1978 International Loadstar 4x4, '71 vw Beetle

[Ratchet]

and fitted

annoyingly it turns out the the paint i used on the master cylinder itself isnt too brake fluid proof.. it touched up ok though, and the black chassis paint under the grey is mostly impervious so its not going to rust anyway.

i hate brake fluid. .

I may well re-paint it when i have it off in the future when the chassis gets repaired, but overall looks ok, will get it bled next week and make sure its all functional












whilst i was on with this my bf removed the battery tray, which has somewhat lost its structure, was going to make a new part out of 3mm zintec sheet but have found another solution that wil save me some time and fabrication.. watch this space

he also cleaned out the mouse house from the heater box, and tested the motor.. surprisingly box isnt totlly rotted out, and motor works, will pull it out at a later point and restore it

[Ratchet]

So the battery tray, original was very rotted due to leaking batteries over the years.








so, i looked at buying a second hand one, and actually found a few, but at $90 plus whatever i needed to ship from the USA i decided to make my own.

Originally was going to make it out of some 2mm steel as have a bunch of that to hand, but before i started i decided to look around to see if there were any off the shelf trays avalible that i could modify, and one of the first i came across was this:





a laser cut battery tray for a (bowler) tomcat .. did a few measurements and found its nearly exactly the size of the original, and even better, its only £26

duly ordered, along with some 3mm steel plate to make the brackets from

removed the original upright stay from the tray as it was in near perfect shape sand blasted and deox'd it, then welded up the one bit of pitting there was.

Made the battery hold down and the wing rail bracket from 3mm plate, just copying the originals, then plug welded them on, very much overkill with the amount of welds and metal thickness but making the bracket out of thinner material than the tray itself felt wrong.

Didnt take pics of the bracket being welded on but came out pretty nicely, threw on some primer for now, needs a little bit of tidying then properly painted.


Still need to make the tie down bar and bolts, have found photos and drawings of the original so will make it in a similar style.

















also did a little more work on some other things, cleaned up and zinc plated the speedo drive nut, and replaced a pitted washer/spacer on the driveshaft where watter had been sitting, and finished one of the replacment grill sides, somehow seems i neglected to take any photos though.. or my phone ate them again


Really should start getting to the unit after work now that light nights are back, its a pain in the butt having to drive for 30 mins to get there though, also i don't currently have a welder up there so can only do mechanical work...

[Ratchet]

bit of visible progress this week,

first a bunch of parts came from america, including a couple of cut out panels from Windy Hill Auto Parts in Minnesota (super helpful people that own that place have bought a few parts from them) namely a door step, and windscreen corner




then made up a battery clamp bar from 1/4" bar, may or may not use this as found you can buy original ones for $13 and i may have made the loops on mine slightly too long




As the design of battery tray and clamp is originally for a battery with a square top, to make it work with a euro type battery with the stepped in top i needed to make some spacer blocks, turns out a nylon telehandler boom wear pad* was exactly the right thickness

Cut a couple of blocks out of one, will paint them black and probably hot glue to the battery, as the clamp will hold it all down tightly. and don't worry i didnt leave it looking tatty as in the photo, even if it isnt seen when fitted

*super handy things those for all sorts of auto related tasks and best of all can get a near unlimited amount of used ones from work for free)








test fitted the battery tray, and it lined up perfectly






after that pulled off the left hand wing and cab 'cheek' panel, as this is the less mangled wing, and should be easier to get straight.



out of the 20 0r so bolts holding on the wing, only three gave me any bother, and only one of those broke, which is also a lower hinge bolt, which i need to remove anyway, and looks like i can weld a nut onto the back of it to remove so no big issue.

