2012 at the Hammond Barn

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by Phil Waterman

Hi Rob Sorry I only have the one set of hardware for the hatch which I will be shifting over from the old hatch to the new hatch. Took some pictures today to try and answer your questions above and posted them to my web site they're on http://canadianmilitarypattern.com/Posting.html page about half way down the page. Did it that way because of the MLU size limitation. Let me know if you need more pictures or ones taken from a different angle.
Cheers Phil

Phil, the shots on your website are the cat's pajamas! Thanks for the very useful photos. By the way, if you do not have plans for your old hatch, I could put it to good use.

Rob

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Rob

As I remove and replace parts that original I mark which vehicle they are off and store them away in the loft of the barn. For future use as templates and to answer questions. Got things like bumpers, door skins, etc.

I had a whole new hatch fabricated at a local sheet metal shop, I'll try and find the drawings. They are two computers back so I'll need to find the hard copies. They will probably be of more use than my bent hatch anyway.

Glad the photos are of help.

Cheers Phil

[Bob Carriere]

To follow up on the previous posting about last weekend from Rob.

Just want to share my recent experience blasting away !!!!

I used TSC coarse black grit of some sort and crushed glass from Princess Auto 20-30 grit.

The coarse crushed glass outperformed the black TSC grit almost 50% better,

On the same rusted front fender it cleaned faster..... removed deep pits with fewer passes........ generated less dust ......and covered a greater area by at least 30%..... I also suspect that the crushed glass is less likely to clump up with humidity than the dusty TSC black stuff.

I will resume this weekend and will exhaust my TSC black stuff but will not buy it again.

Bob C.

[RHClarke]

I had some time on my hands today, so I went to the barn to put a few things away (more on that later) and to measure some hatch hardware for Grant.

There is a flat metal ring that is mounted on the inside of the cab by 16 flat head slotted stove bolts of varying lengths. These bolts pierce the inner ring, the roof, the wooden spacer and finally the outside flange on the steel hatch ring. The bolts are affixed to the outside ring by washers and nuts. The holes on the passenger side of the ring are countersunk so that the screw heads do not pose too much of a danger to tall passengers.

The inner metal ring is composed of three sections of steel that have been bent and welded together in a ring (for diameter see Phil Waterman's excellent website). The metal ring is approximately 24mm wide and is of the same gauge as the outer ring flange.


Photos:

1- Inside hatch ring
2- Countersunk holes (mind the blurry photo)
3- Width of inner hatch ring metal
4- Do you know what these are for?

[Grant Bowker]

Thank you Rob. For ease of manufacture I may go to 4 segments, once welded and dressed the joints won't show and I will be able to work from a smaller sheet. I hadn't thought to ask about the countersunk holes, but it makes sense.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Rob

Do you have the wood spacer or you need more dimensions? I used rubber roof membrane as a gasket under the wood to seal it to the roof gooey stuff to work with but seals nicely. Had to replace all the bolts on mine because they had rusted in the wood and lost a lot of their thickness. Ended up having to buy all the bolts long and then cut the length to fit.

Cheers Phil

[Grant Bowker]

Rob has been kind enough to loan me the remnants of his wood spacer. Although it is in rough shape, I think that it is a good enough guide to work from. I can also get some profile information from the driver side of the roof to be able to get the dome of the roof right (the spacer ring is not a simple taper from front to back, I could have applied high school trigonometry to calculate heights if tit were a simple taper) to add to the information on your web page.

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by Phil Waterman

Hi Rob Do you have the wood spacer or you need more dimensions? I used rubber roof membrane as a gasket under the wood to seal it to the roof gooey stuff to work with but seals nicely. Had to replace all the bolts on mine because they had rusted in the wood and lost a lot of their thickness. Ended up having to buy all the bolts long and then cut the length to fit. Cheers Phil

Hi Phil, As Grant mentioned, my spacer is in very rough shape. I am in the process of producing the first of a few prototype replacement spacers. I originally thought about bending some wood up using a steambox etc..., but being a lazy sort, I took the easier route. I cut a number of curved sections of MDF and then glued them together. Once solid, I cut the inside diameter to match the outer hatch ring diameter (just below the flange). After some sanding, it fit nicely. I cut the rough outside diameter and then fixed the spacer to the outer hatch ring. Then, I used Bob's belt sander to get the outside diameter down to the flange diameter. After detaching the hatch ring, I sanded the blank down slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the flange. The contour of the blank spacer mimicked the original spacer, but may have to be adjusted as the old spacer has shrunk. If there is any adjusting needed, I will use body putty to fill the gaps and to ensure that the bottom of the spacer fits the roof close enough to look good. Once that is done, I plan to wrap the spacer in fiberglass, sand it down and paint it green. It should outlast the truck. I will use a rubber gasket to put between the bottom of the spacer and the roof and that should take up most of the remaining slack.

I am still checking to see if there are plastic pipes available with the same or close diameter and wall thickness. If I find one that fits the bill, I plan to cut a number of blanks, drill the bolt holes and paint them green. It may temporarily take care of the great spacer shortage in our area.

Too bad we don’t know of anyone local with a steam box and a desire to make some money…it would save me some time and effort.