Mercedes 2626 AK 6x6

[pairospam]

Hi again.

No… nothing pretty exciting. Just a few words and a few pictures. I liked the idea of reporting more often, and this way I am more aware of the different and quite numerous things still to do.

After struggling a little with time and steel I almost finished the base for the driver’s seat. Almost, because it is still uncomplete, like everything else.

Anyway, the old and miserable looking seat sat finally on its definitive position in the cabin. I got to place it almost at the perfect height and almost perfectly lined up with the steering wheel. Not as perfect as I would have liked, though, but it should work. Only after a few hundred kilometers of driving I would know for sure.



When I was satisfied enough with the driver’s seat I went to pick the passenger’s one among a ton of dust and dog’s hair at the very bottom of the working place.

It was pretty nasty but I disassembled it and soon started to take out the brackets that were useful to fix it to the floor of the Montero, its previous location.




When I bought the 4x4, some years ago, I repaired this seat and gave it a little love and care treatment. Thanks to that it was in far better condition than its twin.

The central rail was taken out and prepared for stretching, which I did using the classical method: piece of rusted metal, carefull revival of steel, grinding and cutting precisely and… voilà!



Well… no picture of that. Anyway, when I got to the shop one of those days I found that the front right wheel was flat, flat and dismounted from the ring. There was a leak coming from the tyre inflation valve base that I thought was fixed last time I changed the tyre, but fixing it required the tyre to be dismounted from the hub once again to tighten the valve.



Ah. No f…ing way! I said (or shouted?). I was absolutely not on the mood of taking out the wheel, at all. So, I cranked the engine and waited for the air pressure to raise. Then, Eduardo helped with a little amount of gasoline and a lighter to make that thing the guys who know their business do to inflate initialy the tyre to get the lips of the tyre to stick to the rim in a way that you can add pressure without loosing it by the gaps. No idea of the name of this procedure.

Soon as the fuel exploded and the tyre stuck to the rim I gently pushed the ad hoc Syegon CTIS control panel button and the air began to flow from the reservoirs of the Merkabah to the previously selected tyre through the rotating valve, for the first time.




It took almost two minutes to reach 95 psi, but from then on another couple of minutes to get to 100 psi. Nothing unexpected, of course, and from the total comfort of the inside of the cabin. Great.

[pairospam]

Days passed and there was a lot of cars coming in and out the workshop, but the car of the ex wife of Franz, the air conditioning guy, still was waiting for some exotic and pretty expensive part quite difficult to find.

It was the only obstacle for the Merkabah as she needed that place to maneuver her way out. There were lots of others things to do so I did not pushed too hard on the subject and profited of the scarse time to go on with the new base for the passenger’s seat.



I had a lot of new steel to work with, so it was pretty straightforward. I didn’t use the new angle cutter, though, as it was far more comfortable and easy to work with the powergrinder and own hands. Think I am getting old.



One day, I got an excited mail from a local enthousiast and probably one of the greatest fans of the project. He had gotten a practically new 6x6 Beiben that some illuminated soul used to promote and sell sunglasses for some time and then left it in the oblivion.



He bought the truck and decided to stretch the cabin to accommodate his family at some workshop in Santiago. He asked for some advice regarding the building of the subframe and the relationship of it with the Box and the frame.




I was pretty happy to help him with my limited experience and hope his truck becomes a nice and reliable wohnmobile.

On my side, I went on with my solo commitment and dedicated a few hours to grinding and cutting and welding some steel. Christ… craftsmanship is always so slow! Or, at least, I am pretty slow at it.



Some sparks later, when there was no sun at sight already, I was finally able to place and test the fit of the passenger seat in situ.

The job was not finished, clearly, but it looked really good.



Once the skeletons of the bases were terminated and ready for paint I would take the seats to the tapestry guy for him to struggle on his own to resuscitate them.

That for now.

Greetings from Chile.

[a90]

Don't you have a (large) aircompressor in the shop Pairo ? I made a quick release air valve om my air system on the Mercedes to quickly fill the airsystem. Saves a lot of time and smoke/dust in the workshop. Just fill her up with air, start and drive outside the shed.

Does the 26262 has some kind of exhaust filtering / catalytic converter anyway? My LP doesn't have any at all, just a dirty diesel. I do however only fill her up with GTL Diesel, thats a special and very 'clean' form of diesel with no soot at all and almost no smell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_to_liquids

We can get it here in The Netherlands at some local gasstations and is often used in old diesel trucks, agriculture machines or boats. The old engine (OM355) in the Mercedes runs very nice on it.

