OZM29C Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 I referenced a weasel hull that was 'Skinned' in another thread so here is the story of this T24's hull repairs. This weasel is owned by a friend of mine and I did an 'Econo' job on the hull repairs for him. In the end the final repairs turned out a lot better than I expected. The material I chose to use was 1.5mm Zinc annealed mild steel sheet. No spot welding, just plug welds. Here are some before shots of the hull. It was in a sad state to begin with. This weasel came from Daryl Besinger https://www.dlbensinger.com/ back in 2000 Note the early Hull number UST-24-50 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 The first job was to get it into my shed and tip the hull on its side. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 Then I had to remove all superfluous sheet metal and start to 'De-skin' the hull. There was a Pandoras box of corrosion to be found under the skin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 Then onto getting the passenger side prepared to accept the new sponson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 I bent up a new sponson and fitted it into the hull. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 Then on to adding the hardware to the sponson. The battery tray is not OEM, I just made it ti fit a standard SUV N70 battery. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 More work on the sponson and I also moved to the hull bottom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 The lower hull was a boys own adventure to repair. BTW the silver paint was just brushed on to stop the bare metal corroding until the hull is sandblasted 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 As the telemarketers would say, But wait there's more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 Time to right the hull, remove the skin, tip it on its side and start work on the drivers side. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Tipton Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 A lot of that looks familiar! Great job and thank you for sharing the story! Super helpful. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 Patrick, thanks for the compliments. Please keep in mind that this was an 'Econo' job so I did not go to the extra effort that you have done with your T24 Hull. I was only replacing the corroded lower sections. Anyway here is more of the story ; The skinning of the sponsons effectively wrote them off as being unrepairable due to corrosion. The following photos highlight how bad the corrosion was under the skin of sheet metal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 I fitted a new sheet of metal to the sponson and duplicated what was done on the passenger side. I plug welded the hat channels in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 When the sponson was done I righted the hull and installed a track to make it easier to move/load the weasel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 I forgot to add these photos that show the repairs to the drivers side sponson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 I refitted the passenger side track and that's where my involvement with this T24 ends. Unfortunately the restoration of this weasel has not been further progressed but I hope one day that it will????? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Tipton Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M29 Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 HI John Great pictures got to hand it to you to photo all the detail. I was noticing you overlapped the new floor panel along the lower hull side. It looks like you but welded the seam along the upper hull side? Also what is the paint you are using on the repair areas? Thanks John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 9 hours ago, M29 said: HI John Great pictures got to hand it to you to photo all the detail. I was noticing you overlapped the new floor panel along the lower hull side. It looks like you but welded the seam along the upper hull side? Also what is the paint you are using on the repair areas? Thanks John The lower side floor panel was actually Butt welded. Re the upper side, the attached PDF better shows where I made the upper joint weld. It was a Butt weld as well. The paint is just an off the shelf single pack Kill Rust Epoxy paint. Its just there to prevent further corrosion of the bare metal until the hull repair work is resumed by the owner. Cheers Weasel Sponson.Assembly dwg.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Tipton Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 15 hours ago, OZM29C said: Re the upper side, the attached PDF better shows where I made the upper joint weld. It was a Butt weld as well. 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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