It's progressing along nicely.
It will be too good to use the way you are going. ;)
Tricky what paint stripper did you use on the hardtop?
Keep up the good work, and the running updates on here.
Cheers, Mick.
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It's progressing along nicely.
It will be too good to use the way you are going. ;)
Tricky what paint stripper did you use on the hardtop?
Keep up the good work, and the running updates on here.
Cheers, Mick.
I hope not Mick, that would be a shame!! First shakedown trip will be to Sundown NP with his uncle!!Quote:
Originally Posted by mick88
I used some commercial-grade gel stripper (can't remember the brand but I can go down tomorrow and have a look for you), it was quite aggressive on the top layer but didn't touch what was underneath, and the amount you have to put on to get all the paint off was prohibitive.
In the end I just used a braided wire cup on the 5" angle grinder and made sure I kept it constantly moving. This took longer but seemed to do a better job! The wire-wheel/cup will be what I will use for the rest of it - tray, hardtop sides, bulkhead and doors!
Hope this helps and thanks for the kind words Mick!
Cheers,
Tricky
To All,Quote:
Originally Posted by 86mud
Check straps, are people still installing these on their Landies???
Cheers,
Andrew
I've gone with parabolics and longer shocks so no in my case.
Their purpose is to stop the shock topping out in extreme articulation situations
If you don't plan on extreme off road work they are probably not necessary
Hi Guys n Girls,
A quick update....
This weekend saw us get in a handful of hours in between family, footy and other stuff that needed to be done around the house.
Progressing forward with the paint stripping and getting ready for paint, I got Plugger onto removing all the fixtures and fittings from the hardtop sides. The windows on this particular hardtop were really old style - aluminium angle with bakelite window runners and square glass. Really basic stuff. I got Plugger to drill out all the old aluminium rivets to remove the windows...
Attachment 127335
And because all of the tiny steel flat-blade screws which hold in the bakelite sliding glass channel were corroded into the aluminium angle these all had to be cut off with the angle grinder before the windows could come out of the recess. Once again set Plugger onto it...
Attachment 127336
There are no felts or rubbers around the glass or the channel so water ingress would be a worry - especially during torrential stuff and there is no way to lock these windows either. We placed a call to G James Glass and asked how they would address these issues and it wasn't cheap or aesthetic - basically $50 per pane to replace whats there with some kind of spring-loaded deadbolt attachment - if we could get it to work.
Thinking caps on....and the solution was ute canopy sliding glass windows - and there were heaps to choose from. I ended up getting a pair of genuine ARB sliders from a Mitsubishi Triton owner who opted to go for lift-up windows for his work ute. $150 down and they were mine and I think they will make the Camel look a whole lot better that what the original ones would have done. And they are lockable to boot - which means tools and gear in the back can be stored in safety, not o mention his fridge, recovery gear etc etc
Attachment 127337
And just a quick look at how they will fit in place. They are bigger than the original windows, but they should not look too big as they sides of the hardtop are comparable to what a side on a dual-cab canopy would be. Lots of light and air if need be. Will have a crack at putting them in this weekend.
Attachment 127338
Ordered the roll cage main hoop yesterday, some side mirrors and headlight bowls. Now chasing some Series 3 door hinges and door latches with locks. Paint has now been ordered and paid for so we are slowly ticking stuff off. Still not ordered the shocks yet as I keep getting lots of conflicting information...
More to come soon.
Cheers and thanks,
Tricky and Plugger
Still doing great there fellas. Like the window idea. Very smart thinking that.
Cheers Rod
Thanks Rod, nice of you to say!!
Onwards and Upwards!!
Still on the stripping, about half way through now. Still have one hardtop side, the bulkhead, the tray, the seatbase and some various other bits n pieces yet to strip - about a week and a half worth of work still to do! We had some good weather of late so I got Plugger continuing on with the stripping of the hardtop sides - its long and time consuming work, but it has to be done. I think Plugger has had his fill of it now though....
Attachment 127486
While Plugger was busy with the wire wheel, I decided to make the alterations to the auxiliary fuel tank to allow it to be a true mirror reverse of the standard tank. This included cutting off the fill spout and repositioning it further outboard to allow it to line up with the holes cut in the tray. We test-fit the tray to make sure that we had it spot on then cut it off and filled in the blank, then re-welded it further outboard.
Attachment 127489
I also welded on a 8mm thick bung for the vent hose to screw into on both tanks as before it was simply screwed into the tank sheet metal and I didn't like that - it was way to flimsy!! Now they screw in nice and firm with no slop or movement!
Attachment 127491
Sunday and it was time to have a crack at installing these windows into the hardtop sides. It was a case of line of best fit and to this meant that to get the windows to look central in the hardtop sides also meant that it didn't cover the original cut-out for the original rectangular ones. What I will do is grab the TIG and weld-in some infill panels to close up the gap! First order of business was to mark out on the hardtop sides the centrelines for orienting the window, overlay the window internal trim, then offset this line by about 10mm to allow for the flat face of the trim ring....
Attachment 127462
And then cut...
