Body off restoration starts today!

[Julian B]

After procrastinating for FAR to long I have finally plucked up the courage to remove the body from the chassis on my 1962 SWB Haflinger, with the intention of sorting out any rust & dents, followed by a professional re-spray. I haven't thought about what I'll do with the chassis / running gear yet, but no doubt I will work out what needs doing when I can see more. Thankfully the engine should be fine, as I did a full strip down & re-build a few months ago.

So far I have removed all of the seats, roll bars, windscreen & fuel tank etc, removed all of the lights & electrics (having carefully labelled ALL the wires), removed all engine bay ancillaries and prepared the engine for removal. (A friend will help help me with the actual engine extraction). But I do have some questions already ...

• 1) Any top tips for removing the 4WD & two diff lock selectors? How do they come apart?
  2) How do I remove the glass from the windscreen frame? I have never removed glass before, and am not sure what the process is.
  3) When extracting the wiring loom from the body, the conduit tube within the footwell is very tight; should I pull it through towards the front or backwards, towards the engine bay?
  4) At the risk of getting ahead of myself, is it best to leave bolts in threaded holes on the body (so that they don't get bunged up with loads of paint etc), or to leave them empty & then re-tap them?
  5) Again, at the risk of getting ahead of myself, how well do "hinges paint"? Do I need to drift out all hinges (fuel flap, toolboxes, battery box, cold air flap on rear engine bay flap etc) - which will entail a fair amount of work - or just leave them as is and hope that when first moved after being repainted they "crack" neatly and look OK? (I will certainly drift out the rear footwell cover hinges.)

Sadly, being an early Haflinger the front bulkhead, and all of the underslung boxes are welded on to the main body, so they will need to be repaired & repainted in-situ.

No doubt there will be LOADS more questions over the coming days, weeks and months, so please bear with me

[heinkeljb]

Julian,

You are getting brave in your old age!

1: The diff lock levers are easy to disconnect from the operating arms. Both have just a split pin and a peg going through another arm. Remove the peg and the levers are no longer connected to the transmission casing. Both pegs can be accessed from the drivers side.
2: Glass in the windscreen is a little more problematic - but not impossible, Soapy water in between the rubber and the metal and then gentle firm increasing pressure on the glass from the inside should see the rubber "flow" out from the frame. Just remember to have some way of stopping it from falling to the FLOOR!
3: Not sure you will be able to remove the wiring harness in either direction with either labels or ends on the wires. The channel as you say is very narrow.
4: I would prefer to leave the bolts nuts on things attached to the platform - BUT - then them is the possibility of them getting lost because someone else takes them out as they are in the way for some reason. No, I would take them out and label them well. The other problem is that if they get painted, then you will ruin the paint taking them out, ruin it when you put them back in - and you still will have to clean threads up when you put things back together.
5: Hinges can be painted, but getting paint on all sides require them to be moved whilst painting and then when the paint dries, it will dry connecting some bit to another and when you move the hinge, the paint will crack unless you cut the joint with a suitable knife before moving the hinge - All in all, better to take them apart if you can.
6: If you want some help, let me know. I am willing to help either evenings or weekend if not tied up with other things.

John

[Rick K]

Hello Julian

I look forward to seeing your progress with this rare model. I had a 63 right-hand-drive model re-sprayed a few years ago (and still havnt finished- but thats a long story), and im trying to think back to assist with your questions.

For the windscreen removal, I gave it to a professional to remove and reinstall with new rubber frame surrounds. I also had new glass windsreens cut as the old ones were scratched and pitted. It was well worth it, as it makes it all look new again.

I would remove the bolts from all the blind nuts. The panel beater that repaired and painted my tray/body inserted paper plugs (just hand-towel paper rolled between the fingers) into the blind nuts to prevent paint from blocking up the threads, and later i pushed the paper plugs out and cleaned the treads with a tap. In addition, i greased the threads where I could with lanolin grease to prevent corrosion.

I also purchased an electro-plating kit and re-plated all the bolts and nuts that I could salvage. I then gave each a thin smear of lanolin grease to help preserve them.

The hinge issue is tricky, especially if you intend to paint with 2-pack paint which is high build. I elected not to dissassemble the hinges and instead use a knife the help separate the halves, and use a touch-up brush to address any cracking or chipping.

