New SJ owner - couple of q’s

As you know, we are also rebuilding (well a professional company is doing it) an SJ.

Just a note on some of the parts from "overseas".

During re-assembly, Winchfield Engineering noticed that the panel alignment of the front wings with the rest of the car was not good (I actually couldnt see it myself). So they have had to release some of the spot welds in the aftermarket panels, adjust the alignment and then re-weld the part up.

Here is the front passenger wing. You can see the silver bits where they had to release the welds and then weld the support into a better position to get the panel to line up with the rest of the car. The panels are off again to epoxy protect them.


 

I admire the progress on the pictures on page one. I threw away my SJ ten years ago from the rust at the body mounts and the cross beam there.

Martin, the welds on the original japanese SJ's weren't perfect either. Some looking like a fresh apprentices work. But position is mostly OK on them.
Admire the will to make it straight though.
But the spanish ones 1988-92(?) were often way out of placement and I guess most of them are gone now from the rust. The spanish ones seem to have thinner tin and gets flaky rust easier than the earlier japanese ones IMO.

wrote:

Martin, the welds on the original japanese SJ's weren't perfect either. Some looking like a fresh apprentices work. But position is mostly OK on them.
Admire the will to make it straight though.

 

Yes, Winchfield said on day one that the SJ would come out better than factory as the general panel assembly and alignment was poor. Some of the changes they are doing are to things I cannot see with my eyes. I was there this morning and they were taking a dent out of the outer sill that I didnt even think was there. 

I’m expecting to do a bit of panel fettling. The two panels above and below the grill are horrendous. Wings look ok.

The floor will be fine it’s a reasonable fit. Bit of a head scratcher in the sills have been replaced over the old ones in places. This and a slightly under size repair panel could be fun. Will probably just section it and leave the original in place. The location accuracy for the body mounts has plenty of tolerance. Could easily be 3/5 mm off and no real effect.

Getting stuck into the arch repair today hopefully. It’s getting a bit involved… I’ll feel better once it’s all cleco’d in!

Bit of progress today. Took the small problem. Cut back until I could find something worth welding too. 

Then pulled the new tin in. I can see why SJ’s have been scrapped for this job! It’s not easy. Lots of intersecting panels and once it’s all been bodged up not much reference to make sense of. 

Still we are making a tidy runner for trialling and the odd classic show not a show pony!!
     

   

So the tail mount for the body arrived. That’s not a welcome surprise! it’s a decent panel but it does require millimeter precision to fit where the double skinned number plate mounts fit together. This is a head scratcher as it’ll mean instead of aligning by eye (and that’s how success will be measured!) that i’ll either need to make a good jog or perhaps more practically jig off the chassis. This is not ideal given the amount of tin that’s been cut out… hmm. What would help is a good shot of the rear mounts for the number plates all fitted in. I don’t quite understand why we need a double skinned number plate mount so there is a distinct possibility that I might just cut and reweld so the number plate is only mounted to the body and not the body and chassis.  

Before 88 they all had rear bumpers and licenseplate mounts and lights at the chassis but from 1988 they were mounted to the body.
I think.

Brackets and mounts differ then of course.

It was like this for my 1984,85,87 SJ's and my spanish 88 and 92 samurai at least.

Fab, mines a 92 Spanish build. I guess the old mounts rotted off and then some one refabbed onto the chassis.
We’ll sort that out quickly enough!

Cheers for that. It could have been a long rabbit hole

More progress, easier once you know how it fits together! Other side of the cross member is cleco’d in and the new arch. 

Leaves a small curved patch to join the inner sill to the wheel tub. 

The body mounts are a little off but I reckon we’ll be ok. I reckon we are about 4mm wider than stock. But you’ve got a few degrees of freedom to play with to put it back in! Not all of which are in my control.

Next challenge is the front of the sill that is sitting wide of the floor.. may fillet it, may cut it free and pull it in with a ratchet strap. 

Then unpick the old tail mount and repair the back of the floor and put the new inner cross member in with a couple of little patches in the inner sill. 

Then we have a rot free SJ…. For a simple vehicle that body repair is fairly involved! Hope these snaps help someone else in the future. 

       

The bit that had me confused… will chop the brackets off the chassis.

Does anyone have a clear description of which body mounts go where and which thickness? The ones on my car were not immediately recognizable as car parts… and I have a new set from India