Thread: Coming to Australia- Bluey's Rebuild Part 3

Hi everyone,

well the chassis rebuild is all but finished, just the fuel return pipe to fit and a couple of clips on the intercooler pipes. I've still got the aux. fuel and water tanks to fit but those will have to wait until the body tub is refitted.

Since my last post I've fitted a new set of copper brake pipes from Automec which although not cheap were very good quality. These went on along with extended flexi hoses by Goodrich. That is hopefully everything sorted with the brakes as I rebuilt all of the calipers with new pistons seals and discs whilst I was still running Bluey. Props have been cleaned up and greased and diff pinion seals have been replaced. The oil seal behind the handbrake was also replaced as it was leaking and the hand brake was obviously cleaned up at the same time. The drive train was now complete and full of oil. All of the oils will be replaced after a short running time to make sure any shotblast in the axles etc. is flushed out.

The radiator assembly took a little bit of fettling as the upgraded intercooler has slightly wider reservoirs top and bottom so the frame had to be bent open a little to accomodate it. The silicone and stainless steel intercooler pipes were then fitted and look great!

The stainless steel sports exhaust from Twisted Performance was fitted next and the thing is a work of art. It consists of five sections each joined to the next by a very snug fitting swaged joint. I dare say they would be gas tight even without the stainless pipe clips, unfortunately the photos don't do it justice. The exhaust, intercooler, intercooler pipes and K&N air filter cost us £1050 but I've been impressed with the quality of all of it, I just can't wait to see how it all affects the performance of the 200Tdi once Charles has tweaked the engine settings.

Once all of the steering rods were refitted along with a new steering damper my old Southdown Engineering Steering and Axle guards were fitted along with a couple of JATE rings so the front end is now nicely armoured up. Once I get the aux. fuel tank fitted I'll be getting a main fuel tank guard from Southdown, which the nice man said he would modify to protect the linking fuel pipe between the two tanks. Southdown Engineering, I believe, supply the guards which are fitted to SAS Land Rovers so they are very well made.

The next job on the list is to partially strip the bulkhead (don't want to disturb the wiring too much!) to get it ready for painting. Once the bulkhead is refitted I can see if I can get the engine running again!

After that its just a simple job of refitting bodywork, grafting in twin battery electrics, fitting a decent stereo, fitting storage boxes, twin spare wheel carriers........... blimey its never ending!

Hi everyone,

I'm emigrating to Australia but Rosy is just returning home! Rosy has been in England for six years now and has had enough of our rubbish weather. Soon after we got together she took me over to Oz for a look and I loved it so she suggested we live in Oz and you know the rest!

The route which we are planning for is around Europe then down through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan then India. We will then probably ship Bluey to Australia. I would like to enter Australia at Perth then spend some time crossing over to Dubbo NSW where we intend to settle. We're settling in Dubbo because that's where her brother lives just in case you were wondering!

Copper brake pipes were used as they are corrosion proof and are alot easier to work than steel brake lines. When I was dismantling Bluey both brake lines to the front axle were heavily corroded where they lie along the top of the chassis. Both lines crumbled when I tried to remove them. The line which runs to the rear axle had already been replaced with a copper one at some time.