Too much fun!

[shum]

[shum]

Busy days on the Thing, lots of cleaning, wire brushing and disassembling.

Good friend Raf (as in Royal Air Force) hitting the loom cover with a wire wheel. Wish we had time to send parts out for media blasting and powder coating, but times a ticking and we need this running in six weeks. Yikess!

Walker having too much fun removing the spring plate. Note the cool technique/tool for dealing with the torsion bar (thank you Mondshine). Using the right tool always makes one smile.

Back half of car is now disassembled and cleaned up... new trailing arm rubbers, torsion rubbers, correct Thing stub axles, all new German bearings, brake hoses, brake lines, wheel cylinders, shoes, seals, cables, sleeves, etc., etc., etc...

Walker looking for that missing wiper arm!

Pedal cluster is a mess! The brake return spring is almost rusted through and the throttle pedal needs a bit of welding at the hinge point.

A bit more painting metal parts on Monday and then its time to start putting it back together, Yipee!
_________________
57 rag top, 67 bug, 73 Thing
70 Bronco U14, 73 Bronco U15
61 R69S/2 BMW, 73 R75/5 BMW

[Shoyrtt]

[shum]

[shum]

Some days are "green light days," and some are "red light days." Yesterday was certainly more of a red light kinda day, assuredly not Too much fun.
First off we got the torsion bars adjusted up a touch, the new rubbers all installed, and the covers bolted in. Off to a good start.
Second job was to install the swing arms with new rubber bushings and then the trouble started.... struggle, struggle, could not get the arm in the right orientation to get the bolt started. After 30 minutes of no fun we decide we were struggling and must be doing it wrong. The decision was made to pull the torsion plates back off and then install the trailing arms, and then reinstall the torsion plates. That went well, trailing arms just fell right in. Seemed like all was good, but no, not really. It was time to get schooled as pictures below reveal.

Reference chart with the target adjustment underlined. Just a small bump to offset the projected added weight for the rally and camping after. Not really swinging for the fences here.

What that adjustment looks like: top scratch line the before position, lower line is the new position.

At this point it seemed all was going well...

Then from Walkers side of the project I here a loud "bing, pling" and a "what the heck!" Hmmm, what is going on? This occurred as Walker was drawing the torsion bar cover with the new rubber installed up tight. The ping was the metal disc that normally goes were the torsion bar is now showing. If the torsion bar is now sticking out on this side it raises the question of where is the other torsion bar positioned?

With some effort we pop the disc off the other side to discover this... feeling like a "Rookie" at this point. Time to take a watermelon break. Not a day of satisfaction as we are now basically right back where we started and looking at once again pulling the plates and centering the bars, geeez.

_________________
57 rag top, 67 bug, 73 Thing
70 Bronco U14, 73 Bronco U15
61 R69S/2 BMW, 73 R75/5 BMW

[Shoyrtt]

I'm thinking the loud "bing, pling" and a "what the heck!" was followed by...

We all have bad days. You just have to turn that "red light" into a "green light" day and move on.

[shum]

Yep, that little video pretty well sums it up...good to laugh at it.
Friday turned into a green light day and we were able to pull it all apart, center the bars, and reassemble in about an hour. We are getting faster with all the practice. Decided to get "The Book" out and set all the torque specs to the proper numbers.

I like this as it also correctly names all the components along with the torque values.

A question... the brake line that crosses over from side to side above the transaxle, is it originally as shown in this picture or was it tucked up under the lip of the body along there were the body and belly pan meet? Seems like a tight fit to tuck it, but the metal tab that gets bent over the line to hold it in place seems to indicate it should be tucked into that little space.

_________________
57 rag top, 67 bug, 73 Thing
70 Bronco U14, 73 Bronco U15
61 R69S/2 BMW, 73 R75/5 BMW

[Shoyrtt]

Steve,
Yes I believe that brake line was secured by those tabs. My 73 has it tucked in close and secured by a tab. My 74... well it has been a couple of years since I pulled the body off the pan, but I recall it being the same.

Edit:
Because I wasn't 100% certain, I turned to the Domeck brothers gallery:
Pan on:

Pan off:

[Shoyrtt]

Any updates?

[shum]

[Shoyrtt]

Any more progress to report? August 17th is just around the corner.

http://www.alcan5000.com/2014itin.htm

[shum]

[shum]

Behind on posts as they relate to progress and way behind on the project with hard deadlines coming fast! With that said here are a few photos of what has happened this week...

