After struggling with the sills I left Isobel for a week, actually not because of the sills, but we went away for a few days to the Peak District. Great place, wish I had Isobel up and running for the trip.
Not entirely wasted time, I managed to find a, if not year correct, period correct radiator on FB Marketplace, not too far from where we were. So one day, While the boys were at Alton Towers, I took the wife on a road trip to collect a 1966 Series IIa Radiator.
(It was actually our wedding anniversary, which I realised when the wife reminded me over breakfast, oops!)
£20, it has to be worth a punt, even knowing it will need some work to the top tank.
After a fabulous few days away, it was time to start thinking about how to tackle the sills, wings, tub and other bits a pieces I wanted to get removed, and the struggles with rusted, in-accessible nuts and bolts playing on my mind.
Time to Spend some money, I mentioned I have a very limited tool kit for this type of stuff. So went off and purchased the following:
- 2 Ton trolley Jack and 3 Ton axles stands from halfords to start, things will surely be easier with wheels off.
- Imitation Dremel from Amazon
- Nut Splitter and some other bits from Amazon ( this rapidly became my best friend, worth every penny).
Started with the Tub this time, tired of struggling with rusted solid bolts, decided to cut off the bolts across the back, and used the Nut Splitter on the 4 nuts at the front. Job done, its off! Should have perhaps waited for some help to lift it off!
Back to those dreaded sills, this time with the truck on on axle stands and wheels off (Only one stud came out, happy with that and will deal with that later).
With the Nut Splitter, mole grips and a little angle grinder, they finally come off, and mostly intact, certainly re-usable.
Time to tackle the front wings, but before I do that, spent some time on the bits I had already taken off, stripping them down to component parts, including the Seat Box, Windscreen and Front Grill. Started the day with a little sustenance, clearly being more focused on a radiator rather than our anniversary hadn’t completely lost me all my benefits.
Back to the Front Wings. Now I knew this was not going to be easy, the mud guards inside are completely rotted out, I can already see that lots of the nuts are more rust than metal. So radical moves needed.
Cut out the mud guards, get them out of the way, need new ones anyway, and started to tackle the easily accessible nuts, with a degree of success….. UNTIL, it came to the 4, attaching the wings to the bulkhead.
I tried every socket I have, NONE of them fitted, how the hell am I going to do this?
So, I knew when I bought this truck, it would have its problems, one of them quickly became apparent. The Bulkhead, even in my un-educated view it is toast, I would need every repair panel going and more, so a new, galvanised one will be ordered at some point! So rather than buy more tools, just for 8 bolts, decided to have some angle grinder fun, If I cant undo the bolts the right way, I’ll do it my way!
Wings off, making good progress now
Have you spotted my nice new shinny trolley jack and axle stand?
The goal of this step is to get all the body panels off (Tick), Next step will be to remove the bulkhead, but to do that need to remove steering column. Now, for those that have read previous articles, you will know about the debacle of getting some gravel to put down, rather than just mud and weed mat. I was promised that they would be delivered while I was away on Hols, however got back to an empty drive, no stones. I’m generally a patient and forgiving sort of person, but not now, ordered from somewhere else, they are arriving tomorrow. That means I need to evict Isobel from her forever home in preparation, so cant taking the steering out just yet.
Don’t like sitting idle either, so cracked on with removing lots of other bits and pieces in preparation for later stages. So removed the wiring harness(s), battery tray, exhaust, suspension straps & hand brake.
Isobel is now ready for the next stage, Bulkhead removal, engine and gearbox out, axles off and chassis completely stripped. What I have ended up with however is a kit of parts, quite a lot of parts, some in the workshop some in the garden still, some behind the workshop, some in bags, some on the work bench, which at some point will be re-furbished or replaced and all put back together.
Come back soon, for the bulkhead removal and if I can beg steel (not really) or borrow a engine hoist, the engine and gearbox, and maybe even the axles. Bye for now, got “proper” work to do for a few days.
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