Saturday, March 15, 2008
Discipline! Discipline! Discipline! If you're
going to blog, get busy and blog. OK, I know, I know. I've spent
too much time goofing off reading discussion forums. I'll try
to do better. A lot of my time after work for the past couple
of weeks has been spent on the Model TT project. Every day since
last Sunday I've been sandblasting the frame. It started out as
really slow work. Thursday I bought a new sandblaster nozzle with
a smaller aperture and that improved progress quite a bit. As
of this afternoon the job is about done. With any luck I'll finish
it up tomorrow, then I can take the thing indoors and paint it.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Done! The frame is sandblasted down to clean metal. I hauled it into town and left it in the sign factory where I'll have more room to paint it than I would here at home.
Monday, March 17, 2008
A rainy day kept me inside today, so I did some catching up on paper and computer work.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
This afternoon I got ready to leave right after work tomorrow for Chickasha, away down in Okieland. It's time for the annual prewar swapmeet. This one is restricted to vehicles from 1942 and before.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
With the Chickasha prewar swapmeet starting tomorrow, I'm taking a day off to go shopping for old parts. I'll drive down after work this afternoon and be ready to shop in the morning.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
This was a good one. The weather was beautiful, which is not always the case in Chickasha during March. It was a successful day of shopping, too. I picked up a pretty good TT hubcap, a hubcap wrench, a brake rod support, and the big item I really wanted to find, a really good radiator shell. This meet is not very big compared to the ones which cover all years, but it's one of my favorites because you don't have to wade through a sea of modern stuff to find the antique parts.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
It was a busy day. I drove over to Caldwell for an auction, didn't see anything worth staying for, and came back to get some work done. Miss Kitty likes to climb on things, and repeated climbs over the phone jack where my modem is connected finally broke the thing so I couldn't get online, or even make a phone call on the land line. I bought a new terminal box and jack, installed them, then screwed a plastic container to the wall, covering the whole works for protection. Then I went to town and put the first coat of paint on my TT frame. I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up and sandblasting some smaller TT parts. I'll do the same to a few more parts tomorrow, then paint both batches. I had diner at Mozitti's, a fairly new restaurant in town. It's a real Italian restaurant, not just a pizza joint. After diner I went to see Drillbit Taylor, and found it a very enjoyable movie. Owen Wilson is good as the homeless hustler/bodyguard/consultant, and the kids who play his geeky clients are all excellent.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
With the TT frame painting started and the first coat drying, this afternoon I sandblasted smaller parts, namely spring leaves, then got the first coat of paint on them. All this blasting and painting is good, but I'm going to have to cut back on that and get some other chores done. I need to get a garden going, and haven't even started.
Monday, March 24, 2008
I did more small part painting this afternoon. Soon I'll start getting the rear end (torque tube, differetial case, axle cases) ready to paint. Once that's done, reassembly can begin.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
A little more painting, then I sandblasted the wishbone. Tomorrow I'll have to get more sand.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Sand was only part of it. I painted the wishbone and a couple of other parts, then spent the rest of the afternoon buying groceries, paying a bill, buying more sand, and gassing up the car. Then I took a drive through the neighborhood looking for a dog. Monday morning Zeke turned up hobbling around on three legs and hurting. I didn't see any bite marks, so I suspect he may have had a run-in with a vehicle. I was home briefly in the afternoon, and he seemed to be getting around a little better but used the injured back leg very little. When I got home from work an hour later he was gone, and I haven't seen him since. I hope he didn't wander off and die from internal injuries. Maybe time will tell.
Thursday, March 27, 2007
Well it didn't take much time to tell. I went out this morning to do my three miles, and when I got down to the end of the west field I heard the familiar tinkle of dog tags and Zeke came out and joined me. He had been hanging out with his little friends down the road, but tore himself away to go along for the rest of my run. He wasn't home this afternoon, so I took a little walk down the road, and there he was again.
Friday, March 28, 2008
This afternoon's activity was starting to get the TT rear end ready for sandblasting and painting. I got the left rear brake parts removed today, and hope to get the right side done tomorrow. That will leave removal of the drive shaft and tube, then putting duct tape over the areas that shouldn't be sandblasted.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
It was a full day. After doing laundry, I went to an auction and got a few good buys: an anvil for $15, a thirty foot chain for $16, a parts washer for $40, and a big old steel funnel for 50¢. After the auction I finished painting the TT frame, then finished the afternoon taking apart most of the right side rear brake.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Got that right side rear brake taken apart, then prepared the rear spring perches and a pile of other smaller parts and put them in the electrolysis tank to take off the rust. With that little chore out of the way, I went to the sign factory and put the frame I painted yesterday into the big oven. Overnight in the oven is like several days of air drying at room temperature.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Now that's a job! I removed the TT drive shaft tube, which was easy enough, then started trying to disconnect the drive shaft, which isn't. The shaft is held on by a collar with pins through the collar and drive shaft and through the collar and worm shaft. The ends of the pins are mashed to keep them in place. You have to file off the mashed end of the pin then drive the pin out with a punch and hammer. I did a lot of pounding and hardly moved the pin at all. I'll try again tomorrow.