Build thread for the 72 GMC, finally. Thanks John!

Date night!

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Here you go for a Glock 42 review:

http://theoutdoorsman.us/MyBB/showthread.php?tid=98

The truck got neglected in a major way over the weekend. Saturday night and Sunday night were wrecked with other stuff. I did get both drivers side control arms cleaned up nicely. At least I have something cool for Sunday to show.

I had to redo the whole design of the weird cheapo spring/brush combo to make it work again, but I did it. The backstory here is that it's a Christmas gift for Tunakid #2 fron my parents. They didn't make it to Christmas, so he got it last week. The one he got was missing parts, so we went and exchanged it at Hobby Lobby. He played with it for an hour before the wires came loose.

Since he's five and already waiting weeks for it, I figured I could handle the motor rebuild for him.

Interesting, and late, evening.

First up with the minivan again. I have a heat shield rattling around, and I had to try and quiet it down.

Then I pondered. I had tried to sell Tunawife on a closet in the garage for her seedlings for the garden since it's warm in there. Like most of my ideas, she thought it was a terrible awful idea which could only had been conceived by an idiot and a fool.

"whoa, whoa, Tuna, what closet in the garage?"

Well, I am glad you asked!

That one.

No light, but since it's under the stairway and only insulated against the outside walls, it's warm.

It was about that time that I realized that I was an idiot.

Did I say closet? I meant paint booth. After an hour of cleaning, I had room! Now I can't paint the truck frame in there (which I need to finish) but it's better than nothing.

tuna55 wrote: Date night! <img src="" />

That place is so damn annoyingly expensive...

Mad_Ratel wrote:

tuna55 wrote: Date night! <img src="" />

That place is so damn annoyingly expensive...

$28 all in, Thanks Groupon!

lol NICE!.

oh man really? was that for the any pistol rental? last time we went for two including ammo was 90 bucks. granted we shot quite a few guns but having to wait an hour to get in and the cost has kept me away. I have to drive to liberty or spartanburg to shoot due to this...

OK, here's the deal. I like that place. The downsides are that you have to pay $5 to bring your own ammo or buy theirs. It's $15 for two to share a lane, $12 for a rental. We forgot our ear protection, but that was included with the Groupon. We got one box of .380 free with the Groupon. I don't know how much it cost to buy.

We had trouble accidentally releasing the magazine, and I called the helpful dude in. he shot two mags worth, showed me (very nicely) that I was probably hitting the mag release accidentally (the mag release button is the same as it is on other gen 4 but the grip is tiny) and then gave us another box of ammo for free.

Helpful instruction, safe atmosphere (unlike Sharpshooters), nice folks. Other than it being a bit cold back there, I have no complaints.

That was one thing they had going for them. They were very nice and respectful.

Nothing too exciting, some more cleaning, some more painting.

I wasn't sitting still last night. Just moving slowly. I took apart the drivers side spindle/caliper/dust shield and assembled my fancy new QA1 extended length ball joints.

I also rented a ball joint presser inner and struggled for an hour before throwing up my hands (it was nearing midnight) and deciding that I need to think about it more. The issue was that the spacer section on the upper end (area where the balljoint is pressing into) is very non-flat, and as such, I kept pressing the balljoint in crookedly. Tonight I shall prevail! Because I have to give the tool back tomorrow!

Let the ball joint overnight in the freezer, heat the arm in the oven (not too hot) and it'll go right in-possibly without a tool.

I got the balljoints in tonight. No freezer, though. I employed a BFH.

I said to the balljoint press:

So I used the ball stud to really tighten the press tool without using the clamp, and then knocked the sense into it with one of the adapters that sorta-fit-if-I-held-it-just-right until the nut got loose and repeated.

More stories, and pictures (phone camera machine stopped functioning this evening) to come tomorrow morning.

Dude, MC hammer jokes never get old.

For reference, here is the balljoint lightly tapped into place with the small hammer.

Here is the toolset which I was able to rent from the local parts store.

The issues were twofold. I wouldn't use the medium size cup straight away to hammer the balljoint in because there was a disagreement is diameter. It was too big, so I had to hold it and hammer on the lip of the joint a little at a time.

The main problem is that the larger size spacer didn't lay on a flat portion of the control arm, so it kept pulling it tight at an angle and I had to rescue it with the hammer.

Eventually this even stopped working and it was just stuck. I had to get clever, so I used the large spacer in convert with the ball stud and the hammer to inch it along until it fell in place.

The other side went faster. Especially since I considered that some paint/rust/crud may have built up inside the control arm hole, and sanded it down using my fancy expensive drum sander.

Notice how it looks a lot like sticky sandpaper covering the handle of a big screwdriver chucked up in my drill. That's intentional.

I then took the parts into my impromtu paint booth and touched up the missing (and hammer hit) spots. I had the big door closed the whole time, and it felt "warm", so I decided to take a chance and

Sweet!

I'd be curious about using a ball joint separator in reverse to seat one.

bluej wrote: I'd be curious about using a ball joint separator in reverse to seat one.

Well...

I sorta did. My ball joint separator was the same big hammer. Does that count?

Nice drum sander!

I promise I've been working, just too busy to post a decent update. Stay tuned.

tuna55 wrote: I promise I've been working, just too busy to post a decent update. Stay tuned.

I see what you did there TUNa.

I can't wait to get the last customer car finished and back to my own stuff. Your progress is making me jealous.

Dusterbd13 wrote: I can't wait to get the last customer car finished and back to my own stuff. Your progress is making me jealous.

The guy who has a project which is currently missing half of its suspension is not to be envied by the guy who could easily drive his.

Dont forget his is also painted!

Mad_Ratel wrote: Dont forget his is also painted!

thanks for the reminder!