Also, spring must be nearby now in Chille I guess. Hope to see some beautiful photo's !

[tooFATtoDRIVE]

... He had gotten a practically new 6x6 Beiben that some illuminated soul used to promote and sell sunglasses for some time and then left it in the oblivion.

Beiben must be a Chinese version of older Mercedes SK trucks, which is currently being produced there: http://www.beiben-trucks.com/products
First time I ever hear about them.

[pairospam]

Hi, a90:

Unfortunately no, there is no big air compressor. I have made a few attempts to fill directly the air system of the Merkabah before, but the pressure given by the compressor at hand was simply not high enough.

The exhaust of the truck is pretty straightforward, just passing from the combustion chamber through the muffler on the way out. When warmed up there is almost no smoke, but when warming up there is a lot. There is an actual problem regarding the piston rings of at least one cylinder on the right side block of the mighty V8, we know that, and the only thing to do for now is to make the Merkabah run as much as possible.

The diesel fuel in Chile is probably the best in town, except for the brazilian one, probably, though it is not of optimum quality. Common rail engines (CRDI) have some troubles here because of that.

Filling up in the Netherlands with GTL is, at least, a little difficult, though.

Hi, tooFAT toDRIVE:

Yes, BEIBEN trucks are made in China. If I remember well, someone here opened a thread asking for information/showing them. Hope they are well made.

Wish you all a very good week.


Pairoa

[pairospam]

Well… here we go again.

Things have not changed a lot, and thus big progresses have been absent these days.

The blocked BMW that did not allow the Merkabah to go out for a ride was still there so I have dedicated what was left of the days to go on with little tasks an the seat business, item that has taken way more than expected to complete.

The base and the rails and some parts of the mechanism of the seat of the passenger side were prepared and painted at ease with a little satin finish high-quality black antirust paint, which was okay. I truly did not want to spend more time on the matter.



I then grabbed the base of the driver’s seat and started a very light job to get it ready. Just wanted to clean it a little and hide all the rust and the dirt that was inside. The old paint and the rust were one together and I had to begin to sand the surfaces to get rid of it.



At some point I realized that I was making a nonsense. I did not recognize myself. I was just being lazy. Those parts needed to be repaired for good; the truck and all the project deserved to keep the quality of the restoration of all the parts involved, and that meant all the parts. Christ…

And so, I got some tools and disassembled the spring mechanism and split it in all its individual parts. Then, I carefully applied the classical recovery procedure and went through all the stages of degreasing, sanding, cleaning, sanding, cleaning and sanding. Oh… pretty boring.





Seems that my family has not a big amount of luck when it turns to cars. My older brother was in a long and pleasant trip, with no hurry at all, from Washington to Texas, when suddenly a big truck gave him a little push from behind.



The poor car became a complete loss, structurally bent, though my brother was unharmed.

I liked that little Mercedes. Really bad luck.

Well, regarding the seat base, I worked by turns on all the pieces and cleaned them from rust and dirt until they were all ready for paint. I did my best this time.




I was happy thinking that I was finally done with the bloody base of the seat when I realized that there were the rails waiting for their turn too. Ops.

The one with the releasing mechanism looked especially filthy, and took me quite a while to clean it up. A lot of time-consuming steps on little things that probably would never be seen again, hmm…



Anyway, I dedicated a few hours to the labor and finally the pieces were ready and painted. When the paint was cured I lubricated carefully the mechanisms with lithium grease and left the pieces somewhere in between the mess to assemble them later.

[pairospam]

At the end of the day, no matter how many times I washed my hands, my fingers and palms showed the marks of the efforts and dedication to cleaning and sanding all the intrincated shapes and surfaces of the pieces. Was it worth? Of course.



Do you remember the super-stretched Volvo 6x6 of my friend Hugo? Well, the building of the Box is still on the go, and meanwhile he uses the truck to help in the labors of his piece of land, like towing the cut leaves of the palm trees.



Next day I assembled, once again, the bloody seat bases. Not as easy as it seems, though. They looked quite good, considering their previous state, and they worked pretty smooth too.




My father started the autumn season of snow measurements in the Andes range, as every year. He took great pictures and made some impressing videos of the Chillán volcano fumaroles, right by the side of the helicopter.





