Bob the disco, can i build it????

[roo]

Looks like an interesting project! Looking forward to the next installment...

[kbraidwood]

OK........who's idea was it to put the disco in the garage?????........took it out this morning to make a start on it and thought bloody hell, better have a quick tidy up in here...............5 trips to the recycling center later and an afternoon blitzed the garage now looks tidier than it ever has. loads of room to get cracking ..........tommorow!!!!!


Kev.

[roo]

I'm gonna take a leaf from your book, my garage is bursting at the seams so its time for a clearout...

[kbraidwood]

Ok, so thursday proved to be quite productive. Managed to cut away 24" of chassis from the rear end and position temporarily the rear body x-member and the new rear chassis x-member (looks suspiciously familiar) test your landy knowledge and see if you know what its originally for.

Once the chassis x-member and body member were in place it gave me a platform to begin final installation of the rear body frame which went pretty well to the point that its now permanantly welded in position barring the cosmetics of trimming the roof panel and final shaping of the alpine lights.

Pics below show the progress thus far, and you can see from the shot of the interior roof that i have managed to keep the roof support members in one piece which will give a bit more strength to the build when its finished. The croos beams for the window apertures proved a little more troublesome to line up because of the difference in height and width of the body at the rear end. With a little help from a ratchet strap wrapped round the aprture for the alpine lights i managed to pull them in quite nicely.

P.S. The rear x-member for the chassis is new although it looks a bit scruffy, but its just surface rust which will wire brush away quite easily.

More to follow...........

Kevb.

[kbraidwood]

Ok, so rear of body welded in place, i turned to the NSR wheel arch which has become moth eaten for the first 2" or so all the way from the rear to the door pillar..............out came mr angry the 4" grinder and chopped 6" x 21" of grotty old arch away. The pics below show the arch cut and cleaned up reay for the repar panel which ive fabricated to be welded in. You will notice also that ive cut the whole panel above the wheel arch out also. This is partly due to corrosion, but also it will be a lot easier to repair the arch with it gone, and it will make life easier and look a lot tidier if i fabricate one single sheet to fill the gap rather than have a cut and shut panel between the pillar and the rear body section.


Kev.

[jamesetta]

looking good kev ..........................

[Stumpy Doofleer]

Is the rear cross member off a series 3 pick up?

[kbraidwood]

you must have loved cutting and grinding round that fuel tank..looks great sofar cant wait to see the end results

Yep it was fun, but took less than 5 minutes. Electric reciprocating saw with a 7" blade........Hacksaw on steroids. cut through anything youll find body wise on a landy including the chassis.


Kev.

[kbraidwood]

Is the rear cross member off a series 3 pick up?

Full marks that man, go to the top of the class!!!!!..........i think itll look the mutts nuts when its finished. Will probably have to extend it slightly at each end to bring it in line with the rest of the body but it should look tidy when done.



Kev.

[john henderson]

Love it car't wait to see more, i realy like the look of bobtail discoverys ace photos

[kbraidwood]

So........today so far. Ive welded the new wheel arch in place and fabricated the new body panel that surrounds it. This too is now in place and in the process of being welded in as you can see from the pics below.

[jamesetta]

come on Kev ..........only 36 hours til Nortrak opens on Sunday .......and you have still a few things to do .......and get it MOTed......drink some more coffee............ .lol

[kbraidwood]

come on Kev ..........only 36 hours til Nortrak opens on Sunday .......and you have still a few things to do .......and get it MOTed......drink some more coffee............ .lol

Ach, nae time to drink coffee, too much to do, discos to bob, wifes to look after, meals to cook, nappies to change, kids to entertain, kids to bath, dress etc etc etc...............jings, its tough being a husband and father in the year 2007!!!!

But, i wouldnt swap it for the world!

One life. Live it.

Kev.

[kbraidwood]

So, today i managed to get a few more hours at the disco. Finished rebuilding the NS rear arch and window surround panel, refitted the seatbelt / seat locking bracket, sealed the whole lot and overpainted with a zinc based weldable primer. Its looking damned solid bar the bottom edge where i have to fabricate a closing panel to fit to the rear door suround panel ( pics to follow tommorow, forgot to take my phone out with me).

Next part is to do the same type of repair to the wheel arch at the other side. Im hoping it wont be quite as labour intensive as the corrosin doent seem to have bitten too far through the bodywork.

Made a trial fitting of the rear x-member, body x-member and rear door tonight and it looking just about spot on measurement wise for welding in place permanantly.

My thoughts turn toward where the hell am i gonna put the fuel tank???

only realistic way i can see to put any sort of decent sized tank in is to custom make an alloy tank to fit between the rear wheel arches......bang goes any boot space i had left......lol.

I should however have enough space to make a couple of custom built lockers to take the usual recovery gear etc etc. Time will tell, its just a case of seeing what works.


Kev.

[kbraidwood]

Pics from yesterday showing the finished panels.........