Project: Midnight Panic

Took a break from body & paint this week, I had a pile of cooling system parts here for relocating the radiator, Actually, a new radiator in a new position,
The current setup with the radiator up from just holds too much coolant, (between 7 & 8 gallons) That combined with no thermostat takes a long time to get to operating temp, And last but probably most important, I keep getting air in the system, (or possibly not completely getting all the air out?) The current flow path through the chassis does not help this issue at all,
Either way, since the beginning of reassembly I've been wishing I had to mounted the radiator at the back of the rig, right in front of the engine,
This week I decided it was time to make this change, besides it should only take a couple days for this simple task, right?,,,,,,,

First order of business was a mount, or place for the radiator to be mounted, Since the chassis is just freshly powder coated I was not too keen on just grinding & welding a new cross member/tube, or even just a couple tabs in place, so I opted for a "clamp-on" option,

I perused eBay for a bit & found kind of an odd piece of aluminium C-channel, 4" wide, with a full 2" non tapered web, I cut it to length, then notched the ends to saddle over the main chassis tubes,
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Next was the clamps that hold it in place, I decided to see what this router table was actually capable of, & was pleasantly surprised that is had no issues with whittling its way though .75" 7075 aluminum plate, I wish I had taken some pics of my fixturing, but didn't
Long story short I clamped the plate to the table, then machined both parts out in one operation, after removing the aluminum plate a scrap of MDF fastened to the table, & a female/receiver pattern of the clamp part was machined into the wood, this was used to locate & hold the parts to machine the back side of the clamps after they were cut from the original plate,
It's hard to describe that whole process, but pics of the finished parts are easy,
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The only manual work there was setting them up in the Bridgeport to drill/tap the mounting holes,

A couple 3/8 bolts pull these clamps to the C-channel clamping the chassis tube between them,
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Moving on to the radiator, I started with a brand new 26"x19" Be-cool unit from Summit,
The radiator I had up front was a little taller than I wanted in this location, plus I think the integrated transmission cooler might be causing some cavitation issues with the pump,
New radiator means new mounts, & the router table was used again, this time on .125 (1/8") 6061 for gussets,
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And .188 (3/16) for the base mount plates,
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Obviously everything was then welded onto the new radiator
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As can be seen above, the inlet/outlet have been removed, nothing like taking a swazall to a brand new part, :laughing:
AN/JIC fittings were later welded on in these locations,
 
After test fitting, but before putting the new crossmember & radiator in place semi permanently, a new water pump mount was needed, originally the pump was mounted on the fire wall, so that would need relocated as well, incorperating a mount into the new cross member was the best option to again avoid grinding on new powder coat, :laughing:
After a little measuring & head scratching, I drew the part in the Plasmacam program, exported the drawing so I could pull it into Carbide create (the drawing program for the router table) It is there that all the tool paths are created,
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Then sent to Carbide Motion (operating system for the machine itself)
After clamping some .188 (3/16") 6061 to the table, I had the machine to its thing.
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At this point I'm like 10 for 10 parts/operations with no crashes or incidents on the machine this week.

So why not try clamping a chunk of 4" C-channel on edge & cut on that before welding the pump mount on?
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After that suscessfull experiment, the pump mount was welded out, then welded to the cross member,
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Then a semi-permanent test fit for everything built to this point.
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Now that things are starting to get located & adjusted, the fan was next, Rather than purchase new, the fan from up front was reused, since it is basically new still, it just needs to be made to fit. A universal shroud is clearly the quickest easiest way to get the fan on this new radiator,
But,,,,,,Apparently I only do "quick & easy" after hours,,,,,

Again the router table was employed to mow through some .125 (1/8") 6061 creating a couple parts that will double as fan mounts, & gusset the radiator.
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If you look closely at the fan mounting holes are countersunk approx. .045"
The reason for this is so threaded inserts can be installed & set sub-flush.
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The reason for that, is because the threaded inserts are actually installed backwards from how one would normally install them, (inside out) The side seen in the pic above will fit up against the radiator core,

