Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.

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#11,341
CarMichael Angelo said:
The tale of the tape.

Ordinarily I sell about 12-15 cars a month. That number usually puts me in the top 1/3rd of the sales force here. This month, before things like “social distancing”, “shelter in place”, and PPE were common place, I’ve managed to sell 12,..maybe 13 if that car gets here from GA. today. While that seems like business as usual, the fact is that by week one, I had 8 of those 12-13 sold.
it has taken the remaining 3 weeks to sell the other 5, and of those, 2-3 of them I have been working on for a month.
So....in reality..maybe 3 additional sales?

1 car a week.

I expect that’s how it will be in April. 4 cars, maybe 5. What’s that mean in income? Minimum wage.

So the bottom line here is that “we” as car salesmen, declared by the state/county/city as an essential service, are risking getting exposed to a potentially deadly virus for $7.25 an hour.
Click to expand...
Exact same boat, different deck.

I was working on 3-4 BMWs per day when I started at the dealership I'm at now. I've seen one car so far this week, and most have seen two or less. We're so damned "essential" that we're being financially starved to death. Can't flag any hours if there's no customers.
 

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#11,342
The Carmax I'm at is business as usual...no work...but I'm hourly. They gave us 5% hazard bonus. Im more scared to spend money right now than I am of the virus. Today I pulled the tool boxes out and I'm deep cleaning the bays. I'm the internal tech and lead so I rarely touch retail customers cars. We have new processes for dealing with them though. We are one of the lucky dealerships. I feel bad for the folks that work at the ones that are closed or have reduced hours. So far so good but stuff changes daily. Loss of life is a very sad hard thing...but in reality over 16,000 people were murdered last year. That doesn't include the cases of missing people that may be dead.

I'm not down playing this virus...but we are at war and no one seems to notice. Look at what China, Russia, N Korea, and Iran have been doing these last couple months. This is the attempted fall of western civilization economically. This is what a real trade war looks like.
 
#11,343
90sickfox said:
The Carmax I'm at is business as usual...no work...but I'm hourly. They gave us 5% hazard bonus. Im more scared to spend money right now than I am of the virus. Today I pulled the tool boxes out and I'm deep cleaning the bays. I'm the internal tech and lead so I rarely touch retail customers cars. We have new processes for dealing with them though. We are one of the lucky dealerships. I feel bad for the folks that work at the ones that are closed or have reduced hours. So far so good but stuff changes daily. Loss of life is a very sad hard thing...but in reality over 16,000 people were murdered last year. That doesn't include the cases of missing people that may be dead.

I'm not down playing this virus...but we are at war and no one seems to notice. Look at what China, Russia, N Korea, and Iran have been doing these last couple months. This is the attempted fall of western civilization economically. This is what a real trade war looks like.
Click to expand...
The Carmax I left (traditional production store, everyone on flat rate, no leads, no hourly) has cut back to three days a week and guaranteed everyone 32 hours of average earnings... Picked the perfect :leghump:ing time to quit didn't I?

I'd kill to be earning 32 hours' pay right now. I'll be lucky to finish this week with 20.
 
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#11,344
90sickfox said:
The Carmax I'm at is business as usual...no work...but I'm hourly. They gave us 5% hazard bonus. Im more scared to spend money right now than I am of the virus. Today I pulled the tool boxes out and I'm deep cleaning the bays. I'm the internal tech and lead so I rarely touch retail customers cars. We have new processes for dealing with them though. We are one of the lucky dealerships. I feel bad for the folks that work at the ones that are closed or have reduced hours. So far so good but stuff changes daily. Loss of life is a very sad hard thing...but in reality over 16,000 people were murdered last year. That doesn't include the cases of missing people that may be dead.

I'm not down playing this virus...but we are at war and no one seems to notice. Look at what China, Russia, N Korea, and Iran have been doing these last couple months. This is the attempted fall of western civilization economically. This is what a real trade war looks like.
Click to expand...


China is :leghump:ing lying....like that's a surprise. People in Wuhan says the crematoriums are running 24/7 and based on volume, rough estimates put the total dead over 42,000. If you go by the urn manufacturer in the same time period, it's closer to 48,000 dead. In the meantime, Comrade XI says nope, no new cases. China is so advanced we've stopped this disease. While in the meantime, Lying Lips Don is now saying, well, get ready we could have 200k dead in the US. Now I know the end of the world is at hand when Trump is the voice of reason.
 
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#11,345
droopie85gt said:
China is :leghump:ing lying....like that's a surprise. People in Wuhan says the crematoriums are running 24/7 and based on volume, rough estimates put the total dead over 42,000. If you go by the urn manufacturer in the same time period, it's closer to 48,000 dead. In the meantime, Comrade XI says nope, no new cases. China is so advanced we've stopped this disease. While in the meantime, Lying Lips Don is now saying, well, get ready we could have 200k dead in the US. Now I know the end of the world is at hand when Trump is the voice of reason.
Click to expand...
100-200k is the best case scenario. Trump says that if it’s only 100k dead,he will have done a good job.

