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ATHS Member
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Last Login: 3/13/2010 11:47:51 PM
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This is the coolest build thread I've seen in a long time! And you're one heck of a welder to boot. Sure wish I had the space and tools you have to work on my K123.
Keep up the great work and I look forward to more progress updates.
Cheers,
David
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ATHS Member
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Last Login: 3/11/2010 7:37:31 AM
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Thanks for everyone's comments, I appreciate it! Here is a quick update from this past weekend...
Early last week I made a list of all the bolts I needed to finish up the frame and placed an order with Fastenal. I'm pretty sure they are going to send me a Christmas card this year!
So Friday night after work, my Dad and Tommy started sorting the new bolts out and installing them...
While they were working on the rear of the frame, I realized that I needed to repair one of the angled support brackets. The passenger side has two and the driver side has one directly behind the steering box. For whatever reason, one of the the brackets on the pass. side was cut with a torch...
I has two extra brackets from the 760 frame, but they were slightly different. The work required to make them work would be just as much to repair the original one, so early Saturday morning I started to work on it.
When all was said and done, I wound up with this...
I also realized that a weld on the rear cab support was cracked. I didn't see this until it was sandblasted.
So I clamped it in the vice and ground the old weld out...
Then I re-welded it and installed it on the frame.
When then moved back onto the front of the frame, and I realized I needed some more help... So Madeline came out to help us while my Wife ran some errands...
My Wife forgot to tell me that Madeline had two bottom teeth coming in, so as you can imagine we spent more time trying to settle her down than actually working! But that's ok..., we were happy to have her company in the garage. At least Tommy kept busy working...
Mr. Brown stopped over the garage with some coffee's, and while he was there I figured he could help my Dad and I pull the front bumper from the mezzanine. I wanted to trial fit it before I tightened up the bumper brackets and I also wanted to dimension it like I did with the 760 bumper. I actually found this bumper along with a bunch of other Brockway’s parts in the local Paper Shop a few years back. The chrome was in good condition so we decided to use this bumper instead of the original bumper. The original bumper was tweaked pretty bad and someone torched a hole in the middle of it to access the pivot bolt for the radiator. But when I went to bolt it on the holes didn’t line up. Then I remembered Stan’s post about the difference between 300 and 700 series bumpers. So I went out and looked at the 761, and sure enough the bumper is identical.
Here is a pic of bumpers. The chrome one on top is the one I bought, the middle one is the one that came on the truck (after a lot of work…), and the bottom one is a 760 bumper…
Stan also mentioned that the bumpers are interchangeable as long as you use the correct brackets… So I dug out the brackets from the 760 frame to compare. So you can see the difference…. So it looks like I will be sandblasting these soon…
That's it for now!
www.HUSKIDRIVE.com
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ATHS Member
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Last Login: 3/11/2010 7:37:31 AM
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Last weekend was my Daughters Christening, and this past week I was on the road for work most of the week, so we didn’t get back into the garage until this past Friday night.
The first thing we did was lower the frame onto to some dolly’s which included a pair that I use to move the snowmobile around the garage. We wanted to spin the frame around and move it back to where it started so the dolly’s were a big help.
We wheeled the front axle outside and then moved the frame into place. We then lifted it up onto a set of jackstands…
First we started installing the cross members…
Most of the original bolts were tired (buggered ends, some threads missing, etc…) so I decided to buy new ones from McMaster and Fastenal. I still had some smaller ones left over from the 155W and my son Tommy decided to organize them based on color (silver, black and gold)…
I also replaced the bushings in the bracket for the clutch pedal rod…
By Saturday afternoon we were moving right along… Now it’s starting to look like something!
Here is a quick pic of the rear of the frame after we installed the hangers for the shocks…
Since I was on the road most of last week, I called Donavan Spring in NH on Monday to order new pins and bushings for the front springs. These guys have been more than helpful and also supplied the obsolete spring pins for my 155W. By Thursday UPS delivered the parts. So here we are pressing the new pins into the rear front spring hangers…
After bolting the spring hangers to the frame, we decided to take some diagonal measurements. Sure enough we weren’t square so we hooked up a ratchet strap and started pulling. With just a little effort we were able to square it up and then we started torque all the crossmember bolts.
Then on Sunday morning we started with the front end of the frame. We started here…
And within the hour were here…
Last but not least, I made a quick cardboard template of the steering box just to make sure everything lined up, etc. You can see that I will have to flip the bolt directly under the box...
So that’s it for now! I still need to order some new bolts for the front end to finish up the frame, and then we’ll move onto the rear suspension.
Tom
www.HUSKIDRIVE.com
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ATHS Member
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Soon after my last post, I was pulling in my driveway on my way home from work and my Dad had just backed in with the trailer and a load of sandblasted parts. I don’t know how the guy did it, but he sandblasted everything in 25 degree weather!
So here is the load of misc. parts for the frame…
And here are the rails… My Dad had these wrapped in a brown tarp to prevent them from rusting since the roads were still a little wet…
So I started going through the parts and had to touch up a few of the edges, etc. Then we started hanging them…
To help primer the rails, I used 2 pieces of ½ threaded rod, both in the front and the back, and them set them on jack stands using angle iron on it’s edge. At least this way we would be able to cover as much of the rails as possible…
I then realized I should press the spring pin bushings out of the rear front spring hangers before we started painting. We put the pass. side in the press and with one crank on the jack… BANG!!!! , the old bushing shot out like a missile…
We weren’t so lucky with the driver side. This bushing did not want to budge in the press. So I decided to chuck it up in the mill and using a 1” end mill to help ‘thin’ it out…
Here is what finally came out of there…
So the next night we started with the primer. This time I even let my Dad handle the gun for a little while…
Shortly thereafter my buddy Mike came over and took over for us. Two days later, we laid all the parts out to get a quick inventory…
That’s it for now, more to follow…
www.HUSKIDRIVE.com
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Last Login: Today @ 12:53:41 AM
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| Thanks for showing us your work. That's going to be a show stopper.