Attachment 127465
Unfortunately the hat-section stiffener had to go. No way around that if the window wanted to appear in any way central to the sides. I am hoping that with the window glued into place and the internal trim piece glued and screwed into place that this should stiffen this panel right up!
Attachment 127464
Too late to turn back now!! Then its a case of test fitting the window to see how good we are! Spot on in fact..!! They look bloody awesome in position and will set the vehicle off nicely with the black glass and yellow sides!!
Attachment 127466
Attachment 127467
And here is the infill piece that will have to be TIG'ed in later this week. Not a big deal, but to try and cover this with the new windows just would not have worked and would have looked silly!
Attachment 127472
And here is a shot of the fixtures from the inside.
Attachment 127473
And its a lovely fit!!
Attachment 127474
And this is what the window looks like with the trim ring/escutcheon installed. It finishes this off nicely and once the interior of the tray is sprayed with the U-Pol and coloured to match the outside it should look sweet as a nut!!
Attachment 127475
The window is centralised nicely in the side. But I think a genereous application of black glass sealer will be needed inside and out to cater for the irregularities and to seal against the elements...
Attachment 127476
And then its onto side No.2. Mark-out, cut, test fit, admire. The outside...
Attachment 127477
The inside...
Attachment 127479
Well that's it for today folks, time for a brewskie or two! More next week as we rush headlong to get this thing ready for paint.
Cheers and thanks,
Tricky and Plugger
Here ya go Mick....Quote:
Originally Posted by mick88
Attachment 127532
A Quick Update...
Broke out the TIG last week and proceeded to fill in all the holes and the infill piece that needed to be put in to make the sides complete. I just used pieces of the sides that we cut out originally for the windows. Came up a treat, and now the sides are ready for paint.
Attachment 128363
And the other side
Attachment 128364
And here is a shot of the sides with the roof on showing where the sliding window sits in relation to the Alpine windows in the roof. In the inside you can see the start of the roll cage but more on that later. I am pretty pleased with how it all looks and the windows are fairly central to each other. The jury is still out as to whether to tint the alpine windows and the back three windows to match the sliders - thoughts....?? Might make the interior slightly darker but it sure would keep it a lot cooler in the summer months! And of course, we need to keep Plugger happy!
Attachment 128365
From here it was onto the doors. The doors were triggered by the mid-week purchase form Rocky Mountain products of the new all-aluminium door tops. Has anyone got these on their Landies and what do you think of them??? The reasoning behind this purchase was the following:
1. All aluminium - no more rotten door tops like the ones we have now
2. Stainless steel fixing hardware which will reduce the likelihood of the bolts rusting in the door tubes (which if you stick with me and read-on further was a trial to get out...)
3. Sliding glass with modern rubber tracks
4. And finally window locks. The locks match the ones on the hardtop sliders so it all looks integrated
Here is a link in case anyone is interested in them...Rocky Mountain Products, Parabolic Springs, Shackle Kits, Shock Absorber Kits ...just scroll halfway down the page.
That was enough to convince me to pay twice the price of anything local knowing that I was going to get a good product and that I will never have to deal with the door-top issues again. And what issues we had....
The PO - Farmer Gill - had simply cut-off the rusted bolts inside the doors and run around in Camel without any door tops at all. This didn't give me very much to work with in terms of getting some kind of purchase on the bolts to extract them. The only way I was going to get them out was drill them and try and drive them out. I had been soaking them in WD40 for about two weeks prior but because they were rusted solid there wasn't any real help. So it was drill out with a 5mm guide drill until about 7/8ths of the way down the bolt length, then follow this up with a 10mm bit to about 3/4 the bolts length and then use a drift to smash them out. The theory being that the 10mm bit being the same diameter as the bolt should leave virtually nothing except the door tube - well that was the theory. In practice it worked perfectly for two of the bolts, the third took a bit more bludgeoning which deformed the inside of the door slightly and the fourth one broke the door tube out before it became free.
Here are the photos of the two that came out relatively easy - compared to number four anyway but my god they took some drilling...!!
Attachment 128366
And the door tubes on the passenger door which came out of it pretty much unscathed...
Attachment 128367
Attachment 128368
And here is the recalcitrant tube number four - it broke the solder brazing on the bottom but I could not get it out the top hole because some of the brazing was still attached to the tube. So what I did was cut it out at the door top, let it slip down until I could cut if off halfway along its length and then pull half out through the bottom and the top half out through the top - easy!!
Attachment 128369
Luckily I had some ERW pipe on the same diameter which I simply welded back in. First, I made a 'hat' at the top the same shape as the square hole I cut out, then welded that on the inside making sure I kept in aligned with the bottom hole...
Attachment 128370
Making sure that the tube protruded slightly so I could get a weld onto it from the underside...
Attachment 128371
Then weld it in...
Attachment 128375
And dress the top. I didn't go crazy here getting it perfect as it will be hidden by the door top and seal.
Attachment 128376
And finally a job for later, cutout the rot in the drivers side door bottom and weld in a new section. Will do that this week sometime. The doors are now fully stripped and pending this repair, are ready for paint...
Attachment 128377
Well that's it for this update, I have more to post but might do that a bit later this week.
Cheers and thanks,
Tricky and Plugger
