I Love Lucy

[DDickey]

Originally Posted by snog

How fast you're moving on this renovation! Impressive. It's fascinating to follow your progress.

It feels like I'm not going so fast, but this is my first one and I'm learning

[jjmtb]

That window looks awesome!


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[DDickey]

Originally Posted by jjmtb

That window looks awesome!


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Each window is taking me about a full day to rebuild and install, and that's not counting polishing, which I outsourced. Here's window #2 all cleco'd up

[jjmtb]

Did you drill all of your existing rivet holes to 5/32 for reassembly and replacement?


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[DDickey]

Originally Posted by jjmtb

Did you drill all of your existing rivet holes to 5/32 for reassembly and replacement?


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Yes, it's pretty much required. I've developed good technique with Vintage Trailer's rivet drilling tool, but still, many of the holes come out larger than 1/8"

[DDickey]

...because I don't remember how the luggage hatch goes back together. The hinge has an offset that kicks the door out away from the frame, but I thought I remember it being flush. All the rivet holes line up, so it has to be right, but it doesn't seem right. Anyone have a pic of their late 50's rear luggage door? Or does anyone know if the offset is correct and the door should not be flush with the frame?

[DDickey]

Well, I didn't expect to get this stuck on bushings, and my progress has been slowed to a crawl. If I would have had the bushings I would have had the bottom done and the shell back on by now. I've been to three suspension shops here in town, one who specializes in old hotrods, and no-one can help me with these bushings, so I'm going to make my own polyurethane bushings. Finding the right size everything to make the bushings has been a challenge, but I've finally rounded it up, and I'll detail what I've done.

The first two pics are the old, dead bushings and the cleaned out spring eye. To remove the bushings I drilled the rubber into swiss cheese, knocked the innards out, cut the outer sleeve with a sawzall and then knocked it out. The third pic shows the old bushings to be 1.29" in diameter which doesn't correlate to anything you can buy - 1 1/4" OD is too small and 1 5/16" OD is too big. The best thing I could come up with is 1 5/16" brushed nickel closet rod from Home Depot which I'll shave down to fit (fourth pic). The fifth pic shows that it's 1.322" in diameter, so I've got to shave .032 off.

Pic six is the pipe I'll use for the crush tube. I picked it up at a local supplier, Metal Mart, and it's .875" x .120". The seventh pic is the Smooth-On polyurethane kit I picked up on Amazon, and I've chosen Shore 70A hardness. Lucy's going to handle like a hot rod

I had a difficult time finding 5/8" shackle links, everything is 9/16" at the trailer shops, so I opted to drill out some new 9/16" shackle links (eighth pic).

The ninth pic shows the drilled out shackle links with new grade 8 5/8" x 14" find thread shackle bolts that I picked up at Tractor Supply.

The tenth pic shows how nicely the bolts fit in the .875" tube

[DDickey]

The first two pics are cutting the pipe. The 1 5/16 closet rod gets cut into 2" pieces, and the .875" gets cut into 1 5/16" pieces.

In pic three I'm using a table sander with 50 grit to shave the closet rod down. It doesn't need to be perfect, just a pretty snug fit, and the fourth pic shows I've gotten it down to 1.296" which will work just fine.

The fifth pic shows a completed inner race with a shackle bolt, pic six is one assembly ready for poly and pic seven is all six bushings ready for poly.

I haven't poured them yet, and probably won't get to it this weekend because we're going to the Austin City Limits Music Festival, but when I do I'll update the thread on how it went.

In between trying to find materials for the bushings I've been working on windows, and I'm 1/2 way done. Yay! The last pic shows the rear of the trailer with completed window, LED tail lights and new nameplate. I've sent the license plate light out to be chromed.

[toastie]

Great work!!!

toastie

[DDickey]

Thanks toastie!

I did notice a mistake above, I said, 'The first two pics are cutting the pipe. The 1 5/16 closet rod gets cut into 2" pieces, and the .875" gets cut into 1 5/16" pieces.'

The .875" actually gets cut into 2 5/16" pieces

[toastie]

Originally Posted by DDickey

Thanks toastie!

I did notice a mistake above, I said, 'The first two pics are cutting the pipe. The 1 5/16 closet rod gets cut into 2" pieces, and the .875" gets cut into 1 5/16" pieces.'

The .875" actually gets cut into 2 5/16" pieces

DDickey

These are the bushings that I used on my 1955 Safari

http://catalog.redneck-trailer.com/A...SKU&WEBID=2770

14-73 rednek

toastie

[DDickey]

Hot damn, I always do things the hard way

[DDickey]

Just picked it up from Centex Plating. As soon as the new license plate bracket from VTS arrives I'll install it.

[snog]

While most of the vernacular here is Greek to me, it does amaze me how you're able to cobble parts that you can't find on the market. Necessity is the mother of invention!