Build Mouldy Mario gets defoliated.

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G'day Mudders, It's been a while since I last posted an update. The chassis, drive train and brakes are essentially complete. I still have to get the rear diff rebuilt and I've decided to get new hydraulic lines made for the alternator. Otherwise the running gear is complete. I had the valve cover hydroblasted and was going to leave raw and let it age naturally. But, I didn't have the courage and dropped it down to the paint shop and got it clear coated. Whacked on a new 2H sticker and glued original Australian Compliance sticker back on and some new insulators.

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Stage 298.7 "THE BODY WORK". Well other than a chassis and couple of diffs I've never really painted anything. So this could turn into an embarrassing disaster. Any advice or guidance you care to offer will be warmly received (other than hand it over to a professional to get painted). This is Mario's new body, it has a couple of minor rust patches, and a few additional holes and cracks to fill. But otherwise it's in pretty good shape.

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That cab cleaned up very nicely Ben! It's a good thing you have another lung and other fingers.
 
I then dragged out the welder and angle grinder and tackled the rust spot below the bonnet hinge. I drilled out the spot welds on the bracket that holds the captive nuts in place, then welded in a patch. It's not perfect and took a bit of screwing around with a hammer and dolly, but I reckon with new rubber pads and some silastic it should be okay.

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Another night in the shed. I made the patch slightly smaller tonight so I had more gap to fill with weld. Last night I ended up having to run the cut-off wheel down one side of the patch so I wasn't welding on top of the join. I also bevelled the edge of the patch slightly. I reckon this should do the trick. Particularly as you will not be able to see it when the cab is back together.

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Hey Ben looking good man, excuse the dumb question but what will you do behind the welded in patches to stop corrosion ?
 
Zimmi said:
Hey Ben looking good man, excuse the dumb question but what will you do behind the welded in patches to stop corrosion ?
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G'day Zimmi, That's not a dumb question. The patch on the back of cab I didn't put anything on. Once the bottom of the cab is painted I'm going to spray the inside of it with a cavity sealer and Lanotec. The patch under the bonnet hinge I sprayed with a weldable primer. I will try grab a photo for you. Cheers, Ben
 
G'day All, Well this panel work thing is a slow process. Cut, think, grind, think, cut a bit more, more thinking, more grinding, more coffee. Eventually welding. Slow welding.........tack...........tack...........tack. Followed by grinding, tack up holes, more grinding and so on. So for the last week or so, I've been working on the front panel. It was pretty damn rusty. So I came up with the idea of making one good panel, out of two bad ones. So a while back I picked up another rusty panel for $20 on ebay. This is Mario's original, it all it rusty glory.

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