| Naka Naka Naka Naka...
Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: N44 W76
Posts: 1,264
|  Ever had one of those weekends... (LONG!)
Be prepared for a long read....
So I had this grand plan. Friday after work (we finish at noon) I was going by the steel yard to pick up some steel for my BJ60 rear bumper build. Figured out what I wanted ahead of time, got the pricing & was ready to go. Went to the office at the yard and told them what I wanted - asked if I should come back later - "Are the guys down there on lunch right now?" - Naw - there should be someone down there. Went to get my angle - there was one guy there, he cut my stuff and sent me to "Door 2" to get my box tube. Down to door two - vacant lot. I could have loaded up on 12 x 12" tube (except for the weigh scales on the way out!) stood around for about 10 minutes then phoned up to the office to see if they could send someone out... sure, they'll be there in a few minutes. Just then a guy walks past and tells me that the guys from this section are on lunch - they should be done soon. well 20 minutes later I get my steel. Now... I SPECIFICALLY asked if they were on lunch and was told they were not. That Pissed me off.
So I get my steel, swing by toyota to get my parts that had come in. Odds and ends for stuff I needed to pass my safety so I can get my plates so I can start driving this thing. Swing by the power wash and filled up with diesel, right up - to the top top top. Shoot home to get started on the fabrication... it's now 3:00
Ok.. first thing, off with the bumper - 8 bolts, shouldn't take long. Yeah.. ok 8 siezed bolts... impact gun - gets them started untill they loosen off enough for the carrige square to lift out of the bumper then I cant do anything.... go over to the other ones - nothing. Bottom ones frozen stiff as well. Hmm, since I'm not re-using this bumper I'll tack weld the carrige bolt head to the bumper so I can spin the nut off the bottom. Yeah... weld em. get my whip out, ground out, reaches the bumper in the driveway - hooked on. Go to fire up the welder (gas driven). Starter batery dead. Sheet... battery is berried inside the guts of the welder, but the starter sticks out the side - why not boost it? get the jumper cables out and try to clamp on. Can't get the positive onto the stud because the end is coverd with a stupid plastic anti-short device, and the negative keeps popping off. RRRGH. OK, put the negative on again and again and again, put a long lag bolt in the positive and touch it to the starter, then reach around the front of the welder and roll it over. Fires up. Tack weld the carrige bolts... shut down the welder, get out the impact and zip em off. Well- started to anyway. Tack twisted off. Fuggit - get out the torch and cut it off - simple, no more messing around with this crap. Get the torches out, where is the cutting head? Search around messed up garage - Oh, there it is. Get cutting head on, light Acetylene, turn on oxygen... SNAP. Shit, start again, light Acetylene, turn on oxygen... SNAP,light Acetylene, turn on oxygen... SNAP,light Acetylene, turn on oxygen... SNAP,light Acetylene, turn on oxygen... SNAP,light Acetylene, turn on oxygen... SNAP,light Acetylene, turn on oxygen... SNAP,light Acetylene, turn on oxygen... SNAP, RAAAHHHHHHH. Ok, got it lit (not enough pressure) - been quite a while since I had to resort to the torches.
