OMG!!,WTF??,GMAB!

I thought I would try to be hip and use text slang, or short hand or whatever you call it. The first pic is not so much an OMG  but rather a bit of noteworthy happenings. This is the underside of the water tanks. Yes, yes my southern friends, I do have them in plywood boxes, that will be insulated...talk to me when you go camping at -25C.
 Michelle said..."OK I don't get it, you take the time to paint the interior surface of window wells that no one will ever see, in order to protect the surface from the elements...but you leave plywood unpainted???"
 Well yes, but it is marine grade outdoor plywood. Apparently you can't even paint this stuff for a season or so, you have to let it off gas.... that's a comforting thought

 Here is the WTF....

 My bad...mia copa, mia copa. When the drive shaft was made the guy said I need 8.5" But when I put the drive shaft in place it didn't seat fully. I was about 3/16" to short. Re measuring from face plate to u joint saddle I was 8 11/16" which meant the space was 3/16" too long, and thus the drive shaft is 3/16" too short.

Here you can see the extent of it....and yes this is the GMAB.

NOW WHAT??

A proud moment...

Today's lead off line really has two veins, one is difficult for me to say and the other is a fun and easy one. Let's go easy first.
My son Jeff and I often have what I call, no boundary brain storming sessions. Meaning that we often talk in hypothetical terms, you hear kids do it all the time. Stuff like " what if we...", and "imagine what would happen if we..." More often than not these thought threads end right there at the end of the sentence. Sometimes however, an idea will mill around and keep popping up like an empty beer can  that you threw over the gunnel of the boat in panic when you saw an approaching RCMP boat while fishing ....Uhhhhh sorry about that... (I have to remember inside voice! INSIDE VOICE!)
Where was I...oh yes, recurring ideas!
So one of the ideas that Jeff and I have batted around for quite some time is to figure out a way we can put Jeff's desire to ride the quad around the house to good use. How can we turn the ride from pure recreation to productive job?(Dad's point of view) Or how can we make the quad do something really cool!(Jeff's point of view)

 Thus enter my first proud parenting moment of the weekend....

 It's bolted to the quad and the rear rider must hold down the engine brake, if he lets go it all shuts down, so its safe!! Really it just looks dangerous!

 Oh sorry it doesn't look dangerous, it looks like back country red neck...where's my banjo??

The second proud moment is one of achievement. To many this will seem like nothing more than child's play. I'm sure there are guys out there that do this kind of thing in a matter of hours as opposed to days, or in my case months! But this is me and this is not my vocation and this is not even something that I 'did all my life'. So sometimes I step back and say "holey crap!! I just did that!" and this was one of those times. I don't often say this, because excessive tooting of your own horn can make you go blind.... no wait that is something else...oh well, same idea... but I am proud of myself!
There, I said it. That wasn't so bad...

 Here we go. This is a shot of the angle between the diff and the tranny from the backside of the drivers side rear wheels.

 The engine is in.Bolted, fully supported on it's mountings! It's been a long while since all the junk was out from under Fillmore's butt!

 Here is from inside the engine compartment looking down at the set up. Those in the know will see that the whole ram air chute is gone. Yes I cut it out. My next step is mounting the rad, which is larger that the original and thus required there to be radical modifications to the existing chute. So I decided to start a new, take the old out and once I have the new rad in place on it's frame then time to re-sheet.

Here is the forward tranny mount....it looks so nice!!

Fabulous Friday

 Finally, a true blue day!! The sun was shinning from morning to night. We put the kids on the bus for school, then went for a walk with the dogs for about 2 hrs, home for some chow and then boom right at it.....it's bus time!!
 The order of business today was to get the cradle ready to mount the engine. Last time I spent ages moving and wiggling the thing into the position I felt was just right. Today was what Dentists do best....time to drill....except this time no one says ouch, except maybe me!

 Once again block up the engine and tranny and pull the cradle out enough so I can work.

 Get my series of drill bits (11/32-1/2-3/4),punch and 'persuader'


I have always trusted my Dewalt tools and man did I make this little puppy work, by the time I was done drilling the holes for the tranny mounts this little guy was so hot you could fry an egg on it.

