Progress Thread HeHateMe gets bent

Well, I've been busy, but when I have free time getting some work done on HeHateMe. I ended up not liking how the S&W a pillar down tubes fit. So I got the JD2 tubing bender from my brother and ordered a 1 5/8" die for it. I messed up a tube getting the hang of it but made a down tube that fits good.
Then I tried making a dash bar. Again messed up but ended up getting it tucked in just under the dash top. It's just sitting in there and won't get final welded until the entire cage drops gets welded and gets put back in. I'll probably have to cut a flap in the dash top to weld it but it's worth it since it's above the glove box.
Then I made the bars from the down bar to the firewall and from the firewall to the fender apron.
Not much going on here for Xmas eve so I am about to go out fire up the plasma saw and cut the back out and start laying out the rear frame.
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glad to see you makin progress.
 
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Merry Christmas to all. While the wife was running her mom around I broke out the plasma arc saw. I did this. Wasn't planning on messing with outer tubs but mother nature has started removing them for me.
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Wack! you you're outta here!
Chop! Chop you2!
Hack, hack, hack just for the fun of it!...
Cut fold spindle mutilate. !
rip and tear!
chew it up and spit it out!
harm and general mayhem too!

Wow that felt good!

Can't wait to see it come back together, Merry Christmas...
 
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Wack! you you're outta here!
Chop! Chop you2!
Hack, hack, hack just for the fun of it!...
Cut fold spindle mutilate. !
rip and tear!
chew it up and spit it out!
harm and general mayhem too!

Wow that felt good!

Can't wait to see it come back together, Merry Christmas...
I haven't started drinking yet.....maybe that makes sense later tonight! :kmcoff:

But you are right...it was fun and felt good to take the plasma to it!
 
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So this is a Tin Soldiers Race Cars adjustable front leaf spring mount. I was super excited when I saw this. This is what I want for the front of the leaf springs. But I read it won't work with Caltracs, but will work with Smith Racecraft Assassin bars. Why I wondered? So I got them and found out really fast. The Caltrac has a clevis and the bolt sticks thru and would hit the leaf spring perch once you moved up to the 2nd or 3rd hole. Well, FMR. I can sell the Tin Soldiers and get most of my money, but they also came with rear slider adjustable mounts that I will be able to use.

But after doing some thinking and measuring I came up with a plan. The Caltrac split mono leaf has a 1" id bushing in front. It comes with a 1" od sleeve to go thru and bolt it into the car with a washer on the outside to space it enough to keep it pivoting free. So, I bought a length of 1" od tubing and 4 3/4" long 1" id pieces of tubing. So I will measure and cut off the 1" od tubing to the right length and this contraption will space the brackets far enough for the Caltrac to work. I spent about $40 on all of this. I will have to get some grade 8 5/8" bolts of sufficient length, but this should work fine.

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Well, this has a been a rough month. I got the vid, then my dad went to the ER. I ended up rushing down to Corpus Christi. My brother, sister, and myself were holding his hands as he passed. Worst/best thing ever. When I got there he was lucid. So just about all the family, most of his neighbors, friends, church, etc got to say goodbye. I would read his FB and texts to him, as he had begun twitching and shaking to hard to read or type on his phone.

It's kinda sapped my motivation. Because of travel arrangements and having his funeral at the West TN Veterans cemetary and having to get on their schedule, the actual funeral is this coming Friday. Maybe in 2 or 3 weeks, I'll feel ready to get back to it.

:(
 
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That's a rough day, my sympathies. I'd say it gets easier but it just gets different.

Condolences
hard to lose love ones even if its for the best

Thanks! He had turned 90 in Dec. He had had 3 heart attacks (all minor) starting at 44...but he was in good health, save for heart failure and COPD. Mind sharp as a tack. Still drove himself around, except my sister grocery shopped for him. He drove himself to the Dr just 3 days before he went to the ER, so I wasn't really expecting him to go so fast. He ended up with fluid on the heart and lungs and poor kidney function. So they tried for 2 weeks to dance between giving lasix and killing his kidneys, then take him off and let his kidney's recover. Ultimately he didn't have enough kidney function and the fluid overwhelmed his heart and lungs.

Right now I am making a 60 mile each way commute to work. I used to call and take to him almost every day for at least an hour. That's the different part. I catch myself grabbing my phone and wanting to call. It was comforting to hold his hand and tell him it was ok to go. It wasn't easy.
 
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Well, this has a been a rough month. I got the vid, then my dad went to the ER. I ended up rushing down to Corpus Christi. My brother, sister, and myself were holding his hands as he passed. Worst/best thing ever. When I got there he was lucid. So just about all the family, most of his neighbors, friends, church, etc got to say goodbye. I would read his FB and texts to him, as he had begun twitching and shaking to hard to read or type on his phone.

It's kinda sapped my motivation. Because of travel arrangements and having his funeral at the West TN Veterans cemetary and having to get on their schedule, the actual funeral is this coming Friday. Maybe in 2 or 3 weeks, I'll feel ready to get back to it.

:(
Sorry to hear about your Dad. For a guy, losing a father is a difficult thing...

Bill
 
Well, I just got back from a week in Corpus Christi cleaning up and cleaning out his house. I got 4 totes full of stuff and his tool box. It's a god knows 50 or so year old Snap On top box on a Craftsman bottom box. Not very big, but crammed full of tools and stuff. I couldn't let it go. Funny, when I was a kid it seemed semi truck sized. It's not even all that tall. Next up, my sister will oversee getting all the dings from the inspection fixed. We were already putting a new roof on, replacing all the facia boards, and there's a leak in the plumbing drain system somewhere. Probably got to do some electrical too, since it was built in '58.

But, everything left goes into the estate sale. And that's that. 90 years of life, down to several totes of memories that my brothers and sister decided to keep. Everything else goes to the dump or to someone who pays $.50 for it. But, life goes on I guess.

I have gotten a few things done on HeHateMe. My brother came over 3 weeks ago and we cut the roll cage out and dropped it and he welded the halo and windshield bars completely in. Then we put it back up and semi- welded the bottom in. Then we took the S&W frame rails and decided to modify them to make sure that there's never going to be a reason the car can't sit low enough.

On our 83 Regal in our youth, we didn't put the tubs up high enough and then put the cage down tubes over the top of them. We never felt like cutting the cage out and cutting the tubs out to fix it.

I have room for 13" of tire. I kept the frame rails as far apart as I could so the springs will be as far apart as possible. Maybe next weekend, I will start working the rest of the bracing for the cage. It's a 12 point, so good to 8.50. I have the 25.5 sfi book and will add some of the floor bracing, not so much for cert, but for safety.

And then there is the hole measure twice cut once thing. So, when I bent up my A pillar bars, I kept thinking, they are really close to the windshield. I never got the windshield to test fit. So 2 weeks ago, AFTER they had been welded in, I got the windshield down. It clears on the the passenger side, but not the driver...the windshield was resting about 1/2" off the flange sitting on the bar. Boy was I pissed. But then the more I looked at it, I realized the bar had moved towards the a pillar. So with all my ratchet straps and making some wedges, I was able to move it over towards the center. I had to then cut a huger hole in the dash to weld the dash bar in to hold it. I'll make a pleather cover or carpet cover to cover the dash when I am done.

It's good now with no gasket, so the space the gasket adds will probably leave the glass 1/4 to 1/2" away from the bar.

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