fun with catbox

[BuginU2]

and besides yo just might want to wait untill you have some other paint on the car first.

I'm pretty close to having it ready for paint.  I should take some photos to show the progress.  I have a couple more spots to work over... but early January it will probably be ready.

[BuginU2]

We'll talk about it later... I'm sure we can work out a mutually beneficial arrangement.  

[CatBox]

no problemo... you want some lowrider graphics on it don't cha.

chicks and dragons and stuff, maybe a cholo or two.

[corradojeff]

good stuff.... i might have some bike tin for ya next :)

[CatBox]

i have totally forgotten to show the build of the presidential gavel block on the club website.

so here it goes......

(this was posted on Volksrods last year sometime and that is where im getting the text from)

so part of this has paint on it but alot of it was machining and the final step was some lettering.

our club president needed a way to control us at the meetings, so one of us made a "gavel" for him using a screwdirver with a 1" socket welded to the end. well no gavel is any good without the little block thingy they hit, right? welll i decided to fix that for him.

i started with some well used parts froma 1600 and bastardized them from there to completion. it took an estimated 40 hours to finish.

1st cut down a cylinder



next came cutting a piston down to size to fit into newly shortened cylinder

[CatBox]

here is the new piston height



then after lots of grinding and then lots of polishing it goes from one extreme to the other and looks like this



next came the mounting hardware. it was drilled and tapped about 7/8" into the piston. the piston will be mounted to an old oil drain plate with the springs holding it up.

[CatBox]

here are the peices all assembled like...



add a little paint to the cylinder and the oil plate and you get these notice the edges are all polished after painting



and here is one of the fun bits. i carved this all with a dremel not once but twice just to see how i liked it. in this pic it is all cleaned up and polished.

[CatBox]

here is anther view



here is the lettering i did on the oil plate for Presidente'. this is before i waxed it so it is kinda dull lookin.



FIN.

[CatBox]

here is a view of the pistons that i was comparing

[CatBox]

here is a sneek peek of the design i was working on when i had marks car.  he came to get it before i got the paint onto it.  i started and then wiped the left side off as i was not happy with my work that day.

now he just has the pencil drawing on the hood waiting for me....

[CatBox]

oh and when you stripe you are supposed to rough up the surface of the paint for better adhesion.  well i used a piece of fine steel wool on the hood of the car and i actually improved the paint. 

that is why the hood seems so glossy in the places that i was working.

[CatBox]

while i am at it here is an example of me playing with my oxy/acetlene torch.

this was from a dryer that is in the backyard.  i was having fun with it so i chopped out my daughters name and then cleaned and painted it.

you could not see the name very well so i then ran a line around the outside.

[CatBox]

so the other day Duane asked for some help with a small project.

He needed a way to "eyeball TDC on #1" with his new and fancy EDIS system on his car.

A couple days later he brought me what was left of a acvw distributor cut off under the big part.  Now it is just a short piece of the body and the drive dog.  Now to say it was precision would well just be a lie.  He admitted to using a hacksaw and a dremel to excise the pieces, but it left a nasty looking wound.

Being the antsy in my pantsy person that I am, I forgot to take a picture of it before I started my work so I cannot show you where I started from....Imagine round metal cut off at an angle.....there you go.

[CatBox]

So I fixed that little issue and made the body and shaft a right angle again. 

This is when the creative juices started to flow as to what I could do with these small pieces of metal....

Well he did say "eyeball TDC on #1" right?

So it starts...
Here are the flattend parts in my well used vise.


The first step in the process is the base coat on the parts, in this case its process blue with a little black mixed in for the pupil and white with ivory for the rest.


That takes a day to dry totally before I can continue.

[CatBox]

So now that it is the next day and the parts have had time to dry, Duane is in the neighborhood and wonders what I have done.  Not much to show but he gets to see my beauty machine work and the first parts that you all just saw...
Then he asked if it would be done to put in today as he has to leave tonight for the HOG cruise in and Bug Run tomorrow.  But of course good sir.

So that brings us to yesterday afternoon. I spent some time making the paint work for me and getting used to my paints again, mmm One Shot has good fumes....

First up is the pupil.  I did this three times as I just didn't like it until I got it right.  One Shot will just wipe right off if you are not satisfied.  After the pupil I added some unmixed process blue for more color in the eye.


Here are the parts put togther to give you an idea of where we are going with this....


The rest of the eye recieved some detail as well as my signature and date.  This is done with a sure hand and a tiny brush loaded with bright red.



With all of this I had forgotten to add the proper non-removable marks so that he could eyeball his TDC. So with a dremel I cut two small notches onto the parts and VIOLA!  Its finished.