Alyce the Baja

[Bashr52]

Whats new with this? Want to see how that locking diff all works out for you!

[smileyman3000]

Alright, so I guess it's time I post a proper update for this.

Where did we leave off? I was mounting a gearbox that isn't meant to go...

After setting up the linkage I started cutting the framehorns to fab some rear mounts. I got as far as cutting the ends off and then cleaning about 3 years worth of mud and dirt out. I sure most of you would be in the same boat if you had a look inside your floorpans!! After that I really didn't do much on the car in a long time.

Then the decision was made to have someone come and do all the metalwork on the body. It was a tough choice to make cause I wanted to do it myself, but at the end of the day I just wasn't getting anywhere so a local panel beater (Henry) came and did the work over a period of about 3 weeks. It wasn't just repairing rust but also a massive list of mods and changes that I wanted done. I did bits and pieces here and there when I had time on the weekends. But mostly Henry did the lot, I am very happy with the work he's done. And I'm going to get him to come back and help with a few more little hings and then help prep it for painting.

Remember how much rust was in the back corners? Well that's where he attacked first.

Smiley

[smileyman3000]

After the back he moved up to the front quarters and tying in the new firewall that I made. This was all working towards the goal of completely tying in the new sills. You might also note that we have the lift kit fitted, this was basically used as a jig to hold the sills in the right place. They were bolted to it and then the whole thing was flipped over and dropped on top of the body to make sure nothing moved around too much.

After that the sills are pretty much completely tied in. Just have to do the door pillars once she is back up the correct way.



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[smileyman3000]

Next he fixed the massive gap in the top of the firewall. And then some more tidying things off and some welding on the inside so we can flip her back right way up.

A bit more welding on the backseat area.

Henry also made a start on the back corners where the guards bolt on. But then realised it would be easier the other way up.

Starting to look like a whole car again!! But something is still wrong.....

...there! Much better!!!! Right way up again for the first time in many months!

Smiley

[smileyman3000]

Now she's back on her feet he could finish off the back corners. I gave him the rear guards as a template so he know how long to cut them. I also said just remove that last little bit of drip rail and weld it smooth. It was a bit of a rust trap on my last body.

Finished some more inside welding, the firewall, pillars and trim holes.

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[smileyman3000]

Next was the front pillars and hanging the doors.
The first step was cutting out all the bracing which was no longer required.

He managed to get the doors lined up perfectly, which I am very pleased with.

He also repaired the bottoms of the doors which had a few holes and issues. I don't seem to have any pictures of them though.

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[smileyman3000]

Under the bonnet I had a few little brackets cut off, some holes filled and the fresh air vent drain hole cut out and plated, and the original fuse box hole too.

Finally, here is something I did. Previously I cut the rear tank filler out of the old body. Well I trimmed it up and cut a big hole and fitted it into the new body one weekend.

That's pretty much it on the bodywork front for now. Still a few other little things to tidy up. Mostly the front nosecone area, dash and rear tanks mounting.

I also picked up this little critter on the weekend

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[smileyman3000]

The next port of call was the floorpan. Firstly cutting off the poor quality, bent, rusty replacement framehead that I welded on a few years back. I can't stress this enough to everyone. If you are going to change your framehead do not buy a new one! The one I got has just not stood up to the abuse and the fit and quality were shocking. I have tracked down another factory linkpin framehead and that will be getting fitted. at the same time I have decided to push it forward a little bit for a tiny bit more tyre clearance and approach angle.

Choppy, choppy. Followed by grindy grindy.

My new framehead starting the strip back.

Pretty soon I had this. And for those (like me) who haven't seen the inside of the framehead before.

After this I cut the uni strut edges off my old pan, in preparation for the fitting of the new lift kit.

That's all for now folks. I will post up some more when I get a chance.
Enjoy and thanks for looking.


Smiley

[smileyman3000]

First thing I did this arvo was remove the lift kit from under the body so I could get it ready to fit to the pan. I also trimmed the cross bracing off it.

Seems to fit pretty nicely. Next order of business was the lack of hole for the tunnel to go through. Made up a template and transferred it on and then chopped it out with the grinder.

Fits perfectly.

And sitting back on the pan.

Then all I had to do was trim the new framehead back to the right length ready to weld on. I'm moving the beam forward approximately 65mm so this is allowed for. Unfortunately that means my cut is straight through the pedal mount holes, so I will have to fill these up too.

Ready to go on tomorrow.

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[ORANGECRUSHer]

yay Alice is back!

Is that black box with the ports a heater?
_________________
Brian H.
I may not know everything,but I will try to help if I can
OrangeCrushER Berrien Warrior 2.4L Quad4
LAZY MARY 1970 Baja 1835cc

[smileyman3000]

[Bashr52]

Looking nice! Still looking forward to see how you make that locking diff/trans work outon that pan. Going to stick with your type 1, or go to a type 4 power plant?

