My '76 restoration (long post)

[mrvette]

Moose leather ??? That's awesome :lol:

Yeah, it's a thick, soft yet very tough leather with a great texture, not too shiny, not to "velvety", should give pleasant and solid grip.

During the summer powwows native tribe are sellling a wide variety of furs and leathers, at relatively good price.

Arctic Fox fur wheel cover anyone?

If I sent you a wheel like a late shark, how much would you want to recover it for me, with that black moose hide??

:nuts:

 

[denpo]

Moose leather ??? That's awesome :lol:

Yeah, it's a thick, soft yet very tough leather with a great texture, not too shiny, not to "velvety", should give pleasant and solid grip.

During the summer powwows native tribe are sellling a wide variety of furs and leathers, at relatively good price.

Arctic Fox fur wheel cover anyone?

If I sent you a wheel like a late shark, how much would you want to recover it for me, with that black moose hide??

:nuts:

Dunno Gene, I bought this batch last year and my wife kept on piecing it for her jewel craft hobby, I managed to save only enough for one wheel job.
Second I still have to make sure I can do some decent sewing job.

If you like the final result (and you're serious about this) I guess we could arrange some kind of trade.
I'm supposed to go see a fur trader later this year for a refill.

I'll post pic of moose leather tonight.

 

[mrvette]

Moose leather ??? That's awesome :lol:

Yeah, it's a thick, soft yet very tough leather with a great texture, not too shiny, not to "velvety", should give pleasant and solid grip.

During the summer powwows native tribe are sellling a wide variety of furs and leathers, at relatively good price.

Arctic Fox fur wheel cover anyone?

If I sent you a wheel like a late shark, how much would you want to recover it for me, with that black moose hide??

:nuts:

Dunno Gene, I bought this batch last year and my wife kept on piecing it for her jewel craft hobby, I managed to save only enough for one wheel job.
Second I still have to make sure I can do some decent sewing job.

If you like the final result (and you're serious about this) I guess we could arrange some kind of trade.
I'm supposed to go see a fur trader later this year for a refill.

I'll post pic of moose leather tonight.

Yeh, I am, believe it or not I have 3 late shark wheels, the on on there now isn't what I like, but at least the padding/leather is good....

the other two are rather sad from the FLORIDA summer SUN......:hissyfit:

 

[denpo]

Here's the famous Moose leather, don't trust my camera's ****** colors skills, it can't be darker.



Here's how it should look on the wheel :



Today I bought a leather punch and some waxed flax thread and gave the herringbone stitching method a try on a scrap piece:



Not too bad for a first time. The technique tends to twist the leather, I'll have to watch it.
The touch is just gorgeous and the stitchings are as stealthy as you could get, time to do it for real.

 

[mrvette]

Looks like you got a side job business going there.....Time for another thread??

:wink:

 

[denpo]

Done!



Mission "save the skeleton wheel" accomplished :trumpet:







At the last minute I opted for waxed nylon thread, much thinner, thus easier to sew. Still, my finger are all numb, this take a hell lot of time, I didn't really count but I'd say something like 8 hours.
I broke three needles in the process and the fourth one is begging for death.








When jumping the spoke, this stitch technique just came to me naturally, It has the same sewing pattern and really gives the border the strength to stick to the spoke.
You can notice the wrinkles on the left, my leather piece did to have the same "thread" all along.








The junction cut have been dictated by structural strength considerations, and I didn't want it at the top of the wheel.


I boosted the contrast range for you to see the stitch, because under natural light, it's black on black.

 

[MYBAD79]

Wow, that's impressive work :thumbs:

 

[mrvette]

Wow, that's impressive work :thumbs:

Yeh, no ****,

Denpo, you got a client....


:clap::clap::beer::yahoo:

 

[denpo]

Wow, that's impressive work :thumbs:

Yeh, no ****,

Denpo, you got a client....


:clap::clap::beer::yahoo:

Dude, you really gonna have to be convincing because my fingers are still begging for mercy, not even mentioning the whole weeked "wasted" on this.

 

[DeeVeeEight]

I wouldn't say the weekend was wasted, the wheel wrap looks great!

 

[mrvette]

Wow, that's impressive work :thumbs:

Yeh, no ****,

Denpo, you got a client....


:clap::clap::beer::yahoo:

Dude, you really gonna have to be convincing because my fingers are still begging for mercy, not even mentioning the whole weeked "wasted" on this.

I wouldn't say the weekend was wasted, the wheel wrap looks great!

Yeh it does, and so us less talented folks have to accept what we can get....

oh well.....hearing of that amount of T&E, I can't blame you, I had NO concept as to about that, I would have guessed maybe 4 hours....

so waddah I know??

:crap:

 

[denpo]

I wouldn't say the weekend was wasted, the wheel wrap looks great!