This was a moment that I was both excited and sh** scared, little moments of doubt pop into your head saying....'what if?'...'Did you double check? triple check?'

Here are the 1/2" rear engine mounts.......everyone hold their breath....!!!

Lots of work but nothing to show:(

Now some people really know how to trick out their ride!

I spent a few hours tonight modifying the engine cradle, specifically the tranny mounts. So I pulled the cradle , did my mods, then reinstalled the cradle, and then it seemed like it took forever to get the final resting place for the engine. I had things all lined up and then a boo-boo. I let the tranny sit on it's mounting brackets on the cradle but I forgot to put in the rubber 'spacers' or vibration dampeners...and as such the tranny moved down 1 1/2" to far. Not to worry no damage was done but the tranny mounts on the cradle pushed the tarnny (and thus the engine) out of position. So at 10pm when I thought I was done for the night I was right back to where I was at 8. I wasn't going to quit though....The nice part is when you already done it once, the second time around is easier!
By midnight I had finalized the position once again and marked the cradle and mounts. Now I have to remove everything once again, drill the holes and then put it all back in........uuuuugghhhhhh!

Happy Fathers Day to me!!

 Fathers day was just what you would expect on the day devoted to the celebration of fatherhood. A sleep in...well not for me but Michelle had a glorious sleep!
I on the other hand find it difficult to sleep in anymore. I think it is the burning desire to 'get to it'...or the opportunity to drink coffee and have unfettered access to the computer in complete silence. I don't even slurp the coffee in fear that I may wake someone up prematurely.
Anna is usually up at the same time or even earlier than I....she wouldn't want to miss cartoons or 'wizards of Waverly place'! Jeff is our sleep in kid but Sunday morning he literally jumped out of bed in order to get the day started. Becauuuuuusssse, the long awaited day was taking the quads to the rec. area at McLean Creek.
Frankly we had a blast, it's been years since I have gone for a full on mud bog joy ride on an ATV and I was giggling as much as the kids. Both Anna and Jeff were covered from head to toe in mud and loved every second......a great Fathers day!!

 Afterwards we cleaned up and readied for the rest of the day!

 For me that meant Engine cradle try in. The big Quad, now affectionately known as 'BIG RED" came in hand to move the cradle into position.

 Mother nature tried, like she has all spring, to dampen my spirits and progress....but I would have none of it! Just like the postal service No Rain, nor sleet nor snow...well unless the crown corporation locks you out....but that is another political hot potato....

 With the engine on its blocks the cradle just slipped by...

And into position!! All is well but not finalized quite yet. A little shimmy and wiggle here and there. One tranny mount has to be 'modified' yet again.
You can also see that the cradle sits proud out the back. I will have to do some contouring and creative shaping of the bubble butt

It's here, it's here it's here!!

After a long wait, the new engine cradle is here. The delay...was all my fault. I have learned many things over the last few years, but this is a new one. In hindsight it seems common sense but at the time I thought I was being the 'good' customer, you know not wanting to be high maintenance and demanding. So when I dropped off the old engine cradle with all the marking and jigs welded to it to show them what I needed in the new cradle, and the shop foreman said to me...."So, how urgent is this?" I responded....."ahhh, it's not an emergency, this is a project I am working on but I'm not in a huge rush."
In the words of Homer...(and I don't mean the greatest ancient Greek epic poet)...."DOOOOAH!!"

That is what I said, what he heard was " No need to start on it until I get mad"
So after 3 weeks of no progress I did....and 7 days later...

It's here!!

So after a clean up, and a couple of coats of POR-15

Here it is, ready to go....I can't wait!

In case you forgot what the old one was like here you go.Very similar, the new one is deeper and longer. And not riddled with holes and pieces of metal scabbed on and ground off over the last 60 years.

Vision

 Well... welcome back...to me!

 I had a great week golfing with my peeps, the kids tell me that is the cool way to refer to your friends, apparently homies is "so yesterday" When did I cross over into the uncool side of the line?
Anyway the Grey Owl this year was a little different, we had to battle bizarre weather conditions that we rarely see out there. Sun and blue skies. It's been so cloudy and rainy in Alberta this spring I was shocked to see summer type of weather!

