Part II - Restoration and Exploration - Aaron's TGB 1111

[aclark79]

The more time I spend on the truck the more little cool things I discover. (well, duh, of course it's all new to me). It's such a cool feeling. Driving around and getting non stop thumbs up, that's also cool. The truck is purring, leaking a little oil and I love it.



(I need a cool picture to put up, eventually I'll get one!)

I'm going to use this thread to do the following. Post exploration photos, post restoration photos and make a list of all the work I've done on it, I'll keep editing this message with the highlights and updating my list and I'll post in the thread all the pictures and experiences.

Things done to the truck:

1. General clean up of the cab.
2. Attempt at cleanup of the under carriage.
3. Anti-seizure (liquid wrench) on all the hinges, especially the windshield hinges.
4, Attempted to change out the headlights.
5. Removed the fire extinguisher box.
6. More detailed clean up of the interior.
7. Removed the sneeze guard from the gauge cluster.
8. Replace the original axe.
9. Make some storage bins for oil, tools and such.
10. Identify and 'test' the machine gun mount.
11. Get translations for all the Swedish stickers.
12. Basic light rust removal.
13. More rust removal.
14. Freed up the roll bars and removed the windshield. Got the windshield hinges working... ish.
15. Removed all the external brackets, grill and other loose parts in order to sand, prime and paint.
16. Sanded, primed and painted the truck OD Green.
17. Sanded and varnished the wood door trim, but they don't look very nice, I need to re-sand them and then use a varnish with color on it instead of just stain.
18. Installed new headlights, working this time.

[aclark79]

So first thing I did on getting home was go to bed! The drive was a long one. The next thing the next day I drove down to the DMV and was able to get a specialty plate withing ab out 20-25 minutes. Too easy and great news, no DEQ for me now or in the future.

Taking the truck home it drove great, maybe I'm just getting more used to it (probably), but it felt like it drove better once I got a treatment of lead additive in it and it had had a chance to be run for a while. With only 2700 Km on it who knows the last time it was driven.

I started out with basic clean up glass cleaner, armor all on the dash, cleaning up leaves, twigs, dirt, oil residue with dirt, more dirt. Taking off the two right hand dashes and cleaning out there as well.

I apologize for not taking more before and after pictures! I'll get in the habit of that eventually.

I took off the dash guard and the sneeze guard and cleaned and cleaned. Much better now! The metal guard went back on but the sneeze guard is so dark from age that it was hard to see through. You can see the residue that was coating most surfaces, it's slowly going away as I scrub.



I'm also working slowly on the rust here where the finish wore off.



An interesting note, some of the lights are cat's eyes and when you turn the light you can make the light lessen and then go away, while others are just straight bulbs.



I replaced the original axe with a really nice Fiskar.





The windshield does fold out, but it won't fold at the hinge that allows you to place it in the windshield track at the bottom of this picture. Anti seize has been applied and may take a while.



Probably to worst rust here of the whole truck except for under the passenger windshield were there is a bit more rust. This is the only place I've seen rust 'bubbles' so far. You can also make out that the passenger defroster nozzle is broken.



The removed fire extinguisher went here, eventually a jerry can will go here.



Here is the machine gun mount. My neighbor's son holding it in place. I don't have the right kind of gun so a little fab work will be needed down the road to make it fit the mount.







When not in use it stores just in front of the passenger seat! Ingenious

.

Anyone know what these were for?

[muttandjeeps]

Truck looks great Aaron!

[aclark79]

Today I did more grinding away at the rust spots. I also took off the wood rails and gave them a light sanding. One of the rails clearly was painted green at one point, the other ones were not. Either way I'm going to give them all a nice varnish coat. There are three types of screws used on the rails. The screws on each rail match each other, but don't match the other rails. Since they are going back in the same place it should be ok.

After much liquid wrench and muscle power and a rubber mallet I was able to get the roll bars moved, the windshield removed and the windshield hinges to all work. Pounding on the windshield hinge produced a small shower of rust chunks. The windshield channel on the actual windshield and on the truck itself look like the worst places for rust on the whole thing.

