To Rivet, or not to Rivet

Gitfinger welcome,
I don't think many of us are purists so you won't be chased from here, but if you've been reading this forum for a while you'll know the main rule - photos are a must

Gidday Gitfinger -

At the end of the day, you'll have a '24 LaFrance (they also made fire engines!) which is back on the road and running the original drive train. It''ll be modded slightly so it won't be concourse condition, but you'll find very few restored truck are!

To make it "personalised" after 86 years is entirely excusable, so please keep us posted on progress. Post us a "before" photo so we can see what you're up to!

Bugly

all you fellers are on the money but the only thing left out is each bolt depending on size or grade will have a specific tension i dont have my book handy but im sure the bolt surpliers would give you the correct tension wrench setting ovartightening can cause stretching or premeture failure all the best don

I finally dug out the 2006 photo I have of a 1917 American-La France done up similarly to what was being described. The original body was lost in the US somewhere before the vehicle came to Australia so it has been done up like this
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bparo2003/4867904558/ (or as flickr have changed their sharing rules try www.flickr.com/photos/bparo2003/4867904558/ while I sort it out >)

more detailed photos are available at www.flickr.com/photos/bparo2003/sets/721...015/with/4867904558/

Gitfinger - When you say "shank length", I'm presuming you're referring to the unthreaded portion of the bolt?

In my experience, the "shank length" is the overall length of the bolt, as measured from the underside of the head.

The unthreaded portion is usually referred to as the "grip length".

The only people that I know that show "grip length" in their bolt dimensions are Caterpillar. Different fastener manufacturers will have different grip lengths for a set overall length.

Here's the Cat Hardware pages (PDF file), from the "One Safe Source" booklet, and these pages give you all the P/No's and dimensions of all Cat hardware, including grip lengths.

www.cat.com/cda/files/87637/7/hardwre.pdf

Just remember, that if you buy a different manufacturers brand of bolt, the grip length may not be the same as the Cat bolt .. as Cat set their own dimensions standards .. and some manufacturers follow SAE standards .. and other manufacturers set their own standards, different to Cat, as well.

I get my bolts from A&M bolts in Bassendean, there are several independent suppliers in Perth, just look up "bolt suppliers" in the Yellow Pages online.

Swishy to the rescue

Here U go
straight from Juan Tracks scrap book (Tiz printer friendly)
LOL


One size fitz all

LOL

[ch9787]

you'll know the main rule - photos are a must

LOL. Thanks Dennis, and sorry. My home internet went out on Saturday at lunchtime and I haven't fixed it yet. I'll post a pic or three as soon as I can.

Bugly, my truck was never a fire engine. Really, honestly...the fingers crossed behind my back mean nothing! Um, no, it won't be concours but also, many fire enthusiasts won't consider it 'slight' modifications. Full disclosure; I'm building it up as a large period car, rather than a truck per se. Sorry to have been misleading...have already copped one or two bad reactions so I'm a bit shy about all this.

Bparo, thanks for the pics! I have photographs of that car as a fire engine before shipping from the US - can't recall whether it had the body in the pics of it being prepared for shipping or not. I could make the same claim regarding a "lost" body but it'd be a fib, hem hem.

Onetrack, thanks for the nomenclature corrections, yes that's what I meant, knew I'd get it wrong! Also the tips are much appreciated.

Swishy, oh my god, ha ha! I think I need some of those.

Gitfinger, re your truck/car/whatever, when you figure how many 24 LaFrances are out there and the chances of you parking alongside another one, for fussy buggers to do comparisons, I wouldn't worry too much about how it looks, just so long as you're happy with it is all that counts. If you do get someone picking it to bits all you have to do is ask them what they're driving, ten to one it's a Falcon or Commodore, etc. I do it all the time when I'm out in my 62 Chrysler Imperial, when they ask is this or that factory original, they soon shut up and wonder away, you can do that when it's a bit rare and get away with it. Last time out a guy asked me what year Impala it was, (he saw the Imperial script badge and immediately thought it read Impala), I said it was a one off factory prototype that never got into production and is as rare as rocking horse poo, he was happy with that, some mugs will believe anything!!
(there's only one other one in SA and it's a 4 door, mine's a 2 door), if he ever sees the other one the penny will drop and he'll realise he's been conned.
Ah, life can be fun, can't it? he, he. Anyway, enjoy your 'whatever', as I always say, life's too short to drive boring vehicles !!

Tony, SA

Tony, I think we've all met those guys eh, some days it's like there's one on every street corner. And this thing for sure will not be boring. Gotta say I'm impressed at the tolerance I've received so far though...hope it isn't just that there are lots of people biting their lips.

My philosophy is that though there were only a few thousand of these machines built over around 16 years, the survival ratio has been quite high (I guess you'd expect that given they were hideously expensive at the time!) So there's actually relatively many still around but even so, I'm not going to go crazy. There are some very blinged-up machines around these days, that's not for me though, mine's just going to look like a LaFrance enjoying an honourable retirement and not like a replica of any particular 'real car'.

Got my net connection back and I think I've figured out the image system so let's give this a try...forgive the horrible pallet mockup, I was just trying to set up the seat, tank and steering in approximately the relationship I want to firm up my body design.

Re bolts again, I'm going with 27/64 drill bit and 27/64 reamer as I found the size drill just left too much slop for 7/16 bolts. I'll get the first crossmember bolted up properly on the weekend, haven't picked up the reamer yet though, Alltools didn't have one in that size and would want $60 for the next size down! Ouch.

Gitfinger, you're looking good. You mention Alltools, you can't be too far away from me. I live in Inglewood, and my workshop is just up the road from Alltools .. but I don't deal with them much, they're too hungry.
If you want to borrow a 27/64" reamer, rather than buy, I'm sure I'd have an adjustable one you can borrow. I fix mostly imperial-measurement stuff, and the largest majority of my tools are still imperial.
I haven't got too wrapped up in this metric idea, and the stuff they produce in it, yet ..
Give me a call on 0433 335 227 if you're interested in borrowing a reamer, and not too far away, and this arrangement suits you.

Cheers - Ron.