Monthly Archives: August 2019

24/8/2019

This weeks work:

Painted the underneath of the floor in bay 1  using silver Hammerite (hammered finish, because that’s what I had, to expedite fitting the lower timber frame rail.  This involved drilling the forward mounting bracket for the lower side rod between bay 1 and bay 2.  This is now fitted and bolted up.  I cut and fitted the frame rail this afternoon, using Granville sealant in the joints rather than glue to seal them but allow flexibility.  The frame rail was screwed into place with stainless screws and then primed ready for paint.

Next job was to fit the small piece of beading missing from adjacent to the cab window on the bulkhead.

Cleaned and painted the mud shield that fits behind the nearside front wheel.  I can’t fit this until I’ve undercoated the front bulkhead so I concentrated on priming the aluminium bits and cleaning excess sealant off the beading.  Whilst the paint dried I started on removing paint from the small window that fits in the rearward entrance bulkhead.

Applied undercoat to the front bulkhead small window and the the aluminium cladding.  Continued to strip paint from the small window that fits in the rearward bulkhead.  Mostly applied paint by half-inch brush but the larger areas I used a roller.  I also undercoated the flat panel in the lower part of the rearward entrance bulkhead.

Further undercoated the front bulkhead today so the periphery has had two coats and the windows and section alongside the engine only one.

Finished stripping the small window that fits in the rearward entrance bulkhead and welded a new corner onto it.  Vactan applied to the rust bits on the inside face, outside face tomorrow.

Front bulkhead in undercoat

Front bulkhead in undercoat

20/8/2019

Finished preparing the rearward entrance pillar cladding.  Made a new lower section to match the curved profile of the lower side rod.  This can’t be fitted until the lower frame rail is in place for the first bay so I selected a suitable piece of new timber and soaked it in preservative.

I then removed the remains of the steel gusset brackets that connect the floor to the lower removable section of the side rods from the next pillar rearwards from the door to enable replacement of the lower section and fitting of the new lower frame rail. One of the bolts through the body bearer was seized in the steel insert in the bearer so had to be drilled out, I drilled a 7/64″ pilot hole with my Proxxon mini drill then proceeded to enlarge with a bigger drill and I managed to break two bits in the process.  However at this point I was able to punch the bolt out so all is ok.

Next I cleaned and primed the underneath of floor under the first bay back to the chassis frame so this can be painted silver before I fit the chassis rail.

Finally today I drilled the fixing holes in the new brackets for the lower side rod.  So once the floor is painted this can all be reassembled.

19/8/2019

Fitted the vertical beading beading between the large and small windows in the bulkhead.  All that remains now to complete the bulkhead work ready for paint is a small piece of horizontal beading adjacent to the driver’s window and the mud shield behind the front wheel.  When this is done the bulkhead can be painted and the side fairing  welded and refitted.