Saturday, June 2, 2018
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
M5 Tilt nose update #8 more color
The nose of an M5 has a seemingly endless amount of small sections. Body and paint on all these sections continues but is tedious and slow. The insides of the doors are now blue, and some nose sections are now blue.
We are using a single stage urethane, followed by PPG 2021 clear. We could buff out the single stage, but we like the sharp shine of the clear, and it protects better.
We have used other brands of clear when a customer requested it, but had to give that up. The cheaper brands do not lay down nicely, do not have very much solids, tend to be watery, don't cover as well, and have a yellow tinge to them. You will use more of a watery paint than a high solids paint, so there is a false economy going on there.
For your clear, or plain single stage if that is what you select, lay down 3 coats. Each coat is about 1 mil, and you will sand off 1 mil in the buffing process. If for some reason you have to go back to re-clear something, you can either use scotch brite pads to scuff the hardened paint, or if you have maddening nooks and crannies, scuffing will make you crazy. In that case we use PPG Blend-Ease in the mix, it is a special solvent and will bite into the paint beneath without scuffing. All the major paint makers have some type of blending agent. It doesn't take much Blend Ease at all, and it will make your paint thinner, so be careful for runs.
We are using a single stage urethane, followed by PPG 2021 clear. We could buff out the single stage, but we like the sharp shine of the clear, and it protects better.
We have used other brands of clear when a customer requested it, but had to give that up. The cheaper brands do not lay down nicely, do not have very much solids, tend to be watery, don't cover as well, and have a yellow tinge to them. You will use more of a watery paint than a high solids paint, so there is a false economy going on there.
For your clear, or plain single stage if that is what you select, lay down 3 coats. Each coat is about 1 mil, and you will sand off 1 mil in the buffing process. If for some reason you have to go back to re-clear something, you can either use scotch brite pads to scuff the hardened paint, or if you have maddening nooks and crannies, scuffing will make you crazy. In that case we use PPG Blend-Ease in the mix, it is a special solvent and will bite into the paint beneath without scuffing. All the major paint makers have some type of blending agent. It doesn't take much Blend Ease at all, and it will make your paint thinner, so be careful for runs.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
M5 Tilt nose update #7 tube shock mounts
PLEASE NOTE
As of 2-3-2020 we have changed our design in the front. I have deleted the original front design since it did not work.
We elected to go with tube shocks front and rear. This and the frame were actually completed earlier and all has been gathering dust while we complete the cab and fender body work, which explains the dust in the pictures!
Shocks: we selected Monroe #31176 for the rears, based on compressed and extended lengths, and travel. These have 3 1/2" of travel, and everything was positioned and measured for the shocks to be at mid-travel when the truck is unloaded at rest (ride height). This may not be sufficient travel, only time will tell. We are out of room under there. We may have to extend the bottom of the axle mount lower to get more travel, and switch to the KYBs. We removed the helper spring pack, and removed 1 or 2 leaves from the main spring pack, until we got the truck bed level, else the rear end of the bed stuck way up in the air stupidly. So, since it will never be used again as a loaded truck, there is very little up and down bed travel, so we may be OK with the Monroes.
Addendum:
Road tested...they work well.
If you have more bed vertical travel than we do, extend the bottom of your lower mounts and use the KYBs
We are using KYB Pn #343137 in the front. These have 5.5" of travel total. We use the existing hole in the front axle for the bottom mount.
We considered the R series tubes for the front and actually bought a set. But to us they were overly tall. We wanted to keep the height of the bracket as short as possible to reduce flex at the mounting 1/2-13 mounting bolts.
REAR:
Brackets: we have found a very helpful catalogue for various custom parts we needed, such as shock mounts and power brake booster. Check out Mid Fifty F100 Parts. We are using their PN 2402 for the top rears. For the rear mounts, for the axle we welded on their PN 2888-2, unmodified, and boxed the frame with 1/4" plate for the 2402 brackets where the top mounts attach. I have seen the top of the shocks attached to that crossbar close by, but it just didn't strike us as strong enough.
FRONT:
PIX of rear
PLEASE NOTE
As of 2-3-2020 we have changed our design in the front. I have deleted the original front design since it did not work.
We elected to go with tube shocks front and rear. This and the frame were actually completed earlier and all has been gathering dust while we complete the cab and fender body work, which explains the dust in the pictures!
Shocks: we selected Monroe #31176 for the rears, based on compressed and extended lengths, and travel. These have 3 1/2" of travel, and everything was positioned and measured for the shocks to be at mid-travel when the truck is unloaded at rest (ride height). This may not be sufficient travel, only time will tell. We are out of room under there. We may have to extend the bottom of the axle mount lower to get more travel, and switch to the KYBs. We removed the helper spring pack, and removed 1 or 2 leaves from the main spring pack, until we got the truck bed level, else the rear end of the bed stuck way up in the air stupidly. So, since it will never be used again as a loaded truck, there is very little up and down bed travel, so we may be OK with the Monroes.
