XenaCommanders Place

It has been a while now since I have posted a progress report on here..   I thought it was about time I did so given I have made a good chunk of progress over the Christmas - New Year break...

Since I have got the truck back from the Panel / Paint shop I have been making slow progress on small clean up jobs..   I have been traveling to Australia a lot which has slowed down progress.   But it has been fun spending a couple of weeks down in Turangi over Christmas- New Year.

Floor Work

I wanted a major task to complete and decided to work on replacing the floor panels..    The original panels had a layer of lead in them..  Making them very heavy of course...   So I wanted to put a new floor down, making the floor and truck a bit lighter...  Plus having a better surface to work with other than the holes cut into the original for various now unknown reasons...

The original front row of panels..  Notice the Left Hand fresh water tank in the place where the front door was...  It will be good to have that paneled over...

LIfting the panels was not difficult to do as I had already had it up to clean up rust underneath and paint the chassis etc...   However when I lifted them this time I found sand blasting sand in all sorts of crevices...  so vacuumed it out and I also took the opportunity to clean up the underneath of any rust found...

I decided to keep the same panel sizes as the originals..   This required me to buy oversized ply 2440 x 1220 as the standard sheets wouldn't be big enough unless I wasted a lot of ply...     We picked up and trailered the ply down a couple of weeks before Christmas...

Using the original panels to get the measurements I used the deck table as a cutting bench and used the skil saw against a straight edge.   System worked well with accurate cuts...

First Panel down over the pump and air tanks..   I am not going to screw down the panels until they are all cut.

The front row of panels cut and down...   A lot of this work was done between showers..   The weather was a bit variable around Christmas...     It did give me a chance to monitor the remaining leaks that I have in the truck...

Every time it rained some water would come in next the door...   I first thought it was just water running down the door somehow and on to the inside frames..   But there was no way for it to get there..   So further investigation was required...  There was an extra steel panel on the inside which must have been necessary for the X-Ray unit...   so I cut it off as I didn't need it and it wasn't structural...   This gave me better access to the origin of the leak.. 

Ah hah...!   got you....!!!   A rogue rivet that had been drilled out and not filled with another rivet..  Likely this was done when fitting the trim strip along the length of the truck...    Every time it rained water poured through the hole in the rivet....    So...  and easy fix...   Clean up the rust starting to show..   then squeeze some sika through to stop the buggar...!!!   Done...   No more leak there..   I have a couple more to track down.

Back to the floor..   The second row of panels...   This had the doorway in it..  and the panel where the Little Cracker box will go..  So I had some more fancy cutting to do and drilling holes in the right place to fit over the bolts welded to the chassis to mount the Cracker.    All went well..

Second row down...

The third row of panels generated a bit more preparation work...  I water blasted the chassis underneath as it was filthy and easy to do with the floor up..   I also found rust that I had missed before so I thought it better to do it while the floor was up...  Painting the chassis once I had finished treating it..

Third row down...  Down side of replacing the existing floor I have to put tape down again showing the partitions etc of the final layout..  Oh well..  at least now I have a better canvas...   I need to cut a hatch above the Vacuum Generator in the centre panel in this row..   I will do that once all panels a re cut.

Final row of panels cut and down...   Note some of the edges are curled up..  Some of the ply was a little warped but will straighten out once screwed down.

With all the panels cut I painted the underside with an undersealant...    Yucky thick stuff which will protect the underside from the elements.

XC finally screwing down the panels..   Of course nothing is as easy as it seems....  I got the special Truck Deck Screws from Trade Zone in Taupo..   These have a steel self tapper on the end of them..     The holes for the original floor were there but I decided that it was too difficult to try to line them up after doing the first panel... I drilled new holes where I needed them.     TK suggested I use some machine oil on the screws to help the thread cutting..   Worked a treat.      I put enough screws down to hold the floor firm but will likely put ore in once I have finished everything underneath the floor..   It is much easier installing things like pipes and wires when the floor is up.

Cover Work

TK has some amazing sewing skills and has in the past had a business designing and manufacturing sports bags...  packs... clothes etc..   she still has a range of commercial sewing machines..   Some time ago I made the suggestion that the truck needed a cover when sitting doing nothing for a length of time...    We investigated the commercial covers available but for the size of the truck I would need to buy two and join them together..  So TK offered to make one.      We got some light material before Christmas and when TK had some time she made a start...  

Measuring up was the first tricky bit..  She wanted to custom fit the cover over the humps..  I thought just run it over like a big bag but she had a plan and she was sticking to it...   She cut out the first two lengths and sewed them together length wise.

TK at work....We took the machine down to Turangi and set it up in the garage..  a perfect spot to do the work with lots of room to stash the material as it runs through the machine.

The first measurement...  pulled up over the back and check to see how far down the sides it goes..  and note where the first folds are required...

A couple of days later...  the rear folds were done so we needed another fit of the cover to measure the front hump...

Hmmm seems big enough..   Now does it go down the front...

Looks long enough...  The satellite dome goes on top of the cab so TK is going to leave enough material to cover it or make a custom dome cover for it...    That is cover progress so far..  TK is still working on plan for side panels.

Bench Seat  /  Day Bed  /  Engine Cover

One thing that I wasn't going to do this trip was cover the area behind the cab seats that covers the engine...  I was going to work on fitting the toilet first..   But a neighbourhood cat or two have found access to the truck through the underneath and leave their squirt marks..!!!   Mumble...   So I had to block their access...  Behind the passenger seat was the last difficult spot to cover so I decided to get on with it...

This is the area that covers the engine so needs to be easily removable for times when the truck needs to be serviced...  etc...    I was going to put hatch access in but I preferred for now to panel over the whole area with easily removable panels...     This made the panels a bit more difficult to measure and fit...  But I got there in the end... 

This Pic was taken after the first cut of the top panel..   I then had to recess the engine hatch... and the coolant access hatch on the left hand side..    I forgot to take a pic of the finished job..   I will get one next trip.   The most difficult part was to fabricate a vertical panel over the gap behind the passenger seat....   All done though after much swearing...

That was the major construction project achieved...     I also managed to do a few other things on my list of tasks..   I pulled through the Vent piping for the black and grey tank and installed the Muller Vent on the roof..  Another step towards Self Containment....   I also put the gas struts on the large windows in the lounge..  a job I had been avoiding as I thought I would need to remove the glass but I managed to screw the mounts on the frames without hitting the edge of the glass...    All very well but the struts must have lost their gas as they didn't hold up the 9kg window..!!!     I have bought them back to Auckland to get re-gassed...

Yesterday (the last day of the holidays) I spent the day tidying up and putting the tape back on the floor showing the layout of the final plan.    I also checked the software plan I use and found some glaring mistakes..  I confirmed them with the tape measure so now have an up to date plan to work with...

I am looking forward to the next bit...  Likely to be plumbing to the kitchen..  bathroom...  and toilet...  oh and I must find those last couple of leaks...

Stay tuned for more...

XC