The most impressive, though, is the lack of snow. At the moment, in a normal year, there had to be at least two or three meters of snow everywhere up there, and there was none or very little. We are in serious trouble, and the cattle is dying in some high regions because of the lack of water and pasture. Ops.

To contribute with the strength and the look of the new base of the seats, I cut a plate of steel with the curved shape of the mudguard to close the lateral aspect, just similar to the original base. I wanted to bolt it and that meant to drill the ad hoc holes and thread them to allow the appropriate Allen bolts to be put in.



Then, again, I had a low moment and I thought “What? Am I Unicat or something? So I decided to go the short way and simply weld the plate to the base. Bad idea.

When I welded, the steel deformed and the plate got bent quite a few. Ops.

Trying to save the situation I made a couple of releasing cuts with the power grinder and then welded it back, but there was always a very noticeable deformation. It was a quick and complete failure, because of the hurry and the lazyness.

[pairospam]

So, as it has happened before in this neverending personal learning project, I had to start from zero.

I cut the failed plate off and threw it away, cut another one, prepared and drilled it, drilled the base and threaded the holes for the 6 mm bolt that were initially - and wisely - been bought for that precise purpose. Et… voilá!





Well… not quite like Unicat, at all, but it was not bad.



I repeated the process on the passenger’s seat base and the results were pretty much the same, of course.

It was late, though, and there was nobody else in the shop at that moment. I took some pictures, more than anything to remind me in the future what did I do and when did I do it, and left.

The working place was incredibly dirty and everything was messed up, but I did not care, at all.

The next day I prepared and painted the new pieces. Could not do anything else.



Sunday morning I took the dogs out for a run. Within a week’s time the poplars got dressed in green and the look of the road changed dramatically. The marvels of the ongoing springtime.



Coming home from work a few days ago I found this nice 1017 whonmobile owned by Johann and Johanna parked near our house, precisely where most of the overlanders that pass by are recommended to park. They did it by themselves, though.



As mentioned, the MB 1017 looked pretty tough and very well done in every detail, and both travelers were very happy with it, as they told me later.

Caring for they privacy, I left them a welcome note offering any help if needed, shot some furtive pictures and left.



They called the next day though we met a couple of days later because we had to go to Santiago and came back pretty late. Very nice people, the J&J-ontour team. We chatted a little and I gave them a few advices regarding what to see and what to forget IMHO on their way through Chile.

Following with the Merkabah… I collected some rusted pieces of the mudguards and got my hands into cleaning them. Sooner or later I would have to do it and I was on the mood of doing it at that precise moment.

[Pirx]

Hola Pairoa!

I can not see the pictures on this side, but I can see the pictures on side 1 of this thread. Do you use an other picture hosting service? Anyway, something is wrong!

Pirx

P.S.: Pics are visible until first half of page 27 of this thread. From then on, no more pics. I tried with two different Computers.

[a90]

Also here, no images.

[pairospam]

Ops. And now?

[Nabeirhood]

Same here and now.
Pics visible until the middle of page 27.

After that, some failure pictures of tinypics, but from then on only a symbol... Tried once on computer and on a phone

[a90]

It is a 403 error meaning so much as it is unable to retrieve images from your Google Photo sharing account. This might have something to do with your subscription ?

Google has a monthly subscription run, in my case it is the 16 of each month.

[pairospam]

Christ! I can't fix this thing!

[pairospam]

Hello again. It’s been a while.

Still cannot figure out what is the bloody problem with the pictures. For now I will try to keep up using the capacity of the account for attachements, hoping it will be enough. My memory is not my best attribute, so hope not to forget many things. I will go on from where I left, and I will keep trying to find someone who can manage the problem.

There is a lot going on here in my country, pretty bad, I must say. We are a third world country, with a third world attitude and a third world way of doing things. I feel ashamed, angry and a lot of sad things, but I decided to go on with life, the building of the house, and this project, hoping everything is going to be right.

So, talking about the last efforts to save the parts of the mudguards, after a few hours of hard cleaning work, the pieces were apart and free from dirt and rust, waiting for the anti-rust paint, which I applied generously a few moments later.

Spraying black satin paint is nice, especially when you have to handle the can and not having to clean the paint gun after doing it.

Later, I looked for the next pieces to repair to go on with the finishing of the interior of the cabin, an issue that had me got by the neck.

I explored a big box labeled as “cabin stuff”, and I found the panellings of the door pillars. Turned out to be three pieces of the right pillar panelling and two of the driver’s side pillar, each one broken at one or more spots. I had gotten them from the Merkabah herself and from other trucks along the history of this project.

