More Sledding Fun

This always makes me smile, going to get the mail on the sled. The helmet cam should work a lot better with other sleds going next week, it doesn't mean much seeing the white stuff speed by. But it made me laugh watching this video, the first helmet cam trial, so its getting posted.

I started working on the 57 ford in the back yard it only took 2 years. it was -9 today, so with some starting fluid, and block heater I got it to start. It didn't move very far in the snow before it was stuck, so I took the dualies off made up chains for 2 wheels and just put one wheel back on each side with chains. That got it out of the back yard and into the garage, where I started ripping the flat deck apart.

It actually took me several hours with a huge 3/4" breaker bar, 4' steel pipe, and the 1 1/16" socket, trying to get the back wheels off the truck. I even pulled the air compressor, air line, and 3/4" impact gun into the back yard. Despite the 500lb the impact was supposed to put on the nuts, I could only get them to move about half a turn. I concentrated on just one lug nut, with the 5' pipe/breaker bar, and all my weight jumping on the bar, propane torch and penatrating oil. Then I noticed that one was tighter than the rest after a lot of effort, and probably 3-4 full turns. The Rear lug nuts, are reverse thread, but only the rear lug nuts, not the front ones. I damaged that one lug, and doubt I can replace it, but there is 6 per wheel and it does still tighten.

I have been preparing for this "warm", -9, day for a week now. I pulled the 57 battery and put it on charge in the garage, which isn't heated. After a day of charging I opened the caps to check the water level. at -20ish celcius it looked like a block of ice in the battery. I shorted the battery out and clearly got a healthy spark, so it must have just been surface ice. I put a battery warmer on it and added some water in an hour when the level became clear.

I was checking Ebay and found there is actually a potential market for the 57 if I make a new bed for it and fix it up somewhat. Not that I am fixing it to sell it, but it makes me feel better about the whole thing. The plan is to just drive it for 2 months, wile I get the parts and rebuild the Dodge motor, but work is feast or famine for me. If I get work wile I am driving the 57, the dodge could easily take a lot longer than 2 months.

It is no wonder the 57 dump body always overwhelmed me. Just the flat deck has thick tongue and grove boards, maybe original, but all rotten around at the ends. Then there are sheets of rotten 3/4" plywood, and another not so rotten 3/4" plywood layer. And finally 1/4" plexy glass sheets from the hockey rink. All the layers are nailed screwed and bolted in random places to heavy 2x6s which are bolted to the frame. The bolts need to be cut, cause they are too rusty, the heads come off the nails they are so stuck in the wood, and half the screws have stripped heads, if they aren't sunk in where I can't even see them. I am feeling much better about the truck with the deck half ripped off. I don't know if I will make a steel or wood deck to replace this one. Although there is no reusable timbers, it would be amazing if they were 50 years old, and only rotten on the ends.