chassis repairs

Things have been moving on at a steady pace with the MWD restoration , i made my self-imposed dead line of having the truck sripped down to its component parts by the end of the christmas holidays ,the bulkhead has been sent off to be repaired by John the sheet metal man with it in good hands i could concentrate my efforts on the chassis repairs .

The fully stripped chassis in the workshop to assess the extent of the repairs needed

Copy of my notes regarding the work required on the chassis

The following work to carried out and parts replaced

1) chassis to be shot blasted to find extent of rust damage

2) Repair holes in rear chassis rails were tow hitch has been bolted to bottom face

3)repair rust in rear cross member

4)repair rust in top offside rear frame

5)Fuel tank brackets badly rust pitted to be replaced

6) Cab step brakets badley rusted

7) Frame rails from rear front spring hangers forward very badly rusted

8) Rear engine cross member totally rusted out

9) Front engine cross member very badly rusted

Drawing of proposed repair to front frame rails

Using the MW contact network i obtained the front section of an MW chassis which had all the necessary repair parts which after several hours de-riveting gave me all the parts i need to carry out the chassis repairs

Chassis repair flitch plate bolted to replacement chassis repair section

Chassis assembled with repair sections,front and rear engine cross members all bolted in place chassis levelled and square ready for welding

Chassis welding after tack welding ,all welding carried out vertically to give maximum weld penetration chassis turned to allow vertical welding

Chassis flitch plate weled inside chassis over replacement section

Completed welding repair after grinding with repair behind the cab step bracket the modern bolts are just being used to set up all the spring hanger brackets ,cross members etc. ready for the next stage which will be to replace all the steel rivets which had to be removed to allow the chassis repairs