Patrick Tipton

Got the repair to the lower tunnel/hull repaired over the last several days. For what its worth, the TIG process does not like weld thru primer. I ended up using MIG. For the other two sections where I intend to do this, I am going to clean the metal, spray with primer, then clean off the primer where the welding will take place. Before reassembly, I am going to use one of the undercoat type products and spray it in through the idler bracket holes/captive nuts.

April 2/Day 2 I did a little more work on the front lower hull patch and seam. I am playing with lots of TIG variables, gas flow, stickout, cup size, etc. I am learning. This first picture shows a little more welding on the front patch - it is almost invisible. I am not totally sure why there little "volcanos" at the end of the welds. Like I said, I have been playing with lots of variables so it could be too little shielding gas or contaminants from the inaccessible backside of the welds. I was able to grind them out. After a little more hammering and grinding. Here is where we ended up: I have a little more to do but need an extra set of hands to hold a dolly and help get this really straight. I also bought an inexpensive 2" orbital sander that will be here today/tomorrow and should make this a little more efficient. I keep looking at the gaping holes in the lower tunnel/hull and decided that patching one would be a fine diversion for a few hours. There are some pretty good pits in the gusset but overall it is solid and with transmission mounts etc. on the inside, I prefer to leave this piece in place if possible. I will clean it up best I can and put some rusty metal primer on it to hopefully stop the rot. I also need to work on the big dent a little too and try and get it back into shape before I weld a patch - otherwise the dent might be harder to remove and or distort the patch after the fact....

I decided to do a 30 day push in April given we are under a statewide COVID quarantine. I am working on the Weasel at least one hour a day and posting a short video on YouTube. Yesterday, I worked on the seam where I patched the new floor into the lower hull/tunnel. I concentrated on the front two feet, including where I had to make an additional patch. The biggest challenge is no access to the back, but I am getting through it. I sometimes question my own sanity for working so obsessively on areas that won't be visible. When I was a kid, someone told me character was how you behave when no one is watching. Not sure there is a direct corollary, but that is at least part of my thinking. The other thing is that this practice in low visibility areas will pay off with more expertise when it counts..... or at least that is the thinking. Patrick

Appreciate the encouragement John - right now, one minute I am thinking...."I got this"....then I look at a picture and see all of the work on the lower hull........🤫.... The left/driver side is worse in some respects because the damage is less...the entire side is right on the line of repair/replace....planning on repair with only replacing the floor in the drivers compartment areas but thinking that this is going to be a really bugger... Patrick

Yes....me too. And then you find the box some 6 months after you needed it..... Glad you found it!

I was back in the shop yesterday for a couple of hours. I am seriously contemplating an April push (daily) with this quarantine to see if I could finish the hull. About the only impediment I see is running out of Argon. I may be able to do a curbside exchange... In any event, I got more of the right side lower tunnel buttoned up. I welded two patches in the bow section where the rust between overlapping steel bubbled through. I struggle a little to finish these areas nicely with only access to one side. I also probably should have cut the front patch a little further (slight distortion) but I was trying to save the original spot welds....probably silly given that I can replicate. The TIG welding is getting better. As I mentioned before, I am a fan of Evaporust....works great on sheet metal if you soak a shop towel and then leave it for about 24 hours (less depending on temps). I wet it occasionally. You can see that the Evaporust does a nice job. I have cleaned the area above the seam with a 3m pad but not much more. Most of the rust is gone. The lower tunnel/hull needs more work but I am running low on Evaporust and so am being a little stingy right now. This is the beginning of fixing a rust through patch on the front vertical hat channel. A good friend recommended welding the entire seam in one pass (based on the advice of Chip Foose) - who am I to argue. I am not getting a lot of distortion in any event, but you do have to watch it as you move along because hot metal means it is easier to blow through. You can see that happened in the left part of the seam. Welded up. Front Side doubler patch welded: I goofed a little when fitting in the new floor/side and left a 3/8 inch gap. I put a cutoff in but had to do two close seams. I did a little grinding but need a helper to hold the dolly and get this metal back into shape before I can finish it. I will go through several rounds of planishing (hammer & dolly), then filling any imperfections, more planishing and grinding before this area is done. I took two quick videos of where I ended up. IMG_5305.MOV The entire seam: RightSideLowerSeam75%.mov