Although we golf a lot at the Grey Owl, there always seems to be down time where I can read or plan or what have you. I decided to plan out the floor plan. I need to plan where water lines and power lines will run, but in order to do that I need to know what is going where. So.....old school I pulled out the graph paper and made cute little cut outs!

So as you can see this looks just like the graph paper, right?

Complete with bathroom

Fridge and bathroom sink,space for the counter then the dinette...

Come on can't you see it?....You need VISION,drive, and a tumbler of Guatemalan rum

Whassssss up!!

It was a Bud commercial I can't remember what year it was but it was funny....at the time. When I was thinking of this blog entry I thought I just wanted to tell everyone what was up.....Oh never mind you had to be there, but if you go to U tube...?!

 Anyway Jeff helped putter around, doing a little house keeping on the donor sled for the "Snowenator". We got some new plugs, new gas lines(mice got at them) and we'll see what happens!

 Michelle was putting together our unicycle....yup you read it right, UNICYCLE. What the F##@ are we thinking??

 What, biking out here isn't hard enough? Now we have to try to do it on one tire??

 I talked last time about having to remove the front drivers corner panel in an effort to rebuild the support rib. Well that all went like clockwork. Either the stars were aligned and the Flxible gods smiled down on me, or I'm just getting the hang of some things and I'm not as much of a putz. Who knows! So with the for mentioned panel removed I then felt compelled to strip the rust (surface) and paint 'er up (ya, ya, POR-15)

  Then start to put it all back together, always so rewarding but always a wee bit stressful too. I know we measure and remeasure, test fit and re test fit but still.....

 The feel of the pneumatic riveter....ohhhhh baby nothing sounds better. Well that's a lie, hearing someone say "Holey CR#@ Blake! you just a hole in ONE!!!!" Now that would sound better....sorry just a little day dream there...where was I?

Got the new panel on, bit by bit working my way down and under, no bends are creases!!(Yay!)

Then got the front corner panel on, and I thought this was going to be a grand headache, but she slipped into place like it was meant to be there. Oh wait, it was meant to be there.

So Fillmore is put to bed for a week or two, I am off to Manitoba to the prestigious Grey Owl golf tournament. I've been working on my swing this year...mentally...so I think I'm gunna take the trophy this year!!

Plastic mechanic?

When you do this kinda stuff to a person they call you a plastic surgeon. What about when you do it to a bus...you know face lift, skin rejuvenation,  bone graft.....am I plastic mechanic??...I suppose I would have to be a mechanic first off to deserve that handle....how about a plastic hobbyist?
 Well what ever it is , it's fun!

 So as I suggested last time, I removed yet another panel to gain adequate access to the 'support rib' we'll call it, just in front of the drivers front tire.

 After I cut away the bad, I made a cardboard template and then transferred the shape to a piece of sheet metal. Trying to keep the number of joins at a minimum, I figured this would work perfectly!

 Seems logical...

 What was that saying we learned in grade school?...the shortest distance between two points is a straight line? You think I'd be smarter than this.

 Well some patch and spot welding and there we are....my bone (rib) graft!

Now finish sanding, paint, seal, rivet and then we'll be ready to put the last panel on.

Slow and methodical or neglect??

Well probably a healthy dose of both really.

I have noticed with Fillmore that I have ebbs and flows when it comes to productivity. Maybe I could blame it on the change of season and the desire to be outside in the sun rather than under the bus, maybe I can blame it on the welding shop that seems to be taking PLENTY of time to get the engine cradle back to me, maybe I have decided that if I have that extra hour in the day I go see my friend in the hospital. Whatever the reason, the fact of the matter is that not much has happened to Fillmore in quite some time. As bad as I feel however Fillmore is way better off than this skoolie!

"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow"-guess who?...

no not THE Guess who...I mean guess who said that?

Credit where credit is due, photo by:Alan Norsworthy from Guelph ON http://ajnphotography.blogspot.com/