If I recall correctly, I removed the wiring harness from the rear, pulling the harness back. Installed it again by pulling from the front- i used a thin wire that I fed from the front channel back to the harness and taped it on securely. Then I needed a lot of patience to pull it forward again. That seemed to work well for me, but it wasnt an easy job.

I can post some photos of how it came together if that helps.

Rick

[AustHaflinger]

Hi Julian,

I appreciate your courage - not a job for the faint hearted. I will follow your progress with interest as I may follow your approach in the future on either my current Haffie or one in the future.

Pictures, drawings and notes for each section as you go.

Also - many restorations stall because people do not order parts of fix things until they are reassembling. My advice is to simply rebuild components as you take them off and order parts as you take them off - that way the disassembly is the slowest part of the project and when you start assembly everything is on hand and ready to go, that way waiting for parts or work is minimised and motivation is maintained as the vehicle goes back relatively quickly.

Good luck with it.

Garry

[Julian B]

Thanks all - your comments were very helpful. I had a good day today, and now everything is removed from the body, with the exception of the throttle mechanism between the foot pedal and where it connects to the long thin rod that runs back to the engine. Splitting two tiny components proved harder than I had hoped, so will leave the last few bits in situ until I can turn the body over and work on it more easily. All I now need to do is remove the engine (all engine bay sub components are already out, the silencer removed, and the 4 nuts that hold it to the bell housing are off) and then undo the 4 large bolts that hold the body to the chassis.

So far it has taken me ~18 hours to get to this point, although if I were doing it again I could easily shave 3-4 hours off that. I spent an AGE labelling, and then re-labelling all of the wiring loom ends, but better safe than sorry. Somehow I doubt that it will be as easy to put it all back together than it was to disassemble - partly because I will probably forget to do something in the right order, and partly because I will have forgotten what goes where. But I am very fortunate to have another Haflinger to look at / compare etc.

FWIW I extracted the wiring loom from the rear, as the connectors in the engine bay are so big / heavy duty that I didn't want to cut them off. I'm contemplating creating a new wiring harness from scratch to replace the 50+ year old wires, but I'll think about that later. I'll post a couple of photos tomorrow, after The Big Split

[heinkeljb]

So, the next series of posts relating to fixing / painting / putting back together are going to be under "restorations" then? Or are you just going to put up a montage of posts in the separate areas of the forum?
Difficult decision as there are reasons to split your requests into the various areas as they are more likely to get answers to specific questions, but there is an argument that it all just part of the restoration.

decisions, decisions

By the time you are finished Julian, you will be claimed as a on things Haflinger!

John

[Julian B]

Actually this entire topic should have been put in the Restorations forum - but I didn't see it.

Might an Admin move it for me? Many thanks!

[Julian B]

A friend popped by today to help me a) remove the engine and b) lift the body off the rolling gear. It was all much easier than I had anticipated, and the body can easily be carried by two mediumly strong chaps. I reckon it must weigh ~150kg +/-???

I will now look at the running gear more closely to see what needs re-doing, and from there I can decide how much I want to strip down and restore / re-paint etc. I am minded to have the body acid dipped as a first step, but will need to do some more research.

To get this far has taken ~20 hours, and all but 2 of those were done single handled. But I'll be the first to admit that having access to a four post lift made a HUGE difference!

More anon!

[heinkeljb]

Julian,

Are you going to keep a paint flake so you can get it colour matched? or maybe the inside of one of the tool boxes which doesn't see the light of day to much, so won't have faded compared to the rest of the outside.

So it's going back together next week then? or should that be next year?

Hope you don't get side tracked and end up leaving it dismantled for months as that usually results in you forgetting how things fit together or even giving up with it totally. Don't want to see that happen!

John

[Julian B]

The colour of the paint is definitely not quite right (hand painted by a previous owner), but I did have some paint made up a year or so ago to match an internal panel that I borrowed from a friend. Hopefully I can get some more made up to the same recipe, but if not I _think_ the inside of my wheel rims has the original paint.

It won't be going back together next week! I hope to get it acid stripped within a couple of weeks, and I can then work on the rust / dents etc. From then it'll be off to a paint shop. During that time I will work on the running gear. My aim is to be back on the road by Christmas, but wouldn't be surprised if I miss that deadline. But Easter should be do-able ...

