Tinkering with Deerslayer

DEERSLAYER LINKS including vendor sites for parts and tools as well as sites for old truck and hot rod organizations

TINKERING WITH DEERSLAYER chronicles the day-by-day maintenance and improvements episodes for Deerslayer, a '37 Chevy farm truck hot rod.

CRUISIN' WITH DEERSLAYER Roadtrips, cruise-in's and truck show stories and tall tales.

TONY'S DUNGEON Tony Pascarella's forum entries at OldGMCtrucks.com regarding Deerslayer, particularly the 302 GMC engine build in his farmhouse basement.

DEERSLAYER MAINTENANCE Ever changing detailing, oil change, lube, etc. maintenance routines specifically developed for Deerslayer, including required tools, materials and procedures.

PROJECT NAILHEAD Chronicles the rebuild of a 1954 Buick Roadmaster 322 nailhead engine as a future replacement for Deerslayer's Jimmy 302.

32. Doodads and Useful Stuff

February 10^th 2014 Not much activity last week other than cruise-ins, Deerslayer maintenance and shop cleanup. On saturday, got up early and continued with steering wheel trim. Just messin' around, I had discovered that the old twenties Buick cowl lights that Tony had rigged as turn signals would fit the spinner wheel hub, the lens trim ring, that is. It was a press fit and could be tapped in with a rubber mallet. I had the idea of sandwiching the two lens together with o-rings between them and placing a Lady Luck decal on the intermost lens to ghost thru the outermost lens. Last week, I gathered the o-rings from McMaster-Carr and a Lady Luck decal of the proper size from an eBay vendor. Well, the experiment didn't work too well. The Dagwood lens sandwich ended up being too thick and the decal was too obscure to be seen and I ended up breaking one of the lens. Back to the think tank on this one.

February 17^th 2014 Another quiet week. Deerslayer and I attended four cruise-ins and on tuesday nite visited Johan's shop. I hadn't seen him in a long time. I had stopped by a few weeks earlier when I was road-testing the charging system problem and the guy at the business next door said Johan was working at another hot rod shop in the daytime and his own shop at night. When I arrived, he was cleaning up for a photoshoot. He asked me to stick around in case the model wanted some variety as he only had a chopper and a sportbike available for her to pose with. I said "What's in it for me?" and he said "Pizza and beer" and I said "Good enuf!". In the end, the model wanted a glamour shoot with the bikes and that "Mater" didn't fit the bill, no offense intended. I gave a pizza burp and laugh and said "No offense taken."

No shows over the weekend and I puttered around the shop both days. A piece of aluminium bar stock "Multipurpose 6061 Aluminum, 1/4" Thick X 1/2" Width X 6' Length" had arrived from McMaster-Carr and I measured and cut a ten inch chunk with the chop saw. I had measured it just right, a rare thing for me, to fit the steering wheel cross bar and I took it as a good omen. Now, I'm waiting for some hole saws to arrive to complete the spinner wheel trim out I have planned.

I guess this goes with the sounds I hear that aren't there from the Jeepers Creepers log entry but sometimes, when I'm cruisin' in the Deerslayer, I catch wiffs of something burning that put me off a bit until they disappear. Often, it's a badly tuned vehicle sitting next to me at the light. Nevertheless, I decided to install a fire extinguisher in Deerslayer. Picked up a "Fire Extinguisher w/vehicle bracket (2.5 lb ABC Standard Line)" from Amazon a few weeks back and ordered some aluminium sheet stock "Multipurpose 6061 Aluminum, Sheet, .063" Thick, 12" X 12" from McMaster-Carr. Next task was to cut the sheet stock for a mounting bracket for the fire extinguisher. I measured off a six by twelve inch piece and clamped it on the Black & Decker workmate for cutting. The sheet was too big for the new chop saw so, from the small arsenal of cutting tools at my disposal, the air-powered cut-off wheel became my weapon of choice. I also c-clamped a scrap metal guide in place for the cut-off wheel to follow.

After cutting the sheet, it was finished off with a hand file and the bracket that came with the extinguisher was c-clamped to one edge. Mounting holes were drilled thru the sheet and stainless steel screws and hex nuts from a Harbor Freight assortment were used to secure the bracket to the sheet. The bracket assembly was secured to the passenger side door frame with c-clamps and the fire extinguisher re-installed in its bracket. And that's where this project stopped for the time being. I couldn't find suitable fasteners to mount the alum sheet to Deerslayer's door post in the BillyBob Shop inventory so I will have to get some before I can finish this job.

