Fair enough!
Fair enough!
Let's assume I'll be playing with cam in block engines for the next couple of decades. Any suggestions on a cam bearing installation tool? I have a block to practice on, so that's nice.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
I bought this $25 one from Speedway, but it's for SBCs only. It's basically just a rod with two mandrels, one to seat against either the front or rear-most land, and the other to drive the bearings either in or out. It worked well and easily enough, although you either have to set the block on the ground to have enough access to get to both ends of it, or have it setup on the stand high enough to get clearance - but then it's off balance, so you'd probably want to adjust it before assembly anyway.
The history of individual cars is interesting to think about. No matter the car, someone was excited the day they drove it off the lot. Whether a K-car or a Lamborghini or a big farm truck, pulling onto the road for the first time, everything shiny and smelling new, getting used to the driving position and sight lines and noises and sensations of something that is brand new. It's cool.
Sometimes a car remains with a single person, or a single family from dealer to junkyard. More often it changes hands anywhere from a couple to a couple dozen times. If they manage to escape death by accident, they usually go through a cycle of breaking and getting fixed until fixing them isn't a reasonable option. Sometimes a car is modified or has a significant mechanical event that leaves a mark for future owners. Clues left behind can either be maddening or endearing as we sort out the past of a car to help determine it's future.
Ferdinand was probably a farm truck. Driven off the lot to haul grain and whatever else moves slowly through the grain belt of the Midwest. For whatever reason the chassis was valuable and useful enough to modify and use for extra years, and the chassis was shortened to make a tow truck. After than it was passed around as yard art, a mouse hotel, and for whatever reason, the people who had it still thought it was worth saving. Now Ferdinand is under my care, and extra clues are showing up. The 304 wasn't the original engine. What happened to the first one? Well, the oil pickup had a rough time at some point, and if you look at the pan, you notice that it had some pretty hard knocks, from the inside.
Something let go, rattled around, and caused someone to have a bad day. That happened to this oil pan, but I don't think that the pan was on the 304. Whatever happened, the truck was worth saving so they sourced the 304 and had to swap over all of the big truck stuff to get it going again, oil pan, front cover, all of it. And now I find myself, again, swapping the same stuff to yet another motor and running into my own issues making it all match. It's fun and frustrating and somehow I believe that this truck is still worth the work and money it takes to put it back on the road. It's 50 years old, I wonder if the guy who drove it from the dealer to the farm in 1966 is still around? I wonder if he'd think this is all as foolish as it feels?
This morning I pulled the cam, it looks great but the bearings are also just a bit scuffed. Less than the mains and rods, but what they hell, I'm here, might order everything and see how it goes. I've never installed cam bearings and it seems that most people think it's some sort of witchcraft, but Pete did it in his garage and that seemed to have worked well, so let's give it a go. As a side note, remember all the shelving I put up so I could organize parts? That shelving still has all the parts from the last motor, so parts from this motor are all over the floor and workbench. Again. Awesome.
Since I'm feeling optimistic about buttoning this motor up soon, I started cleaning off the pan and valve covers. Orange over International red and rust. Wire brush the bulk off first, then sand blast it and get it ready for paint. I think I can at least make it look pretty.
You going to powdercoat the covers and pan?
If the valve covers and pan have baffles make sure you clean them very well. Sand can get trapped in there and be very tough to get out until the engine starts and shakes it loose.
In reply to Norma66 :
I should. I should just buck up and get a bigger oven of some sort and powder coat them. The reason I'm not is kind of dumb. I'm not sure I can get the color to match. I figure by taking them down to bare metal and painting them, I'm just a coat of aircraft stripper and a trip through the parts washer away from having them prepped to power coat in the future, and for now I can match them to the rest of the stuff that is International red.
The only thing less glamorous than waiting for parts is wire wheeling and sand blasting while waiting for parts.
And that has me thinking. Well the mind numbing job of endlessly wire wheeling is what actually has me thinking, but close enough. I was thinking about the finished Scout I saw at the shop. I was also thinking about the other cool cars at the shop. Then I thought about the work that was going on at the shop when I got there. Four people. One was sanding. One was applying a skim coat of bondo. One was getting a chassis ready to sandblast outside, and the fourth was sweeping and then power washing the motor. If the Scout is any indication, the cars they build are spectacular, but the work to get them there is the same drugery that any of us go through when approaching the same problems. Rust? Cut it out or grind it off. Need clean metal? Wire brush and sand blast. Parts washers are parts washers wherever you go. They did have a better sandblast cabinet and more experience that doubtlessly makes the work faster and better, but all of this kind of sucks in it's own way. Nobody asks for a four inch grinder and a respirator for their highschool graduation. Well, maybe some of you guys did, but these aren't dream jobs doing dream work we're talking about here. And yet the cars at the end of the tunnel are.
