Little Bit O' Progress

 

I should have posted this one on yesterday's post. More fun than a barrel of monkeys.

A project I should have undertaken years ago. The extension cord was a heavy duty 12 gauge three wire that kept shedding the outer insulation. The insulation on the conductors was in good shape - nothing taped up anywhere. However, with the lack of insulation it was way past safe. I stole the female plug from it, bought a new male plug and put them on another cord I had. It too has 12 gauge wires, so I've once again got a heavy duty extension cord.

The crop duster was busy Friday. He woke me up about six in the morning taking care of the field north of me and then he was back late afternoon to do the field west of me. The new smart phone and I haven't exactly come to terms yet when using the camera. There's a lag between pushing the shutter button and when it captures the image. Also, depending on where the sun is, it's sometimes hard to see the image on the screen. On an old film camera, neither of those things are an issue. Of course, it's hard to email the image directly from the camera to my account so I can post the photos on here. Can't have everything I suppose.

 The smart phone camera does take nice photos on still lifes and it's handy not having to carry a phone and a camera for blog posting. So there's that.

I finished up the seat mount. It's not adjustable fore and aft, but if it suits me that's all that's really necessary. Surly's about the same size as I am, so he'll fit as well. It would be easy enough to raise it up in height if needed.

I bolted on the fan, spacer and thermostat housing to see what I need for the upper radiator hose. I have a short right-angle hose now. I think if I get another one just like it and make a short tube to connect them, I should be right where I need to be. Now that the seat is fastened securely in place, I can locate the mounting points for the lap belt and get those tacked on.

I'll hit the auto parts store Monday along with the steel supply to get a thin plate to put under the seat. I don't want the driveshaft whacking me in the ass if the front U-joint breaks. I'll also fab up a loop to keep it from digging into the ground or flopping around tearing things up if the joint breaks.

You Meet The Nicest People

 I received a comment on my last post and Marshall said he wished he had a Honda 90 & a Sport 50. Just to clarify things, here's a little background on what Honda was selling and all the cool kids, like yours truly, were riding back in the mid-sixties - early seventies.

This is the one that really started it all for Honda in the United States, the Cub 50. Three speed automatic shifter and a stamped sheet metal frame. Notice the lack of helmets and the babe in formal dress sitting side-saddle. Definitely a different time.

This is the one I had, the Sport 50. Since I didn't have to worry about getting my tux dirty, I could ride without the splash guards for my legs. This model had a 4 speed manual transmission and for a 15-year-old kid truly was more fun than a barrel of monkeys. A couple of my buddies also had these. I bought mine used from a guy my brother worked with. It was blue also, but the seat had silver and black stripes. It had a 65cc kit also, so I was the fastest of the three of us.

This is a Honda 90 like the buddy I mentioned in the last post had. He had a windshield and saddle bags on his. One of my fondest motorcycling memories is when we rode our bikes to his grandparents' house one chilly fall afternoon. It was probably not much more than 40 degrees when we left for a twenty mile ride on the little Hondas. I was about froze up when we got there but his grandmother was just pulling a grape pie out of the oven when we walked in the back door. She fixed us both a hot drink and when the pie cooled a bit, she served each of us a big piece. Just about the best piece of pie I've ever had in my life. My wife heard me tell the story a few times and she finally decided to bake one herself. Her pie is every bit as good, but the cold bike ride and the warm pie in the old farm house kitchen with good people? Hard to top that.

The guy who lived down the road from me had one of these, a Honda Super 90. He was a year ahead of me in school. He had an older brother that was into all things mechanical and his dad had an airplane that he flew out of the grass strip behind the house. The older brother had a small dirt track he made and all the neighborhood hooligans would gravitate there to race go-carts and motorcycles. If we behaved ourselves, we would get a chance to go up in the airplane once in a while too.

Life was sure enough good for us teenagers back then. Things changed dramatically after graduating from high school, though. Lot of drama back in the late sixties. That reality of being an adult took some adjusting. And in my case at least, quite a few mistakes were made along the way. At least I learned valuable lessons from most of them and was smart enough to not repeat them. 

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I went out for breakfast yesterday with my buddy Kevin, and like a dumbass, we were so busy discussing the state of education and the world in general, I forgot to wish him happy birthday. 

Happy Birthday, Kevin! 

County Fair

I went to the county fair yesterday afternoon - beautiful day to be out walking around among the unwashed. It doesn't take too long to take it all in. It's rather small as county fairs go and it doesn't usually get rolling until 6:00 and I'm usually long gone about then. However, I ran into several people I knew - former colleagues and students from the high school, along with some current friends, so I was there a bit longer than normal. Time well spent, however. 

Interesting brake setup on this pulling tractor. You have to steer the tractor with the brakes when the front end is off the ground, so decent brakes are a must. The Minneapolis-Molines normally have a drum brake on each side. This one has been fitted with disc brakes, individual master cylinders and Wildwood calipers. 

Cute little homemade tractor but what really caught my eye was the name. I went to high school with a guy name of Leichty - not a real common name. He and I used to ride motorcycles together. He had a Honda 90 and I had a Honda Sport 50. We worked together for a while at a black top outfit. He drove a truck and I worked as a utility man - drove the roller, worked on the paver, shoveled gravel and blacktop. We got together with the wives occasionally as well. He passed away at least 25 years ago, maybe more. I think about him every so often but seeing the name on the tractor brought back a lot of good memories.

