GrandWillys Project

Thanks for the reply, Marcus. Probably shouldn't have pulled the trigger on mine and did more research. Hopefully I'll be able to live with it. If not, I'll replace it later.

Rats! Now you're making me want to buy one of those brake flaring tools!!

Nicely done. So you are still using an opposed setup, but moved the pivot points outboard to get a better sweep path?
Could the rack be mounted in a polypropylene or nylon tube to reduce noise and wear? It may need more attachment points for support.

I used the specialty system in my truck and it works well. It takes a little time to do but it's worth it. It's important to grease the spiral wire inside the tubing very heavily to prevent it from wearing out the tube. I try not to use it much because my windshield is Marguard Lexan, so I put rainex on it. With a windshield so upright you don't have to go very fast for the water to blow off that's for sure. I think the rainex works better than the old vacuum system, especially going up hills! I have that same flaring tool, it's great. Marcus nice job as usual.

I didn't grease the spiral wire in mine. That's a good idea, Ron and something I'll try.

Their system winds up being a totally enclosed arrangement, just like Marcus has in the pics. The tubing runs from the motor to the first wiper gear then another tube goes to the next wiper gear and a short piece of tube is used after that to allow the spiral wire to extend past the second wiper gear and move back and forth without being out in the open to snag on something. The grease won't pick up dust and stuff because it's enclosed. The link below is their instructions to help make sense of what I'm trying to explain. Mine operates virtually silent. Defiantly can't hear it when the engine is running.

http://www.specialtypowerwindows.com/docs/universal_wipers.pdf

NOBLNG said:

Nicely done. So you are still using an opposed setup, but moved the pivot points outboard to get a better sweep path?
Could the rack be mounted in a polypropylene or nylon tube to reduce noise and wear? It may need more attachment points for support.

Click to expand...

I don't think polypropylene would be up to it if copper already wears too quickly.
I am still doing the opposing movement as works the best with a split screen as the passenger side can't sweep past the halfway mark. I swapped the direction to stock as had no holes to start with, all vehicles now a days always sweep to the outside on the driverside, and because it also gave more distance to put the dog leg in to go in behind the aircon vents in the middle.

oruna1 said:

I used the specialty system in my truck and it works well. It takes a little time to do but it's worth it. It's important to grease the spiral wire inside the tubing very heavily to prevent it from wearing out the tube. I try not to use it much because my windshield is Marguard Lexan, so I put rainex on it. With a windshield so upright you don't have to go very fast for the water to blow off that's for sure. I think the rainex works better than the old vacuum system, especially going up hills! I have that same flaring tool, it's great. Marcus nice job as usual.

Click to expand...

Grease is your friend for long lasting system for sure. Will do that for final assembly.
Specialty system has more adjustments available and the only one guaranteed for life too. If it was not so expensive to import here, would have gone with that one.

oruna1 said:

Their system winds up being a totally enclosed arrangement, just like Marcus has in the pics. The tubing runs from the motor to the first wiper gear then another tube goes to the next wiper gear and a short piece of tube is used after that to allow the spiral wire to extend past the second wiper gear and move back and forth without being out in the open to snag on something. The grease won't pick up dust and stuff because it's enclosed. The link below is their instructions to help make sense of what I'm trying to explain. Mine operates virtually silent. Defiantly can't hear it when the engine is running.

http://www.specialtypowerwindows.com/docs/universal_wipers.pdf

Click to expand...

I have already fitted the short bit at the end in the pictures above, but have left extra on the inner rack until I am sure the motor is staying exactly where it is and I haven't forgotten something! Will put a cap over the end once the rack is cut to length.

Here is the frame work the motor sits in behind the dash.



Found the picture of my 'CAD' layout of the possible wiper pivot points and arm lengths verses blade length testing. Drew up one side of the split screen glass area, not including the rubber gasket, to see the influences of each different setup. Can work out degrees of sweep this way too. Then see what best fits the situation and what is available.



This is the donor Jeep ducting that goes from the centre of the A/C unit to the side of the dash by the door. The ducting does not fit under my sloping cowl however so can't use it as is.



Spent an afternoon at the local pick-a-part yard to find suitable tubing and fittings etc for the vents system. Not much available now a days as most cars have it in moulded in under the dash. Most of this was from older Range Rovers and Mercedes cars from the 70-80's



I cut the end off the Jeep ducting that holds the grille part in in place. The shape was going to be hard to join round ducting too.



So using a heat gun over one of my T stakes, I reshaped it. Once it got soft I pushed the folds flatter with some flat steel.



Used one of the elbows from a Mercedes and cut most of the square end off so it would fit inside.



It was a bit bigger in diameter, so cut a wedge out to reduce its circumference.



Put a hose clamp around it once it was in the right position.



Then using a soldering iron welded the seam back up. Been a while since I had welded some plastic as used to do a bit now and again back in the 80's before Youtube was around to show you how!



Welded all the way around and even inside to make a good strong connection. I used a 80 watt soldering iron as was thick, but normally only use a 40 watt one. Don't want it too hot as leaves it brittle when it starts smoking a lot. Always have a fan going as the fumes are toxic.



This gives you an idea of where it sits when screwed in the end of the dash.



Got both sides done now and will use the original ducting from the Mercedes as well which was a bit over 66mm-2.5".



It will hook around in front of the defrost vent and go to the front most outlets at the top of the A/C unit.

Ha ha, he is just flat out in the heat of the afternoon after a 2 hour walk this morning. Was around 95*F here.

