It's here! (Bedford RL)

[john1950]

You seem a bit happier Only problem I found using the gas axe was the fire extingisher was not big enough.

[Tamber]

9 minutes ago, john1950 said:

You seem a bit happier Only problem I found using the gas axe was the fire extingisher was not big enough.

I only had a little cutting torch, so I only needed a little fire extinguisher; that's how it works, right? I did my best to block any fire or molten metal reaching wiring (or rubber fuel line; that would have been exciting!) with a scrap piece of ally plate. Fire extinguisher was kept close to hand at all times, too.

I'm trying to keep my spirits up and keep going at it; as long as I'm still taking steps forward, even little ones, I'm still making progress. It's definitely helping that the days are getting longer, and the weather has stayed nice for a few days.

[john1950]

I heard my brother say once when I had the gas axe in my hand, Give him half an hour an we willl know if he is fixing it or scrapping it. I learnt the hard way to plan be there at least an hour after using it, Ideally be on site 4 hours after using a set of cutting gear fire watching, to make sure everything is O.K. I have found a smouldering rag nowhere near the work area Two hours later.

Edited February 23, 2018 by john1950
addition

[Tamber]

Yep! Fire-watch is essential, and -- hopefully -- tedious. It's amazing how things can seemingly move around of their own accord and decide to settle down somewhere before smouldering.

[john1950]

It is like looking for the last item to finish a job.  "How on earth did that get over there"! Or words to that effect.

Edited February 25, 2018 by john1950
correction

[Tamber]

Miniature update, just to note that I'm still here and still making tiny bits of progress! Been struggling a little for motivation recently, but I'm trying to keep pushing onwards on little things that I can see.

The list of bits:

• The gearbox oil was changed. A little thing, but it did need it. No signs of anything horrific in the old oil, which is good news. Next on the list for a fluid change is probably the transfer case.
   
• A little more brake pipe has appeared on the rear axle. Some blood was spilt in the process, but I've been informed that's actually for good luck. 😁
  
  
  
  Yes, I am going to have to join those with M-M unions. I'm not quite good enough to do the whole run in one go, yet. It has quite a circuitous route to follow, and bending this diameter pipe without kinking it takes some practise. It's certainly easier with 3/16" pipe, for sure!
  
  I have enough hard-line left to do only about 90% of the run from the rear flexible pipe, to the master cylinder, naturally. So I'll have to order another length, and use the existing material to plumb the fronts. (Especially considering my material loss rates! I'm getting better at not kinking it while just trying to adjust it that last little bit, though.)
  I also need to do some hunting around to find somewhere I can get to make up the flexible lines with the 1/2UNF ends, once I'm confident I have the right length worked out.
   
• Some cleaning and painting has happened. Not the most vital thing, but it needs doing, and it's a visible improvement that helps with the motivation.
  
  with some elbow-grease, wire brushes, and sandpaper, became
  
  
  (I will be replicating the markings once it's painted proper.)
  
  Moving forwards, I started knocking off the flaky paint and grime, with the intent of just priming up the areas that were at risk of showing bare metal.
  
  
  Well, then I started getting a little carried away with the brush, since it looked so good!
  
  
  
  It definitely shows up the areas that need serious attention, though. Which, in a way, is a good thing.
  
  
  The grille really was flaking quite badly, so since I was apparently painting the whole damn truck that day, I decided I'd just carry on with that. Big chunks of paint were coming off, right down to bare metal, so it really did need it to protect against the elements
  
  Wire brush in a drill, and a little scraping, cleared this quite well. It really didn't take much to dislodge those big flakes.
  
  ...followed up by rust treatment. Kurust, in this case, which is my preferred rust converter. Then, when that dried off, a coat of red-oxide primer followed.
  
  
  Much better!
   
• I fitted a new beacon on the roof. It doesn't have quite the same look to it as the old Lucas one, but it has the advantage of working; and it'll do the job quite adequately, once I get it wired in. Fitting that also reminded me just how rough the roof is. Plenty of sheet metal work ahead of me yet, and I really do need to pick up the pace a little, I know.
   
• I've stripped the tyre inflater down, cleaned out a lot of grunge, and rebuilt it... and it still leaks air straight through from the output side. Need to dig back into it and see what I can do about that. Not sure whether it's just that the conical rubber portion of the valve is so hard with age that it's not sealing properly against the valve seat, or whether there's something I've missed about how it works.

