Giving the Jimny a birthday

I painted mine with the bearing jacket removed as they had failed. I was just careful around the hole and just wiped any paint that got in with thinners, a quick sand of the face with fine wet n dry before I pushed in the new bearing.
I Would avoid any grease or anything that will stop the paint adhering. I degreased the bits first, treated with Machinemart rust acid (to act as etch), then put it on.
It drys rock hard and any trace on the paint tin lid will glue it on requiring destruction of the can to get it out. Oh and don't get it on your hands, it won't come off!

Sunday 7th March,

Ok, so got a fair bit done today, not quite finished with the grinding yet tho.

• Fabricated spacers for the steering arm in preparation for the body lift (20mm for 2" body lift)
• Fitted spacers to steering arm
• removed exhaust pipe plus back box and wire wheeled it up to the cat (bought stainless one when I first got the jimny)
• fitted new fuel lines and numbered for connection at tank
• ran in new rear brake line
• reclaimed more p-clip mounting points from broken fasteners on front axle
• completed grinding of front axle

For the steering arm, I found some old steel pipe laying around that was the perfect diameter, cut it and filed both spacers 20mm length.  Not bad for the Mk 1 eyeball.  I also found some smaller diameter brass pipe that thankfully fitted in the small recess where the previous nylon spacers went, so I used the brass as an insert and wrapped some tape to keep it a snug fit inside the steel pipe.  That way the spacers will be kept quite central.

For some reason, I decided to work on the exhaust rather than get on with the axle, think it was just because the axle was a bit too fiddly and didn't really feel like much progress was being made. However, once the exhaust was cleaned up, I got a second wind and used some grinding stones on the end of a dremel to catch as much as I could on the axle.  Turned out not too bad, it's never going to be perfect, but I can live with how it is.

Really just powered ahead with as much work as I could to keep things moving in the right direction and do things now before I forget.  Otherwise I'll be kicking myself once the body is back on.

I used Isopan to fill in the corrosion pits in the steering balls. Sand down when hard and then paint.

Roger

I'll have a look at isopan, although I've already pushed the button on the por15 purchase. I did my old bike fuel tank with por15 and it seemed to be pretty hard stuff.

Monday 8th March,

Jobs done:

• loosened off the drain plugs for the axles
• cleaned up the rear brakes bleed screw channels
• completed wire wheeling and dremel grinding on the second axle
• cut off some knackered p-clip mounting points on the axles
• fabricated some captive nut mounting points to replace the ones I cut off
• welded the captive nut mounting points
• painted all remaining suspension parts

Today I finished wire wheeling the other axle and moved onto the dremel with a grinding stone to catch all the hard to get places.  Whilst doing that, I noticed that the brake bleed screw was blocked up and needed cleaning out, so I did that to save a job later on.  Just used some small drill bits to clean out the channels and wire wheeled the outside, so it didn't look so grubby, probably should replace it, but I may upgrade to discs later on.   Then it was out with the torch again to get the drain plugs removed.  They probably need to be replaced as they were badly corroded.

I welded some nuts onto the back of the holes where the previous p-clip mounting points were.  For the other mouting points that I'd cut off, I found some metal sheet, I cut it to size, drilled, then welded a nut on the back and then welded them onto the axles.  Turned out not too bad.  Hopefully they don't snap off.

The weather has been a bit pants lately and all the suspension components I'd previously ground off and finished needed to be flashed over with the wire wheel again to remove the surface rust from the dampness.  I chucked the space heater on whlist doing this to get everything up to a decent temperature.  Once that was done, I decided it was time to mix up the paint, it was 1900 already, but managed to get it all painted just before 2100. Nearly a 12 hour shift tonight, but I just wanted to get the paint on to give it as long as possible to cure.  Tomorrow, I will have a look at the body work, so much to do there, slam panel, boot floor, sils and probably lots lots more.  Well if it wasn't for suffering, there would be no joy I suppose.

As you have done, I wire brushed the surface corrosion and then neutralised the remaining with acid and then used the isopan. Then with a smooth surface to work on you apply your paint.

Roger

Amazing pace you ate going at, I just wish I had a quarter of your energy and motivation 

Hi Soeley,

Thanks, I just want to get it done before I get a call to go back to work and I have to pay for the shed another month just for storage.  The pace only looks good because I'm spending at least 9 hours a day, 7 days a week there. 

The good part of the shed is that I can leave it as is and come back to it exactly how I left it, no need to shuffle things around in the garage.   I'm kind of enjoying the work at the same time, so that helps too.

Hi Roger,

I think I have hydrochloric acid in the garage, that should do the trick. I'll mix it 10 to 1 (acid going in last of course).

That will be one of the jobs to do once I'm out of the shed I think. I've got so much welding to do. My boot floor from jimnybits arrived today.

Hi Mike,

Yes, I used hydrochloric acid, but being impatient, I used it neat, but you need to be careful.

If you see smoke rising, your being dissolved.

Roger

Roger, if I see smoke rising, it's probably just all the money I've spent refurbishing my jimny.

Tuesday 9th March,

A lot of time was wasted today.  In between driving back and forth to catch courier deliveries, helping one of the lads in the other sheds and an old friend dropping in past for a chat, I didn't achieve as much as I'd like to have done.

Jobs done today:

• re-done the spacers for the steering. Added in the original 10mm that I forgot to put back, so the total length of the spacers is 30mm (for 2"body lift)
• drilled out spot welds for the splash guards on the rear arches and removed both guards on both sides
• fabricated a spacer for the brake line manifold in preparation for the body lift
• added a front and a rear extended brake line to the chassis from the suspension lift kit
• cleaned up the front of the engine bay to see how much rustiness needs to be cut back when fitting the slam panel
• grinded back the rotten sil on the port side to see where I can stick metal patches to

Didn't do as much as I wanted today really, but in fairness, at least I've done something.  My boot floor arrived from jimnybits today, so I can get stuck into that after the sils and rear arches have been given much needed new metal.  The biggest problem I can see with the boot floor is just being able to take my time and let it cool before the heat warps my work.  The slam panel doesn't look too hard a job either, I'll do that one last as I think it will need a lot of eyeballing to make sure it's on straight.

Jobs tomorrow will be to continue grinding the body to make sure its acceptable for welding and coating once complete.  Really need to get the bottom of the body all sorted out so I can coat it up and give it enough time to dry before I put it back on the chassis.  I can leave the wheel arch areas alone for now (apart from where the front springs will cover).  I've only got a week left in the shed now, so the more I do there, the better as I'll be doing the rest in my driveway after that....weather permitting.