Another green laner build

I didn't get much time to work on the Jimny today. I was too busy making a fly cutter to skim the head on one of my other vehicles. I've taken 0.2mm off the head and there is still one pit right on a fire ring. Hopefully one more light pass will clean it up.

I did get a chance to mock up an idea for a transfer box guard. The idea is to have two bars running front to back between the two cross members. The two pipes shown in the photo are just to get an idea if this is feasible. Imagine this is one pipe curving down from the front cross member then back up to the rear cross member. In the final design there would be two, one either side of the transfer case  with braces between them. This should be considerably lighter than a big flat plate and it also won't trap mud.
 

Didn't get anything done on the Jimny today but I did get the head ready for fitting to my other 4x4. It's partly a trial run before doing the same work on the Jimny.

Head skimmed. There are a still few pits left but they aren't in important places. I was getting concerned at how much I was taking off.

A battery drill and a bit of fuel pipe pushed on the stem of the valve is a quick and easy alternative to those stupid rubber sucker things for grinding the valves.
 

Simple home made valve spring compressor. Also works in a pillar drill. A local engine rebuilder showed me this way of doing it.
 

The new torch and 0.6 wire turned up so back on the Jimny, re-doing a poor repair by the previous owner. I ended up having to cut out a lot. Here I have repaired some of the rot in the rear door sill. 

One new floor panel made up.
   

And welded in. Ye gods, they used thin steel in the floor.
 


I just need to patch the rectangular hole and replace the jack storage bracket. That's all of the body welding for this round. I'm sure there are more horrors behind the headlights but that can wait for another time. I hate patching rust.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get a chance to make the new panhard. I found a bag of poly bushes that I bought for a different project but never used. They are pretty much ideal for this job.

Les looks like aluminum is it?

No it's galvanised. I haven't mastered welding ali to steel .

Had a bit more progress today. The boot is finished and the panhard is made. I lost the pics of the panhard. I'll take some more later.
Transfer box guard next. This is what I have in mind. It's all just propped in place at the moment (that's what the rusty bit of box section is for). There will be a few cross braces between the two front/back pipes. What do you think? will this work?
   

The cheat's way of making brackets...
 

I could be accused of driving like a man late for his own funeral on occasion and I have definitely noticed that with the full plate guard there is definite increase in torsional rigidity compared to not having it. So I get why you're doing the way you are but I might suggest triangulated bars might not go amiss, every little helps. Hence Suzuki adding more rigidity to the gen4.