FT’s Patrol Project

[Flying Torquewrench]

More rust on the underside. The bit of rusted metal is supposed to be a heat shield as the exhaust passes close to the underside of the body.

The box section which is visible under/next to the heat shield has rusted through and the bottom (with the three holes) will have to be cut out and rewelded. Amount of rust became apparent when cleaning it up with angle grinder. Ended up with more holes in the box section then I should have.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

more...

 

[solarman216]

definitely while it is off and accessible like this sort those three bolts/studs, looks like you have a rust bucket there, but if you sort it all now you will have a long lasting motor, Rick

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

A rustbucket might be the right word to describe not only the exhaust but the whole car!.

Searching for a new exhaust will be another item on my list.

Any recommendations for a good exhaust? Would like to avoid kwik fit etc.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Unfortunately the weather during the last few days has stopped me doing any welding. So today I started on removing the stuck bolts from the transmission support bracket. Unfortunately the extractor I bought didn't manage to shift the bolts. So only one solution left and that is drilling the bolts out and tapping new thread.

A job which is not as easy as it sounds but got most of the job done today. Unfortunately I didn't have the 12mm x 1.25 tap so had to order it together with new nuts and bolts. As a safety measure I put nyloc nuts on the four bolts which are on the outside. This is just as a back up to the newly tapped thread. At least in this case if there is a problem with the thread it doesn't allow the bracket to seperate from the vehicle.

One more bolt to be drilled out on friday and hopefully by then the tap has arrived so that I can tap the new thread. Once that has been done the engine & transmission can be removed from the old chassis and installed on the new chassis.

Few more welding jobs to be done on the body & chassis. Fuel tank, load sensing valve and a bit of piping needs to be done before the body can finally meet the chassis. hopefully the weather stays good for the next week or so and the biggest job should be done.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Time for some more piccies.

Done a bit of welding on the front end of the car. Not the best welds in the world but as a novice welder I don't think they are to bad. Forgot to take a photo from the back but they all have good penetration.

In the process I managed to blow a couple of holes but nothing to bad.


Tacked up and ready for final welds.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Final welds.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Other side of the car. Temporarily fixed with welding magnets.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Final welds in place.

 

[spinna]

You say novice welder but i would be pretty proud of them, thats an excellent bit of welding. I used to be a welder fabricater making steel hand rails which had to be xrayed to check the penetration. (half inch thick steel), i could weld that no problem but let me loose on a car and it would end up worse than before i started:lol.
Your doing a great job:thumb2

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Thanks Spinna, that is very encouraging.

I am on night shift tonight so haven't done an awfull lot on the car today. Had to to a bit of general cleaning up around the site so all is nice and clean for when we swing the engine over. Trying my best to get the body finished so that I can put that back on the chassis the same day as I swing the engine over.

After cleaning up I started to fabricate a new exhaust shield for under the car as this is all that was left from the previous one. This is approximately 30% of the size it should be. The rest has rusted away.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Initially I thought to source a 'new' one from the breakers but as I had some 1.2mm steel sheet over I decided to fabricate it myself.

No fancy metal folding tables etc. just a vice and a decent sized hammer. :thumbs

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Only half done so far. Have to get the measurement to make another 'step' on the straight side. When that's done the sides will be cut to fit and welded up.

 

[Adz]

:bow :thumbs

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

A big day yesterday and finally some visual progress. :thumb2

The day of the engine swing had finally arrived. Again as usual when you need your equipment it is nowhere nnear home so of to the local hire centre for a engine crane.

As there was no body on the car I decided to lift the engine and gearbox in one go without removing the gearbox. As the engine crane only had a 500kg capacity it would be a very tight squeeze. Knowing that the structural capacity of the crane is higher then the safe working load I decided to go for it.

Rigged up some 10 ton straps ratching straps between the hoist points on the engine and the engine crane. Then rigged a strap between the gearbox and the crane and as they were all ratcheting straps could adjust them to keep the engine more or less level. In addition to the gearbox strap I supported the weight on a beam running underneath it which in turn was resting on two hydraulic jacks. This set up would also give some much needed relieve to the engine crane. :augie

Lifted the engine just high enough to get the beam under the gearbox and then removed the old chassis. With the engine crane in the same place I then positioned the 'new' chassis under the engine and the installation could begin. A fairly straight forward job and the whole procedure didn't take more then 1 hour.

I have no idea what has happened to the car in its previous life but the bolts that secure the gearbox to the gearbox support were all missing. New bolts are on order as I don't want the gearbox to 'move' around on the support.

I have not made any photo's of the transplant procedure as I didn't want to leave the engine crane under load any longer then strictly necessary.

Does anybody know how much a 2.8TD engine including gearbox weighs?

Here are two photo's from after the event.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Side view.

 

[Dynamics]

Starting the build, great. :clap

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Hit a little snag when I was preparing the rear driveshaft for installation.

http://www.nissan4x4ownersclub.com/forum/showthread.php?p=158208#post158208

 

[Adz]

:bow :bow :clap :thumbs :clap :bow :bow

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Time for the opinion of all the readers.

As regular readers know I have taken the front end of my car (http://www.nissan4x4ownersclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12915&page=12 first photo at the top). to get the front end of I had to drill out all the spotwelds. Unfortunately the metal is so thin that the only way of drilling the spotwelds out was by drilling a hole through and through.

Now the time finally has come were I can start putting it back together.

However with regards to the front end I am torn between two options. Option 1 is to try and spotweld the panel back in. Which in my case means filling the holes back up or:
Option 2 to use 40 or 50 short bolts & nuts to bolt the panel back in.

My reasoning for bolting the panel in is that the final product will look nicer as everything is uniform. On the other hand I can try to weld the holes back up and then grind them down so get an even surface.

Only problem with that is that during the removal of the spotwelds the panel has buckled a little bit and getting it perfectly straight is near impossible. As a result won't be able to grind all welds back to an even surface. hence why I was thinking about bolting it back in.

Any thoughts?