Well, the fender pan didn't quite get finished as I said above.. It's not finished now but very close
To hold the above big plate in place for welding and to stop it dropping through the hole, I welded a few tabs on... Like so.
I forgot to take any photo's of that plate being welded on, but on the same day I discovered I had another rust problem!! I was wondering why my tobacco was drying out so fast
Anyway, now for something pressing.. Making the missing indent bit that is used to bolt the fender pan down..
See what I mean by pressing
I must of made about 8 of these, trying different thicknesses of metal, different strengths, different object to press them into, and finally different ways to cut the steel before pressing...
Can you spot which one is the old indent bolt hole mount thingy?
The trick to making your repairs look better than they are on camera is to give the metal a quick buzz over with a DA sander first
A close up of the indent hole mount thingy.
The underside still needs a bit of a tidy up, but it's not looking too bad.
Turning it around, the raised blue bit in the middle was cut.
So I could centralize the PTO clutch plate to mark the holes for drilling.
A view of it from the outside.
Now for the fun bit, cutting the taper inside!
The hole was bored out a bit..
Deep breath.. Here we go..
A little was cut out at a time, checking the fit on the tapered crankshaft, the then angle of cut was changed very slightly until I had it spot on.
Once I knew I had the angle right out came loads of material.
Woo-hoo it fits
Due to a slight change in design (fitting the PTO) I had to take some more material out of the pulley part.
The two parts shrunk fit together.. No separating them now!
I was very happy with how well they fitted together, you can see here how good a size match both parts are
Pulley and PTO plate bolted on.... This was by far the most complicated bit of lathe work I had ever attempted, and to date the bit of lathe work that I am most proud of
I still remember the day Pete and I got the rolling chassis out of the shack... I gave the chassis a gentle prod with my foot, and she rolled out the shack door, bumped down the step as the ramps hadn't been put in place quite yet, and then rolled half way across the garden with the aid of a slight down hill slope
And now for something that's completely out of "build order" as it's getting rather hard to work out in what order things happened! Well at this stage of the build anyway, the order will work it's self out later in the build..
To get power from the engine to the trans I had to work out how to get a pulley on this tapered shaft on the engine!
After lot's of strange measuring...
I came up with a plan..
To make sure I would be able to make the parts on the lathe I used Google Sketch-up to do some 3D modeling,
The "pulley" part started as this thick heavy square of steel.
This may be a long shot, but are all the clutch pipes firmly fixed in place where they should be?
If the pipes break loose and get near something very hot like the exhaust manifold, the clutch fluid could be getting hot which would thin it out giving you less or no clutch pressure?
Just a guess really as you have had just about all the clutch components replaced over the years..
I bet if the van used a clutch cable rather than hydraulics the problem would of been fixed first time it happened... Sometimes the old ways are the best
Don't forget to waxoil your new pick-up, it should keep the iron oxide at bay for a while
I'm not sure where I would start on your blue pick-up, I'm guessing replacement panels are a bit thin on the ground... and any donor trucks would have the same rust problems by now unless you find one that really has been pampered from new...
How good are your metal fab skills? Your going to have to make a lot/most of the repairs panels/patches by hand!
I'm not sure where I'd start on that, so much metal missing! It must be nearly 20 years since I last did any car body repairs!
This might be of help to you, this chap has been rebuilding a Vauxhall Victor, his hand fabrication is the best I've seen... It's worth a read, on the second page he starts showing how he made the repair panels/patches.. It might give you a few ideas..
Your be pleased to know it's been a productive day Kenny, I did find a few more small holes in the hood, so more patches coming up.. Just not today
Today I've been tackling some thicker metal, no not the seat pan but the fender pan
Here it is as arrived!
A bit of straightening soon made the back a lot less flat and a lot more like the shape it should be.
A dig in the pile of metal off cuts unearthed these two bits that were left over from making the 6x6 fenders..
Hhmm, this looks like it should work. Ok the line is not quite original but unless your a serious spotter with a tape measure no one will notice the difference
To fill the gap between the two "er... bits where the lines get lower", a dig under the bench found this off cut... Don't worry Mark, your corners are still safely stashed away
Quite a while later...
The rusted away lines are back
While I was under the bench I also found this long forgotten 300 series side cover.
Trimmed down a bit.
See these rusty holes?
Gone!! Almost.. The patch just needs a little tweak then it's ready to be welded in..
If all goes well I might even get the fender pan finished tomorrow!!
I do Norm.. Well the Wh and sweeper.. I find small boys get upset when you try and fit them with a new air filter... A squirt with WD40 to keep the rust at bay never goes down well either
Bolens 1886
in Ride On's
Posted
That's a rather nice engine Chris, it looks rather powerful.. 20 or 24hp?