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Tortrons's 1981 Mitsi L200 Clubsport


tortron

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Another round of shaping. Quite ridgid now.

Another round of dolly work, getting under the creases at the front and rear windscreens, on the left side of the cab should stiffen that side right up. Then I can start on making it not look like a walnut.

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Pretty tight now. Made a spoon up to get up under the windscreen areas and lever out the creases. Raised that area a good 5mm, I imagine the centre of the roof has raised about 2cm minimum.

 

Also some bad news. I have a Bently inspired star map headliner. Il drill those out and patch them like the last one. I think that will tighten up the rest of the roof enough to lose the remaining soft spots. I'm also debating cutting out a strip above the driver's seat. This area was creased in and is rust pitted. I think it's boarder line thin because it's being a pain when I shape it. May as well do it now I guess

IMG_20180131_144119846.jpg

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Drilled those two spots out and patched them. Also ran a bead down that pitted crease which worked a trick at thickening the steel there up and shrinking it down. Only 1 small canning area which pops with a shove. Have now sprayed some more black paint over it and Il begin to smooth the surface with hammer and dolly. This should tighten up that area too I believe. Also, because the bonnet was up, I went ahead and removed an old bracket that was unsightly. Then cleaned all the windows from overspray and vacuumed the remains of the bog dust from inside the cab.

JhlWbyV.jpg

LRaCIOe.jpg

 

Might take a break now, get sore arms trying to reach the centre of the roof with a dolly.

 

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Spent freaking ages playing with the oil psi gauge from the d50 cluster.

Ordered a d50 sender a while ago and with some luck it was correct (90ohm 0psi, 10ohm 90psi).

Then too long figuring out the wiring. Actually the wiring itself wasn't too bad. But when wired correctly I kept getting 0 PSI when engine running, but 90 if I earthed the sender. Turns out the calibration has been knocked out of alignment. So spent a while to re zero and set the sweep.

 

Will wait till the oils cold and check again. Getting about 25-30 hot low idle psi. Seems about right. The V6 should get something like 35psi at 1850rpm

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok so this is going to be a pic heavy post

 

Wrote a list of my plans for this truck the other day, and went through and prioritised them, and then listed what I would need to get those done.

One of the major ones is getting the 1st gen tray on, Its probably the biggest job, but a lot of other stuff is dependent on getting the truck as one/in final form. The biggest factor is that I already have rust repair stuff and 4L of durapox, so its more or less going to not cost me anything* (cos already a sunk cost/that's what I tell the missus)

 

Maybe a month ago I took off the tailgate. amazingly all the bolts in this have come out cleanly despite the massive rust problems.

 

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yeah, this is why I built a 1.8m bender. going to want a new cap rail and the bottom few inches.

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Hello Bog Job my old friend

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I don't even know what this is supposed to be, or why that hole appeared up on the swage line. must have been dented there or something.

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So not the end of the world. Replace the bottom, replace the top, clean the seams, seal it, and paint it. The only issue is that the hinges are about half the thickness they should be due to rust. Welded on too. This drops the tailgate way down the list. I might convert it to those F150 removable tailgate generic circle hinge things. Till then I think I will run some Baja bars that bolt to the hinge holes and to the tailgate catch holes to give it some strength. 

 

Anyway, I tucked that stuff away and did all the roof and diff etc.

pY8ZWqs.jpg

 

What a mess

I cant fit the bull bars cos the sides foul on the 2nd gen tray. So they are super awkward to store.

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The welds were blind stick welded to galv pipe, so I cut them off. I will probably make them removable when I do put them on, so now I can tuck them out of the way. - the dust is the mass of bog from my roof and tailgate.

 

eJ4zX4R.jpgDoes anyone know why this rope through metal plate would be riveted on the front end of my tray? Theres also a bunch of extra wiring for who knows what. That extra plug seen there. a round and a rectangle trailer plug, and a 2 prong plug next to the numberplate which I thing is an oldschool trailer park lamp fitting? Who knows, the truck this is off was a bit of a street cruiser for a long time. I ws told that the guards had been flared out, the last guy put it back to normal. I'm imagining they are going to be mostly bog.