This is the guy that said It’s a democratic Hoax, That it’ll all be over by Easter, that told the state governments that they should try to secure the necessary PPE, and ventilators on their own, and that just recently enacted the war powers act to force manufactures to build ventilators,...There will never be a bigger piece of sht sitting in the Oval Office than there is right now.
 
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#11,347
CarMichael Angelo said:
Well.......

With the news getting more and more grim, the announcement that my county in Alabama is expecting an exponential increase in Covid infections, all I needed to hear from our corporate office was that they expected April to be really a bad month for us. When considering that I really only managed to sell about 1car a week in the last 3 weeks of March, I guessed that was about all I could expect in April.....4-5 cars.
The optimists in my dealership were saying 6-8. Either way, that amounts to between 1400-2800 gross. After tax, and witholdings,....that would net some where between 1000-2200.
When you add in the risk from a possible exposure to somebody who is sick,..and balance that to the net of collecting unemployment now that the fed is adding 600.00 weekly to the pitiful 275.00 payout that Alabama pays for unemployment, that equals 3500.00 monthly...net.

Seems like a no brainer.

So, after considering my options, I requested to be laid off today.
Click to expand...
That sucks. Our dealership's owner has said he won't resort to layoffs, and they're scrounging up any and all work for us techs (which still puts us all at about half of what we're used to, but we keep out benefits, and they're letting us work on our personal stuff in the downtime). Our sales staff is doing some crazy stuff to move cars, it's not the volume they're used to, but we're still seeing sales.

One of our parts guys called in and was told to stay home though, he was apparently exposed to someone who tested positive.
 
#11,350
IMAG0465_zpsec5girfh.jpg

these are the interconnect lines that either are either supply or return lines to the intercooler. They are now in the “ checked off“ box.
And then there’s this: guess how many holes are under the fuel cell that I’m using as a water reservoir?
IMAG0467_zpsewh2ghzb.jpg

Remember the goofy water line that made a U-turn before going through the floor?
That was hole set #1.
Then,...I moved the whole thing forward ( into the trunk further). But didn’t pay attention to how badly I was mis-matching the outlet fitting and the bulkhead fitting...It was a jug-phck,...I could not get the fittings to line up.
This is attempt #3. I have essentially moved the entire reservoir inward the thickness of the rear frame rail. The original mounting was bolted through the outer most flange on the rail, this last attempt in on the inner most flange ( 3-4”).
The hose that interconnects the outlet to the bulkhead is a single 90 now.....

I feel better.
 
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#11,352
CarMichael Angelo said:
Well.......

With the news getting more and more grim, the announcement that my county in Alabama is expecting an exponential increase in Covid infections, all I needed to hear from our corporate office was that they expected April to be really a bad month for us. When considering that I really only managed to sell about 1car a week in the last 3 weeks of March, I guessed that was about all I could expect in April.....4-5 cars.
The optimists in my dealership were saying 6-8. Either way, that amounts to between 1400-2800 gross. After tax, and witholdings,....that would net some where between 1000-2200.
When you add in the risk from a possible exposure to somebody who is sick,..and balance that to the net of collecting unemployment now that the fed is adding 600.00 weekly to the pitiful 275.00 payout that Alabama pays for unemployment, that equals 3500.00 monthly...net.

Seems like a no brainer.

So, after considering my options, I requested to be laid off today.
Click to expand...

I wish you well my friend. I am down to 10-15 customers a day where I was servicing 30+ a day. I have had to restructure my employees and cut business hours to make payroll needs. We are treading water here.
 
#11,353
This is a very odd and scary time for people, that’s for sure. But if you have many of the needed parts already bought, and can safely get by on that unemployment pay, I would try to enjoy the time off while working on the Monster and being with Kate. So long as you and your family/friends are healthy, it’s almost a blessing in disguise to be able to have the time to be spent freely rather than in the rat race.
 
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#11,355
* I write this update as therapy...Whether anybody reads it, it’s not really that important. Writing the update is part of the build for me...I figure you can read it and take something from it, or skip to the pictures, either way I’m good.


It’s days like these that ask the question “How long did it take you to build the Monster?”

The answer is always the same.....” That depends on whether you’re asking about the first, or the second, or the third time I had to do something in order to call it “ done”. There are things that I considered a triumph, and many things that were just a jug fck.

Back in the day when I was building the car, and could dedicate entire days back to back for months, it seemed like every other day was a triumph, because the days in between were jug phcks. The benefit of all of the trial and errors was the obvious practice I got from having to do stuff over and over again.

