My first thought about the rollers for the space filler was just about when I wrote it as above; and when I wrote it I think I knew I was going to incorporate them. I just got back from Harbor Freight where I bought 11 rollers and I also went out to the other shop and took some measurements for the spacer. The HF Store is very close to where I have my other shop. Now I have another project for this afternoon.

 

 

I wrote a bunch of stuff to go with that picture, but I cannot get it to come up here. And I have no idea where that title came from.


 

Click on the little + next to "Spoiler" and the text appears.

 

Here the spacer with rollers is in place on the press.

 

Amazing. I wonder what stupid thing I did to set that up.

 

One final thought in streamlining the pressing of these pans is to use an air driven tool to run the bolts in and out. My first thought about that was to use my 3/8 inch drive butterfly impact tool, but I have been hesitating about that because of the potential threat to the threads which are all in aluminum. I don't want to wear them out any sooner than necessary because it is going to be a chore to restore them. However I have decided to try a small 3/8 inch drive air powered ratchet wrench which runs slower and which I think will leave the final torque up to me. If I have to I can switch to the impact wrench to remove the larger bolts since they get very tight by themselves in the process.

 

Over the years that I have been making stuff for the 928s I have thought about putting some identification on the items. I finally reached the decision to try that on these belly pans. So I bought some metal letter and number stamps and configured them in a kind of holder so I can press a name and serial number into each pan. My first tests of that were not very successful in that the letter and number stamps are not exactly the same length so in a group they do not stamp to the same depth. Then the spacing of the letters in the name is much too wide. Finally the process of stamping the name and number in a piece of scrap aluminum put a bulge in the metal since the letters and numbers are stretching the metal.

So, I worked it over by cutting the letter and number stamps to the same length in my mill, Then I milled the letter stamps in the name narrower to tighten up their spacing. As to the bulge I am going to practice stamping these in the metal some more to see if I can get the force right, and then I'll stamp the name and number into each pan blank before it is formed so that maybe the forming process will pull the bulge out of the blank.

Aside from that I am down to finishing up the tabs and have most of them about half done.

 

I decided to go ahead and work up the whole batch of top mounting tabs at one time. There are just short of 120 pair in the batch. Each one took about 6 to 8 minutes to hand finish all the edges, but now that is done and they have all been gang drilled with the rivet holes. I have also marked about half of them for the first bend. I'll counter sink the holes on them next and then do the first bend. I think I am going to mill the slot in the top of them after the first bend rather than after the second bend, because it will be easier in that I don't have to set the mill up with an angle for the cuts. Then I'll put the second bend in them. Finally I'll try to burnish them and then have them anodized. I wont rivet the flange nuts to them until after I have used them to mark for the slots in the pan.

I have also finished the name/number stamp devise and will test it to see if I can refine the pressing of those into the pans. I am trying to avoid the slight bulge the stamping puts in the metal; and I think I can do that by stamping the name and number into the blank before it is formed into a pan. The pan forming should pull any bulge out of the blank, I hope.

 

Jerry, when you finish the belly pans, how about stamping out a few '78 battery box lids?

 

Interesting suggestion, Ben. But I don't have a 78. My oldest is 79, and I suppose the lids are not the same. I wonder what the market for them might be. I haven't heard much here on Rennlist about the need.

I'm going to start different thread about this idea.

 

I have all the total batch of tabs worked up to the point of finishing their edges and then marking them for the first bend. I'll also use the mark to tell me where to countersink the rivet holes since some are left and some are right. I'm going to work on that today. Here is a picture of the total batch which turns out to be 119 pair of tabs. I don't know what happened to the 120th pair.

 

Yesterday I got most of the tabs countersunk for the rivets, and finished them up this morning. I found that I could countersink a group of 10 tabs with four holes each in just about 3 minutes. That went pretty fast. Then this morning, after finishing up the countersinks I started folding some of them I have only 20 done so far and find that it takes me about 12 minutes to fold 10 of them. I'm baking some banana nut bread right now but later I'll go out and bend some more of them. I hope to get all of them bent in the next two or three days and then I'll set up to mill the top slot in each of them before putting the final 32 degree bend in them..

 

Make sure you don't confuse the banana bread with the sheet metal.

(yes, I'm kidding)

 

They are both turning/turned out swell. I have eaten three slices of the banana nut bread, and I have about 2/3 of the tabs bent.