Making good pieces from all the damaged ones was a decision taken long ago. Taking the three right pillar panellings first, I chose the better one as receiver and left the two other as donors and started the meticulous process of reconstructing the mouldings for the screws and repairing cracks and bruises. The soldering gun and the metallic mesh from some discarded speaker were, as usual, of paramount importance.

I had to make a big insert but it came out not as good as I wanted. When in place, though, even if clearly visible, it was not too bad. I could, and would, live with that.

When the time for repairing the left pillar panelling came, I made a drastic cut and amputated the whole damaged moulding and replaced it as one piece with a repaired one. It went very good and I was happy when finished.

Next: the metallic service tray. If you remember, the original service tray of the cabin of the Merkabah was doomed until I decided to use it as holder of the big speakers of the sound system.

Well, I discovered on the fly that it would be very difficult to make the smaller speakers fit in the crowded central console as there was already too much stuff inside. So I decided to install also them in the tray, hoping it would stand.

Anyway, I marked and cut the tray as needed, being well aware that the bulky speakers barely fitted inside, as you can see from the pictures. I had bought those speakers many years ago for the Terrano, and never installed them because they were too big for the 4x4. Trully there was no place to put them in. No sir… I still had them because, clearly, they were destined to the truck, and for the truck only.

[pairospam]

Another issue was that the service tray was wide open on top, not good for the care of the hardware itself and not good for the sound management either.

So, I took a few pieces of steel sheet from around and fabricated some covers for closing the tray over the speakers. It was a long and boring job, made with the rough elements I had at hand in the shop, but I was very satisfied in the end.

After the classic building and preparation, I put them in the paint chamber and sprayed a few hands of antirust black paint on, and that was it.

Maestro Chaleco did not show up for long, busy with other jobs, so when I was done with the service tray I picked the leaking air tank, that was still liying on the chassis, and prepared myself for what I was sure would be a hard job. I needed the extra air to speed up the process of inflating the tires and not to mess with the pressure of the rest of the circuits.

When inspected, the three leaking spots were just the tip of the iceberg, as the rust had corroded seriously the metal from inside. Well, that was not big nor strange news.

I found the solution right away, though: another air tank, the donor. The little and tortured tank was recued from the garbage where it ended up after a failed experiment regarding tire inflation on the move… at low cost. Then, it was just a matter of proper cutting and proper welding, or so I thought.

I marked and cut generously where I estimated was the most suitable and found out that the damage was bigger than expected, as always expected when rust is involved.

So, I cut the donor strips of metal from the little tank and tried different methods of aligning the borders to make the best possible match, taking into account the annoying tendency of the tank walls to separate after cutting.

Well, the thing is that I needed to make a good weld, good enough to stand the pressure, I hoped. It is understood that the tank was ruined and the repairing wouldn’t last other fourty years, but I would be happy if it stood long enough to get a new one or at least an original air tank in better conditions.

When I finished to weld the first donor strip it was late, as usual, and I was pretty tired. I just dropped it all, closed the gas, unplugged the power tools, changed clothes and went for a sweet coffee out with Carmen.

That weekend was a lazy one, dedicated to servicing the bikes, lawnmowing, fixing a couple of things at home and no thing to do with the Merkabah.

I went out for the classic Sunday morning run with the dogs and then rode to the beach with Carmen to have lunch by the sea. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty different from San Felipe and we found lots of clouds and cold winds that forced us to get back home earlier than planned. It was a good ride, anyway.

On Monday, I resumed the repairing of the air tank and welded the second strip of steel taken from the unfortunate little tank.

I thought I did a good job, but when the air pressure built up, at least eight leaking spots started to whistle at once. Ops.

Took the tank out again and made a repair of the welding flaws and replaced the worst part of the tank with another strip of metal taken also from the healthier one. Boring.

Connected it all again and cranked the mighty V8, with all the smoke and protests that come with that. I definitely needed to fix the portable compressor. After a few minutes I got just one leak, just one, but I was truly done with the tank at that point so I shrinked and forgot. Not on the mood for another welding/repairing session.

[pairospam]

Instead, I grabbed the dusty pieces that hold the turning lights on the mudguards. They were pretty rusted, with a lot of little holes and dents. I remembered at the moment why I left them apart and away from sight all this time.

