It’s been a whole year

[cvar]

The roll-over trunnion is a brilliant piece of redneck engineering. You best believe I'm 'o steal that idea.
Are ya gonna paint the raw frame with Mastercoat Paint so it won't rust? I did my truck 10 yrs ago with Ospho and MC paint, and that frame still looks perfect.
Your frame looks pristine and solid, unlike ours did ("I can see right through the floorboards" comes back to mind). Did you sandblast it?
Ah yes, there's that pesky castle nut & cotter pin on rear axle. Ours once sheared off and the rear wheel rolled past us as we came to a stop and it didn't (thump, drag back-end, screech). Funny now, not then.
Hope hurricane Hilary doesn't knock loudly on your door. Stay safe.

 

[Ulu]

The roll-over trunnion is a brilliant piece of redneck engineering. You best believe I'm 'o steal that idea.
Are ya gonna paint the raw frame with Mastercoat Paint so it won't rust? I did my truck 10 yrs ago with Ospho and MC paint, and that frame still looks perfect.
Your frame looks pristine and solid, unlike ours did ("I can see right through the floorboards" comes back to mind). Did you sandblast it?
Ah yes, there's that pesky castle nut & cotter pin on rear axle. Ours once sheared off and the rear wheel rolled past us as we came to a stop and it didn't (thump, drag back-end, screech). Funny now, not then.
Hope hurricane Hilary doesn't knock loudly on your door. Stay safe.

It looks like the weather here is going to clear up. We had some nasty rains for the past two days though.

I haven’t chosen the paint yet except that it will be black and I will give it a phosphoric acid etch & degrease first.

Everything that is clean I burnished with an electric drill motor and wire brushes. Some things were scraped to bare metal with a scraper and some things were sanded with a sanding sponge. Access was the biggest deal

So far no sandblasting has been done, and it was motor oil that protected this frame from rusting away.

I lost the front wheel on an MG once driving up Logan Canyon in Utah. I was going left around the sweeping curve and I watched my left wheel just take off without me.

I was by myself, and I managed to keep the car off the ground by climbing into the passenger seat. I eased it over to the side of the road with just the parking brake.

The car landed on the front brake rotor, At 0 mph in the dirt, so nothing was damaged there. I had to climb down into Logan Canyon and find my wheel and the wing nut that holds it on.

And I sat by the side of the road for an hour with a buck knife and a screwdriver and a rock cleaning up all the little splines so the wheel would go back onto the hub.

That’s one of those experiences that just blows your whole day.

 

[Ulu]

I’m still busy with the project car. I have been welding up all the unnecessary holes in the floor pan, and there were about 60 of them, so far.

I also did a lot of repair welding on the tunnel and it’s not done yet. This whole patch got ground down and re-welded.


I just finished up the pan tonight and tomorrow I’m going to start working on the inside of the tunnel. Before I go any further I need to do some cleanup and patching where there is still rust hidden in the tunnel.

 

[Ulu]

I also welded up all the unnecessary holes in this cross frame, and they were about 30 of them.

That all got sanded down and painted it is curing in the shed. I also got the rear suspension cleaned up painted, and the rear frame, along with the transmission.

I ordered some custom frame rails to be bent up and when I get them I can continue building the actual perimeter frame.

 

[Ulu]

So I reached a major milestone today, when I finally cut the frame in half.

I eventually built a welded jig for the full frame, so I could get it straight, and maintain (correct!) the wheelbase.

This jig is all constructed from salvaged steel, and is certainly not suitable for production. I will eventually scrap it all out.



cutting the frame…


Then just 4 bolts and it’s split forever.


Now I must connect this

To this:

 

[Ulu]

Well I pretty much lost the entire spring season on this project. There was much maintenance to do on the house, including plumbing repairs and sewer repairs and a new water heater. There was also new steel fence posts and concrete and lots of digging involved. There were termites in my facia and I had to exterminate them and patch everything up. My entire boat yard was just filthy with leaves and organic debris that I had to get out of there before I can do any welding.

Finally, After taking some time off to build a battery charger for my 36 volt electric boat, and three mini-welders for an ortho lab, I went back to work on the SS100.

I had previously created some frame rails and a crossmember which were not shown here.

Every bit of this crossmember is made from recycled parts. What you see here came from a Harbor Fake welding cart, my moms old power lift La-Z-Boy chair, a stationary bicycle exercise adapter, a set of folding stairs from an RV, nd the drawer divider from an old navy desk.


This crossmember is going to tie the central tunnel of the frame into the perimeter frame rails, and it will also provide support for the steering column, the fuel line, the brake line, the bonnet, and will be tied in with various gussets (not yet created.)


Here it is, mocked up with the frame rails, which I have boxed with the new metal channels. These all had to be notched around the black painted steel angles which cross the floor pan.






But before I could weld all the stuff together on the chassis I had to finish fixing up the tunnel inside.


That red arrow indicates a piece of 20 gauge floor pan that is the only thing holding together the top and bottom of the tunnel at that point. I’ve removed a lot of nasty cancer here to clean up the metal.

I used Harbor Fake sawzall to cut this patch off of the old tunnel.



So there it is, and there’s where it to go.


After some work with a hammer and anvil I re-shaped this piece so it would fit inside.



Here it is all trimmed up and ready to sand and weld into place.



There’s a hole in the bottom that I have circled. That piece of jagged metal next to it was welded inside, and is the final remains of a control cable tube that I have removed.

There are four more of these tubes inside, and I am trying to get them out so I can clean and paint inside the tunnel.

I purchased a new Harbor Fake air hammer with a muffler chisel. It should save me trying to grind deep inside the tunnel, with one arm.

 

[jjohnwm]

I am forever reading about guys in my age bracket who retire...and then soon die, essentially of boredom, because they have no lives outside of their previous job, no interests, no hobbies and nothing to do. Retirement is, for them, a curse and a death sentence. I have never understand that mentality.

Retirement should be enjoyed; it gives one free time to work on all those projects and hobbies and assorted things that one can only think about when weighted down with the drudgery of gainful employment. Earning a living really interferes with living.

And then, Ulu , there are the rare cases like you. You, sir, are an inspiration, a role-model, a hero, and a bit of a nut-case all rolled into one. Bravo!

 

[Ulu]

Thank you JJohn.

So far I don’t believe I have completed Robert Heinlein’s recommended list of accomplishments for a modern human being.

His theory was that specialization was for insects, and that human beings had to be able to do many things, to be complete people.

I don’t have it memorized but I will go look it up and bring it back when I have succeeded.

 

[esoxlucius]

I've worked none stop since leaving school at 16 years of age. My retirement is imminent. I am 56 now and there is no way I am working past my 60th birthday. That will mean I have worked 44 years!

I believe the average life expectancy of a bloke in the UK is around 75. So that would mean 44 years working, and, on average, a measley 15 years retirement before you croak it!! That is depressing.

Why the hell anybody in their right mind would want to go back to work when they have relatively such little time left is totally beyond me.

And even more puzzling that these people, over the years, haven't got themselves any out of work interests and hobbies to keep them busy.

In fact Ulu is probably busier now in retirement than he ever was at work! I intend to keep myself busy....but not that busy, lol.

 

[Ulu]

(Not yet but I found this which I thought particularly profound.)

I believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with crime. Yet for every criminal, there are ten thousand honest, decent, kindly men. If it were not so, no child would live to grow up. Business could not go on from day to day. Decency is not news. It is buried in the obituaries, but it is a force stronger than crime. ….RAH