[HERC]

[smileyman3000]

[smileyman3000]

I cut my old battery stops and hold downs off the pan. The battery will be getting moved over slightly to make room for some more stuff. Now that I have the lift kit fitting on the pan I can make sure my extras will actually fit!

First up on the drivers side I'm adding a 600W inverter. It has 2x 240V power points and one USB. Should handle all my needs when camping or travelling. It will be mounted roughly as pictured and poke through the under backseat kick panel. I'm also going to have enough room here to fit my dual battery controller.

Next on the other side I will be running a second battery the same as the first to cover my fridge duties. And I also have as ARB air compressor which will be plumbed in the run the locker and also for reinflating tyres after they are let down. Could probably use it to give the car a blow out too maybe.

After this I pulled one of the seats and bases down off the shelf so I could get some measurements and order some new seat belts. Had to space it up the extra to allow for the added height of the lift kit.
I will be making new seat mounts that mount from the tunnel to the lift kit, giving more room underneath for storage.

About the perfect length.

After this I got the pan down off the rolling bench and leveled it up ready to weld the new framehead on.

Getting everything in position.

Then it was off with the lift kit and measure measure measure.

I went and bought an angle finder and used it to measure the castor of the beam. But then I soon realised that this would be wrong due to the uneven spacing of my beam tubes and link pins. So I measured the angle on the spindle itself and am happy to report that with the floorpan level I have about 3° with the top trailing arm level and it gradually increases with more droop. This is due to the uneven spacing. The angle is about 7° between there and halfway to full droop, and around 15° at full droop. This is with no stops in place, I don't think it will be drooped down this far once it's finished.
So all in all I am very happy with the castor.

But then I run into an issue. While measuring the framehead and getting ready to tack it on it seems that the beam is not square there is about 20mm difference at the ends of the beam when I measure back to the rear torsion housing. Turns out that the issue is the beam bolts on one side have cracked and are pulling through from the framehead. When you bolt them up tight they are causing a slight hump where the beam sits in. This is enough to cause a difference of 20mm at the beam ends.

Not sure if you can tell in these pictures but this is the offending side.

Couldn't quite see the cracks under the crud.

Much better.

So I rewelded both sides.

And just to be sure I added a bit of angle to the back to. I never really liked the idea of having those open holes there to let crud in anyway.

Just hit this a little to flatten it so it matches the frame a little better.

And all done!

Now we could get back to the main event!
I got it all back sitting in place again. Took another million measurements then tacked it. Had to tweak it a tiny bit to get the sides even, was out about 2mm. After that I added some more tacks. Then welded it on.

Sat the lift back in place. Starting to look like a whole floorpan again!

I sat the gearbox in place once more and did a little more working out and measuring.

Next port of call with be getting on with the rack setup and dialing in no bumpsteer. Thanks for reading.


Smiley

[ORANGECRUSHer]

I have a question about your diamond plate floorpan. Are there any drawbacks to using that instead of an actual formed pan half? I just ask because the durability of the diamond plate attracts me but I'm wondering if fitment to the body becomes a pain. It would definitely take a while for that floor to rust out! What thickness is yours?
_________________
Brian H.
I may not know everything,but I will try to help if I can
OrangeCrushER Berrien Warrior 2.4L Quad4
LAZY MARY 1970 Baja 1835cc

[winchin73blazinbaja]

I was wondering the same thing as i read through this i love using diamond plate wherever possible. it looks cool and definite durability over sheet metal. the added weight seems pretty excessive though if it is even 1/8 or 1/16" diamond plate.

[smileyman3000]

[winchin73blazinbaja]

yea that is not too thick i guess. i may have to move to that in the future

[smileyman3000]

Small update for today. I spent most of the day at a Camping, Offroading, Caravan etc expo so didn't get much done on the car except some figuring out.

Sat the body on the pan, and I have to say I'm super happy with how it looks. The front shock towers clear with about 30mm to spare which is nice.

And there's heap of room under the rear for the 5 speed.

I put the starter on and measure the clearance to the rear floor. I'm considering recessing the rear tank and dropping it down and it looks like I will have enough room to do it. This will give me more room in the back of the car for camping gear etc and help lower my centre of gravity down a bit too.

Next thing was to set the rack in place and measure what angle I need to lay the shaft back at to meet the steering column. I also dropped the front tank in to check the clearance and there is plenty.
Might use a it more to hold the rack in than magnets though.

That's all for today people. we lifted the body back off and I'm hoping to get stuck into the rack conversion tomorrow.


Smiley