Ford FAT No.9 Restoration

[Phillip]

Slow progress this week. Both B pillars are now complete and are shown next to the originals (or what was left of them).

As much of the original parts as possible (grab handles/ rifle clips etc) have been transferred to the new pillars. (The red paint is over flow from an internal coat of primer paint).

The 3/4" holes are a pain - they are used to get to the nuts holding the door hinges but spanners for the nuts are bigger than 3/4" ! Also, once welded in place, anything that drops down is lost at the bottom. Hmmmmmm.

The second photo is the near side crew door inner skin. Ive put this up to show the de-rusting process. 24hours in a caustic soda electrolysis(?) bath turns the rust into a black powder and when hit with the wire brush comes up very shiny. Nice. I'm a convert to this method despite shorting out one battery.

Finally, I've tried a different photo format, hopefully they will be bigger now.

[Phillip]

Sometimes, you feel like you are running around in circles and getting nowhere but then you stand back and you do see progress. Sometimes, when you take that step back you see that a milestone has been passed...

Burning the midnight oil this week has seen both C pillars and the nearside crew door completed. As with the B pillars the original C pillars were completely rusted out and had to be remade from scratch.

With the B pillars tacked into place and both crew doors hung, the C pillars are now tacked into place and the angle iron that forms the top of the window ledge also cut and tacked into place. Finding steel in imperial measurements has been challenging but I found a perfect match for the original angle iron in the form of the double bed out of my darling wife's 1967 Viscount Caravan!

With all pillars now in place and the crew doors hung and swinging, its on the the rear frame work which just requires a few replacement sections welding in before the whole body come off and gets sand blasted.

The quandary at the moment is does the spare wheel holder need shifting to accommodate the 1200 x20 MRF's?

[Phillip]

All the fun bits are finished for now and its into the more mundane task of welding everything together.

• Spare wheel holder had some deep, very deep rust craters that needed to be welded and then dressed flat;
• The very rear off-side piece of angle iron and some more angle was replaced thanks to another piece of the caravan bed.
• The holder for the ground anchors (does anyone know where you can find these) straightened, rust cut out and new piece of plate welded in.
• The body had been unbolted from the chassis and it looked like hay forks were driven through the side and it was simply tipped off - in doing this they had bent a shelf floor and a few bits of angle iron. I did not want to replace them unless I had to, so set about with some heat and a hammer. So I discovered it is not easy to straighten heavy angle iron! Time and heat, then more heat = results.
• Finally, managed to drive out the door hinges for the middle locker so now have all three ready for stripping and repainting. These are good condition and should reveal some of the original colour underneath.

I've hopefully found a mobile sand blaster so all I need now is a few fine days to get the body outside and blasted, ready for re-skinning.

[Phillip]

Work has got in the way for the past month and not much has occurred.

The frame is now all welded together and ready for sand blasting. Not a very exciting job but my welding is improving no end.

I received a new steering wheel from a friend and removed the old one from the donor steering column as it was cracked around the central boss and the outer rim. New steering wheel does not fit - has smaller diameter bush

Retrieved old steering wheel from rubbish pile, picked up trusty multi-tool and cleaned out all the cracks back to the bare metal frame before filling and re-profiling.

Just researching for a suitable paint whilst waiting for the weather to clear-up.

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Phillip

I received a new steering wheel from a friend and removed the old one from the donor steering column as it was cracked around the central boss and the outer rim. New steering wheel does not fit - has smaller diameter bush

You might try resizing the bush ? If it is a tapered bore you could make a tapered reamer from silver steel . Mike

[Phillip]

Thanks Mike,

I may have to resort to something like this however I'll persevere with the old wheel first.

Regards

[Phillip]

I was planning over summer to get the body outside and sandblasted, however due to the weather, work and family commitments this simply did not occur

The steering wheel is not quite finished, only due to me trying to work out how to re-cut the grooves around the circumference.

Nonetheless I have managed some progress by completing the engine and building a stand for it. I've nearly finished the wiring and should soon be able to start running it up.