Rifle Ramblings

So, if you are reading this you know I was born in 1964 like the old truck.  But, you may not know I was born in Germany.  My dad was stationed there with the Air Force.  So, here's a story relayed by my dad.  My mom, dad, sister and me were coming back from Germany after the overseas tour.  We were in the airport and dad was holding his two most precious soveneirs from Germany.  One was a Browning Model SA-22 Takedown Rifle in a leather carrying case and the other was a screaming toddler making everyone around him miserable (Yep, it was me).  Dad says he finally got to the ticket counter and the guy at the counter asked, "What's in the case?"  Dad said, "It's a gun."  The guy behind the counter didn't even bat an eye because he was tired of the screaming toddler, he said, "Yeah right, come on through."  So, dad carried his toddler (me) and a .22 rifle onto the airplane and stowed the little case in carry on luggage.  Can you imagine this in our Post 9/11 world?  Yeah, me either.

I tell this story because I was recently back home and told dad that I was looking to buy a Browning SA-22 like the one he brought back from Germany.  He said,"Let me show you something."  He pulled out a look alike Browning he had recently bought.  It was in pretty rough shape, but he said I could have it.  I brought it home and took it out to my range to see how it performed.  It jammed on every shot.  I knew this was a great gun, so I started to restore it to its former glory.  First, I disassembled the whole thing.  I used a razor blade to scrape away lead, powder residue and general gunk from inside.  After a couple of hours of cleaning the mechanism looked and functioned great.  But, I decided to restore the stock and forearm too.

I started by strpping all of the old finish from the gun.  I used a toothbrush to get into all of the checkering.

You can see the scratches and dents in the old finish.

The old finish had a lot of deep scratches and bruises.

There was even a crack in the forearm that I was able to fix with fiberglass epoxy resin.  I used a great technique, but didn't take pictures of it, sorry.  But, here's what I did.  I took a towel and soaked it in water.  I squeezed out the excess water, laid it over the wood stock, then took a hot iron and ironed the wood through the towel.  So, the iron turns the water in the towel to steam.  Then the steam plumps the wood back up removing about 80 percent of the dents.  This reduces the amount of sanding required and saves more of the wood.  In other words, you don't have to sand as much of the stock away to get to the "good wood".  It worked great, you should try it.  It should be included in the list of life hacks!

I used Tru-Oil to finish the stock.  I would add a very light coat, the let it dry.  The next day I would go over it with fine steel wool, then add another light coat.  I ended up with about six or seven coats.  The end result turned out great.

Now, I have a great little rifle to remind me of my childhood and that cool story about the time my dad took a gun on a commercial airliner, what a hoot! 

Transmission transition

Today, I made a lot of progress.  Once the engine was in the frame, it was time to install the rest of the drive train.  So, we start at the crankshaft and install the flywheel.  Remember, this is the part we worked on in the video.

Once the flywheel was on and torqued to 50 lbs it was time for the clutch. Now, the clutch is centered in the pilot bearing with a little plastic tool.  It's called a clutch centering tool.  Hmmm.  That makes sense.  Engineers are very smart, but not very creative.

Then, the pressure plate goes on.  Notice the clutch is still centered with the little tool.

I know what you're thinking...  You're thinking, "Oh my gosh, what comes next?"  Ok, calm down.  I know you're getting excited about all of this, but I don't want anybody to hyperventilate.  So, next is the bell housing.

Then, the transmission, Bam!  Sorry, just wanted to say Bam!  Next episode we start adding oil to the engine, install spark plugs and get this beast ready to crank.  Stay tuned!

Phun with Physics

Ok, boys and girls it's time to have fun with physics.  The flywheel on the HOT truck have some missing teeth.  So, this means when we try to start the engine it would very likely just grind instead.  So, I decided to replace just the ring gear.  A new flywheel costs $150 and a new ring gear was $15.  We can all do that math right?   OK, let's learn something...

Phun with Physics

Phun Phact, right after we shot this video the ring gear seated on the flywheel within seconds.  It is interesting to me that there is so much force introduced by the starter and transferred to the flywheel through the ring gear without anything holding it there.  I'm sorry, it is Amazing to me!

Next, I had to get the left front brake squared away before I could put the engine on the frame.  Once, the brake is done, I can roll the frame back outside and mate the engine to the frame.  Here is a shot of the brake before any work was started.

 And, this is what it looked like after everything was cleaned up.  Lori wanted to know why one of the new springs is green...  Everything is green in the spring, duh!  

Next, we put the engine on the frame!  

Smurf Engine

I really can't believe that anyone reads this blog, but I sure have had a lot of requests to keep posting.  We've been traveling quite a bit, but now we're back home and working hard.  

Well, I got the pistons in only to find that they were trying to escape from the block.  When the number one cylinder was Top Dead Center (TDC) it stuck up above the block above 75 thousandths of an inch.  That's not good since the head is a flush fit.  So, we had to get new pistons that were about a quarter inch shorter.

Practice makes perfect.  I had to install the pistons twice.  Then, it went back together quickly.  

Here it is largely assembled and prepped for paint.  I am told that the old Chevy straight sixes were painted Chevy Blue, not orange as I had thought.

So, here's the Smurf engine!  It's not easy being blue...  Or is that green?  Anyway, I'm about ready to put it back on the frame.  More to come!