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Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	TL truck. Restoration marathon I started yesterday on what I was calling the restoration marathon. Tonight I am not calling it anything. I am too depressed! The Bedford TL was bought new by our family business in 1984. It has been carrying scrap metal, cullet, baled rags, waste, machinery etc for 25 years. There are not many vehicles that can cope with years of driving into landfill, mud and scrapyards. Further to that it was used for haulage work which could see it drive from Liverpool to Coventry 3 times a week, up to Sheffield and into North Wales. Today it is looking tired but still working. I decided it had to have a makeover, it is after all our flagship! By the end of yesterday I had the roof cut through, the windscreen out and the wings and bumper unbolted. By the end of today I have removed the roof and its lining only to find how heavily rusted the panels are behind the screen. I was planning for this to be a quick job. I thought I would be able to clean off and patch the metal there but now I am thinking I will have to cut the lot out in order to do a proper job. Before you ask, no I have never done this before. The metal behind the steps which had all been solid when I prodded at it has been lying to me! It has been a nightmare of garage bodges. Out of 8 bolts holding the front grill only three were present and no two were the same. When the grill came off I found it had been superglued together and the panel behind it was all stove in. I have another cab but it is not just rotten its shrunk down! I will start to cut it up tomorrow. Maybe I will get a repair section from it. I cant help but wonder as my Beddy has no roof if I could have a convertible truck. The cheap answer is yes providing I dont mind the blue tarpaulin and the draught! Tomorrow I have to face the daunting task of staring, head scratching and dismay. I cannot give up as it is due to collect skips from Chorley in just a week!!!!! The spray can turquoise on the bottom of the drivers door is the nearest match I could get to the original colour. The whole truck will be painted that shade. Because it is an off the shelf colour it means I can get touch ups etc from any factors. Its an old Datsun colour. I will use the spray cans to detail paint areas of the engine bay and interior. (one day!) The roof skin lifted off with our forklift. ----------------------
Tue 17 Nov 2009 @ 22:35
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Don't be depressed Jeffo. If you can weld, then you can build anything. I've seen a windscreen top frame welded up from so many small bits that it looked like a metal jigsaw. But it was strong, and a bit of bog made it look beautiful. You have put yourself under a bit of pressure though. Good luck! ----------------------
Wed 18 Nov 2009 @ 00:12
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Today Removed the steps, step hangers and the kick panels behind. Lots of holes found and loads of surface rust. I reckon most of the rust could be grit blasted off but I want an extra 25 years as opposed to an extra 5, so I have cut most of the gubbins out. Vacuumed over a kilo of crud out of the box sections. I have decided to use stainless steel for some of the sections. I should have a working compressor by tomorrow. I had an electrician come down and sort out the 3 phase wiring for it today. I looked at it and could not figure out why it had two red wires. The pipework should be attached by the afternoon, so my air saw can come out of its box and set to work. Started to strip the spare cab. It is very very slow going. Everything is seized solid and bent. Turns out the spare wings I have will not fit as they are from an MJ. I had thought they would go on without any bother but the mountings are different. Cost for the correct wings and stabilizer bars that mount them is £1800. Hit my head on the floor when I heard that. Then they sell the nuts and bolts separately. UUUUHHHH!!! Dad and I are putting in 11-12 hours each a day on it. Roll on tomorrow. ----------------------
Wed 18 Nov 2009 @ 23:12
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Today my Beddy gained a brand new drivers door and a good as new front bumper. Gained as in they arrive on Tuesday. I have cut even more out of it. It is able to get through smaller and smaller gaps every day! ----------------------
Thu 19 Nov 2009 @ 22:24
