Bedford TK

[mylesdw]

Getting towards the end of the first side-locker.



I doubled up the top front rail to add stiffness and to lower the hinge-line to clear the body



and added door shuts



It's all 25x25x1.6 Duragal SHS with this primer on the welds



It matches the tubing quite nicely and goes on nice and smoothly



Floor is 25mm treated ply.

 

[mylesdw]

Would you believe the fuel tank fits beautifully in its new location in the front locker.

I could even use the original tank straps


I just needed to add this bracket at the back


Pleased about that!

 

[jpmillermatic]

brilliant work, man.

you deserve some good luck once in a while!

glad it fits well. those little brackets are brilliant.

JP

 

[mylesdw]

Little brackets are from splitting down the same box section the whole locker is made of.

 

[mylesdw]

Onward with the lockers, started putting the doors on.

Using this http://www.retwine.co.nz/products/P5543-1-pce-extruded-fused-continuous-hinge-3m-long continuous extruded hinge



Completely leak proof and tested for over 50,000 operating cycles (so they say). Made in Walsall.

Goes in like this



and then, of course, you need some gas rams

 

[mylesdw]

At work we moved into a new building recently and I gained a trailer load of surplus office fittings including a stack of white wood-veneer partitions which converted into base units for the kitchen.



Only needed a Skilsaw, a drill and a screw-driver. A table saw was handy too but not essential. The only things I paid for were the screws. Good feeling recycling stuff like that :-)

 

[jpmillermatic]

lets hear it for upcycling! way to go on that....besides the natural resource issue, you have challenged yourself and come away with something perfect for the interior!

Jp

 

[mylesdw]

Helen got all creative in the shower



... and I built a locker for the gas heater

 

[mylesdw]

Just ticking along fitting things...

Water heater in its locker



Locker doors on



Some seriously heavy batteries

 

[mylesdw]

I have been building the second side-locker, pretty much the same as this one-


Building a lightweight ladder structure I found it hard to keep distortion within limits. On the first side I did it with brute force and ratchet straps. On the second I have a better technique. I apologise in advance for all grandmothers who already know how to suck eggs!

As an aside, I was sending out for laser cutting so I had a bag full of end caps made -


... very lazy!

So first I tack it all together using small tacks and bending each joint about to get is as close as possible



Next weld all the tops and bottoms, moving about and welding in different directions, these welds don't cause much distortion.


It is these inside fillet welds that really pull the frame about, each one pulls the angle in (less that 90°)



So the technique I use is to use the roofer's square to find a joint that is greater than 90° and thus NEEDS pulling in and weld that.



It will pull in by several mm. Then keep checking with the square, moving around and welding the angles that need a pull. It worked for me and the frame ended up pretty square and without much BFI required.

The more welds you do the stiffer the whole structure becomes and the less it pulls.

 

[jwdg298]

Absolutely loved reading this, never seen a truck restoration before. Great work on bringing the old girl back to life. Thanks for sharing and looking forward to more

 

[Robotstar5]

I was watching a robot welder building sidesteps for 4x4's and at one point it ran a 300mm bead along the middle of the bottom face to take the bow out of top face caused by other welds.

 

[mylesdw]

Wow, that's clever stuff. How did it know? Are there sensors or is it aware of the whole structure and can predict what it will do?

Good video about distortion here -

A decent size square is essential, the magnets get it close but not that close.

 

[mylesdw]

Absolutely loved reading this, never seen a truck restoration before. Great work on bringing the old girl back to life. Thanks for sharing and looking forward to more

I'm glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the post; it's nice to get feedback.

When I look back at the thread I think 'bloody hell!' that was a lot of work. A project that size I find rather overwhelming so I simply keep doing little jobs and suddenly it's all finished. As long as you do SOMETHING each day the project will be complete sooner or later but if you do nothing it will never be finished. It doesn't have to be slaving away in the workshop. Sometimes if it is cold and dark outside I sit by the fire with a glass of something and draw some sketches or maybe place an order for components. Time away from the workshop is very valuable for me, stops me doing (so many) stupid things by forcing me to think them through.

Enough of that.

 

[Robotstar5]

Wow, that's clever stuff. How did it know? Are there sensors or is it aware of the whole structure and can predict what it will do?

Good video about distortion here -

A decent size square is essential, the magnets get it close but not that close.

Sorry, but robots are only as clever as the person who programmes them when they programmed it they found the step was bowing upwards and an experienced welder suggested running a bead on the bottom face, which after a bit of trial and error they got a good product out.

 

[colnerov]

That's why research and development is expensive, it costs time and money.

 

[mylesdw]

So how does it work when the thing you are welding is solidly attached to a jig so that it can't move? Does it try to distort and when it can't the weld thins and stretches slightly as it cools leaving it back where it started?

 

[awemawson]

Or cracks !

 

[Robotstar5]

So how does it work when the thing you are welding is solidly attached to a jig so that it can't move? Does it try to distort and when it can't the weld thins and stretches slightly as it cools leaving it back where it started?

Most of the stuff I've worked on has jigs/fixtures designed to accomodate piece parts that vary slightly (within tolerance) so we just weld in a sequence to minimise distortion.
The worst one I did was an Aluminium box section table frame which had the robot darting from end to end and side to side to give previous welds time to cool before doing another close to it.

 

[mylesdw]

My brother made this amazing cardboard model for the truck body Mk II. He used to work in the boat-building industry, could you tell?