Before welding the plates to the radiator the ends were bent slightly in the press brake, making the ends raised slightly to the radiator tanks while the center area is as tight to the core as possible,

Back to threaded inserts being installed backwards, goals were met on the back/radiator side, the outside where the fan actually bolts to only needed a little work done to the fan mounts themselves to fit around the protruding insert,
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Finally the plates were welded in place, catching both tanks, & the top/bottom core plates.
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The slight bend in the plates can easily be seen in the pic above,

There's usually a reason for that much effort in what should be a simple part, like many instances, this is just a matter of clearance,
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The plan is to also run a de-gas bottle in this system, & I would like to mount it directly to the top of the radiator, then finally tie the upper radiator supports/mounts into the de-gas bottle, holding both parts from moving around,
To do all that I will need a pretty solid mount up top, A couple .5 (1/2") 6061 blocks were cut out on the CNC,
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Then finished on the Bridgeport,
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To be honest it's almost awkward trying to operate a hand held drill anymore, :laughing: but I managed to poke a couple holes in the upper core plate & bolt these blocks in place.
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From there I can design/build a de-gas/surge tank,,,,,Next week.

I did get most of the plumbing done, that was mostly just building hoses, with the exception of one odd fitting I cobbled together late tuesday night.
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Along with the de-gas tank I'll have to do a little wiring next week to get power back to the pump & fan,
If that doesn't take all week I might just get back to painting,

Also I'll have a new YT vid up shortly, I'll post that link up when it's done, for those interested,
 
Skipped_Link said:
The reason for that, is because the threaded inserts are actually installed backwards from how one would normally install them, (inside out) The side seen in the pic above will fit up against the radiator core,
Click to expand...
Won't that tend to "uncrush" the inserts and let them spin if they get overtightened, or pulled too hard?

Aaron Z
 
ExWrench said:
Those plastic toe clamps freakin' terrify me :laughing:

Do you use VHB tape between the Al plate & the MDF sub-plate?
Click to expand...
There’s so little tool pressure that the plastic clamps don’t scare me at all, plus I think use about twice as many as most people,

A while back I had the end mill plug up, bogging the spindle down, as the axis motors were just dragging things around,
I replaced the tool & picked up right where I left off, that part with 6 clamps didn’t move at all,

Don’t normally run anything between the material & table or sub plate, but I do see where it would be real handy on big thin parts keeping the center from arching up.
aczlan said:
Won't that tend to "uncrush" the inserts and let them spin if they get overtightened, or pulled too hard?

Aaron Z
Click to expand...

I could see this possibly being an issue in some cases, in this scenario I believe the plastic fan mount will “squish” before distorting the crimp enough to worry about,

The real load here is putting the insert in shear, the 10-32 bolts are really just keeping the fan from falling off the inserts.
 
I managed to burn up a few more days on this radiator relocation project,
The plan was to wrap this up early in the week & get back to body work, but, spending more hours than needed on the simplest tasks seems to be a trend for me lately,

I started out with drawing up a surge/de-gas tank, coming off the table as four pieces, first one being the bottom, a simple flat plate with the bolt pattern matching the mounting blocks I built for the top of the radiator last week.

The second part had holes pre-machined for the filler neck, & a weld in -12 AN fitting, the bend points were also engraved in the plate to simplify setup in the press brake,
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After a few minutes in the brake, & about an hour of sanding (removing witness marks from the brake), the second part was ready for assembly,
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The third & fourth pieces were the end plates, identical with the exception of provisions for a weld in 1/8" NPT bung on one end,

The filler neck was attached first, since it was welded from the inside, then after all four parts were tacked together the whole tank was welded out,
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Along with the -12 AN fitting & 1/8" pipe bung, A pair of .188 tabs were also cut out & welded on.
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After the tank cooled off all openings were capped or plugged, then the whole unit was pressure tested for leaks,

