tatra 813 new owner

[duncan]

Just to show Im not sitting around idle

Since its still too cold and wet in the garage to even think about painting the cab, I'm removing the "small" parts to spray in the heated workshop. Let me just say that door rubbers are a major PITA, but it was worth it. Still have 2 doors and the roof hatches left to do, and the cab itself ofcourse.

If the weather stays this bad for much longer, I'll probably build a heated tent inside the garage, that should work too.

The more I paint yellow, the more I start thinking how much easier it would've been to keep it OD. It's a shame that OD is not really a good option around here

Edit: ow and the major leak under the truck was caused by me changing the power steering hoses. That dark red drum on the left bulkhead of the truck is the power steering fluid supply, whuich wasnt as empty as I thought. About a gallon away from empty was more like it

 

[FridgeFreezer]

Looking good duncan, I'm not jealous at all...

That new cab is a time capsule, I love it!

 

[duncan]

Still working towards getting her titled and insured as road-legal before the end of april (major national holiday).

Used a Perago (a must-have piece of kit) to clean the old filler glue from between the roof sections. I pulled all the windows, seats, and panels from the cab. Since it kept raining all week, I set out to finish the other 2 doors, roof hatches, and some random small parts. Started building a tent around the cab, and will paint the insides this week.

Slowly, but surely

 

[FridgeFreezer]

That's the second most lethal looking power tool attachment since the angle grinder chainsaw discs

 

[duncan]

Ha, it's not that bad, unless you touch it

Basicly, its a piece of rubber (blue) with metal spikes on. Rotates at about 2500 rpm, it eats away old paint, glue, etc, down to the bare metal, in seconds. Works a bit like a needle scaler hammer, but faster, better, and no air required.
This is a single-row one because I had to get into that join, but for larger surfaces you can grab a double or triple disc. They use them on boats a lot to remove the thick layers of paint and anti-fouling.

 

[cranetruck]

See Duncan, I'm not the only one checking out the little stuff.

 

[duncan]

Sure So, this weekend is crunch-time. Its still freezing and wet, but I'll defy nature and get this thing done. Set up a tent over the entire cab. Rented a compressor again (still no air in the garage), and set up the old cab's heater to keep the temperature up.

It's a pretty redneck field setup, but with the heater on the lowest setting it gets warm enough for me to be sweating in a t-shirt. I coated all the rusty spots, the welds, edges and some other random vulnerable parts in lead primer today. Tomorow I'll put a thick coat of black over the entire interior, then sunday I hope to get the inside masked (fill the doors and windows with old papers) and get the outside into a nice coat of yellow. Let's see how far I get this weekend!

 

[duncan]

So, I didn't update before because I spent every free second working on the beasty

What happened since last time... well I coated the interior in black. While that was drying I started pulling the steering joints to replace the rubbers.

Paint was dry on sunday, so I started the (completely horribly annoying) job of masking the holes left by the doors and windows. Had noone to help so especially getting the 2.5metre wide front window masked was a major fight. Painting the outside was all fine, but I ran out of paint before I managed to do the roof. I'll do that when everything is assembled on the truck. No good pics of the painted cab yet, sorry, because its still wrapped in the plastic tent.

Lastly I replaced the seals in my exhaust and re-fitted it to the engine.

Tomorow I hope to finish replacing all the ball joint rubbers, and get the steering rods a fresh layer of paint. Hoping to install them on saturday, and maybe.... just maybe, with a bit of luck, arrange for a crane to install the cab. Fingers crossed

 

[duncan]

Well, we went for it this saturday. I finished reinstalling the steering system, and installed the exhaust. Cleaned the frame, and prepared everything for getting the cab installed.

Then we noticed the forklift couldnt reach high enough to get the cab over the engine had to return the cab to its crate, now have to wait till next week, we will get a bigger crane.

 

[duncan]

.

 

[FridgeFreezer]

Now that's looking smart - **** I'm jealous

 

[duncan]

So, it is done. Refilled the power steering resevoir, filled the tanks with diesel (one small leak in one of them, easy enough to fix though)... manually cycled the diesel pump a few times to get the air out of the system...

Switch power on, select starter engine, pull on cold start, and crank it. After 10 seconds I remembered it needed a little throttle too Instant-start.

It's alive again

There is one major problem now, I noticed when trying to air the system up, the new wabco air unit is the wrong one. Those idiots sold me an air regenerating unit for a truck with offloading compressor (insert technical mumbo-jumbo here).

Not gonna work, and since its been mounted already, not going to get a refund either. Lot of money down the drain Will change the air system around a little and re-mount the old unit which I dusted off and cleaned again. Should be having air pressure before the start of the weekend, so I figure I can drive it around again within the week

 

[duncan]

Ha, in all the happy excitement I forgot to mention the following:

Its alive, it drives. Refitted the old pressure regulator and water separator, changed some lines around, and now all is well. I've driven circles around the house for a good hour to get some lube and temperature in the engine.

 

[cranetruck]

Looks solid! Nice work, Duncan.
Will you be installing the fuel burning heater and where will it end up?
How much of the dash/instrumentation if any, came with the new cab?

 

[duncan]

It's better than that, there is a brand new diesel heater already installed. The cab came fully equipped, so under the rear bench there is a heater already mounted.

 

[FridgeFreezer]

I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you

Want to swap your truck for a Land Rover? Pleeeeeeeeze

 

[Boss Doug]

That’s going to be one sweet ride Duncan!! Keep up the good work and post moor picks.

 

[cranetruck]

......Switch power on, select starter engine.....

Please, expand on this one, a rather foreign concept.

 

[duncan]

I think it's been discussed before, the T930 engine comes with 2 (identical) starter engines, mounted on the left and right side of the crank case. There is a key switch on the dashboard to select starter 1, 2, or 1+2. In extreme cold the engine gets harder to crank, so you use both. Other than that its always nice to have a spare starter in case one fails.

 

[surewriting]

Color me impressed. Keep up in inspiring work