International AR162 Update

Here are some quick photos of my AR series rebuild


The reason the tray needed rebuilding


The cleaned up hoist



the timber being painted prior to assembly


Temporary guards to enable the truck to be legally driven to the Australia Day Display in the Domain Gardens Melbourne. The 4th hand looking trailer lights have been replaced with something more appropriate

Now all I need to do is reassemble the jigsaw puzzle on the weekend of 3rd & 4th of March so I can finalise it and test drive it to MSTECS prior to the Kyabram trip.

Well it is Sunday and it is raining so it is not safe to use power tools outside at present.

With help from Peter Lynch, Russ Marshall and Eric Platt (A friend from Puffing Billy) the Inter is looking like this.






And the helpers at work

Hi Bruce, the bloke in the blue T shirt and black shorts looks ready for work with his chinisse safety boots on.

Worked all day today but nowhere near the progress of yesterday.

Today I obtained a new drill bit (legally but cheaply), drilled out the last 8 or 9 holes and bolted it all together. This including undoing about 1/2 the bolts , inserting washers and pulling them up tight I then fitted the corner protectors and spent an hour fixing the chuck on the drill when it failed with 2 holes left to drill. The only thing left to do for what you see to be completed is file about 6mm on the side of one of the holes on the tiedown rails and touch up the paint.

After that it is only fit the tray, headbords, lights, and guards and we are on the road again. The chances of it being at Kyabram are getting slim. Maybe the XP can go as a substitute (it is better than taking a modern)

Fitted lights this weekend, They are not wired up at this stage (although that work has been started). We had a house guest this weekend which was fun but limited time on the Inter as we went out to dinner, a movie, a model railway show and MSTEC's Rally.

The Inter won't make Kyabram now, maybe the American Motoring Show?

Today I bolted on the timbers that form the headboard as a neighbour was coming down to help with the timbers for the tray.

While Wane was here we discovered the tray wasn't as square on as we thought it was. While the corners where square to each other there was a slight bow outwards in the sides that was invisible to the naked eye until we sat the deck timbers on. A bit of work with the plane and it is impossible to spot. The centre timber was cut down to fit.

They are not nailed down yet for 2 reasons. Firstly the cut surfaces need to be painted with deck oil to protect them. Secondly the wiring has yet to be done and while the timbers are not nailed down they can be moved to make fitting the wiring easier.

Some of the lights are still just decoration at the moment. Work will continue tomorrow on the wiring and painting.
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http://farm1.static.flickr.com/188/440540855_9e25e47cd8.jpg?v=0

Bparo,

Looking really good. Can't wait to see it finished.

You should be proud of what you have done so far!

Jblair

Not much done today - got dragged into domestic duties (I didn't think the grass was too long it wasn't like it hid the cat! ) Also it is the wrong time to be putting in new plants with the drought at the moment isn't it. It wasn't like we brought them - someone put them in our trailer at Warrandyte festival last weekend. They looked 1/2 dead then.

I did have a disappointing trip to Truck Bits in Dandenong. Their website showed some bits and pieces I needed and a phone call Friday confirmed everything was in stock with plenty there. Get down there today and the grab handles i wanted "Are not stocked any more as they don't confirm to OH&S requirements", The brackets "are not carried in stock or ordered in, they used to be custom made when we had a workshop but we don't do that any more".

I had been thinking of fitting modern plastic guards on the rear but despite the range of sizes on the website they "Didn't carry them in stock and won't order them in as there are minimum quantities and we won't sell them all". The ones they had in stock whould have made my truck look similar to putting 1960's mini wheels on a Landcruiser.
When I pointed out that the items I was after was listed on their website and I had rung Friday and been told they were in stock the answer was "We don't have a website and the person Friday didn't know what they were talking about". I wonder who runs this site then www.truckbitsaust.com.au/ :

I brought a new set of mudflaps so I didn't get accused of wasting time later (I needed them anyway) and went home.

I did get the timbers we cut yesterday undercoated or coated with deck oil as appropriate so I got about an hours work done on the Inter so not all was lost.

Some work done for a couple of hours this afternoon (the morning was spent running around).

With a bit of difficulty with the joiners (ever tried to join 5 wires together at one joint) including having to redo joins that came apart the wiring of the right hand rear is working and finished. Got it all together and dropped something that got caught in the wires and pulled them all apart :. I ended up doing one joint 6 times in total.

While it won't show up in photos I also touched up some of the paint that had got damaged during assembly (as expected) and 2nd coated the sides exposed last week. I was about to clean the guards ready for painting and refitting but ran out of light.

Tomorrow we are visiting family for a birthday (almost 3 hours away) and the DVD player has died so I may get some done Monday (unless I get taken shopping for a new DVD player),

It has been one of those days

Some more work done today. The decision has been made to reuse the old guards so they were cleaned up and wiped down this morning.

We finally have all the brake lights, tail lights and indicators wired up and working Work has started on wiring up the clearance lights. The timber has been touched up and another coat of deck oil put on the sides of the deck timbers.

I started hitting the mudguards with rust converter as I was running out of light. I also ran out of rust converter after 2 and a bit mudguards

It is getting there slowly but should be ready soon (I hope). If I get a chance I may take some pictures one night this week