To finish it off, the tank was then powder coated.
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And bolted in place.
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If you look closely in the above pic, there is a bracket bolted to the shock tower bulk head behind the tank, that bracket is part up the upper radiator mounting,

As with the tabs on the tank, that part was cut from the same .188" 6061 aluminum,
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This part too made a trip through the press brake,
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To finish off the upper mounting a couple small links/turnbuckles were built on the lathe, & assembled using 5/16 rod ends,
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As can be seen in the pic above, the plumbing was also finally finished,
The only thing left was coolant & wiring,
 
Theres not a lot of reasons to take pics while wiring, so I didn't
I actually spent a lot of time deciding how to get power back to the fan & water pump,
I'm not going to lie, this was the only part of this relocation project that I was not very excited about, wiring is wiring, & it's not hard, but after spending many hours making the whole truck harness as good as it could be (IMO) any changes or additions feel like an afterthought, no matter how it's exicuted,

The first option I considered was the simplest, but possibly the most difficult to have not stand out as complete re-work,
That was simply building a jumper harness that plugs in at the front of the chassis where the fan & pump where originally located, routing the wire back along original harness to the new location & the opposite end of the rig, It would be really easy to hide this change, if I had used a different type of loom/harness protector,

The second option, use a circuit/wire that is already part of the loomed harness & runs from the fire wall to the very back of the chassis, but there's a couple down sides,
1) There is only 1 wire, & I need to control 2 components,
2) That wire is there for a reason, it's actually for tail lights, & is spliced into the incomplete headlight wiring,

Work arounds for these issues,
1) I could mount a fuse & relay at the radiator, pull power right off the alternator power lug using this relay for the fan, Have the switch on the dash both turn on the water pump, & power the trigger/activate side of this relay, then run the ground side of the relay through a temperature switch in the cooling system, (turn the switch on & the water pump runs, the fan then turns on when the required temp. is reached)
2) Do I really need tail lights? if I happened to have this thing somewhere like california & drove it more that a few hundred yards in the dark where the dirt cops might pull me over, I could literally use a couple battery powered red LED's on magnets at back of the truck,
Then use either of the original cooling circuits at the front of the truck for the head lights,

After spending hours battling this dilemma I came to a couple conclusions,
1) I did not have a fuse/relay setup that met my requirements for the job, I was also having trouble putting much trust in a temp switch to activate the fan,
2) All 3 effected circuits were designed & wired to perform a task & I felt better about leaving them as designed,

So a jumper harness was built, I did end up tanking the two connectors at the front of the chassis, removed the grounds & repinned the power wires into a single 2 pin plug, From there a mating 2 pin connector was wired to a 16ga/2 conductor wire, then routed along the chassis with the original haress, back to where the pump & fan are now located, from there I picked up a ground for each component & both the fan & water pump were connected to the new harness,

If there is ever a reason to pull & unloom the main harness, it will be stupid simple to lay these two wires into the harness before putting it back together, as it is now, most people will never even see anything odd going on,
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To finish off this little project, & the week, coolant was filled with no leaks, After testing both the water pump & fan still work as designed,
Coolant capacity was cut down from nearly 8 gallons to less than 4, & the system seems to be considerably easier to work the air out,

Maybe next week if the weather cooperates the big tires can go back on & make a couple test passes,
 

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This is one of those weeks where I wonder if I should even do an update, 5 days off, the first one I killed it with a bunch of rear steer return to center kit work, then a little paint! Then the remaining 4 days off felt like one little project per day :laughing:,

But,,, if I don't update now, I might forget some details in a week & a half or so when I do the next one,

