Sidelined....

Things have beem going slow lately here at the shop.  I've actually been in the hospital since the 20th.

I woke up last Saturday morning ready for a full days work only the find excruciating pain in my leg as well as it swelled to double it's normal since.  I get to the ER and find out that I had a pretty large blood clot in my vein.

Long story short, I am going to be fine but its going to be a tough painful road to recovery.

Luckily, I have plenty of adapters in stock and a nice place to sit by the cnc.

There are still good people out there....

With the wild fires that are currently burning in the Oklahoma and Kansas area, there is an estimated 750,000 acres of grass land that has burnt.   Theses fires have tradigically claimed the lives of 4 people and caused an extraordinary amount of damage.

Ranchers depended on a good majority of this acreage for grazing pastures for their cattle, and now, there is nothing.

A group of local farmers have banded together to donate and deliver hay to those that need it so desperately.

In total, a caravan of 36 trucks headed out west. What a sight....

Out of the shop...

The shop will be closed until next week.  I had to go out of town but orders will still be fulfilled.

T5 adapter for Buick 8...

The adapter for the T5 to a Buick 8 has been progressing along as time permits.  This has been quite an interesting project to work on....Buick did some odd things back then.

The bearing retainer isn't part of the transmission.  It's actually held into the bellhousing making the bore quite small.  Also, the release bearing ID is about 0.015" smaller than a standard GM.

I still have to machine a pilot bushing but the clutch disc will be one of the offset ones that I use for the Dodge 218/230 kits.

I plan on using a standard GM release bearing which will dictate a change of the clutch fork.  Luckily, a standard Chevy II one fits fairly well.

Rebuilding the T5...

With a slight break between customer's vehicles, I finally have a chance to start working on the Model A truck again.  My goal is to get the steering , brakes and drivetrain completely buttoned up before I have to switch over to other things.

First on the list is to do a rebuild on the 4x4 s-10 T5 I am using.  I am combining several different transmissions that were lying around in various states of disassembly to build up one good one.

Here's the transmission donor...I honestly can't remember where it came from or how many miles are on it.

The trans rebuild kit came off of Ebay.  I've wanted to try this kit for some time.  The price is very attractive and I have to say that I am pretty impressed...

Since the donor was a two-wheel drive version, the main shaft and tail shaft housing had to be changed to the 4x4 version.

Tremec's website has the complete rebuild manual for the T5 available for down load.  It can be found here:

T5 rebuild Manual

Here are some disassembly pictures...

Once everything was apart, the cases were cleaned, sandblasted and painted...

Following the rebuild manual, it was all put back together in the reverse order as it was taken apart.

Because this is being used with the stock AA release bearing, the bearing retainer must be bushed to accept the larger I.D.

Also, remember not to forget the oil slinger and thrust bearing on the 5th gear counter shaft.

All done...it shifts really well; nice and smooth....ready to install.

Ruining a perfectly good fender...

With the spare tire mount to a point at which an actually tire can be mounted, its time to cut the fender...

I started by drawing an arc 1/2 the diameter of the tire from the center of the mount onto the fender to get the outer profile.  The inner profile was mostly just a guess...

A bit tight, but the shape is correct...

The patch panel was started by first stretching the center with a mallet and a sandbag.

Next, the edges were shrunk using the pullmax and thumnail dies...

It was then smoothed out in the English wheel.

This process was repeated several times until finally it was fairly close to fitting the hole...

At this point, the panel was trimmed and the edges were rolled to fit the contour of the fender.  This was done by hand with a combination of several different hammers and dollies.

 The fender was then marked to the panel and cut so that it could be butt welded in.

Getting close on the '49...

Well, after a crazy holiday season filled with in-laws and several illnesses, things are finally getting back to normal.  Progress is once again being made on the GMC.

The front suspension is completely welded in and done.  The inner fenders had to be modified a bit to clear the spring towers as well as something had to be done with the large hole left for the original steering box.

It's really starting to look like something when the sheet metal came be put back on...

The final part for this project is mounting a spare tire.  Since the original mounts are virtually impossible to find and that the angled bed sides had the tires mounted underneath, it's just easier to make a mount.  Plus, this allows for a larger tire.

With the mount made, it's time to start cutting on the fender...