Minion Missile - 1973 Colombian Patrol Project

[RiverPatrol]

Looks like you're getting pretty good at that. By the time you're done you'll be a pro.

[jwgreen]

I ended up painting the steering box, column and turn signal housing that beautiful shade of yellow that you're so envious of... As this is a 1973 truck, the old school windshield wiper motors and and steering wheel will really set it off.

[Esteban]

You've done tons of work! Congratulations Don!!

Thanks for sharing all the intricate details.

[CBlake]

I have 2 tubs that are in my parts pile that I'd be willing to cut up if you needed patch panels. I'm sure we could work something out.

Looking good!

[mad4hws]

Thanks guys. This morning i had my rotator cuffprocedure (finally). The nerve blocker hasn't worn off so I am feeling pretty good. I'm sure that will change overnight. Recovery will be long. A few months. so unfortunately I wontbe able t o much on the patrol in yhe near term...except frequent checks on the forum to see what you all are up to. Sorry for all of the typos.

[RiverPatrol]

Hopes for a speedy recovery!

[Esteban]

Hopes for a speedy recovery!

X2. Get well Don.

[mad4hws]

Happy Easter/Passover all:
So, today - 4 months post-op, I started working on the Patrol again. Just a little bit. It's amazing how long it takes to get one's strength back. I feel good though and am glad to have the Patrol project. I started by removing the welded on sheet metal that connected the seat box to the floor and rear tub. The first picture below is with a little paint removed before a lot of grinding. The second is with the sheet metal removed. There's some rust hiding in there, I'm sure it'll be worse than it looks once I get all of the paint removed. There is more of this sheet metal "support" in a lot of other places, so I'm going to get back into practice with the grinder in the days to come.

Couple of questions for this group:
1) I need to remove the bed, do I need to remove the seat box first? Is there just the 4 bolts holding the bed down? I need to remove the bed so it can be sand blasted to remove all of the undercoating and to identify all of the cancer spots.

2) How is the seat box attached to the floor pans? spot welded?

[RiverPatrol]

Welcome back! Glad the surgery and recovery went well for you. Nice to see you're back on the Patrol.

It is not (normally) necessary to remove the seat box to remove the tub. Just the 4 bolts secure the bed. There might be some bolts connecting the seat box to the tub but I don't recall exactly. With the history of mods on yours it wouldn't surprise me if the seat box is welded to the tube though.

Pretty sure the seat box is welded to the floor. But your looks like it's had some reinforcement added so it's hard to say where else it might be welded.

[mad4hws]

Hi All,
The tub has been removed from the chassis. I did it with the floors/seatbox in-place - probably the wrong order, but given the state of the welding/patchwork of the floors, it ended up being easier. Question for the group, how difficult are the floors to remove? Are they welded to the sills? Are the sills easy to remove (i see a pair of bolts connecting to the torpedo towers next to a body mount bolt on the chassis. I have been removing the angle iron (not really angle iron, but rather angled sheet metal) that was placed through out the cabin and found a fair amount of rust on the seams .... surprise surprise. I want to remove the floors, sills and seat box so it can all go to the blaster at the same time. I see lots of tedious patch work in my future!