M101 Cdn Rebuild

Also been working on patching the holes left from removing the tie downs. I tried holding the patches in place with magnets but it became apparent that the tub sheet metal is a bit wavy so the patches wouldn't line up all the way around the circumference. I struck on the idea of making a two piece clamp that would double as a heat sink for the welding.





Here's some shots of the tailgate patch; for some reason I seem to weld better on horizontal things rather than vertical











The sides didn't come out quite as nicely-





I had to add a lot of booger bumps to the front drives side hole as there was quite a bit of wastage; I need to build the thickness up.



Once the welds are ground down it passes the finger test, no noticeable bumps / dips, with a bit of filler you'll never be able to tell it was patched

 

Been a while since I updated, partially been doing other things, mostly just getting sick & tired of working on this thing. Probably a lot of it is just the dirt & clutter sucking the life out of me,I suspect there will be a major cleanup in the very near future.



You will note I did finally get the axle painted to an acceptable degree.

Mostly what's sucked the life out of me is the floor- I thought I was going to get away with a couple of patches but as I got into it I found what I thought was good metal was tissue thin.




Of course the rotten patches were right where the bed is welded to the cross bar the shocks mount to so a simple series of cuts wasn't going to cut it, this was more of a surgical procedure














No those aren't holes, it's just the shininess from grinding makes it look like that.

 

Couldn't face working on the floor this weekend so I moved onto some other stuff.

Tried to do some sandblasting on the removable bitties but it turns out I bought the wrong sized grit- kept plugging the nozzle This was the best I was able to manage, it's probably good enough but I'll get some of the proper stuff this week & give it another try.




I also took the plunge on the new tongues. One happy thing that *did* happen was I discouvered that brackets that tie the tongues to the front of the frame fit my replacement tubing I was assuming since the tube is a bit thicker than the old c channel this was going to be an issue.




Cut to the proper length marked for the holes-




I don't usually use the mill as a drill press but considering the size, the thickness of the tube and the support afforded by the table I made an exception in this case.




Holed & trimmed to fit into the pintle casting & frame receivers.






That's it for this installment.

 

Thanks

I could have got away with just replacing the springs & tongues but it would have needed more work not too many years down the road. This way I know it's going to good for another 20-30 years or so, maybe even longer than I'll be around.

 

Made some apparent progress this weekend

Got all the crap cleaned out, finished off the grinding and banged a lot of dents into submission.




Did some figur'n on mounting the new fenders, had to see where the tire ended up with the axle on the bump stop




Something doesn't seem right...




Ok that'll work, we'll keep them





They're not quite where they would be on a Bantum or M100 but they don't look too bad.

Hmmm...





Nah.

 

Cleaned up the scaly crud on the wheels prior to sand blasting. They're in a lot better shape than I thought.








OK it's time to pop it back upright. I went over the floor with the wire cup but there's a lot of work left to do.




I fixed the roasted hat channel with 1 1/4" tube. More banging on the bumps.



Another weekend done.

 

Oh yeah, also got the right stuff for the sand plaster- Working much better

 

BangBangBanghHeatShrinkBangBangBang.

Repeat.

Spent the weekend chasing dents bumps & ripples. Success is debatable






Ever get impatient waiting for POR15 to cure? A piece of plastic, a crucible with a quart of water & a foundry furnace capable of 2000 degrees does speed things along





Finally! Paint!!


And Ripples!!!



The dips are gone but there's only so much you can do if your arms aren't long enough to reach around the sides to hold a dolly Not sure where' I'll go with this, I may just, live with it, I might bondo the top side, I might try to get the worst part on the rear part with a dolly session when it's back horizontal.

 

I think it looks effing horrible- it's a lot worse than I thought it was before the paint went on.

I've done *Much* better, not perfect, but *Much* better however that was where I was able to get a dolly behind the panel.

 

Actually I got the worst of the back section out this weekend, took it down from about a 1/4" top to bottom to more like 1/16" Once I get the POR15, filler, high build primer, two coats of paint, bed liner & a hunk of 3/4" plywood laying in there I think it will hardly be noticeable

Also de-oil-canned the sides- I've said it before & I'll say it again- shrinking metal is Fun.

 

Some more progress to report. One of the issues that needed addressing was the loss of strength on the sidewalls in the rear when I cut the back out to build the tailgate. Some heavy loads bent the sides out by about an inch / inch + 1/2 at the tops. Bantam put reinforcements back there on their civvy models so I sort of emulated that.

I had to remove the last inch of the side reinforcements for the new supports to fit.








The supports are 3/16" 4" plate with 1" x 1/8" s for the sides.














TBC...

 

I also added some reinforcing strips on the inside-




I've only got them pop riveted to the rear cross member for now but even with only that this thing is now *Solid*

 

I finally figured out how to hang the fenders, four bolts on each side- two through the tub & two through the spring hanger supports. It's not the best way of doing it - if I ever hit anything with the fenders I'm gonna have some very bent side panels

I did give the bolts through the sides a bit of extra support; I didn't want them sticking too far into the tub so I fabbed something fairly thin that I think can be covered with bed liner without issues.














OK it all has to come apart again but at least it now looks like I'm making progress

 

Been a while, was basically down for two weeks with A Disease That Shall Remain Un-Named and speaking of plagues there were a lot of sudden tool failures that also slowed things down.

I *finally* finished banging on the floor & got two coats of POR15 and a rattlecan primer tie coat down




POR is moisture cured, the more the relative humidity the faster it cures so I threw a sheet of plastic over it, parked the shop furnace behind it with the crucible full of water & cranked the temp up to 400 degrees






As for the sides the back passenger corner defeated me . Just too thin to expect it too survive, I ended up having to put two patches in.










It gets less ugly I swear...






TBC-

 

See- Told you








I added some support back to the front corners to replace the re-reinforcement plates, lots of POR in there to keep the rust out



And the bare metal & stubbornly resistant rusty spots POR's & tie coated





Next up I can start with the bondo.

While waiting for the POR to set up I started on the tail lights. Again this was a job better suited for the mill than the drill press-





I got the lights off Amazon, not really what I wanted but what I wanted won't fit the supports They'll do.



Thats it for this month.