So, unfortunately, it's the same old sad story of not having gotten a lot done. To add further insult, we've had glorious weather for nearly two weeks up here, and rather than spending that time working on the RL, I've been having to fix my car to get it to pass the MOT! (Corrosion and brake pipes, seems to be a bit of a running theme at the moment.)
Bah! 🙄

[Zero-Five-Two]

All progress is good, however small.  Those front panels don't look too bad, at least the paint goes back to bare metal and not rust crumbs.  Anyway good to see you are still at it, and still on here.  We seem to have "lost" quite a few interesting restorations since the changeover.

Summers coming, good chance of better weather and longer evenings for doing stuff.

[Tamber]

3 hours ago, Zero-Five-Two said:

Those front panels don't look too bad, at least the paint goes back to bare metal and not rust crumbs.

The front panels cleaned up quite nicely, which was a relief, especially considering the paint on the grille was coming off in huge flakes right down to bare metal! Definitely got lucky in that it was still metal, and wasn't just blowing away in the wind! 😁

3 hours ago, Zero-Five-Two said:

Anyway good to see you are still at it, and still on here.  We seem to have "lost" quite a few interesting restorations since the changeover.

Summers coming, good chance of better weather and longer evenings for doing stuff.

I might be at it for some time! 😁 The recent stretch of nice weather is definitely helping give more time to get things done, I just now need to start getting things done.

Speaking of small progress...


Rear brake pipes on the axle finally fully connected up, with the unions I was waiting on. (Automec was the supplier this time.) Rest of the system to follow. ...also some cleaning and painting of that axle, because it looks hideous!

And a little switch panel. The ends of the switches illuminate when they're switched on, to serve as the tell-tales. 3 yellow, one blue for the fog light. (I have my suspicions that the blue one may be too bright, from using a similar one at work that was -- as per bloody usual with blue LEDs -- retina-searingly bright. If that turns out to be the case, I'll install a resistor to drop the brightness a little. Or a lottle.)

Proper labels will follow when I decide how I want to label it. Self-adhesive labels just seem a bit naff, so it might have to be little brass plates. 😁

This picture also shows the state that the roof is in. I had previously scuffed off all the flaking paint, and shot a quick coat of red primer just to make it easier to see what was going on and what needed fixing. One piece at a time, and all that.

[Grasshopper]

At work our drivers have taken to colouring in the LEDs they feel are too bright with felt pens...seems to do the trick though!

[Tamber]

On 6/5/2018 at 10:00 AM, Grasshopper said:

At work our drivers have taken to colouring in the LEDs they feel are too bright with felt pens...seems to do the trick though!

That's definitely an option. So far, it doesn't seem to be too bright, and it points away from eye-line when on anyway; we'll see how it works out.

In other news items, I did some work! It involved cooking for a little bit in the sun.

A little bit of drilling and metal-sticking later, I had this; which was sprayed with weld-through primer.

And that fine bit of engineering fits...

...here! This surprisingly only a little jiggery-pokery involved in getting it to fit; mostly in shortening the weld-through tab on the near-side until it fit with the not-exactly-stock battery box.

And, a major milestone reached today, with the first metal going back in, in a long time.

Still quite a bit more welding to do, particularly on the near-side where it's only tacked into place for now due to access being slightly restricted by cabling; however, with a bit more welding on the offside, I got it to the point I could lift the cab up off the chassis by jacking it by the end of the new cross-member, which is a good sign.

This was the result of about 4 or so hours, including about an hour spent trying to get the generator to start, because the battery was flat and I didn't have any jump-leads. However, progress was made, today.

[Tamber]

Now, I didn't get a great lot done last week, when I stuck on an Überbräcket at the back for another twirly light amongst some other puttering about

The Überbräcket, named because it's only holding up a twirly light the same as the one on the roof, yet I made it out of a piece of 10mm (3/8"-ish) steel that I had laying around that was the right size, and severely welded it. It's not bloody coming off without taking the crane with it, I think!

Our victim, after a little marking out:

After some weldering:

It feels surprisingly high up; but that plate is just about eye level if you're stood on the bed of the truck. Well, as long as you're short, like me.

And with the twirly stuck on it...  Not too worried about it not really being visible from the left hand side, it's mostly just to act as a 'repeater' to the rear of the truck, where the jib blocks the view to the one on the roof.