February 20^th 2014 On sunday morning, I went to the breakfast cruise-in with the holeshot in the wall gang, then spent the afternoon cleaning up the BillyBob Shop. Went to the sunday nite cruise-in too for the first time in months. Monday nite was some Deerslayer general maintenance and steering troubleshooting. It was a bit sloppy on the way to the shop from the Krash Lab an' it was bummin' me out. Then, I noticed that when I turned the wheel, the steering box would rock a bit. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! The darn collar bolts securing the steering box to the frame had loosened! I tightened them back up and we were good to go again. I'm gonna have to get some locktite on them.

Tuesday nite was two cruise-ins. Spent a couple of hours at the Delray Beach cruise-in, then headed out to "Paster Jim's" house in Coconut Creek where he holds a hot rod get together in his garage with free beer and cookies. The last of the tools and materials for the spinner wheel trimout scheme arrived on tuesday including the hole saws. Several months back, I purchased a drill press. Last nite, I finally unpacked and assembled it. I still have to familiarize myself with operations, then I can begin fabrication. I'll tackle that tonite if Deerslayer and I don't go to the thursday night cruise-in.

February 24^th 2014 The truck and I did go to the thursday nite cruise-in at the Hog BBQ joint so I didn't get around to the next stage of the spinner wheel trimout until saturday morning. Got familiar with the drill press operations and set up a piece of the sheet aluminium left over from the fire extinguisher bracket to cut a three inch hole. I used a water soluble cutting oil solution in a spray bottle to save the hole saw teeth. The purpose of this exercise was to get a disc of aluminium that would fit inside the Buick cowl light lens ring. The operation went off fine but the result is another setback. The disc is too small. I have to get a 3-1/4" hole saw. It's not the first time I've underestimated the size of the tool required for a job.

I moved on to the unfinished fire extinguisher bracket. During the week, "Combination Drive Screw for Sheet Metal, 18-8 Stainless Steel, Pan Head, No. 12 Size, 1/2" Length, Packs of 50" had arrived from McMaster-Carr. It took about twenty minutes to replace the c-clamps holding the bracket in place with three screws. I spent the rest of saturday and most of sunday reorganizing the BillyBob Shop. Also went to the sunday morning coffee cruise-in and the sunday nite bowling alley cruise-in.

February 27^th 2014 Been feeling a touch of physical malaise just under the surface since sunday. On tuesday nite, Deerslayer and I made it to the Delray cruise-in at Duffy's but by the time we got home, I wuz sneezin' and hackin'. Just damn! Yesterday was a miserable day at the Krash Lab. As I age, common colds seem more flu like and really tend to set me back on my butt.

The 3-1/4" hole saw arrived so, when I got to the BillyBob Shop, I proceeded to cut out the disc I had planned for the spinner wheel hub. The new plan called for a 3-1/4" disc with a concentric 1-1/2" hole in it. I started with the 3-1/4" saw, then removed it and cut the 1-1/2" hole. Then the 3-1/4" cut was finished. The cold congestion getting worse with the onset of evening, that was as much fun as I could stand for one day.

March 3^rd 2014 On saturday morning, I started out by cleaning up a bit then gathering the spinner wheel trim parts together to assemble. The Buick cowl light trim ring had to be notched to fit over the cross bar. The trim ring and disc were c-clamped to the drill press base and the notches were cut out with a saw wheel in the Dremal tool. A little bit of filing finished the notches. I had thought about the notches long enuf that I placed them where the original trim screws had been located. This left me with a clean trim ring without additional holes that weren't necessary for its new purpose.

The cross bar where it passed under the disc and the same area on the back of the disc were roughed up with 36 grit sandpaper then PRE paint prepped. The back of the Morgan silver dollar was also PRE paint prepped. A small batch of JB Weld was mixed up. The cross bar was placed in the Spinner wheel slot and JB Weld applied. The disc was placed in the lens trim which was left free to move on the disc. The trim ring and disc were inserted into the spinner wheel hub with the notches straddling the cross bar and the disc snugged up against the JB Weld. The disc was centered and the trim ring pushed down into the hub as far as it would go. Last, the Morgan Silver Dollar was placed in the disc center hole with the "tails" side seated in the JB Weld. This is a 1887 silver dollar inherited from my maternal grandparents. I checked its value online before committing it to the JB Weld abuse. There are some Morgan silver dollars worth in the $23,000 range but this is not one of them. The value of this dollar to those who did not know my grandparents would be $20 if I were selling it and $35 if I were buying it.

After the JB Weld cured, I practiced removing and re-installing the spinner trim assembly. It comes out and goes in easily and stays put once placed. I'm happy and think I'm finished with this for now. I might polish it up later. Now, everytime I'm behind the wheel, I see Lady Liberty in front of me, A reminder that, once upon a time, this was the Land of the Free.