De-rusting a 6x6 cab

JackM · #1 (**permalink**) 25th February 2010, 11:17 PM

This 6x6 Inter (Chassis # 3861 - with notations on the REMLR list, that it was a 2 Cav vehicle), belongs to a friend. The three of us (you might remember us from such movies as the Landrover Ambulance restoration), were at a loose end so to speak and were cleverly conned into helping with the restoration of this Inter’s cab. The promise of incentives like BBQ lunches and lots of refreshments, helped carry the day, with some of the more gullible of the Team.

Anyway, the cab on this truck like most of them, had seen far better days and was rusted out in large patches around the top of the cab, the gutters and the flooring. As there was a spare cab, the owner decided on a cut and shut of the cab roof. Sounds easy and painless when you say it quickly, but this is our second working day and we probably have another two to finish the job.

First we started with the yellow donor cab and removed the remains of the guttering to allow a new one to be fabricated and fitted. We also patched up more than a few holes in the yellow cab.

Despite the rust holes in this cab, it was in far better shape than the original on the truck. The holes were duly patched and over two days the guttering was removed and replaced with freshly bent new metal.

During the first day we managed (with significant head scratching), to remove the nose of the Inter. Has anyone tried this ? An unusually difficult job and one which would probably have been easier, had we removed the radiator first. Not to worry – the nose came off and without too much damage.

Day 2 we cut the roof off the Inter’s cab and removed any usable parts. Once we had finished welding the guttering onto the donor cab, we then cut off the top of that cab and stashed it as a Day 3 job.

The original cab also had a good deal of rust in the LH floor and we decided to remove it all including the LH front pillar as it was really too far gone. Besides which we had a reasonably good one on the donor cab.

So, it took a bit of time, but we finally managed to cut both bits out, match the donor flooring and pillar up with what original floor was left after the rust had been removed and tack welded it all in place. Day 3 should see the flooring welded as well as the cab

How’s that for two days ?

More to follow.

Shonky · #2 (**permalink**) 26th February 2010, 07:02 AM

Good stuff Jack!

Watching with interest!

hodgo · #3 (**permalink**) 26th February 2010, 07:21 AM

What a task, I will be watching to see the progress and the teams achievements with this project.

Hodgo

Phoenix · #4 (**permalink**) 26th February 2010, 12:10 PM

Looking Great!!!

Banjo_pluker · #5 (**permalink**) 26th February 2010, 01:12 PM

Pardon my ingnorance as I have not done any restoration work at all,

Why didn't you use the donor cab, was it too far gone in other places or is it changing the REMLR significance of the rig too much, just interested.

Great job, it looks so easy from here

Acco Sam · #6 (**permalink**) 26th February 2010, 03:20 PM

nice work! looking forward to seeing the final pics!

one word of advise, which you probably would have thought of anyway, is to bolt up the nose when you are doing the tack welds...

I cut out and replaced the sill on the drivers side with the nose off, only a small job but when I bolted the front of the cab back on, the cab was slightly out of square and so the windscreens didn't quite line up or close properly... got away with reaming out the holes in the hinges and re-aligning the windows, but wish I had thought it first!!

JackM · #7 (**permalink**) 26th February 2010, 09:49 PM

BP - we had thought about doing a complete swap of cabs, but the owner didn't want to go that far. It was his choice to leave the original where it was (or the best parts of it anyway) and cut out the rusty bits, replacing them as we go with the donor cab bits.

I must say, it was originally only the top of the cab that we were going to replace, but the job expanded a little, as we discovered the full extent of the rust.

AS - we took quite a few measurements before we cut away the pillar and although I didn't show it, we have tack welded the new pillar and floor in place. Took a fair bit of work to get it lined up properly, but we're fairly happy that it will slot correctly into place with the new cab top and all the windscreen bolt holes.

We have a spare windscreen surround from another cab (without the bottom half of the nose cap), so it won't be hard to line up the bolt holes using that as a template.

Jack

JackM · #8 (**permalink**) 4th March 2010, 11:12 PM

Another week closer to completion !

As I mentioned last week, we had tacked in the LH pillar and the part of the floor we were replacing and Tony completed the weld, first thing.

After that he moved onto patching up the various holes in the new roof

and then we cut out the rust in the nose cap

temporarily leaving it like this

while we cut out a piece from the donor nose cap and shaped it to almost the right dimensions (it didn't quite match up when we came to graft it onto the yellow nose cap and that tested Tony's welding skills a tad, but he coped manfully)

We then mounted the nose cap and checked nose cap bolt holes (a bit of work to do here next week). The top of the donor cab was dropped on and then the doors, to see how everything lined up and how much we would need to remove, to make it all a neat job.

.

After significant thinking, measuring and spirited debate, we reckon that we have to remove about 10mm of the vertical pillars front and back and it'll fit like a glove.

That's a job for next week.

Jack

JackM · #9 (**permalink**) 13th March 2010, 10:29 PM

Getting close to the end of this project now. Possibly one more day will see it through.

On Wednesday last, we finished off the nose cap :

.... and then put the roof on.

It took a little bit of finessing to get the measurements right or as close as possible to right, but in the end, the new roof was able to be pushed and pressed into just about the correct position. It was interesting to note that the press for the two cabs we dealt with here, was just a little bit different. Although we were able to make the new cab roof fit the old cab body, it didn't line up all that well, initially. In some areas it was out by 1/8th" - 3/16th". I suppose they may have been pressed in separate batches and as jigs wear, tolerances differ.

The windows and regulators were removed and found to be in very good shape, save for one of the teeth on the LH regulator. That was replaced with the oxy and a bit of bronze rod. The Bailey channel needs a complete replacement, but that shouldn't present too many difficulties.

All the bolt holes around the window glass and frame seemed to line up as did the windscreens when we did a trial fit

Hopefully we'll finish it off next week and start another project, which may be the refurbishment of a Jeep trailer.

Jack

Dinty · #10 (**permalink**) 14th March 2010, 08:46 AM

G'day All, Good work there Jack, reminds me of the roll over repair (R&R turret) on a Mk2 Cortina GT way back in 1972, turrets all look the same, were cut in the same places etc, but all over the place, the job took a lot longer than was originally planned, all worked out well in the end though, looking forward to seeing the painted finished product, cheers mate Dennis

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