Sunday 22 January 2012

Update time!


As you can see from the picture above although the blog has been a little idell, work on the vehicle has not.
The panel repair work on the corner piece has been completed with new sections welded into place & then painted in bonda primer. The whole front has now been bolted together with the radiator, which is linked together with an aluminium corner section surround. This also required some welding work, before polishing & fitting to the vehicle. The headlights were sent away for fettling & re-chroming. When they returned they were reassembled and after polishing the radiator were mounted in position


The horn was completely dismantled, shotblasted and painted into bonda primer, after which the various bits received many coats of black before reassembly, testing & final fitting to the newly painted front bulkhead. Sitting next to the horn is the new Autovac tank of the correct type & now mounted back in it's original position on the bulkhead under the bonnet. The tank was copied from an identical one from another Gilford 168SD. Once made it has been duly fitted along with some original straps that were sourced, after painting. The actual autovac mechanism was in very good order and was just swapped into the new tank.The Gruss air springs were completely stripped of all the old paint and all assessable items were thoroughly cleaned and then they were duly put into Bonda. Once the front axle is back on with the weight of the vehicle they will be tested for holding air, so until that time they have been fitted up in position.


The steering column has been painted and fitted, along with the steering wheel that needed much repair work. One of the spokes was split right through, this was welded up and then the celluloid covering that was generally very good but unfortunately split in a handful of places was repaired
Finally all the pedals have now been connected up, so the clutch, throttle and brakes all now operate.