Old WC's never die - they just move on! :-)

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

sometimes easy things (at first sight) start to be a big mess: I had ordered two inner oil seals from N&P for the rear wheel hub and got only one...
My experience from the last 30 years was stating: 50% chance to get that huge oil seal in at first try without any trouble...
And - due to Murphy's law - it did not work because the oil seal was stuck half way in and did not move a bit anymore.

So in the end I ruined the oil seal during the attempt to get it in. After taking it out I found out that the hub had inside two damages from a chisel or screw driver. I think someone used a tool like that to get out an oil seal back in time and ruined the surface of the hub that way. The damaged spots stopped then the new replacement part so that it could not slip into the hub. See:



In addition I found out that the diameter of the replacement oil seal (modern design with rubber lid) was slightly wider than the original leather made oil seal.

So I grinded off the chisel damages and a bit of the hub surface with the Dremel powertool and built a tool to get the oil seals "squeezed in" intact.

Here you can see the difference between the NOS oil seal that you can usually get (with rubber lid) and a BRANDNEW aftermarket oil seal (THANK'S to Skyrookie for the supply with this much better part! )



To get it in to the hub I made a small "reverse-pulley" that is squeezing the oil seal into the hub. It consists of a M14 threaded bar, a flat steel bar cut-off and a slice of a round steel with 95 mm diameter. = Stupid & simple. See:



As you can see on the "anchor side" with the flat steel is there a lot of torque necessary to get the oil seal in - so if you want to copy the tool don't "undersize" it!

So here it is in action:



In a professional Garage you would use a large press for doing so - but this small & cheap home-made tool is a pretty nice alternative to an expensive professional pressing tool.

- So it took me then only about 3 min. to get the oil seal intact in place.

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's!

You might remember my problems lately with the ruined wheel brake cylinders - due to the fact that the slot of the alloy pistons and the diameter of the brake shoe did not match?

So the lousy (second) replacement wheel brake cylinder did not "survive" because of this problem as well and was leaking after less than 300 km in use.

So I wanted to exchange it with a new aftermarket wheel brake cylinder... But (learning by doing) I was clever enough to have a look under the rubber dust covers first before using it - an found corrosion in there. That thing must have been wet once inside and was ruined.
Outside shiny and new - inside a rotten mess..

So what to do? I want to leave tomorrow for the Stammheim Museum Liberation Festival and no replacement part at hand that works (because the replacement was a bogus part)...

Then I remembered that I had some old used ones in the shelf... So I picked them up and had a closer look at them. They have been "the good old ones" with steel pistons and I picked the best two pistons then for "quick & dirty recycling". Nothing I would normally do - but in this case I had no other choice. I used some 1500 grain sanding paper to clean up the surface of the pistons and the I used them with a repair kit in combination with the leaking "nearly new" wheel brake cylinder.

So I was getting rid of the alloy pistons and found out that the steel pistons fitted much better (with less tolerances) into the cylinder. In addition I learned that the original steel pistons had a different design to make the connection to the brake shoe. See:



So my recommendation is: if you can get NOS wheel brake cylinders with steel pistons try to use them (best with DOT5 silicone brake fluid) and don't waste your money for those lousy alloy piston copies.

Keep on doing,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

last weekend the weather was great and I got my second sunburn this year - because I had decided to take the canvas down and to drive to the first US-Car Club Event in the year in our area.
Because of the weather and the fact that this was the first US- and Vinage-Car meeting in the Rhain-Main area this year the Event was a real success:
The V8 Drivers Gross Gerau Club had more than 200 cars in place and there was a "coming and going" all day long.
The area was filled up to the very last squaremeter with vehicles of all types and decades and it was a "big hello" after the winter break. Uli joined me with his Ambo and Fritz with his Olds (originally imported from Texas) and we had Army tables and chairs with us (driving in style) - and cold Beck's Beer of cause - so we could enjoy the sun in a relaxed way.
On the way back home we had then an "in flight photo shooting" on the Autobahn.
But we had no co.-drivers for the cameras so that the pictures are not that perfect (sorry).
A great "fun day" in every case.

My pictures (50 photos): http://www.steel-toys.com/GH15/
(As usual: click on "next picture" to go thru the gallery)

Next weekend I'm going to see the Ciney Militaria Fair in Belgium and have spent money there in advance because I bought two Diffs from Florence.
So let's see who will show up there at 12.30 h. for the traditional Dodge Forum members "beer together".
Actuallyit will be Michael (CC), Michael (J**p) & Michael (REO), Marc (J**p) another Marc (J**p), Stefan (J**p), Skyrookie (WC51), Luk (WC52) and me.
If anybody want's to join us he is welcome to "say hello".

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

it's just a while that I posted any update here.
Last weekend was more "driving around and Events" in focus.

During the latest days I added a new menu bar to the landing page of my steel-toys site (at the bottom of the text part) and in addition a new Museums overview for several countries in Europe.

See: http://www.steel-toys.com/Museums.html

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

today I added a new sub-page to the menu bar of my homepage - so my private "best of" links are now at hand for everyone interested in.

See: http://www.steel-toys.com/Links.html

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's

this weekend it feels really like spring and that's a good motivation for working on some Dodge projects.

So I resprayed yesterday the "new" sandblasted and zinc coated spare wheel that I bought for only 80,- Euros lately at the Ciney fair.



I want to bring it to the tire shop on Monday and then test it on the front axle.
Then let's see how good it really is.

