Remember this magnificent beast? And why wouldn't you asks Biglorryblog? It's a bit of down-under history!
Cam McFadyen has sent me this selection of shots showing the up-till-now progress of 'Project Reo' - the restoration of his classic Aussie battler that's now being featured on Biglorryblog as Cam and his mates turn old knocker into a beautiful swan... And he tells me: "Hi Brian, we`ve fitted rubber guards over the drive, a Holland turn table,and a new, second hand air tank off a Western Star. Also new 10.00X20 tyres on the drive, none of that Michelin stuff either, all top quality Chinese gear!"
"Now here's a couple of shots of the exhausts - I put two 3" straight through mufflers on it,and I used a fair bit of Fuso exhaust pipe as it is 80mm, close enough to 3" and I had heaps of it .As you can see, there`s more twists than a good Agatha Christie novel! I also replaced every air valve and air line on the truck..."
Now click through here for more!
Cam continues: "A couple of shots taken after it was blasted. As you can see, given the age of the truck (1967), it`s pretty good for rust in the cab.When we got it back, Ralph the painter painted the whole lot in a 2 pack epoxy primer to seal it up."
Now BLB's apologies if the order of things is a bit out of kilter but I think we're still on track.
Cam says: "Reo. Because I`ve got a busy sort of a job, I decided I would repair the truck in stages, as opposed to pulling the whole thing apart and having a massive amount of work to put it back together. I've seen other poeple strip machines down to nothing and then never get around to putting them back together. So I've tried to rebuild the truck one job at a time. I know a lot of poeple don`t agree with going about it this way, but, if you`ve got a lot of things happening in your life, and you know the thing your working on can be mobile under it`s own steam in a week or so at any given time, it takes a bit of pressure off!"
"First things first, I pulled out the gearbox, seeing as how the clutch was (using a technical term) 'rooted'. While the gearbox was out, I thought I`d get to the other stuff that's easy to get to with the gearbox out. The compressor was that stuffed the air system was running on an airated oil mixture, so it needed a set of rings,and a bit of a reco. It runs off one of the cam shafts at the rear of the motor, so with the gearbox out it is easy to get to. The power Steering pump was also replaced,and new hoses made. As you can see from the top pic, the pitman arm/sector shaft splines on the steering box where a bit worn. Oddly enough,the attempt at welding them together has failed, contributing to the 1/3 of a turn of free travel in the steering wheel. I`m reasonably certain Queensland Transport (our registration authority) might not have been completely at home with the repair. I found a similar steering assembly at a wrecking yard on a White 9000, which after a bit of modification fitted up. I made new hoses and ran them so that they followed the firewall and looked neat!"
"Now here's a couple of before and after pics of the steering box and hoses. I replaced the starter motor as well at this stage,and because you have to take the stater motor off to get to the shock absorbers,and the exhaust manifold to get to the starter motor,it was the perfect oportunity to replace the shockies. I also had the engine mounts re-rubbered, and replaced the output shaft seal in the gearbox before whacking it back in."
"The fuel tank was a bit R/S, so I bought two new Isuzu FRR 550 tanks as new take-offs as they were very close to the same dimensions. We cut the top and side out of them, bumped a bit of 2mm checker plate around,and cut steps into them,and they look close enough to original."
And here's the before...
And the after... And yes this one below is out of order but I'm posting them up as quick as I can!
"A pic of the truck just before it went to the blast yard. You may notice the 20litre 'fuel tank' on the passenger's side - pictured below). It took them 2 weeks to get around to blasting it, during which time Brisbane had a bit of its sub-tropical rainfall which displaced the diesel in the drum. The first I heard of it was when they rang me to say it wouldn`t start.The drum was nearly full of water, the primary fuel filter was also full off water, and the secondary was about 2/3rds full of the same stuff. After draining all of the above and refilling with diesel it didn`t actually take much to get it to go! They then repayed me by using the emergency stop and wondering why it wouldn`t go again. I was glad to get it home!"
Well we look foward to further reports Cam when the day job doesn't get in the way! Cheers, BLB.
excellent report cam,please keep em coming.the part about third parties causing all manner of mayhem really struck a cord with me!"been there" as they say!some of the biggest problems we have ever encountered on our restorations have been caused by "others" that you have to use!!!!
The GM/Detroit emergency stop -- How well I remember it! Can't begin to remember how many call outs I had courtesy that handy little gadget.
There it sat, in the middle of the dash... all bright red and beautiful... and the boss had said to you what ever you do don't touch that - OK?
How long could a keen young Zambian driver resist such exquisite temptation???
Has anyone had the trick of a (supposed!) mate sneak into the cab while you were winding up your tie down straps and he gradually increased the revs!!
After you had flung away whatever you were rolling up and galloped frantically to the drivers door with that red stop button and runaway Detroits on your mind and found him there grinning at you. What did you say?
Ah! Those memories!
Mike
My favourite was when some clever Dick with an airconditioned truck left it running in the yard with the windows wound up on a 40C day. Just quietly open the door, turn that a/c off, heater onto full and shut the door again.