get a shifter with stops. Over shifting the T5 will result in broken shift forks. Ask me how I know!

 

Thanks for the heads up! I don't normally get rambunctious and beat on the shifter in a manual transmission vehicle, but I did once or twice in my past. Cost me an M22 rock crusher once, and yes you can damage them! And I took out an ot mid engine manual transmission in an 85 gm vehicle...

SWMBO had an 88 Mustang GT that we both drove somewhat hard. That one went 100k w/o problems. The other vehicle I had with a T5 was an early 90s S10 base model truck, but I only kept it for 17,000 miles. Just too underpowered! If I break this one in the Whatever project, I'll have to go back to the T10 I guess...

I'll be getting it back together regardless of if I use it, so that I don't loose any of the pieces. Besides it's easier to clean up right now, being all apart. And speaking of which, that's today's effort, get the T5 clean and back together.

 

Pictures first. Everyone says that if there's no pictures, it didn't happen:

Still haven't gotten to the removal of the grime Completely! It comes off with a little elbow grease and a small brass brush and various solvents. Got the oily, greasy dirty stuff off, now that it's sealed up I'll attack it with the least noxious chemicals first and see what I can do. I've got to make a plug or 3 to seal up the input shaft, the output shaft, and the speedometer sensor hole. I might have to take serious steps like vtwhead suggested, so I'll take the extra effort to be sure that it's sealed up for anything I can throw at it.

But tomorrow or Saturday before I get carried away with cleaning, I'm going to put it in the Whatever project and figure out logistics. Such as how long and what shape should the shifter be. And can I get a gas pedal in there that I can actually use with my 8E width feet. And will the transmission be exposed to the world or can I, or should I make a floor and tunnel to cover it up.

So I'm open to suggestions and observations about the above comments. I've gotten so many great ideas for the Whatever project either directly from everyone, or through plagiarism. Remember, it's the greatest form of compliment!

 

@Tim_with_a_T had the idea to lay carpet over the trans (gap), then 'glass over that for the tunnel.
Then he went and built a wire form and 'glassed that instead. I'm sure you saw the latter. Great work.
As for cleaning, I'd try a small pump, a wading pool and a mild solution of cleaner. Set it up, let it run overnight and let it just erode the dirt.

 

Now I have to go back and read Tim's thread again! But I do seem to remember seeing that... chicken wire and fiberglass and some large welding rod. And the nephew, ratrodder. Hey, I like co-opting other people's time.

I've seen dry ice blasting and think that it might be a good way to clean stuff like this. On the plus side, only the grime residue is left, and no liquid to get into the case. On the negative side, it might not get the grime completely off. Oh, and the expense. I don't have a clue how much it will cost these days.

 

https://www.precisiondryiceblasting.com/

 

Thanks. How did you find it, when I drew a blank? Oh, right! I've already admitted to being computer illiterate! Some day when I grow up, I'm going to learn how to use these new fangled computer things...

That company is only 44 miles away. That's not even an hour drive from here! On my list of things to do Monday!

Great lead. Now on to the next step...

Through diligence and web searching, and, well mostly just dumb luck, while looking for a shifter for the transmission, I've looked at a few, quite a few, different shifters. And I came across Hanlon Motorsports and their Pro 5.0 Power Tower Shifter. Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on them and their products. Cost seems reasonable, and they have the same bolt pattern as a Hurst shifter handle.

So any opinions feel free to pass them along. If I hadn't been waylaid by a migraine today, I'd have installed the transmission back in the Whatever project for fitup. That's tomorrow now...

 

Go to your favorite search engine.
Type in - dry ice blasting new york - .
It was one of the first 5 results.
example
https://www.ecosia.org/search?method=index&q=dry ice blasting new york

 

Like I said before, I'm semi-computer illiterate! That and I'm so waiting for Snake Pliskin to flip the switch... Again, thanks!

BTW, have you glanced at the picture of me and the #54 37 Chevy sedan? That picture is 50 years ago. That should tell you something. What, I don't know. But something...

 

Please let us know a ball park price for getting the T5 done. I have several.

