1978 International Loadstar 4x4, '71 vw Beetle

[Ratchet]

started cleaning the rust off the brake master cylinder mount plate.. had one part in a ziploc bag to start with to save mixing up a bunch of the solution.. which worked ok till i moved it and put a hole in the bag :I

Coming up well though, at least after i found a drum that was wide enough to take both parts,

I found using a tungsten carbide tipped gasket scraper i can remove a lot of the rust that resists wire brushing, so the rust remover has less work to do, and yes i have a gritblasting cabinet but i don't have access to it right now.


I may have also found a solution for painting it, did think about getting it hot dip galvanized, and indeed that may happen in the future when i send a bunch of other parts to be done (or make my own hot dip setup..) but as its not going to be getting directly blasted with road dirt etc in the engine bay, a slightly less durable coating isnt really an issue, so for now going to coat it with Zinga cold galv 'paint'*, so ordered a small can from a boatbuilding supplies place will see how it works at an rate



























and from my previous post, the remains of the springs from the brake booster:










* the manufacturer goes to lengths to point out its not paint, which it isnt but it you apply it like paint so....

[Ratchet]

so got the brake backing plates derusted, blasted and coated in zinga cold galv 'paint' Will see how it looks in a few days once its dried, and if i need to paint over it or somehow re-do it.

the flat sheet metal part needs to be painted black anyway so that bit isnt so critical.














and got a couple of keys made to match the ignition finally, for the sum total of £17 alas the key doesnt operate the door locks, so need to work out what to do there, one barrel is original type, the other appears to have been changed in the past before, will pull them out and see what i can do.








Have finally found a very good two part epoxy, bought this from a boat building supplier, the same place i got the zinga coating from and it seems to adhear really well, wasnt even that expensive.

Have used this to reaffix the broken pipe on the vacumn booster.. thing (idk what the real name is, i should really find out what it's called)

i have also got some stainless pipe wich is the correct inside diameter, will bore the plastic and bond it in place just to be sure its strong.















And lastly, some gaskets arrived from IH parts usa, mostly gaskets, and a thermostat, the rubber valley and rocker cover gaskets are only avalible from them..i've never been too keen on cork ones (probably due to poor experiances with inferior quality parts rather than cork itself being a bad thing) these are copies of the original type.

[Ratchet]

another.. not particularly interesting update, unless you like looking at boxes of parts!

load of stuff arrived from ther USA today unexpectedly, including the brake parts i was waiting for, so thats soem of this weekend accounted for..


also finished fixing that broken plastic part, the stainless pipe i had was a bit under 15mm od, so i drilled and reamed the plastic part out to 14mm, ground down the OD of the pipe to just under that and bonded it in, i could have turned down the pipe on the lathe, but i figured a rough ground surface would adhere better to the epoxy.. worked well, don't think its going to break there again soon

[jamesd1972]

Nicely thought out fix that.
James

[Ratchet]

Feb 9, 2024 8:09:29 GMT jamesd1972 said:

Nicely thought out fix that.
James

Thanks! it was quite likely strong enough just with the crack bonded together.. but id always be worried about it, this way its less likely to break again, plus using metal inserts in plastic hose stubs like this is something you see manufacturers do for added strength albeit moulded in at the factory.

[Ratchet]

Got some matt lacquer and painted the new master cylinder, as they were just bare cast iron originally, will see how it holds up




Also painted the mounting plate, originally painted it with zinga, but i wasnt that happy with how it looked, so painted with some nickle/silver rustolium , maybe a little too bling but will see when its dried properly (and ive sprayed on the matt laquer, as that dulls the finish a bit)

i may get it zinc plated in the future when i send off some other bits to be done anyway, but want to get the brakes operational as will make moving into the new unit much easier



on that front, removed and stripped down the booster, and was pleasently surprised as its in pretty good condition, even the diaphram is intact, seals actually look ok too bar one that has become loose somehow.

trying to track down a seal kit for it right now, as looks like brake fluid was getting past the power piston and into the vacumn chamber (and subsequently destroyed the control valve springs...) there is a company in the usa that can supply them.

not sure why people are scared of touching these things, as they are super simple inside, nothing really out of the oridinary if you have ever taken a brake or clutch cylinder apart.




















slight rant now... i hate how bad google and other search engines have become at searching for stuff.. absolutley useless (Rhetorical question as i know why it is, will spare the details for other forums though.. short answer is its greed)

And why does it seem specifically in the uk getting parts and service if your an individual and not a company so damn hard, trying to track down a few unusual but not unique bolts and parts, can buy them in the USA easily, and even in europe.. but if I'm not buying 100s there seems few companys in the uk that will even entertain you, if they even reply to an email, and yes there are places that are still good.. finding those is the hard part though.. see above rant about search engines

[vulgalour]

With you on the rant there, trying to buy anything for DIY more complicated than putting up a shelf can be a real trial, especially with so many independant retailers disappearing leaving the only choice in many cases being the bigger chains that stock only the most generic items.