Bit of a blue collar hobby we have here.
And I don't mean that negatively, I really don't. It's just interesting to think about. The "car hobby" might be putting on a fire suit and doing laps. It might be unfolding your lawn chair and hoping for a trophy at a show. It might be choosing new wheels and a shop to paint a mural of a bear riding a unicorn on the side of your van. It might be cutting and welding bits of steel to fit a big engine in a little hole. But it also might be grabbing a four inch grinder and trying to make a valve cover nicer today than it has been for 40 years.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
While we're waxing philosophical (which I love to read and ponder in these threads), I think that, no matter how cushy or rough a life one might lead, we all need our own version of the "car hobby". It's not often that you see someone who doesn't enjoy something to escape the drudgery, whether that be cars, extreme sports, working out, theatre, dance, cooking, etc.
Several of those have their unpleasant moments. Theatre and dance have their "hell week" before a show. Cars as a hobby often involve sweat, blood, and tears to restore a car or fix your ride. Ever sautee habeneros to sweeten them before you add them to your chili? You'll wear goggles and respirator next time. Even with something as lovely and simple as fishing you can experience the massive frustration of a tangled spool of line.
But I think that it's part of the human nature and experience to need an outlet. Something that feeds us at our core and recharges our batteries.
Those of us who are really fortunate can do it for a living, and, as the cliche goes, never work a day in our lives.
In reply to mcbacon :
Once upon a time I was student seeking truth. As expected for such students, I went to Canada, the University of Waterloo, and I took a class in logic. It was pretty simple stuff, if A is true then B is true, but if B is true that doesn't mean A is true. I managed to get the answers right on the tests, but it left me more confused about the world than when I started. I pack tents because I like to camp, I don't camp because I like to pack tents, but I acknowledge that there may be a guy out there who derives great joy from being able to make a rolled up tent actually fit in the stuff sack that is clearly way too small but they somehow sold it with the tent anyway. In the same way, I don't buy rusty projects as a way to provide myself with metal to clean even though I do derive some measure of joy from cleaning things up.
I'm not sure where this leaves me from a philosophical standpoint. If someone offered me a complete International cabover in factory fresh condition for the same amount of money I'm going to spend on this (which I'd rather not contemplate right now) I'd turn them down. It's not that I want a cabover, I want the experience of resurrecting something interesting. I wouldn't have gotten excited AT ALL if you told me that at some point I'd have not one, but two motors torn down to bare blocks. It still makes me want to cry just a bit.
So why do I do this at all? The excuse was writing, but I was working on cars before I was writing and I'll be working on them after. I write about working on cars, I don't work on cars to write. I wander away, ride bikes, run a half marathon, buy a couple motorcycles, build a garage, but I always come back to cars. They seem to provide just the right amount of complexity and accessibility and adventure. They're difficult. They break. They force you to become a mechanic of sorts to take care of one past a certain age. If you want to bring one back from the dead, another skill set. To fix rusty metal and pain, even more. But they're everywhere. You don't need to be a mechanic to drive one. My mom, who used to call me out of school to change a flat, has three of them. And then adventure. You can drive to Alaska or Mexico or your buddies house to meet his sisters totally hot friend that's visiting from out of town. The road that starts at your driveway ends everywhere, it's just a matter of taking the right turn.
I think about this all the time, and I don't have an answer, but I swear I have a flake of rust under my right eyelid and it's driving me insane. What a great hobby.
Or when you're bored with Ferdiand go resurrect your lawn mower deck with Saab 99 roof metal 
Too hot equals blow through, but when the planets align, thin sheet metal mig welded is a joy to behold.
Cars are a neat hobby because they're simultaneously both a very involved and complex mechanical contraption and also very accessible to many people because of their ubiquity in society. All the information you need to be able to successfully maintain, modify, restore, or build one is available, the tools and parts are relatively inexpensive, there's an active community of like-minded people to socialize with, and when you're done it's almost trivially easy to take it out and enjoy the fruits of your labor. I can't think of too many other mechanical hobbies that fit those criteria as well as cars do.
