Rebuilding Sid

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It’s taken a few months but finally, a brand new unused, original lid for the solex. And correct thread banjo.

Back to tub thumping

The rear aluminium cross member is a mess. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...cd7df325b6.jpg
And welding this kit is going to test the patience.

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There’s been a couple of prangs I reckon.

So to heck with that

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Made a new one. It’s welded together out of two pieces of 3mm 25x32 angle which fits perfectly and I could make it including all the welding in under an hour. And the braces

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The real benefit is that I now have a straight end to start rebuilding all the panels from.

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Much neater
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Today’s episode of Land Rover welding and fabrication focuses on....

Fitting an alternator. ... yep.

As I’ve bought a dynamo bodied alternator, the challenge in fitting it is that everything that held a dynamo in place was chucked away when the alternator went in.

There is a part you can buy but photos show it’s only made from folded steel, so decided to fabricate one.

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The aim is to make it slightly shorter and use Packers to dial in the alignment. There’s no real adjustment other than spacers to align the pulleys.

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Spacers can be cut from the old alternator!! This will test the patience, you can only test it by fitting the alternator and doing everything to tight, underneath the car, supporting the alternator with your finger tips hoping it doesn’t drop in your head. 8 or 9 times seems about par.

The new dynamo came with spade fittings, my new loom has rings, not sure if it’s intentional but I found I could turn the fitting around and end up with a bolt extending out rather than a screw head holding the spade bit.

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All in, done, running and the alternator light has finally gone out.

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Galvanising had started to arrive

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More galvanising
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Looks brilliant. But I am now seriously p**d with myself for not doing the chassis. Talking to the plant, it would have been about $300 and done overnight. Still.... next one gets done.

Cheered myself up with the rivet gun... that never gets old.

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Aren't you supposed to put the wear strips on first??

You mean the strips inside the tub? Don’t think so.

The only rivets I’ve put in are the braces to ribs on the tub floor. The holes for all the strips are still there waiting until after the tub is painted.

The only other bits to fit are the rubber pads, but they get riveted on from underneath.

The outer rivets for each brace are the strange double headed type which I am still looking for options there. Likely to be big pop rivets or maybe solid head.

I found a proper rivet hammer tool from an aircraft supplier selling kits for apprentices. Not tried it yet.

So was Kev able to supply the pully & fan for the alternator.

Yes, he found a set and after a bit of a clean up it did the job perfectly.

Thanks for the heads up!

Paul

Fiddly bits today

Door catches, old ones were seized so either buy new or restore.

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These do not like coming apart, there’s four steel rivets and a pin to get out.

My other issue is they don’t fit the new doors and have no confidence that new ones would either. Back plates needed to be straightened and re bent to the new door profile.
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New springs from Bunnings!
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And then all finished and put back together with new lock
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In stripping them I removed the plastic coating on the handles as you can buy plastic dip in black for $30..... only to find out that it’s $80 postage for a 400ml can. So they are staying steel for now.

New rivets because I wanted to test the rivet hammer, new favourite tool, nothing like an air hammer, very gentle and quiet. Don’t have the right sized bit so will need to order another, but this will make putting the galv on a piece of cake.

Next job on tub is patching the front bolt supports.

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Folded up a piece of 3mm

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Ready to weld after a bit of cleaning. 3mm aluminium is a doddle to tig weld.

I realised I went at tig the wrong way round, starting on wafer thin body panels and working my way back to heavy usage metal. [emoji1787]