I remember now, a truck arrived 3 days early with tubing for the oil coolers. I expected it tomorrow! And the truck driver had just had an operation and couldn't pick anything up so I had to do it - and to prove it he insisted on showing me all the wounds - it was 'orrible!!
So I think I have been deliberately suppressing that experience and now that I look outside I can see the pile of tube which should be inside as it's going to rain. Damn . . . better do that now.
And then I can start cutting it up into 210 pieces and linishing the ends and . . and . . it all sounds too much like REAL WORK!!
I think I had better finish off the fuel tanks as it looks like I may have to move the truck earlier than I expected. Both tanks are fitted and look very purposeful. The primary tank is all plumbed up, fuel lines run, gauge connected and filter fitted with new element installed. Looking good. Now I need to get fuel from the auxiliary tank into the main tank. Lots of suggestions from well meaning people - like use a 12volt fuel pump it will only take about four hours to pump it across!! Or just connect the fuel lines to both tanks and let the fuel pump pull from both! I'll let you figure out why I rejected that one. It appears that the easiest and most sensible way is similar to the way they were connected originally. A piece of 3/4" hose between the two and treat it like one big tank. That way the fuel gauge will indicate total fuel properly as both tanks will drain evenly. Mind you I wasn't all that impressed with the quality of the hose and the fact that there was a tap on only one end. I suppose this was just to enable the reserve tank to be turned off but in my case I am more concerned with being able to turn the fuel off if the hose gets damaged as it has to cross under the truck no higher than the bottom of the tank or fuel wont transfer across. It can go lower of course but this wont matter too much as only the fuel in the hose will be inaccessible.
There start the problems - how to get it across without being too vulnerable. I really don't want just a piece of hose swinging in the breeze - and it looks like I will have to go under and around the transfer case as it is too high to go over. After a few cut and try experiments I think I have a reasonable solution. I guess I could have "V"d it under the case and had a bit more ground clearance to each side but I think that's being a bit too paranoid even for me. It's a bit hard to see in the blackness under the truck and being painted black doesn't help but there is a piece of "angle-iron" fitted across behind the transfer case from one fuel tank support bracket to the other. The hose (waiting to be fitted when the paint dries) will go back about 150mm down 100mm and then across sitting on the support and reverse the directions to the other side. You can see the taps in place. So now I haven't lost any ground clearance (just) and I have a tap at each end for emergencies. That will have to do it.
Tuesday Morning
The pipe rolling guys rang to say the pipe was rolled ready for the mudguards. So went and got that. It's down the back of the factory now. I think I am doing a bit of suppressing with that too! I distinctly remember the instructions as :
"Roll one length of 25nb pipe into a circle of 1350mm diam. as many times as you can go round. I'll cut it up into pieces the size I need."
THIS is what I received!!
"Did I miss something?
Wasn't I clear enough?
Did I confuse you?
AAARRRGGHHH!!!"
Mind you they were looking a little sheepish at the time. I think they realised they had stuffed up.
"How about you try it and see if you can achieve what you want. If you need some more we'll roll it for you then."
That sounded fairly sensible and was actually quite convenient as the short piece could be used for testing. No point in blowing a fuse.
So fit all the attachment points to the guards. When I first saw these I thought you could put the attachment points pretty much wherever you liked. It turns out that there is only one place they will fit from side to side. You can put them anywhere around the circumference but that doesn't help all that much in my circumstances. As I mentioned earlier I needed the fittings close to the bottom edges to support the mudflaps thus the rolled pipe so I could make the chassis attachments at another point more suitable to my truck.
It seems the size is about right in the first trial fitting so I can cut the rest and make up the intermediate pieces. I must admit that a CNC milling machine comes in handy sometimes for these little jobs which would otherwise be tedious. Shaping pipe ends to fit each other can be quite laborious without "labour saving devices".
I need about 6 of these shaped both ends which takes all of about 30 mins. Don't you just love it? And then we have the next trial fit. This method feels quite a lot more complicated than I would like but these guards are really quite flimsy by themselves. I think I mentioned the pipe size problem earlier - these things are made to fit 50mm pipe exactly. The only place I can find it is as mountings supplied for these fittings. Lovely chromed bent fittings which will NOT fit my truck! Mumble mumble mumble . . .
So now I have to make sleeves to take up the difference between the size pipe I can get, 32nb and the fitting. It turns out that some electrical conduit I have left over from making Borehole Crawlers for mine geo-magnetic surveys is just the right size!! You have to win one sometimes. A little bit of my favourite black paint and they'll be perfect - well maybe I could use some of the grey stuff I have left over from the cab interior - that would be more appropriate.
Oops. There goes that phone again.
"What?? The laser cutting is done already??"
I think the recession is already on us. People turning up days early with work you would normally expect to take a week. Well I had better go and get that too. It needs to be under cover out of the rain as well. Even though it is "glad-wrapped" I better bring it inside. It's getting a bit tight in here now as the factory building is only 200sqm.
And I'll blink and it will be Wednesday . . .
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