ALBUM | DIY PROJECTS | GEAR | MOTR | PODCAST | VIDEO ART | VISUAL ART | PHILOSOPHY
The Rescue is back in our driveway after getting some crucial upgrades. Special thanks to our team of mechanics at Meineke.
The work turned out to be more labor-intensive than anticipated. Upgrading the tires was the easy part, and yet a major priority to get this machine road-ready. Right away we noticed a positive difference in road handling. The ride is smooth and controlled now.
6 new tires - a crucial safety improvement
The harder part was repairing the rusted-out floor pans. There was extensive rust damage after enduring years of Midwestern weather.
This repair required disassembling the entire cabin interior: removal of the seats, disconnecting all of the special wiring going from the dash to the cargo area, and ripping out the old dirty carpet. A lot of angle grinding was done to remove the damaged areas. Donovan did a great job cutting the sheet metal, hammering them into shape, and welding it all back together.
We didn’t want to keep the ambulance in the shop too long. Z told the team to focus on removing the bad areas, patch in the new and put everything back together. He planned to take it home and do the rest.
Now that it’s back in the driveway, Z will take his time to disassemble the cabin interior while taking notes on how it's structured. Grinding out the surface rust and spraying coat rust neutralizer is the next step. Z is currently shopping around for the best deal on a new OEM carpet cut pile for the exact year range that includes 1986 models. It’s going to cost about 200 dollars for that.
With the cab disassembled, it'll be a good time to patch holes in the doghouse (engine cover) as well as paint and detail the dash components, door panels, and quarter panels.
The plan is to get this done before it is too cold to work outside. Winter will be for keeping warm inside while building the synth modules to be outfitted into the ambulance.
ALBUM | DIY PROJECTS | GEAR | MOTR | PODCAST | VIDEO ART | VISUAL ART | PHILOSOPHY
Last weekend the ambulance received an audio upgrade. It still had the original 1986 cassette deck which kind of worked, but not well. The door speakers were trashed, having little range or push left. It was barely audible with the engine running, just overall poor sound quality.