brotherGood

[brotherGood]

Just realized I never actually did one of these. So, here it goes.

Hey. As you can see, I am brotherGood. Been over on dippy for awhile, and someone over there directed me here. I've got an 86 AHB Diplomat, that I am currently turning into a street/strip/fun car. Problem being life getting in the way, so its a very slow go at it. It is the first car I've actually worked on, and so its also serving as a learning tool, to help me better understand cars, and how to rebuild them. Right now, were (still) working out the kinks from an engine swap that started a year ago. Between then and now, we've had carb issues, broken rocker bolts (multiple times), kickdown issues, leaks, and now charging issues. But as soon as its fixed from that, I've gotta rebuild the back brakes, and itll be on the dragstrip to get my time slip. I've got multiple parts for it, for other parts of my build, but just don't have the time.

I also DD an '89 D150. That's all factory, minus what all I've thrown at it to try to get it running right. I bought it from my boss, who swore up and down it ran well, just had minor issues (leaking oil, wipers don't work, a/c doesn't work). Since then, I've put a full tune up on there, something that hasn't been done since the 90's. Fixed 2 of the issues he stated, the 3rd will be ditched in the summer. But, it falls on its face, and frankly, nobody knows why.

Before I lost my free time, I was getting into building guitars as well. I play rarely anymore, but don't have time to continue to build. Music is a big part of who I am, and once things settle back down, maybe I can get back to playing and building.

Now that I feel I've written an eHarmony description about myself, If you've got any questions, statements, whatever...hit me up.

 

[NoCar340]

I'm a bit of a newb myself, but I can tell you it's a great bunch of people here.

Broken rocker bolts?! Do you mean rocker-shaft bolts, and if so, how on God's green Earth are you breaking them?!

Weird, you're the second Mopar guy I know who's been into guitar building. The first one actually did make a bit of a name for himself back in the '90s. He built a guitar for Kurt Cobain, but during construction forgot Cobain was left-handed. Courtney Love bought the guitar instead, they ordered a matching guitar for Kurt, and before it could be finished Cobain died. Love dug the guitar's style so much, she took it to Fender. They copied the body design and called it the Stratocaster Squire Venus. The "mythical god" name isn't much of a mystery, since Danny's were called Mercury Guitars. You'll find it in a Google search, and they occasionally pop up for sale on eBay for pretty good money.

Here's a picture of Love with the guitar Dan built; it's obviously not a Strat by looking at the headstock which is Dan's design:

 

[brotherGood]

Should've detailed the engine build a little..it's a rebuilt 318, with a 340ish cam, and magnum heads.

The head gaskets that were put on were not the ones I bought, and we're the incorrect size. Over twice as thick..so they kept breaking the bolts.

 

[Jack Meoff]

Welcome aboard brother.....

 

[80 Aspen RT]

Welcome to the site. Cool stories.

 

[slant6billy]

Welcome . Here is mine: Custom tele with a n

eck that is a flat back 17 inch radius super wide fret board 1 15/16 nut (non compound radius). A very warm neck bucker and a very crisp bridge bucker. Always liked the AHB. Does yours have the higher speedometer?

 

[Jack Meoff]

One of my babies.....
Epiphone Emperor Regent.....
A very nice jazz box.....

 

[brotherGood]

The AHB does have the certified speedo, which will be swapped out in the near future. I will be getting a custom dash bezel cut for me, with new gauges installed. A 160 MPH speedo, 10k Tach will be front and center. Will I need that much, no...but they look cool.

As far as the guitars go..Ive only built one. And even then, we sourced it out to be cut because we had no time. But, it was a strat-style/Kramer style/whatever that I made for my then girlfriend. She had participated in the Susan G Komen walk for breast cancer, and so I painted it with a big ribbon on it. Fortunately, we got married..so I get it back...haha.

My main (only one together) guitar now is a combination of parts.

The body, and bridge came from a 6 dollar garage sale guitar, the pickup is a Dimarzio Tone Zone, with a Bourns low friction pot, and Warmouth custom EVH wolfgang copy neck, with the CBS headstock on it. 300 for the neck itself, and anyone who plays it hates to put it down. Bet you cant tell who inspired me to pick up a guitar. I've actually played it at my church, and the Van Halen esque sound put the church music is quite the treat.

 

[slant6billy]

Nice man. Yep, I know what you mean. I go into music stores to try on amps with my custom tele. I get that store stop and everyone looking at it " Like an EF Hutton moment". I get a few curious store employees and management want to try on the tele. If I had a camera of their facial expressions when their left hand got around that neck..... holy crap! One might think they just touched dog shit. To bring back down to reality: it is like a classical guitar with a strat tele variant. Closest thing I found to be like this was an Ibanez RG 520 or 770 or the Steve Via 6 string GEM. And again close to it, but not nearly as wide of a fretboard. BTW.... I'm digg'n the new gauges, too. My F coupe has the 100 mph luckily not the 85. I'd wish it had the 125, but there are pricey and not certain if I trust a used SPEEDO that does not have "ZERO" on the lowest detent of the needle. I'd like to see if a sticker of some sort could be printed on a laser jet like the white out face kits for newer cars.

 

[NoCar340]

Mechanical speedometers are easy to test... you just need a drill with a 1,000RPM speed (my old 9.6V Makita is exactly that on high). At 1,000RPM input on the cable, it should read exactly 60MPH, or just a smidge below 97KPH for you metric folks. I've tested a bunch of different makes and types and I've never found an exception to this rule. Even an original Cobra counter-clockwise speedo is the same, but the input is obviously backward. If it reads accurately on the drill but not in the car, the problem isn't the speedometer itself.

 

[brotherGood]

Yeah, Im still not certain I wont pick up a new speedometer before the gauges go in. This one I picked up off craigslist for like 60 bucks..thinking I could open it and adjust the mileage by hand. But, I cant, and I don't know that I want to mess with it. We'll see though..at the price of speedometers new, I may just deal with it.