Category: Big White Bus

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Footwell Repair Part 6: Floor Panel Repair, Seam Sealer (Post #665) 8/5/2024

I started the weekend fixing my 2014 F150. I’ve been hearing noises from the front and could feel some vibration in the floorboard. I talked to a few of my co-workers and they diagnosed wheel hubs. So I ordered a set of Timkin hubs and new brake discs and pads. I spent 5 hours putting them on. I setup the awning for shade so I wasn’t in the sun the whole day.

Victory was mine and I spent the rest of the day mowing the yard and working in my pumpkin patch. I have 5 Kakai pumpkins so far and will have a bunch of pepitas to munch on.

Sunday I set to getting the seam on the new panel sealed. Nothing too exciting about this. I did learn that 3M seam sealer is way more expensive than the German made UPOL brand. 3M $72.00(US), UPOL $22.00(US). That’s a big discrepancy.

I’ve got a problem with the welds on the transmission tunnel side. I can’t reach them to get them cleaned (the panel under there is oily and dirty), the rubber coating (no longer attached to the steel), and I can’t get to the panel because the exhaust is in the way. I’ll need to drop the exhaust. I’m not excited about that. I need to get her up on a lift to see if it would be easier. More on this on another post.

I’ve got everything sealed. Next up, I need to coat all the panels in the wheel well in truck bed liner. I’m hoping this will DELAY the inevitable.

The next post will be me fumbling to remember how to reassemble this part of the truck.

A little shout out to Mrs. Okierover as it is our 35th wedding anniversary this weekend. Happy Anniversary sweetheart.

That’s about it, like and subscribe, and as always Happy Rovering.

https://youtu.be/yBh2xRWomw0
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Footwell Repair Part 5: Floor Panel Repair, Panel Finally Installed (Post #664) 7/27/2024

Yes! I finally have the panel welded in. Is it pretty, oh hell no. Is it water tight, not even close.

I will liberally apply seam sealer. You’ll see that in my next video. I had a helluva time getting that panel held in place. I finally came up with a solution. Use a 50lb bag of sand to hold it in place while I set some welds. This could not have worked better.

I was also able to hammer the panel grooves flat. I went and got my grandson “Thumbtack” and had him hold a 10lb weight against the panel while I hammered on the opposite side. This work pretty well I guess? I don’t know. If I was better at body work I would have built a jig and made a panel with the same grooves. But I’m not a good body worker.

I covered as much of the panel in primer as I could reach. What I learned when I crawled underneath to spray primer on the panel was a big bummer. I found the welds had heated the rubber covering on the transmission tunnel. This caused the rubber to separate from the panel and you can guess what’s going to happen under there.

No, that was a terrible guess….really? It’s going to rust, rust a lot. I haven’t a clue what I’m going to have to do to get to this area and get it covered with paint and rust preventative coverings.

As I’ve said it a dozen times, every job creates two more jobs.

I have a shout out to Tumbleweed Garage [Youtube]. He’s working on a 1948 Willy’s Truck. I enjoy his work.

Thanks for reading, like and subscribe, and Happy Rovering.

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Footwell Repair Part 4: Floor Panel Repair, Failing Spectacularly at Metal Working (Post #663) 7/20/2024

I started the day with glorious visions of finishing the welding on the Floor Panel. All I managed to accomplish was spectacular failure.

Things that worked:

  • I had some luck with my homemade plug weld drill bit. It worked well at removing the layers of primer and seam sealer I had foolishly laid down.
  • Welding. Some of my welds actually held pretty well. I managed to get a good ground and the welds stuck until I stressed them too far. On second thought, maybe that means the welds sucked.
  • My home made air hammer … hammer bit stretched the metal a lot. But the shape I needed and the one the I got weren’t going to work.

Things that didn’t work:

  • Welds. As before, they popped when put under a lot of stress.
  • My understanding of metal working,
  • My spinal cord did not like the constant bending over.

After I had the panel welded in place I tried to apply my air hammer on the panel to get the metal to stick. I also tried using self tapping screws to get the panel to stay in place. This may have worked better if I had shaped the panel better.

All in all, it was a waste of wire and gas. I’ve since cut the panel down smaller. I cut all the plug welds off. I’ll try edge welding when I start return to make the fix. Changed the way the transmission tunnel weld was fixed. It’s now straighter less “bowl shaped”. I’m pretty sure I’ll need help holding the panel in place while I make the first few welds.

Range Rover 1

Okierover 0

That’s it for this week. Like and subscribe.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

https://youtu.be/-0hDDW1aPcE
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Footwell Repair Part 3: Floor Panel Repair, Welding (Post #662) 7/13/2024

We got a big break in the weather. A cold front hit and we got a lovely lightning show along with the fireworks. And we got some cooler weather. The shop wasn’t crazy hot today and won’t be all weekend. So I’m going to take advantage of it and get some work done.

