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New toys for the Midget

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Hey Gmichael, you're gonna have a really nice ride when that's all finished.

Regarding the trueing of the wheels, why do you think they need it? Have you noted shimmy or vibes coming from them??

Maybe the spokes just need retorqueing (is that a word?) or tightening.

Anyway, nice job on the little car. I'm officially jealous. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cry.gif
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:] Keep in mind that the left and right pieces of flashing fit real tight in the opening [/QUOTE]

No kidding. The whole thing was tight, but I did it today.
I'm really glad I did.

My slatted Grille needs some work so I put my other grille back in. I received my package of 4 grille slats, so some rainy day I'm going to replace the worst ones and see if I can make this one nice.

Your car is looking real good, you will be so glad you paid all that attention to detail.
 
Rick, glad I could throw some stones at you. My goal here is to give back as much if not more than those that have given to me on this forum. For whatever I learn here, I need to share what I have learned- and launch an occasional tirade evry once in a while.

Mark and Jack, thanks for the kind words but I am dealing with a nightmare. Aren't we all? The price of joy. A challenge.

I love it. I don't think any of us would be here otherwise.

I haven't even been able to put the car out on the road. I have never been able to drive this car, so I don't know if the wires need to be trued. I was thinking ahead somewhat as I plan on repainting them- James Doohan Engineering Rule #19: Wrenches and paint do not go well together when they come in contact with each other.

This is a case of a 33,000 mile car that has not ran in 20 years and sat with all the fluids in it.

From what I have learned, every fuel and hydraulic component in this car is shot. I had to replace every hydraulic brake component (wheel cylinders, master cylinder and calipers)to get the brakes to work.

The fuel system required a new gas tank, fuel pump, lines (I built the lines out of 5/16 aluminum tubing) and carburator (I went Weber).

The cooling system was horrible. I had the radiator recored, all new hoses, water pump and thermostat. I ran water through it a number of times with the engine running and the water was coming out brown every time. I saw some cleaner by Prestone and bought some of it and ran the car for an hour every day for a week. I drained the cooling system again, ran water through it and it is coming out fairly clean right now. I dumped another bottle of Prestone cleaner through it this morning and will repeat the task.

Now I am seeing that with the clutch. I had some time today and I tried to bleed the clutch. I took a gamble and reassembled hoping I could bleed the clutch. I cannot get any fluid movement through the clutch master cylinder. So based on experience with this car, I have to replace all the clutch hydraulic components.
 
Yes, you are going through the pain now.
It will all be worth it, you know that.

Jimmy Doohan got so much right, he really pegged a lot of stuff in his role as Scotty. I don't know if he came up with it or just had really good writers, but he consistently nailed it. I really liked the reprise of his role in Next Generation - it was The high point of that series for me.

You are missed Mr. Scott. (James Doohan: March 3, 1920 – July 20, 2005)
 
Doohan was a brilliant actor. He was not Scottish but the the accent became classic. Roddenberry encouraged this. Look at the designer of the Enterprise- Dwayne Jeffries. A 20 year old kid who worked on "I love Lucy" as a set director and happened to share Roddenberry's love of aircraft.

"Make it work," he told the kid. Jeffries became an engineer and a designer of a starship overnight and had to explain why he chose every component layout and what the purpose of the component was. In 1964.

Doohan was also not an engineer and he came up with all that stuff- perhaps proof that a great engineer is one not by degree, but by street smarts, creativity, imagination and common sense.

We can engineer a spaceship but repeatedly fail to recognize- or ignore- the design limitations as evident by the failures of the most hi-tech machines ever invented- the Shuttles Challenger and Columbia. I don't think there is one person among us that does not understand that rubber gets hard and brittle in cold weather and that a structure will fail under stress due to corrosion if not cared for. I also don't think any of us would choose to head on a long journey understanding that if it was our pocketbook at stake, we would not settle for the entire loss of a machine- or our lives.

Considering that there was a fleet of five that worked- and one was built out of a "parts car" (Endevour), our most advanced engineering to date has led to a 40 percent failure rate at 4 billion dollars a pop. It's comical in a sickening way if you have read the investigation reports- truly a case of a lot of people totally out of touch when the hazards were known to begin with.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. It's a case of understanding the limitations of a machine by its weakest part. on the other hand, Doohan puts it another way- "the more technologically advanced the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."


I worked in a shipyard for quite a while. We used to have to run things through engineering- guys that had engineering degrees. They sat at a desk all day long and once in a while you saw them walking aroung in dress slacks and white shirts saying things like "yes" and "no". They were of no value whatsoever other than a go-through.
 
I completely agree with everything you said.

He was a Canadian, the same as Shatner.
We (here in the US at least, if not the world) have all gained more than we will ever know from Canadians.
 
Gmichael... Your car is looking very, very, very nice.

Cant wait to see it finished.
 
gmichael52 said:
I worked in a shipyard for quite a while. We used to have to run things through engineering- guys that had engineering degrees. They sat at a desk all day long and once in a while you saw them walking aroung in dress slacks and white shirts saying things like "yes" and "no". They were of no value whatsoever other than a go-through.
Click to expand...
/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/iagree.gif
You got that one right. I'm one of those desk guys at MAN Diesel (current makers of B&W engines). They sometimes send us out to engine building plants or to ships, apparently just for laughs. There is absoutely nothing we can do for the builders except maybe explain the design parameters we used when designing the control system, and they don't want to hear that. They just want to make it work, and we have zero experience in their environment. We can adjust the control system.
 
Sorry Donn for stereotyping. I've had a lot of bad experiences with the guys I have dealt with in engineering. On your side of the coin, I can relate much as I do from the side I was on- a communication failure between all.
 
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