Before I removed the A/C unit from the cab, I made a template to show me how much room I had to the cowl above and to the firewall behind to run the defrost ducting.



There was just no room to run it out the top so I fitted these PVC elbows to the underside of the defrost chamber. I glued a collar tightly above and below where it enters in to hold them in place.



I also added smaller fittings to run to the defrost outlets for the side windows each side. They are already moulded into the ends of the dash so thought why not!



The fittings were actually the ends of the flexible hose off of a vacuum cleaner. The hose will just thread straight onto the fittings. As they were made from plastic, I welded the fittings to the unit.



Quick refit to check that it cleared everything and works out well.



I cut the sides out of the original donor ducting to weld shut the top outlets. No worries about corrosion with only plastic used.



Before the roof goes on, I thought I better layout all the cab wiring to see what needs to run up the A pillars while access is easier. There is a lot there just for the cab! No chassis or engine wiring in this lot.



The aerial wiring had an amplifier attached to the end of it and was fitted up inside the donor roof. Connected to one of the cargo side windows that had the aerial imbedded into the glass.



Ran the aerial wire up the A pillar and will decide later what sort of aerial I will connect it too. Easy enough to pull out later if I what to run it some place else.



This big loom is just for the mirror believe it or not! Who would have though you need 12 wires for that, but it has a light sensor as part of it and think the rain sensor connects to it as well.

Great work, as always, Marcus.

Where does paint fit into your assembly process? Will you assembly the vehicle, take it apart for paint, then reassemble; or leave it assembled and paint around components, etc.?

Bill Kuran said:

Great work, as always, Marcus.

Where does paint fit into your assembly process? Will you assembly the vehicle, take it apart for paint, then reassemble; or leave it assembled and paint around components, etc.?

Click to expand...

The first one. Full assembly and then everything stripped and removed for final paint. I will get everything done professionally that has not been coated in zinc. That way they can give a full warrantee on the work and not blame and uncoat for any faults. I hope this is the only thing I will have done on the whole project.

Time to get back into the metal work and finish the last major piece of the whole cab build. If you look closely you can see it does not follow the gutter that it needs too after these panels were pancaked. Along the front edge it bulges out and it doesn't go into the corner either. The side needs some work also.



To get rid of the bulge in the front I lightly ran in through the shrinker. To pull the panel into the corner it needed to be stretched. There is a bit of play back and forth so that the overall angle still follows the gutter.



After all four panels followed the gutter line exactly, which I had already spent many hours getting it the same width all the way around and the lip the same height, I can start on the shape of the panels. The rear corner on the right side sits too low.



The rear panel on the left side though sits too high. As soon as the roof panel was cut into the fours pieces originally, the rear sprung into the differences left to right. There were a lot of dents in the roof I had to taken out before cutting them apart and obviously some tension must have been left in them.



From the rear you can really see the difference left to right. Remember also that from stock after rolling a new flange around the bottom, I had taken 2" of height out of the middle and 1.5" from the corners.



The front panels are sitting nicely and is 1" lower than stock right across. Looks even lower with the cab now being 9" wider than stock.



I cut out the centre of each panel as planned to fit the new centre roof infill, leaving a bit under an inch extra for trimming later. This will make it easier to correct the rear panel too.



So one needs to come down overall and the other to come up so it flows into the front panels as I laid out nearly a year and a half ago now! Good to see no rust had formed in the mean time sitting in bare metal with just a coat of lanolin oil over them.



To bring the low one up I shrank along the inside edge and then had to stretch the outside corner a bit to get the overall angle back again. The high one I stretched along the inside edge and shrank the outside corner to correct the angle.



Sitting much better now.

Coming along nicely! Dimensions of the cab looks great and can't wait to see it on the frame

It's not too late to put the stock height top back on!

I just think. .. well you know what I think.

Execution is top notch as usual. Killer work.

outstanding

the wipers are brilliant and the roof is instructional and amazing. thanks. Any possibility of posting the part numbers for the Mini and Triumph parts??

G'day Larry. Any part numbers I have I posted in the write up. The others were just found on eBay by description alone.

Just done tig welding the rear section of the roof together.



I think it looks acceptable after the pancaking. Remembering that a bit more crown still to come from the roof infill panel.



Hard to believe that over stock, the centre of the roof to the floor is now 100mm/4" lower than stock! 2" sectioned out below the window and 2" above the gutter.



I wheeled more shape into it as lost a lot of the early vertical part of the roof line when the bottom section was cut off. So I increased the radius so it was steeper near the gutter like stock again.



I am trying out different techniques for putting a crease line in some scrap to go on the filler panel at the front of the roof above where the V meets in the middle.



Just using a rounded cold chisel.



Doesn't look to bad for 2 minutes of work.



Next I thought I would try using my bead roller. It is just a hardened washer from a Range Rover trailing arm from memory over one of my skateboard wheels from my youth.



Just ran along the line and then slowly increased the pressure while doing a shorter run each time.



The one closest to the camera is the bead rolled one.



Liked it so thought I would do it on the filler panel. Made it bolder to match the crease line that runs up the centre of the bonnet.



I made it peak at the top front and then taper off to nothing towards the back and a bit more left at the other end so it follows the V of the gutter. Hope it will look alright but can always smooth it out if I don't like it.

Once you get the dome finished, how do you plan to re-attach it to the drip rail? I was going to fully weld mine but now I am currently planning to glue mine on after the rust repair. The glue should also act as a seam sealer.