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

Excellent day today... I started by sleaving the other front recovery point / shackle link, and setup for grinding the rear hoop of the body...

And then the wife called me in for breakfast, a bacon, egg and mushroom bagel and a cuppa

And then it was 10 o'clock so a decent hour on a Sunday morning to fire up the angle grinder without upsetting the neighbours



All ground and sanded back, and out came the Red-Oxide paint...



I then made some bits for the rear chassis tray while the paint dried, and then turned it over and did the otherside...



I then welded the new bits to the chassis tray - the winch rope guide handle, some triangulation, the end of the winch rope tube with the fairlead mount on the end, and a small guide for the battery cables...



You can see that better in this photo as it's been turned round for painting...



So with those two bits completed and painted - which feels like real progress now - I set them aside to dry, and began thinking about the upcoming "quite quiet" Wednesday work...

Which will be paint the chassis tray black smoothrite and start reassembling... so that meant -



The chassis will need painting (grey), so I thought I;d paint the fuel tank "ready" for then...

One last component -



The winch rope guide handle... that will be passed to my mate Rich who runs FloFlex Polyurethane to go in their next batch of zinc plating (as the U in the guide will have the rope rubbing against it, paint would wear off)... and then a bicycle handlebar rubber grip will go on the wider diameter bit at the top Along with the top plate of the winch snatch block mount, as that will be matching zinc plated too... (I'm still waiting for a few oversize wing nuts to arrive from China for that too)

So I'm looking forward to reassembly on Wednesday... I'll see if I can sneak out Tuesday afternoon to paint the chassis in readiness ...

The joys of being your own boss (well, as long as the wife agrees!)... our member of staff that works Monday afternoons doesn't normally do bank holidays, but unexpectedly turned in this afternoon, so I volunteered to sneak off, as you do, well, there was no point the three of us being there was there?!



Chassis (winch) tray painted black smoothrite...



Chassis painted grey (I'd already done underneath and inside the spring and bump mounts when rebuilding the suspension), and the end of the winch rope tube painted black (the bit in the cab will be black bedliner to match the floor)... and the exhaust painted heat proof silver to revitalise it!...



Finally, painted around the "body" mount areas and underneath, as they won't be easy to get to after assembly...

So,... all ready for bolting back together on Wednesday?

It’s JCB Yellow paint, so should be hard wearing, that was the main criteria.... that and being Yella! Oh, and brushable for touching up after ‘T&S’ days out... no point me spray painting it and then rubbing up against those pesky trees with it?!

That's the stuff - vAPORMATIC machinery paint, I got some off a neighbour / customer before he retired and sold his Agricultural suppliy company locally

X8GGY wrote: Hiya Paul! (Where have you been? )

Had a Google, and think that equates to a one way flow valve?

A bolt and a load of mastic is cheaper?

It's just not worth fitting a snorkel if the air box can fill up with water through the drain hole! I wonder how many people have fitted a snorkel and not plugged the drain hole?!...

Also now looking at the charcoal filter canister I mentioned above as needing a bracket made to support it... it would seem that would need some kind of connection to the breather / snorkel solution?

(Thanks to Martin for the diagram and advice, and Riccy for advice too)

This is the Suzuki FSM test for the charcoal filter... it would seem that COULD also fill with water if the vehicle was left submerged for a prolonged period?...

Aaaaaav bin awaaay fowr a bit!

Just been busy, lifes got in the way haha, lots of work on the house etc. but we've still got our Jimny, 5 years old it is now. Landrover went 2 years ago, and now have a Gen3 Hiliux Surf.

Still slowly gathering up bits for a Jimny-Ecoboost conversion in the future.

The vernay is broadly speaking a 1 way yes, we use them a lot in oil separator designs, well, sometimes use them, the piece price when your making a million parts per year is a bit high, but fr singular purchases, they are very useful, as I've always found, no matter how well you seal something (like a boat for example), you still need some mechanism to get rogue water out.

Anyway, excellent choice of machine enamel, once fully hardened, it is nigh on indestructible!



Cheers, Paul.

Thanks Paul

Couple of hours off this afternoon! So a bit of reassembly....



The winch tray is now firmly bolted in place, the tube for the winch rope is assembled, with the donut fairlead on the end, the MIG welding wire through it is to pull the winch's synthetic rope from front to back soon, after a couple of brackets are made and welded in place in the cab section...



The flat bar through the middle of the winch tray is to strengthen the front of the rear shock mounts, you might remember I had to cut holes in the floor of my old Jimny to weld these up a couple of times but I don't expect the buggy to get as much abuse in this area, as the suspension lift has been limited to a mild ~1.5"... The winch rope guide handle (ro push the rope to either side of the drum whilst respooling) has gone off for plating - that fits in the slot to the left of the shock bolt...



On the other side, you can see the little 'ramp' for the battery cables to run up, these will be neatly ty-wrapped through the perforated steel sheet...



Starting to take shape...

Off back to the shop for the evening shift, which will be spent compiling a list of things to do tomorrow on 'quite quiet' Wednesday...



Oops, nearly forgot... the postman brought the oversize wingnuts from China this morning... a bit more befitting an offroad vehicle than the lickle standard sized one on the bottom right!

6:50pm and a courier walks in the shop?...



Ooh, a new toy... sorry, tool... a hydraulic cable crimper!

Nice crimp toool mate,I've used similar these make things easier
Also use a vice and an M6 bolt.......a bit rough....but never had one fail

Today's job...

Push the buggy out for a look, and then tidy the garage...



Quite pleased with that... you can#t get the same look at all the proportions with it stuck in the garage...

To me the back looks a little low at the back though? It's only got a little lift of ~1.5" using (new) front springs in the back and (New) front springs in the front with a 1.5" spacer on top...



Wind the jack up a bit - it was only there to keep the mudguard in place but worked well - and I think it needs some longer springs in the back... especially remembering the winch and spare wheel aren't even in the back!

Ah well, throw some more money at it then?!