1974 (GM) HQ Holden Belmont V8

I'm new here to the forum and just started really looking around.

I have to say I'm impressed with what you've done on that car! I'm an automotive guy, engine machinist. I like
to play around with making things on the mill. Soon you will probably be making your own engine parts and selling
them to the chevy guys here in the US! :)

Looking at your pics encourages me to continue what what I enjoy doing. Making things look cool, and work better than factory.

Mm
 
Thanks for the comments guys. ;0

Making things look cool, and work better than factory.
That's something I really enjoy doing too. :)

DaveH is there enough examples of my work here? ``
 
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OK I think it's time for an update, I'm still working on the 2nd bellcrank and it seems the universe is conspiring to stop me finishing it. I started roughing out the main body a few weeks ago but the end mills I have weren't long enough so I ordered a long 14mm (~9/16") end mill. So when the long end mill arrived I set up the job and started milling, taking light cuts and on the 2nd pass I didn't lock the Z axis tight enough and the end mill pulled down into the job and broke another plastic gear. So the future plan is to do a belt drive conversion but I needed to get the mill going first so I contacted the company I bought the mill from and they had a set of replacement gears in steel. So I ordered a set of those and installed them a couple of days later when they arrived.
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So I got the machine back together and apart from being a little noisier it was all good. Got back to the machining and got the main body finished ready for polishing.
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I test fitted the main body on the car, here's a photo side by side with the original bellcrank.
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So yesterday I polished the main body and was ready to start making the rest of the components when I decided I wanted to go with a slightly larger hole for the pivot bush to go through.
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So I set it up on the mill to enlarge the 11mm (~7/16") hole to 12mm. So I start drilling and I'm drilling slowly trying to get a nice finish on the hole when I hear a zap from the control box on the mill and all the power went out in the shop. I went out to the power box and found the circuit breaker had tripped and when I plugged the mill back in and the light came on but it didn't do anything else. I pulled the cover off the electrical box on the side to discover I'd let the smoke out of something in there, so I have to wait till tomorrow to contact the company I purchased it off to see about getting replacement parts. :(

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Yeah it's one step forward, two steps back with this mill but I guess that's all part of the fun.:grin:

I had a couple of small wins today, it bugged me half the night trying to work out how I could continue the job without the mill.

Then it came to me.
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I removed the motor from the mill, took off the plastic gear and put my cordless drill chuck onto the shaft and used the drill to power the mill. I was able to finish drilling the hole and prove to myself that I wasn't woking the mill to hard when it quit on me.

I then turned up a brass bush and the main pivot shaft and made up a couple of temporary arms to see how it all works. The accelerator is really smooth, I'm really happy with the way it works.
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Now I just need to get that mill sorted out and I can machine a couple of better looking arms for it to finish it off.:confused:

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Hello David,
If it's the variable speed unit that has failed you might want to consider using a better quality circuit rather than just a replacement board, depending on the price of replacement parts you might find that a high quality controller might not be that much more expensive.

I found this out when repairing a truck dyno, these use a DC motor controller, to power the retarder, and the cheapo Chinese version that the manufacturer had fitted was directly replacable with a German made unit for near enough the same price, it was much bigger than the unit in your mill, but the principle might still apply,

It seems the Chinese "dyno controller" had been through a few middle men all putting on their cut where the German unit came direct from the manufacturer.

Best Regards
Rick

Thanks for the tip Rick, I'm waiting to hear back from the supplier but I may look at this option anyway. Where would I find 'a better quality circuit'?
 
I got tired of waiting to hear back from my mill supplier (apparently he's on a business trip for another week or so) so after a bit of Googleing I did a few checks on the electronics in my mill and everything checked out OK so I put a new fuse in it (the old one was blown) plugged it back in, turned it on expecting the fuse to blow again and to my suprise it works fine - yipee!

So to test it out I machined up a top arm for the bellcrank.
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I drove the car on Friday for the first time with both bellcranks fitted, it's very smooth. I drove it to work and showed a couple of my collegues and one asked why I didn't just convert it to a cable (Not enough machining involved :D) so I told him to operate the throttle, he looked at me and said "wow that feels so much smoother than a cable" Needless to say I'm very happy with the way it works.:thumbzup:

I know DaveH likes pics so here's a couple of the completed assembly.

The first bellcrank fitted.
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The second one from a different perspective
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And a shot showing both bellcranks fitted to the car.
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Rick, tell me you aren't talking about Radio Shack.
 
Your doing some nice work their, and it's something that sets it apart from other HQ's.
I haven't been doing the show rounds for the past few years, but I used to hate looking at cars where the owners bought everything and you really had nothing to talk about, I used to call them check book cars. It was also boring looking at the same model cars lined up with the bonnets up, and they are all identical.
There was a few guys and we would talk for hours and discuss machining, welding etc that had done it themselves, but they where few and fare between.

We used to have a HQ 1 tonner with a Premier front, GTS guards and dash. I still have all the original GTS badges in the shed (sorry not for sale) There are still a few parts here and their but I got into XB fords as well, the XE and now we are back to Commodores, LOL.

As for Radio Shack, I used to buy from them, I guess that makes me old, LOL

Dave
 
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