Cal_Gary wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 9:15 pm
Ditto-I didn't take it as a joke nor malicious, Rob -just pointing out the timing of my post. I'd never joke about a fellow member's accident-happy that John is ok!
Gary
If you look at the 3rd picture in my Nov 15 post about the accident (page 3 of this thread, if you are using the forum default for page display), you can see you the bumper on that side took quite a wallop from the telephone pole. That's what put the twist in the frame. As far as I can tell, the twist is all in the portion in front of the engine, since the frame is well supported as you get further back.
The bumper was so mangled that I was about to throw it out, but Tim suggested seeing if the fabricator or a local auto repair shop could fix it. As it turned out, the guy who converted a standard bumper into a winch bumper for me when we installed the winch was able to be coax it in to shape . (When I asked how tough it was to fix, his comment was "let's just say the original conversion was a whole lot easier than the repair!")
Good news: the frame might not be twisted. As it turns out, there is a little cut-out on the upper edge. It's about 6" long and maybe 3/16" deep running along the inside upper edge. When my son was holding up the straight-edge, he was on that cut out part, giving a false indication of the twist. I can't blame him - I don't know how many times I've looked at this and not noticed the cutaway. Maybe we don't have as much work to do as I thought.
It turns out the frame did have a slight twist and just a hair of buckling in the underside. They were able to straighten that out, and generally square things up a bit. They also pulled out the dent where the hood hinge bent up some of where it was bolted to the cowling. They made sure the two rails were at the proper spacing to align with the bolt holes in the winch.
Made progress last week in the recovery from the accident last fall. Tim Holloway has been priming and painting the various parts, and keeping me from getting in to trouble as I try to help out with shot blasting some of the smaller pieces.
On Tuesday, we did a test fit of the winch and front bumpers and installed a couple other pieces. Everything fit, so we removed the right front bumper for priming and painting. (It had been badly mangled in the accident, and "pursuaded" back into by a local fabrication shop.)
Later in the week, Tim addressed a a couple of minor oil leaks, reinstalled the bumper and a few other parts, and found and fixed an air leak which had been requiring partial choke to keep the engine running.
We're getting there! It won't be long before Brutus is back on the road.
1st Pieces reinstalled 4-12-22 sm.jpeg (163.74 KiB) Viewed 9402 times
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More Parts Installed sm.jpeg (167.46 KiB) Viewed 9402 times
Spent the day at Distinctive Restoration helping Tim Holloway put parts back on Brutus. He's back together again!
I still need to paint some bolt heads, and Tim diagnosed a problem that causes the horn to blow continuously any time the power is turned on (need to replace a broken part), but Brutus has his new clothes on!
I have not updated this thread in a while. I've got about 8000 miles on it since swapping in the rebuilt 251 engine. The engine has been running well (I'm guessing I had about 2000 or 2500 miles on the 230 engine that was in it when I bought it. Hard to tell exactly, since the speedometer/odometer was not working when I bought it.)
In Nov or Dec 2022, I did end up having to replace a rear axle that snapped while pulling slowly away from a stoplight. I'm guessing it had been on it's way out for quite a while. The break was rather unusual looking: It looked a bit like a beaver-chewed sapling.
Axle Beavers sm.jpg (69 KiB) Viewed 6990 times
Tim Holloway replaced both rear axles with hardened axles from VPW. So hopefully I won't have that issue again.
New axle close up.jpg (74.55 KiB) Viewed 6990 times
And a link to a thread I started in 2020 when I added a receiver hitch to Brutus. I needed a receiver to handle the various trailer I already own that do not have a lunette ring. I also did not want to just hang it off the rear cross member: I town some 5000+ lbs trailers and did not want to risk twisting the rear cross member, especially with the long drop needed to get a ball down to "normal" trailer hitch height.
Home 
-just pointing out the timing of my post. I'd never joke about a fellow member's accident-happy that John is ok! 
