Mods/Upgrades to our 2003 Dynasty

[zo66]

Originally Posted by zmotorsports

Picked up the last of the interior components from the upholstery shop today and just got them installed in the coach.

Attachment 188475

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Thanks for looking.

Mike

Hey Mike,

Your coach looks first class "first class", inside and out!

There is an additional satisfaction knowing that it is a product of your own hard work and creativity. Kinda like in the Jeep world ...."built not bought"

You and your project have been a huge inspiration for me. (Watts link, residential fridge, done!)

Good Work. Now go enjoy using it.

Jim

[Vanwill]

MANY of us have been inspired by Z-Mike!

I got to see his OLD shop, which was the cleanest, neatest, most organized, most space-efficient setup I had ever seen in my LIFE. Hoping to get to see the new one before long.

Mike, sorry you could not make Q. Really looking forward to seeing you again. You inspire this old fart to do things I might otherwise shy away from!

[zmotorsports]

Originally Posted by zo66

Hey Mike,

Your coach looks first class "first class", inside and out!

There is an additional satisfaction knowing that it is a product of your own hard work and creativity. Kinda like in the Jeep world ...."built not bought"

You and your project have been a huge inspiration for me. (Watts link, residential fridge, done!)

Good Work. Now go enjoy using it.

Jim

Thanks Jim, I appreciate the comments.

It definitely is a labor of love and my wife tells me I can't leave anything alone. I like to have that one thing that is just a bit different than anything else out there and put a personal touch to it. I'm sure many on here can relate.

Glad to hear you've been doing upgrades of your own, that's the point of these forums, to inspire and assist, and commiserate when necessary.

Thanks for stopping by my mod/repair thread.

Mike

[zmotorsports]

Originally Posted by Vanwill

MANY of us have been inspired by Z-Mike!

I got to see his OLD shop, which was the cleanest, neatest, most organized, most space-efficient setup I had ever seen in my LIFE. Hoping to get to see the new one before long.

Mike, sorry you could not make Q. Really looking forward to seeing you again. You inspire this old fart to do things I might otherwise shy away from!

Thanks for the kind words Van. Coming from you that is very flattering.

I would love to show off my new shop to you if you are ever in the neighborhood. It is so nice to have the room I do now and especially to be able to park the coach inside. That should definitely help to prolong the life of her.

Enjoy QZ, I promise we will make it there one day. This has been a busy as hell year and hard to plan much in advance. I hope we can next year.

Mike

[zmotorsports]

This is not exactly related to our coach but I finally got around to completing my shop tour video and posted it to my YouTube channel over the weekend.

Thought some of you might be interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-1cEOagP6w

Sorry, it's a bit lengthy. It's amazing how many tools a person collects in three decades of wrenching.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

[Chargerman]

Mike

Looks great. I owned a Moldmaking operation and was a strong believer in neatness and having all of the needed tools for a specific area close at hand and labeled. I also was a believer when learning the trade that I would never borrow a tool more than once so I was always buying tools or making what I needed if it was something special to the trade. Yes it was a huge investment as was yours. Today unfortunately in many cases you have to pull teeth to get an employee to invest in tooling. They feel the company should supply them. Too many look at it as a job instead of a career. Good grief.

Thanks for sharing.

[Pepperell]

Did the gas strut on the front door. Works like a charm! Thanks, Mike!

[zmotorsports]

Originally Posted by Chargerman

Mike

Looks great. I owned a Moldmaking operation and was a strong believer in neatness and having all of the needed tools for a specific area close at hand and labeled. I also was a believer when learning the trade that I would never borrow a tool more than once so I was always buying tools or making what I needed if it was something special to the trade. Yes it was a huge investment as was yours. Today unfortunately in many cases you have to pull teeth to get an employee to invest in tooling. They feel the company should supply them. Too many look at it as a job instead of a career. Good grief.

Thanks for sharing.

WOW!!! I couldn’t agree more.

I was the same way, if I had to ever borrow a tool more than once I NEEDED to own that tool to do my job, period. I reciprocated for a while but when Co-workers who were hiring into our shop continued to borrow the same tools over and over, I had to put my foot down. They simply didn’t understand when I tried to communicate to them that buying tools was an investment in their careers and my tools were mine not the company’s. They looked at me like I had two heads. Our employees now also feel like it is the companies responsibility to purchase the tools to do their job and it drives me crazy how they feel entitled.

I have come to a place now where I flat do NOT loan out tools, NO exceptions. When I walk to my box or cabinet I need to know that tool is there to to the job and I don’t need to wonder who I loaned it to or how I can do the job by improvising. I bought the correct tool so I didn’t have to improvise or chase down the proper tool for the job.

Sometimes it is not the popular thing to do but my sanity is more important.

Thanks for following along and commenting.

Mike

[zmotorsports]

Originally Posted by Pepperell

Did the gas strut on the front door. Works like a charm! Thanks, Mike!

Awesome. Glad to hear that. Mine is four years old now (if my memory is functioning properly without looking at my notes) and it is still functioning perfectly.

Thanks for following along on my mod thread.

Mike

[zmotorsports]

Started my surge tank project tonight.

Original surge tank out and on the fab table ready to measure and start cutting material.


Purchased parts. Aluminum filler neck and 5” sight glass. I had the 1” diameter 6061 aluminum in which I will machine the 1/4” NPT bungs for the bypass hoses and coolant level sensor. I also want to add a drain at the bottom so I will machine a 1/2” NPT bung as well.


Here is the piece of 5000 series aluminum that I had left over from a previous project in my press brake being bent.


Bent and ready to trim the long leg to length.




Back cut, deburred and ready to tack weld.


Probably unnecessary but I also decided to add a couple of baffles.






That’s it for tonight.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

[zmotorsports]

I didn’t have much time to work on the surge tank tonight due to getting out of work late.

Cut the top & bottom pieces.
Attachment 190040

One thing worth mentioning is that when you bend sheet you get a slight raised area right at the bend. Take a file and knock that raised nub down flat.


Here it is after knocking it down flat with a file.


Tack welding the pieces using my recently fabricated TIG arm rest.


Shoot for tight fitment and small tacks.


By all means NOT my best welds but I haven’t welded aluminum in well over a year so I need practice.


Thanks for looking.

Mike

[kpecks]

Incredible post!

[offtosleep]

Outstanding work that is well through as usual. Mike.....absolutely impeccable!

[zmotorsports]

Originally Posted by kpecks

Incredible post!

Thank you.

Mike