At this point I am really sick of working on the rear end of the cruiser so I decide to tackle the sway bar mount that is busted on the passenger side at the front end. Nice simple job - no frustration. Undo one bolt and then either fix or fab a new one, put new bushing in and bolt it back up. Right. Remember how this day is going. Hmmm. looks like a 12mm - but 12mm spins, must be an 11? odd size, but OK. Nope.. 11mm is too small - could someone have replaced this with a non metric bolt? Nope.. it's a 12mm that the head has kindly been totally rounded off. Have I mentioned yet that it is about 3°C and drizling - and I'm outside in the driveway.... Ok, this bolt just isn't coming out, not with sockets, vice grips wrenches nothing. Cut the head off or drill it out. For some reason I decide to cut the head off then punch the rest through. Cut the head off, die grinder - nice new cutting disk. Get out the air compressor and start it - should only be a few minutes. Wheel the compressor out of the garage - honda powered portable unit. It's not exactly warm out so I give it full choke, ignition on, fuel on, air valve to start position - pull cord...pull cord...pull cord...pull cord...pull cord...pull cord... BAAAHOWEJROPWEHRKLHFH@HRHRHH. WTF it's a honda they always start on the second pull!! pull the air filter off, was going to pour some fuel in but saw the WD-40 and wondered if it would work - thankfully it did. Put the air filter back on and let it run for a few minutes before flipping the air vave to "run", whereuppon the engine stalled. Repeat same process as previous starting attempt, minus the WD-40, it just managed to start this time. Zip the head of the bolt off, now to punch the rest off. Oh. great, that was a welded nut. OOOOOHHHRHHHRHRGGGGGG. It is now starting to rain a bit more, it's geting dark and I have tools scattered all over the place. - I'm getting past hungry and I'm sure my wife would like me to be inside to watch our son a little. I give up - I'll do more tomorrow. 5:45pm. So... today I did the equivalent to 9 bolts un-done.
Saturday - wifey goes shopping in the morning so I have to watch our son - he is sick so it's pretty easy going - not much energy from him for a change! - luckly he also decides it's nap time early - and with monitor in hand I go out to start work on the truck.
Ok, I got the bumper cut off yesterday so today shouldn't be so bad - besides it's not raining - and it can't rain... its -5°C. Trim off the scrap left from the bumper mounts, slide in my angle (inside the frame rails) I measured it to fit perfectly flush with the back of the frame, and stop where the frame becomes enclosed, just ahead of the spare tire carrier. It stops about 8" early. So now I have two pieces of 3x2 angle sticking 8" past where they are supposed to be. Ok, get out the chop saw... cut them down, slide them in - good off to a good start. Clean off to some good metal for welding -respirator, face shield, earplugs.... it starts to get tough to fit under a non raised 60 with all that crap on. Line up the box tube for a bumper to make sure that my frames are square... looks good, except my box tube is also too long. Pop it in the chop saw - man 3/16" box tube is a bitch to cut - overheated the steel which heat hardened it making it take 5x longer to cut.... almost all the way through and tripped the breaker on the wall in the back corner of the garage. It's gonna be another one of those days. Re-set the breaker.. finished cutting the tube, ready to weld. Jackstands under, wood to shim, good to go. Fire up the welder.... DOH didn't charge the battery over night. Booster cables.. (I've got it down to a science now) welder fires up...gas on, weld away.... almost done here... buh bh buuuhhh bub h buh bhhuuubbbuiuuuuuuu - DANG!! welder out of gas... fill it up, fire it up, hop on creeper to get under and finish the job. SNAP creeper busted. On my back, on the Asphalt in -5°C is not fun. Decided that I could also repair the sway bar mount instead of fabricating a new one. Welded it up - that actually went normally!! Finished the welding that I should have been finished yesterday at 5:00.
Now, I also had to swap out the tires - put the spare set on as they have enough tread to pass safety. Floor jack out, impact out wheels out. Jack up rear, undo nuts.... impact can't undo em (electric)... get the breaker bar - DOH, wheel needs to be ON the ground. Drop it down, loosen, jack it up, take wheel off. Repeat for other side - drop jack down - hmmmm these tires are lacking a bit of air. Get compressor out, fight with it to start again, although didn't need the WD-40 this time either (and starting to think that it didn't do anything last time). Air up the tires, get the fronts on, man it looks silly with stock tires!! Look at this mess all over the driveway. Clean it up and go in for dinner. 5:45. What the hell did I do today? tiny bit of welding and changed the tires?