That is a great idea. I have always done this with tape. Patrick

We had a bunch of nice warm days and I spent more time driving around in my jeep than I did working on the Weasel. These are the only family outings we are getting these days so these little journeys are appreciated by everyone in my family. I also got some of the markings applied to my jeep - pretty happy with it. Yesterday I was in the shop for about 3 hours and got a lot of welding done on the lower hull seam. I learned a new "trick" from Jodi over at Welding Tips and Trips (YouTube and .com website). He is a master. So he likes to do his TIG tack welds by blasting the pedal (appropriate amperage) for just a moment - on/off. If the joint is tight and flush, you don't need filler rod. Works great - very little/no distortion. Here: Once I get the tacks about every inch, I go ahead and weld between tacks. I am still working on my TIG skills but I am so impressed with how small the "heat effected zone" is with TIG. You can see the discoloration - maybe 3/4 inch on either side. It is really fantastic. One of the other things that Jodi talks about is getting the puddle going quickly...basically blast the pedal like the tack but then backing off to keep the heat down overall. This is a little harder but really does work well once you get the hang of it. Some of these welds are a little cold....will need to go over them and blend in the undercutting...all part of the learning process. The other thing you hear people talk about with TIG is how soft the welds are (in a good way). Unlike MIG welds which are really hard when you go to hammer/planish them, the TIG weld bead is soft and flattens very easy. With such a small heat effected area, there is very little distortion and.just a little bit of hammer and dolly work gets the metal to flat again. By the way, the weld area is really clean when I do the welds - the rest of the hull - not so much right now, although I think I am going to put Evaporust on this side today and clean it up. I like to soak a shop towel in the stuff and then lay it on rusty panels. You can add a little Evaporust but the shop towel slows down the evaporation and lets the Evaporust do its magic. Couple of hours later, the metal is generally clean. I am probably 3/4 the way done with the welding on this side. I made a little extra work for myself by trying to save the rearmost hat channel and then deciding to remove it - made for two extra 14 inch seams.....more practice TIG welding which I need 😁 I have a pretty free day today so should be able to get most of the welding done. The hardest part of fixing this particular seam is the hammer/dolly work because you can not reach both sides at the same time. Solution: you need.a "dolly" partner. I enlisted my wife yesterday and she did great. Son also helped for a few minutes. He agreed to give me an hour or so today so I am going to get prepped and we will try and get most of this seam finished today. Then I can start to think about any final work on the sides and starting to install gussets and hat channels.

Yep - no sense wasting time on unreliable people. Keep us posted....I am still a ways away from worrying about my track issues, but it is coming 🤣

Beautiful John. Congratulations! Definitely a great feeling when you finally see some "finished" parts. Onward! Patrick

This is a nearly complete parts Weasel that came with my T-24. Norwegian return with rebuild plate on the motor. Pretty rough for sure and I will take most of the running gear for the T-24. I had my club's fall trail ride come to my shop and look at both the T-24 and this M29C and the comments (about the T-24) were hilarious...."10 years and it still won't be done etc." I told everyone that I was going to restore the M29C first 😉. Of course this got me thinking and looking more closely. Most of the hull parts that would be really hard to reproduce are either intact or repairable. The rest is just flat sheet as you know. When I started fixing the T-24, I decided to go ahead and do drawings since I was doing most of the work anyway. I have a friend who is great with CAD so we are drawing most of the hull, including flat patterns for the sides and lower hull. I have a local shop that can easily take the plans and cut and bend...so it sounds like a lot of fun to make a "new" M29C using the bulkhead and front and rear sections of the hull....and whatever else I could salvage. I will have the running gear out soon and the hull will go into my barn to stop the decay. Your GPA project is impressive! That is a lot harder than a Weasel for sure....so much more forming. That had to have taken 100s or even 1000's of hours. Patrick

Jim: @Jim Gilmore My "ultimate restoration project" M29C: Hull number M29C5253. I will get on this as soon as the T-24 is finished 🤫

I only ended up in the shop for a few hours yesterday but I got.a fair amount done. With the hull on its side and the original floor very visible, I decided there was too much rot in the rear hat channel area and went ahead and cut it out. I was tempted to repair, but I really would like to remove as much rot as I can and cutting a corner at this point will end up coming back to haunt me later. I also finished welding the rear floor section where the new metal meets the old. Finally, there was a little blow through rot where the side of the hull overlaps the rear assembly of the hull. I cut out the rot and need to clean and protect it before welding in a patch. It is a little hard to look at these pictures and not see all the work needed on the lower hull....but those are next weeks problems.

