Project Slowly Underway: Berrien 295

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I started painting the front end this afternoon. Nothing flashy, just rattle can satin black epoxy. Unfortunately the rain interrupted me part way through, so I'll have to let what's done cure and finish it up in a day or two. D'oh!

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Painted with satin black epoxy. Once the paint cures it will be ready to bolt up to the rail and get brakes etc.

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Found out that in order to get brake drums turned, they need to have the races pressed in for tapered roller bearings. Originally these had ball bearings which were in fine shape, but I decided to use some replacements from Timken which should hold up better off road. Made a diy bearing driver to seat the outer bearing races into the drums. Off to get them turned!






I also got the backing plates bolted down. I used the 17mm rear wheel cylinders for these. Made by CiFam...Italian. Good stuff. Likely the same as the now Italian made ATE cylinders, just cheaper. ATE and CiFam are the only two wheel cylinders I could find that have the correct size boss for the hole in the backing plate. Varga, EMPI, carquest, Doorman, Wagner, bedix, Napa, all total junk. I also swapped out the adjusters from original flat ones to the later angled style so I can use the easier to get later brake shoes.






It's finally starting to look like something!

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Drums got skimmed on a lath to true them up. Bearings cleaned, packed, and installed. Feels good to make progress again. Finally have a drum to drum assembly. Next it's off to the frame and mount the tires/rims.

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I was torquing the lug nuts and one of the studs started turning in the drum, so I pulled the drums and tack welded all the studs in place. Fortunetly I had a spare scrap drum to practice on because I have never tried to weld high grade steel (studs, bolts, etc) to cast iron. Boy was I glad I had a scrap drum to practice on. Mig welding steel to cast iron sucks!! I couldn't get a solid tack for the life of me. I think it's because the cast iron is such a dirty material. I swapped in a spool of flux core wire and gave it a few more goes at it. The flux core wire worked MUCH much better. I think the flux helps burn out impurities in the cast iron as it's welded. At any rate, this is what the final result looks like. Lug nuts torqued. Apparently the tack welded did the trick

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Steering box on.

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Sleeved the tie rods today. Just 11 gauge 1" tubing cut 1.5" short of the stock tie rods. I drilled 3/8" holes in the sleeves to puddle weld through and zipped up the ends. Worked pretty slick

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Stopped by the Michigan Buggy Builders show tho morning. Didn't find any big ticket items, but I picked up a few smalls at a good price, so it was worth the price of admission and parking.

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I scuffed up the tie rods with some sand paper, wiped down with acetone, then shot them with some flat black epoxy. I also got the shocks mounted on the front as well. I'll shoot a couple pictures tomorrow.

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Tie rods finished...




I also got the shocks mounted up. I used 70mm long M12 bolts with M12x40mm fender washers to capture the eye of the shocks. Loctite 271 is probably overkill, but my riding buddies up north have never had a bolt back out since using a high strength thread locker. The shocks are just el-cheapo gas charged Gabriel shocks from Autozone for the rear of a bay window bus. They cost about 20 bucks a pop. Damage one and you can bring it back any time free of charge. Hard to go wrong with that kind of a deal.

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I have also been messing with some other things. Did the number on my clutch pedal because I dodn't trust the thin stamped steel pedal to hold up to banging around off road...you know, holding the clutch in while hitting the rough stuff. To keep it from bending I added a strip of 1/8" flat stock to the left hand side of the pedal. A couple minutes with some cardboard and scissors made a nice template to trace onto the steel plate. I bent the steel plate to fit the curve of the clutch pedal and welded it down. I also fully welded the foot pads to the pedal arms since they were only spot welded on from the factory.









I got the pedal box sorted out. It was just a cheap one made for the early model pedals. I decided to change some things around to use a set of late stamped steel pedals I got. Also gusseted the flimsy side of the box that the pedals bolt up to. If I were to do this again I wouldn't even bother with the stupid aftermarket pedal box and just make my own.




I had a few brake master cylinder pushrods on hand, but neither were the right length to work with my combo master cylinder and pedals. Rather than track down the right pushrod I decided to make a custom length pushrod for my application.

I had one issue with the yoke that fits onto the brake pedal. When removing the original pushrod, the threads galled between the pushrod and yoke and stripped out when separating. I ended up welding a nut to the end of the yoke and running a tap though to remedy the situation.

Then I made a simple jig to hold two bolts straight while I welded them together head to head. Then I turned the end of the long bolt to the shape of the original pushrod. Works good.






I removed ~3/16" of the base circle to the pedals to fit the pedal box which ment removing the stops. I made some adjustable ones that mounted to the front of the pedals that can bare against the floor.






Just needs a good bath and some paint.

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Pedals finished...

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Last night I put the front end onto my frame and installed the tie rods and steering damper. Ran out of daylight though. More on this later...

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Better pics of the front beam and steering gear.