Righti-o then!
I managed to, with the assistance of the torch and the vice, crank the wiper arm the other way. That sorts that, then!
And -- thanks to lots of experimentation, measuring, maffs, and whatnot -- it appears that a 3/4" arm on the spindles should get me about a 90 degree sweep; which, with those arms and 13" wiper-blades, covers as much as the windscreen as can be covered without using pantograph arms or something.
Though it does appear I'll have to redrill at least one of the linkage rods because neither of the existing holes land in the right place to do a full cycle of the spindle. (They bind up at one side or the other.)
Welding
Work on the passenger side continued, with the addition of another piece to enclose the step/sill at the rear. Still need to finish closing in the floor and repair the seat-base; but it's coming along nicely, and the unfinished bits aren't in the way of me getting on with other things.
And also a lot of painting of the bits that are complete enough to call finished!
I also finished welding up the excess holes in, then sanded and painted the dash. Dashboard looks REALLY good in a coat of that gloss grey.
Still not entirely decided on what shade of red I should use to pick out that centre dash rib. Y'know, despite wielding colour swatches at it previously... Plenty of time to agonise over that yet, though.
Pretty happy with the choice of colour, otherwise, though.
Engine cover given a first coat, too. And also the battery-box lid I've put together out of some wood n tin, but I've not got photos of that it appears. (Mustn't forget to come up with a battery hold-down, while I'm repairing the passenger seat.)
Now, this was a bit bold to even get close to calling finished, seeing as I've not started on it. But at least there's enough solid metal here that I can use up some paint and not feel too bad about it.
It should hopefully be a quicker rebuilding process on this side...
Then I spent some time in the Captain's Chair. (Rumours of there being vroom-vroom noises can neither be confirmed nor denied.)
...yes, the warning lights aren't perfectly aligned. We'll see whether it bothers me enough to break out the welder and burn my paint to fix it.
Closing the door
But by the end of the day today, with the nearside step/sill done enough that the door's not going to be in the way, I went and refitted it.
The step/sill is ... definitely lower than it should be. I think this is partially because I've not got the structure at the front edge to fully locate it, and also because I've stepped on it a few times before I got it welded up and must've squashed it down without noticing.
No matter, I'll fix that easily enough: Jack it up from underneath until the gap is something appropriate, and then finish out the structure that braces it.
I'm not too worried about perfect door gaps at the bottom edge, because they seem to be all over the place with RLs anyway. :D
Something else that needs sorting, though, more annoyingly:
I forgot about the retaining stop/catch/thing. So I'm going to have to burn some of my new paint anyway to get that fitted back in, but it's not the end of the world.
And besides, I'm fairly sure I'll be taking the door back off again at some point to deal with the rust inside, and also fix the mirror arm and its mounts. Plan is to try and reinforce them before they break off and tear dirty great holes out of the door.
(I'm also intent on redoing some of the work on the driver's door, where I tried to fix that previously. I should be able to do a better job of it now.)
And a little colouring in
Took my colour swatch cards back out today. Pretty sure the red band across the dash is BS381 538 (Post Office Red)
More engine bay painting ensues
Followed by the wielding of rivnuts, to give me somewhere to attach
the wiring loom to.
Not quite sure what the exact part or supplier is for these rivnuts. They were skip-salvage. Handy things, though!
(Working adjacent to the scrap metal industry is hazardous to your health. Largely because when you see what stuff companies throw away, you'll be banging your head against the wall so much. Quite literally a 14 cubic yard skip, absolutely full of brand new rivnuts.)
Other painting continued, too; mostly using up leftover paint in my pot.
Also doing some pondering about those slots in the dash. When I got
the truck, they were filled solid with a band of what appeared to be
either sealant or thoroughly perished rubber; but they look to be in
about the right place to be used as defrost vents for the windscreen?
