Thread: My 1955 86" rebuild.

Yes; I recommend LH drill bits as well. Use high force when you feed it in and quite often as the wall of the stud gets thinner, the drill will unwind the remnants,

Cheers Charlie

I knew about the Left handed drills, (thanks Arthur) that's why I will have to go to either Maitland or Newcastle soon, no offence taken Chris66 I have a sense of humour, being a Reg/nse we used to send newbies off for a 'Fallopian tube' and many more LOL.
To say that I'm not nervous about doing this would be an understatement , I did ring the people I got it from but so far they have been no help to me whatsoever, so gents please get on with on whatever your doing and just look over my shoulder every now n then LOL, geez I hope I don't stuff this up wish me luck cheers Dennis
ps would anyone think that the stud would have had ?? any type of "Loctite' applied to it, if so what if any heat could be applied, I'm hesitant about heat on alloy,,.

If you pull the other one out you should be able to see if there is any locktite on it GOOD LUCK getting the center of the stud . You could try once you drill the hole before using the easyout giving the stud a blast with CRC Freeze Off or the Locktite equavalent , it will shrink the stud & make it easy to remove
We use it when trying to press bearings off shafts , put it in the press with a few ton applied give the shaft a squart & most times with in a minute the bearing is off with a bang.

Well, I've done it, I'm not totally happy with the final outcome either. The first thing to go wrong was the other stud, I sprayed it with 'Freeze Off' liberaly and just for info sake, I have a probe thermometer, so I sprayed some on the probe, in a flash it took it from 12c<>-2c, so it does work.
I locked 2 nuts together on the stud, sprayed it again, worked it back n forth, it started to come then fell off , so now I had 2 studs to repair/replace. Off to Newcastle to get the items that I needed, I was talked out of Left hand drills as my cordless (revers-able) drill was not big enough torque wise, so I came home with a selection of Cobalt drills and a lighter pocket .
I managed to center dot the stud

and put a small drill down then opened it up in steps, until I could remove the remaining threads, Wrong, the metal is a type of die cast, looks like Aluminium until you try to cut into it, anyway to cut a long n boring day down to size, I had to drill the studs out to 5/16"dai then tap as best I could with a 3/8"Whit taps, this also had it problems as the holes were only approx. 13<>14mm in depth, so the Intermediate & taper tap had to be modified to start, then finish with the plug tap, anyway here is that part of the dilemma

I was unsure about the weight of the muffler, so I removed the cover, it weighed in @ 1kg, then I set about stiffening it all up. I did use a length of 20 x 3 angle iron and flat bar attaching it to the top where the cover came off, and bracing it further down on the side of the motor, the welds are a tad rough but I think they will hold ( my eyesight is getting poor)

well I fired it up and all is good so far, but I'm not expecting it to last all that long, methinks I should look around for a good Honda engine, anyway I did managed to sink a few rivets, and use the die grinder on some of the solid rivet heads to bring them down to the panel surface, cheers Dennis
ps methinks these engines are throw away, a bit like Briggs n Stratton types,,. I've just now looked @ Honda stationary engines and I have a Chinese copy of one, unbelievable!!!.

We had an early tea (BBQ) and while swmbo was cooking it, I took to the tub with some spanners and had it ready to lift off, my T.A grizzled about helping, but I re-assured her it t'aint heavy and it isn't, a few minutes later

the chassis has collected some dust from just sitting around

I also noticed that the fuel line is on the wrong side of the handbrake lever, it should be this (RHS) of the H/brake, just something else to do I suppose, cheers Dennis

Yesterday, I was still playing sanding/filing rivet heads etc, and I thought I'd best be checking the fit of these corner items that my mate the previous owner made them up as the bottom corners are a little sorry

they do look good, after all he is a 'boilermaker' so working metal should be a snack for him .
I spent several hours last evening looking for a bag of large rivets that I imported from the US about 9 years ago, I found them this morning after narrowing down my search area my shed is a mess and I know it LOL,

the previous owner was not trying to do anything like what I'm doing, he just wanted a vehicle to drive about on weekends etc, so it has all manner of incorrect fittings etc applied, I didn't like these 1/4"gutter screws holding the floor to the supports

so I set about doing something about it.
I informed my trade assistant (wife) that her services were required this morning again, she had to hold the dolly while I set the rivets, but first I had to make a tool to support the rivet head, image blurred (too close with camera)

anyway a solid lump of wood was used to support the tool and away we went

I had to shorten them all (12 in total) so I held them in the 3 jaw chuck on the lathe and estimated that I needed to cut off approx. 1/8" off the overall length,

that allowed them to flatten and mushroom out into the small countersunk area on the floor, here is what they look like when sanded

then a quick sand all over the inside of the tub and the first application of etch primer

here is the bunch of screws that had been removed, they would have reacted with the aluminium floor over the years to come

I still have to apply a coat of etch primer over the outsides as yet, that could happen tomorrow depending on the weather, cheers Dennis

You are doing well.
I have never had to set solid rivets yet, so know nothing.
Nice straight tub floor
I havnt seen Marsden Matting since I left PNG in the 70,s

Keith

Keith, the floor might look straight, but I promise you, it has it's hi's n low's LOL. You need 2 people to help set solid rivets (well I do anyway) it is fun and noisey, my neighbours love me LOL, cheers Dennis