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Has anyone had a lorry transported? Is it hi - NOW BODGE 50 HORSEBO11OX THREAD (Now with added turtles)


Mr_Bo11ox

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Father-rew used to build these new up untill production closed in the 90s..

I may have written this somewhere on  here before but

I recall one story of a guy welding his old steel toe cap boot into the corner of a rear  chassis crossmember. for someone to find further down the line. 

It apparently made it all the way to final inspection, painted chassis black with the truck completed and was left as is and sent out the door. 

There was an old lwb bus version turned into a chip van that used to plod around this way for years. Hope it's still around causing traffic jams. 

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Nice one man, I must admit I'd be pretty intimidated by the scale of things to do on this big old bastard, good to see some work being completed. Made any plans for the back half yet?

Youtube has recently started suggesting a load of videos by blokes who live full time in converted ambulances and stuff, and if it wasn't for the wife, I reckon that's what I'd be doing, just pottering around between various fields of the peak district. Better than paying a mortgage. A bloke I know is in lockdown living in a trailer tent on a field in Edale, the poxy bastard. 

I keep looking at my welder and the crusty passenger sill on the talbot, but the 6 month MOT extension thing is giving me enough of an excuse to not get started.

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Been removing more parts from the Hor5ebo11ox today, mainly the dashboard and some rust. The dash is fairly easy to remove on one of these thankfully and the wiring loom is pretty rudimentary so lets have a look.

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Start by removing the steering column and instruments. Didnt bother labelling any of this stuff, FREESTYLIN y0

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Here comes the radio, splendid wiring on the back of that. loads of crimp connectors and wires going through holes without any grommets etc. Horse people and wiring I suspect is a venn diagram with ZERO OVERLAP.

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Radio hole enlarged with an angle grinder!! Found a couple of bits of heater ducting missing from behind here, square section mouldings so I will have to tray and get hold of some of those on the FB page. Might go and see the feller I got my windscreen off in Stafford actually.

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Eventually hoiked the whole thing out and chucked it in the back with all the other removed parts. Now lets have a look at the grot. Decided to look at the passenger side first, mainly cos taking out the pedal box and brake servo is a pain in the arse.

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Doesnt look too bad at first glance

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Removed the wiper motor and started pulling off the patches. Someone had actually done a pretty thorough job in here a few years back. It was all rotten underneath now but whoever it was had managed to get their mig tip into some very inaccessible spots!

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Seemed to find myself chopping more and more of it away. The trouble is its all internal corners and tight spaces with not much room to get the angle grinder and spot wedl drill in.

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By this stage I had chopped away most of the bottom side of the scuttle, the external grille thing (losing the bonnet hinge in the process) and a lot of the inner bulkhead. Starting to feel a bit deflated at this point but just got to plough on. I sit for ages looking at it thinking about where to cut, can I get this or that tool in, how can I remake this piece or that piece. I didnt really know how best to do it so just kept on chopping!

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Knocked off at 8pm with this side mostly chopped out. The cab is made with an inner side panel that goes from the front of the engine bay right up the the door hinge pillar. The bulkhead is then spot welded to that across the front of the cab. The side panel is rusty at the top - I think my plan is to slice off the top of it just below the zig-zag section in the pic, repair or re-make that and start building back up from that point. I think the sliced-off scuttle panel is going to provide some useful repair sections (even if it needs some repairs itself before I can use it)

DAMN this thing is rusty though. All inside the wings, screen pillars etc, its all covered in rust man. The scuttle panel drains at the ends into the door pillars then presumably the water gets out down below somewhere. (Need to check that) I am not sure about blasting loads of waxoyl into it as I might well need to weld it some more in the future!!! I'm thinking I might spray a couple of sumpfuls of oil into its nooks and crannies though. 

Anyway weather permitting i am hoping for a full day on it tomorrow. Now if it rains, huge quantities of water are gonna gush into the cab so I'd better crack on!

 

 

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It's not so much the quantity of the rust as the location that's daunting on that.  At least you don't need to worry about the end product looking pretty since none of its seen, just solid and watertight is going to be enough, so that's a small mercy. Useful it having a big shed built onto the back for all the bits you're having to remove too.

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Been doing a bit of patching today

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Cardboard Aided Engineering (Lidl chocolate crunch if you must know)

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Made a nice big patch for the inner side panel. 

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Before i could fit the side patch I had to repair this drainage channel. No photos as I was struggling with my welder.... well the mask actually. I'm used to welding underneath old bangers in mucky dark workshops but here I was outdoors in bright sunlight and i couldnt see jack shit through the mask! I faffed about with it for ages trying to 'see better' through it but the controls on it didn't seem to do a lot. Anyway I ploughed on  but it ended up a bit pigeon shitty.

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Did get it on though and not too splattery thankfully. Fits like a glove as well!!!

Next i had to refit the square of the bulkhead I'd removed earlier. It needed a repair to the top edge

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Went in nicely though

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To get any further I need to remove the heater box (it needs to come out anyway as its knackered, like everything on the truck) then I can see how much of that chopped-off scuttle panel I'll need to use. So better start getting that ship shape

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Started by drilling out the spot welds and removing the remains of the outer scuttle panel. Might need this later though so i wont chuck it away just yet!

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Came off quite successfully

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Next i needed to repair the rotted-out bit where the wiper motor bolts on, so drilled a few more spot welds and sliced out the rotten bit

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Started making a new one from 1.2mm Zintec

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I bought one of these cheap hole saws from eBay for another job (fitting a towbar on the Croma) but I havent used it yet so test-drove it here. I was expecting it to be made out of monkey metal (it was only a fiver) but it zipped through this like it wasn't there! Nice hole m8

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The chopped out bit had a reinforcing plate on it, but instead I just welded dome penny washers on the mounting holes. Hopefully that will be strong enough. Just tacking them on here. Got my big hole a bit out of place! Had to file it out to even it up a bit.

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Ran out of time about 7pm when I was ready to weld the new section in. Will get on that tomorrow hopefully!!!

Doesn't seem like a great lot but its taken me all day to do those few bits. What a treat to just 'do the horsebox' almost all day, (with a brief dog walking interlude). Should get another decent day on it tomorrow, I'm hoping to get the LH side finished (I'm planning to slice that new scuttle in half and do it one side at a time so i don't get too overwhelmed by the job). If that happens I might even roll the barrel out and book a couple of days off work to do the drivers side and get it all finished.

In turtle news the new beach area is a MASSIVE SUCCESS. I put Maude in it this morning and she immediately started digging a big hole with her back legs. She's been up and down a couple of times today of her own accord so she defo knows where to go and what to do. Just got to wait and see if any eggs appear!!! @spartacus yes these are defo map turtles. They were the same size when Mrs Nutz got them, now the female is at least twice the size of the male. He's a bit of a sex pest so she'll be glad to be able to go upstairs now for some extra peace and quiet.

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Yo, the Maser still exists, last year I lost my garage space where I was stashing it so I sent it up to a proper car storage company just outside Manchester. I've never been to the place so i hope its legit as I have given them my car and send them £70/month!!! Here it is about to set sail, pic is dated October 2019. I don't know when I'm gonna do anything with it as the garage at my house is not really big enough to have it in and work on it. But, I don't want to get rid of it, so as long as I can afford it I am happy to shell out on storing it till something changes in my life and I'm in a position to get back on it.

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