With the bearings all sorted out and the seals in...

Time to slip the stub axles in. When we took the car apart we discovered that it had been converted to type 1 bug stub axles and CVs, a bit of a pain as we had to source a pair of stub axles, axles, and transmission flanges to bring it back to Thing standards. Looked high and looked low, finally found an excellent, like new pair from the Thing Shop. Once the bearings were in and we tried to fit the stub axles, we found them to be very tight, soooo on ice they went. Bit of a commotion when my wife discovered them in the ice maker. But hey, we did wrap them in a plastic bag.....

After a 2 day chilling they slipped in, no problem. Big smiles all around.

Don't have a photo past this point, but the wheel cylinders are in and also the rear hoses and lines. Waiting for Walker to weld in the seat tracks before running the metal line from the rear up to the master cylinder.
_________________
57 rag top, 67 bug, 73 Thing
70 Bronco U14, 73 Bronco U15
61 R69S/2 BMW, 73 R75/5 BMW

[shum]

For the last few years Walker has been taking all the metal classes offered at the local community college and last Friday it all payed off in my opinion... After weeks of looking for a used TIG machine he decided to pop for a brand new setup and home it came, just in time for this project. What a great addition to the shop!

First up on the job list for the welder was to tack in the seat frames.

The seats are now in (missed on a photo of the seats installed for this go around, so later on that) and the fit is very nice. Now, need to get the seat belts ordered, and once those arrive we can see how they fit and anchor and then Walker can then finish the welding on the seat frames along with the belt anchors on the roll bar as needed.
_________________
57 rag top, 67 bug, 73 Thing
70 Bronco U14, 73 Bronco U15
61 R69S/2 BMW, 73 R75/5 BMW

[shum]

Got back to the pedal assembly last week... Man it was in terrible condition with rust and corrosion throughout. The return spring was all but rusted in two. Ordered a rebuild kit from CIP along with a disc brake kit. Unlike the brake kit which is very nice the pedal kit was mostly cheap junk, but we did use the pins and springs.

[/img]

Once disassembled it really cleaned up nicely on the wire wheel. taking it all apart was pretty simple once the pin was driven out of the clutch arm and a bit of heat applied via the torch. A little paint and fresh grease and pretty as new, smooth operating too.

Here is a photo of the old pedal that we repaired with a bit of welding at the hinge and the not so great new pedal that came in the kit. Notice the differences where the return spring attaches and also at the hinge pin area.

_________________
57 rag top, 67 bug, 73 Thing
70 Bronco U14, 73 Bronco U15
61 R69S/2 BMW, 73 R75/5 BMW

[Shoyrtt]

Nice work! Here is a little motivation :

[Shoyrtt]

Any new updates on your rally prep? 30 days or so to go.

[Mountain man]

WHAT HAPPENED? Is it ready?Is it close? Should we all fly there and help you finish it? This is like reading a mystery novel and then losing the book before reading the final chapter. I'm rooting for you guys!
GIT ER DONE!!!

[shum]

Yes, fly in!
Actually, I apologize for not keeping up on the postings as what was "too much fun" has evolved: "it's been fun and it's been real, but it has not been real fun."
The last month has been hard with the reality and commitment of "day jobs," subpar parts, poor machine work, and the stress of a quickly shortening calendar. Last night was the first time in a while that I thought, wow,we are going to pull this off. So, yes, the job sheet is shrinking.
Biggest disappointment was pulling the plug on the type 4 engine conversion. It was what I was most excited about, but being a bit twisted from stock with 72mm crank, type 1 pistons matched to type4 cylinders, Chevy rod journals, etc, etc... was slow going. It was all coming together until I checked head volumes and deck heights and discovered the compression ratio was too high and the heads would need to be opened up. This aspect of the project was sucking up the hours right when we needed to be moving fast not climbing hurtles. Plus, I really wanted this to be fun and it was starting not to. Time to change direction.
Have switched over to a another engine I had all the machine work and parts for stored on a shelf for another project. A straight 1776 with a single carb... It has not been with out issues but should be running next week.
There is of course more to the story and I will try to tell it with some pics maybe later today. Oh gee, another promise, yikes!
So, don't fly in yet.
_________________
57 rag top, 67 bug, 73 Thing
70 Bronco U14, 73 Bronco U15
61 R69S/2 BMW, 73 R75/5 BMW

[Shoyrtt]

How is it going? 17 and a wake up to go.