Sunday, March 3, 2013

One down three to go

Well I got the wheel ready to go back on. Here it is with the masking removed.



The next challenge was to get the "rust ring" put on the tire. At least for now it isn't rusty anymore.
Check out the sidewalls on that ancient tire. It's funny what a lot of years can do to your tire.



What a sweet moment, mounting the wheel back on the car. I painted the brake drum with heat resistant black paint. The can said it would be good for 1200 degrees F. I figured that if the drums got that hot I would be in trouble. At least I wouldn't have to worry about a brake fluid fire as these are all mechanical.

It took awhile to find 6 straight hub bolts, and I had to run the die over them to be able to put the nuts on. I think I will buy new hub bolts for all the wheels.

I used my big spanner to install it so I could get the full retro feeling.


And here it is with the tire installed. Hooray!! One done only three more to go.



I took the other back wheel off tonight and started to work on it. Hopefully it won't take as long as this one did.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Back to the wheels

I have been putting a lot of time into refinishing the wheels. After sanding for way too many hours I was able to put a couple coats of finish on the wood. I really like the natural look of the wood so I am avoiding paint for now. I decided if it looked crummy I could always paint over it later.

I neglected to get pictures of the finished wood before I masked it off to paint the steel. I'll put them up after the paint dries and I can strip off the masking.

I painted the "rust ring" and the wheel today.



 
 
I used a paint called Hammered Black, I figured it would go well with the "hammered" metal on the wheel.

Get to work

I was reminded by a friend at work that I had not posted for a looooong time. I have been doing some work on the car but haven't posted.

I needed a link between the brake pedal and the actuator shafts. I initially found clevis ends that were for a go-cart that looked like they would work.
After building them I decided they would be too weak.

Next I found some clevis ends from a 28-34 Ford that looked much beefier. Being a Ford guy at heart I decided this would be good for the car. :)

A comparison between the two linkages, you can see the top is much larger.


You can see the new end is much stronger. Note the thickness around the pin hole. The rod is also 5/16 instead of 1/4.