Mercedes 2626 AK 6x6

[pairospam]

Edie considered the welding of the pass-through to be quiet ugly so he dedicated a few efforts to get it the more even possible and then he applied some plaster to make it look better and easier to prime and paint. I knew it was not my best job, but it hurt the same.




He went on exploring the damage of the floor of the cabin and peeled off a little the passenger side with the mesh. We both agreed that it was rescueable and no more patching was needed. Good.



As Edie continued working on the cabin I was busy with the installation of the rear winch and the electric system. After a while I finished with the kilometers of cables and the many kilos of winch. It looked pretty good but I still had some concerns about the strength of the whole thing. Of course it was not thought to bear with every gram of the GVW of the truck but as a helping hand when mildly stuck, and to help some other poor guy that we may find on a trip to somewhere.



After looming, wrapping and routing a lot of wires I completed the picture with new terminals and it was all finally ready for receiving the new batteries… almost. The choice had been a pair of powerfull lead-acid good brand ordinary batteries, able to be replaced at any location in case of failure, trauma or death. I would order them next week, but first I would have to finish the tray which I had forgotten.



To get the best of the fading afternoon sunlight we moved the cabin against the front wall and I liked the look of it with the folding stairs. Took the picture just for the fun of it. As I said before, it was great to have this feeling of progress.



The identification plate was removed from the side. It was almost like a ceremony. A new life would be waiting for the cabin when the plate was bolted back in place at the end of the restoration process. Yes… I know.



The worst parts of the winshield frame were cut off clean using an adapted little air-powered grinder that was left unused since I bought it a few years ago, and it worked pretty well and easier to handle than the heavier and bulkier electric powergrinder. It was not that easy, of course, and took me some time to finish the amputation, but when I was done it was time to go home and live the few hours left of that Saturday.



My father kept me updated and sent me a lot of pretty beautiful pictures of Los Andes range, showing the dramatic melting of the snow and the big mountain lagoons at their lowest water levels. Quiet concerning.



Anyway. Life went on and I woke up late the next Sunday and decided to take a little promenade with the dogs. Changed the known routes and passed by El Almendral (almonds orchard) church, an old all-wooden church, national monument, and ended up a hill that dominates the landscape of the whole valley. It was quiet hot and dry and the dogs, exhausted and thirsty, looked at me and seemed to ask: this is your idea for a short run, dude? Still, it was a pretty good run.

[pairospam]

Monday afternoon was almost enterily dedicated to patch the severed cabin winshield frame. I did my best and, though not very pretty, the welding was within acceptable range. I profited to weld the piece of the pilar taken from the cabin of Spare some time ago, who remembers when. When ready, I grinded roughly the excess of welding leaving the more delicate finition to Edie. It came quiet well, according to me, and felt pretty good too.







The next time the efforts were directed to complete some issues related with electrics and the roller fairled of the front winch, which was lost. I found it, of course, in a box at the base of one of the piles of boxes around. The front winch was then also, theoretically, ready to use.



Do you remember the Volvo C 303 from my friend Hugo? Well, he had been as well slowly and patiently working in his project, which began with “minimal updates and repairings” and ended in a gigantic stretching of the cab and the frame, including engine swap and some etceteras. He was happy with his little progresses, like me, and sent me some pictures showing how he was covering the Box and placing the windows, new awning and other stuff. Unfortunately the truck was waiting for some hard-to-find spareparts and was not able to move. Hugo, a quiet practical man, was not concerned at all and said that if the spares did not show soon up he would take the engine of one of his Patrols and put it in the Volvo. End of the story.





When looking for the roller fairled I found the rear electric box, missing too, and this is how it looked after a couple of cleaning sessions. Not very clean, right? Well, I used a lot of contact cleaner spray until I was satisfied and thought about making a good cover to avoid too much dust and dirt to enter in it. I remembered to have a big inox cover from a discarded electric box brought from somewhere in time and went to get it from the pile of scrap. It was right for the job so I cut a piece and adjusted it to the plastic box. Good enough. I would have to find a plug for the hole in the middle of the cover, though.

[pairospam]

Eduardo came and saw what I was doing and asked me, with that tone, if I was going to put the same forty-years-old relais back in place. I replied that I had not even thought about that (it was true) and commissioned him to go out and buy new ones for me… please. He came back later and brought both relais brand new. I just had to cut off the bolting tags. Thanks.