Still, once you find a good place the best thing to do is share the info with likeminded folk and spend your money with them, it's the only way we stand a chance of keeping these places alive and by extension the hobby of fixing things.

[Ratchet]

apologies if my current updates have been.. less than interesting, try to post once a week but you know what it can be like

got the hydrovac cylinder cleaned up, unfortunatly the bore is almost as bad as the master cylinder was, way beyond what a hone could take out









Alas I cant easily pick up a new one so looking into getting it sleeved, sent out a bunch of emails.. and only one reply so likely going with them...

I have however finally found a seal kit, the first place i was recomened seems to either never check their emails.. or as the semi functional website may hint at, are not trading anymore?

but after a long search i found harmonclassicbrakes.com/ which supply seals and spares for all sorts of vacuum bosters, link incase it helps anyone as google was utterly useless, only found them by chance while looking through images of parts (re rant about th uselessness of web searches ...)


also broke out the lathe and made a brass insert so i could weld up the corroded inlet pipe on the vacuum canister that i found after starting to gritblast it, insert was so i didnt end up burning through the pipe as its fairly thin metal.

Annoyingly i only took a photo of the first very poor weld, tig does not like any contamination, mig welding it may have been easier in hindsight, even if its a bit less controlable.

i redid the welds after cleaning and grinding it and once the holes were welded up i brass braized all the remaining pitting on the outside and ground/filed it down before painting.











hopefully seal kit arrives soon and can get cylinder sent off to be repaired, and hopefully get the master cylinder refitted this coming weekend, may make a bypass hose so ia have at least partial brakes again.

does anyone know of a good source for imperial copper washers?... ones that are actual imperial sizes and not just metric.. I ended up making these on the lathe as could not find ones that fitted the brake line banjo bolts properly (1/2" id 13/16th OD)

*the dirt/marking on one is the remains of locking compound as i used that to glue them all together for drilling, original one is near the center





also found while doing the machining that the crossslide on my mates recently accuired boxford has a hilarious amount of play, making nice machining very hard.. so thats another thing to fix.

[Ratchet]

actully got some parts refitted to the truck at weekend for once! makes a change from taking apart....though i did more of that too.


New front prop fitted..











this entailed removing the exhaust though as it is bent and as a consequince was right in the way of where the prop needs to go


needed to take it off to replace the exhaust donuts at the very least anyway as they were no longer present, will probably straighten it, and make sure it fits ok, then get something made in stainless at a later date, not sure what route I'm going with the exhaust yet at any rate.


while i was pittign soem grease in the new prop, went round a few of the grease nipples underneath, and despite maybe 20 years of beign idle, most of them took grease! including the front winch, even the rollers turn nicely, which is a bonus as I'm going to be reinstating it at some point.






also cleaned up the surface rust on the bulkhead were the brake mount plate fits, can get that primed next.. and hopefully painted if the paint i ordred arrives.. they werent 100% sure abotu the colour match as were struggling to work it out from the IH code... not a huge issue as will be gettig nthe whole cab painted at some point anyhow...










also started sandblasting the brake servo parts, as the seal kit has arrived so can get the cylinder sent off to be sleeved, and then have (semi) working brakes hopefully

[LowStandards]

I can't be the only one that just wants you to get the oily bits and chassis up to scratch and leave the rest as it is?


Gas cut wings - Mint

Clearly driven through a barn - mint

Front bull bar - Oh yes

[Davey]

Feb 28, 2024 8:35:13 GMT LowStandards said:

I can't be the only one that just wants you to get the oilly bits and chassis up to scratch and leave the rest as it is?


Gas cut wings - Mint

Clearly driven through a barn - mint

Front bull bar - Oh yes

I just want to see it moving!

[Ratchet]

The thought has passed my mind, if i could find something to protect the patina and stop it rusting away in five seconds, and not look like it was lacqured

likewise the bullbar.. if i thought it would pass a HGV mot as it is i would probably stay.. cracked and bent tubing and all

[Ratchet]

Feb 28, 2024 8:41:07 GMT Davey said:

Feb 28, 2024 8:35:13 GMT LowStandards said:

I can't be the only one that just wants you to get the oilly bits and chassis up to scratch and leave the rest as it is?


Gas cut wings - Mint

Clearly driven through a barn - mint

Front bull bar - Oh yes

I just want to see it moving!

watch this space

[Ratchet]

alas rain on saturday and fixing the farm trucks engine.. (again.. because people just wont listen to advice) meant i didnt get as much done.. did get the brake booster parts sandblasted and painted though, and the bulkhead finished.. sort of












Seems the paint I got isn't remotely the right colour, even taking fading into account.

