'74 K5 build: Smurf

[skunked]

Thanks. Hopefully it's a mix of my stellar photography and dry wit. (It sure ain't my stellar welding skills.)

Found one more pic of the tranny skid plate crossmember in its early stages

with the latest addition to the welding table, namely front outlets. Somebody here (skunked maybe?) had a bit in their build thread about it, and Oh My God it's handy. Donno how I lived without it. Long extension cord goes to the wall outlet in the back, but having all those outlets up front just makes it go soo much quicker. And the grinder cords don't get tangled, and there's still extra outlets for e.g. the die grinder or the sawzall.

And all it took is a coupla outlet boxes and a piece of conduit ... stupid simple, yet I never thought of it.

-- A

Nice having those outlets eh?

I love the new shoes on the K5

 

[dremu]

Nice having those outlets eh?

I love the new shoes on the K5

The outlets are great ... except the vise is right above the one set. I think it's time the vise gets moved to the built-in workbench and off the welding table. When your work area is a work in progress...

And thanks. I'm kinda surprised by all the interest in the tars ... I mean, other than the wheels, they were a low-effort project. (Not low-budget, but what can you do.) But between the tars and the shiny wheels, it does definitely change the look, the personality of the truck. Kinda amazing.

-- A

 

[dremu]

Y'all kinda challenged me with the commentary about the wheel covers blocking the front hubs. While I still don't think it's a big deal to remove the covers on the rare occasion I actually engage the front axle, I put on my thinking toque to find a way to implement the suggestion of the spinning bowtie logo.

First I cut up a spare cover, and discovered the hub dial is actually pretty close to the surface. I had to destroy the bowtie logo decal to get it off, which was a very nice metal piece (more on this in a minute.)

At first I thought I'd go down to the local plastic place and get some acrylic discs to fit in the cover, and then use PVC pipe to drive the hub dial. As I considered how to make it strong enough to withstand the torque required to spin the dial, though, an epiphany struck. I can 3D print the parts I need! So I broke out the trusty CAD program and after a few iterations ended up with an inner piece to drive the hub dial

This piece goes *inside* the wheel cover, so the cover holes it against the hub dial. The two semi-circle things on the left fit into the hub dial and the star shape on the right mates to the other, outer piece...

The star shape is basically an eight-point drive. Consider it the ARP fastener of plastic The two pieces are actually glued; this particular plastic can be glued with the same stuff you use for acrylic. The glue keeps the inner and outer pieces from popping out, and the eight point shape transmits the turn to the hub.

When installed inside the cover, the inner drive piece looks like

The lip-looking things fit into the hub dial snugly to turn it. This piece is larger diameter than the hole in the wheel cover, so it rides on the inside of the cover, and the eight-point sticks through the hole and snaps into the outer disc.

Mounted together, the side view. I printed the outer disc in black to match the decal, but the inner piece was made with whatever I had a big roll of, which is a sort of odd tan-pink color.

The inner piece is printed in high density so the plastic is nice and strong; the outer disc is like a medium density as it's all that I think is needed. There is the possibility that the plastic will melt, but this particular plastic melts at over 200*C, at which point I think the wheel covers would be getting wobbly too.

I did make the pieces a bit thick for strength; here's the outer disc visible on the wheel cover. You can see it's a bit taller than the cover, but only by a millimeter or two. (Sorry, my CAD program speaks metric, so, err, "a fraction of an inch" )

 

[dremu]

I got new bowtie decals to match, and unless you look really closely, you can't tell they're any different:

left is the rotating one, right is the fixed variety. You can see a tiny bit of the lithium grease I used to lube the plate so it would spin freely.

And here's the height comparison with the decal. A bit taller, but from a few feet away, you wouldn't know it was magic

Funny story on the decals. As I mentioned, I had to destroy them to Dremel the access hole in the wheel cover, so I figured I'd go down to the dealer, bend over, and pay some ridiculous amount money for them. The guy at the parts counter says "We don't stock them [duh!} but I can order them ... but you won't want me to."

$43. Each. For a 5" fricken decal

Admittedly they're metal and VERY sticky, why I couldn't save the old ones, so they're NICE decals ... but almost-a-C-note-for-two nice, no.

He then proceeds to open up Ebay, looks up the part # and finds me some NOS units for nine bucks. He gives me the part # and shows me how to find the Ebay listing again, sends me on my way Heck of a sales pitch, these guys.