Seth,
I love your last post. This resonates well with my repair of the thunderbird. I do not want a pristine new thunderbird. I am enjoying taking a few minutes everyday to spray another layer of paint, or sand the orange peel, or start the rear repair. Each and every minute is a huge de-stresser to me. Something that television just cannot do.
Very recently my 3.5 year old was acting up in class and kept getting into trouble. So we made a family change. No more television during the week for him. We had fallen into the bad habit of turning the tv on to distract him so we could "do" things. In the end. We were failing him. We also started doing yoga or walking after the kids were in bed, then a chore we were both putting off. like Dishes or cleaning out a closet. 2 months later, my wife and I are at a much happier part of our marriage. My 3.5 year old is getting awards at daycare and the teacher is gushing over how much his attitude has changed and how intelligent he is. I am amazed at how much time we were wasting every night with TV that could be better used exploring the world with my son's, or just playing hide and seek.
I also found that we were both sitting down at the television and spending 30min to an hour trying to find something to watch just to "be together". Well we'd inevitably turn on something random and both spend the night playing with our phones. Wasting our life away in the purpose of "being together". I was ignoring my hobbies/plans in order to do this. Now we both handle the chore and talk during our walk or after yoga. More interaction than the hour of "being together" on the couch.
I find myself working on cars and thinking about family, and sitting around with family thinking about cars. I could probably benefit from some mindfulness training of some sort. Being present, that sort of thing.
Maybe the bigger issue is, as you alluded to, identifying what our faults are. Where are we going wrong? Tim wrote an article back when he was working on the 914 with Marjorie and he talked about the time that a project car takes. He laid out the hours they were putting in to fix the car and put it back together. Off hand it was something like 20 hours a week spent on the car? He suggested that people take a good long look at their lives before they take something apart (which is the easy part of a project) to see if they had the resources to put a car back together. Where is that 20 hours a week? What do you have to give up to get that? At the time I was bothered by that. Mostly because I had little kids I felt like Tim was telling me to not get a project. He was right, but I don't read GRM to be told NOT to bring stupid things home, I have plenty of people in my real life for that. I hang out here partly because it's the world of automotive dreamers and fools and I love you guys for that. I read the article and felt like he was calling me out specifically for sucking at prioritizing my time, which is true. I hate it when a magazine article knows me better than I know mysef.
What do we give up for cars? I'm always bothered by that. I tell my kid that a $120 gaming keyboard is a silly expense while I'm sitting next to him ordering a $140 cam tool. Even worse, am I going to be telling him he needs to work 20 more hours to afford books in college because I have a cam tool on the shelf? Even worse, Mrs. Deuce was just commenting on how nice the Grosh bathroom is, what with all the tile and finished walls, especially in comparison to the house bathroom which is lacking in both of those areas. There's no way I can have this big stupid truck parked in the yard and say "but I don't have the time or money to finish the bathroom."
Can I do both? Not literally the bathroom and the truck, but putting in the family hours and the truck hours especially when family hours start to include house projects? I'm always willing to lose a day of truck work by moving an orthodontist appointment to accommodate a sudden band practice because "someone" is the only sophomore percussionist to make it into the top band (if anyone wonders why today is lacking in actual work, seriously proud of her) but I'm not out tile shopping. Not yet. And that really is something I need to start being introspective about.
And Mad_Ratel, good on your for making those changes. They matter. Internet pat on the back from me.
GRM is, to me, a place where I can live vicariously through all of your cool projects. The ReconKids are still, and always, my first priority, which leaves precious little time or money for projects. I love reading about Pete’s C4, or the two vettecarts that have blossomed into existence; along with the mundane and everyday- Stuff like XJ’s and family haulers. I don’t think it’s the projects themselves that make GRM special; rather, it is the fertile minds who have dreamed them up... The people of GRM. Who else brings home a Hybrid and decides to autocross it? Who else decides a Miata drivetrain belongs under a Volvo Wagon?
These projects are an extension of the owner’s soul, and that is what makes this hobby so amazing.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
I'm not one to wax poetic so this is going to be a bit rough around the edges.
