Work starts on the front end :-)
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Another day starts, mocking up the back end, I need to carry a 36x12 1/2 Simex, a standard sized Rangie tank and a winch in the back as well as some recovery gear and waffles and a transmission cooler. The sills were rotten as were the A and B pillar bottoms - sills replaced with 120x60mm box with a 6mm wall. | |
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Tyres turned up so being a complete kid I had to see what the were going to look like - the engineering excuse of "I'm checking for clearance" is just plain crap | |
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Even my mate had to try 'em out :-) B pillars sorted out now, there wasn't enough left of the channel for the door seal to do the job so I sliced it up and tacked it back on | |
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Hooked the axle out, cut the self leveller out as I don't need it, pulled the A frame out for a refurb, got the tank in, it needed to be dropped into the chassis which means reshaping the rear crossmember | |
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Underside shot of the tank showing the reshaped crossmember. Finished refurbing the axle,added a set of my mega duty cranked trailing arms, fabbed up the damper mounts, new bushes and balljoint in the A frame and some 36" procomp dampers - this gives an idea of the amount of travel available | |
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Theres not a lot of clearance between the upper damper mount and the spare, I had to get busy with the Christine the grinder to make the most out of upwards travel - the cutouts from the wheel arches are saved for later use :-) | |
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The wheels can use the full damper travel now - I didn't want to do a body lift as I wanted the centre of gravity as low as poss. Success in the back end - all squeezed in nicely | |
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Reappearance of the wheel arches to form the inner bulkhead - Vinny makes a guest appearance as he suspects my fridge has beer in it and he's too tight to buy his own, no one comes to my house without getting roped in ;-) | |
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Roof joined and filled, back end panelled out with 2mm Galv | |
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The fuel filler was a pig to sort, the filler cap is 2 door classic, the bends had to go from 75mm to 50mm in a 60mm space and then the same again the other end - Back end showing the size difference between standard stumpy Rangie and pig :-) | |
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The Fred Dibnah tribute shot - Fred (RIP) was a source of inspiration for me and responsible for interesting me in engineering from an early age. Had to take pig for a spin - it measured out as 12" height increase over standard... | |
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Got busy with photoshop to see how the bullnose was going to turn out (chopping the front of the car), back end in primer with the spare in place, the tailgate opens and locks, even the heated windscreen and wiper work :-) | |
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The paint gets thrown around the interior, the fronts still standard though (for the moment) its going to have reclining "buckets" but I need to have them on rails so I'll keep the standard seat bases | |
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My mum shows her legendary strength by lifting pig with one
hand whilst stroking my cat with the other - burglars beware....
Work starts on the front end :-) |
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