SHOP TALK - I have a problem. You probably do too!

SHOP

Talk

I have a problem You probably do too!

JT

I

Story and Photos by

pray this finds everyone safe and healthy. We are certainly going through crazy times together. If you are anything like me, (which I wouldn’t wish on an enemy) our cars bring a sense of normalcy and peace to an ever changing world.

My passion and excitement for cars and motorsports in general goes well beyond the vehicle. I absolutely love the process of building any type of high performance vehicle. However stressful it may be, no matter what crazy level of detail that is involved, the more the better for me. If that is not enough, the thing I love more than the process, the vehicle, and the competition, are the tools needed to fabricate and maintain the vehicle. My name is JT and I have a problem! I am addicted to tools!

For as long as I could remember I have always had this attraction to tools. I used to love going into our dark and dingy basement as a child and imitate my Dad by setting up the tools I needed to tear a lawn mower engine apart. He taught me how to plan the job in advance and lay out everything you will need. He told me this will not only save time but will help me stay focused and on point during the entire process. I knew every tool in his box by the time I was nine years old. I remember the day he stopped letting me rip apart any more engines until I put one back together and it ran. Tools were my friend and the correct one made jobs s o much easier. My Dad also taught me to think out of the box and modify or make my own tools to make the job easier and produce a better finished product. To this day, I still have many tools I made or modified as a child. Funny thing is they still work every time.

I would like to believe that I made the first cotter pin

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Here I am hard at work welding inside my brother’s truck cab.

I nicknamed that thing the sauna. The cab is black and it has been brutal hot out lately.

Not counting all of the sockets I modified, or the screwdrivers I turned into gasket scrapers or awls, here is one of the first tools I ever made as a child. I had so much fun making that little slide hammer.

I could make a much better one today or even buy one, but this tool brings me back to a great time in my life. Plus it works perfectly!

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I was 18.

I remember that first week when a different tool truck came into the shop every day.

I remember I was making an exhaust heat shield for one of my old dirt bikes and I really needed an extra set of hands to hold a complex angle while I brazed the copper.

Yes copper, it’s all that my Dad had laying around at the time, plus it was really easy for me to shape. (It ended up being a really expensive heat shield). I used some barn door hinges and two spring clamps. I made adjustable pivot points that I could lock down tension on when I found the angle I was looking for. I just used this tool a few weeks ago and it made me smile.

puller. I took an old set of vice grips and made my own slide hammer out of a long bolt, some copper tubing, and some washers and a nut. I was so proud when I finished fabbing it and pulled out some stubborn cotter pins on my go cart. My Dad was really proud of that and bragged about it all the time. A few years ago I saw this very tool I made in a tool catalog and swear someone stole my idea. It’s one of those tools I still use to this day. Another one of my childhood inventions was an extra set of hands, which I made out of door hinges and spring clamps to help me hold things while I soldered, brazed, or welded.

Yes, I still have that tool and use it.

My first official “out of my home shop” job was a mechanic’s apprentice at a Cadillac dealership when I was 18. I remember that first week when a different tool truck came into the shop every day. Back then you didn’t need credit. They were like drug dealers.

I wanted a specific tool, and they let me take it. They wrote my name down, what I took that day and added it to my little book. Each week I would make payments. I actually looked forward to certain days because of that damn tool truck. My Snap On rep gave me a decal at that time that said, “I make my living using quality tools, please don’t ask to borrow them!”

That struck a cord with me that resonated louder than you could ever imagine. All of my tools and boxes are surgical level clean and organized. I know where every tool I own is. I know exactly which one of the 54 drawers (I just went into the shop to count) the tool lives and where it is placed. I even know if someone used them or even closed the drawer too hard. I told you I have a problem!

The past few weeks I have been building my little brother’s dream mud truck from a shell of a cab. www.rpmmag.com

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SHOP

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This handy tool saves me so much time making notches. I temporarily mounted it to the rolling dolly we made for the cab. I made the first notch on my workbench in my shop, and it made a horrible mess. I ended up making a portable table for this and other small welding, grinding work. My chop saw and grinder days of making tubing notches are now a thing of the past. Here is a short clip of that notcher in action.

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He is a big boy and needed to be custom fitted to every part of his cockpit. His seat placement, seat height, steering column length and height, shifter location, dash panel and switches all had to be very carefully engineered then fabricated. Making sure his 10-point roll cage was not just super safe but fit around him for easy entry and exit. I enjoyed every second of this painstaking process not just because it was for my brother, but because it required a high level of engineering and detail. And yes, it also required a lot of cool tools.