So, as I mentioned, I had to fill a couple RTC kit orders, & to do that I had to finish up some machine work on the current batch of kits on hand,
That took the better part of a day, once they were done I jumped right in the middle of sanding on the hood, I've been walking around the thing sitting on a body stand since starting the radiator relocation project, If it was painted I could put it on the truck, out of the way, & not mess with it again for a while,
The hood is a "race weight" fiberglass hood from Auto-fab in california, while the quality is very good, there is only so much you can do on any fiberglass panel without turning it into a major project, So I settled on just scuffing, or knocking the shine off the gel-coat, then prepping it for paint,
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In the booth it got a coat of sealer, 3 medium coats plus a drop coat of base, & finally cleared, (like the front fenders, I remembered to mix the clear coat :laughing:)

This was after letting it set for a couple days & getting the hood pin plates bolted back on,
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One of those days that the hood was drying was spent correcting what I think was probably the biggest issue the hood had,

When setting in place on the truck, both lower, rear corners of the hood stuck out farther than the cowel by a considerable amount, I though about using a couple 1/4 turn festeners to pull these corners in to mtch the cab, but the thought of a solid fastener tying the hood to either the cab or fenders did not seem like a great idea in this application,

Instead I come up with a design for an adjustable bracket that could bolt to a pinch weld on the firewall, the bracket would be used as a mounting point for a magnet,
Again the CNC router table was put to work on a scrap of 1/2" 6061.
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After about 30 minutes of noise & flying aluminum chips these things came off the table,
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From there they went in the Bridgeport where a hole was drilled/tapped in the end to secure the magnet, that being the final machining step both parts went in the press brake for a slight kink that resulted in the magnet mounting surface matching the angle of the cab/cowel in relation to the punch weld.
Finally a pair of holes were drilled on both sides of the firewall, magnets were installed, then both assemblies were bolted to the cab.
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The slotted holes allow for minor adjustment of the hood if needed,

Now, we all know magnets are as close to magic as it gets, but we also know they have no effect on fiberglass, so a powdercoated steel plate was bonded to the inside of those lower/rear corners of the hood using a panel bond/seam sealer adhesive,
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Not a terribly complicated solution for a relatively simple problem,
 
Another project I wrapped up this week was the faux headlights,
This was supposed to be super easy, cut a couple aluminum plates that would glue to the headlight trim bezles, stick on a couple stickers that look like headlights & be done,
Unfortunately after a couple attempts at searching, I was unable to find anyone that makes a 5x7 sticker light,
So I made billet aluminum ones instead, :laughing:

Not as easy as stickers, but not terribly hard either, since I are a CNC machinist now!
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It took longer to draw the part than it did to cut it,
Once off the machine they got cleaned up & clear powdercoated to make washing easier later on.
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Then glued to the bezles as origonally planned,
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Probbaly not a realistic as a sticker or air brush, but I think the durablilty is at a higher level.
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With the headlights done, the hood was installed along with the front bumper, then I pretty much had to put the big tires back on, (besides, much like the hood if they are on the truck they're taking up less space in the shop)
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At least the hood color ended up matching the fenders, :laughing:
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I think next week the bed sides will get some attention.
 
This week's youtube video is a little different, I did go over some of the progress on Midnight Panic, Actually showing the use of the magnets & brackets better,
But the majority of this video I go over the basics of rear steer & my RTC kits,
For those interested in that stuff.
 
I just found my new wallpaper. If you were a machine salesman you'd have just sold me a CNC router and Bridgeport. Will have to catch up on the video after some meetings. There's a lot of inspiration to process from this thread. I don't know what to do with it all. :smokin:
 
mobil1syn said:
long term update?
Click to expand...
Ted’s sarcasm pretty much sums it up perfectly.

I’ve been really pretty happy with the machine,
I’m not a huge fan of trying to draw parts in carbide create, (their free CAD program) but importing drawings into that program & then converting them in to machine paths it’s pretty simple,

I’ve built a few parts that I wasn’t sure the machine was capable of, & the results were 100% acceptable,

I wish I had more time to dedicate to a bigger more capable machine.
 
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