Lil Red - SJ restoration - Wings and Wheel Arches

As mentioned in the previous post for James' SJ, things are starting to go back together. Having bolted down the body it is time to add the doors and tailgate back on to align all the panels and weld them back in place.

After all the filling, sanding and priming, the first step is to ensure all the threads are cleaned out so that the bolts can be run in and out smoothly.

The doors and inner wing threads were cleaned

Around the back the rear tailgate hinges and latch threads were also cleaned,

Once this was done the doors and tailgate along with their hinges can be re-fitted.

Next was a trial fit of both wings. This was to check for panel alignment.

The key step of this stage was to attach the new wheel arch holders.

James' SJ is an early varient so it has the narrow wheel arches instead of the "Samurai" style wider ones. You may recall from earlier posts that the narrow wheel arches are hard to get and I had to improvise for the front wings and search hard for the rear wings.

I managed to get the correct parts and here you can see a trial fit for the rears to get them properly aligned.

(Contact me if you are also looking for the narrow arches)

With the alignment checked and confirmed the wings were lifted off for the Suzuki protective coat to be removed.

The protective coat was removed from all the areas where the welding will occur, the wings were therefore taken back to bare metal in this places.

The bare metal areas were then coated with Weld Through Primer to provide a protected layer under the welds and into the areas that would be hidden after the wheel arch holder is fitted.

The wheel arch holder is then "spot" welded into position.

Whilst the Wings are not yet properly fitted, this completes the attachment of the wheel arches at the rear.

We have nice new plastic arches to fit, the ones in the picture are the old ones.