1966 Barracuda Sun Visor Repair

The preferred fix for a sun visor that has lost its stitching is generally not to drill holes in the thing and use rivets. Someone previously decided to do just that though. And it didn't hold up all that well to boot.

Dash Circuit Board Pin Repair - Barracuda

A few nights ago I was driving my 1966 Barracuda and decided it was time to fix the wiper motor issue, and it was also then that I happened to notice a couple dash lights weren't working. Then my high-beam indicator light went out. I tapped on the instrument cluster and the dash and high beam indicator lights all came back on. So since I had the dash out of the car to work on the wiper motor, I also did some detective work to fix the dash lights. Here's what I found:

Sluggish Windshield Wiper Motor Repair - Barracuda

Living in Washington State comes with certain things deemed necessities that may be considered optional in some states. Windshield wipers come to mind. Yes, I know wipers are mandatory equipment in all states but if you lived in SoCal for instance, you could probably get by most of the year without needing them. Not here. We may need 'em any month of the year.

So here I am, driving the Plymouth Barracuda home the day I bought it from my brother earlier this year and it starts raining lightly. I try the wipers and they swipe up, then stop. Hmmm. My brother was right, the wipers do need some attention. So a couple days ago I pulled the dash out of the car and removed the wiper motor to see what's up.

Farewell To Another 40-some Sewing Machines

Today was a big day. Forty-plus sewing machines left the building. The new owners had to make two trips to get them all hauled off in their minivan.

AMMCO (Not AAMCO) Metal Shaper - Reunited

When my mother-in-law decided to clean up her basement 30 years ago, she had a few metal working machines there that her late husband had acquired during his all-too-short years on this earth. Among them was this AMMCO (two "M"s) 7" shaper, circa early 1940's. (For those that may not know, AAMCO (two "A"s) is a transmission rebuilding company but I've seen people refer to AMMCO shapers as AAMCO.)

Vises........ Vices? No, definitely Vises.

(2018) One of the definitions of "vice" (with a "c") in the Oxford English Dictionary, and probably the one that most folks associate with a hoard of items, is this: "a bad habit." In a lighthearted vein, a lot of guys (and gals) have 'vices' in which they collect things. I am one of those guys. Take my sewing machines. Please. (ha ha) Seriously though, I have way too many sewing machines. A lot of people would say I have a bad habit of buying old, decrepit sewing machines. It's one of my vices. I am trying to thin the herd though, and have made progress, and most importantly I haven't purchases a sewing machine in a very long time. Another possible vice is collecting various types of tools, say, vises (with an "s"). Prior to two years ago, I had but one vise, a fairly inexpensive Alltrade "Professional" (shown below), that I bought around 1990 I'm guessing. Rugged, Chinese import no doubt, and heavy enough to take a beating (although in 2022 I snapped a vise jaw insert in two and had to weld it together).

Ten Sewing Machines Take A Trip South

For a second time, I got rid of a passel of sewing machines. Maybe ten isn't so much a passel as a small group, considering the passel of 42 I got rid of previously, and considering I have a passel of machines remaining.

The ad showed a number of machines waiting patiently to be purchased by some as-yet unknown sewing machine aficionado. I'd priced each machine separately but then put a better price if someone wanted to take them all. Well, the nice person that showed up from Olympia didn't want many of the ones I'd pulled out but I did tell this person that I had more I wanted to get rid of. We rummaged through my stash and came up with ten nice machines.

1966 Barracuda Inland Shifter Rebuild

Those familiar with mid-Sixties Mopars will know that in 1966 Chrysler made a giant step backwards with their 4-speed cars. Prior to 1966 Ma Mopar had been using Hurst shifters on their A-833 4-speed cars. In 1966 though, they changed to a shifter made by Inland. The one nice feature of the Inland shifter was that it had a reverse lockout "T" handle, which is pretty cool.

The shifter in my car was woefully out of adjustment and a bit sloppy, but the main issue was that when pulling the shifter to the left to engage 1st or 2nd gear, the shifter would partially enter the reverse gate and lock out 1st/2nd gear engagement until the shifter handle was moved to the right slightly. This process got old quickly so I removed the shifter from the car and disassembled it to see what the issue was.

1966 Barracuda 8-3/4" Differential Adjustment

My Barracuda had a strange rubbing noise coming from the differential when I drove it home the day I bought the car. I wondered if one of the tires was low and causing the Sure Grip to make noise. Nope, wasn't it. I then checked the axles for end play. That wasn't it either. I checked the axles for excessive run-out on the lathe (the photo below shows measuring in the middle of the axle but I checked bearing and spline ends too). Still not the problem.