 

[dremu]

And finally, proof that they do indeed work. I think the larger disc actually makes it easier to turn than the original dial, at least for my fat fingers.

 

[F.S.F.W]

That's pretty awesome!

 

[82355]

Very awesome.

Martin

 

[Phil513]

Dude, that is fantastic.

 

[sreidmx]

wow thats great!

 

[dremu]

Thanks for the kind words guys. Can't say as the whole truck is that clever -- if it was, Tankie would be closer to Greg72's or Ryoken's trucks -- but it's fun nevertheless. The 3D printing had a steep learning curve, but I am finding that now and again, on the truck or around the house, I can do some really clever stuff. And yeah, I could prolly have made thse parts on a lathe, at least a CNC rig, but I suspect the printer is cheaper, simpler, and more flexible.

And I have the Martin stamp of approval for my wheel covers.

-- A

 

[Jumppr]

So I've been skimmin thru your build thread because that's what I do......I noticed way back when you mounted your harness that you put them on the floor (lower bar) behind your seat. I vaguely remember reading an article somewhere about the right way to mount harnesses and I think it mentioned putting the rear mounting points closer to the top of the seat. The reason behind this is because in the case of a collision the force applied to the belts would pull down on your body compressing your spine in the process. Not sure if this is the case or if you're still running them like this, but it might be worth looking into. I'm by no means an expert on this so if I'm mistaken please excuse me.......back to reading your build now.

 

[Bent77]

So I've been skimmin thru your build thread because that's what I do......I noticed way back when you mounted your harness that you put them on the floor (lower bar) behind your seat. I vaguely remember reading an article somewhere about the right way to mount harnesses and I think it mentioned putting the rear mounting points closer to the top of the seat. The reason behind this is because in the case of a collision the force applied to the belts would pull down on your body compressing your spine in the process. Not sure if this is the case or if you're still running them like this, but it might be worth looking into. I'm by no means an expert on this so if I'm mistaken please excuse me.......back to reading your build now.

There are actually several sanctioning bodies including NHRA that specify the correct way they want them mounted. Can't remember these days, seems like 2-3" drop from the peak of the shoulder or something

 

[dremu]

The *ends* of the harnesses bolt to the cage at about floor level, yeah; the particular ones I got are stupid long. But the straps actually extend past your shoulder at an almost-right angle for some distance before they fold over the bar behind the seat. It's hard to see on the driver's side seat, but look at the passenger side in the pic, then imagine the shoulder straps going up and forward for a foot or so.

Donno if it'd meet the letter of the law but I think it meets the spirit.

 

[tRustyK5]

Awesome job on the dials!! Now you gotta figure a way for the bowtie to turn green when the hubs are engaged, and red when unlocked.

 

[dremu]

If I was gonna run wires to the hubs, I "Might As Well" run a CTIS air line out there too... oh, wait, that's been done =))

I actually considered doing a bowtie in the middle instead of the star for the drive, then I could just use the 3D print as the logo. I also reconsidered this after the $43/decal revelation.

And I like LED's ... but not spinning.

-- A

 

[Jumppr]

The *ends* of the harnesses bolt to the cage at about floor level, yeah; the particular ones I got are stupid long. But the straps actually extend past your shoulder at an almost-right angle for some distance before they fold over the bar behind the seat. It's hard to see on the driver's side seat, but look at the passenger side in the pic, then imagine the shoulder straps going up and forward for a foot or so.




Donno if it'd meet the letter of the law but I think it meets the spirit.

Whatevers clever I guess. I'm not an engineer so I don't know.

 

[ClassicStyle]

From what I remember from my race car, it's 10-20degrees to the mount.

Suspension seats will cause compression of your spine in a bad rollover anyways so it's in different.

Your hub dealys are awesome. I've been wanting a 3D printer for stuff just like that.

 

[secutright]

Are you planning on releasing the STL's? Those are pretty awesome if they work out!

 

[dremu]

Heh. They're totally specific to my situation, i.e. these particular wheel covers and hub dials ... but you can have the STL's, even the OpenSCAD source to tweak 'em to your liking if you promise not to snicker (I did some shortcuts and a smidge of file-to-fit.) Email is my user ID here at Yahoo.

And you get to Dremel the hell out of your wheel covers inside and out. (If you actually go this route, I have some more pix of the wheel cover prep to give an idea of what's involved.)

-- A

 

[bp71k5]

Which machine are you using? Did you have to finish the black plastic after? I've never seen one that could provide that nice of a finish. Pretty cool either way.