Other Projects - Car and Non Car Related

Kinda implied in the title, I haven't found a post for this otherwise (if there is please share!) and I know it has come up in a few posts here and there with us all.

What other non-bullnose projects are you all working on? Not limited to just cars here, show us your projects be it anything from an ATV to that counter top you put in your kitchen last weekend.

This here is one of my babies. 79 half ton street rod I've been putting together.

I've had an "other" project of late that might qualify. It was brackets for an electrically-operated gate. The day we left Nicaragua about three weeks ago my SiL came back to the house as he was leaving for work with the news that the gate had broken. So I went down to check it out as it is critical to keeping their dogs in and to the safety of my grandkids. Turned out that a plastic link on one of the actuators had broken and it was no longer connected to the post.

After quite some time of Googling and calling we learned that the actuators were imported from Europe and the parts are no longer available anywhere, and replacement actuators are $550/ea and then weeks to get them in.. So, the question quickly became how to fix it. I realized that the broken link had a horizontal pin inside the actuator and a vertical pin in a flange on the post. So if I could find the right chain, two links would do it. Off to the hardware store we went, and with my daughter translating we found the right chain.

Back to the house, and here's how it worked:

But obviously that isn't going to work very long, even if my SiL keeps it thoroughly lubed as I asked him to do. So when I got home I made replacement links out of aluminum. Turned out that I had just the right piece of aluminum, and with two days of work on the mill I had these made. They are now on their way to his employer and the next person that goes to Nicaragua will hand carry them in. While they aren't "exactly" the same size as the plastic one, they are within .020" of the originals.

Do I dare go in to my collection of lawn and garden tractors....

Only other project is trying to keep my daily driver running.

Just a few specs:

2003 Ranger Edge
-3.0 Vulcan V6
-M5OD-R1 Manual Trans (truck started out as an automatic)
-8.8 rear axle with 4.88 G2 R&P and a Detroit True-Trac LS
-4 wheel disc conversion using Mustang Cobra rear brakes
-Affordable Offroad winch bumper
-2004+ Front Clip swap
-2006+ Tailgate, mirrors, and step bars (Truck is built to mimic a 2010 Ranger)
-Bilstein shocks
-4" suspension lift with a 3" body lift.
-35" tires
-17x9 Pro Comp wheels
-Ford Explorer seats
-Ford Explorer full length console
-Hurst short throw shifter
-Pioneer sound including 2 12" subwoofers.
-Full sound deadening on all interior panels
-Big three power wire upgrade with a 120 amp alternator.

And probably some other things that I'm forgetting. Truck is pretty built for a daily driver. I've done a ton of work on it over the last ten years since I bought it. It was my high school graduation present to myself. I bought it with 42,000 miles on it and we're now at 175,000. I would love to see 250k, but only time will tell.

This weekend me and my boys had the pleasure of replacing the well tank. It had been raining so it was a muddy mess.
New 19 gallon bladder tank

Not sure this precisely qualifies as a 'project', but it's going to take up my time like one. I've been drafted to help mentor my son's robotics team at the local high school. The below video shows the competition for this year (ignore the overly dramatic and nerdy voiceover):

Since I appear to have the only real truck on the team, I'm currently assigned to the 'Field Elements' team which is building wooden replicas of the various components that the robot will have to interact with, such as the 'power ports' and the hanging assembly in the center of the field. Once the field elements are constructed I'll move to the programming team, and help out with some of the computer vision tasks. This is the kind of stuff I could have only dreamed about when I was in high school - I envy these kids for having this kind of opportunity. At least this way I get to pretend and play along a bit.

Heres my biggest project. Cant post the pic right now but its a 1980 toyota 4x4 pickup

Full suspension rebuild.
Engine rebuild.
Frame rust repair, welding and coating.
Body work and maybe a flatbed.

Its a headache but about as much fun as ive had with a seatbelt on.

Had too long a post that got lost
To start working again on my 1970 AMC Javelin that I have had for about 30 years.
Brother owed me money and it was the car or nothing so I took the money pit car
What it looks like now after moving it back into my garage from the house garage.

http://cars.grantskingdom1.com/index.php/70-Javelin-Mark-Donohue?page=1
Dave ----

Awesome to see some AMC guys here, they are favorites of mine.

Funny story, the reason I ended up what that 79 F150 is due to an AMC. My friend owned that truck but had been searching for a early 70s Javelin for almost 10 years. We finally found one and him and I drove out to check it out one afternoon about a year and a half ago. We looked at it and liked what we saw, so he went and took out a $6600 personal loan so he could pick it up. The catch was space in the driveway and well the truck had to go. I'd always wanted a 79 and he didn't want anyone else to have it so he sold it to me for $1500 (what a steal that was). We went down and got the car towed back up about a week later.

He ended up with a black and white 73 Javelin with a 360 someone hot rodded out years ago. Cool thing was it had a Pierre Cardin interior. Once we got it running it ran pretty good but ended up pulling motor and going through the car. The engine is still out but he took it down to the block, found out it was bored .030 already and had a cam, intake, full length headers etc. The car had sat in a barn under a lifted car for the better part of 10 years or longer.

He's done quite a bit to it since, the decklid got painted and had a AMX wing put on it, painted the tail light bezels, restored what he could of the seat fabric, had all new carpet put in, rewired the entire dash, recently put an AMX hood on it, removed rust off the bumpers, rebuilt the steering column, fixed all the dash lighting, had a full stainless exhaust put in, etc. Car looks pretty good.


