Cab Air Conditioning, Next Installment

Slow progress,  the paint takes 16 hours to dry, I painted both sides of the adaptor plate and now its finally fitted to the cab roof, I used sealed rivets and gray Sickflex 221

Once I fitted it I painted over all the rivets to finish it nicely.  The paint is wet in this picture.

I may have over done it with the rivets, but it's on there now and it ain't moving.

Painting the cab roof

I have recently been giving a lot of thought to the painting of the cab and later body. I would love to have a really good job done by a professional paint shop but several things make that awkward and cost prohibited.

I then thought I would spray the truck in the workshop, but then realized its really dirty and dusty in there and everything would get covered in over spray.

Then I came across a Volkswagon van forum, that was talking about painting with a roller,  I thought that this can't possibly be any good, but then saw pictures and videos of the finished product. These guys were able to get a showroom finish with a roller!

So to sum up, I am not looking for a showroom finish, after all, it's an off road truck,  I am looking not to get paint everywhere, and I don't want to spend a fortune on paint, also I would like to be able to do it myself in my own workshop.

It's important to remember, this is an old truck.

So I decided to first paint the roof of the cab, I needed to do it before I fit the air conn to it and I figured if I mess it up it won't be seen anyway.

Overall I was very pleased with the results, two coats of paint, total cost less than a tenner.

The paint I used was Rustoleum Combicolour, and the color RAL 7005

Cab Air Conditioning

I wanted to have an separate air conditioner for just the cab alone, After a bit of research i decided on a Weaco RT 880 its a stand alone 24volt system that requires nothing but a 24v connection.

It has a remote control and four outlets in the cab. it fits directly to the roof of the cab usually in the roof hatch hole,  Unfortunately my Tatra does not have a standard roof hatch, As the cab was originally a military cab It has a gunners hatch.

Now, as much as i like the idea of a gunners hatch in my off road camper i feel that in reality there's probably no need for it. So i set about modifying it to take the air conditioner instead.

the hole had a 20 mm flange that sticks up from the roof in order for the hatch to fit over it and seal, i had to cut this off and grind it back to the roof level, the remove the hinges that were welded to the roof for the hatch.

Once the aperture was ready i made an adapter plate from 3mm aluminum that would  fit to the roof aperture and take the air conditioner unit.

This plate will be sealed to the roof with sickaflex and sealed rivets.

Air Conditioner

My cab air conditioner arrived today, that's another job i can do, Now wheres my angle grinder !!