Team Stampie Project T&A

Lil Stampie is with his mom this weekend so after school yesterday he helped me put the 25 T frame on saw horses.

This morning I started take rivets out so we can sell off the extras and get down to the rails which is what we need.  First few was a steep learning curve.

Best method for me was grind the head off. Smack it with a hammer using a 3/8 bolt as my punch. If it doesn't move then drill a hole through it and smack it more. If it still doesn't move then I heat it red hot and you guess it, smack it some more.

Two hours later I had seven rivets done. I count 34 more to go. 

Decided to reward myself with a Halloween candy lunch.

Stampie, do you have an air hammer/chisel?

I like to cut an X in the rivet head with a death wheel, air chisel the head quarters off, then air hammer the slug out. Like 5mins per rivet typically

In reply to gumby :

Yeah that'd be nice but I don't. Might look into getting one. 

I decided to pull off the band-aid quick for my neighbors so after work I started grinding as much as possible. I got five rivets ground down when I noticed my neighbors gathering across the street. I decided to summit myself to their punishment and walked over only to find out one of them was looking for help to put his F150 frame on a rotisserie. Think I might be safe for a bit. Sorry no pictures as it got dark quick with daylight savings time. 

Lil Stampie joined in the fun today. We put on the instruments of saving eyes before using the instrument of death. 

I started grinding while he started wacking.

Slowly worked on removing stuff.

Rear crossmember kicked our behind until we noticed two more rivets on the bottom.

Finally everything removed except the front crossmember. 

Lunch break and then we get on the front.

I particularly like the Lil Stampie / big screwdriver / claw hammer combination.  You're teaching that boy right.

In reply to TVR Scott :

That combination was the ticket for this job. He got pretty good at it and by the end was pointing out how using it would make things easier.

The front crossmember has 4 rivets on the bottom that are countersunk. That made it a PITA. We invented the patent pending Punchinator.  With it we were able to punch the center of the drilled rivet out. 

After that we ground the other 4 rivets on top and some prying with the screwdriver got one side down.

The other side went quicker with the crossmember falling and barely missing Lil Stampie's foot. Good thing because he was wearing flip flops. They grow up so quick. 

Here's all the extra booty we can sell off.

We went down to Publix and weighed the drivers frame rail at 22 lbs. I SWAG boxing it brings us to 32 lbs a frame rail. More calculations say that using production frame rails adds 34 lbs to the finished car instead of a pure tube frame chassis. Not a bad trade off for all the benefits we'll get using them. 

Looks like a good father/son work day.

Looks like a good father/son work day.

In reply to Fladiver64 :

I told him that today went much quicker than last Saturday with me working by myself. I'm getting better at giving him task that he can do while I work on harder stuff. 

Stampie said:

We went down to Publix and weighed the drivers frame rail at 22 lbs. 

Yes! Please tell me you have pics of this? I guarantee someone took pics, haha. 

For those not in the southeast, Publix is a grocery store, and generally its the “nice” store to go to.  And they have cool old school scales in the front of the store to weigh yourself.  I was told this goes back to when the dr was the only one who would weigh you, so publix out a scale up front as a bonus for customers. 

In reply to TJL :

Unfortunately no pictures. Should have but was tired. I did hear someone behind me say "What is that!"

In reply to Stampie :

I visited my first Publix with your mother at the Challenge & she commented about the big scale. I had no idea they put them in every store!

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Oh yeah I get reminded that I'm a fat ass at least twice a week. 

Stampie said:

Here's all the extra booty we can sell off.

We went down to Publix and weighed the drivers frame rail at 22 lbs. I SWAG boxing it brings us to 32 lbs a frame rail. More calculations say that using production frame rails adds 34 lbs to the finished car instead of a pure tube frame chassis. Not a bad trade off for all the benefits we'll get using them. 

I don't know if Lil'Stampie has a science fair coming up.. or if there's a way to tie this into any of his math/science classes... nor if your plan for boxing in those frames already has this in mind...

but you probably want to consider adding in vertical ribs 'every so often' down the length of the rail.  That way it turns into a torsion box, not just a box-beam.  one of the caveats to this, though, is you'd probably want to weld the new 'innerface' piece to these ribs in addition to their being welded to the original frame (which probably means cutting slots in the new piece that slot in to a rib's 'tab'... and I'm now, uh, cautious about any time I say something that suggest cutting lots of holes in metal to you)

I'm... ahem... rusty on my structures, so I'm not sure what the 'best spacing is'... and really, the best spacing in this case probably is wider than normal, since you're weighing the cost of material, their weight, and the extra fab time to add them in, and you'll have extra structure to spread the load.  But, you could make some reasonable facsimile test items using either pizza box tops, or dollar store foam board, and hot glue.  Probably just a single frame... although building it out could be useful at some point... then you test them out with calibrated weight (sand, sugar, flour... etc).

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

Good idea but my first thought is I'll simplify it. I'm planning on several crossmembers out of 1 5/8 .120 wall tubing. My plan was to install the crossmembers then box the frame. That way I could weld the crossmembers to the existing frame and the boxing material. But to incorporate your idea I could put your ribs at each crossmember. 

In reply to Stampie :

If you install before you box you have already accomplished Sleepyhead's goal, provided you weld the crossmember to the vertical as well as both horizontals on the channel section.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Yeah I'll just need to extend it in places. 

Always wanted to build one of those, Stampie. Poke around here.

Stampie said:

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

Good idea but my first thought is I'll simplify it. I'm planning on several crossmembers out of 1 5/8 .120 wall tubing. My plan was to install the crossmembers then box the frame. That way I could weld the crossmembers to the existing frame and the boxing material. But to incorporate your idea I could put your ribs at each crossmember. 

that's why I blurt things out... I figure someone will figure out a simplified/easier/better solution

wvumtnbkr picked up the background RX7 from me and delivered some wheels. Nice guy and his dad came too.  Hope Lil Stampie and I are still doing stupid things together at that age. Here's the wheels. Think they'll work great for the 25 T.

So, what is the current plan for the 472?

Stampie said:

In reply to gumby :

Yeah that'd be nice but I don't. Might look into getting one. 

future reference next time you're at the Hammer Store, air chisel is like $12 before coupon, extra bits are another $7. 

Great for turning air into noise, but with a little practice it's almost as nice as a plasma cutter for cutting metal with. Or the reason I bought mine, you can cut the head off a bit and weld on a 1/2" socket male end and a little handle. Busts through painted on bolts, rusted in fasteners, and really shakes out any frame rust. 

The in and out chisel motion seems to have a better effect on *some* stuck bolts than the round and round of an impact gun, so the little handle you weld on is the turn the stuck fastener a little bit. 

Made it home!

Thanks Stampie and lil Stampie!

It was nice meeting you both!  Thank you for figuring out how to load the car and doing at least half the work!

I'm excited that some of my old parts are ending up on a cool project car!

03Panther said:

So, what is the current plan for the 472?

It'll end up in the 28 Model A after we get the two Model Ts going.

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

Yeah those wheels will be perfect and I'm guessing much lighter than the Jeep wheels I would have used.