 

Dave, you weren't immersed in it like younger generations. Just think of a question and type it in.
If you want a picture, type in a short description and click on Images. If you aren't getting the results you want, rephrase the question. After a while, you can pick up extra steps, like searching a particular site for words or excluding stuff in your search.
Here's a video under 3 minutes long showing how to use just your Address Bar.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBUEU9z5DVY

 

Here is your handle being searched in Bing.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=Dave+G+in+Gansevoort
Google
https://www.google.com/search?q=Dave+G+in+Gansevoort
Ecosia
https://www.ecosia.org/search?method=index&q=Dave G in Gansevoort
Duck Duck Go
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=h_&q=Dave+G+in+Gansevoort&ia=web
The results show you active here and on bangshift. As you go down the list, the results start getting less likely.

I'll mention that there are a bunch of search engines, you can even build your own. The modern equivalent of dragging a field car out, getting it running and having the freedom to drive it anywhere you want, but online, to put it in context. No, I'm also not young enough to be building my own sites and searches, but I see them out there.

 

I'm so waiting for Snake Pliskin to flip the switch. Thanks, that's interesting to see. I went to college a little later in life than most, late 20s. It was 1981, and the pc was just on the horizon. Most of the professors were "old school" and our exams were set up to test us on our understanding of the material in the class. We'd only need simple calculators to solve the problem. And not loose significant credit if we screwed up the calculator part, just a couple percent of the total. Setting up the problems was what they really wanted to see.

I'm going to call on Monday and see what the costs will be. And I'm thinking if it's reasonable, that I've got a bunch of stuff that needs to be cleaned up. The firm's website mention on site cleaning. If it's reasonable to have them come here, I'm considering getting a bit more done. I'll pass along any information gleaned.

 

Thanks, will like to hear a real quote.
From the site, it looks like they mainly do big pro equipment. So either they *might* sneak in a couple small parts on the side and be reasonable, or if you have a pickup load or enough stuff around to make it worth a house call, it might be a deal.
I follow a few youtubes, and just like any service, they tout some shops. One person has their own setup, but buying the dry ice in the required pellets means 750 for a big tub. Not cheap and you need to be ready to do nothing but for a day or 2.

 

You'll see it here whatever the outcome... I'm hoping it's not too expensive. I'm lazy as well as being thrifty. They go in opposite directions on a scale.

 

Contact established, waiting for a cost estimate. Sent pictures of the stuff I'd like cleaned.

 

Oof! Just got the cost estimate. It's not cheap! Way above my pay grade. $500/hour, and what needs to be cleaned was estimated at 4 hours. I guess I'll have to put in the effort and use elbow grease!

I don't think this is excessive given the cost of the dry ice, portable equipment, and the like. And I don't think it would be profitable for the company to only do 1 hour. This could be viable for someone who has a valuable collector car.

Oh well, at least we know what one place charges...

Maybe I should buy a soda blast setup. Or maybe just a lot of small bristle brushes and cleaning solvents...

 

I was afraid of that!

 

Went old school on this case Dave. Hit it with black beauty. Total cost $13 for the BB. I could use play sand at HD but they won't sell it to you if you admit you are blasting with it. Imagine that.

 

silicosis is real.
Nice job on the gearbox.
I was afraid of a big ticket too. Let's face it, a profitable company is going to have overhead, tool and material costs and labor. I don't know exactly what a base number is for that and it will vary greatly, but an hour of shop time isn't going to be pocket change anywhere.

 

I agree with that assessment. They appear to have a good reputation, and like we all know, they have overhead and that's inescapable. So yes, I will be cleaning by hand.

Looking at the brighter side, I'll get some therapy for my hands...

 

Not cleaned up completely yet, but clean enough for now. There's a mongrel T5 transmission in the Whatever project! Yay!

And it's been pointed out that the aluminium diamond plate has to go. And I agree. So that's the first discussion topic for today.

They are both shaped to fit around stuff in the inside of the body. It seems to me that I can use them to lay up fiberglass floor panels. But I have no idea what I'm talking about...

The bottom of the plates are nice and smooth, which seems like that would be a good surface that would make the upper surface of the floor sections. So someone who has a clue, please in whatever detail you would like to explain to me, could you let me know the basic steps to make a panel? I'm going to make an effort to search for an example, but as I have said before, I'm a computer idiot! And it seems every time I try, I get results that just don't help... Yeah, I'm a hopeless case!

