Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Non-Petro Discussions Non-petro Discussion and Showcase Coronavirus quarantine home projects

Earning quarantine points today ... detailing her Acura.

Here is the table my wife and i built last week for our sons new house.

Killer work, Rick!

I saw a craftsman at a flea-market selling one like yours except with a "Killer" 1900-era HEAVY + ORNATE CAST Base. They sure made quality stuff back in the days. They did not care about weight

He said he wanted $2500 (or will keep it) since the Base is very-very hard to find. Went back at the end of the day, it was gone. He told me the person that bought it, wanted it BAD.

I can not find the picture.

Working on "Goldie", my rusty-gold Git-Her!!
"Why", you ask?
I saw it for sale for $200 and was drawn to it because my Dad bought one almost exactly like it, brand new, when I was a kid. It was totaled by being t-boned going through a intersection, when we had a green light, while I was sitting in the back on our way to school one day. It's how they discovered I have scoliosis and probably impacted my spine at a young age advancing the Degenerative Disc Disease that I have. Because of DDD, I do projects at about 1/8th to 1/10th of the speed that I used to and I'm doing this build as probably my last car build because of how hard it is to bend and stoop and crawl around a car that I'm working on. Gas pumps are so much easier to work on than cars!!
Through writing this, I'm discovering that I'm kinda doing it as a proxy to strike back at my disease and to 'win' a battle against it while having a great "trophy" to drive and enjoy as the spoils!
It's a 84 Ford LTD II wagon and is apart of the "fox body" family of Ford vehicles so, parts from any 79-2004 Mustang basically just bolt in. It has 76,000+ original miles on a 3.8 v6 with AOD trans. It broke down and sat unfixed for MANY years.
I'm trying to do this build as in-expensively as I can while installing high quality parts, so, because there are soooo many Mustangs that have been built up and then wrecked or whatever, I'm finding the parts for it, used, on the internet when I can. I'm also selling off or trading the parts from it that I won't be using and using the money towards parts for the build.
A example is that I am taking out the entire dash to put a 97 Cobra Mustang dash into it, so, the Dash pad and instrument cluster was shipped to a person who shipped cash and a set of used Hotchkis rear control arms back to me in trade. Another example: I took the AOD auto trans out and sold it then used most of the $ to purchase a set of c-clip eliminators that were NOS, for the 8.8 rear that I have.
Many parts are coming from the donor car, a wrecked 97 Cobra Convertible with 119K on the odo. It was hit hard in the rear but it was a high hit from a 4X4 truck so the suspension and important parts were spared. My oldest son will be buying the engine and 5 speed from me, on the cheap for a family deal, and using it for his project car.
I want to be able to tow my flatbed car hauler with it so I'm installing in spring air bags on the rear.
I'm never going to be able to race the car that I built 10+ years ago, so I'll be using the 99 Cobra engine and some of the other parts from it since I bought most of them new, installed them and have never used the car because I ran out of funds to finish the car after starting "The Man-Cave Shoppe".
I'm planning on finding a low mile 6R80 6 speed auto trans from a 2013ish Ford v8 vehicle because they bold right up to Cobra/Modular v8s and can handle 400+hp/tq stock from the factory.
Hopefully I'll finish this car in less than 5-10 years,,, ha ha ha

Dave that is quite the "hybrid" Ford you have there. It will be a good memory test in the near future when you get her done. "Yeah the dash is from...and the tranny is a ?"
Good luck.

One of my projects for the shut down . . .

I've had these lenses sitting in a raw body for years and decided that I needed a patinaed body to display them in.

Especially since one is an original lens with some significant wear-n-tear (and it's the only original lens known).

So I spent some time and using a few colors of rattle can paint put a few coats of paint on the body.

Then after everything dried, I used some wet-or-dry sandpaper (wet) to remove/age the finish.

Making one side a bit more aged than the other.

After the sanding, I significantly thinned some black One Shot and wiped down the entire body to add some grime to the paint.

Then, using One Shot again, I added in some 'rust' - mixing some sawdust with the brown to give it some texture.

And . . . finally I shot everything with some matte finish clear to knock down any shine and to seal everything up.

Oh, and this is an aluminum body.

So glad to see you guys getting stuff done. Tonight I’m in our great room/garage listening to the Traveling Wilburys, having a cold beverage and enjoying a cigar because I can. HA! It’s been sometime that I have done this, we must do the little simple things that get us through the day. Please be safe everyone and take a moment to enjoy what makes you smile, I’m ear to ear right now. I think my ears hurt, not from the smile or the loud music.

Finishef building and decking the bridge this morning ,
Now will have to skirt and do the railings

What is the under structure of the bridge? Looks like metal beam of some kind to me. Just wondering because I have a similar bridge situation and I like how yours is shaping up.

They are 4"x6" road way steel guard rails that have the arc that worked perfectly for my application.the span is 22' and I use treated 2x6" lumber with self tapping screws fasten to the steel.crossed framed and added Trex decking too top it off.
Hope this helps,thanks ,Al

Now you need to create some weight limit signs. Good job.

Thanks, Al. That should be nice and strong. Looks great too.

Al,
I would love to know where you get those arched rails. I have a similar area around my pond where I could use a bridge like this. Would love to know where I can get those steel rails. Your bridge looks great.

Thanks guys .Brian I got the rails from my buddy who is an excavator.he has a stock pile of all sorts of items .salvages everything. You may be able to stop by your local town or highway department they may have a scrap yard with old guard rails kicking around.
Have fun with your projects.

I was running out of room on the Texaco can shelves...so, I tore it apart, added a shelf and designed it so I could create another shelf behind it and maximize the shelf space. Then I sated rearranging cans and kept finding a boxes of cans that I didn't have room for. So, I had added 10 feet of shelf and have already used about 7 of it. I have also left some spaces for cans I am looking for....anyway..kind of during and after picture. Ialso took down the signs that were blocking the view....