It took me quite a while to get rid of the rust and seal all the holes with the MIG welder, annoying job, you know. Then, I sprayed it directly with some hands of antirust black paint. When they were ready, next day, I bolted and glued them, as needed, to the mudguards. Pretty good.

I was going to bolt the mudguards back on the cabin when I realized that one of the weatherstrips was missing. I searched everywhere and could not find it, so the mudguards and the lights went back to their place, in the dust. Could not put back on just one mudguard only, right? Very inappropriate and odd looking.

The service tray was dry. I took and screwed it on the back wall of the cabin after a few connections and preparations for holding the speakers and the tweeters. The fixing to the wall revealed to be pretty solid, so my confidence raised a little bit.

I made sure that there was no conflict between the seats, the amplifier box and the tray with the speakers before cutting the tray, though seeing them altogether in place was very nice.

Once the tray was ready, it was the turn of the wooden box. It was necessary to drill some holes to let air and cables go through the box to feed and to cool the big amplifier.

I bought an ad hoc chinese set of tools for drilling the holes and entertained myself a little playing with them and cut what was left of the metallic mesh for the air intake. Good.

Then, I put on the different components of the system inside the box, including a tiny but powerful 12V fan to force the air to cool the amplifier.

Of course, continuing with the long standing tradition on Pairoa’s bad luck with electronic stuff, the fan began to burn as soon as it was connected. I went to the PC store, next door, and asked for a replacement. I connected it and worked perfectly without changing a single thing. Bo.

I went to the electronics store, looking for RCA connectors to connect the out and in signals for the speakers. I judged the available stuff not worthy of the Merkabah so I opted for trying to make connectors by myself. The problem was that the factory RCA cables use pretty thin wires, and my soldering skills are okay but the resulting connectors would not last, even if reinforced with silicone coating.

So, I went back to the shop and got the previously underestimated RCA connectors. I made the proper cutting and weldings and connected it all, finally.

[pairospam]

Well… what do you think happened? Yes… absolutely nothing. I could not make it work. There were only whistles and static. Christ. All I wanted was to listen to a couple of piano accords but… nothing.

Then, the news of the disaster. Chileans decided to commit economical and political suicide at a galactic scale. Unbelievable stupid, but highly predictable. Anyway, after a brief explosion of combined fury and sadness I decided to go on. This train cannot be stopped, no Sir.

I struggled a little, changing this and that, connecting and disconnecting stuff, reading carefully both the manuals of the amplifier and the stereo, and finally dropped it all, quite disappointed and frustrated because of the many bad news.

Fortunately, the Sunday morning run with the dogs helped a little to raise the mood. Sports and the dogs always have that effect on me.

In the afternoon, I went to the shop to have a little chat with the Merkabah. The times had become suddenly uncertain, and I needed a plan. The plan was simple, and she told me without even looking at me in the eyes: Hurry up, Pairoa.

And so I did. I sat in front of the computer and changed the basic design of the subframe, simplifying it but not too much. I had already the measurements I needed and discarded to make any more preliminary tests. I would build the subframe with tack-welding and make all the changes, if needed, right on the move.

The next day I went to the general store and looked for the steel tubes I wanted. The problem was that there were no profiles 100x50x5 mm. I then bought 3 mm thick tubes and ordered them to be delivered to the shop as I had not any truck available.

When they arrived, I cut them the proper length and put them on the frame of the truck to have a little idea of how would the thing look in the real life.

Unfortunately, the tubes did not convince me as they looked too weak for the task.

Eduardo approached, and had the same opinion. Hmm… maybe it was not a great idea to hurry up that much.

I went to Verardo’s workshop to look for more steel to complete at least the mockup of the subframe and found that he had the right tubes among all the stuff in the shop. We agreed then that I would pass him my tubes and he would order more 100x50x5 tubes from his dealer, and I will use them to build the subframe. Of course, I would pay for the difference in price but, all in all, it was a very convenient trade.

I made the same guy take the tubes to the shop and Verardo asked for the new tubes. But, as expected, there was a delay due to the big mess around, so I had to change the object of my immediate interest, at least until things settled and the steel came.

I went back to the sound system, trying to discover what was the problem, with no success. Got no single sound except squirts and quacks.

Eduardo, who has a lot of experience with the installation of sound systems, examined the circuitry and the hardware and convinced me to redo all the connections. He found a grounding problem and a few minor issues but we were not able to make the system work in the end.

Then, I went out and got new connectors and spent the next couple of hours cutting and soldering wires all over, this time with maximal attention to detail.