Two of the bolts had been cross threaded, seemingly from new, as the flange on the bolt means they wont go in square, will need to swap them for a fdifferent type when i refit the wings, still came out ok though at least






depite being very little if any paint ever being applied to the door pillar, there is pretty much only surface rust,

tomorrows jobs are to finish doing the welding on the replacment grill panels, start straigntening the wings and repair the rust hole in the cheek panel.. (which is the only hole in any outer panel on the truck, ignoring the mouse nest induced damage to the roof edge) seems someone had the lower hinge cover panel off at some point and didnt refit it properly so dirt got in and got trapped in the cavity)


Other than that trying to find a somewhere that will make me replacment chassis rails, can find companies in pretty much every country but the UK, maybe i shouldnt be surprised at this...

One US based place currently looks like the best candidate at the moment, even if i end up having to pay shipping costs etc.

[Ratchet]

wasnt in the best headspace yesterday to get a lot done for soem reason,

but started on repairing the side panel, grit blasted the rusted out areas, and drilled out the spotwelds holding on the captive nut/reinforcement plate,so could assess the extent of the damage.

reinforcement is badly pitted so will make a new part, but other than the area around the hole the panel itself is sound.












also did the last of the welding to the grill lower bar, and the nearside grill corner.. for now anyway, there is a square hole that isnt used on it which i might weld up.

Need to make a desision on the front wing support bracket too,

This bolts to the seam between the wing and the headlamp panel, and is the culprit for the fact 95% of loadstars have rusted out on the top of the wing.

It only bolts in one edge but has a flat top that sits right underneath the sheetmetal, letting road dirt and mud collect.

Now my truck is a rare example that hasnt rotted out there, but do i just blast the rust off, paint it and put back as original with a load of cavity wax above it, or do i take a holesaw and cut some holes in it, so dirt cant get trapped there in the first place?

see my hastily drawn on with permanent marker example, may just put three or four round holes instead

[glenanderson]

I would suggest that anything will be better than the factory method, which would have likely been “throw it together and paint it afterwards, because nobody is going to want it to last more than a few years anyway…”

A decent coat of paint, followed with some cavity wax, and then keeping an eye on it will probably be more than enough.

You could always look at getting the supports galvanised, that’s another option.

[mrbig]

I've somehow managed to miss this thread up until, now really enjoying the progress. Always love seeing the ingenuity folks put into these rebuilds. Are you planning to move the rear axle back to it's original location?

[Ratchet]

May 28, 2024 21:45:40 GMT glenanderson said:

I would suggest that anything will be better than the factory method, which would have likely been “throw it together and paint it afterwards, because nobody is going to want it to last more than a few years anyway…”

A decent coat of paint, followed with some cavity wax, and then keeping an eye on it will probably be more than enough.

You could always look at getting the supports galvanised, that’s another option.

Good point, there is barely any paint on underside of the wing, and only a cursory coat of black on that bracket, also i completly forgot about galvanising, stupidly as i want to get some other parts done, along with some bits for the landrover...

May 29, 2024 14:13:53 GMT mrbig said:

I've somehow managed to miss this thread up until, now really enjoying the progress. Always love seeing the ingenuity folks put into these rebuilds. Are you planning to move the rear axle back to it's original location?

Thanks, sometimes feels like I'm not making much progress at all

Yeah axle is going back where it should be, need to lift the body off, then can get that sorted, the aformentioned chassis parts are to replace the ones hacked about by cleetus when he carried out the ill advised stretch.. i'm just glad they didnt mess with the main rails (bar tacking on 3 foot onto the end)

[Ratchet]

Some bodywork this weekend


cut out the rotted out section on the cab side panel, and new piece welded in (actually used a piece of the roof setion i got from the USA, then made a new reinforcement panel from 1.6mm steel as the original, also reusing the original nuts, trimmed it a little neater than the factory did though!














just need to derust the back, and weld a pinhole in the mounting flange and can get it in primer properly



Started straightening the wing too, did the easy bit first, the rear, front will be more of a challenge as has suffered various impact damage over the years, plus has been very roughly beaten back out in places to compound issues, also where its been gas welded together, but will leave that alone until i have it all straight










may have finally sourced a step fuel tank, if the vendor replies, and its an aluminum one too

