RobHay's Shed

[RobHay]

Nothing yet.
Will attempt to reconstruct the re-building of the 1968 SIIA and later the Fire Tender

[RobHay]

Hopefully I have managed to transfer most of the post on my continuing rebuild of: -
"Redcliffe" RobHay's 1968 Series IIA 109 GS

I thought I had better start putting up some info on the restoration of the 109 GS that Ho and I brought back from Redcliffe; Vehicle has not got a name at present hence the 'Redcliffe" as a stand in moniker.

This is not going to be a strip down and re-build as the vehicle does not need it, the chassis etc is in pristene condition so am only going to do the cabin, tub and tizzy the engine up.

My intention is to fit a 7 bar oil cooler along with associated sump and oil gauges, both pressure and temp.

Fit a new electronic distributor.
Fit new Zenith Carby.

Fit a heat exchanger (Original army fitment) to enable hot showers out bush ( more on this later).

Completely replace all brake and clutch hoses and pipes and new brake shoes and wheel cylinders all round as well as all new original bushes and replace all ball joints. Strip the springs and paint and lube the leaves.

So far I have completely stripped the cabin and done up the seat box and all dash plates etc, reburbished the steering wheel,(It pays not to do this on ya wife's stainless steel sink).and done all the floor plates and tunnel covers etc and fitted new screws, bolts and hold them down thingys.

Seat box has all rubber gaskets fitted under the seat sliders / mounts and anywhere else that steel comes into contact with aluminium. And I have made up rubber gaskets to go under the tunnel cover and floor panels ( attempt to try and keep some of the dust and noise to a minimum).

This is the vehicle as I picked it up from Redcliffe.


Okay more pictures....talking about pictures just came back from taking the girls to see 'G Force' I enjoyed it.

With the seatbase I had the devils own time getting it out took me almost 3 days. There had been non-standard seats fitted and trying to get the seatmounts for these off was impossible, so decided that I would spend 15 minutes and remove the entire seat base....WRONG. Long story, - short...I got it out and decided to strip it back to bare alum. I then etch primed it and painted it with Protec Cam. Green.


I then striped the seat mounts and sliders and painted them and fitted them with rubber gaskets I made up under each one.


I fitted the handbrake rubber boot and decided that it needed a cover on the front to stop assorted rubbish accumulating in the cavity.


This is a close up of the rubber shroud I made

[RobHay]

Continued: -

Not sure whether you can see it but there are gaskets, I made, under every seat mount.


I managed to accquire a few sets of seats and am in the process of refurbishing them too.

These are some of the metal seat backs which have been stripped, rust converted, cold gal. and then painted in a rust inhibiting paint...( I hate rust)


This is the centre seat in place.



This is a NOS Right Hand guard I managed to find with all the CES Brackets on it (removed in the photo)


This is the original Left Hand Door, which has been completely stripped and painted.........I hate this door with a passion.


Story behind the door.......I partially stripped it using paint stripper then ran out of stripper so I got out the trusty old heat gun and finished the job, then I gave it a rub all over with fine wet&dry. I rust treated and cold gal'ed all the metal bits and pumped 'Cavity Wax into the metal door frame, I then etch primed all the alum. once completely dry I painted it and when finished I stood and watched almost the entire door start to bubble. Out with the scrapper and heat gun and off came all the paint, another rub over with wet and dry then repeat the painting process....this time it only bubbled and a few spots....so out with the scrapper and heat gun and removed all the paint from the affected areas and feather back the edges and repeat the painting process and give it a final spray all over with Cam Green.

Stood and watched the wet paint and no bubbling....Thank God......Then came this might roar like the wrath of Jehovah decending upon me......."WTF" says I.......as I watched a Devil-Devil come straight at me swirling clouds of dust, grit and associated debrie........I don't believe this I scream.....( The neighbours removed themselves inside)...........so out with the scrapper and heat gun and remove all the paint......everything back to bare metal, and repeat the painting process, once completed I set the door down and one of my wife's dogs came and went to pee on it.......I threw a house brick at him,( cost me $105.00 at the vets)

More to come

[RobHay]

Lesson to be learnt here....if you use paint stripper, make sure you give the item a thorough wash/rinse (I thought I had...but obviously not well enough)....saves a lot of wasted paint and stress.

This is the front bumper.......I have not done the brush bar yet, apart from stripping it.




The speedo dash panel is completed.....speedo has now been sent off to Lionel Otto's to be checked and calibrated, fitted new dash plugs.
I have all the various switch labels which I will fit when the Panel is re-fitted to the dash and everything is connected up.


This is the map light panel, I have new map light and Left/Right fuel tank stickers to be applied once re-fitted to the dash and everything working as it should.


