Howdy Folks,
Well its been a little slow going of late as we have so much going on around us that the Camel has had to take a back seat for a while.
But now we have caught up (kinda) and I had some hours on the Sunday to donate to the project.
With the chassis/engine/gearbox all but complete - sans some minor items - it was time to turn our attention elsewhere, and that elsewhere was the bulkhead! I have been dreading this as the bulkhead isn't in too good a condition unfortunately and it has been subject to some abuse, neglect and some shoddy repairs in the past. But, the time has come so attack it we must...
Both the left and right outrigger mounts were virtually toast as the bolts that go through them had rusted solid, no chance to get them out so in the act of dismantling Camel to start the resto they were simply cut off. They were heavily corroded anyway and had to be replaced. we got some new items from SW McIntyre's and then made a start trying to extricate the original items - man what a chore.Multiple spot welds in had-to-reach locations. In the end I chopped out the offending part with the intention of replacing whatever I cut out. This is the drivers side after frame after relieving it of its bulkhead-to-frame bracket...
20170618_092751.jpg
And before we could weld in a new bracket and make good the channel section we had to repair this part of the drivers side footwell. The PO had sandwiched the rusted out original steel between two sheets of galvanised tin and fastened them with some aluminium pop-rivets - yuck!!!! Hadn't even bother to seal around the repair (I use that term loosely here) so the original sheet just kept rotting....
The outer skin
20170618_092756.jpg
The inner skin showing the amount of rust cutout previously
20170618_093013.jpg
With the new patch panel welded in (I ended up cutting out about and extra 10-15mm all the way around to find some good steel to weld to), we then proceeded to transfer the captive nuts for the hinges from the old bracket to the new bracket...
20170618_092801.jpg
And then welded in the bracket, and made full repairs to the pillar section. In actual fact it turned out pretty good...
20170618_134842.jpg
Now, the previous owner installed some kind of ghetto roof rack system that was bolted through the pillar sections and also bolted to the windscreen hinge. This had been done on two separate occasions as the original fixings (2 off either side) simply flogged out so they went to a three-fixing system, which also flogged out - so thats 5-holes in the pillars either side!!! I am not sure what they hell they were carrying on this rack but by god it must have been heavy! The rack itself was made out of old galvanised water pipe and it weighed a ton to begin with!
Here is a pic of the pillar with the three holes drilled out with the step-drill to a diameter of 20mm so I can plug them with the holesaw plugs leftover from drilling 20mm holesaw holes. I always keep my holesaw plugs for this very reason. This shot shows one of three done, and you can also see where the PO has bogged over the original two holes - which of course will have to be made good...
20170618_132508.jpg
And here is a shot of the two afore-mentioned bogged up holes now drilled out with the step drill as per the previous three holes ready for filling with plugs...
20170618_133751.jpg
So, with the pillar and bracket fully repaired, this is how it came out. Its pretty fair along its length but it will need a skim of filler to get it perfectly flat for paint. Still, its good to have the pillar with its full strength back and not look like swiss-cheese.
20170618_134823.jpg
And this is what it looks like on the inside.....makes me angry!! Anyway, still deciding whether to plate straight over the top or cut it out and weld in a patch - probably the latter as it will look better!
20170618_134513.jpg
And some more damage - stress crack most likely induced by the over-loaded roof rack! There is a few of these, but this one has now been repaired...
20170618_132514.jpg
Well that was about it for the Sunday. I am almost done with the drivers side of the bulkhead with just a few minor spots to repair. Then its onto the passenger side which believe it or not is worse! Ahh well, keeps me off the streets. More next week.
Cheers and thanks,
Plugger and Tricky
P.S. Has anyone got any info on the extended shocks I will be needing for Camel? Even just a recommendation will do. Cheers....
Bookmarks