A few pictures of my small work area.
1954 GMC after moving back to CA and being painted there. This is the truck I worked on in the following pictures.
This is a Chevy 235 and didn't belong in this '54 GMC. It was worn out so the owner wanted the original 248 fixed and put back in.
I got this project as a long block basket case, literally. Someone else had gotten the project this far.
There is the basket of parts. This was a bit of a challenge for me as I had never worked on anything this old and there were many parts missing or incorrect.
I had to custom build the alternator bracketry as the rest of the truck had already been converted for 12 volts on the 235 engine.
I was amazed that I was able to get a distributor and fuel pump through the local parts houses for something this old. Many of the parts had to come from specialty places on the Internet.
I had to bend up a fuel line and I had a custom oil filter pressure hose made.
I'm sure that not everything is as it was originally but since I didn't have one to compare with I did what worked. This wasn't a restore so it didn't really matter.
I sent the 6 volt starter off and had it rewound for 12 volts.
Even came up with an oil filter service decal.
Pontiac Sunbird I rebuilt due to a spun rod bearing.
Serious sludge, Ford 460
'96 Ford 460 rebuilt due to SERIOUS sludge build up that was plugging things up. The owner ran some ATF to clean it up and it broke so much crap loose that it would run for about 15 minutes and then loose oil pressure due to the screen sucking up all that crud.
This is one of four '80's Ford 460s I rebuilt for vans/buses at work.
Ford 400 for a van at work.
Dodge 360 rebuilt for a van at work.
Dodge 360 rebuilt for a customer.
GM 2.8 rebuilt due to previous rebuilder installing the wrong crankshaft. It vibrated so bad that it finally broke the flex plate to the point it wouldn't drive. I had the rotating assembly balanced using the same crank.
I rebuilt this 2.8 outside before I had a place to work! Notice the snow in the previous picture.
'79 Chevy 350 rebuilt for my dad.
'80 something Cadillac with a GM 5.7 Diesel I rebuilt LONG ago at Castle Valley Academy.
GM 5.7 Diesel.
This is the beginning of a river raft trailer I built for the company in 2002 (Sheri Griffith River Expeditions). It started out as a travel trailer frame but was much too short and light duty.
I made it nearly twice its original length (38 feet).
I rearranged the original cross members and out riggers.
All the welding was done with a stick welder so it was a bit challenging in places but came out nice.
I added 5" rectangular tube to the bottom of the original channel as it wasn't tall enough for a trailer this size.
5200# axles with oil bath hubs.
I built a sub-frame structure on the bottom using 2" schedule 40 pipe to make everything rigid.
Ready for paint and then lights and reflective tape.
This trailer has a 38 foot deck not including the tongue.
Expanded metal is used for the deck so the river water can flow through easily and not try to drag the trailer down river when launching and pulling out.
I built this trailer the previous year. The other four trailers there were built by others although I have made many modifications, upgrades and repairs to the rest as well.
A hitch I built for a 33 passenger company buss.
Stick welded.
9/16" grade 8 hardware.
Some state inspector has not been doing their job!!
This is one of three trailers that I recently stripped from the bottom of the frame down and started over with a better design. This had to happen in order to fit the new 3" round 6k lb. axles. It was also needed to fix design flaws from the previous builder that allowed too much flexing.
Lots of work fitting these joints up having only a torch and grinder.
I built this device to help me locate the trailer axle mounting points. This way I was able to get an exact axle alignment from the ball center point so everything is square and will pull straight and not cause premature tire wear.
How nice it would be to have a FlowJet for making precision parts without all the torching and grinding.
The axle manufacturer located the spring saddles on the wrong side of the axles on one set so I had to start over. That's fine as mine were centered up better than theirs.
This is some of the stuff taken off of one the trailers. Larger pipe along with better geometry keeps the trailers from flexing and twisting as some were before, which caused damage over time.
I added some cross members on this trailer as it was really lacking on the bottom of the frame rails.