John - amazing project. 🤙

Thanks @F.Janssen - appreciate it. For me, the key has been spending enough time (and getting help online and otherwise) to learn how to get the results I want - an ongoing process for sure. Once I became pretty sure I would succeed, though, the stress went away and the work became relaxing and mostly satisfying. I have spent a lot of time watching a guy in Massachusetts named Wray Schlein. His YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU4f0UCOfiB32Lo4Z6NDghA He is a fabulous metal worker. I have picked up a lot by watching his videos - they are long and largely unstructured, but you can learn by watching him work. Patrick

I have been busy the last couple of days with other projects so not too much work on the T-24. I did get in a little welding today and went ahead and tipped the hull over for better access. I may end up cutting a bit more of the original floor away - the area under the one remaining hat channel is pretty rotten. I am going to quarantine myself in my shop tomorrow so hopefully a lot will get done. As you can see, plenty of work waiting for me on the lower hull.

They look great Jesse! No need on the T24...but maybe I will get a wild hair and end up rebuilding the M29C donor I have....🤔

Grabbing my popcorn and looking forward to more. I have a few ideas about how this modification might have been done - a massive project for sure and I can imagine even more difficult to undo. Thanks for sharing John. Patrick

Between global pandemics and tens of feet of 18 gauge steel seams, my life is ground hog day. For a variety of reasons (including a daughter who had returned from college in NYC), we have been locked in for the last two weeks so I am spending a lot of time in the shop. The governor just "officially" told everyone to stay home until further notice so there is no excuse but to get after it. I think it is hard to see a lot of progress in these pictures, but the right side is starting to shape up and look like I want it to. On one hand, I am a little torn about erasing all of the history as evidenced by what seems like hundreds of dents (not spot welds) on the side of the hull. On the other hand, this hull has gone through a lot, the history is effectively untraceable and it would look to me like a botched restoration if I just stopped here. And so I continue down the path of making it as close to "new" as my skills allow. Many years ago, I was recommended an excellent book by a gentleman named David Pye about what he calls the craftsmanship of risk - projects where the outcome is dependent on the skills of the craftsman. He calls it craftsmanship of risk because a mistake by our craftsman can also "ruin" the project at any given point - including when the work is very near complete. It is a dense read but ponders the question of what is "good enough". One of the things I have to constantly remind myself is that just about any mistake in metalworking is fixable - even if I have not currently mastered the skills to fix it myself. So I push on with trying to make a panel totally flat and a seam totally invisible when I know that I could use a little high build at this point and effectively get there. Time is never free, but mastering these skills in the midst of the global situation seems like a fine thing to do and it keeps me mostly off of the internet. I am continuing to clean up the rust while I do this panel beating work. I am using scotchbrite pads and some Evaporust...not so efficient but they remove very little metal. The shrinking disc also burnishes the metal and leaves it looking nearly new. Today's task - tackle the seam where the new floor meets the lower tunnel. Be safe!

I just finished rebuilding the regulator on my '43 Willys MB....very cool and robust design. I am assuming they are nearly identical other than be a 12 volt v 6....If you don't have a copy, worth picking up a copy of TM 9-1825B - Rebuild Manual for Autolite Electrical which will cover the generator, regulator and distributor. I don't have a PDF copy but I think you can find them out there and we have printed versions. Patrick

Thanks Rick - welcome aboard! Would love to see pictures of your Weasel - if you want, you can start a thread or post them in an album in the Gallery. Looking forward to watching you get your M29 back into shape and learning in the process. Thanks for your support! Patrick

Great work as always. That is an excellent way to fix rot along the lower corner of a hull...welding new metal and placing the seam where the 45 degree angle "gusset" is spot welded to the side. With the gusset backing up the side and the weld, it is much easier to minimize distortion and hide your work. I had hoped to do this on my T-24 but the gusset was so rotted I needed to remove it. Patrick

That looks slick Rob - nicely done. Look forward to watching the progress and getting Mike fired up for the T-24 track bands 😁 One of the other great benefits of this design is that you will be able to easily experiment with materials and design enhancements and comparison test the ideas on the same track. Patrick

That is a daunting project.....great save! Looking forward to seeing a build thread! Do you remember how much time you had in those repairs? Patrick