Some things aren't going to come off easy. The reflective tape on the bumper is a metal plate, with 2 screws and 2 rivets... hmmm....










The truck itself is running rich right now and has a leak from either the engine oil filter or somewhere in that area. No worries, I knew it would need work.

I took it downtown last night and then out with friends. Lots and lots of looks and even one person who knew what it was without the benefit of being on a forum! Lots of people thing it's a Unimog.

[VinceAtReal4x4s]

I hadnt seen those boxes on the front before. Are you leaving them on? They seem in the way to me.

[aclark79]

They hold the stakes, there is a matching set on the back. I'm going to leave them in place for now. They are welded on so to take them off would require some cutting. They don't impact the ground clearance, so... for now they can stay.

This is from another truck, and the rear, but it's the same equipment.

[VinceAtReal4x4s]

Maybe not clearance but approach angle is pretty poor. Too bad they are welded.

[aclark79]

Driving with the windshield off makes my hair go all cool guy.

I got a chance to show off the truck a little to a friend and go on my first 4x4 experiment. I took it up a local road in the city, there is a small lot there with some really rutted section, in the winter it's muddy, now it's baked hard pack. Took the truck through there a bunch of different ways and it did great. It did get stuck in 2x4 at one point (which I kinda did on purpose), shifted to 4x4 and it just pulled right out.

Things to note, it's a stick. I had an automatic Tacoma, it will take some getting used to. Also, no power steering. Yeah, I will want to change that down the road.

The good news is the 4x4 works both when shifting into low gear or when pushing the front wheel drive button. It put a smile on my face for sure!

[aclark79]

Finally back from work and have had a chance to get working on the truck again. Right now I am prepping it for painting. I'm going to have it stripped and then will prime and paint it myself at a paintbooth you can rent by the day. Mainly just waiting on the paint to arrive.

I've been working on removing smaller parts such as the windshield brackets, the mirrors, and such. Even there I'm not finding much rust, the worst rust so far is where the upper frame and the front box meets behind the dash, but even that isn't bad at all. I'm also figuring out what things are such as the tube under the right rear door, aha, that's for the antenna wires! It's being a lot of fun figuring things out.

Here's the front without the brackets. Most of what may look like rust is actually red oxide primer



I'm keeping the parts in the garage and will go sand blast and primer / paint soon. Trying to keep it really organized.





I did break a part. sadly it's not a good break. The driver side winshield wiper screw (that the arm screws down onto) snapped... I'm gonna have to pull the motor out and replace that part.

[Uli-RT]

Lot of work. Nice Job.
You should take off the small part of the top of the cabin to make shure there is no rust.
Put new sealing in.
Should be an easy job for you.
Mine was a little bit heavier.
http://www.c303.de/c303-forum/index.php ... #msg100065

[Uli-RT]

... you have to remove the wipermotors.
Take the chance and dismantle them to put new grease in. They will live longer then.

[aclark79]

Thanks, I've ordered a wiper motor to replace the one I broke, and I'll replace the screw arm on the one I broke, that way I have a spare.

I'm not sure how to remove the whole top section above the main cab, It would be a good idea to get in there now and remove the rust before taking the truck to the paint booth. (Which is the next step)

[aclark79]

Uli, the piece in the first picture is what I need to remove and it should be easy because it's just a simple piece and doesn't go past the height of the dash, but there are the two bolt/nuts on each end and they are rusted and very difficult to access. They are 13mm nuts, but going through the holes where the fluid brackets travel through is proving a challenge. I need to think about how to get up into them to remove them. The other nuts seem like they simply screw down into the lower frame, not usre if there is a nut they are going into or not.

[Uli-RT]

... use some rust Remover/Releaser (Caramba, WD40), put in on each day.
The screws should be removed easy. Otherwise there may be a big rust problem.
Have you removed the fluidcontainer for the wiperwater and coolerwater ?
You can reach the outside screws from downside. The other screws from top.

There a no nuts to hold. Its all welded.

[aclark79]

The paint has arrived! There is a 4 day break in the weather starting next week, I shall sand and repaint, then let it sit in my garage with a heater for a few days.