I went on with the repairing of the tail light wires, which were an encyclopaedia of how not-to-do electrical connections. They needed not only to be repaired but also stretched because the electrical box had to move forward due to the installation of the rear suspension. More cables from Spare, more looming and more wrapping. Anyway…




And there went Pairoa’s last famous words: No more holes in the frame! The box was then re-located. Hmm…




The 7-way trailer electric end looked not pretty good so I decided to replace it. Unfortunately there was only one model available that day and I wanted to finish with the issue right that morning so I took it and, after completing the repair and the stretching of the wiring, installed it on the rear cross member. Did not like the silver plated look, though.



While I struggled against pointy copper wires and heat-shrink tubing Edie used the powergrinder with the almost-finished metallic mesh and cleaned by force all the rust off the winshield frame of the cabin. Good. He sprayed the steel with washprimer and then began to apply by hand several layers of plaster, one after the other with vigourous sanding between each layer so he was sure of the adherence of the plaster to the steel.




When the wiring was complete I plugged the connector to the box and routed the cables along the frame. I had longer wires than needed, but it was better than having shorter ones.



Edie sanded and powerblew, sanded and blew, and the plaster dust covered all the surfaces of the shop, not only the ground near the cabin. Hmm… When I was done with electrics, at least until then, I began to prepare the tecalan tubing for the air suspension. It was not easy to route the 6 mm tubing along the frame when there were already lots of tecalan for the brake system and the electric wiring crowding the place in between the rails.



At six in the afternoon I said it was enough and we stopped. Edie got paid and left and I remained at the shop for another hour making order and sweeping and blowing and blowing and sweeping until there was no more plaster dust, dog hairs or any dirt on the cars, the benches and the ground. Christ… pretty annoying, but it was worth it.

[Rumpelstielzchen]

It's great to watch the progress and your constant enthusiasm still not beeing exhausted... Great job, thanks for sharing it with us!
And: I like your Bike! ;-)

[pairospam]

@Rumpelstielzchen: thanks for your words. Many people like the Africa Twin, especially now that there is a new one that is not as good as the old one... at least according to me. The one on the picture, is it yours?

Greetings.


Pairoa

[Rumpelstielzchen]

@pairoa:
Yes, that's mine. Had a RD03 for many years and nice tours, then gave it away due to house and dogs and lack of time. Now I got the Virus back, so I bought this RD07A recently. Unfortunately still too little time for it, as always. Did you ever try the new one? I haven't yet...

Best regards, Alex

[pairospam]

Yes, I have tried it, pretty hard... but it was not the same feeling... there was no love.



Ride, ride her! Use the Africa Twin even to go to the bathroom!

In the meantime, the work on the Merkabah continues, and I have no intention to give up.

Pairoa

[Rumpelstielzchen]

No Love for the new one, I can understand that.
And goin' to the Bathroom with the AT? Yeah, nice Idea!
Houses in South America seem to be MUCH bigger than over here... :-))

Go on with the Truck and tell us about it, I hardly can't wait for your next post!

Greetings from cold Stuttgart,

Alex

[pairospam]

Hello all:

These have been very busy times, and the work on the project has continued as always but at a quiet satisfying pace thanks to the precious though limited help of Edie, the ecuatorian mechanician-painter. The story goes on.

I went to take the snorkel from its place in the oblivion and began the process of putting it in the front of the cabin. There were no anchoring nuts for bolting the supports and it was, of course, better to weld them before painting the cabin. It was nice to see the snorkel right at its place and the sensation of progress grew a little more.



But first, I realized that the metallic ring or connector, or whatever its name was, between the snorkel and the air hose was badly rusted, half destroyed actually. I thought about repairing it because it was obvious that the spare was no longer available, anywhere in the world, but then decided to build a new piece. The recipe was the classical: get some steel from somewhere in the corner, mark and cut and then weld the pieces. This time, though, there was a difference; I used a little plaster for finishing it before painting.






While I struggled between sparks and paint, my father did what he does best. Fifty years flying makes you feel very comfortable when it comes the time to land in difficult places.




When I finished the neo-ring-connector the result was quiet satisfying, though it took me a couple of days to complete the job. I recovered the supports, cleaned them and painted it all. Good.



