KIT No. 98 BUILD

[mick whittingham]

Spent the day wrestling the body work and cab floor into submission.

I've found it easier to pop rivet the pieces together then bolt into the chassis rails.

Doing this i have a nice sturdy construction with no rattles and a nice solid sound when I tap it.

I'm just trying to decide how best to paint these separate items; paint them off the vehicle and risk marking them as I bolt them into place, or paint the underside, fit to the chassis and mask before spraying the finish coats?

I'm sure it will all come together in the end.

[mick whittingham]

Another project within the wider build today.

While fitting the cab floor I thought a handbrake would look good. Nothing too flashy, just a turned rod fitted to the seat panel to the drivers left.

But I got absorbed in the idea and it kind of grew into a functional lever on a sprung pivot so that it can be set at an up or down position. Oh and I just had to make the release button something you could press.

It is a bit in the way of the drive battery but nothing that is causing a problem.

[Charles A Stewart]

Very nice addition Mick.

I made my handbrake the on/off switch for the electrics

Take care.
Charles

[mick whittingham]

I was looking at that Charles but I concentrated on the spring detent. I guess it could make it again, but I tend to make things up as I go along and try to do things in one take lol.

I made a new gear lever base and knob this afternoon too, which looks good. I'll post a photo tomorrow.

[mick whittingham]

This is the new gear change lever and base, there are a few different designs on the various models.
I like the look of this one so chose to do it on mine.

[mick whittingham]

Continuing with the controls I made the high, low range
Lever in a similar way to the others.

I made an alloy base for it to pivot in and hopefully carry a microswitch to activate the electrical system.

[mick whittingham]

I thought about Charles idea to power the electrics using the hand brake. Having already done that assembly I decided to use the Hi-Low range lever instead.

Fitting a microswitch and return spring was relatively easy. But I needed a way to keep the switch in the off position when the model is static.

So I set a magnet into the gearbox housing to retain the lever in the forward position, then spring tension holds the switch on for running.

[mick whittingham]

Thanks to a clock repair that was handed to me I've been neglecting the build for a few days.

But I finished the spare wheel carrier off and moved a step nearer to painting I guess.

[mick whittingham]

I've been working on the cab floor assembly, filling and painting to get it looking good ready for the finish colour.
I'm happy with the gear levers, hand brake and pedals.

Now it's time to look at the seats and any modifications I need to do.

Then finish the rear load bed and body panels.

Feels like I'm really making progress now, looking forward to building my spray booth for the body panel painting.

[mick whittingham]

Getting to the point of painting i decided to avoid it for a while and step back to my hand tools.

I thought a pair of pliers might be a fun project to have a go at.

So, a square bar of CCI was sliced into a 7mm thick slab and half of a pair of pliers was drawn on it.

Roughly cut out with a hacksaw then shaped with needle files.

When I was happy with the profile I cut the part in two with a junior hacksaw to give me two identical pieces.

I'm now at that point and looking at how to machine the pivot point on each piece to create a functioning tool.

[mick whittingham]

Back to some tin work.

I have had the body panels capping on my radar for a while. I don't like the brass fret so I decided to redo the metalwork in galvanised steel.

Rather than try to do the whole thing in one piece I made separate corner and end caps.

Now I just need to make lengths of U section to run between each cap.