Tangible progress on the M718!

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Aswayze
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Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by Aswayze » August 2nd, 2013, 10:50 pm

For those of you who did not see the earlier pic, we got a real stinker of a M718 that we have been working on for East Wind.

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(Don't worry factory restoration guys, this was not one you would have gone for)
It had been rewelded (badly) then had broken in half again on the previous owner Not surprising since he had used no less than a single used lawn mower blade to provide ALL of the structure he felt it needed aside from giant slag piles with occasional bits of metal under them.

Anyhow fast forward a few months of tedious grinding, soul crushing work by one very determined 20 year old and we are approaching actually seeing some forward progress!

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Get sheet metal, use pattern to mark the spots that need cut out.  

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Contrive string based circle making guide for plasma spitty thingy.  (fuel tank drain hole)

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Be almost surprised when it actually works well...  

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Not too bad!

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Cut out other slots and such (notching around rails)

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Check fit before spraying edges with dykem to see what all needs ground clean prior to welding it in.  

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Tacked into place.  

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Starting to get dark now...  So close...  

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Heck with it!  Carry on...  



Long and the short of it is we ended today with solid floors on the drivers side of the M718!! Plenty more welding to do tomorrow but it's all fitted and tight so we cannot complain.  

We never really could get results we liked rolling squared off beads in the sheet metal with the bead roller we have so we ended up making rounded ones which, while not correct, still look pretty good by our standards and certainly do stiffen the panels up nice.   I may end up making a proper die for the roller using my lathe once I get the variable frequency drive upgrade done and replace all the 1960s electrical components in the cabinet but for now, rounded beads are miles ahead of no beads.  

Aswayze
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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by Aswayze » August 10th, 2013, 9:16 pm

Keeping on with the M718 work!

The driver side floor done, we are off to the passenger floor. Like on the drivers side, the old floor was complete garbage and as such got plasma cut out. We cut it all the way back to the tool box area since the battery tray was junk too (no surprise there I am sure). The plan is to make up a single piece floor and install it from underneath since all the unibody parts are needing replaced anyhow then add the unibody parts on right after the floor. With the battery tray, obviously we cannot stamp out the nice depressions so we're just going to cut out openings for the tray insert to drop down into and call it good.

Today:

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Up windscreen!

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Bonk, bend, groove, klonk tubing to replace rotted out unibody section till it fits.

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and install it. Added the tabs just to help keep the floor section steady too just because... Notice the new ground Rick? You were 100% spot on, that helped matters a great deal.

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Perhaps take a little break in the afternoon to install a new motor in the air compressor...

Curfman should have this all tied up tonight so he can get to work on the unibody parts that run directly under the floor tomorrow so that we can get this stuff all painted up then flip it back level and tie everything together from the top and make the cut outs for the battery tray to drop onto.

Slow job but like anything you just have to stick with it.

Aswayze
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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by Aswayze » August 10th, 2013, 9:25 pm

Next major piece is the rear deck which I suspect we'll just make the same way we've been making the other stuff then just plug weld it in from the top mostly. I think that will REALLY make this thing feel a lot more like a truck and less like a particularly sad looking riding lawn mower. Lots of small bits and bops here and there too obviously but small parts are not near the horrors the big ones are.

Toolbox I am not sure about... There is just no way we'll be able to replicate all those bends... The metal there is perforated all to bits but is actually semi solid so I am inclined to think I could just cap it with fiberglass cloth from the underside and call it good for now. Perhaps some day down the road someone will make a replacement panel and we can do it up all fancy but for now it would be nice not to have to worry about the jack falling out the bottom...

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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by lpcoating » August 11th, 2013, 9:57 pm

This is what I came up with for my A1. A little press brake work and then used a shear for all of the smaller pieces. Weld and grind and done...
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Aswayze
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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by Aswayze » August 12th, 2013, 2:38 pm

That is some proper nice looking work there!

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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by HILLBILLY-06 » August 13th, 2013, 10:10 pm

WOW, now that's awesome work, seeing that "before picture" I thought yeah right, he must have needed a hood and a window frame real bad...
But that was truly a great resurrection if I ever saw one. You got talent, so don't be surprised if you see a few more limping over to your place for some TLC... "Nice work".
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Aswayze
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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by Aswayze » August 13th, 2013, 11:25 pm

Ah the hood wasn't that nice...

Oddly enough, that thing started right up, hard to not like a truck that looks like that and fires up immediately.

Curfman is making good tracks on that one. Our hope is to have the body tied up and be able to pattern paint it over the labor day weekend.

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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by Aswayze » August 15th, 2013, 2:04 pm

Now flipped back down on it's on 4 wheels.  Curfman's getting the floor bits all tied in and patching a hole in the side.  I am going to torch out a section of the back and add in some structure there to help support the added weight of the ambulance stuff.  With the repair panel on the back, it will all be covered up and will look original but given that what was originally there is mostly eaten away by time and rust now it's well past due for a fix up.  

Once all that is ironed out, then it's time to glass up the tool box.  I wish we had the mad skillz needed to really do that well with sheet metal but that's just beyond what we can do with the basic tools we have.  Good news is, if MDJuan or someone comes out with replacements we can easily cut out the glassed in part and just weld in a new piece later if needed.  For now at least, we can put stuff in there and not have it fall immediately out.  

I am hopeful that we can end the weekend ready to make the back floor and get right on that next week.  That's really the last hurrah as far as major body stuff goes, after that it's just little patch here, little patch there, some sanding, a little bending, and we put the ambulance extension back on.  