John, If you fancy a cuppa anytime on Saturday and would like to take a look at the running gear away from the body you are more than welcome to pop up ...

[Rick K]

Hi Julian

Thanks for the updates. What a beautiful place you live in, and Im most envious of your garage. It seems the beast is in very good condition to begin with, so hopefully you wont get too bogged down in rust repairs etc.

with kind regards
Rick

[Julian B]

Thanks Rick. I'll be the first to admit that I am very fortunate re: where I live, and the facilities in the barns are great. Mind you, I reckon that both of my daughters would sell their father for the opportunity of living in Sydney!

[Julian B]

2) How do I remove the glass from the windscreen frame? I have never removed glass before, and am not sure what the process is.

Just to say (for the benefit of the search function as much as anything else) that it is really easy to remove the glass; I took it to an independent "auto glass" man and within 30 seconds he had popped both out. He pressed on the upper centre corners, pushing from the inside towards the outer face. His top tip to put them back in is to use washing up liquid and a length of thin string.

[Julian B]

Had another good day today; managed to remove ALL hinged panels (drifting out the hinge bars) so the body is now only that which is welded to it. On the "pre-series" Haflingers not only is the front cabin wall welded to the body but all of the underslung boxes are too - except for the fuel tank. This will make stripping & re-painting a bit harder, but there is little I can do about that! The body is in fairly good condition - even underneath - but there is some rot under the panel by the steering box, and also in one of the rear footwells. No doubt when the paint is removed more problems will be revealed ...

We the aid of a friend we made a stand / jig to sit the body on. It _should_ allow the body to be fixed either way up, so as to help with the stripping and repainting.

[heinkeljb]

Julian,

Jig looks good. I take it you can bolt the platform down on it so when you put it on your trailer you would really only have to tie the jig down? If that was the case, then you could drill some hole in appropriate places and just bolt the jig to the trailer and not have to worry about straps!

John

[Julian B]

John - yes, the jig bolts on to the body top and bottom (M12 nuts) - but I will weld some small brackets on to the legs so that the tie down straps don't need to touch the body after being re-painted. Good thought!

[maxhafli]

Hi Julian,

you know that on this body, you can mount a shovel between the two red dots that I reported ?

[Julian B]

Hi maxhafi. Thanks for that. I did know that the lower of the two red circles was for the handle of a shovel (or something similar), but never realised that the angled section of the upper red circle was for the other end of the shovel. I had assumed that it was just for the spare wheel but now that I look again I see that you are correct!!! When I have completed the restoration I will try to find a suitable shovel to put there.

Best Wishes,

[heinkeljb]

Hi Julian,

How's the restoration going? Presumably, you are still doing clean up?

Have you worked out how to get oil in to or out of the central drive tube yet? No filler hole near the front must mean there is some other method - is your drive tube connected to the gearbox for instance for filling / draining?

The shovel as far as I remember from seeing one fitted to an early Haflinger is something like this:-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/East-German-D ... 0755056315

Give me a shout if you want help.

John

[Julian B]

Hi John,

All is going well.

• I'm due to get most of the "black parts" back from the painter within a few days - some come back today. They have all been blasted.
  I'm due to get the body & other "green parts" back from the bead blaster at the end of next week, and then I'll be able to see what repairs are needed prior to re-painting.
  I'm due to get most of the zinc plating parts back today - with another batch due back at the end of next week.
  I have received a load of replacement bits from Haflinger Technik, and a few more that he didn't have from Robert Prokschi.
  I hope to receive a new set of tyres in about a month.

So I am sort of at the point where I can say that the re-building will start on Monday (I am away all weekend).

Very little oil came out of the central tube, and to be honest I now can't recall whether it was sealed off from the front diff or the rear diff. I will check when I re-build things. That said, my central tube is narrower than most, a feature of early "pre-series" Hafs I think, so yours could well be different?

Thanks for the shovel link - looks good, but it might be too long without reducing the handle length. Will check.

As and when things start to go back together I will post some more photos!

Thanks for the offer of help - I feel sure that I will need to take you up on it at some stage (or two or three!)

Julian