http://www.4X4australia.com.au 191usually dirtier than the Bobcats I used
to operate, and it’s certainly no more
comfortable.
This might explain why I’m a tad
‘relaxed’ on how she looks. Nicko and
I used to paint all of our mining gear
with roof and metal paint because
opal clay was corrosive, but there was
something about having the compressor,
hoist, generators and trucks all painted
the same livery that made us look a bit
more professional. At least that’s what
we thought!
When your best truck is a 1950
Maple Leaf (Canadian Chev) running
no brakes, timber-hungry board trays
and a petrol tank that’s a five gallon
jerry with a plastic pipe hanging off the
running board, well, you need all the
help you can get to look professional.
So it was never hard for me to squirt
another coat of roof and metal paint on
Milo every few years and, yes, there is a
can in the glovebox for touch-ups.
Looks aren’t everything in the off-
road world, which explains where I’m
going with this latest modification, too.
Because I haven’t a clue what it’s going
to look like. As my wife is always keen
to point out, I have no imagination
whatsoever when it comes to visualising
the end result of any project I attempt.
She says that from experience. Take
the sheds I built that looked tiny on the
plans but somehow grew another storey
or two, or the picnic table and benches
that would be perfect if you didn’t need
to be about eight feet tall to climb on
board. Being ‘vertically challenged’, she
took that one particularly badly. Pity,
but at least it saved me sanding it.
Right, so here we go with something
completely different: Putting a ‘remote’
headlight panel out front of a 40 Series,
which will extend the nose by about
60mm and may look a tad strange.
But engineering-wise, it was the best
possible alternative for a whole lot of
reasons. As detailed in past columns,
this front panel knits the mudguards
together while allowing the whole front
end to flex where it’s hinged to the
chassis, so it needs to be strong.
This is why I made the new one from
angle iron, because I needed plenty of
strength but still wanted to have a lot of
room to mount the intercooler and run
the pipes. Like everything else on Milo,
this is something I’ve played with so
many times on the tracks that I’ve had
time to think about how I’d like it in a
perfect world.
Since Roo Systems custom-built
the intercooler I’ve come to love the
extra power, but, on more than one
occasion, one of the hoses has come
loose as we’ve belted down a corrugated
track. No problem. You know about it
straight away because the power drops
off and it sounds like someone’s put a
vacuum cleaner under your seat. But
squeezing around the cut frame to get
the pipes seated properly cost me a lot
in Band-Aids.Not anymore – if all goes well. By
making the headlight frame remote
I can mount it on bolts, making it
quick to remove. And if I get it right
with some rubber tube either side of
the frame, there’ll be a measure of
shock absorption built in, too. This is
important because these old girls have
a habit of hammering out bulbs and
lenses fairly frequently once they get
a bit loose. In fact, I carry a few spare
bulbs and lenses on every trip. At least
it’s easy to get a seven-inch round insert
in country towns – it’s possibly the most
common light ever used!
However, they’re not easy to swap
around once you’ve taken up all the
available space behind the grille with
turbo and intercooler pipes. So making
the panel quickly detachable will make
swapping out the lights much more
‘plug-and-play’.
The only issue is what will the
finished job look like? Hmmm, hang
in there. With a bit of luck I’ll get it
finished next month and you can make
up your own mind. What colour? Green,
of course, with a sprinkle of orange.
Yep, I’ve been carrying the MaxTrax
on the roof rack for the past decade or
so, but after that emergency up in the
Gulf I’m shifting them to somewhere a
whole lot easier to get to in a hurry –
right above the driver’s door.
I just have to build something to
hold them. Gee, wonder what that
will look like?123- A couple of months ago I showed you all the damage the front panel
had sustained thanks to rust, body fl exing and having been sliced into too
many times. So here’s my version of a replacement made from angle iron. - The Terrain Tamer boys sent this 40 Series panel up after fi nding it
during the move to their new fl ash premises. That was years ago and they
knew I needed one then! It’s rare to fi nd them as good as this these days. - After squaring up the edges, I welded a bit of extra panel in around the
corners to strengthen it up, as the plan was to make it self-supporting.
About now you ask yourself: ‘Why didn’t they make them like this in the
fi rst place?’