[Ratchet]

More work on straightening the nearside wing, had to contend with a crack.. wich as it turns out is where its been gas welded in the past at soem point, then cracked again, hopefully be ok now ive mig welded it, but may need to aneal the metal there somehow.

still a long way to go, but its looking a lot better, once i have it straight will cut the gas welds on the seam, and drill out the remaining spot welds,

not 100% sure but i think I'm going to bolt it back together rather than spot weld, mainly so i can paint the seam properly, will see though




















after that took of the inner wing, this is going to need some remadial work, didnt have much paint on it from new, had some kind of insulation over it on the inside (all disintigrated now) and having vines/briars growing through it hasnt helped matters, its not a complex shape at least.

also trialed on the 3 bar grill i got, turns out the grill is just held on with six screws, so i can easily swap between them, and tyo that end will restore and paint both so i can do just that (i originaly prefered the three bar, but the later more open one has grown on me.
















also fitted the now painted battery tray, but i neglected to photograph that, and seems my rebuilt carb has a leak.. i think its from the bottom gasket, i didnt have the correct one when i reassembled it so re-used the old one, will have to pull it off and change it now i have one.

[kevins]

Coming along nicely, when I've had panels that keep cracking I've found running some beads of weld on the back across the crack and out into the surrounding metal distributes the stress and prevents it cracking again.

[Ratchet]

delay posting this, as didnt do a huge amount..

de-rusted and repaired the washer bottle bracket, i *could* have just made a new one, but the original has a part number stamped in it, and it was only the bottom 3" that was rusted through, so just made a new piece in 1.8mm steel and welded it on.. then electroplated the whole thing for the hell of it.

its a little too rough with pitting in areas to leave like that so will be painting it black as it original was, but still came out alright





Then repaired the washer bottle as had a few cracks on the mountign tabs, bonded soem aluminum to it with epoxy.. and spent maybe too much time rebuilding the washer pump, which had seized and the motor was rusted solid inside, got it freed off, the motor body had rusted through in spots so epoxied it and painted, then repaired the busted flange on the plastic, seems to work fine.. will keep an eye out for a replacement just in case though













Also been trcing down soem of the captive nuts for the wings, these are a 5/16" acme type screw, and the wing ones are a non standard type, the fasteners are made out of some kind of really hard spring steel which has cracked on quite a few of them, managed to track down a few NOS ones, but as i still need to do the other side, and the transmision tunnel uses the same type i needed to find a vendor, drew a load of blanks, but then found a company selling something very close, intended for Volvo amazons apparently,

ordered a pack along with some other parts, and looks like they will fit the bill.








Company is called Bresco: www.bresco.com/ they sell all sorts of useful clips and fasteners etc.. (google is useless these days so posting a link here may help someone else, thinking on it maybe should start a thread somewhere with links to useful parts sites like this..)

[glenanderson]

Land-Rover wing-to-bulkhead fasteners look very similar to that.

captive nut

bolt

[Ratchet]

Jun 20, 2024 4:27:26 GMT glenanderson said:

Land-Rover wing-to-bulkhead fasteners look very similar to that.

captive nut

bolt

the landrover ones are very similar, but smaller from what i could work out, 1/4 as opposed to 5/16, annoying as they are much easier to get.


Its an interesting selection of thread types used on this truck, mostly UNF for anything with a captive or welded on nut.. but also unc sometimes, floating type captive nuts can be both, with the acme thread ones thrown in for good measure

Seemingly no rhyme nor reason for which ones they used either ... the battery tray uses two unc ones to hold it to the inner wing, and then a row of three bolts holding it to the bulkhead, the top two are unf, the bottom unc.. just to confuse matters

[Ratchet]

not much done this weekend, as was at a steam fair yesterday, but tracked down some information on the steering box (needs adjustment, and maybe parts as the input shaft moves a good 3/4" on turning the steering :I) thankfully the ross/TRW manual for it is fantastic, and no special tools required.

