A Poor Mans Defender.... SIIA 109

[nzstato 2,968]

Making some more progress...

Welded up these sill/b-pillar/dogleg sections as one

Started hanging all of the doors with new hinge pins

Need to throw some diesel in it so I can move it to strip the rest of the firewall and get the rest of the colour going.

 

[nzstato 2,968]

Getting some more of the pieces back together... Using lots of seam sealer with all of these panels.  Ran some rivnuts into the B-pillar, made it heaps easier to bolt the sections up to there.

Pulled the heater radiator so I can repair/paint the firewall and get the spare shroud I have to make it a complete unit

Hiding behind the ID plate was this lovely hole.... I suppose thats one way to get to a leaking core plug

 

 

 

[nzstato 2,968]

Doing my last run of door skins for a while as really need to get back onto this project before I loose my shed.  Here's how I do it.

 

 

[nzstato 2,968]

Tiny bit of rust on the firewall I fixed up

Filled in all of the extra 'speed holes'

And shot some epoxy, not super concerned on the finish for the interior, its all going to be covered by sound deadening and marine carpet.

Got epoxy onto my dog leg repairs so I could fit these panels, rather happy with the result

Bit of a tidy up and then we can get some colour going...

[nzstato 2,968]

[nzstato 2,968]

And the rest....

 

 

[nzstato 2,968]

Not terribly interesting but making some progress..

A tube worth of sikaflex to seal up the roof join. Also replacing the rubber donuts for where the safari roof bolts on, hope to get this all in colour soon so I can mount it.

Windscreen back in with new seals

Going old school glazing with the butyl tape (which I actually like working with)

 

Bought a roll of sound deadening off TM (cheapest option I found) and working through layering all the internal panels.  The roll is better than the flat pack as have less wastage.

 

[nzstato 2,968]

Not my best painting in the world, nor the best photos in the light but I got the roof done and back onto where it is suppose to be.  Looking alot more like a truck now...

 

 

 

[nzstato 2,968]

A bit more progress (but not too much pics).  I must have melted the main fuel line shut when I welded the firewall and after attempting to turn it around in my street it ran out of diesel 100m from my house after sucking what was there in the filter.  Got a new line made up but the cartridge filter that is in it is unobtainium at the local BNT and the existing sediment bowl is leaking air through one of the passages so will run one of the generic setups. 

An ongoing problem for this has been it popping out of the gearbox selector from the janky DIY shifter.  The alignment pin on the shifter ball (a ground down bolt) had worn which was causing the shifter to move sideways and cause the problem.  I ground down a new bolt and gave it some heat treatment so hopefully that solves the problem for another 20 years.

 

I still have my timeline of months before I loose this shed so trying to work on the big stuff while interior/tyres etc can be sorted if its moved to my warehouse.

I knew the front diff was going to need some work (as they all do at this age/wear), and the front shaft definately needs new UJs.  Not my first rodeo in one of these so I know what I'm up against...

Brakes look ok (which I dont want to touch now, as have intentions for a disc break conversion in the future), shafts in ok nick, but these intermediate bearings need replaced (and are a little $$$), looks like there has been a bit of moisture in there and the oil that came out was sludgey brown....

Yep, need a few front diff (anyone got one?), there are some chips (old ones) out of the crown wheel and there is corrosion pitting.  

Annoyed at myself as I had spares of these from my 88 from 8yrs ago and gave them away.  Lesson learned, always horde, never sell....

 

[nzstato 2,968]

Being that I dont have too much time to keep my shed I went ahead and sprayed the front.  I bashed out the main dents where there the best I could but realistically the whole front end needs alot of panel work at some point in the future - probably worthwhile to get a whole new clip.

Ive got new bits on the way to rebuild the front axle so that's the next job on the list....

[nzstato 2,968]

Making a bit more progress

Due to GC @NickJ who brought me a replacement diff down I could start getting this back together.  Replaced the pinion seal for good measure while it was on the bench.

Bit of paint makes it all look nice.

The intermediate bearings on the half shafts were stuffed so I sourced some replacements including the inner races which needed to be swapped on the shaft.  Easiest way to do these is cut through most of them with an angle grinder then some solid blows with a chisel should split them off.

 

The UJs on the halfshafts are stuffed also, these have been replaced but some bright spark forgot to remove the dust seals on the needle bearings so they were running dry.

 

[nzstato 2,968]

Continuing the process of reassembling this front axle

Also giving these free wheeling hubs a bit of an overhaul.

Think I mentioned I wanted to go to a fixed rear glass.  I got some glass cut to the required size and bent up some simple brackets to drill into the frame, very much how the rear door glass is fixed.  Pretty happy with the result TBH.