Sandblaster part 2

I did a little more on the sandblaster today.

Lala and I drilled the hole where sand is poured into the pressure tank. (through the pipe nipple welded on in the last post)


I cleaned the paint off in a couple of spots where I'll weld on a 1/2 inch pipe nipple for the air supply going into the pressure vessel, and a spot where I'll weld on a nut to which I'll screw in a pressure release valve.


1/2 inch pipe nipple. I'll cut it in half and use it for the air into the blaster, and to make an adapter that will thread into the tank where the gas valve was. The thread in the tank is 3/4 npt, but I will be using 1/2 inch npt fittings.

I cut the end off the handle for the 3/4 in portion of the adapter.
I cut the end off the 1/2 inch nipple, saving the leftover for welcing on the tank later.While I weld up the two cut down threaded portions, I'll slide them down a piece of threaded rod to keep them aligned while welding.

And the welded together adapter to go from 3/4 down to 1/2.

Here it is threaded into the top of the propane tank, ready for me to put the other 1/2 inch fittings on.

Next, I drilled a hole for the pressure release. the purpose is to ensure the pressure doesn't build up to a dangerous level

Hole Drilled
Hole drilled to be big enough to clearance the fitting... I'll weld the nut that it will thread into later.

Finally, I welded on the remaining half of the 1/2 inch nipple to the tank. I'll drill out the 1/2 inch hole later.

More to come....

Tasty

Had to be

Sandblaster

I need a sandblaster. but I don't want to pay for one. I do however have heaps of junk, and a welder, so I'll make one.

I will use 1 empty propane tank, 2 wheels, 2 steel fence posts, and a heap of plumbing fittings, and the outcome will be a sandblaster.

first, how to get the valve off the propane tanks, normal wrenches won't do it. A 'propane tank wrench costs 29 bucks. that doesn't save money.So, I made one with some 1.5 in water pipe that has been laying around.

next.... get the valve off.

Valve off!
Then fill tank with water to displace the remaining propane
make filler lid so I can pour sand in, and have a lid which will hold pressure. I'm using a 3" diameter pipe cap with a 3/4 in pipe cut and welded on

For the filler spout, I'm using a 3" pipe nipple cut in half.............
Next, I cleaned the paint off the bottom of the propane tank where I'll weld the pipe nipple.Weld on to the propane tank (bottom).

With the lid screwed on.

That's it for today, next will be to add wheels, handles, and cut a hole where the filler pipe is mounted.

more to come.............

Catch up on progress to date part 2

On the drivers side, fitting in the convertible re-enforcement required more finesse than the passenger side.

This is because the torque box and floor pan had already been welded in prior to making the decision to add the convertible type sheet metal to the coupe.

The toughest thing was to cut the proper sized hole to get clearance to insert the rail, as it extends all the way to the front of the torque box. Given that it needed to be inserted at an angle to clear the rear torque box, the hole in the front had to be over sized.

To do this while maintaining a tight fit for later welding in, a flap had to be cut and bent up to allow clearance, then bent down and welded back in, as shown above.Once that was done, the fit to the rear torque box was just right and dropped into place.

With the drivers side rocker in place, the passenger side was fitted as well, allowing for the seat support to be dropped in

With the seat support in place, the convertible sub frame could be clamped in to determine correct placement.


now that the seat support is in, we will be able to locate the replacement floor and torque panels


Front passenger torque panel being located. (in grey, upper center) View with seat support in place....no doors
Front torque panel in place...(temporary placement, welding of all panels will happen after they are fitted).
More to come... My daughter (lala) 's chalkboard, and her first experience with time on the tire.

Catch up on progress to date part 1

I've been somewhat remiss about blogging. I have however had some time to work on the car... though progress may not seem like much.
While I was working on the heater, there were other things I was working on as well when weather permitted


Here it is with the with the hood off (behind me)..


I've been dismantling the car in the following ways


1. Completely cut out the remaining floor pan, and toe boards.

2. Removing fenders and doors and trunk lid.

3. Removing all glass

4. Removing front and rear suspension including rear axle

5. Removed exhaust.

6. Removed fuel lines and fuel tank.

7. Removed rear bumper.

There are are a few reasons for this.

1. while working on the car, it got knocked off the jack stands, and rolled down the driveway effectively removing the passenger side floor when it got hung up on the pile of wood and jack stands which got wedged up under it effectively halting its progress towards the street.yeah this very nearly ended the progress on the car, as I figured it would be easier to call the wreckers to come get the car off of our neighbors redwood tree than it would be to get it back up the driveway.Ultimately I drilled a hole at the top of the driveway to insert a bolt to which I attached a come along, and spent the rest of the day cranking the car up the driveway a few inches at a time.

2. Shortly thereafter, a scrap metal scavenger came up the driveway and stole the bumper, bumper brackets, radiator and oil cooler. in the process removing much of the grille.

