ANTFJ 77 Build.. (ends up as a 1978)

[DanS HJ-45]

and i'm gonna try to stray from the jerk thing.. but damn if it means i get to be a fighter pilot..

When you start pointing at things with your elbows, you have pretty much stepped plainly into "jerk" territory. But if you've gotten to that point, you're probalby oblivious to the fact that most people don't do that.

YouTube - Jet Pilot music video

I've flown with my fair share of fighter pilots in my civil career. This is EERILY accurate. Especially the HUD tapes bit.

As to the compressor size: they're never big enough. I've got an 80 gallon job with a few more H.P. and my blaster will easily outrun the compressor.

I've had good luck just rinsing the engine out with water from a hose. I also put in a flush before I take it apart, because it needs to be hot and circulate to work well, but that's not much of an option at this point. I might suggest flushing it with water now, and then once it's back together plan on running a flush through it to help clean it out. I like the inline filters too.

That frame work looks nice!

Dan

 

[rapovt]

Lookin good ant!!!

 

[antFJ]

sooo much progresss!!! the pics will tell the story...

finally got to finishing taking the frame/suspension/axles apart..

but first i had to get the driveline off.. sold the tranny/transfercase to a great guy named Jim.. he along with my father and my neighbor helped me get everything off.. safely..

 

[antFJ]

probably just going to blast the springs and paint them as packs.. they are bran new and only have a little bit of rust from sitting for a couple of years..

 

[antFJ]

now for the fun part... i got my welder in..

it's a lincoln 140C.. i know i know.. its not a 220 but it served me well.. and it was a ton of fun. this is the work I did on the frame.. please criticize anything you think is not right..


here i'm fixing the upper shock mount crossmember.. one of it's tabs was completely rusted out.. cut a basic shape from a scrap piece of frame i have.. beat it with a hammer to get the curve.. then ground it to the right shape..

 

[antFJ]

crap i'm late for a concert.. i'll finish this up tonight...

 

[antFJ]

and the rest...

 

[antFJ]

and..

 

[antFJ]

all of the welds were done on both sides and ground down so that they weren't visible... should be strong enough right?

 

[antFJ]

and.. now a question.. now that i've repaired the crossmember and the frame.. the crossmember won't fit in easily.. i wanted to get the frame blasted and powder coated to save me some time and since it will last longer than a rustoleom paint job, but i had wanted to do the crossmember separate since it is already apart - if i do that i'm worried i will scratch the powder coat trying to get the crossmember back in... so my question is do you think it will be alright if i bolt in the the crossmember and get it powder coated bolted in? I think it's my only option but just wanted to get some other opinions..

oh and the concert was awesome... went to see mindless self indulgence at the webster in hartford (never heard/seen them before) and they were pretty darn good.. damn i love the mash pit..

 

[DanS HJ-45]

If it is bolted in and then powder coated you should be fine. I might spray some weld through primer in there before you reinstall it, but more than likely the powder will seal between the crossmember and the frame a little bit (not THAT well though).

I really don't think you can go wrong wither way, but if you choose to install them after powder coating them separately the powder should still be flexible enough that maybe it won't scratch too much. You could also use a little soapy water to help lubricate things as they go back together.

Really I don't think it matters much. I've done both ways, and been happy with both. I won't powder coat stuff apart that is pretty close tolerance though, as then you end up sanding the powder off anyway, which sort of negates the benefits of powder coating it separately in the first place.

Dan

 

[lukebz]

perisistance pays brother! keep kickin ass...

 

[antFJ]

Dan - yea thats what I was thinking about doing.. thanks for the confirmation on that.. i just don't want moisture to get trapped like what happened in the first place. I'll probably do the primer and then get it all together.

luke - thanks! slowly but surely getting somewhere.. of course i'm going camping this week with the family which I wouldn't miss and then i'm off to colorado for 3 weeks until august 2nd for "Space Orientation" (no idea what i'll be doing) so unfortunately the cruiser has to wait for a month before i can get going again.

