2010 at the Hammond Barn

[RHClarke]

2009 was a great year (particularly for those with a HUP fetish...), and now we get to celebrate 2010 in fine style - a new Hammond Barn Thread! Today, Bob, Grant, Guy and I met at the barn for some much needed holiday maintenance. While Bob attended to the snow-blowing, Grant and I took care of the shelters, shovelling and removing the icy overhangs from the barn roof. We did not spark up Lucifer as we had only planned a short day at the barn.

Bob getting into his work:


Joyce got Bob some jewellery:
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We spent some time catching up on events that happened over the holidays. Grant dropped off some of the manuals that he and I bought from Peter S (thanks Peter, keep 'em coming). After some more chit-chat we made our way to Mike's Place in Hammond for lunch.

After lunch, we played a game of "where the hell is the (insert tool name here)", and did a little maintenance on my car (she's turned into a tempermental lil gal...). Our first real session at the barn did not accomplish a hell of a lot, but as always, it was fun getting together with the boys.

I am sure 2010 will be a banner year.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Bob, Rob and the rest of the Crew

Just had to claim the privilege of the first response.

Phil

[KrisHamilton]

any barn related new years resolutions?

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by KrisHamilton

any barn related new years resolutions?

Kris,,
Come to Gracies tonight at 5 and find out..
Alex

[KrisHamilton]

ahh it will have to be next time.. tonight i have already committed to working for my in-laws redoing a bathroom

....next time

[RHClarke]

I arrived just after lunch to a deserted barn. Lucifer was roaring full blast, but no one was around. So, I headed out to the Prototype shelter to work on the removal of the window frames. After a few minuites, Bob arrived after fueling up his truck. Grant and Guy were busy, so it was just Bob and me at the barn today.

Maintenance was the order of the day. The first task was to manage the garbage, which I took care of. Next was to change the oil on Bob's diesel. That took about 20 minutes in -13oC weather (wind chill was about -25oC).

The next task was to clean out the sandblasting cabinet. This involved removing and cleaning the vacuum system and removing and filtering the blasting grit. The vacuum was blasted clean by high pressure air hose and it needed a good cleaning out. Bob reloaded the grit, set up the vacuum and I gave the system a workout cleaning my Prototype HUP's front window frames.

Bob then got on to twisting, bending and heating his nuts. Such agony! Bob was testing out his latest acquistion - a tap to clean the threads of his wheel nuts.

Bob doing the twist:


The tap was secured in the vice and Bob threaded one after one wheelnut onto it. The sound a nut makes when it is getting cleaned out was eerie...anyone standing outside of the barn would have thought some depraved lunatic was torturing an animal inside the barn.

Nuts so clean...


After a spot of cocoa and tea (thanks, Joyce!) Bob finished up the nut cleaning. Lucifer was then starved of fuel, and we closed up shop. The fun never ends at the Hammond Barn!

[Phil Waterman]

Trying to mount or dismount tires like these military tires, the temperature of the tires is a very good point. I tried to mount some used 9:00x16 on the original rims from my C60L as work tires while I was restoring it. It was in the winter and the tires had been sitting in the shop which when I'm not working in it is 35-40 F just enough heat to keep the plumbing from freezing. Tires didn't want to seat at all, finally put one up on the platform lift in front of the outlet from the propane furnace. Let it get nice and warm, warm to the touch not hot. Then tried mounting it and though still took force it did seat without to much difficulty.

Did the same thing when I mounted new 11:00x20 the rims Bob brought down to me a couple of years ago and on the the rims for my C60S. I did have an advantage with the 8 11:00x20 tires though they were all brand new freshly made tires.

Cheers Phil

[Bob Carriere]

I had a chance to chat with the rural tire shop near Hammond.....

....he tells me the Winter cold rubber will slide easier than a Summer hot tire when the beads are soft and sticky..... bead may be harder to fit properly especially with the big tubeless tires...... they use gasoline to soften the rubber bead...... he should know he makes a living changing large tractor tires on location in the field...Summer or Winter.... alone!!! Mind you he has the back and arms to prove it......

I did manage to get a 1/3 5 gal. bucket of the paste lubricant they use on larger tires...... he did not recommend the more liquid stuff usually intended for tubeless tires as it runs offs and is really intended to seal beads on tubeless tires.

The "stuff" I got is like a light colored grease that can be washed away with soappy water....... and contains some anti corrosive chemicals to protect rims.....very useful when doing farm tires filled with calcium chloride for weight..... and apparently very messy to use but works well..... I suspect as soon as I get both hands fully greasy my nose will hitch and willneed to pee!!!!

He also told me how to build a simple device to get the bead started.... which I will be building this weekend...... drawings, photos and measurements to follow as well as a report on our (anticipated) success..... no big muscle required...... why did we not think of that....!!

Grant/Rob..... first thing Saturday I am going to the metal shop to get material.......

Hang in there.

Boobee

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Bob

It is amazing what you will find talking to some of these guys with more years of experience.

But one of the big problems I've always had with really cold tires is even getting them to open up enough to get the inner tube and flap in to lay smooth. The guys with the tools of course have nice handy tools for spreading the beads apart.

I guess the only way to find out if cold or hot is the best way is for you to do one when it is well below Zero F and then one when it is a warm 95 F in the shade and see which is quicker.

I've heard this gas trick before but I'm afraid of what the modern gas does to rubber. Wonder if they are actually using something like Colman Fuel or white gas?

Cheers Phil

[Bob Carriere]

From what I have seen while in the shop...... a coffee can of gas that was probably used to wash parts with....... I am particularly concerned with gas poured on the tire floor when Lucifer is hummming 15 feet away..... or one of us grinding away at the work bench.

I have been inside a single car garage that flashed and buckled the large garage doors.......lasted 2 seconds ...just a woosh of pale blue flame across thefloor ....... and had us running out the side door..... never again!!!

If we get the rig built this weekend will try it out cold or warm..... will probably leave the tire in the top of the barn stairs where all the heat rises...

Bob C.

[Grant Bowker]

The rebuild on the door frames started last year as an experiment to see if Bob and assistants could repair/rebuild the rusted bottoms of 11 cab door frames since it's tough to find NOS ones without making a road trip to the Netherlands. The first one worked out quite well using sheet metal bent into a shallow channel form. The original channel had an extra fold on one face that is intended to fold the outer door skin around. Bob is planning to make the skin anchor part as a separate piece and weld it onto the channel as we weren't sure we'd be able to bend the combined section as easily as the simple channel. In hindsight, it might well have been made to work as a single piece given the ease of bending the simple channel (once the flanges were heated). Bob was content with the result of last year's frame (shown hanging on the chair) so we went to work on the matching frame for the second door. Bending the curve was easy, so was notching and bending the corners. Then we noticed that the shop had only bent one channel to the size Bob had asked for and that that channel had been used last year. Bob was depressed thinking that he'd have to wait another week while he got a new one bent up. I was more optimistic and started pounding on the channel to reduce the oversize. A bit later, after hammering, squeezing in the vice and torquing with an adjustable wrench the new part seemed to be either bent or straight where appropriate and match the profile of the original frame so Bob zapped it in place and I ground down the welds. The final photo shows Bob admiring the frame. We still need to add the reinforcement plate at the bottom of the second door, add the reinforcing channel to box the frame at the point the restraining strap had distorted the frame and add the skin securing flanges. The bottom of the second frame looks distorted in the photo but didn't seem to be bent when working on it. This will be checked and if needed fixed. If a small hammer applied gently won't fix it, a larger hammer will be tried, if that fails, heat it and beat it.