The e-mail declares that tonight, the night of Aug. 27, the planet Mars will come closer to Earth than it has in thousands of years, thereby offering spectacular views of the Red Planet. The commentary even proclaims that Mars will appear “as large as the full moon”.

The problem is that the “Aug. 27″ reference was for Aug. 27, 2003, the night when Mars made a historically close pass by Earth @ 34.6 million miles. Although the Hubble Space Telescope used the opportunity to make some great images of Mars, to the naked eye Mars appeared as nothing more than a bright star, not at all like the full moon.

FWIW it is impossible from the Earth for Mars to ever appear as large at the moon, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing this email again in the future… maybe next time with a video.

Isn’t technology wonderful?

Knowing that at some point I would have to cut the glass for the ’51 I determined that some glass cutting practice would be a good thing. 

I have cut laminated safety glass in the past using the traditional method of scoring and snapping each side and then burning the laminate with alcohol or lighter fluid.  This method worked out so well for me that I have been looking for some time into an alternate method of cutting automotive glass. 

A number of years ago I attempted to cut some old flat safety glass that came out of a school bus.  I used a four inch angle grinder, the same one that I am still using to grind weld beads.  I did manage to cut the glass but the abrasive heated the glass up to the point that the abrasive wheel was throwing off fiberglass strands.  At least I learned how to make fiberglass!  The heat also made what I call “herring bone” cracks all along the cut.  None of the cracks went into the usable glass area because they arced along the cut line.  My plan was to try to sand them off.  

Then we moved cross country, in the process of moving I managed to wreck the trailer that had my experimental glass in it.  When a couple of hundred pounds of glass hits the freeway at speed it makes quite a mess.  This put an end to my glass cutting experiments for a number of years; I went back to doing it the old way and wasting a lot of glass in the process. 

Not wanting to crack a bunch of hard to find curved windshields I began to research the situation.  Knowing that heat on the glass was a bad thing I concluded that cooling the glass with water like is done with a tile cutter might work.  I also determined that a regular abrasive blade wasn’t going to cut it, pun intended. 

In my asking around I could find no one who had tried this method.  No one even knew anyone that had tried it.  Most people looked at me like I was stupid and began the recitation of how to cut glass by scoring it, etc.  I figured at this point that I was on the right track. 

In my web searches I found a shop that was using a mini router (not the computer kind) with a diamond wheel and a set up to spray water on the bit.  Very similar to what I was thinking of doing.  The only problems that I saw with the method were that the cutting bits were expensive and I’m not a big fan of spraying water on an electrical tool; so off to my favorite cheap tool store, Harbor Freight Tools. 

Harbor Freight had an air powered cut off die grinder on sale for less than ten bucks.  They also had small (about 2”) diamond wheels for about the same price.  The wheels were made for something else but I have never let that stop me before. 

When I got home I adapted a valve and garden hose connector to the shield of the die grinder.  The hope was that the shield would direct the water spray where it was most needed and hopefully keep some of the spray off of me.  I guess that half a loaf is better than none, I got very wet. 

I had a couple of windshields available to practice on.  It turns out that the windshield replacement shop was willing to give me cracked windshields for free; I think that they felt sorry for me. 

In my first attempt I discovered several things.  As I mentioned before the water went everywhere including into my shoes.  I also found that the diamond wheel was too narrow for the die grinder and so the wheel was slipping on the grinder’s shaft.  I put a spacer on the die grinder to stop the slippage.

 I took my shoes off to keep them dry; not the best idea that I have had in a while.  I found that stepping on glass crumbs barefoot results in red foot prints.  After the first aid and getting a pair of rubber sandals I was ready to try again.

 I had turned the air pressure down to about 50 PSI in order to slow the cutting wheel on the theory that it would cut cooler.  What I found was that at low speeds the cutting wheel tends to chatter on the glass and this hammering will cause the glass to break; interesting that going faster helps a lot.

After turning the air pressure back up to my normal 100 PSI I found that a lot of cooling water is unnecessary.  A little water is enough to keep things cool enough to prevent making fiberglass, or cracks. 

One of the more unusual things that I found in my practice sessions was that the direction of the cut makes a big difference.  I figured that cutting with the wheel cutting downward into the glass would work better than with the wheel cutting upward out of the glass.  I don’t know why but the glass is much less likely to crack if the wheel is turning upwards; that is the bottom of the wheel moving in the direction of the cut. 

Cutting upwards also sprays water and bits of glass out all over the place so you need to be wearing eye and face protection.  It’s a lot easier to put a band aid on your foot than it is to put one on your eye! 

While making a bunch of practice cuts I found that supporting the glass is critical.  The guy in the video on the web was using a saw horse looking affair.  I tried something similar and cracked the glass all over the place.  Eventually I made a curved table out of OSB and put half inch Styrofoam insulation on top of the OSB.  This supported the glass evenly across the entire windshield.

 If I tried to cut off a piece of glass that was not supported when the uncut portion of the glass got small enough the weight of the cut off would crack the glass; it is important to support the glass on both sides of the cut.  The Styrofoam also gives the cut off wheel a place to go after passing through the glass.

Eventually I evolved a method that involve cutting a little less than half way through for a few inches and then starting again back where the glass was cut through and making one or two more cuts to complete cutting through.  This seemed to keep the “kerf” where the cut was wide enough that there was no binding on the wheel if I got it twisted in the cut. 

I also found that it is helpful to cut several inches at the end of the cut and then go to the beginning of the glass to make the rest of the cut.

Even when making several passes the progress of the cut was surprisingly fast.  I guess that I am used to cutting steel with a cut off wheel.  The glass cut at least twice as fast as cutting a piece of steel.

