Making parts for a Fiat

Patrick said:

In reply to TurnerX19 :

They're also extremely good for cooking food

Seems kind of weird, but we at GRM can do anything with a tool, I guess

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Replying to both P & P, I never quote the primary purpose for a tool, too obvious, and all the hammer forming Trent is doing, how did he pass them up?

Time to remake the front upper control arms. Starting with a jig. I reamed to hole for the ball joint taper and located my inner pivot block to set the length. 

Let's make a block to hold the ball joint. 

I really need a proper 4 jaw with a DI6 back plate.

Press fit, augmented with the snap rings

On the plate!

Next step, have send cut send laser out some eccentric washers

And then modify some 8mm SHCS

Next step, on to the adjuster ends......

1X0.75 steel bar, turned to a spigot on one end.

Roughed out on the band saw

You see where I am going here? A total of 6mm of adjustment via the eccentric cam.

And then connect the dots with some 3/4" 4140 

Complete arm is 904 grams. The alloy arm was 1340 grams 

One more item checked off the list.

Next step, revisit the lower arms.

I was wondering why you had SCS make parts that one could easily buy off the shelf, but now I see the scale.  Fascinating!

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Yeah. 20mm OD eccentric stuff didn't seem to exist. 

Excellent work!

Wow, brilliant work. I love the image of the 3 jaw holding th 4 jaw. What kind of interference did you aim for on the ball joint press fit?

I'll have to double check my notes, but the ball joint was knurled and measured something like 38.04mm so I went to 38.00 and it pressed in like one would expect with an arbor press.

It is amazing how you can read a designer's mind with calipers or a tape measure.  

On old Austin Healeys the entire chassis is laid out in .250" increments.  Similar metric based symmetry can be found on old Italian stuff. 

Chucks holding chucks is too easy for a fast setup. You can spend half an hour making an arbor to hold the inside of a small bore or just grab a smaller chuck in the larger and get stuff done.

One of my techs calls it "Trent's wedding cake"

Love your workmanship on this thing!  Keep it up, and keep sharing.  The 3 jaw/4 jaw wedding cake is awesome.

Today was a big day.

I took the body off the cart.

This way I can get to where I need to be to build the rear rails or subframe or whatever I end up with back there. I think my jigs to hold all the important pieces in situ are showing their worth at this point. 

But while the body is off, it is taking a field trip

Heading to Metalworks

For the chemical dipping process.

As reluctant as I am to crack open the wallet to pay for this, I don't have the patience to do this work any other way. When the car comes back it will be the only 100% rust free 850 berlina on the north american continent. 

Metalworks does amazing work. We have been using them since the beginning of Vintage Underground and the quality keeps getting better.

Farewell friend. See you in a matter of weeks.

Metalworks is awesome. I had them dip and strip the heater parts from a 914 project a few years ago. From caked with goo from oil leaks (yet still rusty in some spots) with lots of oil inside the tubes to perfectly clean and rust free inside and out. Priceless!

Ok I'm waiting to see this once it's out of the dip. Been looking at this process as well. This is the closest to me so sometime in the future I'll be traveling down to Eugene with a car on a trailer. Going down for the Olympic trials in June so will set up a time to check it out.

Beautiful work every step of the way! Love this stuff.