My Pete rebuild

[Nostalgic]

I've learned a lot the last 6 days.

1- Checking deck flatness, even with a precision straight edge certified within .001" can hide .002" of variances. Doesn't make sense, right? Shining a bright LED at the back side, I couldn't see light between it and the deck. It only took .002" to flatten my deck, but it made a world of difference while checking liner protrusion, which brings me to

2- If you are using anything with a dial indicator, at best, your accuracy is already at least .001" compromised. Including my brand new sled style liner height gauge.
I checked the Apex shims with my my (calibrated, with certificate) dial caliper, and you know, every single one of them read dead nuts .020". Long story short, I dug my severely missed dad's micrometers out of his aviation box. One measured pretty close to .0200-.0201, most fell around .0202-.0203", and low and behold, one is .021 exactly.

Big difference between something certified and accurate to .001" and something certified and accurate to ±0.00005" with increments of 0.0001"

Shims vary .0002" on average around the perimeter, captive shims on the liners vary .0003-4", and the one liner we checked had a .0004" variance in height.

3- My home made liner press is crap, so a slight hold up to my last step, which is trust, but verify.

4- I can't wait to be done spending time and money on this crap and get on to the more important things in life, like chrome and fuzzy dice lol.