What you said is something to consider but part of being mindful is knowing where good enough is. That can be a moving target at times which is why so many people have an issue with it, and why scope creep is such a common occurrence. Good enough can be following, to the letter, the procedure to torque all the bolts on an engine or it could be a paint job that looks good from 10 feet because it isn't a show car which requires flawless body work.
Understanding where that line is suddenly frees up a ton of time in your life because you aren't obsessing over details that either only you will notice or may require work in 15 years instead of 20.
I see this type of scope creep all the time in my current line of work. Instead of getting the new piece of software (which quite frankly all the information for a business resides in) up and running there's always "one more feature or program to integrate", then the project collapses under its own weight after enough time passes, and the entire endeavor was tantamount to lighting a giant pile of money on fire.
Please tell me you have read this book...
My understanding is that you need to give the conscious and subconscious minds their time to work on a problem... and the subconscious is more easily able to do it's job when the conscious is preoccupied with a routine, some might slur as 'monotonous', task. Unless you can find a task that engages both simultaneously, and entering flow, but... then all you're accomplishing is that one task. So, I'd argue that's what's behind the 'mental flip-flop', ymmv.
My parents poured everything in to working, and my sister and I. They didn't have a lot of outside activities that they did to enrich their lives, instead finding that enrichment in the things we were doing. The problem now, in retirement, is they're having to find their own life enrichments without us... one doing better than the other, and still finding they're behind where they could have been if they'd stayed engaged with those things as we were growing up.
twmblt (they who must be listened to), and I are both orienting along the concept of 'all of us needing to get time to explore and develop ourselves'... within the confines of what our life allows. Being an advocate for an analog worldview... I don't think there's one model or the other... so I'd suggest finding the best compromise between devotion to your family, and focusing on your own development.
another way to consider the $160 dilemma, is that you're able to make a choice about whether or not your working... and are able to separate out the desire for what you want vs. the cost. You could be earning "independent money"... but y'all have decided that you being home to "take care of things" is the better use of "time"/"finances"... your kids aren't really allowed the same decision.
My understanding is that current research is showing that teenagers generally are chemically... we'll say: challenged... with doing the same. And frequently, they also have very little "financial skin" in the game. I walked dogs, and "house sat" neighbors growing up to have spending money... outside of "allowance". So, I learned very early the value of my own money... among other skills. A "normal" keyboard is $20, so perhaps the difference should be made up with independently earned money. twmblt was discouraged from this, and instead to focus on their studies. Then again, they were... more of an only child, so that was easier to facilitate. {shrug}
Final thought: The Grosh was a "useless" space before the build... so building it up had relatively minor impact on day-to-day family life. Most every room in your house is important to the family such that "not using it" imparts a much larger impact/tax on the family. So, it's easier to get the Grosh built, and built right... and much more taxing to tackle the house... although, Mrs. Deuce is a saint, and should be accommodated at some point. 
I have to admit a guilty conscience. As part of working on the thunderbird so much I decided to ask the wife what she'd like most to change in the house. She wanted to clean up the basement as a kids play area. With the passing of our eldest dog, our "youngest" got free range of the main floor. This meant that the 5'x10' kennel in the finished basement was no longer needed and we could reclaim that area. I took the kennel out, cleaned the basement, fixed the drywall, moved the tv I'd mounted for a treadmill I never used, took paint I had already and spiffed the place up. It's not complete yet. But so far the kids have their own floor of the house and their toys are slowly migrating down there. They LOVE it. We find when having guests over on weekends that we can converse without shouting kids running through our discussions. Our upstairs no longer feels like a shanty and more like the overly large space it is thanks to less to trip on.
so my advice is to stop and fix one of the wife's projects. I actually feel so much better working on the thunderbird now because I feel substantially less guilty. Happy wife, Happy Life.
On to your kid's problem. A $120 keyboard lasts a year maybe 3, a 140 dollar tool is for life. I used to be heavily into computers as a teenager. I so wish I'd spent that money on cars and physical things rather than trying to have the coolest/fastest pc. If I'd learned how to weld, or done some more autocrossing my life would have been richer than I have now. The friends I made gaming are gone, in college it became apparent that we had nothing in common other than gaming.
Mad_Ratel said:Happy wife, Happy Life.
Doesn't this sentiment effectively mean that mazdeuce shouldn't feel guilt working on the truck? Since, being a "Stay-at-home Dad", he's taken the traditional role that this sentiment is related to?
sleepyhead said:Mad_Ratel said:Happy wife, Happy Life.