Got some more on order that hopefully is a bit closer, as even though I'm probably having the whole cab painted my ocd wont let me leave it as it is

I'm actually not 100% sure what I'm doing with paint now, will need to respray most of it as paint is in very poor shape, and the climate here will not do it any favors. want to keep it orange, and close to the original, but something i can get easier as getting paint mixed to the original code is proving challenging (and i havent found any places near me that will match to a sample..) I'm hoping RAL 2003 pastel orange is close to what I'm looking for, mainly for ease of avalibility

[glenanderson]

I was going to suggest you just pick a RAL colour that you like and throw it about with gay abandon. 😃👍

[Ratchet]

Mar 5, 2024 22:15:09 GMT glenanderson said:

I was going to suggest you just pick a RAL colour that you like and throw it about with gay abandon. 😃👍

Exactly what i decided to do haha,

The orange i got while trying to get a match is a ford colour, Utah orange, and is quite close but a little lighter and less red than RAL 2002 (international orange, the industry colour, not the manufacturer) RAL 2003 pastel orange is a little lighter still and i think will be close to what I'm looking for, will see when it arrives i guess

[Ratchet]

went and got some paint mixed to RAL 2004, "pure orange" and its exactly the shade i was after, and surprisingly close to the original colour.

ignore the overspray on some parts, those need to come off and be cleaned and painted anyway..







and on sunday despite the weathers best efforts i got the brake master cylinder and associated parts refitted.

i added gaskets between the plates and the cab firewall that i made from thin rubber. in hindsight wasnt the right material to use, so will change that when it comes apart again. it didnt have anything from the factory, but i think the lino type gasket material may work better.


I also want to re-engineer how the vacuum pipe is fitted as its.. kind of janky as it came out of the factory.

Its held with three p-clips, two just held with self tapping screws through the firewall and the third is on a stud that is only just long enough and requires the p- clip to be bent so it sits right.

Will add some captive nuts and proper bolts in place of the screws, and probably a longer stud for the p-clip, so i can space the pipe away from the bulkhead a little as its way to close for my liking.








looks good for the meantime though

[Ratchet]

while the sun was out on saturday i also changed the transfer box oil, or a at least drained and partly filled it, when i drained it a tiny amount of water came out, maybe a teaspoon, not bad considering its been sat in open for who knows how long, with an open input where a drive cable should be fitted.

I say partly filled as despite it being a rockwell 223 box that was fitted to all sorts of vehicles finding the oil capacity was impossible.. even the factory manual just says "fill to level". real helpful there guys.

typically i didnt order quite enough oil, so had to order more this week.

As per the manual it uses 140w oil, with 90 grade specified for extreme cold climates. non EP as it has brass components in it that the ep aditives don't play nicely with.
Also while searching for oil type and capcities i found a lot of people complaining that they run hot or leak.. but then saying they use atf in them? i may know the root of the issue there haha.

I used morris oil in the end.. strangely i found it considerably cheaper from a third party vendor than it was direct from their own website, and weirder still said vendor is in the same town as morris's is based in?


Now just need to get some straight 90 for the gearbox.. alas despite working on machinary that uses all sorts of heavy gear oil, in very large quantities, with a *lot* of excess kicking around all of it is EP, so i'll have to actually buy some.. oh well

[glenanderson]

The whole “EP additives/GL5 will eat my gearbox” issue has been done to death on various Land-Rover forums over the years.

Broadly, it seems that the problem was only really an issue with the first generation of those products, and only from certain brands. Information is hazy, but the broad consensus from industry sources suggests that the problem simply doesn’t exist, and hasn’t for years.

Armchair/internet experts will assure you that it will actually cause your vehicle to melt in front of your eyes. Nuns and goldfish will perish. Plagues of locusts. Armageddon.

Personally, I had access to a free supply of extremely high quality Shell GL5 80W90 for a while, and used it for the best part of a decade in my Land-Rover without any issues whatsoever.

Now that I have finally run through the last of it, and have to actually pay for some with my own money, I buy GL4 from Rye Oils, because I’m a cheapskate, not because I think I really need to. 🤣

[generallee]

Mar 13, 2024 21:23:07 GMT glenanderson said:

pay for some with my own money

As an apprentice, I genuinely had no idea how expensive oils were. Everything I owned had whatever was used in our wagons. So, 'engine' 'gear' (ep90 I think) or 'hydraulic '


We used hydraulic oil to fill fuel filters more than hydraulic reservoirs.. different times!

Anyway, memory lane aside, as you were.