I always wanted a tubing notcher but became proficient notching all of my tubes with a chop saw and a grinder. The amount of custom work this project was calling for demanded I make the most of my time by using the proper tools, so at 54 years old I bought my first tubing notcher. I quickly found it made a horrible mess with cutting oil and metal shavings everywhere, so I stole an old cookie tray from my wife’s baking collection, and it became a very cool addition to my new notcher. Well, that notcher requires it to be anchored to something solid, and I was now using my driveway exclusively for notching work. So I had to make a custom table to fit my rolling stool/tool cart. Four 2”x16” square legs and a 16”x24-¼” inch steel top was needed to make a home for my small bench vise, notcher and

I made a heavy duty, small steel table that is based around my rolling chair.

This is yet another valuable tool in my arsenal. The notcher will make its home in this when working.

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I needed to do a lot of sheet metal work on this job cleaning up the firewall, making the dash, and sealing up any holes in the floor, having my small welder set up with .024 wire and my other one with .030 for all of the cage work was a nice time saver.

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Some people make roll cages every day. They become what legend has called, “angle whisperers.” I aspire to become that proficient one day. Until then, I still use my magnetic angle finder, a plastic angle finder, and a protractor. This handy little thing made complex joints extremely easy to fabricate.

sheet metal shear. I hated to stop production on that roll cage, but had a blast building another tool that would make my life easier with every job. During this process, I also found out there was a tool named the “Pipemaster.” Yes, I needed that!

It was fun using my digital calipers to measure wall thickness and other crucial measurements. Yes, it was fun using my magnetic angle finder, plastic angle finder, and protractor. Yes, it was fun using my magnetic mount copper plug welding tool, and yes, it was fun

having both of my welders side-by-side. One was set up for patch panels, the other for light duty work, and the other for heavy fabrication. I completely cleaned up every unused hole in that firewall despite my brother yelling at me that this was going to be a mud truck. I told him to shut up, and there was no reason why it shouldn’t be able to win an award at a car show, as well. That kind of detail makes things fun for me.

This past weekend my brother-in-law came over while my brother and I were www.rpmmag.com

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I just had to share a picture of the progress I am making on this cab. I am halfway done with the cage, then need to direct my focus on making a dash. I hope to share a picture with you when it is done, and more than likely another cool tool I either made or bought in the process.

working on the roll cage and he was in amazement at all of the cool tools I was using at that very moment. He knew I had skills and a lot of tools, but he had no idea the true extent. At one point I was laying on my back in the cab of the truck with my MIG gun in one hand and was doing my best to maintain a very advanced and uncomfortable yoga pose - and needed a dead blow hammer. The two of them did their best to help me and handed me the large ball-peen hammer I had out. I told them I didn’t want to damage the tubing. They then handed me a small piece of 2x6 wood to hammer on. I only had one hand to use, and it needed to be wrapped around a dead blow hammer with enough whoop ass to move the tube but not damage it. So here it comes. I am about to reveal the sickness I told you about earlier.

I told my brother-in-law to go to the middle red box in my shop, and in the bottom box, 3rd drawer from the bottom are my hammers. Get the orange dead blow hammer that is next to the green dead blow hammer on the right and the black plastic mallet on the left. Before he goes into the shop he asks, “how many hammers do you have, aren’t they are all the same?” I responded, “well to answer the first part of your question, I have a lot of hammers, way too many to admit to owning. The second part of the question I’ll excuse, because you just don’t know – all hammers are not the same and are not created equal.

My bother-in-law story gets even better and reveals my sickness in all of its glory. The reason he came over was because he backed into a tree with the tail gate of his pickup truck down. It was so bad it wouldn’t even come close to closing. It practically looked like the letter U. I was confident that I could get the door to close and lock properly, but told him it was still going to be an ugly mess. I taught him how to use my 4 ½” grinder

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I have been wrenching all of my life. My Dad school master craftsman who did everything many specialties was air conditioning and re He taught me how to make flairs for those u I was a kid. When I had to make my first bra was just another day at the office. I was a ma old style flaring tool. My tool addiction forced this amazing new member of my toolbox. I way to make my own AN lines and this was t By the way, it makes brake flairs so easy an I will never use Dad’s old flaring tool a

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with a cutting wheel on it, and we cut out the entire bottom portion of the inner tailgate (it was that bad).

Then I told him we needed a hammer. He was all too eager to go back into my hammer drawer and save me a trip. I quickly stopped him and told him the hammer we needed was in the barn, not the shop. After giving him very detailed GPS coordinates of my barn tools, he walked out with a 5 lb. 36� yellow-handled sledgehammer. To make a long story short, I was able to get that tailgate to open, close and lock properly. It actually didn’t look too bad either. I have to admit, after playing with all of my cool specialty tools over the weekend, it was quite refreshing to take the sledgehammer and beat that tail gate into submission.

My friends, chances are if you read this magazine, not only are you a serious gearhead with a horsepower addiction, but I am willing to bet just about anything (except my tools) that you have a serious tool addiction as well. Lord knows I do!

Until next time, Keep Wrenching

was an oldg. One of his efrigeration. units when ake line, it aster at the d me to buy I needed a the answer. nd precise, again.

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