Will see if funds will allow once the truck is fixed lol!

Another afternoon at it when I got home (broke down twice between Glasgow and Edinburgh)

Got the other side done today. Should be ready to cut out the old rusty crap out tomorrow. Will also be my 1st mug weld in about 10 years and my 2nd ever lol!

Good luck with it Rob,hope it all goes well for ya....

I'll buy your MIG rig, then, Rob

The mig I'm using is a mates. I do have one but it isn't in working condition at the moment. Another project on the to do list lol!

Just got it! Damned autocorrect!

Made good progress today and am getting to the putting back together phase rather than ripping the damned thing apart!

Here are a few pics of the front panel showing just how bad it was!




So chopped the old panel out. Pretty much everything below the headlights came off as powdered rust as you can see by what is left of the panel...


Here is what I was left with....


I treated some bits with kurust and sprayed a little primer on so that there would be no bear metal left open.

Next I clamped the replacement panel in place and got welding


This is were I left it for the night. I need to weld a little round the bottom of the panel then I can start to rebuild the front.

It was my first real go at welding and I think it has gone ok.... The welds don't look particularly nice but when I swung off the slam panel it remained attached so must have done something right!

well done looking good mate

Good stuff Rob, a wee grind up seam sealer, paint, smother it with waxoil around the weld areas and box sections and your laughing.

Just a wee tip for anyone doing a bit of welding, you can buy weld through zink primer to coat the bare metal parts that will be inaccessible after welding and really prevents corrosion from the inside out.

Yeah will definitely be sealing and waxoiling once my wallet has recovered from all this!

Rob you'll need to seam seal it before its painted, a tin of the brushable stuff is cheap as chips and an aerosol of waxoil will do the front panel.

Well it's official, my car is an asshole!

Day started off productively enough...

Finished the welding on the front (one of the rad mounts). Also patched a little in one of the front outriggers for the tub (figured that even my bad welding would be stronger than the hole that was there).

Painted the panel a little but will grind back and seal once I can afford to buy the stuff!

Front end back on bar bumper


Then started on the body lift. Got the tub done, was straight forward enough. Snapped one of the bolts which is better going than usual for my car!


As it stands now


Got the front brake hoses done for the rest of the lift. Was a bit of a pain but not too bad.

Was hoping to get finished today as I'm back at work on Monday. I had started to hear a grinding noise coming from the brakes and when I investigated it turns out that one of the sliders on the o/s calliper was seized causing the outside pad to wear through. Unless Halfords miraculously have pads in stock it won't be moving again until next weekend

A nice turd to the face to end the day with!

Ah bugger. Well, you have to look at it as great progress all in all, Rob.

You got transport for Halfords, etc? I'm dropping Jr. off at Tranent tomorrow afternoon if I can help?

Of course, I'm assuming you're at your folks and not in Aberdeen. If you're up there, then I can't help

Am gonna phone them in the morning then get a lift off my folks if they have any. Tomorrow I'm aiming to finish the lift, fit the rear brake hose, replace the calliper sliders on the o/s brake and bodge the bumper back on. If I get that all done it means hat next weekend I can come down, fit new pads, bleed the brakes and then go home!

Ahriiiight - if Seafield doesn't have them, then try hermiston gate - if you can't get out west during the day I could pick 'em up and drop them off, if that helps.

That would be awesome! Don't know if I have your number but you can pm me if you like

Done

Don't think I'll get much done today as I'm off to a and e Think I got something in my eye yesterday

Aw no. Hope you're ok, Rob.

Right, car is an asshole round two!!

After last weekend the optician managed to sort my eye and gave me eye drops for the week so no need for the old needle in the eye treatment! w00p!

Came down this weekend to finish the body lift, fit the rear brake hose, replace calliper slider bolts and pads then hopefully head back up the road... Simple enough??? Yeah right!

Despite soaking the pipe unions in penetrating spray for ages, both were stuck solid. Ended up biting the bullet and cutting the flexi off then braking off the ends off the copper lines. Once the ends were free I could loosen off the union at the load valve and the one at the wheel cylinder and remove completely. I then made up some new copper pipes with my shiny new flaring tool and loosely fitted in place with the braided flexi.



I then went to tighten the unions and SNAP!!!! Hmmmm hardly bein Heeman on the flare nut spanner, what's broken now??

Ahh feck! The pipe hole in the load sensing valve has cracked! Yet another turd to the face in the ownership of this car!

Here's a pic of the damage, the grey line at the new shiny union is the crack


This means another bus back to Aberdeen and another week off the road for the car.

Anyway.... Cracked on with body lift.

Got the bolts out easy enough for a change!
Managed to get the cab lifted and bolted back up.

The fan seems to spin freely enough and I haven't altered the cowling. I still need to do something to sort the gear levers and lift the front bumper.

When I lifted the tub it seemed that the bolts weren't long enough to put the existing spacer in as well as the lift block so I left them out. When I tried to remove one of the cab mounts the captive bolts were all spinning so I ended up leaving them in. This means that the can is slightly higher than the tub and the canopy is almost touching the top of the cab.

When I'm down next week I'm gonna see if I can refit the spacers into the tub bolts. Has anyone else with the xpajun lift kit had this?

This truck is heading for a baz style panda and firey death!

Lifted pic

Well, it looks good, Rob! Shame it's doing all it can for you to hate it, though!

It'll be worth it in the end bud dont suppose you happened to measure the bolts when you did the cab lift ? or have you still got the old ones to measure

Was goin to do more on it today but can't even look at it right now. Also it's raining!