OT: What is your greatest mechanical achievement?

I have thought about asking this question for a while because I am sure you guys have done some very interesting things. Myself I thought about some of the race cars, drag and round track we have built but probably a dump truck was the biggest thing. In the early 80's Dad bought two 70's ford tandem dump trucks one was complete with torn up rears the other was a cab, dump body, front axle with only one spring, and a set of rears. So I swapped rears and put the first one to work. These trucks had small v8 cats automatic transmissions and auxiliary transmissions. I had not long finished the first one when dad and my brother came in with an old cab over ford road tractor on the lowboy that they had to cut the trees down that had grown through the chassis to get it out of the woods. Dad says take everything out of that truck and fix the other one. It doesn't seem like much but this truck had 671 and a 10 speed. Long story short it took me several months in between keeping everything else running to put this truck together. In the end it was best truck we had for years. It worked so well that when the other truck broke a crankshaft I got to change it over as well. How about yall?
Ron

My first mechanical achievement was to do a total rebuild of my 1952 8n Funk conversion . Also I rebuilt the original 6 cyl OHV engine myself after it was machined . It really was exciting when I heard it purr the first time , It had sat in the weeds uncovered for over 20+ yrs that I remember & was locked solid . I had to replace the transmission case so that was another learning experience swapping all the insides . My Dad constantly told me as a kid I was stupid & would be a total failure in life . Hey Dad , if you hear me , you was wrong . God bless , Ken

Ken-I totally understand what you mean about your Dad.My old man always told me it took no brains to screw or un screw a bolt.I always enjoyed doing it and 50 years later I still do.That was his problem not mine.I too like you enjoy bring a mechanical piece back to life.It is rewarding.Thanks

I built a forklift from a 1951 Chevy 2 ton truck. Learned that it was a mistake to leave the springs on the steering axle, so when I rebuilt it later, used a solid center pivot mount which worked much better.
Between the building and rebuilding, I built another, starting with a piece of double frame and adding various parts, including a 3 speed trans coupled to a 4 speed for gear reduction and shuttle shift capability. Still have the first, sold the second. Both are still working.

Completely redoing a 2N Ford tractor.

65 VW microbus with an Opal 1.9 Cam in Head engine between the front seats. 4sp Dagenheim 4sp driving a 3sp Ford truck tranny (intermediate box) driving a 9 inch drive shaft to a Datsun 280Z differential and Datsun 510 half shafts and spindles. Used the VW trailing links and torsion bars for springs.
Nice winter heat, great power, met full California emissions standards(Cal Air Resources Board DYNO tested)
Had 13 speeds forward, and 7 in reverse.
Shifting going backwards was always a parking lot treat. As was passing almost anything going up Colorado Mountains. JimN

Put a 302 motor from a Z28 Camaro in a Chevy Vega panel delivery wagon. Dang near killed myself with that baby. It definitely could fly! Dad let me spend the night in jail after one too many calls to come bail me out. Sold the car after that.

I took over a job that another person started. I installed a 2.2 Subaru engine, computer, and wiring harness in a 1984 VW Vanagon. It was a lot of work, but it came out well.

nothing to write home about, but at the time I thought changing out an auto trans to a 4 spd in my old K10 chevy was a neat little project.

Built backhoe and loader on my 1950 8n.
Made EVERYTHING from scrap, except the hydraulics, they came from Northern Hydraulics (now called Northern Tool).
1950 8n

After I got my 9' moco the hay windrows were so big my JD 24T engine-driven baler had trouble baling, so I mounted a second Wis 2-cyl engine over the plunger chamber in front of the forks. Double v-belted it to the original flywheel alongside a double v-belt from the original engine. Works slick. No more creeping and stalling.

i guess it would have to be building a street rod out of a 1938 chevy 2dr sedan body and frame drug up out of a pasture with a dozer, using a rear axle and front suspension out of a 1974 nova from a junk yard, and stuffing in a 1970 small block and tranny out of a wrecked corvette, that thing would fly too drove it for sevaral years then sold 'er to a guy with too much money and a strong wish for the car, so i relieved him from having to carry so much money around lol

I built this thing (less the actual snowblower) from the ground up as a high school vo-ag project back in 1975/76.

It has 2 engines... a Chevy 261 I-6 moves it and a Binder V8-345 runs the blower.

