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.

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. This is pretty much a dedicated green laner so on road handling isn't the highest priority but I'll certainly keep it in mind.
My biggest gripe with plate guards is the way they collect mud. However my current setup with bars also doesn't protect the exhaust at all, which is a concern.

I found the panhard pics. I couldn't find any tube with a suitable inside diameter so I had to make the bush tubes from solid bar.  

The end result. I wasn't convinced the original was the correct length so I propped the back axle at ride height and made sure it was centred on the chassis. Here are the two side by side. The ends look like they aren't square to the tube but that's my poor photography not the reality.
 

And in place on the car.
 

This afternoon I got a bit of time to play with the bash guard. I think I'm going to go with the bars but use a different shape. Before they had one bend but I realised that the cross pieces would end up too high to protect the transfer case. This version uses two bends so the bottom section of the frame is level. It will probably make more sense when I add the cross pieces.

Listen I dont ever know with you man every new photo takes you up another level, wouldnt surprise me if you could weld ali and metal together. I tell you this your bash bars have my interest.

I have to do paying work for the rest of the week but hopefully I should get the bash bars finished off next weekend. Realistically there aren't many lanes around here that will test it. Well, there are a couple I know but they are basically winch it all the way then come back with a wheel barrow to collect the bits of bodywork you left behind. I'm not into that sort of damage.

]I managed to get some time to do more work on the Jimny. First I finished the bash guard.Here it is fully welded up. It weighs 5kg. Anyone know how much a bash plate weighs? I did find one that stated it weighs 10kg. If that's correct it's a good weight saving.
 

 It sits about 1/2" lower than the lowest point on the transfer box.  

It should protect the exhaust as well.  

I learned a couple of important lessons today. I borrowed a waxoyl gun from a friend. Sealey wax guns work in a similar way to most spray guns. The trigger first operates an air valve and if you pull it further it pulls back a metering needle to allow the waxoyl to flow. Now for the first lesson. If you don't clean the gun after use that needle can jam open. As the gun uses a pressurised pot the waxoyl then keeps flowing as a solid jet even after you release the trigger. Even unplugging the air line won't stop it. The only way to stop it flowing is to unscrew the pot and release the stored pressure. Now for the second and most important lesson. If this happens, don't under any circumstances accidentally let go of the injection pipe while you are trying to unscrew the pot. If you do it starts whipping about squirting a jet of waxoyl over everything within a 2 metre radius. Me, the tools, the inside of the car, the floor... Oddly enough not a drop landed on the chassis where I wanted it

Les "Oddly enough not a drop landed on the chassis where I wanted it" what are the odds?????