Thread: My 1955 86" rebuild.

Dennis in my opinion the best place for blinkers on the front are on the bumper bar bolts and on the rear where the tabs are for the tub. check out Gus's 107 if you can as they had it set up like this. the beauty of it like this is there are no new holes made.

new holes may not be the priority with Dennis,,

Tony, thank you for your suggestion re lights, but I'm fairly certain that I will be fitting lights into the body panels somewhere, I had looked at Gus's 107 the front lights appear to be 'festoon' type bulbs which are a PIA especially when you don't use the vehicle all the time.
I have quite a few of the Lucas lights as fitted to No 5 trailers, so why not use them.
This morning I had to blow off the tub with air (small precipitation overnight), stand it out in the sun for a period, while I mixed some DBG, I wanted to spray parts of the tub that are difficult (for me anyway) to reach while it is upright (in-situ on the chassis) it certainly was easier to blow DBG while I had the tub off

the underside of the tub had been painted before, it was prepped yesterday afternoon and sprayed this morning

note that the underside of the wheel arches are still unpainted, I need to revisit those and when the paint on the underside is dry, prep & spray the back panels and across the rear of the tub (where it bolts to the chassis) before re-fitting the tub, it is easier to spray a tub when it's bolted down solid, it will only need to be masked up against overspray.
The seatbox was retrieved from the carport, I started painting the inside of the toolbox first around the edges and worked my way into the middle of the floor, then systematically worked my way across from left<<>>right

from the front

well, that's been my morning, the good wife has now got clothes on the line along with a Land Rover panel LOL, cheers Dennis
ps I have just been down to watch the time trials of the 'Postie Bike G.P being staged here in town today, I will start a thread somewhere with images etc,,. here http://www.aulro.com/afvb/showthread...08#post2254008
and after all that excitement I still had some paint left, so I painted the 5 clips that are attached to the seat transom panel, also the rivets

this will lessen the chances of me applying too much paint around those 5 items and having runs everywhere LOL,,.

Wild weather has again seen my work day shortened somewhat
anyway one cannot control the weather.
My wife helped me tip the tub upside down and suspend it on 2 horses, so I could do what I had to with the wheel arches

etch primer was mixed and applied, then 2 coats of surface primer, but before that I had to mask up all the holes along both sides and the rear, to stop overspray.
While that was drying, I had a look through my big box of No 5 trailer spares,

for the Lucas 488 lights, I was surprised to see that I have enough bodies, lens, rims to do the job

all I need to do is work out where I'm going to fit them, then cut the 33mm hole to mount them, cheers Dennis

just a thought,

if you used #483, or #501, #502, #503 you'd not need to drill additional holes?

Lighting

I'm sure there is other sites, it appears that classic bulbs at Blackwood SA isnt doing D lights anymore

A nice day weather wise, so up n at it early, getting items ready, I waited until 0800hrs before firing up the compressor I can do it legally @ 0700hrs through the week, but I am a little considerate of my neighbours .
My T/A was on the job as well, I went through the JSA's (job safety aspects) of lifting/moving/rotating the tub, so she couldn't blame me if she tripped or something LOL , anyway the job was completed without incident.
An estimation of the paint required was thought up and was mixed with thinners/hardener, the tub was first job away, I had it in my head to paint the rear panels and across the lower edge,

and across the front edges where it bolts to the chassis etc, this will allow me to re-fit the tub asap, as space here is at @ premium, and at the moment I need to be able to move Land Rovers if required, especially as rego for them is next month.

When I picked up the seatbox I also took possession of the lids, the lhs lid that came with the vehicle had been made up using 2mm alloy sheet, it looks grotesque with 3/16" dia sealed pop rivets in it, so I had grit blasted one and it has now been painted in DBG on both sides, it will look a lot neater than the other.
The underside of the bonnet has received it's first coat of DBG, no images as it's tucked up away in the carport, sitting on the bonnet of 113-372, I still had enough paint to do the top/inside of the rhs wing,

the gun still has about 30mls of paint in it, so I'm trying to think where I could spray it to use it rather than waste it, anyway that's been my day so far, cheers Dennis
ps Digger, I have 2 NOS Pork Pie lights (don't ask how much they cost$$$$++) this is what was fitted to the rear, I also have 2 new replica Pork Pie lights, but I did not like them so I purchased the originals about 1 year ago from ebay, you will note that I have painted areas where the lights should be, that won't be a problem either, just a matter of knowing where to cut the hole, using a 'Q-max' type cutter,,.
my rear lights, not sure if the image had been posted before

My T/A was again working this morning, helping with the placing of the tub onto the chassis, it went on 1st time perfectly, we must have fluked it LOL

the 10 x 5/16" bolts are not the easiest to fit, the 6 in the mid-section of the chassis are the hardest, requiring further help from my T/A , the 4 x 5/16" bolts at the front were a snack to fit especially if you have the fuel tank out of the way.
I then wasted approx. 30 minutes fitting some of the Gal/parts and the tailgate

I like the look shame I'm not fitting rivets etc, but the inside of the tub and other areas still have to be painted, and the tub is too hot now to be able to do anything with.
The 5 spring clamps that hold the crank & jack handles have been fitted as well, anyway back to it, cheers Dennis

I must have done something serious to a 'chinaman' in my past LOL , Yesterday I had to retighten the 2 bolts that hold the exhaust on my compressor, and I think it's going to be an ongoing issue , anyway I did manage to throw some paint on the 2 outer guards

these 2 were badly affected by 'silicone' in the paint, so they were rubbed back, treated with 'wax n grease' remover, undercoated then a coat of DBG applied

Some-days a bloke just shouldn't touch anything , I decided this morning to slightly alter my paint thinners ratio, picked up the wrong spray gun, how I didn't notice is beyond me I must be losing it.
The whole tub was prepped yesterday in the heat 38.2c outside, what a task that was, then it was washed off with just water and air dried, covered overnight, moved this morning early before 0700hrs under the carport next to the house, as the temperature was predicted to be much of the same today.
Compressor run up air lines out, paint mixed etc, areas all masked off that had to be, all I needed to do was apply the paint, well I wish it was that easy.
First issue was my glasses were still Green from yesterday's efforts, so I took them off dumb move that was, I started spraying in a sequence working across the transom panel and over the wheel arches, not noticing (because of lack of clear vision) that my right hand was way too close to the panel, next thing I spotted a few spots of paint that had come out of the top of the gun, so off to get a rag soaked in thinners, shock horror the back of the transom panel was awash with runs of paint , I quickly tried to wipe off the excess but it was way too much, so I left it at that and continued painting the remainder of the tub, from a distance and at certain angles it looks acceptable, but believe me it ain't

the transom panel will need stripping off very carefully.
In hindsight using the gun with the 2mm nozzle was a idiotic thing to do, how I did that I dunno, add that I'm colour blind and working in the shade, I should have left it outside in the sunshine to paint then moved it undercover, at least that way I think I would have noticed things going wrong, and it doesn't make old eyesight any easier when working in the shade and you look out into bright sunlight, your blind for a few minutes, anyway enough of my lousey day, cheers Dennis
some daze are diamonds, some daze are stones LOL