Also back then,...I had an outstanding TIG/plasma cutter combo machine, but because I didn’t want to dedicate the time required to become proficient, I never used the thing, and every time I tried...............Jug phck. So,..When I moved to this house, ( Thinking I was done with the car) I sold that thing, along with the tubing bender I used to build the dash and door bars.

But I always wanted to become better at using a TIG,...as Anal as I am sometimes, you’d think It would be a “ must have” skill.
( Offset that with the fact that I’m really good with a MIG,...and it becomes a Honey Badger moment.....I just don’t care bout no Tiggin’ when I can be Miggin’’.)

But that was the pre- give a phck Mike....Now, Im thinking I need to try to get better at TIG as opposed to having to grind down all of the MIG welds I’m getting ready to make. For Christmas, and because I had a 2jz sitting on the floor that was gonna need a new hotside, and cold side,....I ask for, and get an el-cheap TIG.

So,.........

When I have nothing to do BUT work on the Monster,..., AND..I’ve got a hot side and a cold side to build,......what better opportunity will I have to use it to try and get decent with the skill?

IMAG0470_zpsdemejykj.jpg

2.5” off of the turbo,..upsized to 3” going into the refrigerator.
IMAG0471_zpskrrppspo.jpg

Coming out of the ‘fridge, going into into the bay....
IMAG0469_zpsikdnlzn9.jpg

And finally.....out of the fridge,....into the big assed throttle body.

Everything was Tigged....about 10 butt joints altogether..
* the last 90* is just fitted and not welded..trying to decide if I make it a V band joint, or a permanent weld.

They aren’t pretty,...but they aren’t so thick I feel like I need to grind them down...Today was a triumph.
 
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#11,356
All depends on if you can get it out if you need to. Seems like it would be easier to work around with a v band. It also seems like more money and another weld. It would look cleaner without it.
 
#11,357
CarMichael Angelo said:
* I write this update as therapy...Whether anybody reads it, it’s not really that important. Writing the update is part of the build for me...I figure you can read it and take something from it, or skip to the pictures, either way I’m good.


It’s days like these that ask the question “How long did it take you to build the Monster?”

The answer is always the same.....” That depends on whether you’re asking about the first, or the second, or the third time I had to do something in order to call it “ done”. There are things that I considered a triumph, and many things that were just a jug fck.

Back in the day when I was building the car, and could dedicate entire days back to back for months, it seemed like every other day was a triumph, because the days in between were jug phcks. The benefit of all of the trial and errors was the obvious practice I got from having to do stuff over and over again.

Also back then,...I had an outstanding TIG/plasma cutter combo machine, but because I didn’t want to dedicate the time required to become proficient, I never used the thing, and every time I tried...............Jug phck. So,..When I moved to this house, ( Thinking I was done with the car) I sold that thing, along with the tubing bender I used to build the dash and door bars.

But I always wanted to become better at using a TIG,...as Anal as I am sometimes, you’d think It would be a “ must have” skill.
( Offset that with the fact that I’m really good with a MIG,...and it becomes a Honey Badger moment.....I just don’t care bout no Tiggin’ when I can be Miggin’’.)

But that was the pre- give a phck Mike....Now, Im thinking I need to try to get better at TIG as opposed to having to grind down all of the MIG welds I’m getting ready to make. For Christmas, and because I had a 2jz sitting on the floor that was gonna need a new hotside, and cold side,....I ask for, and get an el-cheap TIG.

So,.........

When I have nothing to do BUT work on the Monster,..., AND..I’ve got a hot side and a cold side to build,......what better opportunity will I have to use it to try and get decent with the skill?

IMAG0470_zpsdemejykj.jpg

2.5” off of the turbo,..upsized to 3” going into the refrigerator.
IMAG0471_zpskrrppspo.jpg

Coming out of the ‘fridge, going into into the bay....
IMAG0469_zpsikdnlzn9.jpg

And finally.....out of the fridge,....into the big assed throttle body.

Everything was Tigged....about 10 butt joints altogether..
* the last 90* is just fitted and not welded..trying to decide if I make it a V band joint, or a permanent weld.

They aren’t pretty,...but they aren’t so thick I feel like I need to grind them down...Today was a triumph.
Click to expand...

I’m still having triumphs, and (to use your words) jug fck’s, in the same section of mig weld.

You’re lookin good.... keep on tiggin!
 
#11,358
If it doesn't leak, what the weld looks like isn't important. I'm more function over form anyway. Put square pegs in round holes. You definitely are putting a square metric peg in a round SAE hole. with 2 bionic knees. with no job. with a cat treading on thin ice. merely days away from getting the dos JayZee running.
 
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