Same as last week

 Hello everyone,

Pretty much anyway. Pulled more weeds, sprayed some more, etc..

I removed the damaged sills and machines pieces to replace them.

Primed the old wood left on the house, two coats of primer and two coats of paint on the new pieces. Then installed them. Caulked all the new pieces in place. All that’s left is touch up paint.

Should get to that today. My brother is coming by and we have a little business to take care of and then I have to go up north and buy some new hearing aids! Holy crap are they expensive!

Went up to Chicago over the weekend and saw our favorite local band, Heartsfield. We had a blast!

So the week starts, with another giant pile of mulch!

The wife would like the pool put up and between that and taking the van apart, I’m not so sure about the mulch, we’ll see.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, 

TVI

Less bike work

 Hello everyone,

More home things this past week. Mowing, pulling weeds, mulch, moving rocks etc..

I did remove the top of one of the golf  carts and put it on the one I intend to keep. I’m going to part ways with the red one that I have, which is a 1974  Cushman and keep the three wheeled 1970 Cushman. I need to buy a battery charger for the one I’m going to sell first.

I had some old lamp posts and some posts with goo gaws  on them that were rotting away. So, we bought some 4x4 posts and brought them home. I did some machining on them so they looked like some posts we saw at an old Shaker village we go to.

I had to mark where I wanted the cuts to end, lay the posts on their side and raise the blade at a 45 degree angle through each side of each post. So, 4 sides and 5 posts! Then finish the cuts with a hand saw and then sand the corners kind of round. Took me almost all afternoon for all of the posts. Then I primed and painted them and then the next day installed three of them.

I spent Wednesday afternoon at the oldest sons house helping him put together a trampoline. I was going to put a video of them on it, but it was taking forever to load.

The bike news for this week is the frame is finished and the guy who did it wants to bring it back to me this weekend. The problem is I won’t be home this weekend so maybe next weekend. When it comes back I can start fitting up the rear wheel and see if I still have all the spacers and brake brackets etc.. Then maybe fit up the rear fender. Hopefully by then “Shop Teacher Bob” will have my tube problem addressed and I can send the front end out to be rebushed.  That, would be real progress!

This weeks agenda is do some more home repairs and maybe some van work. It looks like I might have gotten a little ahead of myself when I finished up the interior! I may have to remove the bed in order to wire up the trailer wiring. I have to remove the taillights and the plastics around them can’t be removed with the bed in it. So, when I do that part I need to think about an easier way of accessing the taillights in case I need to change bulbs!

On the house part, I have three windows that the sashes have literally rotted away. I need to machine down some pieces to the right thickness and get myself one of those multi tools to be able to saw it off and then biscuit and glue on the new pieces, it’s going to be a project, but at least they’re all on the ground floor.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, 

TVI

More bike work

I’ve been working on the Harley project this past week. I started getting ready to send the forks out to have them rebushed and had a minor/ major catastrophe! I set the tubes on the workbench and started looking for the rest of the parts and one of them rolled off the bench and hit the floor. It put a small dent in the bottom and now it won’t slide in the lower leg. I’m going to run it up to “Shop Teacher Bob’s” place this morning and see if he can help me straighten it out. Keep your fingers crossed!

I started stripping the sidecar frame down. I have one of the leaf springs apart and mostly cleaned up. I ordered some rust remover to get the rust out of the pits. Then I’ll paint them, probably black.

As you can see in the lower picture, over the years , moisture and dirt have gotten in between the leaves and started spreading them out. That’s why I took them apart. I broke a couple of the clamps when I was taking them apart so I have to see if I can make new ones, plus see if I can come up with new rivets.

The wife and I took another overnighter and spent some time near Wabash again. We spent the morning by a nice little waterfall, and it was very relaxing.

I got the seat swivel put in the passenger side seat in the van and it’s working out very well. This was the first time we set up the awning too. Those two additions make a huge difference in the “ space” of the van.

I’m still waiting for some more parts for the trailer wiring and the charge ports. Hopefully they’ll be here this week.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, 

TVI

Trying to be busy

 Hello everyone,

After a lot of messing around I finally got tanks attached to my hoses and gauges. After that I heated up the turnbuckle and got it sort of free, it turns but with a pipe wrench. I might try some valve lapping compound and see if I can loosen up the threads a little. The tight side is the left hand thread side, so I don’t have a tap or a die nut to chase the threads.

I managed to get the trailer hitch mounted on the van, without any problems. 

I believe I got the Harley frame cut and bent to clear the motor. It ended up being a lot more than a 1/4 of an inch, almost 3/4”. The seat post does go up and down but it drags a little bit. I think if I polish everything up and grease it good it will work fine.

In the last picture you can hardly tell it’s bent back, which is what I was hoping for. Now, next week, another friend is going to weld it up for me and I should have it back in a week or so. I’ll probably sandblast the rest of the paint off it and start seeing if I can get it to a rolling chassis by summer’s end. 

I went to the auto parts store and bought a new belt for the air compressor. It was starting to slip pretty badly, so I got that changed today too!

I need to make a hook of some kind to roll the torch hose up and I need to wash the van. It’s almost time to mow again and there is still more weeds to pull.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, 

TVI

P.S. I also have to wire the trailer plug this coming week. Man, all that sounds like I’ll be busy again this week too!