Re: Calico Night Run Saturday Oct. 22
Note: this is not a tech thread, just a little show and tell about what was starting out as a great trail run; and my preparation for a rematch.
Here are a couple examples of my efforts toward said rematch.
I used 1/8" ABS plastic as a template. I heated it with a heat gun to bend it to the correct shape. Because I used the steel I bent earlier as the form the radius was 1/8" out of course; not building a piano here. It worked fine.
1/8" pattern and 1/4" part. I used some strong HF magnets for holding my patterns as well as for alignment stops for the steel parts.
UCA brackets sitting in position on the 3/16" inner frame plating. There exact location is scribed into each of the plates. I know, I jumped the gun on the paint but it was effective at checking the edges of my welds.
Left and right UCA brackets. I ground the top just slightly so they are accurate alignment points in relation yo the new UCA bolt centers.
Another view of an UCA bracket. Welds aren't super pretty but they are in there. Whenever I do a series ot 3/4 - 1" beads side to side, corner to corner they never make me happy. Definitely will be wearing my glasses for the rest of the project too. While it was raining I wore them making an Odyssey/Diehard hold down bracket-much better.
I'm going to butt joint the vertical parts on top of the horizontal and run the bead where the horizontal runs by the vertical by about 3/16". The grooved area is where my LCA bracket runs past the horizontal so the joint will have to be flush. You can slightly see the etched marks for locating the upper brackets. The slightly smaller hole (27/64) is the exact location or the stock brackets; location 0;0;0. The other holes are 1/2" for welds.
New face piece for the frame. This is 1/4", all other is 3/16 with a couple 1/8" pieces in a couple of odd spots along the (remaining) interior pinch seam near the crossmember.
Another view of the bends fitment. It will slide back awey from the edge when attached. I just have it up there to verify the angle and the radius. The patch I had to do on the factory rail is to the left. The new parts, both vertical and horizontal run past the repair at both ends, and the remodeling I did at the inside pinch seam.
I have the outer pieces cut and waiting for rosette holes. I've been tossing a couple versions of the dropped LCA mounts around in my head. Either version will incorporate the factory adjusters for alignment. It just seems like they are going to be monstrosities hanging off the bottom of the frame. But I guess I can't get a 4" drop with a low profile streamlined bracket.
Oh well. I did want to run drop brackets before ever deciding to go with long arms. This is working out perfectly then.
Calico is calling...