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ATHS Member
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Here is a quick update of what we worked on last week.
When we last left off, I had just finished modifying the driver side frame rail for the power steering box. After filling the bolt holes, I had to redrill new 11/16” holes to mount the Sheppard box. So we decided to put the rail back in the milling machine to drill it…
This was last Sunday night, and I really wanted to get the rails loaded on the trailer so my Dad could deliver them to the sandblaster Monday morning. The last few holes really fought us, and we struggled with the 11/16” bit. I don’t have the ‘knack’ to sharpen them on a grinding wheel, and when all was said and done, I had to use cheap stepper bits. Here is what we wound up with…
Then we took the rails outside and loaded them on the trailer…
We also had the remaining parts from the frame ready to go (motor mounts, front suspension mounting parts, etc…)
My Dad dropped them off early Monday morning, but the guy was not able to get the them… We patiently waited by the phone all week with no luck. So we decided to work on some other things in the mean time…
The first thing I did was mill the 3/8” thick spacers down on the back of the C channel to 1/4" (Remember the 361 frame is 1/4" thick while the 760 frame is 3/8”
I also had to mill a little more space for the bumper bracket…
While I was working on the bracket, my Dad was busy cleaning up the spring pins and clutch rod. Looks like the clutch rod is ok but the spring pins will need to be replaced. Ray H. was able to provide a Flagg part number for new pins…
I then decided to work on the motor mounts. The 3/4" bolts were seized in the metal spacers/bushings, so with the help of the press and some heat I was able to separate them.
Here it what was left of the nylon ‘cushion’. I was able to locate a new set through Craig M.
I also pressed out the bushings for the clutch rod since they were worn. McMaster Carr has these new for under $3.00 a piece…
Last but not least, my Dad threaded a piece of 1/2" rod to replace the badly rusted clutch adjustment rod. McMaster Carr also had new clevises that are more than reasonable…
Well that’s it for now…
www.HUSKIDRIVE.com
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Thanks for all the nice comments, I appreciate it!
Junkmandan... Yes, I would splice the rails again. We already had the new rails before I decided to go with the air ride, and now the truck will look like it came with the Neway from the factory.
Jeff L.. Your exactly right... the tinted primer will help if any areas are missed. I'm not an expert painter, but I do know it is hard to get color in all the nooks and crannies...
So here is today's update...
I spent a few hours in the house this morning helping Tommy set up some of his new toys, and then I headed out in the garage. We when last left off, I had the rails stacked on the floor...
So I decided to start working on the passenger rail first. Someone hacked a hole in it for whatever reason...
So I cut a piece of 1/4" plate and used it to fill the hole. Here it is tacked in place...
After I welded the hole up, I ground down the splice welds with a 36 grit flapper wheel...
The model/serial number is located on the bottom of the pass. rail, so I wire brushed it quick. It's interesting how they also included the wheel base in the number as well...
Then we moved on to the driver side rail. This rail required a lot more work since it had to be modified to add power steering. After grinding the splice weld, I laid the donor 760 rail next to the 361 rail for comparison...
The 361 rail needs to have a section removed to accept the much larger Sheppard box (in lieu of the original Ross manual box.) To add strength back into the frame, a piece of C channel fits over the frame followed by an angle. The pic below shows those pieces laid over the 361 frame...
Then I marked the 361 where it needed to be cut...
After much cutting and grinding, I wound up with this. You can see there are a few holes that will need to be filled. One other thing to note... the 760 rail is a 10" tall rail while the 361 rail is 9" tall. You can see how the frame in the top of the pic starts to taper up towards 10".
After some more filing, I test fit the C channel piece. Here is a pic from underneath...
In the pic above you can see how there are two spacers that are welded to the C channel. They will need to be milled down 1/8" since the 361 rail is 1/4" and the 760 is 3/8" thick.
To finish off the day, I filled the 3 holes mentioned before...
And then ground them smooth...
So that's it for today... Tomorrow we'll drill the holes for the Sheppard box and load up the remaining parts for the sandblaster. I hope everyone enjoys the posts and much as I enjoy writing them!
Tom
www.HUSKIDRIVE.com
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ATHS Member
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Last Login: 3/13/2010 9:45:01 PM
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| Tom------What an awesome step by step report on a very extensive rebuild/restoration . Would you splice the frame rails again if you were doing it over ? I'm looking forward to see it a Cortland in 2010 ! Thanks for sharing your expertise !
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| Your base primer shouldn't have any effect on your top coat ?? I would talk to your paint supplier. But then again if you start mixing brands of primer and paint you never know what will happen.
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Looking great! Tinting the primer is probably a great idea, since you always have that one spot where you didn't get enough paint on an the grey primer shows thru. Your attention to detail is incredible! Still think you are toying with us putting in that one pic of the box that is labeled "Batmobile Compass". That Cutlass doesn't look too bad sitting there either.
Jeff
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