Addendum:
Road tested...they work well.
If you have more bed vertical travel than we do, extend the bottom of your lower mounts and use the KYBs
We considered the R series tubes for the front and actually bought a set. But to us they were overly tall. We wanted to keep the height of the bracket as short as possible to reduce flex at the mounting 1/2-13 mounting bolts.
REAR:
Brackets: we have found a very helpful catalogue for various custom parts we needed, such as shock mounts and power brake booster. Check out Mid Fifty F100 Parts. We are using their PN 2402 for the top rears. For the rear mounts, for the axle we welded on their PN 2888-2, unmodified, and boxed the frame with 1/4" plate for the 2402 brackets where the top mounts attach. I have seen the top of the shocks attached to that crossbar close by, but it just didn't strike us as strong enough.
FRONT:
Bracket fabbed from 4" channel 7.5 " long
with top plate welded on. For top plate used high grade steel I had laying around,
3/16". If not high grade I would have used 1/4"
Bottom of mount with 45° cutoff for appearance
Backside
of mount with 1/4" strap welded on to space mount away from frame to
clear inner fenders. Washers can be added if need be.
Top
hole for shock is 2" outboard of the mount, and actually 2 1/4"
outboard from frame to have the shock body top stick outboard to clear
the two grade 8 1/2-13 mounting bolts. On the passenger side we welded nuts to the inside of the frame for easier assembly. There was no room to get the MIG torch inside the steering box mount to do the same on the driver's side.
Our front mounts are at a rearward tilt of about 10°
This
is because of my over-reliance on the lift. In error I did not drill
the frame holes directly above the axle. They were directly over when
the truck was up in the air, but not at ride height.
In any event the shock body clears the legs of the channel nicely
Be sure to fashion your mount so that the shock is compressed 1/2 way at ride height. Be sure to take into account the thickness of the donuts.
I now have 2.75" of travel both up and down, which is plenty.
If you use a lift or a jack, and let the truck back down to the floor, the suspension will NOT have settled to actual ride height. It must be driven around a bit if you want ride height measurements to be accurate. We learned this the hard way.
Addendum: The shock setup we now have on the truck has been road tested and works very well
Addendum: The shock setup we now have on the truck has been road tested and works very well
PIX of front
PIX of rear
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
M5 Tilt nose update #6 the beginnings of color
The
original color was a drab grey. The '50s ushered in an era of pastels
so we decided to update the paint color. The M5 itself is so obviously an Art Deco
design (having been on the drawing boards in 1940). Art Deco was quickly snuffed out by the war, but we
wanted to do justice to its Art Deco soul. The palatial sphere of Art Deco was bright colors.
We use Baril, an industrial paint, which is a DTM (direct to metal) product. Specifically, Bariline Hybrid II DTM. It is hard to locate, but worth it. For example, using a DTM paint, we did not have to prime the bottom of the cab, I simply shot it with 2 coats of black Baril. There are always areas that need a good filler-primer, and the Baril goes right over that, too. If we have areas where we sanded thru the primer to bare metal, no worries, the Baril takes care of that problem, and we do not have to re-prime. The exterior of
the truck will get 3 coats of PPG 2021 clear over the Baril baby blue, and be buffed, but we
are not doing that to the interior or the firewall. The Baril does not need to be cleared; it can be buffed out as any automotive paint. But for the exterior, we are looking for that extra gleam you get from a good quality clear.
It has been a long time to get here.
Have to break the cab up into manageable sections, ie make it into several shoots
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Fabbing bracket to hang Evaporator in the M5 cab
We are getting closer to shooting the cab, after some slow downs in the schedule.
Accordingly, we needed to finish any fabbing/welding that involved the cab, so it was time to buy the airbox and figure out how to support the weight. We searched high and low for pix/or info as to how others had done this but came up dry. So we engineered our own system. We needed to be careful to have adequate strength, especially since the sheet metal of the cab is so very thin, much of it being only 22 ga. We did not want the airbox bouncing around on a mount as we went down the road and crack out any of the tin of the cab. We fabbed a bracket that went from A pillar to A pillar, and made a separate center support by welding a 5/16" bolt to a 2"x2" pad and then plug welding that to the center of the firewall. The bracket is 1/8" x 1.5" flat stock.
Only a small portion of the evap will hang below the dash. The glove box space will be reduced but this is Texas, so A/C trumps glove box any day of the week. This is an evap with heat/defrost capability made by Old Air, Ft Worth, TX.
I have often wished there were some other M5 owners around here that I could compare notes with. Sometimes it seems that I am in the middle of a very large deserted field with no one within sight for miles and miles!