 

 

 

Now, lets flip her over and have a peek under her skirt

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Most of its real nice actually. Typical rust traps though. 3 layer seams and some poor use of that angle bracing in the wheel wells. I'm afraid her skirts going to need to come off before I get stuck in.

 

Some photos of the general crust

iVjTh9s.jpg

 

 

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Wheel well lips are the worst, but easy to fix at least

 

Big hole in the front of the drivers wheel well

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This hole has been here for about 15 years and never grown and I would believe it. because it can drain out now haha

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more on the other side

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gonna need some milk in those seams I reckon

4IjBZat.jpgPassengers wheel well has some rust down the inside side. A pain because that's part of the tray floor and I cant just make a whole new bit like for the wheel well ends. but easy to patch in place, just need to double check the rest of the seam for it.

IpQXk92.jpg

both of the front sections have this bracket, they are both bent and welded on to the lip too high.when I removed them the panel was under a ton of tension. I'm sure I bent them a little strapping it to the trailer, but it makes me wonder if they were pushed out when the arches were flared?

 

TrbhC01.jpgmost of the rust is in the upper tray skin - which forms the middle layer between the bottom skin and the tray floor

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Gah, grubby little stitch welds. Had hoped to just use the spot weld cutter, but ive now used a combination of cutting disks and the finger sander to cut the weld down and notch out the fused area. IRL its about the same as a spot weld hole I guess.

 

This is why I'm taking it apart

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The back sections - behind the wheel wells are perhaps unsurprisingly the worst. The lip for the top bed sides it totally gone and flopping in the breeze.

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IfH7p1X.jpg

 

 

So Next up.

I propped the tray back up against the wall. I'm going to bare metal, repair, and durapox the bed skirts and tuck them away. Not much repair needed to these other than a little mainly where I ground out the welds. The two front halves look like they have a crease in them. But final fitment will be on the truck to get the body lines correct. Also I'm probably not going to weld them on, some of the 4wd's had the battery under the tray, and so the front one was removable. This gave me some ideas for storage - but again I need the tray on the truck for measuring.

I will probably pull out the front and back of the wheel wells next and get new ones in before tackling the top half seams.

The rear panel looks pretty good actually, so I think all that can stay on, and the front panel is just bolted on so is no big job. 

 

If you have a 1st gen tray. Go outside right now and flush out the angle iron support that's inside the wheel well. This is a god awful rust trap design and needs the ends plugged and the middle drilled out for drainage. The ones on the leading side are also pretty bad as they are liable to get full of muck and rust out.

 

Anyways. Happy Todd Motors day

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Passenger side wheel well

7fmYFpY.jpg

Most of this ended up in the vacuum, and more rust coming through under it

vkTY7Ut.jpg

This is the rear of the wheel well. Not much left of what ever that was. I believe the rear vertical section is a replacement as that bracket is part of the one on the other side, and this one is cut flush with the floor and gobbed with seam sealer

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So, made a new one

4KgKTLK.jpg

and because these are rust traps, i made some for the sides too

PIWvA7h.jpg

("Unfortunately" the drivers side is looking moth eaten under the underseal, so that side needs new ones too)

 

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unbolted the tray front, Its actually really good. A couple of small dents and no rust. The worst bit is the 8 or so rivet holes from that rope thing

 

And the main event

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Went quite gingerly with this as the panel is very straight, and found its not put together quite how i had expected but i managed to get it off without damaging much good steel.

As you can see there is literally none of the seam lip left, it was mainly held on with yellow cheese seam sealer which turns out to be quite tricky to cut out of the wheel well seam.

 

Especially when you are working against a cheese grater

46kCLNq.jpg

 

This wheel well has had that front section replaced before but i might cut it out and make a factory correct one. Will cut out that moth eaten section up to the rolled bead section. The rusted portion is the area under/ontop of the strengthening section. Also need to do where it joins the inside floor area as its rusted through there too.

Hmm what else.