The blackout switch panel, blackout switch came from Kevin Baker, I have two oil temp gauges to choose from, one is as per original fitment and then there is this one, I am tending towards this one as I quite like it.


This is my indicator switch, very simple to overhaul, although I had to re-manufacture the cancelling wheel, but all works great now.


Front blackout light is NOS but I stripped it too and cold gal'ed it, primed it and painted it, made up the leather gasket, as per original specs, that goes between the rear half and the front panel.


Vent levers are NOS, but they too were completely stripped and cold gal'ed etc.....and yes I do realize that they are Series III ones, I might keep the original ones yet as they have dirty great big butterfly nuts brazed onto them, in house repair.


More to come

[RobHay]

A member on the 'other forum' asked a question about Cold Galvanising, etch priming and cavity wax and fuel stickers which I answered: -


Cold Galvanising is applied to metal (Iron), can get it in a spay can or in can to be brushed on, generally what I do is if the piece is affected by rust I grind/sandpaper the area affected by the rust then hit it with a quality rust converter, I then wait for this to dry completely ( may have to wait a day or so, then I give it a light sand with wet & dry then I cold gal the whole piece, you can then apply a primer over the top of this if you wish to, give it a light sand again, wait for it to dry then top coat with one or two light coats, allow to dry completely, with the Protec Cam green I wait for several days to pass, this allows the enamel to harden, then give it a light sand with 600+ wet & dry, wait for it to dry then give it a further coat of top coat. Finished and looking good.

With hollow metal objects, like the door frame I use a cavity wax, and spray it into the tube, sometimes you may have to drill a hole which I normally fill using one of those 'knead-it' types of putty and sand smooth.
You could weld the hole up but I suspect the heat would affect the wax.

With aluminium, if you bare any of the metal it has to be etched with a quality etch, you can buy spray cans of etch primer, once this has been applied and dried, only takes minutes, you can then top coat.

The stickers (left/right fuel stickers) I bought years ago, one of those purchases which you could not justify at the time except to tell the missus " They may come in handy one day"


P.S. You can etch metal (Iron) too, helps the paint to adhere better, but generally I do not bother although I do prime it.

PPS. I have also been toying with the idea of filling hollow metal tubing with a quality expandable foam, the series door tops are a prime candidate for this, after you have used the cavity wax. I would not do the lower door frame with foam as water has to escape through the top section at least.

Wayne Ellard posted: -

Hi there Rob

Well done its all starting to take shape - well done.

I must admit I have temporary lost a little interest but I think it all gets us after a while and your attention to detail is inspirational....

All the best

Wayne

PS - must admit after just finishing 4 km of fencing on our property in the Flinders Rangers is part of the reason - as there hasnt been alot of available time.

…..and I replied: -

Wayne I get like that too, I have other things to do, as the good Lady Wife keeps reminding me, but I have bursts of enthusiasm, and get stuck in do heaps then sit back and rest on my laurals for awhile, then get all
enthusiastic and into it again.
I really enjoy solving all the little problems ( some times really big ones) that present themselves allows you to get creative. I have four Indicator switches all of them have the cancelling wheel stuffed...I refused to pay the exorbitant price being charged for a new one. So I made them myself out of a thick rubberised nylon sheet. Cut them out, trimed them and sanded and fitted them to the wheel hub and 2 pack resined them in place, works a treat.

I am restoring my vehicle so that I can enjoy it, I am not attempting to return it to its original condition, if I can improve on something I will, like the use of (Stop reading Uncle HO ) rivnuts, my thinking is that if they had been around at the time then the army would have used them and if I need something to be fastened down and I cannot get the original fastener then I will resort to what will work. Besides most of the things I have strayed on cannot be seen easily. I do like to use the correct rivet as I think pop rivets look out of place and detract from the piece if a solid rivet is called for.....thank God I have a Beaufort Bomber restoration going on not far from me, surprising the number of aircraft fasteners used in a Series land Rover.

But, hopefully once it is finished it will look the part dispite the electronic ignition which has to be a bonus.....sorry Ho!

The re-build continues: -

This is the tunnel cover, fitted with new rubber, and stripped to bare metal then built up.


The low ratio lever cover, I attached with modern fasteners, I have heaps of new original ones, purchased from the UK, it was just that I was in Repco drooling at all the equipment my missus refuses to buy me for me birthday,  when I discovered these, very similar to the originals except utilises a captive nut and metal thread and I think they look really good and alot better fastener than the original spire nut.


I made a rubber gasket to fit behind the cover plate, it has an elongated hole to allow the activating rod to pass through, the gasket fits between the cover plate and the tunnel cover. The hope is that this will seal the area better and keep some of the dust out.

[Tommy]

This is the centre seat in place.

Is that a NOS tag on the seat?

Keep up the fantastic work Rob 

[RobHay]

Yes Tommy, the tag was on it when I bought it.