Occasionally I would get a crack that was “running” ahead of the cut.  This is a sign that there is stress in the glass that is parallel to the cut.  Sometimes I was able to take a light cut on the top of the glass and get ahead of the crack and stop it before it decided to turn across into the part of the glass that I wanted to keep.  Getting the stress out will prevent additional cracks. 

Many of the things that I learned while cutting up the old windshields is empirical; that is I don’t know why it works, it just does.

I managed to cut the practice windshields up into strips a couple of inches wide and got fairly confident in the process.  My advice to anyone wanting to use this method is to get a couple of windshields and cut ‘em up!  Just like welding practice helps! With practice you will learn things like how fast to cut, how much curve you can get away with and how to recognize where the stress in the glass is. 

Now I need to make the windshield opening so that I know where to cut the actual windshield. 

Tune in next episode for:

“PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT”

or

“OH, SNAP!”

Norm

I really had no intentions of taking on more automotive work, but as you know someone usually comes along and makes it worth your while to start doing again whatever it is that that you used to do. In my case it was in the form of a 4L80E Automatic Transmission in a 4X4 Silverado. Someone else had realized how much of a job these things are soon after they started to attempt the removal process, so I had the vehicle flatbedded to the shop.

The good thing about these types of jobs is that they can be as much of a mental challenge as they are a physical one if you don’t do them everyday - which I don’t – and challenges have been few and far between lately. The down side is getting into something that someone else has started. 

After disconnecting the trans & transfer case from the engine, I removed the assembly in one piece – something I don’t recommend or wouldn’t have attempted if the previous person hadn’t already removed parts in such a way that it only made sense to continue… or so I thought. (Those of you who are slightly more observant might notice the complete lack of a lift in my garage, requiring the use of the ol’ “benchpress” method of transmission removal – made all that much more fun with the transfer case hanging off the back.)

But once it was out, it was a routine task of disassembly and inspection:

Parts is Parts

an inspection that revealed a broken low/reverse band inside the case, coinciding with the customer’s “no reverse” complaint:

Low/Reverse Band

 It was good that I did all my disassembly and measuring prior to ordering anything otherwise we’d have been unnecessarily delayed since a regular overhaul kit doesn’t include this band. Nor does it included a replacement pump Reverse Boost Valve or bushing, which when faulty can cause an uncontrollable over-pressurization situation adversly contributing to this situation. 
[Remember the 5 P's: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.]

I was able to leisurely disassemble the valve body to hone the accumulator cylinders, make some Tech Bulletin related (#264) modifications which included drilling out part of an interior case wall to offer larger exhaust for oil that may cross-leak into the torque signal circuit, and take care of other such misc while waiting for the parts.

Once the parts came in, it was a just matter of re-ringing the existing valve body pistons & putting all of that back together; rebuilding the various clutch assemblies pictured above with bonded pistons (an upgrade from OEM); and overhauling the reaction and output carriers along with the rest of the details that I don’t need to go into here before re-installing it into the truck – separate from the transfer case .

All in all it was a nice little test to keep me occupied in that arena for a short time and the customer was happy.

Have no doubts. Life is good. Family is wonderful. And I stand firm in my faith that something will open up when it needs to.

Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1Cor: 4-7

Sox the Fox

When I decided to widen the cowl I also needed to widen the windshield opening.  The chopped windshield posts remained where they were and needed no changes.  I put the driver’s side windshield post in place with my normal inside reinforcing plates.  After it was all welded in I stood back and discovered that the post was not straight.   No matter how I turned my head the post still was not straight.  The only way that it looked right was if I turned the lights off.  Figuring that at some point the truck would be outside in the day time I cut the post loose and took a second stab at it.  Look twice and weld once. 

In the middle of all this confusion  I ran out of welding wire.  I also ran out of shielding gas.  Apparently a lot of welding is going on.  Sadly with all the grinding a lot of the weld wire is ending up on the floor and being swept out the door.  I am trying to include plenty of sharp pieces in the sweepings in a futile attempt at keeping the neighbor’s cat from using the sweepings for a litter box.

After getting both windshield posts lined up and welded on I was faced with the little problem of the front of the door openings being several inches offset from the rear of the door openings.  I made relief cuts in the corners of the roof and then found that the inside of the front had a substantial inner structure that also required a relief cut.  I expect that the front inner structure will need further modification when the windshield opening is created. 

The relief cuts enabled me to pull the two parts of the roof into alignment and clamp them to a piece of angle iron.  The angle iron just fit into the groove of the rain gutter, this made a handy place to put the filler piece. 

When I went to cut the filler piece from the spare roof I discovered that there had been previous tenants residing in the roof.  Luckily they had moved on and only the trash was left behind.

Putting the filler piece in place revealed a pretty large gap between the roof and the filler piece.  I clamped a piece of copper 1/8” plate behind the gap and filled the gap with weld.  The copper holds the molten metal in place while it solidifies.  The weld doesn’t stick to the copper this allows the copper plate to be removed after the weld cools.  This is a handy trick for people like me who have a hard time cutting patch pieces the right size. 

After getting the filler piece in the door opening was actually pretty straight.  The rain gutter needs a little tweaking.  The door frame has a taper in it and so when the filler piece was installed there is some misalignment that will need filler to smooth out.  Overall the extension worked out pretty well.

 I intentionally left the roof piece short because I am intending to re curve the roof and the missing piece will be put in at that time.

I now have  “grand openings” for the doors.  All I need to do is to make doors that fit the bigger openings.  Speaking of openings, I quit my job.  This created an opening.  I also accepted a new job.  This filled an opening.  So life changes even if the ’51 is not done.

Norm