In this post my goal was to get the floor pan welded up. I first had to fix a small patch to the bottom corner. I made a template and got the steel cut. It welded up pretty well. I was pretty happy with the results.

Then I started on the floor panel. I first drilled some holes for the plug welds. This reinforced my need for a drill press. I really want a drill press.

Due to the odd shape of the floor. My panel does not fit very well. Off camera I tried several things to get the panel to line up and contour to the floor. I didn’t have much success. And getting the panel to stay put while I welded, well, I was trying to hold it and weld it. I struggled greatly.

So I decided to put a few self-tapping screws in the panel. These held the panel as expected. I put my hand-made plug weld bit to good use and started welding. I had some success all across the bottom. I didn’t have much luck with the welds near the transmission tunnel but I did finally get some welds to stick.

At this point I realized my welding helmet stopped darkening. This could have gone really badly for me. I did weld two plugs without darkening. I’m glad I noticed, because that kind of eye damage is the real deal.

At this point I’m going to used the self tapping screws to pull the two panels together. I’ll make the plug welds in the holes and then pull the self tapping screws and fill those with welds. At least I have a plan and I am relatively confident this will work.

I’ll then fill the gap on the bottom side with seal sealer. Paint everything with a couple more coats and then I’ll seal it all up with rattle can truck bed liner.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

https://youtu.be/jHhHI75723A
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Footwell Repair Part 11: Wheel Well Panel (Post #658) 6/19/2024

In this post I talk about making my replacement panel for the front passenger side wheel well. I went to Chickasha Industrial and bought a piece of scrap 20 gauge. It will be just the right amount for the fender and the floor panel. Happy I didn’t have to buy a giant sheet.

I started by making my measurements and then checking them again. After I finished that I checked the measurements again. In the video I show how I needed to have a trapezoid shape. And after typing trapezoid in this post I realize I have spelled it wrong in this post, which is being exported as I type up this post. Oh well…..

I referenced “Mephisto’s Trapezoid” from the 1981 Pee Wee Herman – Live at the Roxy show which was on HBO. It’s one of my favorite shows to watch and was the inspiration for Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Captain Carl, played by the amazing Phil Hartman, tells his story to Pee Wee about getting lost in Mephisto’s Trapezoid. Comedic genius.

I cut the steel and then measured again. I made some bends to get the inner edge and the back lip right. After getting the panel made I could tell I needed to make some adjustments to the fender well too. So I did some hammer and dolly work and got everything sorted. I also had to adjust my panel after I got everything sorted. No biggy.

I dry fitted the panel at least six times. I’m pretty sure I can get it into place with just a few plug welds. I’m going to try my hand tomorrow at modifying a broken drill bit to make a plug weld bit. If that doesn’t produce results I’ll probably run to a welding shop and see what I can find. The gist of this is you can paint everything and seal it with whatever then remove just the part of the paint you need to weld.

This is a giant experiment because the entire floor pan in the back is going to be done this way. The holes are there and all I’ll need to do is get the Z bar in place and make a crap ton of plug welds. Then I can get the entire seam sealed with bedliner and or whatever.

That’s pretty much it for now.

Like and subscribe and Happy Rovering.

https://youtu.be/nPFNPa3TgQY
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Footwell Repair Part 9: Seam Sealer (Post #656) 6/3/2024

In this installment I apply seam sealer to the most recently welded “L”. Seam sealer was not how I wanted to seal this joint up. I wanted it to be welded closed. That is just not possible. It wasn’t originally built that way. I can only hope the seam sealer I’m using will last long enough for me to quit this Overlanding Hobby.

I also look at the floor patch I’m going to need to build. I talk about the two structural bends in the panel. I saw the guy on Make It Kustom [Youtube] build a jig and a tool to make these kinds of bends. You can look through his videos to find it. I’m going to think long and hard about this before I tackle this problem.

It might be fun to build the jig. I will need to buy a router bit to get the jig in the right shape. I’ll probably need to build a special air hammer bit like he did too. It would be a one off fix. I don’t think I will ever tear this apart again.

It’s a short video and I know it’s über riveting content watching me smear seam sealer. In my defense I didn’t have time to produce anything else this weekend. Saturday we visited the Evil German Dude and his lovely wife. Paparazzi Ford was there too. The Evil German Broad made brunch for us and we all got to catchup on the latest happenings and see their almost finished “cabana”. That’s what the county commissioners called it for tax purposes.

It’s an amazing space and it took a lot of forethought, planning, engineering to make it as awesome as it is. Several things I saw had me comparing how much time I’ve spent thinking about the future state of the Big White Bus. I know I’ll have some great ideas that will need additional thought and probably re-engineering to get them right.

I picked up a parts washer from EGD too while I was there. So that’s pretty cool. That’s all for this week. Like and subscribe to the blog and the Youtube channel.

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Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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