My 71 Duster work in progress

Truss roof is a no go, Jass probably has a good old stick built, my bro in law had a block & tackle hanging in his garage, can't say how thick the wood was, but a tad more than the standard 2x4's
He did a few motors in there & the garage is still standing.
 
b-body-bob said:
I will never have the car out in bad weather, so the heater isn't required.
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Having lived in the South, with it penchant for surprise rainstorms and crushing humidity, I would never drive a car without a defogger. Heat or not, the windshield can fog up in a hurry. Pull over 'n' wait, I guess.

b-body-bob said:
No engine, no way to know how high the k-frame normally sits. If I have to lift it once it's under the car I would just hook onto the lifting plate and hoist away.
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You could just measure the distance from the mounting points on the frame rails to the floor, no? I did say "on jackstands".

b-body-bob said:
My trusses are under an insul-board ceiling. I would only do that if I had a single board spanning the outside walls or a support where boards come together. IOW, rafters or jacks under the join. Trusses aren't meant to hold weight in that direction. Seems to me like it would pull them apart. All that holds them together are nailing plates.
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You're hardly going to pull a truss apart lifting ~150-200lb. spread across two of them. You're not trying to lift an entire assembled car, just lift the nose high enough to get an engine under it. If you seriously believe doing a pull-up on one truss would damage it, pull your garage roof down, etc. I'm surprised you'll even work under it. My century-plus-old house has rafters, which have nowhere near the support system of a truss. I can do a pull-up on 'em and not damage anything. I know this because I have no ceiling drywall in one room.

I've seen several engines pulled out using nail-plate trusses with a heavy (4x4 or larger) board across multiples as a chain-fall support. You do realize all that triangulation that supports the roof, snow load, and the occasional roofing crew does an equally-good job of load distribution in the opposite direction, right? Anywhere you're pulling down distributes that load across the top chord(s).

Engineering is cool.
 
4 bolts and rigging up the cart and outriggers and it'll be out.

In honor of Rusty, I smacked one of the UBJ boots with a hammer so I'm waiting on his review of those poly boots.

The cart is 24x25 and 8" high before I add the 2x4s shown in the photos above so about 12". It's 24x25.

I don't have a 1-1/8" impact socket, but gave one bolt a twist with the 12pt deep well that I do have and it worked and I don't think I ruptured myself so I don't really need the impact anyway.

FWIW I split the UBJ from the spindle and just hung the brake calipers from the body.
 
It'll be a while before I need them anyway. At the pace I'm going, maybe spring.

I ain't putting those UBJs back in until I absolutely have to. I hate beating on those things to get them to pop free. If I was replacing worn out junk I'd just grab the pickle fork, and then I manage to mangle the boot anyway.
 
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Looking at the cart above, I need to reorganize the planks, turn two up on edge to hold the K-frame. I will likely need to scrounge for a piece of 2x6 because the ones in the other guy's photos look bigger than 2x4s. I might need a longer board between the wheels to get it supported far enough side to side.

I've got the car skates here, and I checked yesterday that a chunk of 4x4 under the hub/lug part of the rotor will be plenty to support those.

Must be careful to not push the brake pedal at this point though. I should probably go ahead and at least disco the master from the pedal, and once that's done I can unbolt it from the firewall and scooch it back and save myself the hassle of masking it.

ETA: I will just stick my wheeled HF trans jack under the transmission.
 
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Well it took long enough

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Somehow I ended up with both the 2x6s rolling in the same direction. They looked good to me but I was trying to focus on the joins being flat and not so much the angle of the upright. There's exactly enough room to stand a 2x4 between them to tie them together if I get fussy about it. And I might.

The intention was for the supports to sit pretty much right under the inside of the motor mounts. It's not centered up in that photo.

The next move is next. First thought is I should hang the k-frame kinda tight with the hoist but keep the body weight on the stands,, unbolt the K, and just let it down. I do wonder if it will try to rotate one way or the other before I get it all the way down but it's only a couple of inches and once the weight's on the cart it ain't going to move.

Also it's long enough I can put the centerlink on the support too but the original photo of this rig didn't have that so I'm unsure. If they're level with the k-frame, it would help it to sit more secure.

Note to self - set brakes on casters once the weight starts coming down. Don't need the cart squirting out as the weight settles.
 
Was the pick the other day with it all on the rollers your new setup?
You had an extra K frame?
I'm cornfused, well that's not unusual for me these days!
 
The way things are going over here I may never get done!
Waking up the last few days with my hand closed it all opens cept the middle finger, pop the knuckle & it flips me, I think that's a message from the car!
 
Now instead of climbing over the fender to work on the bay, I can crawl under.20231112_113708.jpg20231112_120731.jpg20231112_120741.jpg20231112_121300.jpg
No big deal other than someone should've LOLed when I said I wouldn't need an impact for the K-frame bolts. Had to break out the big air gun in the end, batteries weren't going to do it. The 12pt chromed socket lived to fight another day. The threads need chased but who's got a huge tap-n-die to fit that? Oil is going to have to do, maybe never-seez when it goes back together.

I'm not convinced the supports under the rotor are needed other than to keep them from getting turned to where one could hit the floor. It's pretty much not sitting on those.

The next excitement will come when I bolt the engine to it. Paint first, then finish the engine, gather clutch/trans parts.
 
FWIW the engine bay is turning out just like every other project, twice as big as I hoped it would be. I bought two cans of paint, probably going to need two more. Waiting on a body plug kit, to avoid the PITA of trying to get tape to stick on the inside of the firewall.
 
I have the trains as backup, but no place to set them up, the garage may be it when the cars done.
I was referring to my mind & body working better back then!
 
I've always had hobbies, but this is the one that wore me out.

Sure my body was more able back 20 years ago when I was known to take off on a hundred mile bike ride, but my mind? I don't know, especially since I look back and think how much better I'd feel today if I hadn't beat myself up working on cars. I wasn't thinking clearly enough to see that coming.
 
one can of rustoleum self-etching primer later

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An odd thing is it looks like it's been repainted under the hood, and I don't mean the black. There are runs and sags in the "original" b5, and in places I noticed it looked like a different shade of blue would come through when I was scuffing it. There's no evidence of big time wreck damage that would've caused someone to repaint the bay.

That's one full can, so if I can get the same out of the two color cans, I'm in good shape and glad I didn't buy too much.

I'm open to opinions - does it really need a second coat - it's pretty well covered - and do I really need to sand on it or should I just go straight to color? Hint, sanding ain't going to make it any prettier

On smalls, I generally don't sand the primer before paint, and haven't had any unexpected problems from it.

I even managed to stand in there and spray it and get in and out a couple of times without bumping into wet paint. I was surprised.
 
are you working with single stage paint, I used base clear & needed 3 coats of base, never worked with single stage so can't help there!
 
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