3. With welding in the floor pan of the driver side being awkward already with the Transmission in the way, the case for removing engine and trans became more clear, as the passenger floor pan had been 'removed' for me already by my now bent jack stand and it also would need to be replaced before the gar got on the road

4. Given the other three reasons, and the clear knowledge the car would not be going anywhere anytime soon, I figured I might as well pull the engine and trans to make the rest of the work on the car easier, and to have the luxury of working on them in the basement rather than leaning over or crawling under the car.thus, I started dismantling the car starting with the hood (to make engine removal easier) and the grille which had been partly removed 'for me' already.


with that, I began the process of taking the engine out.






Engine out.........

Fenders, and doors, and windows gone.
After removing the passenger side of the floor pan, some of the damage from the roll down the hill is still evident in the portion that remains...it took quite a hit, buckling the whole floor up.












The driver side floor pan partially welded in had become rusty, so I ground it down, cleaned the rust off with phosphoric acid, and coated it with red epoxy to keep rust at bay until we wire brush, acid wash and prime the entire interior.




















Given the extent of the dis-assembly, I ordered some replacement parts for the convertible mustang, which were used to re-enforce the topless version of the mustang (and cougar which shares the majority of the unibody with the mustang...only there was no convertible version until the 69 model year.)

The intent is to add some of these factory re-enforcements to make the notoriously flimsy mustang/cougar/falcon chassis stiffer for better handling.

The parts required are;

1. Inner rocker panel re-enforcements which will add to the longitudinal stiffness.

2. Passenger side front torque box... included in 68 mustang and cougars, but not 67's ... this is for torsional rigidity at the firewall.

3. Convertible seat platform. The platforms to which the seat bolts were mostly rusted out, and though possibly salvageable, the convertible seat platform goes all the way across the car, joining the frame rails on each side, creating a box section to increase torsional rigidity.

4. Under car convertible box re-enforcements. These tie to the rocker rails, and to the convertible seat platform above, further increasing the section of the box section.

5. Convertible sub-frame rails. these were shot on the coupe, and are of heavier gauge material, and are formed to attach to the under seat re-enforcements used on the convertible.The above modifications are similar to changes made by ford racing when they built their 65 mustang fastback 'cammer' to showcase the new 32 valve racing V8 which was introduced in 05.

The changes in question would be represented by the areas highlighted in red.This has been reported to increase rigidity a great deal. These parts were purchased nearly two three years ago, and have either been stored inside of the (leaky) car, or in the basement.... in fact, all the replacement panels were, so before putting them on, they have to be ground, and treated with acid to remove all traces of rust.... then I'm coating them with red epoxy primer to keep the corrosion at bay...Final primer will happen after all the cutting and welding.

For starters, Because I already had one floor pan in, and the inner rocker of the coupe was solid, I drilled all the spot welds off of the convertible inner rockers to separate the attached panel.

This saves some weight, makes it easier to prime the inside, and makes fitment easier.


Because I'm doing this work in the driveway that is not level, I was hesitant to cut the rear torque boxes for fitment of the increased cross section rockers. after months of analysis paralysis of weighing time against the possibility of marginal change in rigidity, I opted to leave the rear torque boxes alone, and cut the new panel around them. I assume the results will be similar once the new component is welded securely to the face of the torque box.

Once both were cut (note the high tech fabrication station, and sophisticated full spectrum lighting), it was time to test fit against the torque boxes (rear)
The rocker on the passenger side was most straight forward, as without floor panels, or a front torque box to get in the way, trimming and clamping was easy

As you can see, the rocker passes through the section where the new front torque box Will go (some trimming will be required)
Note also that the sub frame has been partially removed in preparation for attaching the convertible sub frame. Here it will tie into the transmission cross member adding further torsional rigidity.
Drivers side fitment - rear torque box.

















Here you can see how the rocker addition will butt up against the rear torque box and be welded in place.

You'll notice the can of chalkboard paint, it's a critical component of the process....

Applying a layer now can streamline other processes in an important way...

It let's my daughter add her creative touches to the car.

On the other side of the car, She has begun the process of applying (water) color.
More to come

Didn't work

Well, I was all excited about my brilliant sand/fiberglassing the heater box in the cougar.

Didn't work so well... boy, what a dope I am.

I used epoxy thinking it would stick well, and sort of glue the whole thing back together.

Well not so much, There were a couple of problems:

1. Lumpy fiberglass.

2. The epoxy didn't stick.

I think the root cause for no.1 is the following.....240 lbs of sand was not nearly enough. I didn't think about what it would mean from a psi standpoint. the surface area of each half is approx 240 sq inches, therefore, the max psi gain of all that sand is 1 psi, and probably more like .5 due to the box used to contain the sand is bigger than the part itself.

.5 psi will just not do it, hand layup would come out better as there is the opportunity to work the fabric as the resin cures.

I think the root cause of no.2 is the following.....? not sure it's possible the epoxy resin to hardner mix was off, or that there is something in the 42 year old GRP that inhibits adhesion.

The upshot is that I've figured it's not worth the hassle. I'll just hit what there is with some black paint to clean it up, and install it.

If the case falls apart down the road, it will be an opportunity to re-asses and determine whether I want to install a vintage air ac/heater unit to provide modern heating and AC for the cougar.