Anyway, the lesson here is: if you see a chunk of something getting chucked in the scrap bin that looks useful, snag it and put it in your overflowing box of "Might be useful, that" bits. Then, maintain your hoard jealously, just in case you might need those bits; which inevitably happens just after you throw them out...

Some other trinkets while I was re-exploring the side lockers...

This has got a bit of age on it!

Fairly sure it's older than I am, anyway. And it has not aged terribly well...

Looks pretty cool, though.

On more practical matters... I think I have a solution to the brake servo valve. Rather than try re-engineer the internals of the original valve, my current plan is to take an off-the-shelf part and use it kinda as it's intended to be used. I've gotten myself a foot brake valve from a DAF CF (but they're all fairly similar, really. It's fundamentally the same valve as has been used for decades.), and the intent is to fabricate a bracket that mounts it up near the brake pedal such that I can fit a little push-rod from the existing pedal linkage to operate the valve exactly as it is in the air-braked truck.

There will be some careful measuring & design going on to get things in the right place to produce the correct throw on the foot-brake valve, relative to the pedal movement.

Wheely silly bits...

While I was fiddling about last week, I also did some playing about with a modern truck wheel that was laying about nearby. (I think it belonged to the bus company that was here before.)

Gloss black would look good.

As good as it looks, there's some slight clearance issues. Some faffing about with measuring offsets, widths, etc. ensues. Currently trying to work out what I can get away with, wheel-wise, that lets me fit a fairly standard (modern) on/off M+S type tyre.

This 'test wheel' is a 22.5x7.50 and some brief searching tells me that the more normal modern truck wheel is a 22.5x8.25, so I'll try find one of those to check with. Oh, and the offset of the wheel I was testing with puts the inner lip of the wheel hard up against the track rod end, which is less than ideal.

I don't think I want that to self-clearance... (And yes, I know the track rod end needs a new boot; it's on the list!)

I have a total of 250mm from the mounting face on the hub, to the tie rod end interference; so I shall have to hunt down another wheel, ideally without tyre, and do some more measuring.

And to bring you fully up to date...

A video, wherein there is some weldening, I look like Darth Vader (black helmet, with a hideous blotchy pink thing inside :D), and some painting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ze9Giv40XA (I would've done the embed thing, but I can't remember how to make the video show up on the page and I've already spent too much time faffing with it! It's been a long week, and it's only a Monday for me!)

Yes, my shiny dome got sunburnt. Yes, it hurts. Yes, I should've worn a hat.

[rog8811]

Here you go, for some reason your link goes to the top of the page.

Edited June 30, 2018 by rog8811

[Tamber]

On 6/30/2018 at 5:22 PM, rog8811 said:

Here you go, for some reason your link goes to the top of the page.

Thanks! No idea how I manglaged that. 😁

[radiomike7]

You cannot use a modern 22.5" wheel on the RL, the method of centering the wheel is different.  Most (but not all) 20" wheels use cone nuts with a matching chamfer on the wheel and usually have a left hand thread on the nearside.  Modern 22.5" wheels are spigotted on to the hub and have right hand threaded wheel nuts with an integral flat washer.

The offsets are chosen so that when paired up for the rears there remains a certain gap between the tyres.  An 8.25 or 9.0" rim would have a greater offset making your problem worse.

[john1950]

Years ago trucks were designed with front and rear wheels with different offsets and you did not mix them, unless it was a get me home situation. Modern trucks by and large have the same offsets all around. You can re-engineer modern wheels to fit older trucks but you are back to spending money. 

[Hugh B]

On 4/18/2016 at 4:31 AM, Tamber said:

Don't worry, I'm definitely going to be keeping the yellow paint job. DBG is nice, but I just can't see my truck in it. (Though it most definitely was in it. Underneath all that yellow; the inside of the roof -- where it was covered by the roof lining; etc.)

 

Update of the Day

 

I've pulled the brake servo and master cylinder apart... well, the master cylinder off the servo, and dismangled the servo. Rusty brake fluid puked out of back of the master cylinder, so the seals are clearly well and truly shot. m/c was set aside for now while I focussed on the servo.

 

 

 

Mmmmh, schmoo.