After finishing, we tested it all again, and found what was the problem: one of the controllers of the bass/tweeter couples was defective. Ops. Unfortunately, the time from the date of purchase exceeded the warranty, but we managed to make it work in one fix position, at maximum range, which was okay with me.

It was a relief to hear to The Police coming out from the speakers, loud and clear. Done with the sound system.

At the beginning of times, I wanted to plaster the box and make an exhaustive treatment to eliminate all the imperfections and make it look like an original MB glove box, but pretty soon I had an attack of common sense, remembering that probably there would be a couple of dogs sitting and scratching the box 24/7 during the travels. Better think on something less complicated and quite faster.

So, I took all the electric components off the wooden box and applied by hand three thick layers of piroxilin-based coating and let it dry for a couple of days.

I then installed definitely the speakers in the tray and put the covers on. Though it was not my first option, they looked not sooo bad. I would have preferred to have them a little more hidden from sight and touch but… what the heck.

Next Sunday we had quite a cold morning. Early, high clouds covered the sun and the wind was chilling. As the run and the morning went on and I reached my favourite spot on the hills near San Felipe, the clouds were slowly pushed away and the sun began doing his job enlightening the growing grapeyards, gently warming up body and soul. I felt immensely grateful for that.

[pairospam]

Back at the shop, I sanded the box and its cover with progressively finer grain sand paper, and then applied many hands of an ad hoc satin black paint to get the uniform look I wanted. Three cans were used just for that job, and at least one day in between each hand of paint. Pretty annoying.

At home, Deva did not care about anything regarding the efforts for finishing the truck nor about the political and social situation. She accompanied us at dinner time, belly up, completely relaxed. I swear I heard she dreaming: Humans are strange creatures, let them alone.

Well, I decided to complete the CTIS given that I already had almost all the pieces and that I needed to go on. For some reason I wanted not to make any paint work yet, but I had to face the facts: I had to.

Gathered the supports and the spacers and realized that they needed further preparation before painting. I powergrinded the edges, got them all the exact same size, limed the contour of the drill holes, sanded all the surfaces… the usual.

While I was at it, one of the supports for the rotary valves ran out of my hands and fell directly on the big toe of my right foot. It was very painful, and I damned myself for not wearing security shoes. God, it really hurt, but I recovered from pain pretty soon.

I then took the hinges of the doors, inspected them and gave them a little hand of cleaning and sanding and displayed for painting the next day as it was already late.

And, the next day, I took the old and faithfull paintgun and prepared some primer to spray the prepared and waiting pieces with. As I had not catalyzer I borrowed some from Eduardo, noting that the label said “FAST”.

I went to pick the compressor and found that one of the mechanicians was using it to paint the doors of another truck, right at that moment, after telling me it was free.

To make the story short, the catalyzer was very fast indeed, and the primer got hard inside the paintgun, even if I waited not too long for the compressor.

Tried to rescue the paintgun but the coagulated stuff jammed the mechanisms and got harder and harder. I spent a lot of time struggling against the messy primer and, finally, I gave up. After nine years I think it was time to change the paintgun. It had never been the same after I borrowed it for painting other people’s cars, anyway.

I chained the compressor to the wheel of the Merkabah, mounted on the venerable Africa Twin, rode to the store and got a new, same brand but professional line, better looking one.

Came back to the shop, unboxed the new toy and very calmly I prepared the right amount of polyurethan primer needed for the parts, with the normal catalyzer, and sprayed it at will. The paintgun was okay, easier to use than the forcefully retired one.

Cleaning the new paintgun, though, was equally boring.

Waiting for the primer to dry, I got the painted box for the amplifier and reinstalled all the hardware and the cables. Then, I bolted it in its place on the motor tunnel. I just bolted, screwed and plugged, did not turn it on to test it. It was a matter of faith now.

[pairospam]

I descended from the cabin and tumbled on one of the footrests. I thought I could use some time preparing it for a round of plaster and sanding before painting and installing it.

Got the bumping hammer and one of the bumping dollies and began to reshape and undent the metal when, suddenly, the dollie slided and fell from the bench, guess where… yes! right exactly on the same spot on my right foot big toe, traumatized 24 hours before by one of the supports of the rotary valves of the CTIS. Christ! The pain was instantaneous and unbearable. Few times I have had such a level of pain in my life, and I have had many falls and strikes practising sports and doing dangerous stuff. I thought the toe was fractured.