But the time was coming for the Montero. It had been serviced not long ago, but I needed to repair the 4x4 before the holydays, and not only the mechanical aspect but the whole vehicle, including dents, scratches, missing bumpers, etc. The mudguard that was dented by the crash in Tierra del Fuego was to be replaced by a used part from another Mitsubishi gotten from a junkyard far away but, after inspecting both of them, Edie and I decided to preserve and repair the original mudguard instead of changing it as the new piece needed to cover the holes for the antenna and some ugly mirror which would have been more difficult and long.

The job included the replacement of the seats both front and rear, repairing and new paint for the plastic moldings, replacement of the big power-sunroof and repair of the ugly dent on the rear side. Lots of things to do.

[pairospam]

After a few hours the Montero was semi-naked and the pieces that needed undenting and new paint were out. Unfortunately, the work on the Merkabah had to be left a little aside during the next weeks, and almost all the time available was dedicated to repair the Montero, as will be shown briefly here, please don’t panic. As said previously, the project had moved on at a very fast pace the last months compared with the last years so I was not concerned if I took some time to get the 4x4 ready for new adventures.



The 4x4 is a terrific machine, but when it comes to disassembling, well, it is pretty tough and well built so it is not easy to take out for instance the AC compressor, again. The bearing needed to be replaced so I had no choice.



When next Saturday came, though, while Edie was occupied undenting the pieces of the Montero I continued with the roof of the cabin and closed all the drillholes that I could identify. I placed a little piece of steel sheet and welded it instead of just filling the holes with welding. I found that the result was better and there was practically no deformity on the roof once the steel cooled down. A little grinding and the rest was a job for Edie.





Then, I followed Edie’s advice and welded the nuts for bolting the snorkel to a piece of sheet and then welded it to the cabin with the same technique applied to close the holes of the roof. It was pretty much easy and the result very satisfactory. Maybe you all knew it was better done like this, drilling holes and welding from the front instead of trying to weld it from behind, but I did not.





For the superior tube of the snorkel it was pretty much the same. Of course the guys from Mercedes had left the precise route for welding the nuts right where they were supposed to be welded and the job was facilitated by the design of the pilar.

[pairospam]

Edie joined me in the afternoon after finishing the preparation of the pieces taken from the Montero and continued working on the cabin of the Merkabah, undenting miriads of little defects on the roof.



Actually I had three front grilles instead of only the original one, but two of them were good enough to be usable and I put them both together to be sure that the chosen one had the less damage. Once I was sure I got the powergrinder and cut the portion that was in conflict with the snorkel. It was a strange feeling, but it did not hurt, not even a little bit. Bo.




Ah, it really looked good! I then spent some time flattening out the twisted metal, trying to reshape it with moderate success.



As a final gesture, Edie took the acetylene torch and heated up the last bolts that were still fiercely stuck to the cabin, and they came out with no effort. Good. The day ended and we left. I was pretty happy.



Next Sunday my old man continued amusing me sending more pictures of his unusual landing points in the mountains. As I told before, he is my personal hero when it comes to flying.



After the usual run with the dogs and a good breakfast I dressed up properly and took the WR450F for a long ride. It was a couple of months since the last ride so I jumped and played like a teenager with a new toy. It was a good ride and the morning was spectacular.



Back to the real world, next Monday, I faced a problem that had been discovered not long ago: the new rear seats were two separated pieces instead of being one big seat, so they needed supplementary supports and anchoring points in the middle of the car. I stripped the interior to figure out how to make it, convinced that there would be at least one good way to do it. Eduardo was not as convinced as me, but soon we found that I was right.



While I was unbolting and unscrewing half the Montero to get the central plate out, Franz, the AC man, showed up with the repaired compressor. We installed it while talking about profound issues and then he charged the system with gas. When the engine cranked and the AC reached its functioning peak it was freezing inside the car. Great. Finally the Montero would travel in perfect comfort through deserts and wastelands, but also through hot dense forests in midsummer.

[pairospam]

Well, I installed the anchoring nuts right where needed using the nuts cut from a discarded bumper support and a piece of steel sheet that came from somewhere else. Painted in discrete black it all looked almost like original… almost.




Waiting for the paint to dry I profited to repair, lubricate and complete the mechanism and the coverings of the rear seats. I asked for a quote for a deep cleaning of the seats and the linings of the Montero and the guy finally never showed up. Alejandro offered himself to do the job so it was just a matter of completing the installation of the seats and he would take over.