1966 Barracuda Small Door Panel Repair

An unwanted guest made its way into my Barracuda prior to me purchasing the car. The guest was brash enough to chew a small hole into one of the door panels.

1966 Barracuda Door Panel and Seat Back Color Change

The interior of my "new" Barracuda is quite green. The original color was a light green/gold color that Plymouth called Citron Gold. Somewhere along the way the previous owner put in new seat covers and floor carpet. The seat panels are a light green color velour but the seat backs, console, door panels, armrests, and carpet were finished in a very dark shiny green. Here's a shot of the green door panel. I'd painted the armrest earlier just to test to see how it looked.

1966 Barracuda Driver's Side Vent Repair

The vents in these older A-body cars leave a little to be desired in terms of aesthetics. They are a simple door with a latch, and you reach under the dash and rotate the latch then pull the door open. My Sport Fury on the other hand has tastefully-done small chrome-handled cable pulls right under the steering wheel that you pull to open, and both can be opened from the drivers seat.

Back to the 'Cuda's vents though. The driver's side vent door was broken off and the opening had been taped up with duct tape. When I finally pulled it out, I noticed someone had also stuffed burlap into the hole to help keep drafts down.

Out With The Old - In With The...... Old? 1966 Plymouth Barracuda

I thought I came up with a pretty clever title. I don't want to look on the ol' Interweb to see how prevalent it is. I want to think I'm just that clever to make up something like that. Um, yeah...

Anyhoo, I've written a bit about my factory stock 1966 Plymouth Sport Fury with its 325-horsepower high-compression 383 V-8, AFB 4-barrel carburetor, and 4-speed manual transmission. This photo was taken last week at a county park on Indian Island, WA.

Refreshing The Sport Fury Distributor

The distributor that came in my Sport Fury's 383 worked well but the vacuum advance diaphragm was toast. I happened to get another 383 distributor in with some parts I bought, and its vacuum advance worked, so I just swapped the two distributors a couple years ago. The distributor worked OK but ran rough at light throttle, and when getting into the secondaries of the carburetor, the engine didn't like it and would hesitate and ping, even with the initial timing set to a very meager 4 degrees BTDC. Hmm, what to do.

Today I decided to clean up the original distributor and just put the good vacuum advance canister on the original distributor. I would buy a new vacuum advance canister if I could find one but no one seems to sell just the canister at a reasonable cost.
(update - Standard Motor Products VC187 (approx $20) may work, and I'm assuming it is what comes on remanufactured distributors, but I believe it is designed for a 1970's Mopar B/RB engine)

The mechanical advance plate in the original distributor (below) has a very small "8" stamped into it by the upper slot, meaning it provides 8 degrees of distributor timing advance. Since the distributor turns 1/2 the speed of the engine, an 8-degree plate provides 16 degrees of mechanical engine timing.

Converting my Lincoln Weldpak 100 Wire-Feed Welder to MIG

I don't remember when I bought my Lincoln wire feed welder but it was many years ago, and I bought it used. For all these years I've had it, it's been a nice upgrade from my 45-year-old Sears Craftsman buzz box stick welder.

As nice as my wire-feed welder is, it has come time to upgrade it to MIG. I've had the idea to do the update for many years but finally decided to bite the bullet. There are many videos online on how to purchase the parts necessary, or you can just buy the Lincoln kit for $188 at Home Depot. I was able to purchase the parts for $60. The HD kit comes with a .025/.030 liner and a 2lb roll of welding wire, so it has a couple more things than what I bought, but I intend to buy a 10lb roll of .030 wire, and I'm not swapping out the .035 liner in my welder, as I heard I can use my liner with .030 wire. I also got 10 .030 tips and two nozzles, whereas the HD kit only comes with two tips and one nozzle. All in all, I think it's a lot better choice to buy the parts individually.

Here are the parts I bought:

Champion Porta Champ Air Compressor - Head Gasket Problem

My detached garage needed an air compressor. I could have purchased a new one but for someone such as myself, older is usually better when it comes to tools. This Champion air compressor showed up on the local Craigslist and I was able to pick it up for $50. I wasn't willing to pay more because it didn't have a hose or regulator (or safety relief valve for that matter), so it was in need of some TLC. Right up my alley.

New Shift Knob for the 1966 Sport Fury

Yesterday I was helping my brother get his 1966 Barracuda Formula S (273, 4-speed - woohoo!) running after he'd done a lot of work to it. I noticed he made a shift knob from a red billiard ball for the factory Inland shifter in his car. He had several more billiard balls so he gave me one so I could make my own shift knob since I have an Inland shifter also.