More rust has been uncovered in the hidden corners of course, but its all small stuff (compared to this hole I'm digging), also going to need to remove one of the floor beams/tray mounts to patch the other wheel well. Don't really want to mess with that stuff, but its only held on at one end anyway, just need to measure some datum points i suppose. Going to focus on this side before moving onto the other in order to keep some panel alignment.

Have most of these panels soaking in paint stripper for another day

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knocked off the rear skirt sections

 

9UNcHda.jpg

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Other than the cab end panel which pretty much just needs painting, these are probably the best condition. Only 3 main issues.

1 The flange is pitted out. I am going to leave one of them as is as it cleaned up better than i had expected. The other was too pitted to trust on a rebuild of this scale.

2. one had a bit of a ding in the bottom edge.  both were a little wavey

3. The flange end which  attaches to the rear valance section needed to be pretty much cut away to remove these

 

#2 was simple. 5 mins with a hammer and dolly, and i even went over the wheel arch lips.

Then on to #3

BzCz5XA.jpg

I copied the profile of the rear valance section. Looks like these had been bent out a little probably to match the flares, so the bottom curve needed to come in a little to be a perfect match. (there also was a bunch of bog on the top seam area, the metal doesnt look low so i guess this was to match the flares too)

xmqGyiB.jpg

 

Then cut down to the correct size

 

Im not sure if this is the best way to approach redoing the bed flange/lip. But its how ive done it. Open to suggestions.

I just totally cut it off at the bend and welded a new bit on (i did think about overlapping a new lip but this seemed to work without turning to a bananna)

K1msSOa.jpg

actually it did turn to a banana. but that was when i had removed the lip, the panel bowed out. Not much of an issue because i just clamped it flat again to weld.

 

and all zipp zapped together. The bend is a slighly different radius than original, but the concourse judges wont see it with some seam sealer over it anyway.

 

DFQU9Wo.jpg

and then finished it up by cutting the notches for the tray supports, and i filled up a couple of unused mudflap screw holes. (i will reuse the mitsubishi mudflaps as they match my front ones, there was just extra holes where they had been fitted crooked i guess)

T7GTrQL.jpg

These ones are done. Il give them a final rub down with steel wool to remove the traces of primer, and then they can get some paint.

 

I foresee many hours of tack welds ahead

 

 

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one of the cab end skirts

KkmyLCi.jpg

creased in to match the flares

eVdImwO.jpg

more of the same crustiness on the flange. All of it is no good and pitted through. Some signs of pin holes being welded up in the past on the edge.

and some rust coming through on the cab end brackets

Huejaa9.jpg

Both look like they have been cut and welded at that point too which has caused the rust. Wonder how wide those wheels were to warrant a wide body tray!

 

They also seem to have bent in a bit at the arch end

KnWeGAZ.jpg

The bed side doesn't have any bend here, its all pretty much a straight line down the sides. So i think they are just under a bit of tension.

 

I started by taking out that crease with hammer and dolly

It really curled when i cut off the old flange, must be under a lot of tension

5RaYwVc.jpg

but i straightened it out

 

And welded the new flange on

OwhQuqd.jpg

(It even curled up a bit after i cut the notches out, at lest that's when i noticed, so i have since cut the arch end and gotten it straight)

and did the cab end

xSNTRm0.jpg

 

and welded up some rivet holes along the bottom edge. don't know what they were for (side skirts probably lol) but each side didn't match so probably not factory.

 

Needs a little bit more work where that angle iron bracket was attached and some final tweaking, but pretty much done for this side

 

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And more of the same for the other side

1hOhFFb.jpg

Corrosion coming through at the cab end bracket, lower lip was pretty frilly near the wheel well, and a chunk of the top flange needed replacing. It had pin holed along the bend so a bit more meat of it had to come off. Also needed straightening where the flares had been and some rivet holes filled

 

RCXS5z4n.jpg

 

Ran out of gas before I could finish. So back on the shelf it goes.

 

Also ran the wiring proper for the oil pressure gauge. Its kinda slow to react (its a bimetallic type) so il probably want to keep the oil pressure lamp, but set at a higher psi as it will be a - oh your engine is already locked up warning otherwise

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Using this every day again now so is due a few maintenance items.

