wring out the old year

In a mad rush to end the year,
I really wanted to see how the 40 would look outside.
Actually I had already rolled it out of the garage,
without a tie rod attached.
It was really easy to go out,
but holey heck it didn't want to go in!
The wheels would turn out every 6 inches!
Should I say it was dark and rainy as well?

chief and the june bug
1929 roadster pickup & 1940 ford coupe

This time I did a rough alignment,
and also attached the steering box.
I've got a 525 box that needs to be adapted in there,
and that is one of the next things on my list.
Otherwise I'll get the exhaust all figured out first,
and then have to modify it to the new larger box.

1940 ford street rod coupe

Anyway this is how it sits after all that cutting and flipping.
I'm totally satisfied at this point.
Even if it is getting to be a bit of a street rod,
 with some hot rod & moonshiner added in.

After the drive to the mooneyes show,
I'll be happy to have a car that can drive with the traffic.
It should get lower with another couple hundred pounds of weight,
and hopefully a couple hundred miles.
There's a good STD list so I've got til May of next year,
when the non-op registration can be renewed.

1940 ford moonshiner coupe

So here's to a HAPPY NEW YEAR if I don't post again for a couple hours!

TP

aloha from japan!

I'm not a big hawaiiana collector,
but these were cool and a nice price - free!

aloha hawaii

At first I thought it was a neat little round box,
with alot of fine detail.

wood box

However inside was a 10 piece treasure trove of coasters.
Just what we needed!

aloha hawaii coaster set

While I was admiring the fine whittling,
something caught my eye.
MADE IN JAPAN!

made in japan

Nothing screams vintage like the "made in japan" stamp,
especially on tourist trinkets from Hawaii.
I guess anyway!

vintage aloha hawaii coasters

Must be a timeline of china-taiwan-japan-hawaii?

Funny how that works.

TP

diesel quadravan

At the local big box hardware store
we parked next to this cool ford quadravan.
This one had the diesel,
kinda hard to find in the van form.

2002 ford quadravan

The owner showed up as I was shooting the pictures,
and we found out he ordered it brand new.
Lucky guy!

ford vans

For cost per mile,
ours is still a deal,
since it was free!

TP

charting the course

Over Christmas we got together with the extended family.
On my Mom's side,
there's a good turnout as she is 1 of 6 and we're breeders!

Well my oldest cousin Cherie is the bruja of the family,
and she's been into the horoscope thing forever,
passed down from my grandmother (yaya).
Back then they had these thick annual books,
but now it's all plug and play online.

virgo forecast 2013

Somehow I got roped into getting my horoscope done.
She whipped out this creepy chart,
and was able to translate it in a way too clear way.
I don't even know her good enough to read my mind!

Basically I'm screwed for the next couple years -
is that a cliff or a jump up ahead!?

Great.
I better get started!

Thanks Cherie!

TP

duck duck duck goose

Over the weekend our friend Sloppy dropped by
so we took him by the Sunday swap meet to check out all the junk.

bobcat

There's always a treasure to lure money out of the pockets.
Some are easy to pass up.

bobcat pelt

Sloppy had his eye on this bosozuka style bike.
Just kidding,
I made him pose by it.

california bosozuka style

I found this weird pair of orange birds.

LE Smith bittersweet birds

Definitely made by the same manufacturer of the glass I posted last week.
perich brothers (and sister): christmas in december - part 1
I found out the maker was L.E. Smith,
and those vases are swung vases from the late 60's.
Kinda cool to know after all these years.
Yeah I passed on these too!

L.E. SMITH BITTERSWEET GLASS SWUNG VASE COLLECTION

I couldn't resist at least one score.
This 1970 leg-o-matic chair was sitting proudly in a stall.
We got there so late it was unusual to see a deal like this.

1970 leg-o-matic chair folded

I've got a tendency to collect similar things.
perich brothers (and sister): simple things - leg-o-matic
Only thing is 3 is a collection,
so I'll be on the hunt for another one,
but almost hope to find an unmatching one now.

leg-o-matic chairs

That was about it other than a pile of cheap vegetables.
We also passed up an overpriced stingray and other photo-less junk.
Gotta know when to say when!

TP

another merry xmas!

MERRY XMAS from the PERICH BROTHERS & SISTER!

a perich xmas

from the PERICH BROTHERS & SISTER!

TP

MERRY XMAS

Here's an early MERRY CHRISTMAS!

hot rods & OB christmas tree

Hope you all get some time to have some fun,
maybe hang out with friends and family.

Hopefully I've learned to limit my alcohol intake this year!

TP

cootie shot

We're lucky that our kids love drinking water.
They're a little germophobic though,
and prefer the filtered water from those coin machines,
not the tasty tap water that I'll stomach.

hooking up refrigerator water

That means we've got a dozen gallon containers,
and there's a bi-weekly trek to the store for the refills.
Jaxon usually takes charge and loads them up in that dock cart,
and walks the couple blocks.
It's only a hundred pounds or so no big deal!

hose time

Well that new-old fridge has that water dispenser deal,
and we had to try it out.

plumber jake

A quick trip to the home depot and we had all the supplies for cheap.
Ours already had a hose outlet for the washing machine,
so we found a splitter that had 2 ball valves in it.
This is less than half the price of the brass splitter,
and hopefully will last long enough to save the $8.

hose party

Jake took charge and helped out with plumbing duty.
In less than 20 minutes we had everything hooked up with no leaks.