Once the anchoring points were ready the next step was to put a strong bar for the locking mechanism of the seats to lock on from. As usual, I turned around until I found a rusted piece of steel that could become a precious part of a refined device destined to save lives. With the aid of Maestro Chaleco I shaped the barr with precise measures and after cutting, welding, drilling and painting… voilà! The central locking barr.





Next act: repair the ugly rear dent. Some moron leaned against the car, probably while smoking, and dented the side. This happened soon after I bought the car a couple of years ago (or three?). Whatever, I was not keen on undenting it because I was aware that it was necessary to strip half the car to reach the sheet from inside and to do a proper job. Now it was the right time. I took the side panels out and very carefully accomplished the rough part of the undenting, then Edie took control and applied lots of hammering and plaster until it was perfect.





Something very rare happened that weekend, and in the middle of October it rained… a lot. When we finished working, only on the Montero that Saturday, and it was time to go home, the streets were wet and it was cold. Maybe in other latitudes it is usual, but this unexpected rain is extremely strange in San Felipe. I drove very carefully back home because the streets were pretty slippery with the combination of dust, oil and water.

[pairospam]

In the morning it still rained hard, the perfect excuse for staying late in bed, though the dogs stood the three of them in plain rain waiting for me and the sacred Sunday run. How do they know it is Sunday!? Carmen kicked me out of the bed, gently of course, and I dressed lightly to keep my promise.

Wow… it was a real pleasure to run again under the rain after many years. Fresh air, few cars, nice temperature, natural cooling… perfect, and the dogs were pretty happy too.



Monday. I stripped the roof and with the aid of Alejandro removed the bulky and heavy power-sunroof. It leaked in the middle of Patagonia, something not very pleasant, especially for Carmen that received all the water on the head, and was corroded after who knows how many years of use in saline environment. I had also the replacement taken from another Montero and as soon as I could I installed the “new” device and checked that it worked correctly. Good.





As I was at it, the shock absorbers were replaced as well by new Rancho adjustable shocks. I was not pretty sure, though, if I would ever be keen on crawling under the car to reach the control knob to change the setting in the middle of a muddy road under heavy rain.




Well, using every minute available of the next Saturday, Edie prepared the metal pieces for painting while I was busy with other tasks. At every hand of washprimer and primer he corrected imperfections revealed by the coatings and sanded like crazy until the pieces were at some point ready for the finition paint.



I had to choose and I decided not to remove all the molding parts for painting as it would have taken a lot of time and I was not sure about the quality of the job when it came the time to glue the pieces back on. No sir, mask the rest, then. Edie and I prepared the pieces in situ and while he devoted his energies to prepare the spare pieces separately I began to mask the areas that had to be protected from painting. Oh Christ… it was quiet a hard and slow job! I am a little obsessive and I do not like to see poor masking and paint where it is not supposed to be so it took me a lot to mask properly the Montero, way more than expected. Edie left me and I stayed until late at the shop and used kilometers of masking tape.



Early in the morning of that Sunday I came back to the shop and finished to mask the Montero and painted the famous mouldings and the metal pieces of the bumper with the metallic paint and then applied a lacquer hand for the shine. It was my first non-Merkabah paint job, and I was pretty prowd of it in the end. When it was 2:30 in the afternoon I left the shop and took Carmen for a good lunch out and then a nice ride across the valley through unknown little roads.



Next Monday it was nice to take the masking tape and the paper out and to watch the partially painted 4x4. There were some imperfections of course, but nothing that a good sandpaper and a little polishing could not fix. I put all the linings and panels back and cleaned the interior of the car, leaving it ready for Alejandro to wash it. I could not reach to paint the white pieces, though.

[pairospam]

Merry Christmas and happy new 2017 to everybody!

Hope that this will be THE year.

[Lucky cd]

Same to you.

It will be THE Year.

Best wishes

[stahlma]

I have to admit, although I saw a lot and also did a lot of similar work like engine rebuilds and swaps, what you are doing is unparalleled. I am deeply impressed.

I wish you the energy to pull though and make it happen, the first trip in a truck that is like no other.

Cheers

Martin

[waYne]

Hey!

Long time no post. Hope everything is OK and you are well!

Regards

waYne

[pairospam]

Well, it´s been a while… right? Thanks for your concern, waYne, everything is okay. Finally I got my computer back after it was sent to the ICU for a major and abrupt microchip attack. These have been busy days/months and I am going to try to tell the story as briefly as I can.

