Dave's la(te)st buggy build...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE,, FROM ALL THE JIMNY'S

Many Happy Returns Dave.

Happy birthday Dave .Just wanted to thank you for your project write up.Ive struggled with metal fabrication and welding but keep trying and it is getting better thanks to guys like you. I learned a lot from your photos and fabrication techniques .Cardboard modelling etc .So hope to read and learn more form you and your a teacher doing this thanks.

WOW, thanks... my Dad was a great steel fabricator (he's still with us! Just retired...) and showed me the basics, the rest I'm self taught with and make all this up as I go along, finding ways to template with cardboard before committing to cutting steel, so I am very grateful for inspiring kind words such as yours... Thank You

Dave

Happy birthday for yesterday Dave! I don't comment much, but thoroughly enjoy your build threads and really admire your skill. All the best.

Thanks Furo! and GV42 above too

I rang my local friendly windscreen place this morning to ask them if they’d whip the windscreen out when they had some spare time... They were up the road from me and passing on the way back...

So, two hours later...



Done!

Some more today...

I started the day though on the conservatory roof for an hour as the missus had spotted a stain down the wall in the middle of the back wall, so ladders out and gingerly up and onto the plastic roof... found he lead flashing where it meets the house had moved a bit, so I repositioned it and popped up the road to the local builder's merchants for some roofer's silicon... Sorted Keep the boss happy...!

And then into the garage...

The mirror guards have dried nicely...



Out...



In...

Some longer stainless steel bolts and washers are in the post for them somewhere, they'll be fitted once the half-doors have been painted...

Speaking of which...



I stripped everything off... took a lot less time to take it apart that it did to fabricate it all!!!



Inside emptied too, the wiring on both sides has been bagged up and hung out of the way too... once all the sanding is finished I'll give it a good hoover (the garage hoover, wouldn't dare borrow the wife's for that! ) and then apply the bedliner...

I then spent FOUR hours (!) sanding the exterior "undercoat" down nice and flat, there's still a full day's work to finish it off too, so that's Sundays job... I've done the bonnet and sides, but not the doors yet, in fairly coarse sanding "sponges", and will drop to a finer grade for the finishing rub down at the end...

So paint will start to go on soon then! The blue Hammerite Smooth is also in the post somewhere, thanks to a Birthday bank deposit from my favourite sister-in-law (the wife's sister, she's my only sister-in-law, otherwise she wouldn't be my favourite, I take pleasure in telling her... Jokingly of course! I call in Sis', as I think of her more as a sister )... So, as per the terrible sketch earlier (repeated below), but it's clear to me in my mind's eye... what's left of the original body tub will be blue (as per the registration document) and the additional tube work (etc) will be JCB yellow... should look good in the end,, I hope!



Photoshopped? Nah! "Paint", like a ten-year-old would do...!

Lambert wrote: Rather you than me. I hate sanding and sand paper. Best of British!

I would have thought I'd be the same... I loathe sanding woodwork and walls, and haven't done bodywork since the 90's when I built a VW Beetle into a Wizard Roadster... Ferrari Testerossa Pink!

But today, garage door open, slight breeze, Spotify playing Bon Jovi tracks all day through my bluetooth speaker, and sanding away with a couple of sanding blocks / sponges (one in each hand), it was quite therapeutic... especially realising the next two phases will be paint and then final assembly... before getting back out on the beloved 'lanes next year... hopefully as things start to return to normal...

Looking good Dave!

Dont forget a dust mask when sanding. That stuff aint good for ya

Another good day in the garage today! I had a little bit of a lie-in as Mrs. Jones had a night away with a couple of theatrical friends (a socially-distanced afternoon tea with Prosecco, and then the wife and one of them stayed in the hotel for more drinks and an evening meal) . so I got up, walked the dogs, and let them loose to play in the river , and then made myself some breakfast. put my washing on, and then retreated into the garage..

For many hours of sanding... I'm sorry, Lambert is right, what a sh*tty job! Worth it in the end though?! '



I'd now used 6 coarse sanding sponges, and then 4 finer ones before I was almost happy with the "body" work...



BUT if we look back to this old photo of when I pulled the buggy out of the garage to turn it round... you can see a big "dent" (welding warp?) in the bottom of the rear of the cab...



So that had to be re-addressed first... more filler and sanding to sort that blemish out...

I know it's only an offroad buggy for some sunny day fun, but it has to be right



Ok... that's better!



I finished the day by completely hoovering the buggy inside and out... just waiting for some "tack cloths" to arrive before the external painting can start, so I emptied two cans of bedliner...



Into the floor of the cab

So I'm ready to start painting the body tub on Wednesday...