The Re-build continues: -

I was lucky enough to be able to purchase a heap of NOS Tac Plate Holders at a very reasonable price so these too were stripped, cold gal'ed and painted, this is one of them.



Like wise the door locks, for all you purists out there I know that Military Series IIA;s did not come with door locks, and I know that it is not going to stop some poor person who had a really bad childhood from getting into my Land Rover, after all it has a rag top, but at least he not going to be able to use the doors to get in.
The locks were new, cheap and they fit.



This is the radiator Shroud, it too received the treatment, I also have the Radiator Shield that attaches to this and I have the correct fasteners for it too, (No Ho, I did not use rivnuts.....here.)



Bumperettes were purchased new, and have received treatment as well.


Steering wheel was cracked and had chips out of it, I sanded the whole unit with wet and dry, v'ed out the cracks and filled with 'Selleys Auto-fix Knead-It' you don't get to muck around with this stuff cos it will set rock hard really really quick, I then spent some considerable time with my etching tool shaping it and sanding it to shape. I then covered the entire wheel with K&H 'Stop Putty' (Nitrocellulose), must say here that I have found K&H products to be very very good....they do exactly what they say they will-----their metal etch is just fantastic...sets really hard too.
Anyway I digress once the stop putty had cured I then sanded it back applied another coat and sanded this back with wet&dry too........did I mention that 'Stop Putty' is a brilliant red, and did I also mention that it is not a good idea to wet sand this back at night at ya missus perfect, unmarked, the joy of her life, stainless steel sink......cos ya gonna finish up with a pink sink...and ya gonna spend a small fortune contacting K&H research and development Department and various industrial chemists in an endevour to stumble on a solution to the pink so called stainless steel sink. I have solved the problem and if any of you should be so stupid as to repeat my misadventure I can sell you the solution ( After all I have to at least try to re-coup some of what I expended on arriving at the answer)

I then tried various paint combinations, usally ending with a coat of automotive clear. Some worked better than others but I was not happy with the overall result. In the end I tried a quality 'high heat' engine paint in full gloss, which I was happy with. The horn button was reduced to bare metal and then given the treatment and sprayed with Protec Cam. Green .......and the overall result, well you judge for yourself: -



Oh!.......one final thing....I also have a air portable / air deliverable forward area troop personal equipment secure storage container.

These Secure Storage Units were normally delivered to the front line by aircraft and dropped by paracute to the troops in the forward area. This enabled the grunts to then store, in a secure environment, all their personal items and valuables, prior to launching an assault, this stopped any rear echelon troops such as drop shorts, base wallahs or Kiwis from pilfering their gear, . I have removed the 'drop rings to which the 'cute attaches as they were stopping me from storing items on top of it. These rings are available should anyone have one of these 'Secure Storage Units' or SSU's as we used to called them, and want to restore theirs to the correct specifications.

These Units are getting really really really scarce now and apart from the one that I have I must admit that I am unaware of the existence of any other unit in the hands of anyone else.

Of course those of you who are familiar with these Units will recognise the genuineness of this one as it displays distinctive 5 colour disruptive pattern paint scheme, which was approved for use on these units.

So for those who have used these in the past and want a trip down memory lane or for those who have never seen one here are a couple of shots of mine.




Then POP58 posted: -

Rob,

I have seen these "SSU's" before, but in a different CDP scheme. A rare find in what appears to be pristine condition

to which I replied: -

Paul, I have heard rumours that there were others out there but in a different CDP, but I have not actually seen them.

Perhaps different arms of the service had different ones, I have heard that the RAN had a few of them but have never heard that the RAAF had any

POP58 replies: -

Rob,

My recollection is from Navy times. Spent abit of time at a few RAAFie bases, but dont recall seing any SSU's at them.

Paul

and then I replied: -

Was just talking to Hodgo on the 'phone and he tells me that his Brother-in-law has one and from the description I rather suspect that it may be a Navy one.

This is rather very surprising as I was starting to think that mine was the last surviving example, rather pleasing to see that there are other examples out there of this very unique unit.

[RobHay]

also some shots of essential equipment.







AMF sticker courteous of Firey



This is a pair of land rover windscreen heaters / de-foggers I found on ebay



Has a long sprial wire that heats up and air enters from the bottom and out the top onto the screen


This the switch for it



THis is a drawing I did of it using my fantastic skill on Windows Paint: -

[RobHay]

Thank You Dianna, but you are rating me too highly

[Uncle Ho]

G'day RobHay 

Count yourself lucky to have a complete radiator shroud, as most of the army ones have the lower 1/6th oxyed out, so that the RAEME/LAD guys could remove the rad complete without removing the fan etc, I think that there is actually an EMEI for the mod  so somebody may be able to confirm that, my 68 has the cut-out.

cheers