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I pulled my door windows and replaced both window run channels and the top fuzzies on both doors. I got the hookup for some NOS brass rivets and had to get clever in order to mushroom the rivets by myself.
This is a scene that's supposed to be New Jersey 1972. The truck looks really good and doesn't smoke, but it does have 53" XZLs and LED headlights which stand out. To me It looks like this is an M818 with a short cargo bed on it like the 100dollarman used to build.
Does anyone here recognize it?
I saw this Blackhawk at a show and I'm in love! If my M813 ever returns to a solid color it may have to be this color. Does anyone know any details about this particular aircraft paint? Would it be a CARC coating?
OK, this sick grenade shifter is now installed and looking good! It feels good in the hand going through the gears, but sadly I haven't had a chance to actually drive it down the road yet. I tested the micro switch function with a continuity tester from the wire to the shifter stem but I will...
Now everything is buttoned up and ready to install back into my truck. Since the canvas shift boot is already on the shifter and can't come off I have to put the tranny tunnel floor board loosely in place first and then lower the shifter into place. With the floor board loose there was just...
The wire exit hole on my shifter serves double duty as an anchor point for a ground strap since there is too much grease/oil & small contact area to rely on grounding through the shifter attaching points. I used a 3/8" fine thread grade 8 bolt that was 1/2" long and had the machinist drill a...
I need to back up a step here. Before the grenade can go on the shifter, the swivel base that mounts in the top of the transmission and the rubber boot has to go on first since it can't fit over the grenade and the same goes for the canvas shift boot. Once those 2 items are on the grenade can...
Now it's time for all of this to go inside the grenade:
First up is the switch, then the wire, then dome shaped spacer. Since the screws were brass and non-magnetic I used tape to hold them to the screw driver.
The hardest part was finagling the ground wire onto the switch (the ring end)...
Time to start assembling pieces together! Here are some pics of the micro switch and how I ground the switch to the body of the grenade. The piece with the hole in it was made in a similar fashion to the concave part for the ground strap. I sliced off the edge of a piece of pipe whose OD...
You're welcome. How things are made or manufactured has always interested me more than the final product so unless I'm working on a patent idea I'm always up for sharing projects & ideas.
The last fab step to do before painting is to drill a hole in the side of the stick for the wire to exit through and then tap the hole for the bolt that will hold on the ground strap (more of this will be in the assembly pics). The concave piece allows the bolt head to have full contact with...
With the shaft bent up and screwed to the base but not yet welded I installed the shifter onto the transmission and ran through the gears with special attention on reverse (fuel cut off clearance) and 1st (winch handle clearance).
With the shifter in 1st gear I rotated the top shaft until I...
Thanks for the compliment! Yes, there is a lot more than meets the eye when first seeing the shift lever - looks like just another stock part on the outside. I'll be uploading more pics today of the final shaft after welding plus a few more fab steps.
To bend the contoured hollow shaft I used the same method I used when making a set of twin stick transfer case shifters for my brother's Ford Highboy - the only difference being his sticks were solid stainless and my shifter is hollow carbon steel.
The bends on my 813 shifter measured in...
OK, so now we have a grenade with a micro switch which will provide a ground signal for a relay in order to open the relay and allow current from the battery to flow to the jake heads. So how do we route that pesky ground wire? I went overboard in an effort to avoid an external wire and zip...
To completely finish the work on the grenade before final assembly I had to trim the ears off the spoon so that it would be free to pivot about the cotter pin when getting the squeeze. After this photo the grenade got 9 coats of matte clear enamel to build up some protection against a sweaty...