1120 AF Build in Norway

Geo.Lander

Well-known member
Good work, we filled the various holes in our dash with a polyester filler. Then sprayed it all with rattle can SEM brand rattle can paint. The black is a very good match to the Mercedes black. Maybe with your drums off you should give the wheel bearings a look (then you can tell me how to do it ;) ).We had a similar rust spot, I used some 3M panel adhesive with a bit of bent sheet metal and bonded it in place. Easy to DIY and the panel adhesive is crazy strong.

Thanks Jon! It seems the passenger side rust spots by the door are fairly common, was the only one found. Right, regarding the wheel bearings, it is only the front ones that need maintenance lubrication if i remember?
 

Geo.Lander

Well-known member
Another (while we are doing it job) is insulating the whole cab with dynamat style sound insulation. To. be installed after the cab is painted (inside and out), for now we are waiting for paint and we cant go to paint till the subframe arrives from the fabricators for a test fitting. So one job holds up the rest..
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Chassis cleaning and removal of unnecessary weight and cables left over from the fire-box before she is blasted and painted..
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VerMonsterRV

Gotta Be Nuts
Thanks Jon! It seems the passenger side rust spots by the door are fairly common, was the only one found. Right, regarding the wheel bearings, it is only the front ones that need maintenance lubrication if i remember?
From my very limited understanding the fronts are the only ones (they need 600 grams of grease). The rears are lubricated with the axle oil. I should be working on ours in about a month and a half once we get to Oregon. I have ordered a special socket from Germany that is needed to get the hubs apart.

Geez, your pictures look familiar ;).
 

Geo.Lander

Well-known member
Batteries have finally arrived as of last week and yesterday I picked up our 4*400w SunPower maxeon-3 panels!
Customs clearance and the import paperwork was surprisingly easy for the batteries, this week I plan to do the VE.CAN communication testing and setup a demo charging and discharge test rig with the rest of the Victron gear.
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The Old Rover once again proving why the older series cars were much more utilitarian and robust (I have owned the more modern versions too). I have no idea why they completely abandoned their proven design briefs after the L322 and Disco4... Oww well, I probably just getting older, but the panels luckily just fit as I didn't bother to check the exact measurements before hand ?‍♂️
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Another job I have planned for this week is to order the alu profiles for the seating area, the design will be similar to the below with some minor changes to the box sections and pedestal reinforcements.

Screenshot 2022-03-22 at 09.55.13.png
 

Geo.Lander

Well-known member
It seems like the entirety of a century has passed since the last update, the world being a very different place now. I wont be petty and go into the doubling of energy prices but for the geopolitical landscape at least looking more and more hostile in Europe for sure needs a mention, especially for those of us with land borders with the Putler.
Anyway, moving on to more pleasant subjects, we have cheated a bit with truck progress and find ourselves skiing and snowboarding as much as possible, I have however found the time to reassemble the Honda motorcycle we bought with all the "upgrades", just waiting on the plastics coming back from paint to match the truck ?to finish that one (not really, I have a whole bunch of other upgrades on the list).
(Thea and Billie ? getting after things in Sogndal), (LED tail lights/tail tidy, Rally Raid rear rack, new bars etc, etc)
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On that note, the RUB / -MC carrier design is almost ready for fabrication, hats off to AV for putting up with my incessant changes and adjustments to the design which is as old as the truck project itself. Basically I wanted a design that met the E11 RUB bar requirements (not really required in the 1991 era), could tow upto 3500kgs, upwardly mobile for off-road and can carry upto a 200kg motorcycle in raised positon. Anything fixed to the box or chassis would have been illegal here in Norway unless I reduced the size of the habitat considerably. Not an option really for us. Still more work to go, it will be electrically hydraulically operated with manual backup option. 3 x 2" American style hitch receivers installed, more on that later.
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I spent today adjusting the charging profile and making sure everything was OK with the SOC and canbus communications between the batteries and the CerboGX, in short, it isn't and I need to manufacture some custom RJ45 cables to get the GND position in the right place, oww well. This is why we have samples! I will correct that with the next batch!
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The truck is Gertrude again, we just kept calling her that so it felt right. If you aint already please do follow our IG account: https://www.instagram.com/expedition_truck_gertrude/
Here she is halfway through paint, she is back from chassis paint next week, the cab is done! Can anyone guess the colour we choose?
Painting-3.jpg
 

Geo.Lander

Well-known member
Gertrude is out of paint this week and getting her subframe test fitted! We are very happy with the colour, it is less "green" in real life sort of like the above pic and goes very light pastal in direct sunlight.. Wheels painted too (they will prob get scratched up pretty quick) in homage to the old Defenders.

Meanwhile box building has also started, so things really moving fast over at AV it seems!

Painted-1.jpg
Painted.jpg
 
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Geo.Lander

Well-known member
Some slight issues it seems with the fitment of the subframe will need it to be send back to the fabricators, we are also facing a delay with the water tank (it wont fit) so having to head down to the custom tank route after all. The box is really starting to take shape and we will probably get the clapping on EOB today.

Bathroom walls (and all interior walls) will use Armacell GR200 so we can fasten directly into the panels. This also means we can use 29mm internal panels which will be thinner but stronger regardless.
PXL_20220406_130202278.jpgPXL_20220405_151303283.jpg

I do not have the exact details of the issues with the subframe fitment, but was assured this was minor..
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Geo.Lander

Well-known member
Looks like a lot of progress to me!

Yea, things are going fast now. With such a long planning phase we had to get everything from start to finish fabricated, painted, assembled in under 6 months due to Brexit import restrictions. We ironed out probably 1000's of issues we noticed in rounds CAD meetings and back and fourth, I dont want to think how many hours was spent and how many versions we had ? Needless to say I am noticing some small things already I would have done slightly differently, and just a few things I forgot to have altered. oww well.
I am hoping end of May we might be ready to ship her back up north!
 

RoamIt

Well-known member
From what I've seen, everyone puts a ton of planning into builds, but its such a huge project that there's bound to be things you would do differently after your actually done.

I think the point is, you may never be 'done' it's more of a continually evolving project :oops:

From what I've seen, you have done a great job of managing the process.
 

Alloy

Well-known member
Some slight issues it seems with the fitment of the subframe will need it to be send back to the fabricators, we are also facing a delay with the water tank (it wont fit) so having to head down to the custom tank route after all. The box is really starting to take shape and we will probably get the clapping on EOB today.

Bathroom walls (and all interior walls) will use Armacell GR200 so we can fasten directly into the panels. This also means we can use 29mm internal panels which will be thinner but stronger regardless.
View attachment 716176View attachment 716177

I do not have the exact details of the issues with the subframe fitment, but was assured this was minor..
View attachment 716178
Don't like all the lighting holes in the subframe. Maybe at the ends at most but in the middle it should be as ridgid as possible. The weight savings will be lost when dirt fills it up.
 

Geo.Lander

Well-known member
Don't like all the lighting holes in the subframe. Maybe at the ends at most but in the middle it should be as ridgid as possible. The weight savings will be lost when dirt fills it up.

The design is proven in the real world and this specific iteration has undergone finite element analysis in extreme loading and chassis articulation scenarios (it's highly customized because of the stairs). The holes in their position make absolutely no difference in the frame's rigidity.
 

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