 

To start with, the linkage to the brake pedal was just flopping about uselessly, and the rod to push on the back of the master cylinder wasn't going anywhere in a hurry; so I pulled off the cylindrical bit on the front, that runs parallel to the master cylinder.

 

Caution: It contains a spring-a-mathing, and it sprung-a-mathung, even though I was expecting it and was bracing. I did manage to keep hold of all the pieces, though.

 

 

Next move was to remove the other big daft chamber thing; again I braced for spring-a-mathinging, but there wasn't any this time.

 

Plenty of crud, though. :-X

 

But this let me peer into the mechanism.

 

Nothing too complex; but that fixed pin on the right was definitely unhappy. Plenty of corrosion around one end of it; probably where it's been steeped in gunge for the last however-long.

 

Over my lunch break, I dragged the mechanism-y bit and the Big Daft Chamber over to the pressure washer and gave it a good blasting down; which made it easier to handle. Then I used my 3 pm break to wire-brush the rust off -- 4" grinder and a wire cup brush FTW! Just be really careful that it doesn't snag an edge and kick back, or you lose fingerprints and sizeable chunks of flesh before you can say "Ow" --, and paint, the outside of the pneumatic assist piston's cylinder; looks rather nice, now, in satin black.

 

Anyway, then I had to get the mechanism working again. I broke out the hot air-gun and gave it some warmth, and a lot of penetrating oil. After three or four goes around with this routine -- eyes watering heavily in the fumes of vapourising Double TT -- I eventually got it to start moving!

 

With this wind in my sails, I broke out the air-gun, and started applying pressure to the assist piston. Whereupon it went to the end of its travel, and stuck there. Damn.

Cue levering on the mechanism to reset it, and a few more cycles of heat & oil, and behold!

 

 

 

The port I first applied pressure to, the wrong one, is the outlet of a little valve that's acted upon by the underside of the linkage to feed controlled air pressure to the assist ram.

 

I still need to get a fitting or two out of the BDC, such as the main air feed pipe to it, which I have managed to snap the top off... without budging it even slightly in the threaded boss. (I tried heat & penetrating oil, put the right size spanner on it -- the ring end, even! -- and all I did was round the top of it off. So then I broke out the stilsons, and broke the top right off it. Ah well, these things are sent to try us.)

 

Since there's no mechanical linkage between the BDC and the servo, the only purpose I can think that it serves is as an accumulator or other reservoir of air for the brake assist; so, in the worst case, I can cannibalise the chamber to turn it into a cover for the rear of the mechanism, and use another small air receiver -- with appropriate valving, etc. -- to replace it.

 

And more wire-brushing uncovered...

 

 

Cast in "AP 7374" and stamped "APGA5183 1971 REV4". A quick search has revealed nothing enlightening about those markings. Perhaps enlightenment shall be found on the master cylinder; underneath its total skin of rust.

Hi Tamber, great job u have done here.

Im just getting my brakes back together on a 77 TK Bedford which has the same servo/master cylinder( being a Clayton Delwandre i presume) but i need a new diaphragm/ rubber thing seal between m/c and servo? Like the one in your pic. Could u direct me to somewhere i could get one possibly? Cheers from Australia

[john1950]

You could try Bygone Bedford, P.A.Blanchard. or Green Machine Surplus, there is also Bernie Smith at Kettering. They are in the U.K. 

Edited July 21, 2018 by john1950
addition

[Hugh B]

12 hours ago, john1950 said:

You could try Bygone Bedford, P.A.Blanchard. or Green Machine Surplus. They are in the U.K. 

Thank you very much cheers

[Tamber]

On 7/4/2018 at 4:51 PM, radiomike7 said:

You cannot use a modern 22.5" wheel on the RL, the method of centering the wheel is different.  Most (but not all) 20" wheels use cone nuts with a matching chamfer on the wheel and usually have a left hand thread on the nearside.  Modern 22.5" wheels are spigotted on to the hub and have right hand threaded wheel nuts with an integral flat washer.

The offsets are chosen so that when paired up for the rears there remains a certain gap between the tyres.  An 8.25 or 9.0" rim would have a greater offset making your problem worse.

You're correct there in that a modern wheel won't bolt straight up, and I went into that knowing such. This was mostly to get an idea of spacing, and whether or not it was even close to fitting. I'd done some measuring, but there's nothing quite like bolting it up and seeing it with one's own eyes.