The last thing I wrote was related to the repair and preparation of the Montero for the holydays, and I think I went too far and too detailed with the subject, sorry. Just as a part of the joke I have to add that when I painted the white pieces the new white paint looked pretty much creamy compared with the original one. I almost fell on the floor at the sight of the mismatch, but after a few days, after polishing and waxing, it got whiter and both old and new paints looked “almost exactly” the same.



Before departing there was time to work one more weekend on the Merkabah and Edie laboured on the roof of the cabin while I cleaned the rear aspect to the last detail. Once all the little corners were free from old paint and rust I applied some hands of washprimer to prevent it to rust, once again, during my vacations.





Also worked on the front grille, trying hard to reshape the whole thing and the many turns of the steel. It had been repaired more than once back in time, and the multiple little scars could be seen everywhere.

I had to change the hinges as they obviously were passed out and would be more trouble to try to repair them. I simply cut a pair of better looking ones from another grille and welded them back in place. Soon it was late and after cleaning an putting all the tools in their boxes I rode home and prepared for leaving San Felipe the next day.

[pairospam]

We went south, not too far this time, and wandered in between beautiful mountains, volcanoes, lakes and rivers. It was a good trip, not quiet off-road and not very exciting but pleasant indeed and we, Carmen and I, ended up with the feeling of having had time and peace enough to rest from regular work and that we did not need more holydays to rest from our holydays.





We came back, with zero losses (I mean the 4x4), and as soon as I could I resumed working on the truck. But, as often occurs when you see things with a fresher look, I found that the working place was a mess and I no longer wanted to work there like it was. So, I dedicated a few hours to make order and to relocate all the stuff that sorrounded and almost suffocated the Merkabah. While moving boxes and trash I found the missing supports for the air reservoirs and other pieces that I needed so much some months ago. Now I did not know what to do with them, hmm…





Took quite a while, but I think I did the best I could and freed some space around to work more comfortably and safely.



Next to do: to make order also with the many meters of wires and cables collected and randomly kept on boxes around. It was pretty slow a job so I just coiled up a hundred meters and gave up. I would continue when needed, and it seemed to still be very far in the future.

[pairospam]

Most of the tecalan circuits were in place already so I wanted to do something that showed off, for a change, and went to install the air suspension bellies, but soon I remembered that it was still pending the trimming of the vertical fins of the supports bolted to the frame. This was necessary to avoid conflict with the supports of the axles. Damn! I had forgotten, as all the rest I use to leave for the never-coming tomorrow.

So, with no scape, I made an attempt of cutting the fins, just the necessary amount to avoid shocking or hitting and keeping the resistance of the support, without having to unbolt them. It went pretty well and so I went on with the other three supports, covering pretty well the frame from sparks and burnings. I had to maneuver pretty delicately the powergrinder, with no protection cap, to do the job, though.




Alternating between the different jobs to do, depending on the time available and the mood, I went on also with the routing of the rest of the tecalan circuits. I had to buy some extra meters but in general the calculations were pretty close regarding the amount of it.



During the Saturdays Edie worked on the cabin until he and I were satisfied with the result while I dedicated myself to other aspects of the project. It started to look pretty crowded with all the tecalan routed along every notch and hole of the frame. I used temporary latches to fix the tubings but I badly wanted to fix them for good, tighten everything, start the engine and ran out of there heading for the dunes. Anyway, I did what I could at the regular pace.






At a given moment Edie announced that he was done with the roof and washprimed it for the last time. I could not believe it. He really did a good job though after a few hands of primer it would be clearer if it was all really okay.

[pairospam]

That week, if I remember well, it was pretty difficult to work on the project because of regular work so I did just more research on some subjects related to it, mostly electricity and electronics. just had the time to hand-paint all the places and spots where the primer and the paint were lacking. This turned to be a very useful and practical way of doing it instead of the more complex method of taking the pieces out or masking the rest of the truck. Many defects and shock or wrench damage of the paint were easily covered and I was pretty happy for that.



Another working Saturday came and Edie primed the roof, making evident that there were many little defects on the plaster, hmm… I also noted that the lines of the water spouts were not pretty straight and other problems that were highlighted with the primer. Edie put himself to work and corrected all the details in the next hours.




I installed the air bellies of the air suspension, and of course it was neither easy nor fast as you may think. Missing nuts, need to lift the axles, narrow holes, conflict with the hydraulic tubing, etc. But in the end I put the six of them after a long while. Good.