Well, in the end there was no fracture and I could walk without clenching the teeth a couple of hours later. The echimosis on the toe talked about the force of the double trauma, though.

That same afternoon, just before closing time, I went back to the store and got a pair of security shoes. It was late to prevent but… anyway. Security first, guys… always.

The next day I checked the primed pieces and sanded a little to have a smoother surface, especially on the supports, and then prepared some finishing paint.

I sprayed one side and waited a whole day for the paint to dry before painting the other side. Then, a few days passed before I stepped in the shop again.

At some point I got the supports ready, with the spacers and the rotary valves, made the proper assembly and bolted them to the wheel hubs. They looked very good to me, giving the truck quite a military allure.

The other pieces needed to complete the CTIS were the tubes to deliver the pressurized air to the rotary valves. I had already designed and made some mockups of the front ones, so I made a test to see if the steel tubes I already had could stand the welding and the air pressure. Turned out to be very resistant and easy to weld so I welded a cover with a nut on both ends. They went pretty good, air-tight, in the end.

[ami]

Hello pairospam,
maybe you can laugh a little bit and forget your pain.

Not only do our dogs dream of us weird bipeds, they also talk to each other:
says one dog, all dogs are from the wolf!
Hmmm, and our masters?
From the monkey!
Short break: oh how embarrassing

I wish you a nice time

ami

[Pirx]

At the beginning of times, I wanted to plaster the box and make an exhaustive treatment to eliminate all the imperfections and make it look like an original MB glove box, but pretty soon I had an attack of common sense, remembering that probably there would be a couple of dogs sitting and scratching the box 24/7 during the travels.

Pirx

[Joe]

Hi Pairo,

re.

I went to the electronics store, looking for RCA connectors to connect the out and in signals for the speakers. I judged the available stuff not worthy of the Merkabah so I opted for trying to make connectors by myself. The problem was that the factory RCA cables use pretty thin wires, and my soldering skills are okay but the resulting connectors would not last, even if reinforced with silicone coating.

Of course your new Chinch connector are muc better quality than the previous, cheap ones. But they are not locking. I would have used XLR (where possible). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XLR_connector
Not quite as good but at least a little bit of resistance offer the TRS (e. g.) or audio jack called connectors. Their tip offers a little bit of resistance to prevent that they fall off if worn out. More details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio)

Anyhow: The new ones should normally stick as long as you don't pull them off and reconnect 100 times or more.

Keep us informed and good recovery with the toe.

[tooFATtoDRIVE]

Hi, have you ever taken a picture(s) of the complete Syegon CTIS system by any chance? If you did, could you post it on here or maybe send me a PM with a link?

[pairospam]

Hi guys:

Thanks for your words. My foot is okay.

tooFATtoDRIVE: this is the best I can do for you.

[tooFATtoDRIVE]

That's very helpful. Thank you.

[pairospam]

Here we go again, with a little more news from this place on earth.

That weekend, some weeks ago I do not remember exactly when, we made a little trip to the beach. This time the weather accompanied us and the sky was clear and the air was fresh but pleasant.

There was a lot of people in the water, even if it was not as warm as in the middle of the summer.

On the way back home, the mighty Yamaha made a little scene when she accelerated by herself. The diagnosis: a little water that came into the electronic stuff when washing the bike with the power washer. Not a problem for Eduardo, who opened and dried up a few fuse boxes and fixed the problem in five minutes.

When came the time to make the tube for the rear tires I had a little moment deciding which way to go. At first I wanted to make a double round tube arrangement, but soon changed to a more resistant solution. Even if it was not as good looking, I opted for using a 40x40x3 profile to conduct the tecalan just to the border of the tires and use a 90 degrees couple in the tips, the same as in the front tubes. Easier, tougher, better, faster. Or so I thought.

I cut, shaped, drilled and prepared the supports and welded them to a base plate that would be bolted to the main framerail.

Once in place they looked not pretty elegant, but they were well fitted for the job.

The round tubes for the front tires needed to be bent, and I feared they would collapse as they were relatively thin. To avoid this, I filled them up with the steel grit used to blast the frame, some centuries ago.

I then made a vain try to bend the tubes using a pulley and a lever. It obviously went to nothing so I took the tubes to the proper shop. They used an ad hoc hydraulic bender and did the job for a few bucks in less than ten minutes. Thanks.

[pairospam]

The supports of the tubes would go bolted to the supports of the front brake cilinders, one of them I had made of a thinner steel plate, do not remember why. I had to make a new one, of the proper thickness, and prepared both for priming and painting.

