RESTORATION (3)

Engine, Drive Train & Body

As I do pieces and parts up for the GPW, I'll be adding photos to this section.

ENGINE MOUNTING PLATE

After dissembling the engine this plate was a problem, some one had welded brackets onto the front side and around the generator grommet hole, leaving a mess of daggy welds and welded on washers that had to be removed. When looking in the TM9 1803A it was hard to tell if the washers were supposed to be there or not.  So I emailed Joe Potter who in his typical good natured way removed his generator to check what should be there and what shouldn't, only a good friend would go so far out of their way to do that.. so thanks Joe.

      HEADLIGHT MOUNTING BRACKETS

Having completed the grill, the next logical step is the headlight mounting brackets. I was looking forward to having an easy time with these, hoping to just bead blast the ones I had and repainting, however...." the best laid plans of mice and men" etc. The left side one ( Bracket #1) looked ok until I bead blasted what I thought was some light body filler ( bog, Bondo call it what you like), then the true amount of damage was revealed. Someone in the past had bird dropping for welds, ground away most of the reio. form and covered the lot with bog. I was lucky enough to have a spare bracket ( Bracket #2), but the hinge plate was broken, and the end was ground at an angle. Never one to say things are too hard, I decided against cutting off the good end of Bracket #1, and welding the two together, I decided to replace the complete hinge plate. Far easier to do when all things are considered. The excess weld material from Bracket #2 was removed, it was then a simple matter of brazing "spot welds" the hinge and bracket back in place.

LEFT SIDE

RIGHT SIDE

Sean Elliott answered the call when I didn't have a right side bracket I could repair, although I had a broken one, with a good hinge plate, I didn't have a good "arm". There were only a few things wrong with the one Sean sent me, someone had drilled and filed out the square for the mounting bolt and the reio rib along the back side was slightly flattened., both easy fixes.

In the event you want to make your own sheet metal drill or spot weld remover here's a sketch of how to grind any size drill bit.

BRAKE PEDALS

Paul FitzGerald and Jim Selfridge had been doing some repairs to the worn pads on GPW pedals, so I availed myself (read begged) that I have some done as well. This was after NOS pedals were taken by security at the Melbourne airport when a good mate of mine was bringing the pedals up to the Brisbane Swap in 2007.  Pedals.. A Weapon of Mass Production

The results speak for themselves...

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