Wilton Model 656 6" Vise

My wife and I were staying at a "Boondockers Welcome" site in our camper this past week. The host, Jack, is also a metalworker who makes a wide assortment of yard art items. He and I were talking about his new-to-him vise to replace the one he'd been using for many years. Here's a photo of the old vise:

Blast From The Past - Part II

Blast From The Past Part II, this time from 2005.

Fabricating A Display or Exhibition Back For My Vintage Omega Seamaster 30

Lagun Table Leg For The Bigfoot Camper

Many truck campers have a rudimentary dinette table mount, usually a metal tube that inserts into a floor mount, and into a corresponding mount on the underside of the table. Ours was no different. A year or so ago I replaced the original table with this egg-shaped one that took up less space and used only one of the two legs from the original larger table. It was an improvement in space optimization but still was lacking somehow.

Blast From The Past - Part I

I ran across several web pages I'd done back in the 1999 to early 2000's time frame, long before I ever thought about having a blog site (almost at the inception of the internet.... OK, maybe not). Reading through the pages, I thought it would be fun to reproduce some of them on this blog before they got lost to oblivion. So I'm calling these pages Blast From The Past. Back then my main hobby was wrist watches. My grandfather was a watch repairman, so I guess it was only natural that I had more than a passing interest in mechanical watches.

Back then I was hosting my pages on a free website server (freeservers.com) but haven't done anything to the pages for close to 15 years. I am actually surprised they are still out there in the ether. This first Blast post discusses how others (like-minded folks on Watchnet.com and Timezone.com that I frequented back then) could make display backs as I'd done for a few of my watches. I'd purchased a Harbor Freight 7x10 mini lathe in part to do the work. I do still have the lathe but don't know if I could do the same type of delicate work now...

The photos from back then are nothing to write home about but they hopefully get the point across. So without further ado, following is a web post I created in 2003.

How To Make A Display or Exhibition Back For Your Vintage Watch

Photos, scans and text Copyright 2003

New Seat Covers for the Plymouth Sport Fury - Part II

I didn't intend on making a second blog entry for the seats but as I was recovering the rear seat, I thought of a few things I'd like to mention. First off, the tools I found most helpful in removing the old hog rings are shown here (L to R: nippers, needle nose pliers, side cutters, awl):

New Seat Covers for the Plymouth Sport Fury - Part I

My dear wife bought me seat covers for my car quite a while back. Like two years ago. I don't really know why it's taken so long to get them installed, but now that I've started the process... let's just say it is a workout. Now I know what the guy at work meant when he said installing seat covers is difficult (btw, hi Jason Huff if you happen to read this).

Here is the first seat finished and back in the car:

Sheldon Lathe "Under-Drive" Speed Selector Explanation

There isn't much information online about Sheldon lathes, I've found out. Atlas/Craftsman, South Bend, Clausing/Rockwell? They have quite a presence online (OK, Clausing not so much, but better than Sheldon). When I picked up my Sheldon 11-inch lathe a few months back, I immediately started scouring the net for information. Sites like VintageMachinery.org and Lathes.co.uk are great sites and have lots of free and valuable information. Yahoo groups also are a good place to find that elusive manual. But enough rambling. This post is about Sheldon's very cool four-speed "Under-Drive" or "U-Drive" system and how it works. Here's a photo of the U-Drive in my lathe (the two handles are removed to get the pedestal door open - they fit onto the two shafts poking out).

Bucket O' Bolts - Or, where to find that elusive screw.

I'm sure most guys that grew up like me tinkering on cars/trucks/tractors/etc have a large Bucket O' Bolts (BOB) out in the garage full of the remnants of past projects. You know the scenario, something gets pulled apart to fix or repair it, then gets put back together, and whatever leftovers there are scattered around on the floor get thrown into BOB. I personally use a 5-gallon bucket. It is no lightweight either. It's got to be tipping the scales at 80 pounds or more.

Atlas 618 Progress - Part VI: More 3D Printing - Cross Slide Chip Guard

A couple days ago I showed a photo of my cross slide chip guard cobbled from a piece of sheet metal. It worked but didn't look that great. What do I have at my disposal that could possibly make a better guard? Why, a 3D printer, of course.

Atlas 618 Lathe Progress - Part V: 3D Printed 40t Gear

I never did get immersed in CAD/CAM software up to this point in my life, as I never really needed the skill at work or home. That was for the younger folks, don'tcha know. Well, times change. My daughter bought herself a 3D printer a year or so ago and has been making things. Hmm, that looks like fun. But I have no idea how to even start to learn the skill. But then Mr. Pete (Tubalcain), "your YouTube shop teacher", put out a few recent videos on how he learned to make things on a 3D printer, specifically lathe change gears. And my 618 lathe was missing a 40-tooth gear. If he can do it, so can I. And by jove, it wasn't that difficult.