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Today I cut enough metal out to trial fit the new rocker panel. It feels like a mile stone has been reached but it is only one of many. Cut the roof through on the spare cab in readiness to remove a section of windscreen surround to graft accross. Spent around an hour trying to get a 'jacking point' type of section made. It was only when I took it to the truck that I realised that part way through the job I had swopped my piece of new metal with the off cut piece. Obviously it did not fit. I cannot for the life of me find the correct piece of metal to bend. My dad probably put his coffee on it or something! My plan to retro fit a lower cab step, under the original step to help my wrinkly dad climb in, has fallen on its knees. (rather like him!) When the cab is tilted, the step will hit the tyre. If offsetting the step forward to counteract this, his knee hits the underneath of the door so he cannot climb up unless he stands at 45 degrees. (side ways, not forward, which is almost normal at his age!) Have stripped the wings off the MJ cab but still dont know if I can make them fit. I would be lost without a blow torch to shift the bolts. Reckon it makes the job at least three times faster. As each bit is cut out I am taking a photo and drawing a very poor diagram showing distances between reference points so I stand some hope of getting it all back as it should be. I am intending to make each panel twice. If it isnt handed I will put it on the passenger side. If it is handed I will save it ready for the next truck. The only good thing to come of this recession is having no work so I can repair the truck. I wonder how its getting paid for!!! ----------------------
Sat 21 Nov 2009 @ 00:36
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Monday has hit! Back to the slog. I had not intended for it to become this indepth but as I find more and more I cant just ignore it. As I am fitting new panels, I cant justify attaching them to a poor frame so it has to be 'bob on'. I cut through the screen pillars and removed the front off the spare cab. Wasted many hours cutting away the old panels I dont want, only to find after a lot of trimming, a load of concealed rust within the bits I was saving. I have now ordered new screen pillars for the cab but still intend to transfer the rest. I will not be cutting the old pillars from the cab in readiness for the new. Learning from old mistakes made, I wont count my chickens until they have arrived undamaged (and laid an egg!) I covered the cab up and set to the B post with the angle grinder and sand blaster. Once it was cleaned and I was dirtied, I treated the inside of the pillar with zinc weld through primer. I nearly had a heart attack paying for the can of primer. £11 in Halfords. I normally buy wholesale. There is no need to have a 100-500% mark-up on your stock. It is pure greed. I have made a shockingly slow attempt today. Hate to admit it but with my dad there as my gopher the job is quicker. I have a load waiting to be picked up with the lorry. Going to have to get a rental. I really worry the truck will look rough despite all my work as I cant afford to pay a professional to paint it. At least if the opportunity comes along later there will be a sound base to cover. ----------------------
Mon 23 Nov 2009 @ 23:47
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Try Tekaloid - a bit expensive but it goes on great hot (Summer job!), the undercoat flats down well & the colour can go on real thin in 2 or more coats for a better and longer lasting finish. A litre each of undercoat & colour will do a TL cab with paint to spare. ----------------------
Tue 24 Nov 2009 @ 00:05
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Get some tecaloid or go to autopaints in St.Helens its only £10 a liter. get a good gloss roller about 80p and a good 2"brush £5 from Slinns in the town centre. the lot should cost less than £40. ----------------------
Tue 24 Nov 2009 @ 07:12
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Try putting showing some photos of what your doing, it will show every one how much work you have to do and how its coming along........ ----------------------
Tue 24 Nov 2009 @ 20:29
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	A Journalist friend of mine has just done a test for a magazine on primers and anti rust treatments. He reccommends Rustbuster epoxy mastic. http://www.rust.co.uk It applies well and bonds better to the metal than any other. He says he has not had any rust come through on his test piece after two years exposure. He did say it was a tart to smooth off! I will look into the product that you suggest. He may not have tried it. I will go for a combination of easiest cheapest and best. I have lots of photos but as I have previously said I am a technophobe. Im not even sure where that silly little cable to stick them into my puter has gone. I swear the dog I dont even have is eating my stuff! ----------------------
Tue 24 Nov 2009 @ 22:57
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Tuesday Not much faster than yesterday! I found rust under the handbrake. On the TL the handbrake is between the drivers seat and door. I started to cut out a neat square hole to replace the rot but hit a problem. The panel I was cutting is spot welded to another panel and MIG welded on top of the join is the mounting for the handbrake! I found it very hard to get into the space. You should have seen the state of the carpet under the drivers seat. It was disgusting. A soggy mass of sandwich remains and road dirt mixed with oil sludge blown from the handbrake. The handbrake is air operated and alien to me. I decided it would do no harm to undo it so long as I returned it as I found it and treated it as if it were fragile and intolerant to dirt. Hopefully when