So back to the transmission, it looks like the shifter is going to fall in a good location for the lever. A slight offset to the passenger side of the transmission, and back a tiny bit, and it should be right next to my right knee. It should be one of the easiest parts to make...

The next 3 pictures show the foot room for my 9-8E feet.
I'm thinking that I'll need some tighter fitting shoes, but that's not a big deal. The accelerator pedal is probably going to be up over the bellhousing and I'll need to make a heel cup so my foot stays where I want it. But it's going to be snug down there.

 

Hey Dave, you are lucky with your feet. How about Size15 EEE. My partner at work would tell the Iron Age safety shoe guy that they need to cut two steers out of the heard to make my shoes and McDonald's will have a sale on burgers,

 

I am not the guru of 'glass, but I'd think that just like steel or aluminum, ridges or dimples would improve strength and keep the drumming down. How that's incorporated would be another rabbit hole.
I've seen people lay it out on a piece of glass to get it dead flat. I'll look for videos to PM you tomorrow.

 

Thanks! I might have been unclear. I'm thinking that the back of the diamond plates would be the side to use for a mold, for lack of the proper term. It's smooth which if my thinking is somewhat correct, would then make the upper surface of the floor panels, the sides that would be visible. And smooth, not ridged.

And I'm looking forward to seeing some videos. I keep trying, but I'm just not getting anything worth watching. I'm also going back to Tim's thread, again, to review the wire frame. Got that section bookmarked now... figured that out on my own! Saves time scrolling through a bazillion pages. You'd think that I'd have learned a thing or two by now.

 

No, the plate can sure be used, it's already the right size. I just added that dead flat might not be the best and why.

I was unhappy last night and didn't look at many and found nothing great. There are a ton of 'glass videos, from model aircraft to full size car concepts to boat repair. I'll try to find some today.

 

I would think you could glue some wooden trim strips to your floor template, to act as a bead rolled area (some x’s or similar), then find a spray product to grease the whole thing up before you lay up fiberglass over top. When done, pop your glass floor off the template - you’d have a floor that looks like it was stamped or bead rolled, and you could just bond/tab it to the sides of the body. I think for the floor you’re gonna wanna do at least 5 layers- two of those being woven and the other three chopped strand. That’s just a guess/idea, though. I don’t have experience with laying up a floor. If I could do the belly button over, that’s how I would do it, though.

 

Thanks guys. Hopefully the nephew will have some time next fall to help with the layup. He says that he has minimal experience fiberglass. If that's so, it's infinitely more than I have. Anything divided by zero is infinite. Or more appropriately undefined, as I remember my mathematics professor trying to get through our heads.

And I have no experience with it! Give me steel any time.

So another opportunity to be creative. I'm going to make a stab at using the V8-60 tube axle in the Whatever project. Being wider than the tube axle I made originally for the car, and with the spring perch bosses moving the hairpin/radius rod system I'm using out wider, it offers more room for the spring/shock setup I'm thinking of using. Reese load leveling bars for springs and MGB Armstrong lever shocks from the rear for the front. So that's the next couple of days worth of effort.

However there is more to the story. The fabricated tube axle is 46 inches kingpin to kingpin, which puts the front hub faces at approximately 54 inches side to side. This matches the rear axle flange to flange within a quarter inch. The V8-60 tube axle is about 4 inches wider. Now this is not a huge problem, just something to work around.

This actually may be a good thing. I'm using full floating rear hubs, and can use different offsets or spacers without causing any other problems. These hubs are billet steel and have 3 inch long studs and a center register that will allow up to 1-1/2 inch spacers. I'm considering 1 inch spacers of billet aluminum.

Another consideration is the front wheel offset. Currently all four wheels are 15x8 GM Rally wheels 5x5 bolt pattern. Tires are just inexpensive Cooper radials to get it rolling. More importantly they are the diameter that I'm going for. I'd like to have rear tires essentially the same dimensions as the rollers, width and diameter. However I'd like the fronts to be the same slightly smaller diameter, but somewhat narrower to more visually simulate what track roadsters might have used.

So I'm considering getting a 2nd set of wheels, say 15x5 or 6 with deeper backspacing. Now this adds another wrinkle, getting the center of the tires contact patch to more correctly fall on a line projected thru the kingpin to the ground, minimizing the scrub radius.

So that means first I have to finish up on the oversized kingpins. And pull the front suspension apart...