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.