Let's see... I took my son on a long promised camping trip Friday. After
I got home Saturday afternoon I helped some friends of the family
move. Sunday's are my official day off from Carryall work, so nothing
happened on it until last night.
The break was actually good for me. Gave me a chance to think things
through. So, I didn't dive back into primer paint, but instead decided to
repair a couple missing captive nuts on the rear wheel well.
I picked up some 5/8" nuts and washers from Home Depot, along with some
Muriatic Acid ($4 for 2 gallons in the swimming pool section, such a
deal!). I did a 50/50 acid/water mix (outdoors and with acid resistant
gloves on) and found it quickly stripped chrome from the hardware. Then I
used the MIG welder to weld the washers to the nuts, ground the washer to
fit the "D" shaped hole the original captive nuts left, and welded my new
captive nuts in place.
All that is easier said than done, but I wanted to take care of it before I
was done with priming. There are a couple more items I need to fix before
I put the first color coat on, so that will likely dominate the upcoming
week's work.
Speaking of upcoming weeks, my original deadline will pass me by on the
28th. I'll have to attend Memorial Day services without a HMV. I know
it's better to get it done right, but it does disappoint me to miss the
goal. I'll continue to post my progress. Thanks again to everyone who has
provide technical help and encouragement these last couple months. It's
been a lot of fun. And a special thanks to my wife (who does get copied on
these posts) for putting up with my long nights in the garage and budget
overruns. May you all find someone who can, if not necessarily understand,
at least tolerate your Historic Military Vehicle obsession.
Chris Davis
MVPA# 20000
Lake Forest, CA
'42 WC53 Carryall
'66 M274A2 Mule
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 23:18:38 PDT