2022-04-30: In explanation for the lack of work on the website and a lack of new products, I present my latest project. Repairing the frame and rear axle on my 1993 Dodge Shadow ES. Why? It was my first car and I drove it for about 12 years... It has become a bit of an 'old friend' shall I say. Why now? Well someone lodged a complaint about my having a car up on jacks in the driveway... I was working on it in the fall and got distracted by having to repair my van after a brake check where the other driver fled the scene (thank goodness for dashcams and a pox on the other driver's insurance - GEICO!) They lodged the complaint in January 2022 (middle of the winter) and due to a lack of good communication skills at Upper Leacock Township, I was attempting, unsuccessfully i might add,  to contact the wrong people. (I might post more on this later; Their complaint letter gave no contact information, no reason for the letter and said to contact the township. I called and explained the letter i received and asked to talk to "Derrick" The township told me they didn't know who that was and to contact "Linda" and provided a phone number. I left a couple messages over the next 2 weeks and never heard anything back. I called the township and made sure they had my name and number for future contact about this 'problem'. Come April, I get a nice formal letter saying I need to do something about the vehicle and that I had 14 days in which to do something. Needless to say, I called the township again - this time I was directed to the right person (Derrick Jamison) who actually responded to questions and explained what was going on. Short story is that I need to get the vehicle back on all 4 wheels (off jacks) and insured/inspected/tagged. All in 14 days... well actually 10 days as the registered letter arrived on the 4th.

Backstory: I managed to lose all the heat shields around the exhaust quite a while back. Due to a lack of knowledge, I did not replace them (and still have no idea where to get them). This resulted in a large amount of rust on the cross beam between the two frame rails. The vehicle had failed inspection due to this beam breaking away from the frame rails. While it was sitting, It also managed to blow out the bottom spring support on that same side. So I have some work to do... And before you say 'Why don't you just go to a junkyard and get...' I can't find this car at junkyards and the ones I have found haven't been in any better shape (for the rear axles). It seems PA, NY, etc are rather hard on this part of the car due to road salt and winter. I could name quite a few junkyards in TX, UT, VA & GA that have advertised cars who won't return phone calls or emails. 

So, added vehicle to insurance. Waited for paperwork; applied for tags (on April 14th - still waiting for tags),  and... the hard part... I'm not a sheet metal guy, but I'll give it a go.

Yeah, This isn't pretty... If you can't stand rust, quickly scroll past the next three pictures...

Crossmember beam. Frame rail to the left; looking toward front of vehicle from under spare tire well. What remains of the axle spring support... (Sorry for the bad picture; somehow I neglected to grab a decent image of the before on this side)

The other side looked a lot nicer and was still holding, but still needs help. Since there's not time to draw the parts up and send them to someone who can lasercut/waterjet these parts for me, I'm left to machine these parts myself.

 

Thanks to help from a 2-axis protrotrak mill, I can cut these parts out fairly easily - its slow and painful, but it works. I used a scrap piece of 10 gauge for the plates and support brakets.

I must say, it turned out surprisingly like what I needed. Need the DRAWINGS (ZIP, 179KB) for this part? Keep in mind that this part is too long and that it fit nicely on one side of my axle and not so nicely on the other. At least you can get it lasercut if you need...

Welding the bottom plate on.

Finished Spring support...and yes, the weld looks terrible... My 10 gauge was galvanized, and my attempts to sand it off apparently failed in random places... And I didn't intend for the base to stick out that far, but once I realized the problem, it was already welded and too much trouble to fix. Now for the other side... (I won't bore you will photos of that)

While I was searching for parts, I couldn't find the MOPAR 4228799 Rear lower spring isolators... Finally found aftermarket ones at Polybushings. Thanks to Johnny Spiva for shipping them out (I received them in 3 days (CA to PA)

Now its time to get some frame trial pieces out of an old cover - just to test fit.

I must say, fit was better than I expected for a first try. Lucky me. Still this won't do what I need it to do yet...

 

Need drawings? Click here (ZIP, 255KB) and here (ZIP, 166KB) for SLDPRT, PDF, STEP & DXF files of the two 'finished' pieces. Go ahead- get them made for yourself!

 

After a short delay in getting the brake cylinders, we finally have the drums assembled. Looks so much nicer without rust and with the bright colors against flat black.

Btw, just a word of advice - if you need the rear brake cables - get them from NAPA not AUTOZONE. The autozone ones are missing one of the retaining clips, have no rubber boots and are bare cable - napa puts a plastic sleeve over the entire length,  includes the clip (guess what broke for me while trying to reuse it...) and has a rubber boot.

Finished axle loaded in the van ready to be put on the car... but the frame still needs finished yet... And that is how you blow all your spare time for a month - being sentimental about a car...to be continued as time permits.

And yes, the township has granted a small extension on time - April 30th... I'm waiting on a response back about whether I get more time to complete this task...

Finished part - had some problems with bending; this material was quite brittle for some reason. Extra holes are there to create small weld pools for attaching to existing frame metal.

2022-05-02: Pickup welder... try to weld - welder not working right

2022-05-03: get part for welder. test welder. get to vehicle later that night... Weld for 10 minutes and run out of wire... Too late to get more..

2022-05-04: get wire; learn about flux core welding and scale...(my welding is really bad where there was any rust) Welding of frame done... clean and primer

2022-05-05: get exhaust pipe coupler; weld exhaust, return welder; paint exposed frame; begin reassembly. Suspension back together. Vehicle down on all four tires. Sent email to Derrick. (Still no response from first email / phone message)

2022-05-06 -> 07: Constant Rain - no work on vehicle. Trying to do test double flares for brake line. (They're a bit harder than JIC). Got email from Derrick Jamison saying "Your emails have been received." - short, sweet and no information at all...

2022-05-14: This week was spent making brake lines and fixing other small issues. 25+ year old rusted brake lines aren't fun to try to disassemble, so splicing also works. Car officially off jacks. While attempting to bleed brakes, I discovered I installed the brake booster incorrectly, so I need to fix that next week. 

2022-05-28: Updates from the last 2 weeks - Brake Booster installed correctly now. (for all newbies: remember to remove the new mounting nuts from the studs that pass through the firewall, even if they are tightened down on the studs and look like they belong there). Brakes bled. Having some weird battery issues (how does a battery go from 13vdc to 6.8vdc an back to 13VDC while running causing rough idling? and how does the same engine run smoothly on a little lawn mower battery after being started off the car battery? Existing car battery is 4 years old. I can understand one cell shorting out if I hadn't been maintaining the battery, but 3?) Took a test drive to put gas in vehicle - $30 for 6 gallons? I used to be able to fill up an empty tank for $25! (I'm getting old). Discovered that the drivers side front brake is still locking up... I also apparently have some window seals to replace. Contacted township 5/22 - township responded 5/23 saying 'I will verify from right of way and if the vehicle appears to be in compliance I will close the file.' Still waiting for that final confirmation...

Psalm 69:14
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