TireSmoke.org

So the '47 needed a knob for the cowl vent lever. It sucks opening it without a knob and while I could probably find a factory one where's the fun in that so a little time on the lathe, followed up by some time on the mill and then a minute or two on the welding bench and it looks like this...





As you can see I milled in a key slot then welded in a key to fill in most of the gap - leaving enough for my lever arm to fit in.

After that back to the lathe to finish it up and it looks like this:





Only thing left is a little paint!

Why have I waited this long to fix this - it wasn't very hard.....

Looks too nice to paint. Clear it!

-BP

Really neat, of course we'll need a picture when its' installed.

Paul, I like to make a lot of this kind of thing from stainless so I can polish it to a near chrome like appearance, unfortunately this time I didn't have any stainless.
Will do Fred32!!!!

Ok... So Jacin is not the only one who does cheap bastage projects. Here's one
that I just did on Sunday. I have a Cub Cadet 1650 hydrostatic tractor that I am
working on. It has hydraulic deck lift and an extremely rare option of dual hydraulics.
Basically, there are two hydraulic levers that control these two functions. Well, I got
the tractor with a cobbled up lever on it when I got it. The tractor is too nice to leave
this junky lever on it (it's obvious which lever is not correct):



Because this dual hydraulics is such a rare option, and the lever ALWAYS breaks, I am
forced to find another option. So at Carlisle I searched and searched for something to use for
a lever. I had entertained using a 3/8" drive extension, but I did not want to buy a knob for $11.00 and was not sure that I could thread the extension material to make it go into the part of the tractor that was still good. So I found this:



It's a directional signal lever from a 58 Chevrolet, I paid $5.00 for. ( I offered the dude $3.00 for
it but he declined my offer, even after I told him I was putting it on my tractor and NOT a 58
Chevy... ) Well, to make a long story short, I cut the end of it off, straightened it with my cutting
torch and vice and then had to thread it. The diameter of the shaft was too big to be threaded
to a 3/8" x 16 thread, so I took it to my lathe ( stationary bench grinder with me turning the
lever as fast as my hands could to keep it round! ) and then treaded it. After the install it looks
like this:



I toyed with the idea of using my lathe to make the Chevy part's wooden handle resemble the factory
handle that was on the machine, but I think it looks just fine the way it is, and if somebody
who sees it comments on the fact that it is not like the other one, I will tell them my story.

Cheap bastage Cub Cadet hydraulic lift lever completed.

GM

It even has the right patina so it looks like it's been there forever and not a "brand new" bastage.

-BP

Love it!!!!!!

So we helped my daughter get her first car an 02 Civic, today we did the first oil change and while topping off the fluids noticed that the windshield solvent was running out near as fast as we could pour it in. ;-(

Cam wasn't impressed to see her "new" car spewing fluids onto the ground but I assured her it was no big deal.

Upon removing the reservoir I noticed it had a 1" long crack in it. And scraped to boot - meaning it was THIN where the crack was. So I asked Cam if she was flush with money (of course I knew she was not) so then I suggested we try to fix it since we had nothing to loose.

I took a soldering iron and melted the crack closed and then looked for some similar material to use as a filler to build the thickness back up. What I found was a 50 cent funnel that appeared to be the same material. Using some snips I cut off some slivers and proceeded to "weld" it back in. Passed the water test so we stuck it back in the car and Cam's a happy camper again. Crossing my fingers it holds - if not it was easy to R&R.

Good job! I'm always intimidated by plastic repairs. So many materials and never sure what will work with what.

If that doesn't work, a tube of SEAL-ALL will cure the problem quickly. Or a trip to pull a part and $10 and you'll be in good shape.

That's a good cheap bastage car. Millions of them out there so parts will always be cheap.

-BP

I have successfully done plastic repairs in a similar fashion, except, instead of using a soldering
iron, I've found that a bernzomatic torch and a screw driver work better... I like the screwdriver
close to red hot when I'm performing my magic... just a personal preference thing though....

GM