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1 Attachment(s)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MP&C
Looks like a mighty fun time there, I miss going to shows for fun, its hard to find the time anymore... If you're ever in the Knoxville area again I'd recommend going a little further southeast into the smokeys / Nantahala National forest... It's high on my short list of places for my next move.. Whiteside mountain is a great area to explore and trails are fairly easy for all ages
Attachment 9229
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Last year we drove through the Smokey Mountains on the way from Helen GA to Pigeon Forge. Beautiful scenery.
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More progress on our console, with the new hinges we got for the console lid being such an afterthought, the room provided in our void openings was going to drag the sides of the angle bracket once upholstery was wrapped inside the slot.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/84...=w1274-h955-no
Better to make changes (and weld) before the upholstery goes on. So we made some new rear corners that bump us out slightly more than a 16th and use a slightly larger inside radius for a bit extra strength.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Q3...Z=w717-h955-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/FR...X=w717-h955-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/67...1=w717-h955-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_X...M=w717-h955-no
This is much better clearance than we had before, one more corner to go and we can fit up the lid.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/up...m=w717-h955-no
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So helpful to see "how you designed it" and the improvement tweaks you make to your stuff. I will soon be crossing that same bridge (fab up a very custom center console) for my 57 Nomad. After seeing yours, I think I want to build it out to steel also. Good work Robert (and team)!
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Thanks!
My wife's cousin JB, who works at Interiors by Shannon, contacted me the other day about making him a dimpling punch and die for installing door panel fasteners..
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/aN...Y=w723-h963-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rh...o=w723-h963-no
There's always room for improvement, so I thought I'd add a flat to one side of the lower die so it could be clamped in a vise for more stability. A short piece of V-block was installed in the Aloris tool holder and viola! We have a Southbend Milling Machine!
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/g1...=w1285-h963-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qB...5=w723-h963-no
The alignment pin was added to the bottom die to help keep the panel aligned during the punching process, a 1/4" hole will be added to the panel where fasteners are needed.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/VN...U=w723-h963-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/XI...q=w723-h963-no
Installing into the vise...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/1L...P=w723-h963-no
Our .06 aluminum test panel...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/kB...t=w723-h963-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/AE...6=w723-h963-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/vK...p=w723-h963-no
….that should work...
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That looks great Robert. I wish I'd thought about dimpling my door and rear side panels like that instead of retaining the clips the way I did them. :geek:
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I'm not a fan of that style fastener, as they tend to either get one leg folded flat or eventually broken off. I think this is to prevent the inside part from showing through the material like it tends to do a few years down the road..
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Some days I can't leave well enough alone. I thought I'd see how stout my fancy hinges were before we get too far along in the upholstery stage of the console. I guess I had a gut feeling on these, but some slight side to side deflection rendered the hinges loosened, and the swage of the semi-tubular rivets showed some cracks...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/vM...F=w723-h963-no
We're a bit too far down this rabbit hole to change directions again, so I checked my inventory of semi-tubular rivets and found these HD items.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Hm...-=w723-h963-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8H...-=w723-h963-no
These are used in securing latches and hinges to the HD saddle bags and tour packs. When I paint the Harleys, I break these things down to nothing to get fresh paint everywhere, then reinstall the hardware with new rivets. These are stainless and have shown in the past to be rather robust, so we'll drill out all the off shore rivets and install these..
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Xn...4=w723-h963-no
Comparison...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KI...9=w723-h963-no
One set done, one to go..
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lx...=w1285-h963-no
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Saturday morning Mike and I went to look at a 39 Ford that needs a complete new wiring harness. What a rats nest the under-dash was, with far too many splices. When people run wires with no regard to movement and function of things like the cowl vent handle or parking brake, when three separate wires are spliced to go from one point to another, you just shake your head. For me I guess it validates what I do in sharing the various tips and methods in this thread. If it helps one person to get some ideas to better improve their own build, or it keeps hack work like we saw Saturday from happening, then mission accomplished.
When we returned from that, I finished up the remaining hinge conversion, and Mike cut out some 18 GA cold rolled and made some bolting angles for some inner fenders we have planned in dressing up the blah engine compartment. Undoubtedly there will be some components bolted onto the original inner fenders and these "covers", and this bolting angle will allow us to remove them for access without having to remove fender bolts.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/dE...=w1316-h987-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/GL...8=w741-h987-no
Monday evening we had a departure, the upholstery has left the building! Well, most of it, we still have door panels, arm rests, etc, etc.... to address.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/MT...=w1316-h987-no
Thanks Gary!
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/F_...=w1316-h987-no
Last night we cut out some bend sample strips to nail down our console lid insert, should get the final version cut out and fabricated Thursday night. Meanwhile, E and I worked on locating attachment holes on the mounting angles Mike had made. The original inner fenders were attached to the fender, and noticed we needed a mounting hole up front of our angles for better stability, so we added those holes and installed some rivnuts in the inner fenders. This will allow assembly without the need to hold washers and nuts on the opposite side.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/v5...=w1316-h987-no
E gaining some rivnut installing skills....
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/9u...C=w741-h987-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/7_...=w1316-h987-no
This shows the side by side with the angles installed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qePepMuDThE
Thursday we'll get the attachment holes for the new inner inner fenders located, drilled, and rivnuts installed. Then these parts can get sent off for powder coating.