Brennan

So many goodies turning up. and a few to order this week. These are the Air bag struts I ended up with. Left it a bit late, and apparently Boss are discontinuing these. Which doesn't surprise me, as they couldn't even provide photos or decent specs on them. The larger set, for the back, were the 2nd to last pair boss nz had. The shorter pair, fpr the front, I found on good old fb market place. The larger rears have 145mm travel in the bag/shock. And bolt to the hub. So are 1:1 in there movement, to how far the sills will be picked up of the ground. The smaller fronts,

Installed some of the suspension to measure how long the air bag struts need to be. I have ordered Boss air suspension universal air struts. (she should be 10-20mm off the road at the pinch welds. Possible less.) 3d printed a boss kit, to adapt my big steering wheel, to the cut up, factory steering wheel. (note the slightly repositioned cruise control stalk ) I have since printed another without all the holes, and with a few extra little cosmetic details, to be used as the pattern, to have one cast in aluminium. Stripped, rust killed, and Painted th

Seam sealed beneath and in the trunk. Undersealed over the seam sealer beneath. And while waiting for that to dry etc. I made a start on mounting the 50s chevy pickup wipers. Work well and much easier to purchase than the sedan's cable driven factory units. Then made a start on connecting them to the cut down lexus wiper motor. Is working Well. Even has an extra motor to park the wipers. Which should bring them to a rest on the windscreen rubbers very nicely. Will continue once Ulrich is back open again. So I can replace the wood.

Finished up the bumper mounting brackets. 5x large plug welds down through the floor skins into them. Outer edge also has a strap on each side, which it is also plug welded through. Also filled the last of the holes in the sills. Have now painted a chassis black primer underneath, anywhere underseal did not exist. Seam sealer tomorrow. Then spray on underseal.

Have all the interior door handles back on. Modified the rods and clips from the Lexus doors. To join the Chevy Handle mechanisms to the Dakota Digital Bear Claw Latches. I had to modify/weld the lever on the Dakota Digital bear claw, so it would pull forward/Back, instead of Up/down. And had to cut the existing holes in the door a little bigger. They work beautiful and reliably so far. Latch smoothly. And have a good amount of movement in the handle, before they release the doors. Next up was the brackets for the rear bumper.

Nothing like some time off. To keep working harder. Next up... -Two small holes in the sills, in front of the rear wheels. -Brackets welded to the floor to hold the rear Bumper in place. (as seen in photos^) -Primer, seam seal, then Underseal. -Reassembly?

Have Filled all the holes around the trunk, between the chevy and the lexus. Very happy with how it all turned out, Trunk latches down nicely too. Then made a start on fixing the mess behind the right side rear door. And Finished up the Left side in the same spot. Wasn't as much to fix on this side.

Another Shot of the rear spare wheel well. came together quite nicely. Cut the bottom and inner supports off a spare RH guard I had. And welded them onto my slightly better, but rusty on lower parts, RH guard. To go with the new Dakota Digital Bearclaws. I spun these new pins up on the lathe. (no hex bolt head on them compared to the Dakota Digital ones) And my brother, Matt welded them to some countersunk plates. Which fit like this to the factory adjustable mounting plates/ And work great with the bear claws installed in the doors.

Finally Cut the horrid mess of a rear guard. That's the Lexus inner guard you can see poking out. Also welded the modified panel from the spare wheel compartment back on. 200-300mm further forward than it was on the Lexus. 15inch wheel still fits no worries. Few more filler panels needed in here, for the last few holes. New panel rolled and swaged made up to go above the ems panel. Both sides all tacked in, and ready for final welding. The boot is going to need a lot of massaging, cutting, and additions, a

Over the past month or so, I have removed almost everything from beneath the floor. Painted lots and brought heaps. Dropped the engine and gearbox out too, a lot of stuff is rusted and unusable. Including the power steering lines, which are rusted through. Matt, folded up some 2.5mm plate for me to fill in the gap between the the lexus and chevys pinch welds. And welded it in. Today after the PN hot rod club shed raid had been through, I trimmed off the rear quarters and tail pan. And fitted up the new EM

Made some floor flatten'rs for the alloy fuel tank to sit on.

Spent the last few Weekends making a new front lower cross member and Radiator support bracketry. Radiator is a 1954 Chevrolet style aluminium one. It is 2-3 inches further forward now, and now the bonnet doesn't quite close. Should be easy enough to fix with some light trimming. Fitting a transmission cooler and a large enough battery is going to be fun.

Yea, potentially, i have got a nice new replacement EMS panel to weld on in that position, and not so keen on modifying that or the body lines too much. I have wheel spats too, which would hide the whole wheel. Still Confident i can move the whole subframe back with solid offset bushings, or new mounts. Or just move the wheel backwards with arm adjustments.

Bit slow on progress lately. Removed the factory springs on one side, to see how much suspension travel the factory struts have. Looking at buying some boss airbags to weld onto them. Its motivating to see it so low again. And the rear wheel being too far forward, doesn't look tooo bad this low.

Have also made a start on modelling the new fuel tank. Created a 3d scan of the trunk, with 100 photos and Autodesk Recap. Super easy, and accurate, when scaled. Only 60 litres now, instead of the factory 85litre that no longer quite fit (and very, very rusty)