Atlas 618 Lathe Progress - Part IV: Tailstock Handle Repair and New Cross Slide Cover

The third and final handle to be fixed on the Atlas 618 lathe is for the tailstock hand wheel. The original handle was snapped off flush with the wheel.

Atlas 618 Lathe Progress - Part III: Compound Slide Handle Manufacture

Now that the cross slide handle is glued together, time to concentrate on the compound slide handle. The handle on the compound is currently two 1/4-20 nuts jammed together, which makes for slow going.

Atlas 618 Lathe Progress - Part II: Cross Slide Handle Repair

There were a couple pieces of broken handle bits in amongst the goodies I got with the mini Atlas lathe, and they happened to go with the broken handle on the cross slide. Not wanting to throw away perfectly good handle bits, I attempted to repair the handle. Besides, I'm cheap. Or Frugal. Not sure which.

Atlas 618 Lathe Progress - Part I: Drum Switch Repair

The first item to check off on the to-do list for my new miniature Atlas lathe was to fix the motor / switch issue so I didn't have to give it a kick start to get it going. First thing I did was pull the motor off the mounting board and tear into it, which in hindsight was the wrong thing to start on. I'd figured the motor was the most likely culprit, and it was either the start winding was toast or the centrifugal switch was not working. Nope. The motor was fine, albeit a little grimy inside. Next step was to pull the Furnas Electric Co. drum switch apart. Hopefully I'd find a clue to the problem at hand.

Atlas 618 Lathe

I knew this would happen. Even after I picked up my Sheldon lathe, I kept looking at the want ads (Craigslist and OfferUp) for that great deal of the day. Funny thing, or maybe not so funny if you ask my kids, an Atlas 618 lathe popped up on OfferUp for a good price. And surprise, surprise, it almost magically jumped in the back of our car.

Sheldon 11-inch lathe progress - Part IV: New Steady Rest and Clamp Modification

So, is it "IV" or "IIII" to depict the number 4 in Roman numerals? Watch dials usually have "IIII" (if they are sporting a Roman numeral dial) while pretty much everywhere else it is "IV". Moving right along to the real subject of this blog entry, I was able to purchase a steady rest for my 78-year-old Sheldon lathe. Here is a photo from the seller:

Rebuild of a Bendix Two Speed Automatic Hub on an early 60's Schwinn Bicycle

I've sort of inherited a couple of Schwinn bicycles. They were my parents' bikes when I was a kid. Somehow the bikes just kept following either my parents or me around during moves and whatnot. Both bikes have a two speed "automatic" Bendix hub. They've sat in one garage or another taking up space, but never got used in the last 30 or so years. Below is a photo of Dad's bike. I'm not sure if Dad had planned on painting the entire bike blue or if he was satisfied with the color scheme once he'd finished painting the fenders. The red paint is original.

Yet Another Singer 66 - Why, oh why do I keep buying these things?

Yep, another Singer 66. *sigh*
Straight stitch, no reverse, no real redeeming qualities. Ok, maybe that last sentiment was uncalled for. After all, it does look kinda nice even with the layers of grime, dirt, and crusty varnish. I guess it's called "patina" these days. And ooh-ooh, "barn find"! Yes, I can call it a barn find, right?! And it's old - from 1912.

So, an honest-to-goodness 106-year-old anty-que, with the "early" 6-spoke hand wheel, high-mount "treadle" bobbin winder, rear-mount foot.

Sewing Machine Stitch Length - an unscientific evaluation

A friend was wondering about which domestic sewing machine might have the longest stitch length. So I thought, hmm, I have a "few" sewing machines that I could test out to find an answer. And let me say right off the hop, I have no formal sewing machine training, so any opinions I might have are strictly from my own observations.

That being said, I was a bit surprised at one of the test subjects I used for this evaluation. But you'll have to read on to find out. Here are the results. DUHNNN.. DUH-DUH-DUH.. DUHN-DUHN-DUHN-DUHNNNN! And the winner is......

SewMor Class 15 clone (1950s, straight stitch, cast iron):

Sheldon 11-inch lathe progress - Part III: Tailstock Threads

Ok, I've realized that Super Glue has its place, but not where I used it on the lathe. My last post showed the tailstock screw insert that was just kind of floating in the spindle. I glued it in but the first time I tried extracting a chuck from the tailstock spindle, the threaded insert pulled free of the spindle. Soooooo, the option I chose was to repair what someone had previously done. There was a hole in the right end of the spindle that had been threaded at an angle to hold the insert in place but the both the insert and the 1/4-20 threads were damaged. I was able to drill the hole slightly larger and make new 5/16-18 threads, then insert a set screw. Here's the result:

That should hold things in place quite nicely. And me being a hobbyist, I'm sure it will last a long time.