This is it on the day we found it.



The day we got it back to his place about a week or so later.



And a few others from 2018 and this past summer. Got a bit sidetracked when he flew out to Colorado and drove back a 401 powered Wagoneer.




It's pretty awesome having a group of friends that are all into the vintage stuff. We are all just young kids but it makes a lot of the older crowd smile when a group of 22, 23 and 24 year olds roll into to a car show with a group of classics. Between a few of us there is these vehicles:

Myself: 1985 F150 body swapped 95 F150, 1979 F150
Friend 1: 1973 Mercury Cougar with a 351C
Friend 2: 1984 Chevy Camaro 400 SBC swapped
Friend 3: 1986 Volvo with a carbed Chevy 5.3
Friend 4: 1983 S10 with a carbed Chevy 5.3
Friend 5: 1978 GMC K20 and 1976 Malibu 383

We have fun :)

A PC seats & head liner are something when cleaned and looking new.
I bet when he shows up to car shows no one knows what it is LOL
Oh and don't even look for an AMC class as they never have one!

Got to love that AMC motor color

My car was a factory 390 / 4sp but when I got it it has a 360 that runs pretty good and the 390 in boxes.
Someone wanted the 390 for NHRA class racing and it had to have the numbers of the 70 cars.
Being I was not going to rebuild it I sold it for cash & a 401 from a Jeep for the drag car.

Is your buddy a member over here http://theamcforum.com/forum/forums.html
Its the only one left that I think is worth looking at, I am a member there under the same user name but have not been on for about 4 years as I was rebuilding my 81 flare side.

I have done a lot of rebuilding on my Javelin just does not look it LOL
If people think it is hard getting parts for our pick up trucks try getting them for a car that the company  closed up in 1988 and most left over parts were scrapped. Then look at how many were built / sold and we don't have much to pick from.
Dave ----

I saw a 304 in a Jeep that was that color just the other day.  Was in to get my D60 and that's what they were working on.

They'd done a complete rebuild but ran into a problem finding a flywheel.  Took months, but they finally found one.

I had to ask about the odd piping on the exhaust manifolds.  Sure enough, it was air injection.  They'd left it 'cause they were sure the manifolds would crack if they did anything, and they don't think they can find any more, and they've already tried to find headers - to no avail.

Gary Lewis wrote

I saw a 304 in a Jeep that was that color just the other day.  Was in to get my D60 and that's what they were working on.

They'd done a complete rebuild but ran into a problem finding a flywheel.  Took months, but they finally found one.

I had to ask about the odd piping on the exhaust manifolds.  Sure enough, it was air injection.  They'd left it 'cause they were sure the manifolds would crack if they did anything, and they don't think they can find any more, and they've already tried to find headers - to no avail.

I have been out of the AMC loop for a bit but they where most likely right in the injection tube assy. and not being able to get replacements.
As for headers I did not think they would be hard to come by.
Now if looking on Summit or Jeggs you may not see them listed on line or a catalog and need to call them and even more so for the car side of things. Anything after 1970 had dog leg exh. ports for better flow and it is hard to find a set of headers that fit the opening of the dog leg and not block it.

Flywheels can be hard as most places list all AMC motors (304/343/360/390/401) as using the same fly wheels / flex plates and this is not true.
Each motor is balanced differently and uses it's own fly wheels / flex plates along with front balancers.

Then throw in early & late cranks for the 304/360/390 and the fly wheels / flex plates also do not inter change beside the weight thing.
You get a fly wheels / flex plates to fit the crank and have it match balanced to the old one. That is if you can find a machine shop that can do that!

BTW AMC did not have big blocks or small blocks, they were all the same size on the outside when looking at them so you could drop a 401 in place of a 304 and no one would know unless they knew AMC's.
They cast the CID on the side of the blocks by the motor mount boss unless a service block as it had no markings.
AMC's are fun to mess with
Dave ----

How about a factory compact (Vega/Pinto/VW Bug) with a factory 5.0 (304)

Or is it

Dave ----





yes it is a factory 304 / auto car

I'm not sure if he is a member of that forum or not but he does post a lot of social media groups for AMC like on Facebook.


I need me a v8 Gremmy!!!

Add another to the collection amongst my group of friends, my buddy got this old girl for FREE! Garage was collapsing on her.

1955 Olds 88



And after a wash

Wow!  That cleaned up nicely!

From my understanding, it its completely unrestored as well. Unreal how deals like that can happen.



I absolutely cannot wait to get some pictures of the whole group together this summer. We've tried a few here and there but can never seem to get everyone in one at the same time.

Just for the heck of it, here's some more pics of our rides and projects that I'm involved with currently...seems like the list of cars we go through is never ending. Feel free to ask any questions lol.

That's a really nice Olds!  Yes, sometimes deals just fall into your lap.  

And, that's quite a collection of vehicles the group has.  Is it just a bunch of friends, or a car club, or?

Angelo Voltura wrote

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I had one of these back in the early 1990's. Mine was a 1984 that had a mild 4-bolt main 350 swapped into it. The 700R4 and 10 bolt rear end didn't like the extra horsepower and I had to replace the trans and rear end TWICE while I owned that car. The t-roof leaked like a spaghetti strainer, but it was still a fun car. I drove it across the country and back in the mid-1990's.

Look at this mess of smog tubes.

Our old playground/mud pit