Truck Resto Rant

Quote: petroglyph

The excess heat is just caused by the catalytic isn't it?

We won't need that where we're going.

You keep taunting me and this little inside joke is gonna end with a phone call telling you to get your plane tickets and bring the beer money.

It can be done. I could build us a ride from scratch. Including price of truck, I could keep it under $10k. Don't mess with me ;)

Quote: Face

I dunno how hot it gets to determine whether it was safe to paint, so I left it bare. If the factory didn't paint it, I suppose I shouldn't, either.

I agree on if the factory didn't paint it no need, mostly. I have seen the GM factories do some stupid things. If no rust yet no worries, though. If you wanted to paint it there has to be a high-heat paint you could get a few rattle-cans of. Engine paint, maybe?

Yeah. Engine, grill, header, there's tons of high heat paints. Have a can in my garage right now. But I'd wager a new floor jack that the shield is aluminum. Sounds funny when struck, isn't pitted, is covered with white film. Would also explain why I can't break those bolts free, and satisfies the quota for "GM doing something stupid" ;)

Quote: Face

Yeah. Engine, grill, header, there's tons of high heat paints. Have a can in my garage right now. But I'd wager a new floor jack that the shield is aluminum. Sounds funny when struck, isn't pitted, is covered with white film. Would also explain why I can't break those bolts free, and satisfies the quota for "GM doing something stupid" ;)

My dad had a 1979 Cutlass Supreme with a steel bumper with an aluminum mount. When it fell off the car he explained the science of how that causes corrosion after which he employed some Irish know-how and bolted a 2x6 to the mounts then bolted the bumper to that, which lasted years.

Now you seem to be stating that GM made the same boo-boo 20 years after that? When any student of Walter White would have been taught this in class?

If I ever do switch to pipeline welding my rig will be on a F-350. :-)

Quote: AZDuffman

My dad had a 1979 Cutlass Supreme with a steel bumper with an aluminum mount. When it fell off the car he explained the science of how that causes corrosion after which he employed some Irish know-how and bolted a 2x6 to the mounts then bolted the bumper to that, which lasted years.

Now you seem to be stating that GM made the same boo-boo 20 years after that? When any student of Walter White would have been taught this in class?

If I ever do switch to pipeline welding my rig will be on a F-350. :-)

Last time I threw out an entertainment center, I first harvested all the door-closer magnets out of it. They've been great getting steel filings out of my phone speakers or identifying whether I could weld a part of unknown substance. And they just confirmed it. Steel bolts into a steel bed to hold an aluminum shield.



Make sure that Ford is late model. I am beyond interested in this all-new aluminum body. Very eager to see how it holds up in 5-10 years.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Lol..."Where we're going, we don't need roads"...Doc Brown.

lol

Christopher Lloyd has been one of my favorite actors since "Taxi", and also a hilarious director with "Cheers" etc.

ps, thanks for the assistance, I haven't worked up my courage for another try yet.

Quote: Face

Last time I threw out an entertainment center, I first harvested all the door-closer magnets out of it. They've been great getting steel filings out of my phone speakers or identifying whether I could weld a part of unknown substance. And they just confirmed it. Steel bolts into a steel bed to hold an aluminum shield.

Be glad the bolts were not aluminum. I have heard really bad things about aluminum screws and bolts from their use in the Alcoa building here in town.

GM amazes me. They used to have so many of the right products at the right time yet the execution was simply horrible. The Vega was conceived years before needed (for "Mad Men" fans the project that they were doing for Chevy was what became the Vega) not a pure reaction to the fuel crisis. Yet the car was a piece of junk. About 7 years later the Citation, totally right car for the times. Sold 800,00 of them the first year! Today the top-seller in a bigger market is about 450K. Again, piece of junk. Cadillac 8-6-4, right idea, 15 years ahead of capability of computers and still more complex than what they have today.

Eventually they were beaten and broken and gave us the Aztek, the car guys long gone and running what was more a bank than a car company. At least their payoff demand system was so easy to use I had the number memorized when I was in mortgages.

Quote:

Make sure that Ford is late model. I am beyond interested in this all-new aluminum body. Very eager to see how it holds up in 5-10 years.

lol, chances of it happening are low. If I go that route I will try to be in inspections, still will need a pick-up but for inspection a F-150 will do. The welding is my back-up skill. I tell people, no idea if pipeline companies could use a guy with a welding cert who can work the courthouse, but if I get said cert I would be about the only guy in PA with that combo :-)

Quote: AZDuffman

GM amazes me.

And it never ends lol.

In looking forward to the next racing project, I've been familiarizing myself with "GM metric cars", your Cutlass, Monte Carlo, Regals of the late 80s / early 90s. It is without a doubt the most popular car for the Charger class series I aim to run. The biggest cheat is changing the roll center of the car. I don't have an intimate understanding of it, but it amounts to cutting off and repositioning where the front suspension assembly connects to the frame. We're talking an adjustment of less than an inch. That adjustment takes what it widely regarded as a "flat, senseless, pushing dump truck of a car" and turns it into a track ripper.

Less than an inch. How come 4 guys fueled by Budweiser and without a GED between them can figure this stuff out, but a group of engineers with millions in research money can't?

Gotta love it =)

Quote: Face

Less than an inch. How come 4 guys fueled by Budweiser and without a GED between them can figure this stuff out, but a group of engineers with millions in research money can't?

Gotta love it =)

Back in the 1970s GM got sued for putting Chevy engines in Oldsmobiles when they ran short of Rocket V-8s. It was some kid in a gas station figured it out, not a dealer. Ironically it was a better engine the guy got, but he dreamed about getting a Olds Rocket V-8 all his life. The marketing was that powerful! The dealer support and communication not so much.

As to simple stuff, there is a story about Ford when they pulled factory support for NASCAR. Some team bought their own engine and got loads more power out of it. Ford asked how they did it, they sent an "up yours card" in return. All they did was tool the directional mark on the piston and filled it in. Said mark is about the size of a grain of rice and there so the builder knows which way to install said piston. But it was enough to make a difference. Even way back NASCAR was a step above a WNY roundy-round team, but still......

Quote: Face

You keep taunting me and this little inside joke is gonna end with a phone call telling you to get your plane tickets and bring the beer money.

It can be done. I could build us a ride from scratch. Including price of truck, I could keep it under $10k. Don't mess with me ;)

That's pretty cool about the factory 150, I wonder if going down to the dealer here and getting one and running the baja would void the warranty? I think they would let me take one off the lot for nothin down, now that is way under 10k. With any luck just leave the keys in it when done and chances are I wouldn't have to worry about making the first payment. jk

Another thing to help make the trip +ev is stop and get some dental work done in ensenadas for 1/3. I think I have talked myself into worse ideas. And, more expensive.

Lots going on right now in Lake Havasu, world jet ski competition, and Lucas drag boat races this month. The high temps right now are around 100, and dry.

http://www.golakehavasu.com/events/upcomingevents.aspx. No steelies, but there is a $ fishing competition it seems every week, It was just in the paper that our lake is one of the ten best in the country for fishing. I find that hard to believe, but it was in the paper so I know it's true.