Today is "Classic Sunday" at the "Klassikstadt" Museum Frankfurt and the US Car owners are driving to this Event.
So hopefully it will not rain - so that I can join them for a beer & bratwurst there.

I wish you all a relaxed Sunday,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

I'm back from the "Classic Sunday" at the Klassikstadt "living Museum" and had a pretty good day there. Some friends joined me for the ride to the monthly summertime vintage car meeting and we had perfect weather. I was astonished that it was not filled to the very last square meter at tis weather - but it's mother's day in Germany and it seems that many vintage car owners have been for coffee and cake with their family at home?



Anyhow - here are some 49 new photos from today. Have fun:

http://www.steel-toys.com/CS15/

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[G. Miskovsky]

Joakim,

Looks like you are having nice weather! Wish I was back to enjoy it!

[12th Air Force]

Joakim,

Looks like you are having nice weather! Wish I was back to enjoy it!

Hi Gus,

yes - the forecast on Friday was "rather depressing" but in the end it was a pretty nice spring weekend.

So I was quite busy with the Dodge on Saturday (tightening the diff. nuts, respraying some wheeels etc.) and cleaned the Dodge on Sunday morning a bit for the Classic Sunday.

The Klassikstadt "living Museum" is the place that I recommended you to visit during your time at Wiesbaden.
So if you return to Frankfurt / Rhein-Main one day you should have it on your agenda.

In the ground floor you will find an McLaren and a Lamborghini store, a vintage Mercedes Garage, a book-store and a race-ware clothes shop with lot's of 1960ies and 1970ies retro style jackets etc.
The other two floors are full with vintage car's - partwise from several dealers based there, partwise privately owned and only "parking" there.
Because of this are the car's on display allways changing and you never know what you will find there.

So do you have your Dodge now in the driveway again?

Have a relaxed week,

Joakim

[G. Miskovsky]

Joakim,

I will go down and pick the Dodge up on the 28th of this month. Hauling her back from Texas, three day 1000 mile plus trip!

[12th Air Force]

Joakim,

I will go down and pick the Dodge up on the 28th of this month. Hauling her back from Texas, three day 1000 mile plus trip!

Yeeeeeeezzzzzz - sounds like a lot of "fun".
It was last year to Normandy about the same distance for us. We did it in two days (with a stop-over at skyrookies home) so the first leg was 350 km to Belgium and then the second one about 550 the next day. Overall some 16 h. something - driving across half of Europe.

But as allways only the result matters.
I think you have been much to long without your nice Dodge.

So hopefully you will post some "fresh pictures" after the "happy re-unification".

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

the new wheel is bacl from the tire shop and has only 200 g. counterweights.
That's a very good result - because of the missing welded-on factory weight.

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

I just spent some additional hours with some new profiles in the veterans section of my homepage.
Results can be found here:

http://www.steel-toys.com/Veterans.html

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

yesterday was a bank holiday in Germany and pretty nice weather so that my "better half" and I decided to see the Wasserkuppe - the highest mountain in the State of Hessen with about 950 m. and well known among aviation nuts as "the home of glider flying".
In fact is here still an active glider pilots school - going back to roots in the year 1922.



The flight school was then abused by the Nazis regime since the 1930ies for warbird pilots training and during the cold war was the hilltop home of an US-Army camp, radar station, and surveillance station "listening to the east".



In the beginning in the 1970s, the newer sport of hang gliding has also found a home there - as well as Para-Gliding. Following the reunification of Germany and demise of the Soviet Union, the surveillance and radar installations were removed in the 1990s.
The only remaining Radar Dome is today the highest official place for wedding ceremonies in the State of Hessen.

Sabine showed me one day an old photo collection of her grand-grandfather: he was a fighter pilot in WW2 and the book covered his complete career at the Luftwaffe from basic flight training in gliders at the Wasserkuppe in the early/mid 1930ies up to airfield pictures at the eastern front with Focke Wulff FW190 fighters in winter camo. Intersting was another detail: close to the end of the album you can see again glider pictures at the Wasserkuppe. So I assume that he was for a while an instructor at the flight school before he was ordered back to active service at the war at air. He was killed in action in about 1943 - that's where the album ended.

So I was keen on to see if some of the buildings on those pictures still exist and if I could find one of the gliders shown in the album at the Glider Museum at the Airstrip. In fact are most of the original 1920ies and 1930ies buildings and one hangar still there.



- Incl. the Hotel "Deutscher Flieger" (nomen est omen). Without all the MC owners and tourists in place it would be a great place for an authentic Luftwaffe WW2 Movie...
And some of the training gliders I had seen on the photos are shown in the Museum. In addition there is the 1936 World Championship glider of the German Team and - a strange surprise - an Horten Glider - designed by the legendary Horten brothers in the early 1950ies (based on designs of their WW2 Jet powered Horten fighter Aircraft).



To be honest: it's an "uggly bird" and was no commercial success...

If interested in some pictures have a look here: http://www.steel-toys.com/WK15

All background info's on the Wasserkuppe on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasserkuppe

More info's here: http://www.radom-wasserkuppe.de/flugsport.html

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim

[12th Air Force]

Hello Folk's,

I just spent some additional hours with a new section of my homepage: Spares for sale.
The list with my actual Garage Surplus can be found here:

http://www.steel-toys.com/Sale.html

Keep 'em Rolling,

Joakim