Getting a little green drip out of the rad cap, so new one of them. Just a 13psi one, probably I should run a high pressure one like a commodore? I don't know but it has no problems* creeping cool even on hot days in traffic. (*More on that later)

 

The only fluid I haven't changed is the trans fluid. It looked ok on the stick and I was hoping to be able to make a few internal improvements with a shift kit and Corvette solenoid, and weld in a drain bung and relocate the trans cooler Infront of the radiator

Well that didn't happen as I felt it was getting over due

 

Millimetre clearance to get the pan off. But it came off ok and I didnt spill oil everywhere.

Oil was darker thank it looked and the magnet was covered in sludge, so probably time.

New filter went in, then came getting the pan back on

uJgTTCp.jpg

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No good. Exhaust is as close as it can be without touching the pans front prongs and the corners foul on the trans crossmember - clearly a well thought out design. I wonder the filter has ever been changed?

 

Anyway. Angle grinder that to a better shape

qreYbAk.jpg

 

And it fitted right on.

If I ever need a new crossover pipe Il move it a little out from the trans

 

 

 

And the coolant issue? The top rad hose has a drip from a hole worn into it by the hose clamp. Just noticed it today and It's getting bad so a new one tomorrow I hope. Looks like a VS bottom tube

 

 

It never ends

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hmm, wires? 

WgfpLjd.jpg

 

 

 

Ohhhh

zktnd3f.jpg

 

 

 

#graphs, #romandave

 

Might have missed the summer heat on this, but I'm going to see how hot a few thing get in the engine bay. I'm told

a. The mitsubishi engine bay has poor airflow and heat soaks

And

b. The holden engine heat soaks, expecially the air intake pipe 

 

Im mainly interested in airbox temperature compared to ambiant temp, as I don't have a snorkel or anything on it so I think it's probably sucking engine bay air

I'll check if the intake tube warms up. Not a hell of a lot to do there, maybe wrap it in space blanket. 

Interested to see how hot the steering box gets as there's not much clearance from the exhaust manifold. Potentially I could add a cooler and filter inline if there is a significant heat transfer. 

 

That's more or less it for now. I'm going to add in an underbody bash plate at some stage which will likely make all of the above much worse. I don't recall seeing any oil coolers in the baja kit outs offered in the 80s so maybe it's all shit yarns

 

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Caught my bumper end on the shed door reversing out the other day. 

It was already bent, but now its totally folded over on itself. Couldnt be bothered hammering it out again and then teying to figure out how to rubber coat it. 

So i got a new old stock, Taiwanese reproduction. Appears to be identical to the other side. Nice

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Despite being zinc passivated i sprayed all the metal with black zinc before installation, i also sprayed the inside of the bumper. Need to order some bumper bolts as this side was missmatched with odd bolts. 

 

No idea what that threaded part is for. 

 

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Fits nice, had bent the bumper more than i thought, but a massage sorted it out. A few well placed taps will get it perfect once i find a bolt for the bottom hole. 

 

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And a wipe down with paint thinner to remove the white shed paint and no ones the wiser

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MESS

gdI6CVQ.jpg

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Zip ties and awfulness, padding added to the fuel line because apparently its fallen down on the throttle cable before

 

Bought some stuff

WonuFzV.jpg

 

 

Trying to limit the chance of self immolation  

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I made double ones in the end, should be ok

 

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bent some tubes

 

And done

GFMNLwg.jpg

r0amqkE.jpg

 

need to remove some old brackets at some point, routed the rubber hoses a little further away from the exhaust. I kind of like that bracket on the rights location and shape for attaching looms and tubes to so I may keep it. Need to do something with the wires.

Did it all in 5/16 because not race car. On closer inspection the line to the pump is larger, but everything after the pump is 5/16. also the commodore used 5/16 lines. so will be plenty of fuel.  Will relocate fuel filter to the chassis rail, might need to shift pump to get it in a good spot. Looks like a lot of shit came out of it, so might cut it open, bet its never been changed.

 

oh, I ran the pump for a while and then started it up and rev'd it a lot. No leaks and the lines don't move about. I have some proper line clamp dealies on their way

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