Mission Creep on a D-150
I got tired of futzing on the engine so last night I decided to upgrade my front end. At some point in time, the bumper clearly met Mr. Telephone Pole or someone of the same ilk. The grill has three pretty good creases in it.
I popped the grill off and a buddy came over to help me manhandle the bumpers. The new bumper had two small areas on the top and bottom edges where it was a little tweaked. The time to fix those is now, says Halfafish. So I dig out the HF 20-ton press and said buddy helps hold everything in place while I flatten out the boo-boos. The first one goes back into alignment easy peasy. Hah!, says I, what could possibly go wrong with this project?
Let's take a time out for a moment. My buddy is a professional assembler of vehicles, like adding a dump truck bed to a chassis and so forth. He's on me all the time for using hand tools when air or battery operated options exist. Hell, I even have some of them in my toolbox but I still tend to use hand tools. We are a couple of beers into the evening when he's orienting the bumper on the press and asking why I'm hand pumping the ram when it has the air-assist ram on it. Idunno says I, and I hook up the air line just to keep him quiet. We start straightening out the second bent booboo, and again it nicely goes back into place. I let go of the air valve to stop the press and much to my dismay discover the air valve has a hold-down feature that will lock the valve open. This was news to me as I released the valve and and then see the press continue to smash the living **** out of the bumper. By the time I get the air line disconnected the press has pushed the bumper over an inch in the wrong direction. Having discovered the valve-locking gizmo I remove it and toss it in the trash. Another 20 minutes of shaping and I get the bumper more-or-less back into shape. From ten feet away you'd never know this happened, but there's a round ring mark from the press ram that's not going to come out. The new bumper even comes with snazzy bumper guards.
I'll tackle the grill this afternoon and get it back on, then return to the engine. I got the head back so it's time to get this puppy moving under its own power again. There is a pretty casual monthly meeting of
A-body folks at a nearby pizza place. The weather should be excellent today so I think I'll take the Valiant for a spin down there before I get back to work.
I got tired of futzing on the engine so last night I decided to upgrade my front end. At some point in time, the bumper clearly met Mr. Telephone Pole or someone of the same ilk. The grill has three pretty good creases in it.
I popped the grill off and a buddy came over to help me manhandle the bumpers. The new bumper had two small areas on the top and bottom edges where it was a little tweaked. The time to fix those is now, says Halfafish. So I dig out the HF 20-ton press and said buddy helps hold everything in place while I flatten out the boo-boos. The first one goes back into alignment easy peasy. Hah!, says I, what could possibly go wrong with this project?
Let's take a time out for a moment. My buddy is a professional assembler of vehicles, like adding a dump truck bed to a chassis and so forth. He's on me all the time for using hand tools when air or battery operated options exist. Hell, I even have some of them in my toolbox but I still tend to use hand tools. We are a couple of beers into the evening when he's orienting the bumper on the press and asking why I'm hand pumping the ram when it has the air-assist ram on it. Idunno says I, and I hook up the air line just to keep him quiet. We start straightening out the second bent booboo, and again it nicely goes back into place. I let go of the air valve to stop the press and much to my dismay discover the air valve has a hold-down feature that will lock the valve open. This was news to me as I released the valve and and then see the press continue to smash the living **** out of the bumper. By the time I get the air line disconnected the press has pushed the bumper over an inch in the wrong direction. Having discovered the valve-locking gizmo I remove it and toss it in the trash. Another 20 minutes of shaping and I get the bumper more-or-less back into shape. From ten feet away you'd never know this happened, but there's a round ring mark from the press ram that's not going to come out. The new bumper even comes with snazzy bumper guards.
I'll tackle the grill this afternoon and get it back on, then return to the engine. I got the head back so it's time to get this puppy moving under its own power again. There is a pretty casual monthly meeting of
A-body folks at a nearby pizza place. The weather should be excellent today so I think I'll take the Valiant for a spin down there before I get back to work.
