In other news I've been terrified that I need a really perfect finish on this scuttle weld, but I don't do i? It gets covered by that plastic vanity plate right?

7 minutes ago, HeavyMetalRich said:

Another option, possibly for future consideration, would be to get yourself one of the centre consoles out of a car (you possibly already have one!) and cut a hole for the lighter socket in that and extend the wiring. Could look pretty neat.

That's a great idea and there's none on ebay, sob. The other bonus of a car console is that it protects the screws that make it easy to steal the stereo out of a truck, hahahaha.

17 hours ago, skoda_cat said:

In other news I've been terrified that I need a really perfect finish on this scuttle weld, but I don't do i? It gets covered by that plastic vanity plate right?

That is correct.

I think the centre console will be a scrapper job. But keep your eye on thebay. Also consider putting a "Wanted" post in the Classics section!

Yeh, copy and extend is not going to work.

I've redesigned the print to attach in the same place but meet up with the front edge where the fag lighter stuff was. If that nonsense is recessed like that you'll never be able to see it from a driving position. I have to say this is much harder without the dash IN the car for context... but like to achieve that I'd have to stop procrastinating and get the windscreen done :P

So I'm probably going to pick up a fresh bottle of gas today, I'm not SURE the old one is actually empty but why get caught short for the sake of a few quid. I'll weigh the new one when I get it so I can have an idea of what's going on in it.

So there's a real risk of some metalwork this weekend and some overkeen windscreen insertion attempts. Does the forum have any good advice about what best to do at this point? shove it in and hope? Spooge silicone or 'something else' into strategic places? smash the windscreen and cry? I would LOVE anyone else's experience with this as this will be my first windscreen and I'm clueless and HATE WATER LEAKS hahahahah.

I know about the wire round the rubber business to ease it in, it's just the felicia specifics I need... I think.... tell me I'm wrong, I have no shame and don't want to arse this up :P

A couple of hours pass and then:

Heh the new bottle weighs less than the empty one so I don't think the bottles are very standardised...

smelly old seatbelts drying in the sun:

obligatory forbidden juice:

NUTSERTS

NUTSERTS!!!!!

I've wanted a go on these for AGES, and wow they're very very easy to use I might be in love. Grinding off the backs of the old snapped studs and twisting them out with mole grips was a CHORE.

Also jamming a 12mm drill bit through this was about the limits of my drill press. I think I need to get a drill sharpening machine :/

Other things I had to learn, sanding belts have a direction to run in because of the seam, lol... it went FLYING!

If I'm not commenting, it's cos I have nothing to add.

Say anything you like, call me names, laugh at me, congratulate me, it's all cool I'm just learning and having 'fun' fsvo.

I just want to actually get it MOTed and on the road this year... which DOES require me to stop ARSING ABOUT. That said, most of quality work is in the prep.

In that vein I got the new bottle on the welder, ripped a bit of tin, set it up with my new butt welding clamps and tacked it together.

Then I tried to remove the clamps... I'd set the metal up tight on the clamps and the tacks whilst cooling pulled the edges together and pinched them, lol. I got them out with violence.

They do a decent job though, this is MUCH better than my other craphouse attempts. It all gives me chance to get the welder dialled in a bit better.

Bit of skim filler on that kind of work and it'll be golden.

I've cleaned up the donor bit of tin, but not done any derusting of it yet... perhaps tomorrow.

@skoda_cat God bless your hands, wish you the best with your resto-mod !

Started exploring:

Aaaaand got back to trying to learn metal forming

The only place I have to mount the stretcher and shrinker that makes any sense is where my vise is mounted, my benches are a bit full up with lathes, mills, and drill presses.

To do metal work I kind of need to move between the shrinker, stretcher, and vise for various tasks. So unbolting each in turn and re fastening each just to use it for 30 seconds is annoying.

With the metal forming tools solidly mounted so I can monkey bar my meagre weight on them they do rapidly put shape into metal though and I was able to make this:

In principle this would be a cromulent patch to put in where the water drain has rotted out, but I was over eager and the curve is actually too much and working it backwards adds increasing ripple and ugly to it so I'm going to try again when I can get the tooling adequately mounted some place.

Does the forum have any good advice about what best to do at this point?

Fairy liquid as lube is your friend. Also if you have trouble getting the cord into the seal, a biro with the ends taken out to run the cord through helps. Once the screen is in place, plenty of banging on the seal with your hands to make sure it's sitting in tight is the way to go.

OMD SOMEONE BUY THIS I HAVE NO SPACE IF IT GETS BROKEN FOR SPARES I WILL CRY heh

eBay

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I think I'm going to go for some of this https://www.carpaintwarehouse.co.uk/product-page/3m-windscreen-sealer-black-310-ml-08509

which suggest it will go in both seams, gasket to glass and gasket to metal work to help occlude water from everywhere.
I think this will be a huge help since my lower rail is a little raggedy.

