84 460 4 speed Lowered street truck

[Gary Lewis]

Guess Keith wasn't quite fast enough.  Again in the immortal words of Larry Verne: "Hm, you're a little bit late on that one, Charlie  Ooh, I bet that smarts!"  

I'm sorry to report that I don't yet know the hole size for the bolts to hold the small plate on.  I forgot to measure them before it went in the oven.  

[salans7]

Gary Lewis wrote

Guess Keith wasn't quite fast enough.  Again in the immortal words of Larry Verne: "Hm, you're a little bit late on that one, Charlie  Ooh, I bet that smarts!"  

I'm sorry to report that I don't yet know the hole size for the bolts to hold the small plate on.  I forgot to measure them before it went in the oven.  

Really just bought it out of curiosity. I'm not getting my hopes up until I have the piece in my hand and determine it's made to a solid quality standard.

[Gary Lewis]

Just meant JBG beat LMC to it, not your order.

[reamer]

Would you like me to make these?
Should not be an Issue, Would need either detailed drawings or an actual one to model...
Ron

[Gary Lewis]

Just thinking it might be something for you to get into.  Keith is going to be considering a source.  So you could talk to him.  But, you could sell them directly like Terrapin did.  However, you might want to talk to Jason to see why he got out of the business.

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, I got to measure the holes.  They are probably drilled for 8mm, but 5/16" will work.  However, the one's used by  when he installed it have been drilled out.  My guess is that he only had two bolts, and they were 3/8", so that's what he used.  

Hope to get it in the mail tomorrow.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Gary, from your photo  didn't have any bolts, and only used the studs already in the master cylinder!

I think the bolts in the kit are SAE, although 5/16-18 and 8x1.25 are very close.

[Gary Lewis]

Good catch, Jim.  

[Chris Guthro]

Thanks Gary!! I got a small one from Cory today! He gave me his. But I’ll take that one too for the pull truck!!! Got a little bit done today! Had a visit from Cory and the blue mule, even got to take it for a spin!

[Gary Lewis]

Chris - No prob, I hope to get it in the mail tomorrow.

Steering column looks good.  I like that lower bearing.  

[reamer]

Thanks

[Chris Guthro]

Im just getting use to uploading pictures on here lol. The phone doesnt always cooperate with me on this site. Not sure why they went sideways

[Gary Lewis]

This site, like many forums, is dumb.  Doesn't have the smarts to read the orientation info in the metadata in the pic so doesn't orient the pics the way you took them.  So the way around it is to learn to orient your phone so the pics work, or do as I do and open the pic in editing software and then save it.  The editing s/w or app reorients the pic and if you then save it that usually works.  But not always.  

[Gary Lewis]

I meant it to suggest that I can't figure out how to orient my phone properly so just edit the pics.  

[Rembrant]

Chris Guthro wrote

Thanks Gary!! I got a small one from Cory today! He gave me his. But I’ll take that one too for the pull truck!!! Got a little bit done today! Had a visit from Cory and the blue mule, even got to take it for a spin!

Who is this old guy in the old blue truck???...lol. It was weird seeing somebody else drive the truck. I must do a video next trip Chris so I can hear how the old Bull sounds from the outside!

[FuzzFace2]

Gary Lewis wrote

This site, like many forums, is dumb.  Doesn't have the smarts to read the orientation info in the metadata in the pic so doesn't orient the pics the way you took them.  So the way around it is to learn to orient your phone so the pics work, or do as I do and open the pic in editing software and then save it.  The editing s/w or app reorients the pic and if you then save it that usually works.  But not always.  

All of my pictures I post are first uploaded to my web site and they show right side up on there but some of them when I post them on here turn sideways.
Now what I don't remember is if I turn them before or after they are on my site?
I want to say before but will have to make sure I turn them before uploaded to my site.
Dave ----

[Rembrant]

salans7 wrote

Yea, I'm only assuming based on the fact that JBG told me that their supplier had closed down unexpectedly, and they had no idea when their supplier was going to reopen. But if Jason said he wasn't making them for JBG, then that's interesting. I'll probably ping JBG in another month and see if their supplier has re-opened and whether they have more.

Sounds like JBG's supplier might have been in the Wuhan area in China? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it is a major manufacturing hub and has caused supply interruptions for a lot of companies. I know we've seen some supply hiccups for this reason...mostly for American products (cast or forged in China, but machined/finished in USA).

Gary Lewis wrote

Just thinking it might be something for you to get into.  Keith is going to be considering a source.  So you could talk to him.  But, you could sell them directly like Terrapin did.  However, you might want to talk to Jason to see why he got out of the business.

I'm pretty sure JBG was undercutting Terrapin by a fair amount? Aren't the braces like $75 from JBG? (Or they were). Terrapin had them for $100 or $110? Jason mentioned that once JBG started selling them, he was down to making only 30-40 per year, and at that number is must not have been worth the trouble. If somebody wanted to contact him directly, I'm pretty sure he said the other day that he thought he still had one left, and also that drawings were not a problem? I may have misunderstood that.

I have the Terrapin brace in my truck, but I had to modify it to get it to fit properly. Still, they were well made parts.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Hard to imagine there's enough interest, enough of these trucks on the road that still haven't repaired/reinforced their firewall at this point.

Market saturation is always an issue with niche products.

Terripan may have been able to run off small batches because of CNC plasma or laser, but inventorying a thousand, or having punch dies made today seems nuts.

[Rembrant]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Market saturation is always an issue with niche products.

I was going to say the exact same thing Jim. Two things probably happened at the same time. JBG started making the braces, but the demand probably decreased during the same time. I think the braces were only for 1984-1991 right? That's a pretty small window of trucks (still on the road today) in the grand scheme of things.

[Gary Lewis]

I'm not sure about market saturation.  There are 56K members of the Facebook pages I'm on for these trucks, and while maybe only 1/4 of those members have trucks which came out with hydraulic clutches, that's still a big number.

But if JBG is undercutting the price, that's a killer.  So folks would certainly want to think that through before jumping into the business.