1962 Mercury Monterey Project

I took some measurements and designed a "Dancing Chic Productions" custom knob for the valve on the engine hoist. The first draft took about 15 minutes to design in TinkerCad and an hour to print. It was a little tight and because I built it just to size. It broke in half as I tried to remove it. I expanded the center hole by 0.1mm which seemed to be the only dimension that needed fixing. I reprinted with 4 perimeter shells and 40% fill density which is a combination that makes for good strength with a reasonable amount of material cost. I used PLA - PET, ABS or Nylon would be 'tougher', but I have very good results with PLA and it is so easy to print. Plus it was what was in the printer when I went to run it. Since it broke on the shank the first time, I reenforced the part where it actually torques the screw by making it oval instead of round. Just putting more material structure to back the turning force. The finished product took about 2 hours to print and used ab...

  This is how the day started: steely eyed and ready to work. A little militant even. Get the truck back, deal with leaves, pull an engine.  On Friday, the tow truck people made an appointment for between 10~11a on Saturday morning. At 8a on Saturday, they texted me that they were ~90 minutes away. At 830a, the guy called me to tell me he was 10 minutes away. Breakfast got cut short  -  but the truck is home. She runs, but she is angry about it. My guess is water pump + the sympathetic damage to the serpentine belt. Leaf collection is boring - but I did break the case on my leaf blower in the process. That added a nice rythmic 'wonk wonk wonk' to the process. I got the hoist into place and ready to work. That is the short version. I really have a lot of space when it comes to parking cars in my garage. When it comes disassembling them - not enough. I hauled the gas tank and drive shaft outside into the front yard. I swapped out the janky front left "driving" wheel/ti...