Doesn't this sentiment effectively mean that mazdeuce shouldn't feel guilt working on the truck? Since, being a "Stay-at-home Dad", he's taken the traditional role that this sentiment is related to?
I feel like in his case, it's even more of a requirement. Yeah he took on the "feminine" role. But it's allowed him some amazing freedoms in life and so far I do not see him complaining. So long as she's happy, he can continue to do what he does.
At least in my case, my wife being happy adds to my life. I do not like seeing her upset and I love it when extra effort gets noticed even with just a smile.
I totally get where you are coming from. I am currently doing a partial remake of the main bathroom of the house. I am currently working on TWO different race cars in the garage. I work Full time. Momma works full time and is 6 months pregnant. We have an almost 2 year old who is amazing.
How to balance the waking hours with Momma, Lily, the bathroom, the garage, and ME TIME?
I have no idea. Somebody is gonna be pissed before all of the work gets done.....
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
My wife is a stay at home mom with two kids that are basically borderline feral. The one that can talk is polite but they hate clothes and would rather roll around outside with the dog in the yard than stay inside. Which is great, until I'm tired from work, she's tired from making sure no one died, and neither of us wants to do the chores around the house. Things got pretty strained for a while then I read somewhere that "Both partners think they're doing 90% of the work but there can't be a 180% work load." That sort of set things into perspective for me.
So we divvy'd up the rooms we each maintain. I get the kitchen she gets the living room. In general it works pretty well until things go all Cooking Network or non Kitchen related stuff starts to build up on the counters and I get a little testy.
Right about now Mrs. Deuce should be on her way to the airport to fly home. She's had a busy day. She's going to pass through security, grab a drink, and open this thread to see what I've been up to today. I could reply to all of you, but I think I'm going to wait. When she gets home I'll give her a hug, ask her about her day, give her a plate of the lasagna that I just pulled out of the oven. Then I'll look her in the eye and think about how to reply to the suggestion that I've usurped her proper role.
In a surprisingly relevant turn of events, I had a friend call me today to come watch him chainsaw. He doesn't need help, and honestly I just sat on my tailgate and ate leftover stew while he worked. He needed me there because he and his wife have a promise to each other to not chainsaw alone. I'm pretty sure he made the deal mostly to keep her from running the saw when he was out of town (she has a badass Stihl that she lets him borrow) but by god he honors that pact. He could have run the saw and just said I was there, but honesty was more important that getting a tree cut up. He waited, I monitored the situation, then I went to pick the kids up from school. He's a good guy.
pics or it didn't happen? I mean, you've talked up this Stihl... I think we've tangented enough to warrant superfluous pictures of tree maiming implements.
Also, I get to make a rhyming word play about how twmblt's family has a will where the still is specifically entrusted... saddly, it didn't come to our side 
After the dually truck rolled off the ramps and onto me my wife added "no climbing under cars alone" to the prior established "no climbing extension ladders alone" and "no chainsaw work alone" rules. Sadly after this fall I also had to put "no eating steak alone" on the list too.
When I was 14 I got my first full time job over summer vacation. It involved carrying a hoe from one end of a corn field to the other and cutting out the corn that looked too healthy to be pure strain, volunteer corn, and weeds. It was exactly as exciting as a daily 10k through mud carrying a garden tool sounds.
Thing is, while I hated every part of that job, every task and every mind numbing step, I loved that job. Every day I and 20 guys I barely knew and didn't really like would transform 200-1000 acres of cornfield from normal to strikingly perfect. Every summer I would lose 35-85# of flab and every year I was able to take the burdens of school clothes shopping and student lunches from my mom.
I also got the one gift from that job that hopefully justifies the back-story: Common wisdom is that with few exceptions you achieve success with labor of your mind, not your back. Every day I plan, strategize, develop, implement, program, codify, test, operate or control something in a particular way for particular reasons directed by someone else's goals as part of my job. The part of my soul that appreciates the perfect cornfield, the elegant casting in a timing cover, the stamping that created a cab corner, that part withers. The part of me that makes me more than the machine that may someday do my intellectual job is nourished by the jobs that engage the brain, body, and the here and now.
Things like assembling a motor, one clean part at a time.
You'll need to log in to post.
