Another 45 restoration (1 Viewer)

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Just got a bunch of pics from Ron up at North West Diesel Offroad to share. We are using the stock radiator 4 row heavy duty and needed to change the position of the fan so it is in the middle of the radiator. See previous pics above from an earlier post. Ron is working his magic and found some parts he was able to adapt from another mercedes. The fan pulley was attached with some bolt areas on the block and seen with the designed adapter plate after measuring carefully for that special position. Next will be an idler pulley to finish the job and getting the belt to work correctly. I wanted to use the big Mercedes diesel fan to keep it cool. To finish up the job Ron will design and make the fan shroud sounds it will pull all the air it needs to keep it cool while on the road and crawling.
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After ordering another idler to complete the necessary install of the belt. Ron is able to move on to the fan shroud, this mod was really labor intensive to make it turn out like it should. Cudos to Ron for working through the engineering of this process. I will be duplicating the same process on the 35 so it should be a much shorter process. Inching the way to the tin work on the cab where some major work on the floors and bottom of the cab will be necessary.
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Do you have any pictures of the fan shroud build process?
Here ya go Michael B the start of the fan shroud as you can see the fan is larger/taller than
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the radiator. That is ok and will help in pulling more air across the core to make sure that it stays cool, I will post more pics as Ron continues to fabricate and assemble the fan shroud
 
Was a on a 2 week trip and stoped by Ron’s to see what he was up to. He keep’s plugging away at the pieces. Finished the fan shroud and almost at the end of the steering hook up, here are the pics.
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Worked on a couple of 45 tail gates to make 2 into one good one. I am going to build a pull along trailer with a pop up tent for camping it will be a shortened 45 bed style. Pic1 of me drilling out the spot welded, second pic is just after I had finished the clean up and metal work. Still some areas that need to work the stretched areas it was in bad shape and will test my skills to shrink the areas. Bitter sweet just time involved. The stretched area is where the hammer handle is.View attachment 2488563View attachment 2488564
 
The pics Binet come up so here is another try

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Worked on the center section a bit yesterday made some good progress shrinking the stretched areas.
today I will try and finish up and start the layout for assembly, trying to use as many NOS repaired parts as possible. Any new parts will be AWL-TEQ stuff, stay tuned.
 
Awesome work. Following with keen interest. Getting ready to start on my 77 with similar frame and body issues, thanks to Canadian road salt.
Okay, much more rust...lol.
 
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Good morning!!!
Made a major hurdle jump. Got all the shoe’s on the ol 45, got the rear end in yesterday what a feeling of accomplishment. After replacing the rear half of the frame because the rust beatles has ate up the old one it was nice to have installed the new spring shackles that Georg supplied from Valley. A bit more involved than I thought it would be. The reason I dident do this when it was a bare frame was I purchased the rear fender skins from South America and wanted to make sure that the wheels were centered properly. Today is my last day here in Idaho with Ron at North West Diesel Offroad as I will be coming home to Cali in the early am tomorrow from Athol with sweet dreams in my head from the time here. Plenty cold to l, had some snow while I was here to add some spice, anyhow we keep plunking along.

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Been a week sense I returned from Idaho and Ron has been busy continuing to complete the bed floor.
The wheel wells are in place with much time invested to make the South American parts work with the other parts I had produced here, it has been a process of fun and games. However Ron has come through with 50 years of experience to get it to this point. A little nudge here and there has put the parts in the right place to make the bed look as good or better as factory. It seems that the time involved is more than expected at this point.
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Another hurdle has been jumped the bed floor is 99% done and looks outstanding. It is hard to see because of the reflection of the shiny metal and the lighting. Now Ron can move onto the tub floor and rockers . There is a little rust through on the top also, door bottoms on the outside, I think the insides are a go. It has been a long year sense this project was taken serious. I am hoping that with some good things going our way that a completion date might be in June if nothing gets thrown at us sideway.
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Just got this pic an extension of the other side that slid in after. Really pleased of the way Ron had messaged these pieces together and the way it came out.
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Here we go the tear out has been performed, what a mess it was the way it was patched took longer the do it the wrong way just do it right.
Anyhow Ron is starting with the floor and work his way out to the surrounding cancer. Ordered one more piece from Real Steel, Todd was a big help as many of you know their are no steel fab shops that make stuff for Fj 45’s but some of the floorboard pieces are the same. Todd has helped to adjust the remaining pieces to accommodate the build of the floor and parameter which is just great. I have one last piece coming soon so we will work around it till it comes. Pictured is the driver toe board tacked in, next the cab mount.

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