When we last left our intrepid 109 owner;
I was fixing the sand blaster given to me by my neighbor. Once it was working I was able to hit some of the larger items, but the small washers still needed to be done by hand on a 220 grit sanding sponge.
The blaster paid for itself once I had it dialed in for pressure and flow I was able to clean the inside of the slides and the rest of the latches.
For the vents I cleaned what I could with a wire wheel in my corded drill as blasting media was a limited supply.
The stuff I couldn't reach with the wire wheel I got with the sand. Then I sprayed with rust preventer and almond paint.
31 July 2020
The cotter pins I put in the first on bothered me. I needed something better. I put on my mask(for Covid) and made a trip to the hardware store. Looking for 1/8" dia clevis pins. The holes for the original hinge pins are 1/8". Alas, the smallest I could find were 1/4" dia.
Something else was needed. Looking at the rows of drawers of hardware I found some 6-32 allen head machine screws. I needed 12 so I bought 14, I had zinc plated locknuts at home. I also have plenty of metric and SAE allen wrenches, but WTF, none of them fit. I wound up using my dremel tool to grind down a wrench to fit.
Once the parts were all cleaned they were rust inhibitor coated and then painted flat black, with the exception of the finger pins. They would need to be pressed back in to the slide.
Interestingly 2 of the finger pins were now a loose fit in the slide. Taking a sharp chisel I renewed the groove in the center that splayed out and made the press fit possible. PIA....
Using a block of wood to prevent damage to the paint I hammered the pins back in and measured them to get the sides even.
The paint was still drying on the vents and trim rings so your trusty blogger decided to wire wheel the old dried glue off the inside of the roof. Before photo;
After doing the rear section;
The slides were hit with a last coat of paint to cover the finger pins and since it was in the 90'F they were dry by the time the wire wheeling was done.
So some assembly was required! I put the dogbone links on the slides. Not having a good fitting allen wrench was frustrating.
I should have worn my face shield! The after pic;
1 Aug 2020
Overnight I decided to remove the damaged front headliner and insulation. It is all just held in with screws. I took it out whole which caused a little struggle due to the metal side strips making it hard to get the frame out of the inside drip rail.
Then I found this;
The headliner insulation was falling apart on the right side. So I covered my seats with a canvas tarp and out came the insulation. After yesterday I knew I would be wire wheeling the dried glue off....
The insulation came out easy and on the inside I found this mouse nest, "I hate meeces to pieces!' to quote Mr Jinks. At this point I was glad to be wearing my respirator to prevent Hanta virus.
All the glue to take off;
A sweaty 45 minutes later;
Since I had my tools out I decided this would be a good time to grind off the lip in the roof seals for the door seals. Down came the seals, out came the angle grinder. I carefully ground down the lip one side at a time, painted with galvy (97% zinc) paint, then reinstalled the Defender seals.
Also taking advantage of the extension cord and tools being out, I drilled out the drip rail for the top of the shoulder belt bracket. This was harder and time consuming. Having to line up the holes and mark for the new ones then use a long drill, and it was HOT! With the grinding of the door seal and drilling, bolting in of the shoulder harness bracket took 2 hours per side.
Now it looks like this and I feel better if I have to go anywhere being belted in;
2 Aug 2020
Well, after a couple of days the paint was dry on the vents, so on to assembly!!
Without a good fitting allen wrench I'm glad I only had to do this once.
Right away there was a snag.......Remember the holes were 1/8"? Crap, the 6-32 machine screws were a couple thousandths over that. The shape of the vent prevents a drill with a regular size bit to get in and enlarge the hole, a long, 6", bit is needed. I don't have a 5/32" long bit, neither does any of the hardware stores within 25 miles and online would be 5 days.
So I took a piece of 3/8" aluminum rod and drilled a 5/32" hole in it and loctited the bit in it. Allowing it ti set a while I was able to drill out the holes to fit the machine screws.
All the vents were put together;
I did find it easier to just grab the head with a small pliers and turn the 5/16" nut with an offset wrench,
3 Aug 2020
Again overnight I decided to remove the insulation in the middle section. So I suited up in respirator, earmuffs, and this time the face shield! Using a putty knife I carefully peeled off the horsehair(?) insulation thinking to preserve it for a template and possible resale.
It separated fairly easy'
And left me with this dried glue to wire wheel off.
Eventually it came off and then I used my air compressor to blow out all the frelling dust and old "hairs" of insulation. It was as you would suspect EVERYWHERE!! Probably took 20 minutes to blow out to my satisfaction, but it was done.
Before it got too hot I wanted to install the vents. As mentioned before I used the 3M strip caulk. One strip covered 1/2 of the opening.
2 strips went all the way around the edge. I decided to double the width using 2 strips and this would cover the holes for the trim screws, you can see the exposed holes in the next pic. I offset the ends of the 2 rows to prevent leaks.
My pack had a double row ready.
To install the vent I used an ice pick, a nail set would work also, first find the screw hole by peeling back the caulk, replace the caulk and put the pick through the hole in the vent and present the vent to the hole in the roof and find the hole for the screw at the same time. While holding the vent in place pull out the pick and insert a screw. Screw it in a couple turns by hand and find another screw hole with the pick and screw it.
Note that on my roof there were 2 types of screws used, the pointy ones were used on the trim rings and the blunts on the vent.
Once all 4 screws are finger tight use a driver to tighten and squeeze the caulk to seal! Then check the function of your refurbished vent action!
Now I just have to figure out a new insulation and headliner.......
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