Thread: 1985 County "Upgrade"

Its looking real good there mate

Originally Posted by DeeJay

Fuel tank is connected up and she runs just fine - whew...
I've ordered cabin brackets from Qld, so in the meantime I straightened out the $50.00 Jackaroo bullbar, stripped it back as there was rust under some paintwork and killrusted it. BTW dont spray Etch primer over new paint as it makes a perfect paint stripper. Lost a couple of hours there.

Guess what this is

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Your welding is............ummmmm.......interesting

Would you believe I did welding at RMIT and got 90% ??
How about 80%
Fact is I dont try too hard, they never bust- not yet anyway

I've finished off the bullbar and grafted the m12 eyebolts from the old Landie. I made up some brackets that transfer the load to the chassis. I reckon a snatch strap should break first with this setup.













Rebound straps replaced, I also swapped the radius arms over as the white County's were a bit flogged from carrying all that weight.




I found an inbuilt safety feature of the jack arrangement, not that I wanted too, but the whole vehicle shifted when I was measuring full travel and ended up like this.





I scored a windscreen surround for $50.00 off ebay ( & $30 freight) so now I dont have to cannibalize the red one too much just yet. The doors line up pretty good and the side steps have been strengthened and lower trim fitted to pass side.





And thanks for the encouragements.
David

Originally Posted by DeeJay

I found an inbuilt safety feature of the jack arrangement, not that I wanted too, but the whole vehicle shifted when I was measuring full travel and ended up like this.

1st rule when working with HiLift Jacks....

Never rely on the jack to hold the car.... they are 2 unstable...
Many a bloke has a scar from a Hilift....

Also, is that jack shaft now bent????
If so..... Bin it....

Rule 2
Never sneeze when your vehicle is balancing .

It'll press out in the pipe bender I just bought. Before that I used to put em on a brick and run the Landie up & down, sometimes jumping up & down on the bullbar to get it just right.
Dunno about binning it, I'm of Scottish descent- Why ??
( BTW it flexed back and would have 1" bend if you laid it on the floor)

The cabin brackets arrived from Gympie, so I was able to fit the rear section with a new seal. I removed the old series 3 roof from the gutter and decided to join it to the County channel at the rear. Do'h , I had to file out the holes for the pillar as there is a difference and it wont align with the door.



Bolt holes filed to bring it pillar out




Aligning County roof with Series roof, It looks like I can have around 150mm overlap. If you're wondering why I cut it lenghtwise its because I never started out to make a ute and basically carved up the old damaged body so I could take it to the scrappy. Another D'oh but fixable.




It will be interesting fixing this damage



If push comes to shove I can use the old (red) County roof, but I dont want to wreck it just yet.

I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.



David

I found hairline fractures in the joins and figured the door bracing needs upgrading. I was slamming it a fair bit to get it right, but better to do this now before the paint job.
Template.


I used a sheet of aluminium same stuff as everything else. It can double as a pocket for torch & maps etc. Both sides done. It sits out about 85 mm



Upper side panel fitted. Next is bog & filler.



I've tacked on the side rail connection point for the bullbar, took a bit of aligning.




Also, I decided the tray needs resizing & the easiest way was to remove the decking. At least the house smoke detectors work well as I had to grind off the screws as they were rusted in.



I've also found a possy for a 375mmx1400 gas tank. It will give 114 usable litres. Matting was used as a template. I need to revamp that support plate as its in the way.



Wont be done in time for Cooma