My 70 Nova project (Formerly looking at this mustang)

[brino]

I am sorry I was right!
In my experience some things are barely packaged for a gentle drive down the block, and certainly not a >1000 mile shipment.
It survived better than I thought!

However, you were promised a certain outcome at a certain place, time and price and that was NOT delivered!
There are very few international shipping containers employed between Portland, Oregon and Silverlake, Washington.
There is no excuse!
The deal was made under the "known unknown" of covid, I see no reason for forgiveness!

If I do not meet my commitments, _I_ pay the penalty, therefore I find it hard to forgive the contractual commitments of others.
Sure I am charitable, but there is a limit!

I hope you do get a free exhaust system out of the carrier!
You have full rights to sell the excess to pay for upgraded paint, mirrors ......or shop drainage! (....or a night out for the Mrs. to prove she's right!)

Summit sounds like a first-class outfit!
I hope they do not have to pay any of the costs of this foolishness..... except maybe the cost of learning to use a better carrier.

Please keep the update photos coming at your convenience!

Brian

 

[alloy]

I'll get some new pics soon. Right now I've got a large order of transmission tail housings to finish. With power outages, shop flooding I'm late with them. They are for my largest commercial customer and his work is more important than playing with the nova. His work and others like him is what pays for the car and all the other toys in my shop.

I've not got a lot left on the car. The exhaust, need to get the front end aligned, install the interior, finish the sound system install, put the dash in yet again. I licensed it a couple of weeks ago. I bought a collector car plate. Pay for it once and never again. I can't use it for a daily driver, but I hardly ever go anywhere anyway.

 

[alloy]

Started mocking up the exhaust. I'm going to have to do some cutting and get someone to weld the tail pipe back together. It's hitting on the shock cross member I installed. Had to move the shocks to run disks in the back. Im thinking make a cut where I've marked and take about 1-1/2" out and that should do it. I've got a band clamp I can use to hold it in place to get the fit right.

If you look at the one pic the muffler sits too low in the back, so hopefully I can take a section out of the front and raise the muffler up. I'm going to make a number of trips to the welding shop I think. Wish I could weld.

 

[alloy]

Been working on the exhaust the last couple of days. Initially my thought was to cut and have the tail pipe welded to clear the aftermarket shock mount bar. But I realized that if I ever need to replace the mandrel bent the tail pipe I'd have to get it welded again. I thought about moving the shock in back of axle since the traction bars have shock mounts front and back, but I didn't see that would accomplish anything. The add on shock bar has mounts to attach the cross bar, and the cross bar is the problem. Along with my fuel filter/regulator that is in the way of the tail pipe also. I can with a little effort move the filter. So if I move the top shock mount I never have to have the tail pipe welded, or re-welded later. I've kind of mocked up a new top shock mount plate using the aftermarket mount. In the first pic is the right side aftermarket mount just to show what it looks like. In the second pic the add on plate is below the aftermarket place and held on wise my trusty vise grip. I'm thinking running a bolt through it to attach to the mount, and in the front use a 3/4" spacer (using a scrap piece of aluminum for mock up) and using another bolt through the floor to hold the spacer and secure the front of the add on plate. The plate is 3/16" and I think it's thick enough to do the job. This seems to be the simplest way of doing this and doesn't involve any welding. If anyone has any other ideas I'm all ears.

 

[alloy]

Well this is what I've come up with. I'll put 2 more bolts in where the black dots are.

I wish I had a way of bending the edge of the plate to match the angle of the shock, but I don't have any way of doing that. It would give me a little more clearance above the shock. As it is I'll have to use an end wrench to tighten the top nut on the shock.

 

[extropic]

Waite Specialty Machine Works, fabrication shop at 1160 Industrial Way, Longview, can definitely bend what you need.
Best to take the flat plates in (before you weld everything). I have not found them to be cheap for small jobs but YMMV.

 

[alloy]

I think to bend this would take heat. And I don't think it's worth messing with. I appreciate the lead though.

How often do you take shocks off anyway? I'm just glad I figured out a way to do this without too much trouble.

 

[GoceKU]

How often do you take shocks off anyway?

It depends on the roads and how's driving, my brother was going thru 2 set a year, the parts store wouldn't warranty them after 2 exchanges. Make sure to weld on gussets so the bracket won't flex, because that negates the shock and it will crack. Also i've seen them introduce excessive wheel hop on straight axle cars like yours. Reinforce them as much as you can.

 

[alloy]

Well at this point I can't weld at all. But, there is hope.

When I fell and hurt my hand I knew there would be a price to get my wife to let the incident go, and it cost me a new stove. After we got the new stove she wanted the scrapper down the street to come get it, and I suggested lets offer it on the local FB group see if anyone needs it. After all it worked perfectly. Turns out a guy and his wife just up the street came to get it, and then put a new cord on it and donated it to the Lower Columbia College welding program to use for powder coating. The guy that got it told me about a evening metal arts class where he learned to tig weld.
They put me in touch with the instructor and he told me I could use the machines in any safe way I wanted to. That includes learning to tig weld and didn't have to do art stuff. That's how the guy that I gave the stove to learned to tig.

So hopefully in a few months I'll be able to do a little bit of welding, or at least be able to tack things together and have a pro do the final welding.

Funny how things work out. I'd have never known about the class without hurting my hand., and that leading to getting a new stove.

Pic of our old stove in the college shop.

 

[Aukai]

That's great