Measured up for the drivers step too, as not been able to track down a repairable original, and as i want to mount it off the chassis rather then the wing/sill as it originaly was, because they have a habit of bending the aformentioned parts, got a few ideas involving parts that were never meant to be fitted to vehicles..

also made a new brake pipe for the master cylinder to main brake hose, as the replacment someone had made in the past was.. well just look:

[Ratchet]

Got the body lifted off the chassis yesteray, using the worlds sketchiest Manitou telehandler...






can see the chassis properly now, can look at refitting the axle correctly and removing all the insane modifications, then can get the crosmembers back in place, and measure up for the outer frame rails and a new rear crosmember













can see in this pic where they have badly welded a frame onto the end of the original one, the original frame sould end just after where the two holes are on the bottom flange, where the crosmember was riveted in, glad they didn't cut and extend the frame in the middle as that would have likely meant getting whole new rails made










No idea what they were trying to achive by welding this scrap onto the transfer box crossmember, need to drop the box out to reseal it anyway, so will chop out all the flat bar, also need to find/make new rubber mounts, mainly as two are completly missing? don't know whats going on there as its been solid bolted to the frame on one side.. and unsurprisingly the mount has subsequently cracked,

[Davey]

Not hanging about with this are you! Great work.

[Ratchet]

Jul 8, 2024 10:59:51 GMT Davey said:

Not hanging about with this are you! Great work.

trying not to anyway, only really get one.. two days a week at it, plus any nights so got to make it count (oh for a garage at home.... when we next move thats high on the prorities)

Been working on the nearside inner wing, picked up a spot welder to do some of that, plus experimentign to see if i can adapt it or something to attach weld nuts, as there are a couple with less than good threads and idealy i want to replicate the original look

[Ratchet]

So not posted in a while, sorry

have done a few things though, managed to get the bolted on rail off the nearside, woith soem sketchy use of an engine crane, portapac anda farm jack

Original frame is.. in ok condition, has had some holes drilled in it by the original body builder way back when.. because presumably the 100s of holes the IHI factory drilled werent sufficient.... plus has had stuff welded to it and then later cut off, again i assume when it had the water tank fitted when new, which I'm not entierly happy about as its nicked the rails in places and will need to fix that.







overall though ok, and can repair those issues, however I still need the outer L channels, and to that end got a quote for getting both the l channels, main rails and a rear crossmember made in 140000ksi steel by a firm in the USA (failing to find anyone willing to do it in the uk... or europe, if anyone knows of one let me know)

Quote inc shipping was just shy of $5000.. which aint cheap, i don't currently have cash for that so will have to wait i think.. got plenty to do in the meantime though.


other than that the brake hoses i got made arrived from the USA, and look perfect, again i would have liked to have got these made locally but not one company I found replied to emails or even answered the phone :/

$66 dollars inc shipping to the uk is not bad though.

Decent company to deal with (seems to be just one guy that runs it) and he stocks a bunch of hoses for more common US trucks and cars on his ebay store.

[glenanderson]

Would it be worth considering a donor truck for the chassis parts? You don’t need a title, and it wouldn’t matter how otherwise incomplete it was?

$5000 isn’t a bad price for new bespoke stuff, but if you could track down secondhand parts you’d probably be looking at close to scrap money if you were lucky.

[Ratchet]

Aug 3, 2024 18:32:08 GMT glenanderson said:

Would it be worth considering a donor truck for the chassis parts? You don’t need a title, and it wouldn’t matter how otherwise incomplete it was?

$5000 isn’t a bad price for new bespoke stuff, but if you could track down secondhand parts you’d probably be looking at close to scrap money if you were lucky.

I have actually been looking to be fair, getting responses is as ever kinda tough, did find somone with a complete and mostly unmolested bare 4x4 chassis on a forum, but he doesnt seem to want to part with it.


there are a few differences between a normal 1700 and the 4x4, but I'm not really sure what they are, know the part numbers are different though (i have pdf of an International parts catalog)