Tater's "OH Deere 116 dragster" [2017 Build-Off Entry]

tater195 wrote:

One piece at a time...[/url]

Like the old Johnny Cash song. Looking good!

The right side pan is all finished and ready for paint. sheet metal on the left side rear pan is done. I should be able to throw some bondo at it on monday. Then it will get stripped and flipped so I can get to the cvt/ clutch/ brake stuff.

Sweet! Can't wait to see this thing done.

mightyraze wrote:

tater195 wrote:

One piece at a time...[/url]

Like the old Johnny Cash song.  Looking good!

Inch an hour, two feet a day!

After a full day of yard work yesterday and 5 hours of shop cleanup today, I am ready to open a big ol can of whoop ass. I have a little sheet metal work to finish, then on to the belt setup.

Running about 2 days behind schedule. Working on the bottom side today. Finishing up a few welds and grinding the ugly off of others. Need more parts to make the MCVT operational, unfortunately the checking account say that will have to wait a few weeks. I can get alot of fab work done in between, just have to wait on the correct belt size and a few bushings. The front steering knuckle was a prototype and needs to be rebuilt too. I have proven the geometry, but need to build something that will hold up to the abuse it will see. I need to make some holes in the rear pan for the throttle and clutch pedal and the HI/LO shifter (and finish one part of the left footwell), then I will give it a good coat of black bedliner. The front will get shot with Rustolem gloss black, even though most of it will be covered with sheet metal.

I have not added any tips for a long time, so here is one... Change out the clear shields on your welding helmet every few years even if you dont use it very much. They will cloud up with use and age, and wiping the dust off of them will scratch them up. You will weld better if you can actually see what you are doing.
Tip #2 if you dont add enough hardener to the bondo, you can cure it with a heat gun.
Tip #3 the sand paper discs for the 4" angle grinders do one hell of a good job on cleaning up welds. If you have not tried them, give it a shot. They cut as good as the rock wheels, but have a better finish. They work good for sharpening mower blades too.

I thought of #4 after I hung up... the cheap 6" sticky back sanding pads for DAs work great on the 4" electric jitterbug sanders. The cheap stuff is 100 for $25 and they are cheaper and easier to change out than the sheet paper.

.

Here is one for the guys with OCD. The camera still has a little fish eye, I cant control that. There is no way to square up a 3D wedge other than eyeball. I got as close as I could. I could do better on a $15,ooo frame table. I spent $50.

You can clean those clear welding shields with cheap tooth paste (by rubbing in circles with a rag). Will even take the scratches out because you are polishing the plastic.

I figure I would give you a tip in exchange for #2 with the heat gun on bondo. I'll be using it probably sooner then later working on my wife's car.  

The mechanic in me says it will pull to the right, the musician in me says we can fix it in the mix. I hate this sh*t

Thanks for the tooth paste tip. For $2, il will change them out. Sorry for the double post, I cant figure out how to delete it

the string line, the square and the tape measure dont agree. I am going crazy trying to make it work.

After measuring the damn thing 7 ways to Sunday, it comes out one hell of a lot closer to square than the pics come out. That was driving me
full blown bat sh*t crazy

tater195 wrote:

Thanks for the tooth paste tip. For $2, il will change them out. Sorry for the double post, I cant figure out how to delete it

I took care of it for you. I have faith in ya man on the squareness!

I got the vari-drive, clutch, brake, hand brake and all the associated springs and linkages all planned out. I ordered a bunch of parts for the pedal assembly that wont be in until the first of next week, so that kinda kills any weekend progress on that, but I still have some fab work and primer to finish up any way.

I did get the shifter boot installed today. It looks alot better than a big hole.

Love the shifter boot! Makes it look like an old muscle car setup.

Neat shifter...  Have you mentioned what colors?  I forgot.  This thing is coming along and nice touches.  Maybe your parts will come in early!

The JD body will be green. I have not decided on a color for the bucket. Originally I was going rat rod rust, but the shiny stuff for the JD set up kinda killed that. I might do flat black or yellow

Flat black would be cool. Maybe with yellow pinstripe?

Here is another tip... I went to get some stuff to start on the wiring today. A 12" black cable was $10. I bought a cheap set of 8ga jumper cables and crimp on ring terminals for $14. I got enough stuff to do 32 foot of custom length cables for just a little more than the ground cable would cost.

Yeah I used old jumper cable to do the positive cable on my rat rod. Worked great and it was free cuz it was just lying around haha

I got in about 6 hours of fab time today. Didnt seem like I got that much done. 7 more weekends until the end of the build is gonna go quick. I got the pivot shafts for the clutch/ brake stuff done, still waiting on parts to finish the levers. Drilled and tapped a few holes for misc brackets and got the notch cut for the throttle linkage arm.

Got a chance to put in another long day on the SS. Bent up a box for the tac/speedo, finished some more bondo stuff, located the holes for the safety harness and finally got to shoot some final paint on the tie rods/ draglink.

I got home tonight with the intentions of finishing up the last few welds. About 5 seconds into the first weld the damn thing ran out of wire. I dont have an extra box on hand and didnt feel like driving back to town to get another, so I switched gears and put on the first coat of paint. The stuff still in primer will get the bed liner.