Going full Mad Max
The more I started to inspect the body, the more I realized it was very far gone. Previous repairs looked like they had been done by a drunk farmer. Welds were terrible, panels were unequally sized, and some holes were even just covered by a plate held in by some rivets, covered in body filler. A full restoration is out of the question, as there’s not a single panel that’s not bent, rusted or damaged in some way. Therefore, I decided to lean in to the beat up, ratty look. It’s the most logical decision since I plan on driving this car hard.
I want to not have to care about the paint getting scratched by some branches I’m driving through, yet I want it to be mechanically sorted to reliably do long distance road trips. I am going to address the rust, structural and mechanical issues of the underside, but I want to keep the sun faded paint, flaky clear coat, and random white paint splatters from construction sites.
Garage treasures
While cleaning out the shed at my parents’ house I came across these 2 chrome air horns.
When asking my dad about it, he told me they belonged to my grandfather’s old truck. They fit perfectly within the theme of the build, so I rushed to AliExpress to buy the cheapest 12V air compressor I could find, as budget is tight and I wasn’t willing to spend too much on a gimmick. As a bonus I’ve been toying around with the idea of plumbing up the compressor to be able to refill the tires after off roading.
To mount the horns I marked the locations of the holes in the roof, drilled them all out, and finally bolted on the horns. In order to prevent water leaks into the cabin, a 3D printed TPU gasket is used. For plumbing I used whatever old hoses and fittings I had on hand in my workshop.
The horn is triggered by a steel wire on the ceiling that activates an old limit switch I had laying around. I mounted it in the location of the ceiling grab handle using a 3D printed mount.
I temporarily wired everything up for a test run and needless to say, my smile couldn’t be contained…
This stupidly loud sound was the first victory when everything else was going wrong. It’s absolutely ridiculous, and that’s precisely why I love it.
Current state of the project
Using the momentum I got from this small victory, I decided to finally crack on with the biggest headache of the entire restoration, the gearbox . The horns are still wired as a very temporary setup, and they will be revisited and permanently wired in before this car hits the road.