 

[antFJ]

well. i'm back for colorado and so far not too much progress..

colorado was sweet though - got to see some nuclear launch facilities and silos (saw the silos from a distance) and got to see where they make the atlas rockets which send satellites into space - good times. also glad i didn't go to the academy got some pics down below... a picture of the chapel.. a view from eagle's peak (9200 ft) and one of a restored plane (yea i forgot what it is.. P-47?) at the Peterson AFB museum.. it was restored by all volunteers.. quite and amazing job.

as for the cruiser.. my frame is almost ready to go to the powder coater.. but i still have 4 broken bolts i need to drill out.. my drill bits went dull yesterday so i couldn't finish.. it took like 3 hours to do 8 bolts.. so i said screw that and started working on my front axle - drilled out the broken shock mount bolts and got some generic ones from napa that will bolt right in.. i was going to weld them but they seem really strong just bolted in.....

then on the way back from napa my s-10 started making some wicked loud clunking noises. and it started raining when i got home so i quickly got out.. shook the driveshaft and it seemed really lose i drove my mom to work today and took her car to get some u-joints.. replaced those today to find out that wasn't it!! although they were wicked lose - next thing (under some advice of a local mechanic) i took off the rear diff cover to find a bunch of broken teeth and black goo in the rear axle. sweet. so the cruiser is on the back burner - but i thought i would tell my story in case someone here knows of a good axle swap - i don't want to put that same crappy axle back esp if it is going to cost the same amount of money.

My brother has a '93 jeep cherokee and his axle has the same lug pattern and is exactly the same width as my axel. the only thing is i don't know what my ratio or his is.. anyone know how to check that out - there isn't as much info on s-10s as there is landcruiser unfortunately. anyways would have pictures of that too but it started raining again now so i'll be sitting here twiddling my thumbs for a bit. any advice would be appreciated.

 

[bsmith123]

have a look at the links

Look at the second post on the second link


http://www.neme-s.org/Model_Engineer_Files/2973-Checking Gear Ratios.pdf
How to check gear ratio on diffs not on truck? - YotaTech Forums

Nice pics, never got to see the Academy what did you fly in?
I had a fun ride in a gyro copter with a viet vet when I went to crash school down in OKC, the ride was fun but a little weird to do in the middle of a crash investigation course! haha!

Here's my babies

 

[antFJ]

mmhmm those are sweet. is that alaska?

sadly i didn't get to fly in a plane.. ha o well.

as for the ratio's i did that method but kept the wheels on the ground.. put it in neutral and rolled it on the ground.. markings tell me 1 tire revolution = about 4 driveshaft rotations.. does that work right??

I'll jack it up tomorrow and see if i get the same results.

now i need to figure out how to take it all apart...

awesome.

 

[bsmith123]

AK

Yup ALaska---In May!

Great Place though I hope to go back and really get out and explore

As for the gearing I've never tried it myself that sounds about right but to distinguish between 3.70 and 4.11 or 4.56? I think the graduated scale might be the way to go I didnt really read through it all for a sanity check

I've seen the rotation method posted before on mud

how did you get the aerial view if you didn't fly?

If you can get a deal on that 15 in front of the Academy then we would have a project on our hands? you would need a bigger tent for sure!

 

[antFJ]

haha we climbed to the top of a mountain - eagle's peak - it is 2000 ft above the academy... i see the confusion almost at 10000 ft there.

trust me, my lungs felt it.

 

[4x4 Station Wagon]

Good to see your back at it!! Keep it up. My 2 cents is make sure you are certain you are 100% done with any and all fabs (power steering, spring hangers, bumpers, etc.) I would hate to see you ever have to grind the powdercoating because it isnt like you can repair one spot.?? Not an issue if you are done though and will look SWEET for years and years

 

[antFJ]

well this isn't cruiser tech but it is what i was working on all week.. my mom wanted me to trash it but i can't stand to get rid of my S10.. the rear end blew and when taking off the axle to replace it with one from the junkyard i found the rear spring/shackle hangers were toast so it ended up being a lot of work... and then i went overboard with cleaning up the springs/shackles,axle housing and new brakes all around - man it is a lot cheaper than a cruiser (a wheel cylinder only costs $6.00 and the drums auto adjust since i got an axle from a '87

here are some pics - i start back on the cruiser on monday.

PS i sprayed the axle with rustoleum which is good because that is what i wanted to do to my cruiser axles but it is really soft and scratches easily/gets F'd up by brake fluid - are products like rust bullet a lot more resilient or do i just need to let the paint cure for a couple of days? i guess I could just spray it with a clear coat too..