I called the guy at https://www.icor.uk/ today to ask if I could add a window pull string to my order but he was confused by the fact I hadn't already received the gasket, turns out one of his staff had accidentally the thing to another customer :/ but the guy is a legend, he's getting me another one sent next day and giving me the string gratis as an apology. I tried to explain that the window can't go in yet because I'm not done welding but he wanted to make everything good from a service perspective. Mistakes happen but this seems over and above frankly.

Assuming the seal does show up I can't recommend this guy enough :D

I've also found my old keyboard stand in the loft, which I'm going to swaddle up and use as a windscreen stand so i can get about it and give it a good clean up and prep \o/

I also need to move my arse and choose a COLOUR for this thing, because I'll need to spray it around the windscreen before installing it, otherwise the screen will have to come out again for paint which is a bit boring.

34 minutes ago, skoda_cat said:

I also need to move my arse and choose a COLOUR for this thing

If it helps any the metallic purple (qv) is stunning, and "Baywatch yellow" is super common.

I'm thinking some kind of candy blue, but I need to speak to someone local who sells paint.... probably not halfords or b&q :P :P

1 hour ago, skoda_cat said:

I'm thinking some kind of candy blue, but I need to speak to someone local who sells paint.... probably not halfords or b&q :P :P

A local to you bodyshop should be good. Don't contemplate genuine "Top Secret Gold" because that was over £200 per litre the last time I saw a price for it.

hopefully this melange will do for getting the windscreen in mid air both sides up without snapping off the rear view mirror so I can give it a REALLY good clean and get all the old sealer off the edges.

I don't really feel like I've SEEN the glass yet. It went in the van dirty, went in the truck bed dirty, and it's just been cosy in there since.

The new seal arrived today, smelling fresh and rubbery. icor.uk is amazing, buy all your window seals there.

MMMM juicy!

I rushed to pack up before my lunch break ended and i failed to get a clean picture, doh.

Cranked the welder up to HOT and smashed this bracket together to transfer the rotational force of the stretcher into the bench, seems to have helped a LOT, now I can use the thing in the vise and rapidly remove it to put the piece into the vise. It's nice being able to bodge stuff till it functions.

Got brave and cut a hole

Set the welder back to 'subtle' and started stitching, using my air compressor every couple of zaps to cool the panel back down

Welds flatted back and zinc primer smashed on to try and keep it safe.

The next project that's been waiting patiently since BEFORE we got this truck.

Tomorrow I'll hopefully commit to the section of this donor part that I want to use and liberate it from the structure it's trapped in. I have a spot weld drill which should help get it free.

I've not forgotten to restore the drain hole, I plan to run some water into the gutter when it's welded into the truck and see exactly where the water pools and drill there.

The view from the back seems ok, decent penetration in the main anyway.

I played games with my spot rivet drill

And with maximum effort the lower panel of the donor scuttle has been removed!

I think all that 'yellow' is waxoil or similar. whatever it is it seems to have done a half decent job. certainly seeped into all the seams as gravity allowed.

I also repaired another section of the lip where the windscreen attaches and dressed the repairs so they follow the line of the rubber sensibly with no steps.

I did intend to split the scuttle from the remains of the firewall on both the donor and recipient but after doing some cleanup, the firewall on the recipient is pretty trash so we're keeping the donor pinch seal intact and cutting lower down the firewall in the truck and butt welding in.

That drama will have to wait for another evening, or an excited evening because I get tired sometimes and doing this with a clear head seems the best as I only get one chance to get it right.

I'm pretty happy though that the welder is dialled in to punch all the way through without blowing out. It's going to be a good meter or so of weld that's going to be needed to patch this cut and shut together.

1 hour ago, skoda_cat said:

I think all that 'yellow' is waxoil or similar. whatever it is it seems to have done a half decent job. certainly seeped into all the seams as gravity allowed.

That's certainly how "Finnegan's Waxoyl" used to work.

Oh yeh I forgot to say, I took the bonnet off for better access so that’s probably it, the thing will never get back on the road lol. Its the only actual dismantlement I’ve done, heh.

On 21/04/2025 at 10:44, HeavyMetalRich said:

But yeah if they're still stinking, new ones would be good. I would be getting myself some stuff that would cut down on the noise a bit more.

Are there any products you’d recommend? I have some bitumenous foil backed panels that I can shove in the doors or on the back panel to damp vibrations but I have no ideas about modern underlay. I want a nice foot feel, but yeh less noise would be fine too!

14 hours ago, skoda_cat said:

Are there any products you’d recommend? I have some bitumenous foil backed panels that I can shove in the doors or on the back panel to damp vibrations but I have no ideas about modern underlay. I want a nice foot feel, but yeh less noise would be fine too!

I'm not sure about underlays either to be honest. The foil backed stuff you have should do a reasonable job beneath the underlay I would think though.

oops.