The air circuit for the remotely operated draining valves for the air tanks was installed too but I could not install all the valves because I still needed to put and remove the big tanks to accommodate the tecalan and other stuff along the frame.



One of the things that I badly wanted to do was to install the superior pins for the front shock absorbers of the cabin. They had been turned very long ago and it was time to weld them in place. I marked and drilled the holes right where they were in the original setup of the old Spare and went on with the round lime for a few minutes. As the progress was quiet slow I borrowed Maestro Chaleco’s die grinder and after some hasty noise and a few minutes the pins were where they belonged. I didn’t reached to weld them because of time so I left the shop to do some other more lucrative activities.




Another day, don’t remember well when, I played a little with cardboard and made a mockup of the central console that would host the controls and the valves of the central tire inflation system and the air suspension. I decided to put them onboard instead of leaving them out after the advice of Larraguibel regarding his experience with his own system. I really liked the look of the future console, and gave it more thoughts.

[waYne]

Nice to see that you still going forward! I'm really excited about your ideas with the cabin!

[pairospam]

As the time was approaching, I rescued the valves and connectors for the differential locks from a big box and started to clean and disassemble them. I wanted to recycle as much as I could, as always. In the meantime, the poor Edie did not have a moment of peace as he continued working sanding, priming, painting and polishing during the week, this time on Eduardo’s L200 that, finally, went to pits for a long waited and deserved beauty treatment.




After fourty years the rust had put its footprint on the connectors and half the racor bolts broke when I tried to unbolt them. Wasted lots of time taking the broken things out of the manifolds and the valves. Hmm…



We repaired the gaps in the rear windows edges by using a little forceps and welding and soon after Edie attacked the frame of the passthrough with his magic.



Whilst he played with plaster and sand paper I tried to rescue some valves recovered from the many donor trucks but none worked as they were already dead. When Edie finished with the passthrough and with a few minor details he sprayed a couple of hands of washprimer and then three hands of primer to the rear of the cabin. Oh… it looked really good… and that great feeling of progress…





Many days passed and I could only do little things, as welding the pins for the front cabin shocks, which ended up being a pain in the ass as it was pretty uncomfortable to weld there. Anyway, I did and it went good. The pins would surely stand… I hoped.

[pairospam]

I did not want to do it, but someone had to clean the base of the cabin from all the old paint and covering, and of course I was the best ( and only) qualified to do it. Christ… I worked with the heat gun and spatulas in the mid summer heat quiet a few hours. It really hurt.



When it was enough I shifted, again, to the valves and the air management systems again. Went out to buy lots of racor bolts and stuff to get everything ready for installation. Checked the oil pressure sensor bulb donated by Spare and found out, as feared, that it was not functioning. I could not find a new one with the proper measures so, following Eduardo’s advice, I decided to keep the system that came with the Merkabah when I bought her, and recovered the direct manometer and the adapted bolt from their lethargic dreams in a box and installed them. I crancked the engine and I had a perfect lecture of the oil pressure that gently followed the revs up of the engine and, moreover, I had plenty of room to install the gauge on the central console, or so I thought.





As the time was approaching, I unboxed the auxiliary brake valves and made a mix with the best pieces of both the Merkabah and Spare and assembled a good one. As I was at it I also undusted Merkabah’s gear lever and cleaned it up. Very disgusting. Many of the pieces that fixed it to the bay of the engine were bent or broken so I used pieces from other levers taken from other trucks to reconstruct it. I primed the pieces and then painted them.






One good day I found that there was a little dent on the cabin, strangely and precisely located on the exposed border. It seemed to be done on purpose. WTF! I showed it to Edie and he was as surprised and suspicious as myself. We said nothing and made some arrangements to put the cabin deeper in the working place and out of the way of those who passed by. Left me a strange feeling, though.

[pairospam]

Well, I went on with the cleaning and painting of the brake and clutch pedals. As usual, it was a slow and delicate process and I got to it trying to do the best I could. They looked much better when finished and they went into boxes until the assembling time came.





The next Saturday Edie and I spent a lot of time and efforts to clean the frame of the left door from old paint and rust. It was very time and finger consuming and in the end I was not completely satisfied with the result. Hmm… there should be another way.





I studied the long discussed issue of temperature and noise isolation of the cabin and finally came up with a combination of alluminium foil and a 25 mm elastomeric membrane to be put everywhere it could fit. I ordered the alluminium and it was delivered by bus from Santiago. Some tailoring would be needed to do the job but I am good at it so no problem with that.