re fitted it will work as before. I took the drivers seat out and realised I would have to destroy the handbrake mounting as I could not cut through the weld. I hammered it over and used the air saw to remove most of it. The remainder was munched out with the angle grinder. I will be able to save the corresponding piece from the spare cab by ruining the floor under the bracket and trimmng the remains off. I spent an hour on the phone making sure my new panels were correctly ordered and on route whilst ordering other bits and bobs too. My dad turned up mid afternoon with the new drivers door and used bumper. I hadnt realised how rusty the back of the bumper was until turning it over for the first time. DOH! It is worse than the old one! I managed to grind a Bloomin hole through it whilst de rusting it! I may send it for a sandblast as it is dent and twist free unlike the original. The bumpers are so tough that putting them back into shape is a major task. I trial fitted a panel I have made to go underneath the rocker panel. Oh dear! It is a good job I deliberately cut it too big so it can be trimmed into place. I am hoping to get a lot more done tomorrow but there is real work to do. Yes, I know! How dare real customers come along and expect any level of service while I am restoring my Bedford. ----------------------
Wed 25 Nov 2009 @ 00:01
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Wednesday I ended up doing far more real work than expected today. Two skips had to be loaded out and two loads of metal on our dreary little MAN lorry. My chicken arrived and it did lay an egg! (A post panels, via DHL, came early and when I opened the parcel an extra item I did not order fell out too!) I have cut the majority of the A post metalwork out of the cab but before starting on the destruction I welded a strut accross the cab to ensure it didnt bend when I opened the door. All the steelwork above the hole that used to be the windscreen was carefully cut out. I then started to dismantle the saved bits from the spare cab to replace this area. It is going to be very slow progess here. I have seriously under estimated how many spot welds there are and how long it takes to not only cut through each one but to grind off all the remains. My spot weld cutter has gone bald after about 30 inches of use. I guess the sand blasting will take an entire day. Due to the roof letting in water and allowing it to run inside the structure of the cab for over ten years, it is rather rusted. Sand blasting is quite an experience if you have never done it before. The grit gets into every orifice. It hits, bounces and lands 20foot further away than you expect it to. The grit costs a fortune and empties out of the gun in moments. The process is desperately slow unless you use bigger grit which will ruin the panels. The grit ruins your face visor so you cannot see where the gun is pointed and when your ears get itchy and you rub them you just grind the grit into your skin and regret it! ----------------------
Thu 26 Nov 2009 @ 00:16
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Hell its Thursday already! Spent the whole day (11hours) doing little more than grind. Didnt even start with the sand blaster. Wow its hard and slow. My dad has managed to undo one edge of the passenger doorskin. I have been doing that blooming roof panel and realise it is probably all I will be doing tomorrow too. I spent over an hour on the phone trying to hunt down a primer that did very well in Practical classics test in March 2007. The website was a defunct address. I rang so many different places and google searched under every heading I could think of. Its called Bonda primer. I eventually rang the manufacturer (got the tel no. from Practical classics). They only supply one outlet on the other side of the city. The store owner told me they only stock the wood primer! He said Bonda was a bit of a Reggie Perrin set up! They have a product thats good and every one wants it but they dont seem to want to sell it to you. Could take him a month to get a can!!!!!! I have a can of Corroless from Eastwoods. I hope it hasnt gone off in the tin. Failing that I will make do with Zinc 182 and weld through primer. I just need a quick cover for the metal after the blasting, before it oxidises. I will then blow the expensive stuff over the top of whole thing. I dont want to load my spray gun every time I have sand blasted the odd little bit. I have now got a back log of over 5ton of metal to process by hand. Bedford first, work later! ----------------------
Thu 26 Nov 2009 @ 23:19
