16/06/24 – Fueled with Prospects

Hello everyone and thanks for joining us for another update. This weekend we’ve managed to find a dry enough spell to paint the Palvan roof, investigate the Test Car’s fuel tank.

Tom has been doing some work on B954268 during the week while its in the shed having its suspension looked at. A new roof sheet has been laid over the van to re-waterproof it.

I started off by finishing connecting the new batteries in the GUV with crimps ordered in the week. Its a pleasure to be in there without the hum from the charger running all the time as the power supply. I finished the modification off with a Voltmeter to show us the battery volts inside the vehicle so we can monitor the charge level.

Dave made a start by looking at the fuel pick up and return lines into the fuel tank on the Test Car. The pipe fittings were welded to the top of the tank, so looking at them became a little more tricky. The fuel was drained out so we could check for sludge at the bottom of the tank. we found the end of the pick up tube nestled in the tank’s drain bung, so it was just a case of cleaning out the drain bung, rather than the tank.

In a dry spell in the afternoon, we used our new oxy-propane heat gun to look at the sides of the Catfish. The gouges imparted by digger buckets were slit with the grinder and then heated and whacked to flatten the crease. Its all trial and error at the moment, and we’ll have some welding to do at some point, but we’ve made a start.

Sunday was by far the drier day so much so, we got the roof painted on the Palvan! That now only leaves the 2 vacuum hoses to replace before the acceptance exam. Tom, Mark Dan and I hit the roof with the PVC canvas paint and quickly got it covered. Dan carefully painted the edges and above the doors, and did the same with bauxite once the roof paint had dried. Nick used the bauxite brush to touch in some of the body.