Lil Red - SJ restoration - Ready for Welding
After a lull in work its nearly time to start work on putting it back together. The welder came down to view and in discussions wanted some more sand blasting to be done before welding could commence.
Winchfield have a small sandblaster and a very large sandblaster. The large one is used for really heavy duty cleaning but has to be used outside to avoid filling the workshop with dust.
The blasting opened up the rust areas a bit more to make it clearer where the repairs are needed,
The picture to the left shows the passenger side tailgate area. This is a junction of 3 or 4 panels and if panel replacement was carried out then it would be a more major repair. Instead a repair part will be fabricated in to effect the repair.
The picture on the right shows the passenger side floor pan. The main rust is around the bung holes. These will be repaired.
The inside of the front wheel arches was also blasted out. We have a new Suzuki plate to go in here which will cover part of this area but the sand blasting has revealed some pin-prick holes which will be dealt with first.
It is a similar story inside the drivers side foot well. The bung holes have rusted out and there is a hole in the front of the floor to deal with
At the rear of the drivers seat area is one of the body mount points, This is going to need some close attention both inside and out to ensure that the body mount area is securely repaired,
At the rear of the car is the fuel filler area. In some SJs we have seen this is a major area of rust but we seem to have got away with it on this one.
So its finally ready to start putting back together. The welding is booked to start this Saturday and the paint prep could be starting by the end of next week.
