Continuing Thread: What Are You Fix-It'ing Today?

[targa911S]

refurbishing a 54" plow blade for my JD 330. New paint, hoses and fittings. Still have to prime and paint the front of the blade. Got the hydraulics hooked up and color coded so I don't have to guess where each hose goes every year

[Steve F]

Nice job!!

[targa911S]

Originally Posted by Steve F

Nice job!!

Thanks! it's getting there. Damn thing weighs a ton and the weather hasn't been warm enough to paint the blade front.

[A930Rocket]

Getting a little closer on the power steering cooler. The tubing expander arrived and worked well. The ends were the lines clip in or offset a little bit, but I think it will work.

The aluminum solder material will be here tomorrow and I’ll attempt to finish it.

[wdfifteen]

Last week I decided it was finally time to do something about the old icebox we've had sitting in the house for 20 years. A friend gave it to Vicki, who was actually grateful for it and thought I should restore it.
I have never been fond of it. It was ugly, with missing pieces of trim, and the doors had no latches and they would swing open and wait for me to walk by and crack my shins on them.
But it was a gift so it sat waiting for me to ...



It was in bad shape when we got it and just got worse over the years. A piece of one door had broken off; fortunately the piece was kept and I glued it back on. The door latches were all gone, and someone had smeared some kind of finish on it right over all the dirt and crap. There was no way I was going to "restore" this thing, but I did want to put latches on the doors.



Judging by all the screw holes, it apparently had more that one set of door latches on it over the years. Getting new latches was a problem because this thing is so non-standard. The space between the doors is narrower and the distance the door stands proud of the frame is 1/2". All the repro and most of the used latches I could find had a 3/8" offset and were too wide to fit between the doors. I spent years keeping my eye out for replacement latches.







I came across a full set of odd latches at a flea market that I thought would work. When I got them home I discovered the offset was closer to 1" and they were too wide to fit between the doors.



So I cut them down so they would fit. That left the problem that they stood out from the door by 1/2".



I found an old piece of 3/4" oak flooring in the barn and ran it through the planer to bring it down to 1/2". I cut out these blocks to make spacers and ran them through the router to give them some character. After sanding and a couple of coats of shellac they were beautiful - like they belonged on a nice piece of furniture, not this ugly old hulk. The latches are solid brass and would have polished up nice, but shiny brass would look out of place on this old thing.



I scuffed the blocks up with steel wool and rubbed a little black stain on them to make their finish look like the rest of the box - ie like 5hit. That was hard to do, because that glossy shellaced oak looked beautiful. I don't know why the right hand handles are bent over like that. I have no idea what they were made to fit.



Before installing the latches I scrubbed the box down with soap and water and started waxing it. I put the first coat of wax on with 0000 steel wool, then used a rag. I'm on the 3rd coat now, with at least 2 more to go.

[targa911S]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Last week I decided it was finally time to do something about the old icebox we've had sitting in the house for 20 years. A friend gave it to Vicki, who was actually grateful for it and thought I should restore it.
I have never been fond of it. It was ugly, with missing pieces of trim, and the doors had no latches and they would swing open and wait for me to walk by and crack my shins on them.
But it was a gift so it sat waiting for me to ...



It was in bad shape when we got it and just got worse over the years. A piece of one door had broken off; fortunately the piece was kept and I glued it back on. The door latches were all gone, and someone had smeared some kind of finish on it right over all the dirt and crap. There was no way I was going to "restore" this thing, but I did want to put latches on the doors.



Judging by all the screw holes, it apparently had more that one set of door latches on it over the years. Getting new latches was a problem because this thing is so non-standard. The space between the doors is narrower and the distance the door stands proud of the frame is 1/2". All the repro and most of the used latches I could find had a 3/8" offset and were too wide to fit between the doors. I spent years keeping my eye out for replacement latches.







I came across a full set of odd latches at a flea market that I thought would work. When I got them home I discovered the offset was closer to 1" and they were too wide to fit between the doors.



So I cut them down so they would fit. That left the problem that they stood out from the door by 1/2".



I found an old piece of 3/4" oak flooring in the barn and ran it through the planer to bring it down to 1/2". I cut out these blocks to make spacers and ran them through the router to give them some character. After sanding and a couple of coats of shellac they were beautiful - like they belonged on a nice piece of furniture, not this ugly old hulk. The latches are solid brass and would have polished up nice, but shiny brass would look out of place on this old thing.



