Otter LRC CM4647296 comes home

[Jordan Baker]

While waiting for the wire order to arrive I figured I may as well build what I can with what I’ve got. It’s not much but it’s a start. The original wiring was well beyond saving. The covering simply crumbles away. I was also given the chance to go over an original harness that was NOS. This proved invaluable.

[Chris Suslowicz]

If you can borrow the NOS harness again, is it worth making up a wiring board so you can get all the individual lengths correct and lace it up/add sleeving before fitting it to the vehicle?

Chris.
(I suppose it depends on how much workshop space is available.)

[Jordan Baker]

Workshop space I have. However that harness is in England in an Otter. I did some detailed drawings and pictures of it though. I was also fortunate that my original harness is pretty intact. So I’ll be making up a board with it to layout the new one. Only a few ends were bits were cut from it.

[Jordan Baker]

About 1.5hrs of work to get this inner left foot well panel removed. Hamilton Bridge used a lot of round headed slot machine screws. 80years later they can be a challenge to remove. Most had the slot completely covered in layers of paint. I found using a box cutter and slim slotted screw driver worked well for cleaning the slot. I then tried out my new Milwaukee M18 impact driver. Wow I am impressed. It has different speed settings then automatically adjusts the torque and speed once it senses the bolt or nut is backing out. I found this really helpful in keeping the slotted bit from slipping out of the screw.

I was also fortunate that the original junction blocks were still present. It should clean up quite nicely similar to the one on the dash.

[Jordan Baker]

With the removal of the foot well parts I decided to sandblast them prior to getting the dents and damage removed from them. It’s just nicer working with clean parts. There was a pile of crud to remove prior to blasting. This was composed of the usual dried oil/grease and road dirt along with a pile of fire extinguisher sand and a few Dutch repaints over the original paint work. It was great to see all the original factory applied Khaki Green #3.

[Jordan Baker]

The sandblasting of these part’s probably took about 6-7 hours in my cabinet over a few nights work. An interesting find was the cast steering tube support bracket was originally painted in KG#3. The other item I found interesting is that the two dome headed countersunk screws featured external star washers under the heads. This was documented in a General Motors Service Information Bulletin.

Lastly I vapour blasted a few of the more delicate parts. The wiring junctions blocks cleaned up quite nicely. All of the metal parts were removed from the fibre backing and plated as previously described.

[Jordan Baker]

Before and after. This panel had been crushed by the engine hitting it when the Otter was rolled. The doubled up edge had been crushed and the whole side curved. Managed to get it all straightened out. No heat. Just an adjustable wrench, shop press and lots of steel blocking and hammer work.