It has been awhile since I have posted any truck progress due to a lack of said progress.  The reason for the lack of progress is mostly due to the learning curve that was involved with putting the roof together.  It seems that as with most things taking the roof apart was easy; putting it back less so.

When planning the work on the ’51 I knew that I wanted to pancake the roof.  This is because of the “turret top” style roof.  The story is that the old vehicles had tall roofs so that men could drive them with their hats on.  I don’t know if there is any truth to that story.  I do know that the high roof crown makes the truck look top heavy; this look is accentuated as the glass area is reduced when chopping the top.

 When I built the concept scale model of the truck Continue Reading »

The spare engine was removed from one of the Miatas after the great overheat incident on the way home from the Street Rod Nationals a couple of years ago.  I figured that I could repair/rebuild that engine with a minimum of fuss and then put it back into the car that it came out of.

I had recently had the cam cover on one of the Miatas powder coated.  I t looked so nice that I decided to have the cam cover and intake manifold for the engine I am rebuilding done.  Hey, if it don’t run at least it will look good.

I expected that the head gasket had blown when the engine over heated.  This suspicion was brought on by the number three cylinder doing the Old Faithful thing when I took out the spark plugs.

On disassembly I discovered that the head gasket was still good!  Score one for me!  Then I discovered that the head had cracked in order to save the head gasket, bummer.

While I had the head off I took the opportunity to check the ignition timing mark.  It turns out that there are two marks on the crank pulley that are ten degrees apart. 

Naturally I had the wrong one marked.  These marks are Continue Reading »

Hi, I know that I have been gone for awhile and so thought that I would document my excuses for being gone so long.  I see that John has been busy giving everyone something to watch.  Now go out and do something!

I have spent the last several months working at work, a novel concept. 

I work at a power plant where the newest unit was built in 1959.  It seems strange to work on something that is almost as old as I am especially considering that it is in better shape.

Both of the coal fired units were taken off line for maintenance.  We did them one at a time to avoid turning out the lights.  Since I am the only I & C technician working here I got to learn a lot about the units.  I have been working at these plants for a little under a year so the outage was a real learning experience for me.  I now know what  to avoid.

During the outage I worked ten hours a day seven days a week.  Then I had an hour plus commute each way.  That left only enough time to band aid any emergencies that came by at home.  It’s a good thing that I have several cars available to drive since I now have several partly broken ones that are cluttering up the side yard.

Becky and I did find time to buy her a “new to us” car.  It is a ’07 Dodge Magnum R/T.  I keep telling people that we bought grandma a used station wagon.

After the outage I got to deal with all of the things at home that didn’t get done while I was away.  At some point I will either be done or dead.  I’m hoping that the ’51 gets some work progress, too.

Enough belly aching.  Here are a few pictures that I took at the plant. 

At one time Canon City had electric trolley cars that used 30 cycle power.  This building was used to distribute and control that power. Continue Reading »

After getting the windshield glass done I was ready to tackle the rear corner glass.  Unfortunately it wasn’t ready to be tackled.  

At our house we have a little saying when the project won’t allow you to do what is planned.  It goes something like “well, what can you do?” 

Since there are a bunch of things that need to be done to get the truck roadworthy I was faced with the decision of what portion of the project to tackle while the corner glass project quietly simmered in the background.  I figured that since I was working on the upper works of the truck I would stay in the area and do the leading edge of the roof.   Continue Reading »

 After getting the windshield flange made and installed in the cab it was time to make a windshield to put into the flange.

 The glass is cut from a ’91 Dodge ram van windshield of the full size variety.  I picked this windshield for several reasons.  The biggest reason was that it was available.

 Actually I spent a couple of hours wandering around the used auto parts emporium with a tape measure looking for a windshield that was big enough and had enough curve to look right.  I also wanted one that wasn’t cracked, picky person that I am.

 In order to transfer the shape of the windshield opening accurately I made a wooden windshield for a pattern.  I carefully marked the pattern so that I could tell which way was up and which was the front.

Continue Reading »