Talked with Ron today, says cab is going together starting this upcoming week for fitting purposes doors on and such so after paint make it easier with fresh paint to assemble. Front fenders are done and hood was in good shape. Upper back of cab and top need a small amount of metal work but can be fit soooo onward we go to the finish line.
Started fitting the body parts to the frame, starting with the tub. After building all new mounts in the rear of the tub and repair the front ones Ron was able to set the cab and the pics show level from all angles . The pic of the mounts show the finish of the rear mounts that were custom fabed here at all metals my friend used the old ones to model and lazer cut them out and formed them in a NC brake, a thing of beauty and as about as close to NOS as you are going to get.
Ron got some special parts from England for the engine to refresh, it is a Mercedes 6 cylinder diesel (606) it has been talked about and pics shown in the past. The part is for a conversion on the oil pan to a rear sump for this application, it is fit on a Mercedes 648 and on the pan it has a sensor to monitor the oil level so we have decided to eliminate it and the part will cover that hole.
It has been picking a bit sense I posted at the top-back done and has it finished.
A bunch of nickle and dime swiss cheese stuff that was covered up with fiberglass and cancer underneath. Soooo the last of the tedious metal work is finally coming to an end. The top has a little work in the front corners and that will be the last of the repairs. It has been a labor of love to get the body back to zero rust but I couldn’t have picked a better person to tackle the issues. Here are the pics for you to see the involvement to get it back to pristine and factory new. Before it is painted starting in December it will be media blasted to make sure the rust beatles don’t get to take hold again and coated with an epoxy primer as the paint process gets started. The last pic is of the top back in place and fit-metal finished.
YES…
While Ron was working his magic I have been in Hawaii laying by the beach soaking up the rays enjoying liquid libations after a long stay of working at the school playing Principal at the school I retired from, it has been hard but someone had to do it.
A change of pace the turbo and exhaust came back from the high temp coater in Seattle, nice job inside as well as outside will help to keep inside the engine compartment cooler when the Mercedes 606 is turning out the horse power.
A bit of repair to the windshield bottom where the defroster vents are. Ron made them look like new and cut the cancer and welded new in and ground smooth.
Well it looks like we have run out of body work and that the top is done see below turned out great. The first pic had some fiberglass hiding the rust . The rest was around the rim as normal.
I continued the teardown and it got more dismal the rear half was badly rusted so I needed to replace the rear half to make it right. Drilling rivets, not fun and time consuming for sure. I used some 40 rear frame rails that have the same dementions and matched them up to the 45 specifications to keep a stock looking frame. Here are some pics of that process.View attachment 2361120View attachment 2361121View attachment 2361122View attachment 2361123
Try and find a good quality drip bit and be ready to resharpen often for good productivity. I use the drill Dr to touch mine up often makes for good progress and makes you feel that you are making it worth your while.
Ron got the doors hung and is making the final adjustments, these doors were something else everything that could be wrong, was now on to the next step. starting to look like a truck.
Ron is back from some covid issues and was able to adjust the doors and hinges, with getting the reveals as close as possible making progress. THANKS Ron …
Ron has some of the front clip roughed in and in place starting to make the fine adjustments and looking good. all this has to be done before paint so when it goes back together there will less of a chance to scratch the paint.
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