Civil Defense cut and hacked in the windows on this rig - once looking at the interior framework the worse it got.
They had taken the original side wall on the interior and cut - bent - welded in and did a very sloppy (should mean criminal) cut out work through the exterior panel on both sides - not even - distorted - looks like, and is crap.
That is the anwer to the windows on this M43B1.
Not only did they do that - they burned the old Red Cross emblem off the sides - anyone that has done body work and knows when someone has torched off paint knows the signs. (ciminal). This is a total PIA to sand down by the way.
I sanded down to the original first coat of paint which is above the red oxide primer. Still have a little left on the drivers side to get removed. By sanding I mean on this side so far I have 158 pieces of 80 grit DA sandpaper used.
This brings up bringing the ambulance back to original ?
Without having to purchase an entire side panel interor for both sides from a scrap unit and without having to remove the entire exterior panels from a scrap good one - the next best thing is to:
1. Mark and remove the lexan from the panels - this will give me a pattern of the exterior panel for patching in.
2. Cut and fill in the exterior hole from the interior - overlapping the hole.
3. Using the pattern from the lexan glass - weld in a trimmed piece to fill the exterior panel - keeping the temp controlled to not distort the exterior panel any worse than what the CRIMINAL Civil Defense boneheads did.
4. Then overlay the full section of the interor and weld in a full piece so the hacked in (did I mention criminal civil defense personnel) framework on the interor matches as best as possible for a full wall covering up the hacked in window frames.
As far as the body work - I am bringing the paintwork down to the first coat where ever possible as this is a solid coat. Then re-primer and working on the paint color as I go along.
Once I have a section done I will have to primer to keep from rusting - rusted areas have already been sprayed with rust converter till I get to them,
And Yes I have patterns cut for metal above both doors with vent blowers behind them to replace them=
My Miller welder got ran over twice at the pig roast and I am waiting for parts to put it back together.
I have found several stenciled items on top of the original coat of paint and keep pics of these as well for my own historical value.
Pics