However, there's a new tool in the shop at the 51 ranch that will play a MAJOR part in upcoming repairs.
One day, while working on a project with Carl, my tool sensei, I mentioned that 51chick's mom had given me a nice sized Sears gift card for Christmas with the instruction to use it for tools for the car.
My mother-in-law has a very good appreciation for old cars. To top it off, her first car was not only a 51 Chevrolet, but it was the same color that mine was originally. So, needless to say, she's quite interested in seeing my project move along. I used the gift card to buy an excellent Chicago Pneumatic straight line sander.
When I told Carl about it, I mentioned that I would have to get a bigger compressor, since I neither of my small compressors would run any decent sized air tool. He instantly scolded me for the idea of buying one. He suggested that we build one. We went to his pole barn, and started digging. Within 20 minutes, we'd selected a 30 gallon tank from a dead compressor, and a two cylinder compressor unit from another dead one. The next project was ON. A bit of fabricating, a few more parts from here and there, a few bells and whistles added, and "Frankenpressor" was alive!
She'll build the tank from empty to 125 psi within 2 minutes. She'll run any shop tool I have, and she's got enough oomph to paint a car. And my total investment in it is a hair over 80 bucks. I love it!!!!
Cross Pollenation
I've mentioned MANY times in this blog about getting generous help from others. Here at the 51 ranch, we firmly believe in "kinetic Karma." The notion of helping others whenever the opportunity arises, and graciously accepting help when others want to give it. The only thing I like better than recieving blessings is to be used as a tool to deliver blessings to others.
Enter a gentleman who has been a friend for 35 years. I refuse to call him an "old friend," since we were born on the same day, and the "old" part stings a bit :)
His automotive passion is fuel mileage. Exploring any and all methods to increase fuel economy. He'll test any theory or gizmo alleged to improve fuel mileage with a very critical eye. He has proven some to be quite beneficial, and he has debunked several others.
And he doesn't do it with a tiny, commuter 4 cylinder vehicle. He does it with a MAN'S vehicle: a '04 Toyota Tundra with V8, Automatic transmission, 4 wheel drive, double cab, and plenty of bells and whistles. This is an impressive truck- if you stuck an emission sniffer in the tailpipe, I wouldn't be surprised to find the exhaust was pure testosterone!
If you doubt that his extensive work on reducing fuel consumption is appropriate for such a vehicle, I'll just say this: When he acquired the vehicle, it got 14 mpg on the highway. It served him in his business, and as his personal vehicle. It now has 200,000 miles and gets 21 mpg on the highway. For those of you playing at home, that's a 50% improvement! He runs a great blog about his work with improving fuel economy in the truck, and I can say from experience that I have applied some of his techniques, and have seen improvement in my own mileage. If you have any interest in getting more miles from that 4 dollar gallon of gas, I highly recommend checking it out: http://tundra-mpg.blogspot.com/
Recently, he noticed the telltale signs of a failing wheel bearing. Like me, life and the economy have worked against him recently, and paying someone to replace it wasn't a comfortable option.
So, he brought the truck to the 51 ranch, and we made a day of getting the bearing replaced.
Note the beautiful dark green color. I'm wanting to return the 51 to a nice dark green base color. This one just might contend.
After removing the knuckle, the wheel bearing threw us a challenge or two, and we eventually did realize that discretion was the better part of valor and used a machine shop to do the actual pressing of the bearing, since my press isn't quite large enough to handle this job. This truck is built very beefy!
If you're noticing that you cannot see a jack stand in this picture, fear not. They might not show, but we actually had TWO stands under the truck at the raised corner. Note the 4 piston brake caliper- more beef!
In the end, it all went back together with more ease than it came apart. I very much enjoyed the company, the work itself, and the opportunity to help!
Job complete- all smiles!
I promise to be back to doing more with less on the old girl next week!
