Pennytech side cases w/pics

Drove to a local metal supplier and started looking through their* aluminum stock scrap/cutoffs for what I needed.

My rack is a Happy Trails Northwest Rack which is constructed of 5/8 tubing, so I first picked out some 5/8 square stock.

Then I found a peice of 1/2 X 1 3/8 stock.

They had a $20.00 minimum, so I grabbed some other stock that I thought I might use in the future-

Then I measured the places where the 3 mounts (per case) will go-

Bottom -* * * 7 1/2 inches long
Upper rear -* 3 inches long
Upper FWD -* 2 1/2 inches long.

Then I cut the stock to length-

Here’s a side view of the 2 pieces of the mount-

And here’s a cross section of the mounts, frame and Mermite case-

I’ll be drilling and tapping the 2 pieces of the mount stock and then bolting them together. Ideally a one piece mount milled out of aluminum (like the ones Happy Trails sells) would be best, but I’m sure that these will be plenty strong enough.

Both the inside of the cans will have a sheetmetal reinforcement- the cans are stamped & uneven and this will strengthen cases and make a nice place to mount to.

The mounts are setup like a Touratec system I saw. The lower mount will be permanently attached to the case using 2 bolts. The case will be lowered onto the frame, and then the top mounts installed using one bolt or a thumbwheel (I may make my own thumbwheels).

Since I don’t have access to a mill, I fell back on the old computer overclocker’s trick of lapping. Overclockers have been lapping their cpus and heatsinks for years, in order to get the mating surfaces of the cpu & heatsink as flat as possible for better heat transfer.

I stopped into Ace and bought 3 sheets of 180 grit emery paper and a $3.00 sheet of glass. I taped one end of the paper to the glass & to my desk. You lap the item on with the paper on the glass because glass is so flat.

Here’s the setup-

Here’s a small pice getting it’s mating surface lapped-

And before and after shots-

Then I used a King Size Sharpie to apply the “blueing”-

I checked around for a place that did plastic media blasting but couldn’t find one. I did find a company that would chemical dip then bead blast them, but the total cost was $130.00.

So I decided to do it the hard way, the cheaper way, and when finished, have tools left over.

First thing I did was remove all of the hinges by drilling out the rivets. I had to do this because the seal is getting in the way of the hinges and bending them wasn’t working. I also remoived the brackets that the handles go into, as I plan on using different end handles. More on that later.

So I first tried some of the orange citrus stripper. Worked pretty good, but looked like it was going to take a few applications. Then I tried some traditional stripper, and that didn’t work well at all. So I blasted them off at a car wash and moved onto the next stage.

Dropping into Harbor Freight Tools today, I picked up a mini 90 deg air ginder ($25) and some prep wheels ($14)-

Then I dropped a sheet of plastic in the garage and got busy stripping the paint. I used water with the grinder to prevent any dust, as these cans are marked 1974 and the paint might have lead in it. This process works well as it strips the paint and preps the metal for primer.

Here’s one with before and after sections-

I got both lids done and one can. Tomorrow I’ll finsh off the exterior prep of the other can and then work on the interiors, removing the foam residue with an abrasive wheel in my die grinder.

Exterior-

Interior- (not completely bare, as it will be painted & unexposed)

Then I needed to fab some sheetmetal for the interior mount facing. What can I use? How about an old PC case (I have a bunch of them)-

The steel on these old PC cases is very strong so it will make good bracing for the cans/mounts. here it is laying in the can-

I also patched a few small holes in the base of the cans with some JB Weld-

Tommorow I will be cutting up another case for the steel plates for the exterior of the cans and working on the mounts.