Tee Shirt Tuesday #39

 

Front and back view of the Vintage Motorsport magazine tee. I got this one when I subscribed or re-subscribed, I don't remember which. This one came straight out of the tub - never been worn. Should bring a good price at the tee shirt stand at my funeral.

I welded up the cast iron exhaust pipe on the big loader yesterday. Things didn't go quite like I had figured. As the way it was explained to me, I probably couldn't get much weld on it due to the placement in the engine compartment. As it turns out I could get almost all the way around it. I tacked it together and started welding. The one tack broke without me noticing it and the crack on the back side of the pipe opened up. I had to cut the pipe apart and start over after doing some judicious grinding. The new welding rods got the job done but I wouldn't recommend them unless, as in this case, you have to use an AC welding machine. 

I fixed the garage door yesterday after getting home from the portable job. I reset all the limits on the opener and that took care of it. Glad I got that taken care of. The Missus wasn't going to be able to open it if she had to leave and I wasn't around. In fact, I left it open just in case when I left to do the welding job. 

I was talking to my brother from a different mother Sunday at my grandson's graduation open house and the subject of project vehicles came up, of course. He sent me some info on the weight of the Slant Six (475 lbs) and the A904 trans (125). So I'm looking at 600 pounds combined weight for engine and trans. Should bring the finished weight of the car in at someplace between 1500 - 1750, I would guess. He also sent me the transmission ratios. There was a change in '81. I think the trans I ended up with is the later model which has a lower 1st gear, which would be good.  

Streamliner Teaser

 

Woke up yesterday to a big storm - lightning, thunder, power outage, the works. The storms came through in about three waves. In between the first and the second, I backed the wife's car out to go get my veggie ration and the garage door wouldn't close with the remote. I acted like it does if there is something under it blocking the safety eye ball but nothing seemed amiss there. I'm wondering if a lightning strike caused some damage to the electronics. 

I did finally get the truck all loaded up for the welding job later in the day after the rain stopped. I ran a couple of beads with the new rods. The half-way decent looking one in the photo was run at 105 amps. The puddle was "watery" and most of the heat seemed to be concentrated on the rod, rather than on the base metal. It seemed to work best using a back step method. Anyway, I'm all loaded up for next week.

I made another piece for mounting the seat after fooling with the welder. Not much but a little something. Can't do much with it storming and losing power intermittently.

My cousin sent me a few photos of a streamliner under construction. His wife interviewed him for the local paper. He's going to send me a copy of the article when it comes out in a few days. The constructor on this project is 86 years old. Can't wait to get the full story.

Welder's Loaded

The weatherman was calling for a chance of storms last night, today and Sunday, so I decided it would be best to get the welder loaded up while it was dry outside - hot - but dry. The Fast Fix came in yesterday, so the plan is to put some gas in the tank with the Fast Fix to get the carb jets cleaned up, hook the cables up and run a couple of beads with the new rods and make sure everything is a go for Monday.

I loaded the welder with my Harbor Freight floor crane. It comes apart fairly easily, so I did just that, loaded it up in the back of the truck, hauled it over to where the tractor was parked, put it back together, picked up the welder and rolled it over to the truck. Nothing to it. 30 minutes tops. The crane is the 1 ton model, which is enough capacity for most things I want to lift but at max capacity, the boom has to be sucked all the way in - not much stick to work with. I should have bought the 2 ton - would have given me much more versatility with only a bit more cash outlay. 

Took the Missus to the eye doctor yesterday after my appointment at the massage parlor. We went out for a late lunch after that and that pretty much shot the day in the ass. After I get the welder squared away today, I'm aiming to get out in the shop. 

 

Sharing My Love For The USPS

 

I ordered a pound of aluminum TIG filler rod. Since the closest welding supply is at least two gallons worth from me, it's pretty much a break-even proposition to order and have it sent to the house. Except this is what you get from the USPS once in a while. Nice job on that one. The filler rods were taped together nicely, so no damage there, but the Postal Service is not my friend since they lost the brake shoes for the trials bike project.

I bought a new battery for the welder. They didn't have the exact replacement, so I ended up with one that's a little better. It's a common size for lawn tractors and didn't surprise me when the price turned out to be $53.00 minus $9.00 core charge. The new battery for the wife's car set me back $160.00 recently. The welder battery is the same size as I use on my camping trailer to power my interior lights. I'm hoping to get it out and go camping this fall. I haven't had it out in over ten years. There's a state park not too far from me that has a gun range and some nice hiking trails. I can go in the middle of the week after the kids go back to school when it's not too crowded, spend an afternoon hiking, shoot a bit at the range the next morning and then head on home.

When I was at the auto parts store Tuesday getting the battery, I looked for some Gumout liquid to clean up the carb on the welder. Nothing there, so I tried Tractor Supply and another auto parts store, no luck there either. I like the Gumout, you can put a shot glass worth in the tank of a small engine and it keeps the jets clean and stabilizes the fuel. It also works as advertised for cleaning carbs if you have to take one apart. Sta-Bil has a product called Fast Fix that's supposed to clean the carb while the engine's running. I ordered a small bottle from Amazon that should be here today. $6.99 and free shipping, hard to beat that. I probably went through that much in gas yesterday hitting the various stores looking for the Gumout. I checked the Gumout website and it looks like they don't offer the liquid stuff anymore. They do have a product called Regane which is probably the same stuff only in an aerosol can.

The weather here, like a lot of places, was hot yesterday and will be for a couple more days. Monday is supposed to be cooler, so I'll try and get the welder loaded up and get the job done then. In the meantime, cut some more grass, do some odd jobs and work on the jitney.