My weekend vanished entirely, only fuzzy mamories remain, the process is hypnotic yet arduous, weird mix.
The wasted I used was more like in "to get wasted". :mobeer:
Excuse my english :wink:


One thing I forgot to mention:
I did stress-test the second hose layer and found out the "regular contact glue" I initially used wasn't up to the task, so I switched to some specific rubber permanent cement, much stronger.

 

[denpo]

Yeh it does, and so us less talented folks have to accept what we can get....

oh well.....hearing of that amount of T&E, I can't blame you, I had NO concept as to about that, I would have guessed maybe 4 hours....

so waddah I know??

:crap:

No way I could spend that much time (8h was very optimistic) anytime soon, but if I ever change my mind in the future you'll be the first to know.:drink:

 

[Red]

You did some amazing hand stitching on your wheel cover!!

 

[denpo]

Rebuilt complete!

Hi everyone.
Thanks to a nasty flu I've been grounded for a full week.
But this weekend I felt better and I spent this sunday at my buddy's shop to complete my T5 rebuild.
To make it short, I saved his *ss pretty big time, so he owns me all the reasonably simple machining work I could ask.

Since a lot of parts are new I couldn't expect everything to be right within the tolerances.

First of all, we had to drill the case for the GM part, it only had the Ford pattern. So we cut the old case's face, surfaced it and used it as a pattern bolted and the new case by the bearing retained bolts.

For the cluster gear we had to make a new thrust plate shim....


And a couple of surface grinding


to reach a perfect zero endplay on the countershaft.


For the main shaft this was the complete opposite, instead of having to put a shim, we had to remove .002 to the inside of the retainer to obtain zero endplay and a shaft that turn nice and free.





Here is the 5th gear installed :


A last view of the inside before sealing this up




I hope this Gforce case strenght is worth the effort.



Here is it done, with the 30$ ebay mustand shifter and the scatter shield.




It shifts nice and smooth, mission accomplished.
It feels good to have this giant puzzle back in one piece, the video instructions proved to be invaluably helpful.

I bough a Zoom clutch/pressure plate kit, nothing fancy.
I'm going to weld the shifter offset just like here, but I still have no idea about the shifter handle I'm gonna use.
Do all shifter handles come with the same bolt pattern? Is there any standard? I would like to get everything welded before I have to worry about an handle.

Since the front clip it not glued yet, I think I'm gonna pull the whole engine, it will be much easier to work on.

 

[MYBAD79]

yes, pull the engine.... aligning the trans (bellhousing) to the engine is a lot easier when you have the engine out. I would hate having to do this under the car.

 

[denpo]

I'm going to weld the shifter offset just like here, but I still have no idea about the shifter handle I'm gonna use.
Do all shifter handles come with the same bolt pattern? Is there any standard? I would like to get everything welded before I have to worry about an handle.

Erratum, by handle I was actually meaning lever (excuse my anglishe).
I've looked up on Internet and it looks a lot of levers use the same 2 bolt pattern, or maybe I'm just only stumbling on Hurst lever pictures.
Could life be that easy? You tell me.

 

[Rod75]

Back to your steering wheel project, great job! Now you've done it....given me another project! :crylol:
I think your leather wrap would work well on a shifter knob as well.

 

[denpo]

Back to your steering wheel project, great job! Now you've done it....given me another project! :crylol:
I think your leather wrap would work well on a shifter knob as well.

Thanks Rod.
I did think about wrapping the shifter knob, but I'm still undecided.
One thing for sure, I'll be rolling my own leather shifter boot.
For the knob, I have options of leather, metal of wood.
I got a metalworking and a woodworking buddy, both could make me a custom knob.
Precious wood it awesome as long as you use it parsimoniously.
A nice aluminum billet know would be as nice as well.
But you're right, leather would give the best grip, especially for a sweating machine like me.

 

[Rod75]

Back to your steering wheel project, great job! Now you've done it....given me another project! :crylol:
I think your leather wrap would work well on a shifter knob as well.

Thanks Rod.
I did think about wrapping the shifter knob, but I'm still undecided.
One thing for sure, I'll be rolling my own leather shifter boot.
For the knob, I have options of leather, metal of wood.
I got a metalworking and a woodworking buddy, both could make me a custom knob.
Precious wood it awesome as long as you use it parsimoniously.
A nice aluminum billet know would be as nice as well.
But you're right, leather would give the best grip, especially for a sweating machine like me.

Lucky guy with all those custom options! With the boot and wheel matching, I think you're right, a good contrasting wood knob would set it off....and be a 'one-off'.
That's some fancy word usage there! "Parsimoniously"
Have to admit I had to look that one up...LOL! And you've doubted your english?!:crylol:

 

[denpo]

Today I went on upgrading my 50$ ebay short throw shifter.
The stop screws are junk (to be changed), but the rest is pretty decent quality.

The only default is that the cross pin is much smaller than the grooves it's supposed to slide in. So there is a play when you rotate the shifter along its axis.