<img src = "http://ndtc3500.stellarnet.com/~blweltin/Bob/SnoBlo.JPG">

Put a 350 Chevy motor out of an ambulance in a Ford Louisville truck and got all the guages working and used the Ford transmission.Had to take the input shaft to a machine shop where they made it longer and different size where it went into the flywheel bearing.Put a Ford clutch in the Chevy pressure plate.used a Chevy bell housing and had to drill a couple of holes and tap them to get the Ford transmission to bolt up.Lots of other things had to be fabricated since I used Ford alternator,power steering pump,sending units,had to make a clutch linkage,carburetor linkage,motor mounts,fan shroud.By using the Ford transmission the speedometer,hoist,and all of the stuff to raise the bed worked no problem.

My first was when I was 12 years old, I resurected a Model T Ford that had been sitting in a shed for twenty years and became the terror of the neighborhood.

Most recent was I build several Camaro late model stock cars from scratch. They all started out as standard lengths of 2X3 rectangular tubing laying on the floor of my shop.

Well in 2002 I designed and built a pneumatic cycler machine used for cycling small load cells in a test lab. I saved my company several thousand $$$ in outside test services. (of course I didnt see any extra money in it)

In 2003 I made a small wood chipper with a pull start 13hp motor. (it doesnt work real well except for small branches)

I designed an built my current home in 1999.

Built a modified Pitts Special bi-plane with a HIO-360C1B helicopter engine that was hopped up.
Took about two and a half years and first flew it in July of 1986.
I won the Illinois State Unlimited aerobatic Championship in 1994 and 1995 in that Pitts.

I guess mine would be an every bolt/gear out on my Grandfather's Oliver 60. Also learning how to rebuild automatic transmissions.

I'm not sure which act of insanity would best qualify. Shortly after high school I put a 1953 Buick 322 CID V8 in a 1948 Ford pickup. The Buick had been an automatic with an enclosed driveline, so I used the Ford flywheel bolted to the Buick flexplate and the Ford clutch and 4 speed unsynchronized transmission. I bought no adapters. I don't know why it worked, but did work very well. I later put in a 1957 Lincoln rear end after I forgot about the load in the back during a quick takeoff.
About two years later I put a Shaver HD10 post driver on the back of a 1968 Ford Bronco which had been rolled and totaled. I later set that up so I could drive it while walking behind it. While it required two men our fastest time driving posts was 180 per hour. Later as a one man operation I once did 105 posts per hour.
Sometime around this time I built a 120 volt generator using an 8 Hp Briggs & Stratton and a Chrysler alternator where the voltage did not fluctuate with changing engine speed. I called it my current bush.
I designed and built a dump hoist under the box of an early 50's IH pickup box trailer. I put live remote hydraulics on my 1978 Subaru Brat to run it. I later designed and built a hoist under the box of an '88 Ford pickup. Both of those hoists left the box at their original height on the frame. Since then I have less chance and opportunity for such things, but did get a patent for a tool used in well drilling. PS Don't invent something for use by only a very few people. Come up with something everybody wants.

I put a 283 in a Vega hatchback , it was scary . Cant think about a 302 . I always said it would fly if it had wings , You could feel what felt like the front end starting to float at a high rate of speed . To old for anything like that now !!

My latest project was my 1988 Chevy crewcab dually putting in a 5.9 cummins diesel out of a school bus and an eaton 6 speed out of a ford meduim duty truck. I had to make custom engine mounts, modify my floorboard, firewall, driveshaft, well pretty much everything so i didnt have to do any sort of body lift. Although i concider this nothing compared to some of the things my grandpa has made, hay/grain elevator, mechanical manure loader for a minnie mo, and many more things.

I put a 283 in a 74 Vega GT wagon it already had a Saginaw 4 speed. Aluminum intake, 350 horse cam,a little head work. My Mother would drive it to work it was easy to drive and had the most comfortable bucket seats I ever sat in.It sat stock height had factory GT wheels only way you tell it there was something to it is you if you saw there was an exhaust pipe from behind each back wheel. One weekend My future wife and I went out of town with our Church group left the car in her parents backyard put the keys on the mantle in case they needed to move it. The next week I get home and people are telling me about this really fast car that looked exactly like mine up in North Charleston racing everybody, come to find out it was my future BIL in my car. When I confronted him about it he confessed said he would race people from a rolling start so he wouldn't tear up the rear end.I was the best man at his wedding and we are still close even after his sister has been dead for 16 years.
Ron