Moke Owners Association

The Begining of a Beautiful Friendship Part 3

Hi, it’s me again with a follow up from Part 2.

With time and daylight now on my side (due to daylight savings) I have been able to make some sort of headway with Slomat.

As per part 2, I was in the process of repairing and making repair panels for the driver’s side before I could contemplate fitment of the firewall, this has now been completed with great success (yay!). I had spoken to many people as to bending the material for me & finally decided to engage a metal worker for the job. Whilst I had the material done for the driver’s side I pre-empted that I would require the same for the passenger side.

Soon after I spoke to my brother (for advice on how to tackle the immense amount of repairs req). We spoke for some time and decided before I go any further removing rusted out of panels I had better put some back in.

Slomat was soon on the road again (on the back of a trailer) to visit my brother. Once there, Slomat met my brother and he thought "S%*t we have some work ahead of us". We talked for some time after and discussed her fate, time to go home now and consider more repairs my brother had mentioned.

In the next few days Slomat sat in his workshop (wow, I mean workshop, clean spotless floor, all tools in their place an inspiration for me to clean the abyss). A few days later (whilst actually cleaning the abyss), a phone call summoned me. It was Bro asking to come down to work on Slomat. All excited I travel to Bro`s place to find him introducing Slomat to the mig welder, grinder and other various tools. She sat there and accepted his offering to rejoin the floor plate into the vast openings I had created. A few hours later the driver’s side opening was in shape to accept the floor plate and the floor plate was tacked into place (grouse! getting somewhere). Bro and I then looked at the next part of the task and decided to tackle the passenger side next. "Tomorrow" he said "not now. Cya, go home!" So home I went.

The next day, I returned to Bro`s to see how the previous night's work had faired (in daylight) only to find Bro had welded a good portion of the driver's side in place (gettin` good). He orders me to go and play with the passenger side which I did whilst he continued to work on the other side.

More grinding now, on the passenger side to make a pretty impressive dint & hole (get the pun), in the work required for the repairs to the passenger side floor. "Getting late. Cya." he said again. So we packed up again and I went home. This continued for the next couple of weeks until he finally said that’s enough for now. Only minor things left to repair. A few days later and into the New Year now Slomat again has made it back on the trailer and went for a ride home again. When she arrived at the now cleaned up abyss, I removed her from the trailer so as to start on the next part of the process `` the Grinding back & finishing touches to the welds``. Oh boy, what a job this is going to be! With Slomat now sitting on chassis stands she is at a comfortable hight to work with. As space is very limited in the abyss I found the roll bar stored in there was in the way. Where to put it? Only one logical place for it! On Slomat! More holes to drill, more modifications, more thoughts to process and put into action. Better get back to it.

To Be Continued.... David Pullen 1128F