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Friday Well I was too tired and moody on friday to give an update. I have had the sandblaster running for hours. I even had grit in my underpants! The noise from the gun is really deafening. I have had ear muffs on. With the compressor pumping away too, it made for a deafening day. The grit got beween my teeth and under my tongue. I blew my nose and I swear half my right lung came out! I took a couple of hours out to go and nose around a Bedford being broken for spares and I picked up a couple of odds and ends. My special no-rust primer should arrive on Monday. I spent a while researching and gassing on the phone. I was going to Dinitrol treat the cab but I have ordered an alternative product which is made to the same specification. The military use it to salt water proof their Landrovers. I zinc sprayed the bits that I sandblasted but I think I would have been better doing it with the primer that hasnt arrived yet. I am able to overcoat the zinc. It is hard to know what to do for best but I do not want to find out I made the wrong choice when it rots out! I will decide how much to do on it tomorrow by the size of my hangover! ----------------------
Sun 29 Nov 2009 @ 01:49
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	and your problem is:* ----------------------
Sun 29 Nov 2009 @ 02:05
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	My problem is that as a pair of underpants is meant to last a month......... ----------------------
Sun 29 Nov 2009 @ 02:14
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	is that on the beer or normal working hours:D ----------------------
Sun 29 Nov 2009 @ 02:19
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	I dont do normal anything let alone working hours. As I rather stupidly hadnt drunk enough last night I was fine when I woke up and able to go and do more work. I had no excuse! Sunday The passenger door came off the cab today. The securing bolts were out in seconds but the door check strap would not budge. A combination of the grinder a chisel and a hammer taught it a lesson, eventually! The doors are heavy. When the bolts are undone you have two choices, struggle and gently lower it to the floor or take a Jeremy Clarkson approach by standing back and letting it fall! I am re skinning the door so the careful option was preferable. I started to do a 'little' repair to the engine hatch. I cut away a little bit and then another and another. I was cutting away sound material but the metal in the void behind was not in the same condition. I cant leave the hidden rot there. It isnt going to stay hidden forever so it has to come out now. I repaired the lower edge by butt weling in a new piece. I then sand blasted the panel and produced so many pin holes that it was back to the drawing board. I tried plugging the holes with weld but it was a silly thing to attempt. I cut out this section and replaced it with a piece which I had also shaped and butt welded. I have ground the welds smooth were the panels sit on top of each other so there wont be any fouling. Where the weld will be within the void between the panels it cannot be seen and does not matter so I have not gone to town on it in the same way. I could have replaced the panel with a used one but as I know they have a habit of hiding rot within I thought it would be better to cut open what I had and gut any nasties within. That said if I cannot make the outer skin repair neatly enough to do the job invisibly I may turn to plan B which is to dismantle the spare panel and do a complete re skin knowing the rust isnt there. I dont dare start on the passenger side!!! ----------------------
Sun 29 Nov 2009 @ 22:01
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Monday - Yawn! I spent the morning playing 'musical scrapyards' at our depot. Got a few work related things done. Have just arranged for a chap to do a couple of jobs for us using his AWD truck. (For some reason I am not able to use our TL to do it!!!) It is the only other Bedford I know of that is still operating in our line of work. I have spent the entire afternoon and evening (13hour day) running the grinder around the roof gutter and the framework on the top of the cab. My dad has been undoing the passenger door skin from its shell but as we are doing these jobs without instuctions or experience we are both hitting snags. I do not feel I have achieved much at all today. Had to be done though. I fitted a tarpaulin around the inside of the cab with gaffa tape and test sand blasted a spot on the frame where the new roof is going. None of the grit landed on the tarp and it threw the most awful mess of dust and grit into the air. None of my grit will get saved this way and at £35 a bucket I cannot risk losing it all. The other major problem is where the grit is going to land and what harm it can do when it gets inside things I want to keep. I cannot hang tarps from the ceiling to the cab as the roof is around 20 foot up and there is nowhere to lean a ladder or hang a hook. I also cannot dust sheet all of our 4000 square feet of depot. A rethink is in order me thinks! My majic primer has arrived. It is meant to be so good that it can be left unpainted as an ultra resilient topcoat. I am taking no chances and am removing every spec of rust I find anyway. My plan is to fit the metal above the windscreen tomorrow ----------------------
Mon 30 Nov 2009 @ 23:59
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Jeffo, you do me the world of good, i think i've had a crap day then i get home and read your post,my god it's tuesday already, keep it up. ----------------------
Tue 01 Dec 2009 @ 00:53
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