I had to drill a hole through the wall to get the hose to the fridge spot,
and Jake used a chopstick to use as a guide to get it to the other side.
When he pulled it out I opened the valve.
It was kinda funny like spraying a cat.
Yeah it was premeditated,
I unplugged the refrigerator first!

water connoisseur  Jaxon

I had already cleaned up the unit with some 409,
dang that stuff works good,
and ran the new filter in as well.
After some water was run through the system,
it was time to try it out.
Not too bad.
If Jaxon is smiling then it's gotta be good.

glass party

So now we can stash the water bottles for emergency use.
We still have a problem with one time glasses though!
If they're on a countertop they're basically contaminated.
The kids don't use glasses with cooties
and no a cootie shot doesn't work.

Circle Circle Dot Dot - now you got the cootie shot!

TP

not in the weeds

With our dreams of outrunning a tsunami in the old van dashed,
we headed back from the mountaintop,
with just enough time to play with the 40's front suspension.

custom spring compressor

The spring was installed without too much fuss.

stool time

I was waiting for the axle to pretzel with the force of the spring.
Nope.
First test passed.

removing tie rod ends

A couple weeks ago I had disassembled all the front end parts,
ran out of time and jammed them under the car.
The wheels were still joined by the tie rod,
not the easiest way to store them.
Time to get them apart.

The first person to comment on the proper way to remove a tie rod,
with a hammer,
gets a special care package straight from PERICH B&S central!

the office

Everything was set and ready to go.
The spring was looking a little tall at this point,
but there were enough modifications with the axle,
I had to see if it was going to work.

scar

The second test -
putting the load on the worst possible part of the customized axle!

jacked

The 40 was finally suspended off the frame.
No snapping or twisting of the axle.

stool time

I rushed to put on the spindle...

gasser style!

Only to find out the front was now higher than when I had started!
Cool for a gasser but not what I was hoping.

holey chit

Okay let's take all this chit back out...

spring disassembly

This spring had been sitting in the middle walkway for two weeks.
Seriously not on the side or under the car,
but right in the center of the walkway.
I'd actually back Chief in until the rear wheel hit the spring.

Every time I stumbled on it I thought of lowering it.
I needed to make sure it wouldn't be too low first,
or was I just being lazy?

curve

No problem - reversing the main leaf spring eye is easy,
a great "how to"!
First make a chalk line of the original curve.

custom spring jig

This pipe bender is used more often in this direction
than in the tube bender position.
The spring isn't riding on the bare receiver cylinder,
there's a special form on it.

flat

The first pass straightened it out almost perfect.

reversed eye main leaf

The second pass was almost perfect.
Only a couple little wobbly parts that were easy to bump out.

grease monkey

The spring had the plastic sliders inbetween the leaves,
which I planned to reuse.
This was still the best and hopefully only chance I'd have to clean each leaf.
The ends were rounded out a bit and the rust wire-wheeled off.

reversed eye spring pack

This spring pack had 11 leaves,
and the 3rd one looked like it was not original,
almost the same size as the 4th one.
I removed it and a smaller one to give it a little more flex,
and hopefully lower it as well.

The second leaf was also trimmed about 1/4" on each side,
as it jammed into the corners of the eyes.

deja vu

All greased up the spring was reinstalled,
and it was time to test the axle again.

This picture shows why I replaced the flathead.
The underneath looks all rusty,
but it's actually all the rusty steam residue from the many boilovers!

street rod!

As the sun went down I rushed to get the wheels on.
This was almost exactly what I had hoped to see.
Not in the weeds or too slammed like the rusty 40,
but a simple hot rod stance.
Just enough space away from the lip,
and the tire almost in line with the fender curve.

As usual working to the 34 watt bulb!
On the ground,
the 40 had a way better stance than last month.
There's no tie rod so tricky to push out easily,
and it was getting too dark to get a good view or picture.
In the morning I can't wait to see how it really looks,
and I'll do a quick update!

TP

grinch street

Looks like we're going to be around a little bit longer.
Time to put up some xmas decorations to spark up grinch street.

xmas cheer

We had gotten this tree almost 2 weeks ago,
and it's been sitting in the yard this whole time...

RTV

...waiting for me to dig out the old tree stand.
Crossing my fingers that RTV will keep the water in.

green

Here's to a Happy Holiday season!

TP

real time

Anyone who has built a car or motorcycle,
knows that it's not one project,
it is a compilation of countless little projects.

modified 1940 ford front suspension

In some builds,

I've made the mistake of listing those steps too early,

and it can make the end result seem unrealistic and out of reach.

A long list can be overwhelming,

especially when you know each step is a couple hours,

and then there's all the unmentioned hiccups.
Like slogging through a mud pit.
*****

Grateful Dead - Main 10 - 1970
*****

The important thing is to keep focused,
and use any spare time to make progress.

original spring perch bushings

Removing the original Ford spring perch bushing or pivot
is one of those steps that can stall a project.
They don't come out easily unless I'm missing the trick!

torch hole

Here's a quick how to that I've already done for the rear suspension.
It takes a while but the end result isn't a smashed up spring perch.

torched

First the ends are cut off,
then a torch hole is drilled out.
This takes the most time,
but keeps the torch work error free.
A hammer and punch and voila.

new cheesy spring perch

After some filing,
the new plastic spring perch bushings are pressed in.
Now the spring can be installed.

workshop

But nope.
It was time for our monthly TJ dental visit.
That's how it goes though.
At least I'm over the hump - the rest is easy!
Right!

TP