Sunday morning... Snowed overnight. Sweep the driveway clean since my creeper is busted and I will be lying down on the driveway. -5°C again. Had 2 small spots on the frame that needed a spot of weld. cut some plates and cleaned everything up - ready to go. Fire up the weld... DAMN - forgot again. Boost the welder, get on the ground, start welding - got the first one done. on to the second one. Hmm, it must be warming up, water is dripping into a puddle back there by the back wheel. Uh... no it's not that warm - and that is a LOT of wat.... SHIT that's not water its DIESEL!! FAWK!! get everything out from under the cruiser and get it off the driveway onto the gravel... why the hell did the tank start to leak NOW? I havn't even touched it! Get the truck onto the gravel and leave it running to use up some fuel (yeah like that'll do anything!). Grab the broom and start sweeping anything I can onto the exxon valdez slick - snow, rust dust, dirt... whatever is around. Run inside and grab the dish soap.. went for some sawdust down by the wood pile but it is all frozen stiff. Sweep the snow off the slick, and squirt 1/2 a bottle of dish soap onto it. Grab my water jug and head for the hose... which is frozen stiff. Go inside and get water, out to the driveway, back to the sink, out to the driveway... mush around with the broom...lather rinse repeat.... Ok, back to working on the truck. Park in the GRASS to finish this one. Now I do recall the Previous owner saying don't fill the tank up beyond when the pump stops, it has a leak high up on the tank or filler neck. (must have expanded with the temperature -I filled it on friday on the way home remember!! I decide to go back to the sway bar mount. I drill out the bolt, hoping to be able to re-use the weld nut on the back. Yeah. right. Find a new nut/bolt for the whole assembly Found one the right length, but didn't have a nut to fit it, found one with a nut that fit, that would have been long enough if the weld nut was not there. Found a self tapping bolt, but it just stripped itself. MAN I HATE WORKING ON VEHICLES!! Ok, search and search and found one that works. Pop the bushing on, pop the cap on, do up the bolt - OH MY GOD! - Cross that one off the list!@!!! Now, back to that other frame weld spot. Drag the whip out to the truck, grab the ground - too short.. grab an extension cable and hook it in. Clamp on -good to go. Fire up the welder (battery charged itself enough) get on the ground and start. No arc... Ok, bad ground - wire wheel a bit of rust off, re-clamp. Nothing.... WTF? Go to the machine to see if I accidentaly bumped the remote contactor switch... nope.. DOH, hooked ground up to wrong terminal... try agian. Works, weld weld weld.. almost done, 1 inch to go....>OUT OF WIRE> (insert favorite profanity here) Now, this should be a simple process right - however I buy my wire on 5lb spools, and run a 1lb gun. I use my lathe to de-spool onto the smaller spools. Needless to say I was out of smaller spools, so I had to go and de-spool wire (much cheaper this way). Got that done, got the weld done... now what??
So, now what to do with this leaking fuel... Fire it up and run it. (Fuel tank can not leak, or will not pass safety) I don't think Idle will use up enough fuel, but for now it's all I can do. Fire it up, let it run for a few minutes while I put some crap away. Raise the idle, and go in for lunch. Speed through lunch and come back out, finish cleaning up (& take the dried up fire hazard, needle shedding christmas tree out - I don't think any needles made it out of the house, just the branches). Take off into town to buy a new creeper.
Wander around town trying to waste fuel (when the hell do you want to waste fuel) picked up a few things (but not a new creeper). Came home and decided I'd had enough. No more working on the 60 for now. Now - My temporary permit runs out tomorrow, which means I have to drop off the truck tomorrow for Toyota to do the rest of the work in order to pass safety. Not that I'm going to miss doing it, but I was trying to save as much $$ as possible. Decided to go out for dinner so I could have 5 minutes of what was left of the weekend with my wife. Drove the crusier to use up more fuel. As much as I love my BJ60, this weekend SUCKED!
So... how was YOUR weekend?
|
MrMoMo
DD, WVO soon!
)
(Mot)
, with ChaseTruck 
yes, MANUAL steering 
Linear Mode