We are getting closer to shooting the cab, after some slow downs in the schedule.
Accordingly, we needed to finish any fabbing/welding that involved the cab, so it was time to buy the airbox and figure out how to support the weight. We searched high and low for pix/or info as to how others had done this but came up dry. So we engineered our own system. We needed to be careful to have adequate strength, especially since the sheet metal of the cab is so very thin, much of it being only 22 ga. We did not want the airbox bouncing around on a mount as we went down the road and crack out any of the tin of the cab. We fabbed a bracket that went from A pillar to A pillar, and made a separate center support by welding a 5/16" bolt to a 2"x2" pad and then plug welding that to the center of the firewall. The bracket is 1/8" x 1.5" flat stock.
Only a small portion of the evap will hang below the dash. The glove box space will be reduced but this is Texas, so A/C trumps glove box any day of the week. This is an evap with heat/defrost capability made by Old Air, Ft Worth, TX.
I have often wished there were some other M5 owners around here that I could compare notes with. Sometimes it seems that I am in the middle of a very large deserted field with no one within sight for miles and miles!
Monday, July 24, 2017
Fabbing brackets for AC compressor and alternator
While there are several types of brackets out there for mounting the AC compressor (this is Texas, after all), seems they all involve using head bolts. We prefer to not use head bolts this way. We prefer they stand alone. In line with this thinking, we will be mounting a bypass oil filter remotely, perhaps on the firewall, to avoid head bolts.
On the driver's side there is the old rear mounting boss for the generator. We used those 2 holes and the 2 holes for the motor mount to attach a 1/4" 6x6 steel plate. Accordingly, we drilled out the spot welds on the motor mount and moved the hole 1/4" inboard from where it was, since the new 6x6 plate would space it back out that same 1/4". This gave us 4 good mounting holes, and did not interfere with the motor mount. We cut off the front generator mounting hole, it was in the way.
The claw compressor bracket is commercially available and we welded that to the 6x6 plate. We got ours from Old Air, Ft. Worth PN 40-607. The claw comes with a wide variety of spacers. We like the claw since it gives us 4-point mounting for the comp. Some brackets only give a 2-pt mounting, and since the comp is aluminum, we wanted the extra strength. At the top of the claw bracket we welded on a 3/8 coupling nut running along the axis of the engine to be able to attach the claw to the yoke we made for the water pump. This provides stability at the top of the claw.
We also fabbed a mount for the alternator, as pictured. We are using a Delco 10 SI 3-wire alternator, available from O'Reilly as PN R111621A which has a lifetime warranty. We are using a Sanden 508 compressor, which draws very little HP from the motor. The crank pulley will drive the water pump and AC comp. The alternator will be driven from the Sanden. Given that the crank pulley is of special design involving the balancer, we could not come up with other options. A two-sheave crank pulley would have been ideal. The 508 pictured is a dead comp we borrowed just for mock-up. The brackets have only been tack welded at this point. The swing arm needs to be shortened.
We wanted to get this fabbing done before we begin to tear the motor down.
Miles continues to finesse body filler on the cab, making maximum use of the stud gun first. More on that later.
On the driver's side there is the old rear mounting boss for the generator. We used those 2 holes and the 2 holes for the motor mount to attach a 1/4" 6x6 steel plate. Accordingly, we drilled out the spot welds on the motor mount and moved the hole 1/4" inboard from where it was, since the new 6x6 plate would space it back out that same 1/4". This gave us 4 good mounting holes, and did not interfere with the motor mount. We cut off the front generator mounting hole, it was in the way.
The claw compressor bracket is commercially available and we welded that to the 6x6 plate. We got ours from Old Air, Ft. Worth PN 40-607. The claw comes with a wide variety of spacers. We like the claw since it gives us 4-point mounting for the comp. Some brackets only give a 2-pt mounting, and since the comp is aluminum, we wanted the extra strength. At the top of the claw bracket we welded on a 3/8 coupling nut running along the axis of the engine to be able to attach the claw to the yoke we made for the water pump. This provides stability at the top of the claw.
We also fabbed a mount for the alternator, as pictured. We are using a Delco 10 SI 3-wire alternator, available from O'Reilly as PN R111621A which has a lifetime warranty. We are using a Sanden 508 compressor, which draws very little HP from the motor. The crank pulley will drive the water pump and AC comp. The alternator will be driven from the Sanden. Given that the crank pulley is of special design involving the balancer, we could not come up with other options. A two-sheave crank pulley would have been ideal. The 508 pictured is a dead comp we borrowed just for mock-up. The brackets have only been tack welded at this point. The swing arm needs to be shortened.
We wanted to get this fabbing done before we begin to tear the motor down.
Miles continues to finesse body filler on the cab, making maximum use of the stud gun first. More on that later.
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