On 7/4/2018 at 6:04 PM, john1950 said:

Years ago trucks were designed with front and rear wheels with different offsets and you did not mix them, unless it was a get me home situation. Modern trucks by and large have the same offsets all around. You can re-engineer modern wheels to fit older trucks but you are back to spending money. 

The way I look at it is, I'm going to have to spend money whichever way I go on this project; whether it's getting tubes & tyres for the original wheels, or having modern wheels re-engineered to fit the old truck then getting tyres for those. At least tyres for the modern wheels should be easier to get, particularly at short notice in the worst case.

Either way I go with that, I'm not intending to modify the truck, so it can all be put back to original if someone else further down the line decides to do that.

On 7/5/2018 at 5:16 AM, Hugh B said:

Hi Tamber, great job u have done here.

Im just getting my brakes back together on a 77 TK Bedford which has the same servo/master cylinder( being a Clayton Delwandre i presume) but i need a new diaphragm/ rubber thing seal between m/c and servo? Like the one in your pic. Could u direct me to somewhere i could get one possibly? Cheers from Australia

Regarding the rubber boot, I'm afraid I haven't the foggiest. (As I understand it, it's not particularly a seal but more of a dust & moisture cover to prevent grot getting into the back of the master cylinder.) Hopefully John's post helps you find the part you're hunting!

[Tamber]

In a surprising fit of productivity, I booked last weekend off, and got something done on the old gal.

The driver's door isn't perfect, but it's a damn sight better than it was before. Still a good bit to do before I can call it good enough to go back on. Might have to cut a bit back out of the top edge of the repair patch and re-make it, but it is solid even if it's ugly. I am somewhat throwing myself in at the deep end with the sheet metal bashing, to be honest; it's not something I've done a great lot of and I'm not so good at it, but I can always revisit parts I'm not happy with, as my skill improves.

Something a bit more up my alley was mounting up two 'new' (to me, anyway) air tanks.

All of the material, barring the tank straps themselves, was originally destined for scrap; so I think I've done quite nicely with it.

The two tanks came off a pair of DAFs that were being chopped up by a local haulage firm (because it's apparently cheaper to buy a used truck, strip it down and sell/scrap what's left over, than to buy spare parts. Madness.) and are a bit overkill for the needs of the RL, but I'll certainly have no shortage of air!  The channel was originally a single piece of box section out of the scrap skip that was just about the right length, then sliced longways; and the tanks are protected from rubbing on the edges of the bracket by short lengths of cut rubber air-hose left over from a job. Total cost to me: £5 for a tank drain valve that then got pinched for another job, so I'll have to buy another one. Bah.

The bracket is as follows:

(Sack-truck not included. 😁)

And it fits in under the body, here:

 

("I said: IT FITS UNDER THE BODY!")

And then, with a lot of head-bashing, rolling around on the gravel, getting crud in my eyes, removing linkages to give me room... Two air tanks:

Still a long way to go, yet, but at least parts are starting to go back on; rather than just get ripped off. I have no comment regarding it taking 5 hours, and a minor concussion, to fit two air tanks and a bracket. 🤐

I keep meaning to write out a list of all the things I need to do to get this truck finished, but it's a little daunting at the moment.

[Tamber]

Today's mini-update: Some cab mounts! Mostly! Kinda!

The rear mount is a pair of universal engine/gearbox mounts on a plate that bolts to the original cab mount. The upper part of that mount is where it all fell to pieces a bit. Apparently I wasn't quite accurate enough in my measurements, because it... didn't really fit.

Those holes are meant to line up with the studs in the top of the mounts, and the upright flange was intended to then weld to the box section to spread the load a little bit. It does go on backwards just fine, though, so I'll do some trimming -- remove that upright -- and go from there.

Not a great deal of progress today, but the cab is now sat on a mount rather than perching on some box section across the chassis. I also went out to my local engineering supplier and picked up some bolts for reattaching the door hinges to the door, so that I'm prepared for when the driver's door is ready to go back on, seeing as it's about 75% complete.

Really would like to be making progress faster than this, especially with the looming workshop move (3 months, apparently! AAAA!), but work seems intent on running me into the ground as hard as possible every week... 😆 Currently looking into options for renting a small-ish industrial unit, perhaps. We'll see how things go on that front.