I scuffed the blocks up with steel wool and rubbed a little black stain on them to make their finish look like the rest of the box - ie like 5hit. That was hard to do, because that glossy shellaced oak looked beautiful. I don't know why the right hand handles are bent over like that. I have no idea what they were made to fit.



Before installing the latches I scrubbed the box down with soap and water and started waxing it. I put the first coat of wax on with 0000 steel wool, then used a rag. I'm on the 3rd coat now, with at least 2 more to go.

Wow!! Beautiful job!

[HobieMarty]

^^^ That is a really cool piece, I've never seen an old icebox before and I think it is super cool!!! Good job!!!

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[HobieMarty]

I put the rudder all back together this morning. One little victory and getting closer to the finish line.

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[Baz]

The neighbor's renovation project is moving along nicely.......

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by targa911S

Thanks! it's getting there. Damn thing weighs a ton and the weather hasn't been warm enough to paint the blade front.

Great job on the snow blade Dave! Color coding the hoses, man, how many times I've wished I took the time to do that.
I know what you mean about the cold. I've got 4 or 5 painting jobs backed up waiting for warmer weather.

[HobieMarty]

I had to see what it was going to look like so I put the daggerboard and rudder on the boat this morning, just for the picture, then took them off.

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[Baz]

Cleaning out the garage yesterday and saw rat existence evidence so set a couple snap traps last night and bagged this one.

Might be the only one but I will set traps again tonight. Gotta also put a trail camera there so you know what you're dealing with. For example......usually if there's more than one rat....they will show up in the photos. I got a total of 21 photos before "someone" spun my camera around.

I use a section of Slim Jim about an inch long tightly impaled on the snap prong. It's a proven method......

[Baz]

A few things from the garage....I'd forgotten about these banners. The poster was on the wall way in the back and the frame's messed up but I can fix that.








I got a little sidetracked taking off some stuff on my first purchased Interceptor which has been in hibernation for the past 17 years and will be getting a full restoration at some point this year. Mirrors and blinkers in great condition except for the wear item rubber stalks which are readily available as aftermarket versions. Also took off the tail and front fairings. More to do.....after some lunch.....






How about these water wands I has stashed away.....

[bugstrider]

Nice job Baz!!!!

Forced some hangar time today. Was in the 70’s last week, then a cold front drops in and deposits 3.5” of snow….WTH?!?!?!?


70’s forecasted for next week but still butt-arse cold today.

Working on a fuel valve adapter.









Work and life haven’t been kind these past few months. No spare time it seems


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[jyl]

Salomon ski helmet’s visor hinge arm came detached from its slot and spring in a crash. Salomon took six emails to acknowledge yes, that is a problem, no, we won’t do anything, refer to your retailer to make a warranty claim. Like I remember which online retailer I bought it from. Used a wire coat hanger hook and some tools to fish out the spring catch and lever the slot open enough to reattach the hinge arm. I mean, it’s a $400 helmet, I’m not going to give up on it that easily.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Last week I decided it was finally time to do something about the old icebox we've had sitting in the house for 20 years. A friend gave it to Vicki, who was actually grateful for it and thought I should restore it.
I have never been fond of it. It was ugly, with missing pieces of trim, and the doors had no latches and they would swing open and wait for me to walk by and crack my shins on them.
But it was a gift so it sat waiting for me to ...

I have never seen a low model like that.

I have a bigger/taller one in storage and now you've got me thinking....

[A930Rocket]

Brazed the aluminum tubing on my power steering cooler. I have it filled with water and after several hours no leaks.

[LWJ]

Driver window on my FIL’s 54 GMC 3800.

Sort of a pain, but I broke it. Fair enough.

[pksystems]

Just finishing up installing Subaru engine after repairs from a broken timing belt. Are these quick release fuel lines something mandated by government? There is like 8 fuel injection clamps in between those useless fittings. Much quicker to undo a clamp.

[Racerbvd]

Well, after screwing around a few weeks getting a 7C error code on my Samsung washing machine, looking at the plus and minuses, buy a board, replace, check, buy another board , replace unit it works, I just bought a new one. Now, moving out the old one, and then getting the new one on the pedestal by myself, well, that was a whole new challenge, but the new Machine works great.