Press out the pin, and machine everything to 3/8, press in new pin, and the play is gone.





I spend a lot of time adjusting the half-sphere-shaped plastic bushing, if the cross pin is not perfectly centered on the rotation axis it won't move freely.
My guess is that the smaller cross pin is here to compensate with the original poor fitting of this plastic piece.



My machinist welded me a offset bracket. I'm a little concerned about its strength, this steel piece looks flimsy.
On tricky thing, the cross pin had to be pressed in after the bracket is welded.
I'll drill the holes for the shifter after a first fitting test.

Now the shifter is smooth and tight. I don't know how it would compare to Hurst's or Pro's, but I don't think I'm that far off.

 

[mrvette]

Your efforts there at redesign/engineering solutions to problems do not go unnoticed here on this end, very creative and smart.....

:1st::beer::noob:

 

[denpo]

Your efforts there at redesign/engineering solutions to problems do not go unnoticed here on this end, very creative and smart.....

:1st::beer::noob:

Thanks Gene,even if everybody here think I'm just a computer nerd my late father was a great machinist, and the city I grew up was a true machinist city (3500 people, 100+ machinist shop).
All the summer money I made was by operating CNC machine.
Spending time at my buddy's shop brings me back in time.
Don't tell anyone, but I'm having wet dream about owning my own metal lathe, used they not that expensive, more a question of space...

 

[MYBAD79]

same here, if i had the space I'd have a lathe and a mill..... looks like you did a good job on that shifter, what is it? some name brand or what? I'm thinking about getting the MGW for my C6, the stock shifter is junk.....

 

[mrvette]

Your efforts there at redesign/engineering solutions to problems do not go unnoticed here on this end, very creative and smart.....

:1st::beer::noob:

Thanks Gene,even if everybody here think I'm just a computer nerd my late father was a great machinist, and the city I grew up was a true machinist city (3500 people, 100+ machinist shop).
All the summer money I made was by operating CNC machine.
Spending time at my buddy's shop brings me back in time.
Don't tell anyone, but I'm having wet dream about owning my own metal lathe, used they not that expensive, more a question of space...

I could go back a few decades and say that was ONE of many thoughts that crossed my mind as I took 'Shop Class' in grade school.....honestly it was the only class I really liked, but was discouraged by everyone around as I was supposed to get a degree in underwater basket weaving or some such crap....

oh well.....I have gone to a machine shop here a couple years ago to get some stuff done, and thought it was the neatest place....they working on industrial stuff of some sort....ran into another forum member there....
and we had met maybe a month before....

:bonkers:h::hi:

 

[denpo]

same here, if i had the space I'd have a lathe and a mill..... looks like you did a good job on that shifter, what is it? some name brand or what? I'm thinking about getting the MGW for my C6, the stock shifter is junk.....

Shifter is noname ebay China stuff. Some sell them for 47$ shipped, so I should rather say 50$ shifter.
I got Mine for 28$ + 20$ shipping, I took this option because when I bring my stuff through the custom poeple usually don't bother including the shipping in the taxes, even if they should.:idea:

It paid for me because of the free machining, even if I'm pretty sure it can be done with a simple column drill, files and care.

Look up "T5 shifter" on Ebay sorted by cost, here they are.
Dunno if you could get something for your C6, with the tranny at the back the shifter must be particular, but I hope so.

 

[bobs77vet]

nice looking project, you have done lots of good work!

 

[denpo]

Thank you sir. :hi:

 

[mrvette]

You jogged my memory of some 20 years ago, a old hippie looking machinist that had like a 16' basement under his ~2000' house built into a hillside, he did it ALL, he was a NASA contractor building satellites for Goddard Space center just north of DC in Greenbelt....so he was the guy that modified/TIG'd up the induction for a DPFI on a old Pontiac 455 I had at the time....

should have seen his shop, I couldn't ID 1/2 the **** in the joint....his sideline was buying broken/cracked aluminum cyl heads and fixing them for resale, before head shops knew how....them being new on the scene back then....

but talk about Machine shop heaven, and to get to work, he walked down the stairs, he was making a KILLING.....

:yahoo::crylol:

 

[denpo]

You jogged my memory of some 20 years ago, a old hippie looking machinist that had like a 16' basement under his ~2000' house built into a hillside, he did it ALL, he was a NASA contractor building satellites for Goddard Space center just north of DC in Greenbelt....so he was the guy that modified/TIG'd up the induction for a DPFI on a old Pontiac 455 I had at the time....

should have seen his shop, I couldn't ID 1/2 the **** in the joint....his sideline was buying broken/cracked aluminum cyl heads and fixing them for resale, before head shops knew how....them being new on the scene back then....

but talk about Machine shop heaven, and to get to work, he walked down the stairs, he was making a KILLING.....

:yahoo::crylol:

Next time I visit him I'll take pic of his shop, be prepared, he's almost messier than I am.