Evening all, thanks for the positive thoughts.
Had a day's pass to play today, so after a slow start due to manky weather I readied my trusty assistant:
And we started the bestie and pulled it forward so we could get round it:
After a brief crash-course, he was off!
Well, he's getting too big to fit up the chimney, and needs to earn his keep somehow!
He actually managed more than I thought he would, but after a bit it was too cold for him, so in he went for a bath, and I slowly worked my way around the rest of it. I wanted to hire a hot water machine, but drew a blank on getting one at a reasonable rate locally, so I had to use my cold water one. It's a pretty good one, 140 bar, and did a good job of getting rid of the loose, flaky paint and green slime. Plenty of bare alloy now showing. I still think a hot water machine would have got more off, but there's going to be several new sheets needed and I don't see much point in spending time and effort cleaning stuff now that's going to be replaced at a later date anyway. I imagine an application of nitromors and a further pressure washing will see the panels that are going to stay on stripped clean. Plenty of time for that later.
I think it actually took me longer to clean up all the mess afterwards, than it did to do the lorry!
You can see in the above pic how much cleaner the back end looks with the step/towbar removed. You can also just make out the vast amount of junk I've filled the back up with since emptying my lockup garage! Hopefully I can finish the refurbishment of a store building I have here, and get it reorganised into there (and sorted so I can find stuff). Still, at least all my bits are in one place for the first time since, well, ever.
Final shots before tucking it away again:
Back end minus step, where the tail-lift will live:
The rear chassis extensions you can see poking out will need to be removed to fit the lift, and the timber bearers that support the floor will need to be trimmed back at an angle. I'll probably fabricate some steel stiffeners to bolt through and replace any lost structural integrity. The chassis extensions are only bolted on though, so I'm not doing anything irreversible. The rear panel will also have to go. I'm planning on making a removable one though, to cover the tail-lift when it's stowed, and make the installation a bit more discreet. Still, that's a long way off yet.
All clean:
So, there it is all clean, just before I tucked it away again.
I have been thinking about how to progress things, and what order to attack the various issues. Herewith is a summary of my musings; feel free to suggest if you think I'm going about it the wrong way... This is me "thinking aloud"...
Although I still haven't properly recovered from the expense of getting the injector pump rebuilt, getting the Austin home and being able to move it into position would simply have been impossible without it running. Today's job, for instance, I would have really struggled to do. Being able to move it it's own power has been a godsend. Not being able to stop the thing is less great....
So, I want to keep it as mobile as possible, and I want to get the brakes working. Getting the brakes working means stripping and checking each wheel cylinder (there are six, four on the front and two on the rear), renewing the hoses and lines and fitting the air-over-hydraulic system from the DAF. It also means fitting the engine and gearbox from the DAF so I have a supply of air for the brakes. I don't want to be moving it about any more than necessary without brakes, so all the bodywork, tail-lift and suchlike are less important to me at the moment. I also can't really be fitting the brake hardware before the engine/gearbox swap is done. So I think the first step needs to be to pull the engine and gearbox out and make the necessary chassis repairs prior to fitting the replacement engine and gearbox.
With that decided, I have to make a plan about the DAF on the front lawn. It could really do with getting gone. Whilst it's handy to have all the bits I am going to need in one place, conveniently assembled and easy to track down, I could do with losing the domestic earache that such an attractive lawn ornament generates. I am in two minds though. Part of me says to frag the DAF, pile up all the bits I'm going to want to keep and scrap the rest, then pull the Austin to bits. The other part of me says to pull the engine and gearbox out of the Austin, sell them and release a few quid for the project, then get the welding and chassis repair work done and out of the way before laying a spanner on the DAF. When the engine bay is ready to take the implant,
then strip the DAF and put the engine straight into place. Similarly, as the rest of the required stuff comes off the DAF, put it straight on the Austin. It means keeping the DAF complete for longer, and it will probably take longer to strip and dispose of the carcass, but i am less likely to mislay stuff or find I've scrapped something that I later need. Getting rid of the DAF quickly sounds good at first pass, but I think the danger of finding I've scrapped (or mislaid) something I need, and the fact that a pile of DAF bits is arguably just as unattractive as a whole DAF, maybe more so, means I'm best off stripping and repairing the Austin first; even if I keep hold of the original engine and gearbox until I've fitted the replacements.
Once the engine and 'box are in, and the brakes working, I think the next stage should be the bodywork on the passenger's side. That crudely hacked-in door needs to go, and it will be best achieved by replacing the whole sheet section. The hole in the top of the panel behind it can probably be patched easily enough, and the other two panels look OK. I may remove them all though and renew them as there are plenty of dings, scrapes and bizarre holes/fittings scattered around them. A few screws have popped on the frontmost panel, so I don't want to find the rest let go in use. The cab step and door box bottom need repairing/reconstructing and the door itself has dropped on the top mount and it's frame has sagged, so it no longer lines up with the lock striker or wheelarch. I'm hoping to salvage a pair of doors from Lincolnshire later this year, and between them and the ones I have, make up a good pair. I'm going to pull all the bottom skirting off and make a pair of lockers along the underside of the body. With their doors closed they'l look just like the skirts, but will open up to reveal a 2' high and 2' deep locker that runs the length of the space behind the door box to the wheel arch; space that is currently entirely wasted. The driver's side is generally in better condition, although the cab step, door box and door are in a similar state and there are two BRS era repair patches that could be more neatly executed; I could use sheet sections salvaged from the passenger side to do that. Although the fuel tank will take up part of the space behind the skirts on the driver's side, I'll hopefully have another locker between it and the rear wheel that side too. Batteries will be in a compartment under the driver's seat, air tanks and master cylinders under the passenger's seat and behind the door box (the same relative positions they are in on the DAF).
After that, I'll look at how I'm going to fit and power the tail-lift. It's currently 24v and I want to run the whole truck on 12v. I could source a 12v power pack, but it's likely to be expensive. It may make better sense to run a hydraulic PTO (power take off) off the gearbox, and use that to power the tail-lift directly. We'll see. Once the tail-lift is on I'll decide how I'm going to seal the huge hole in the back. A drop tailboard isn't really compatible with the tail-lift, and it'd be a bit heavy to take off and replace each time you wanted to use it. I may go for a full height roller shutter. Again, I don't know yet, it depends what turns up at a reasonable price nearer the time...
Anyhoo... I'm sure I've waffled and bored you all enough!
All the best, and thanks for listening, Glen.