It is our goal to try to have this one ready for paint over Labor Day weekend so that our Canadian friends traveling down to Kansas City from Winnepeg to help out that weekend can help put the frosting on what has been a particularly tough to bake cake.  


Pics:  

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Curfman adding in some underbody structure.   As you can see, we did this one in two halves which allowed it to be fitted a little better not to mention welded in from the inside for at least half the job.  

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Other side added on.  You can see the slits cut to allow us to form the piece to fit.   The welder was cooling down when this picture was taken, once it was back operational, Curfman finished welding all the cuts back together.   Also evident is our stuff random paint in every hole system of trying to curtail future rusting.   In this case, some Rustoleum red spray paint...   It all gets painted over later, so it won't be visible unless you cut open a section of the unibody.  


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Tool box area.  Like I said, this is a mess but we can make it at least functional.   You can also see into the rear beam in this shot.  Although rusty on the inside it's actually pretty solid back there.  We just rust converted the dickens out of it and will paint it in there prior to capping the top with the back floor.  

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Curfman tying in the divider wall.  Floor jack is there holding everything in place.


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Passenger Floor section in.  Looks sort of nasty here mostly because of spattered muck from pressure washing other parts of the Mutt.   It'll likely be in paint this evening and look pretty good by then.  

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Back on it's feet again.  Anti-blind-the-neighbor-kids screen deployed complements of the MKT.   You can see the rusted out section on the back of the mutt that I am taking on next.  

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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by D Pizzoferrato » August 15th, 2013, 6:15 pm

Aswayze wrote:
Curfman adding in some underbody structure.     Also evident is our stuff random paint in every hole system of trying to curtail future rusting.   In this case, some Rustoleum red spray paint...  
Glad you explained the red stuff. I was contemplating a call to 911 to deal with Curfman's bleeding problems. Glad to see he's not bleeding all over the place.
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Aswayze
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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by Aswayze » August 15th, 2013, 6:48 pm

The neighbors grand daughters came over and asked about that as well.

I told them: "Well you know it was an ambulance" "It just started doing that around midnight last night" "Sometimes you can hear faint screams coming out of it too"

Perhaps later I'll tell them it's paint...

Or perhaps not...

Aswayze
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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by Aswayze » August 15th, 2013, 10:06 pm

I, for once, did not get absolutely slaughtered at work all day and came home with a little energy.  I spent the evening working on the back end where the rust repair panel needs to go.  Like in many spots on this thing, the structure was rusted away leaving poorly supported panels at best or non supported panels at worst.  Given that the ambulance extension needs to attach to the back of this one, we clearly need the back of this one to be pretty secure.  

Plasma torch took care of most of what all was there then I fitted in a piece of unistrut to bridge the frame sections across the back.  Unistrut was a P E R F E C T fit and not only was exactly the correct dimension it even works out such that all the bolt holes line up, what more could you ask for?  

After fitting, the unistrut was removed and the tabs were added to connect all the stuff together and it was all bolted back up again to check fit.  Looks good still!   Just need to put some bits on the left side then do all the prep work around the edges of the new metal then it is ready to weld on!  

Once that is done, then we need to tidy up a few more bits on the back end then plonk in the back floor, stitch it in a bit on the top, then flip the thing on it's side yet again to get the bottom all secured up.  

I hesitate to even say this, but I believe there is a slight but distinguishable light at the end of the tunnel on this one.  

Curfman is keeping on with the patching of the side, hopefully he'll have that all tied up tomorrow and we can get all the inside bits glassed up and finished off.  

Pics:  

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Back end all assembled and fitted.  

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Curfman plugging away on the side.  

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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by lpcoating » August 15th, 2013, 10:12 pm

Your gas regulator gauges should be vertical. Also, doesn't look like it has a safety chain in the above picture. If that baby went over and broke the regulator off you'd have bigger problems then patching rust spots. Safety first so you can work on your jeep another day... :wink:
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Aswayze
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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by Aswayze » August 15th, 2013, 10:27 pm

Chain no, 550 cord yes. I DO have some chain kicking around that would fit that bill nicely though,

pause...


trot trot trot, door opening and closing.

....


....

Door opening and closing, trot trot trot.

Ok, I am back and the 550 cord has been replaced with chains.

Also filled Curfman in that he needs to orient the gauges vertically. (He's priming the floors now)

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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by rickf » August 16th, 2013, 12:50 pm

I like this guy, He actually listens to advice! When you get time you ought to just add an extension to your welding cart so you can mount the bottle on the cart with the welder and then mount some bigger casters so it will roll on rough surfaces. I was never a fan of keeping the bottle separate except in a shop when using huge bottles and stationary welders and tables.
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Aswayze
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Re: Tangible progress on the M718!

Unread post by Aswayze » August 16th, 2013, 2:35 pm

Only dumb people think they are too smart to learn.

Actually need to just plain on build an actual welding cart, that thing it's on now is just silly and not even a worthy starting poitn for an upgrade. It can barely manage rolling around the garage never mind being outside. I originally had one of the dinky gas bottles that attached to the back of it but the economics of that obviously didn't add up so we moved to the bigger bottle which clearly will not fit that cart. Upgrade is on the radar for sure, just a matter of which direction we can move right now. We're on this stuff pretty much full time trying to get this one as well as 6007 finished up and ready to paint by labor day weekend. Additionally, as usual, this is our busy rehab season on all sorts of gear so pretty close to 100% of our money is going into parts, paint, metal, radio equipment, etc etc etc. In fact, a few weeks ago it was so bad that we were cooking up the random onesy twosey t-rations for dinner instead of going out for groceries. Anyhow, the long and the short of it is time and resources to spend making a cart just are not there right now.

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