I went to Santiago one day, and went to the Mercedes dealer to pick up the only two weatherstrips for the windows of the NG Class MB that were left in Chile. Unfortunately, the seller did not understand that I wanted to buy both pieces, and ordered only one to be delivered to the store. Ops.

Anyway, he promised to deliver the other piece by bus some other day and I left, not pretty convinced.

When in the workshop, again, I welded and finished the bloody tubes and put them on to see if all fitted as I wanted. Pretty right, yes.

I had enough clearance on top, as measured, not to have conflict between the tube and the mudguard at maximum compression of the suspension, and enough space to deal with the mud collected eventually by the helpless spinning wheels, buried in a pond plenty of crocodiles. Well… Eduardo had his doubts, and so other bypassers. Hmm…

If I was going to paint, it was the time to paint the steering arm too. I searched the extractor I made from scratch some time ago but, for a change, could not find it. So, I had to make another one.

Took me some time, and it went not so pretty at all, but I finished it and after a few tries I could remove the steering arm with a couple of loud pops.

I was lucky and Verardo delivered the steel profiles we traded directly into the workshop. These were pretty heavy, nothing to do with the thinner ones I got the first time. It was hard to store them so I decided to best keep two of them under the Merkabah. The little white Toyota had a close call when one of the profiles almost slipped from my hands while trying to get it on the roof, in between the beams.

Then, I prepared the scenery for what I thought would be the best way to proceed, fabricating the subframe of the Box. I put a steel spacer on lumber pieces to get exactly the necessary distance from the upper surface of the framerail and to resist any strike or force made by the heavy profiles without deforming.

I had already made the design of the new frame, and all I wanted was to begin to fabricate it.

[pairospam]

I really wanted to cut and weld some steel, but the thing is that I could not begin with the subframe at that moment, probably because there were too many things left unconcluded all around and there was, actually, no real cause for the rush. I would also need for that task to move freely the truck back and forth to use the winch that still hung from the roof to move the progressively heavier subframe. So, I focused a little, for a change, and finished with the repairing of the patched air tank.

There were no more leaks after doing the fourth repair, at least at 120 psi, the maximum I could get from the mobile compressor after a few caresses, and so I hung the tank from the roof in the attic to paint it along with a lot of other pieces.

When the paint dryed up, a couple of days later, I realized that the pieces needed a retouch, so I sprayed them again and let them dry for another couple of days. That is all I could do within my heavy limited days, back at at work full throttle.

The next I did was to take the painted tank and the supports for the CTIS from the attic, the rear and the front ones, and installed them on the frame. The front wheels looked pretty good to me, with their individual air supply following every move of the steering. The rear support... I was still not so sure.

The lateral profile of the wheels did not suffer too much because the rotary valves are pretty flat and the tecalan tubes were set at a few centimeters of the tire. Less chances to strike rocks and branches when offroading.

It was not my first choice, as mentioned before, but a central support between both rear tires and the moustaches were quite practical, and did not look too bad in the end.

And, guess what? I missed the right amount of tecalan by two meters, exactly what I needed to connect the rear tires of the left side. Christ; so close to finishing! I wanted pretty bad to connect and test the complete CTIS, as you may understand.

I checked for leaks, tightened some things and went home.

I had to wait until the next day for the store to open, though, to get that couple of meters of tecalan. Then, I cut and put the famous things on, connected the valves and cranked the mighty V8 for the joy of all who were at the office.

When the air pressure raised, and the yellings got the higher they could get because of the exhaust smoke that filled the shop, I checked how the system worked to lower and raise the pressure of all the wheels. It was not as fast as expect, as expected, but it worked. I was able to raise the pressure to 100 psi on each wheel, provided you gave the compressor enough time to fulfill the demands. Okay, then. The CTIS was ready, though I had to adjust one of the connectors to the valve of the front left tire.

In the afternoon, we took a ride to the countryside and visited a place where there was an old church, a pretty old and almost disintegrated church. To our surprise, they had restored it recently, and it looked very good. I looked for the pictures that showed its miserable state when we visited the place a couple of years ago but I could not find them. Believe me that it was in quite pity conditions, though, if it could be restored, and also the Merkabah could be restored, probably my country may have a future too. We will see.

[MadBkr]

Great work as usual! I have a question about the welded air tank, why didn't you test it with water and hydraulic pump, as i know if a tank weld fail at that pression is dangerous..