[Zero-Five-Two]

Glad to see I'm not the only one with tape measure issues.  Still, easily sorted with a bit of extra grinding.   Those DAF air tanks look the business, tidy installation too.

[Tamber]

24 minutes ago, Zero-Five-Two said:

Glad to see I'm not the only one with tape measure issues.  Still, easily sorted with a bit of extra grinding.   Those DAF air tanks look the business, tidy installation too.

I think my tape measure is out of calibration, that must be what it is! 😁

I'm quite pleased with that air-tank installation, myself; there was quite a bit of head-scratching, trying to figure out where to put them so that they wouldn't look too out of place. Once the storage box is back on behind the cab, they should be nearly invisible but it should still be fairly easy to get to the air-tank drain taps.

[Tamber]

Ticked another item off the list!

That bracket I needed to modify, got modified; and, with some jiggery-pokery everything got shoved into place and hot-metal glued.

Only stitch welded on this side, because I needed to leave room for the nuts to go on. (And it was tight even as it was; the flange on the nut was pressed up against the box section.) If I were smarter and thought things out better, I would have started that leftmost one from where the tack was, so it'd consume it rather than leaving an ugly glob. Something for me to remember next time, I suppose.

Looks slightly less bad with some paint on it.

However, it really just needs to be stronger than the two M10 bolts that hold it down to the chassis, or the rubber of the mounts. And since it's fully welded across the back (which was a bit of an uncomfortable procedure, curled up like a cat halfway across the engine cover and in front of the passenger's seat.), it should be plenty strong enough. I am thinking I might go back and add some gussets to it, just in case.

I'm hoping to push myself to get at least a little bit done every week, even if it's not much. Did find myself staring up at the cab roof and quietly wondering what in the hell I got myself into. 2 years + 8 months, and I've barely scratched the surface. I put most of that down to my pace of work, or lack thereof, honestly...

[Tamber]

Went to change the oil in the compressor the other day, and was scratching my head over where the filler's supposed to be. It's very definitely meant to be right there, but it looks like it's met with an unfortunate end.

And, on the note of unfortunate ends, the whole truck very nearly met one a couple of weeks back. I hooked up the battery as normal so that I could tinker some with the wiring (and make another attempt at getting the engine to fire, just to see if it's possible to limp it to the workshop & back.), I'd just gotten into the driver's seat and had my hand on the key when the oil pressure warning light started to glow dimly, getting brighter and brighter.

"Well, that's weird", thinks I, then I start to hear crackling and the cab fills up with smoke. The cab is covered with a tarpaulin, so I'm at this point inside a big plastic bag with the smoke from burning wiring being blown in from the open passenger's door.

It's amazing just how long it feels like it takes to undo a battery terminal while the truck's trying to set itself on fire! Anyway, it turns out that the flexible metal conduit from around the battery positive cable had scooted up at some point until it was just barely touching the ring terminal and it was grounding out on the chassis. It wasn't making a good enough contact to cause noticeable sparks when I connected the negative lead to the battery, but enough that the conduit got pretty hot!

Once it cooled down enough to touch, I pulled it out and the battery cable inside the conduit was looking pretty ugly.

Got lucky with that; the only damage was a length of battery cable, and some melted insulation on a couple of other wires nearby that I've mostly repaired. (Mostly! I keep forgetting to take my box of repair terminals with me.)

That could've been much worse! 😲

Now for something more relaxing; this evening's tinkering with the new front brake cylinders. These are some new old-stock that I got off the bay of E, so I figured I'd best open them up and see what the innards looked like.

The first one I popped open looked to be the oldest, going off the appearance of the box, and all the innards are covered in a sticky substance that may at once point have been a lubricant or preservative. There's also something funny about one of those cup seals...

Well, it turns out that cup seal that looks funny is harbouring a hitchhiker!

😮 All the seals -- in both cylinders -- feel fantastic, they're like they're still brand new! (I'll still pay the seals shop a visit, though.)

And now, the cylinder bore... This is the worst of the two, and the bulk of it is the slightly congealed sticky substance. There was some very slight discolouration of the bore in the middle where the seals would ride in use, but it disappeared after a quick brush through with the brake cylinder hone. There's no pitting or rust, so these have turned out fantastic.

 

Also, I got some motivation back...

It's no great leap, but hearing it spit and crackle has lifted my spirits. It aent'nt ded yet.