[pairospam]

Next step: be sure that the AC system got some time ago would fit in. If you remember, I bought it almost without looking at it for practically no money from a guy who had no idea of what he was selling. Until that moment I did not know if it would work for the Merkabah. So, I took the radiator box and presented it where it seemed the best and more logical place to put it. It fitted by the miliimeter. I took the condenser and put it in front of the radiator of the engine and it fitted also by the millimeter. There are no coincidences, you know, so I did not think it twice and marked and cut the base of the dashboard to allow the flow of the AC radiator to pass through directly to the original heating box of the Merkabah. I didn’t eve care too much of the straightness of the cuts that went out not very cute because of the difficulty to manipulate the powergrinder at the place.






The AC air flow should not be mixed with the environmental air so I also had to cut and bend a piece of steel sheet and put it at the right place to funnel the flow upwards. With this layout the air then should be taken directly from the central console by the fans of the AC, wheter the AC was working or not.



Those days we had visitors from Switzerland, and Leo and Elisabeth stayed at San Felipe for a few days servicing their 1017.



I had to make some minor adjustments and reshape the cardboard mockup of the central console to get the AC radiator box and the rest of the gadgets fit in it. The progresses were very slow but at least I was making some.

[pairospam]

Unfortunately, those days were pretty dark days for my country, and a series of intentional fires made up the biggest forest fire in the history of Chile. The high summer temperatures contributed to the disaster and many thousand acres of forests were destroyed by the fires, also many villages and cities suffered great damage and a fistful lives were lost.





I was so angry that I just had killing feelings, but turned my energies to do something more useful and followed Eduardo’s iniciative and collected funds to buy haze packs to feed the animals left with nothing to eat due to the fires. We loaded a big lorry that we borrowed from a business man from San Felipe and one Saturday we headed for the disaster zone, some 400 km south.



Carmen and I departed earlier and made a stop in a town where the efforts to assist and rescue the burned animals were organized in a veterinarian hospital. We delivered fluids, medical supplies and cat and dog food we collected from friends and pharmaceutical companies I asked for assistance.



We gathered and arrived in the afternoon to a place called Los Coipos, quiet a rural little town, surrounded by burned out hills. It was a very sad view. The neighbors were already organized and as soon as the truck parked they orderly received the amount of hazepacks they had determined according to their needs. They came to get the food for their animals in whatever they had, and nothing was left unused.





The people of the town were very grateful and many other people who wanted to help showed up during the delivery of the load of the truck and were redirected to other locations that were also in need. Solidarity was the counterpart of the disaster those days. Chile is well known for that.

When coming back home we made a stop at the veterinarian clinic and met the coordinator of the vets, Mariana, who I had only talked to by phone until then. She was taking care of a little cat that was rescued from a fire that consumed more than 50 houses. It was very late and she was there, alone, giving her best to that little animal. That’s love, folks.

[pairospam]

Back home, the next days the temperature showed no mercy, making very unpleasant to work at the workshop but, life is hard. Carmen, on her own, adopted a little cat found abbandoned in the street with a nasty ocular infection. She took him and cared of him like a baby, as she did with Regalo (Gift) a few years ago.




Resuming the restoration of the parts of the cabin, that seemed to be ready in a near future, I took the blocking mechanisms of the shocks of the cabin and started to clean and unrust them.



Leo’s truck received also some loving care from the people of the workshop and Eduardo made a few repairs and changed fluids and filters. Unfortunately they departed heading north and had not much time to share with them.



One big challenge was to install the compressor of the AC. There was no firm place to anchor the huge compressor from and then it would have to be suspended from the bolts of the carter, meaning many different anchor points. Probably I would leave it to Maestro Chaleco. Fortunately I had the carter of Spare so it would be easier to mold the support out and then bolt it directly under the engine. We would see.




I finished the cleaning and priming of the blocks and some other pieces and painted what was ready. It began to be crowded, again, with parts ready for assembling.

[waYne]

Big Respect for the Animal Rescue Project. Faith in Humanity restored

Also really nice to see how you get along with the Truck. I guess I am nearly as excited as you are for the moment of putting the Cabin on the Truck
and drive the first kilometers with it.

Cheers

waYne

[lura]

Hi, I had the same mind when i saw the pictures. I believe it needs no long time to the first trip around the corner
Good luck for the next weeks.