Fourtrak Welding / Advice

[Paul99]

I managed to get a bit more done on the jeep. Started off a few days ago by making a start on the inner wheel arch / arch liner whilst I still had the ends of the original sills in place to work off:

To form the shape of the front inner corner of the wheel arch I need to sort the foot well out so today got onto cutting the rear seat support off then hacking out the rotten section of floor. That that allowed for a better look at the inner sill - I knew it was very poorly repaired before we had it and it was coming out anyway but I didn't expect to find a patch on top of a patch on top of the original and none of the rot cut out . 20 mins and a few slitting discs later and most of both inner and outer sills and the internal stiffeners were history:

I spent the rest of the afternoon replacing the internal stiffener (painted black) before shaping and welding in a new inner sill:

The edge of the floor was cut away to weld the inner sill from above I'll patch the floor up later on. If all goes to plan the outer sill will be made and welded in tomorrow and I'll have made a start on making the replacement the floor panel I can then get back to working on the inner arch.

 

[Paul99]

I didn't quite get on to the floor as I fancy an early finish for a change but the outer sills are all done. I struggled a bit with forming the shape on the flimsy workmate but got there in the end I'll certainly be making a clamp / bender sometime in future but it's too late for this particular project.

Creating the initial bend on the edge of the sheet made it a bit easier to pull around the scaffolding pole:

After a few more bends and a bit of trimming the outer sill is ready for the back / inside to have a coat of paint before being welded in:

All welded in and ground back:

Hopefully it should blend in well with a coat of stone chip and sprayed later on.

 

[Paul99]

I didn't get as much time to spend on the jeep this weekend but did get quite a bit done. The replacement foot well / floor panel is all made and painted ready to weld in (forgot to take a photo) I also made some headway on the inner arch:

A few mistakes whilst rushing resulted in a few more individual pieces than planned it looks a bit of a mess right now but once ground back and painted the joints should disappear so not too bothered. Running out of gas called a halt to work until I can collect a replacement bottle in the week.

 

[Bill Edwards]

At the end of the day, it may not always turn out exactly as planned but it's clearly a sound job. It'll last for many, many years - and with a good coating of paint and mud after a bit of use, nobody will notice it's made out of a few bits of metal.
Anyway, it probably wasn't that much more refined when it left the factory!

 

[Paul99]

Thank you Bill. As you say the only one who will ever give the mistakes another thought will be me but that should stop me making the same ones if I ever do anything like this in the future. You're right about it probably not being any more refined when new / original. The whole back end is of a very poor design which is all covered up with a poor quality under seal and it would seem an even poorer quality seam sealer. Having done all this work so far I really am not surprised that they rot so badly where they do.

 

[Bill Edwards]

I'm not clued on Dahiatsu, but it certainly seems common on many vehicles for the design to incorporate some horrific water/dirt traps. Either where drain holes are too small and simply block up, or sometimes where they aren't fitted at all. There are a lot of repairs done where a slight redesign should see the replacement metal staying dry, unlike the original.

 

[colnerov]

I'm not clued on Dahiatsu, but it certainly seems common on many vehicles for the design to incorporate some horrific water/dirt traps. Either where drain holes are too small and simply block up, or sometimes where they aren't fitted at all. There are a lot of repairs done where a slight redesign should see the replacement metal staying dry, unlike the original.

Yeah, but if they did that they wouldn't be able to sell you a new one because the old has gone rusty.

 

[Bill Edwards]

Aye, I've sometimes wondered if it might not be accidental. Though I suspect that in the case of BL stuff, it is genuine incompetence!

 

[Paul99]

I've kept the updates a bit less frequent lately as they would be a near repeat of those already posted for the other side and don't want to bore people repeating myself. Progress has been fairly steady though when I get time to spend on it. To bring this thread up to date....

The inner arch is finished:

And welded in:

The fuel filler pipes are now outside of the wheel arch itself and need boxing in separately - as this bit will be a bit awkward (though not impossible) to paint from underneath it got a coat of Red oxide followed by black Aldi Metal care paint now while it's open at the top.

The section that boxes over the pipes just loosely placed into position it'll be lined up better than in the photo before the paint is cleaned off and welded in:

And from the front - footwell / floor is also done:

Hopefully I'll get the rear section fettled and welded in over the weekend I then have the outer arch to look forward to sorting...

 

[Paul99]

A few more hours spent and there's a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. The rear seat support has been modified to suit the new floor and is now welded in as is the box work over the fuel pipe and some roll bar perches added.

I think that is the inside now finished and it'll get a coat of red oxide later in the week.

Having made a good start on the tricky rear corner of the outer arch I hope to finish the rest of the outer arch done by the weekend. That then just leaves fiddly bits like a few support brackets for the mud flaps etc which will no doubt take longer than expected - still it's looking good for being back on the road at the end of the month

 

[vitus992]

As ever fascinating stuff, thankyou for making the effort to keep this thread going.

 

[Bill Edwards]

Well done for retaining the motivation, a lot of projects start well and then end up slowing down, enthusiasm dies, and it gets parked round the corner to finish some day...

 

[Paul99]

Well done for retaining the motivation, a lot of projects start well and then end up slowing down, enthusiasm dies, and it gets parked round the corner to finish some day...

I've had the odd day / evening off here and there when I really ought to be cracking on with it but there's no fear of it ever being abandoned. The plan always was to have it back on the road for the winter but we didn't count on how much of a PITA it has been managing without it. As an extra motivator... until it's finished and out of the shed I have absolutely no space what so ever to get anything else done. The sooner it's finished the sooner I can play catch up with with all the other jobs that have been neglected for the last few months...

 

[Paul99]

A few days later than planned but I finally got the outer arch finished which just about completes the bulk of the welding on the truck

There will no doubt be the odd bit making mud flap brackets etc but I'm glad to have got the hard work done. I'm not sure if I'll get all the little fiddly bits finished this week but hopefully by the end of next week it will be with the garage ready to be sprayed up.

 

[Paul99]

The last update - as the truck is finished...
Since the last update the drivers side was primed with red oxide:

We also painted the floor and bumper brackets black - as it's all covered / out of sight anyway.

We then sent it off to the garage for the rest to be sprayed properly - I tried it once many years ago and it was such a disaster I vowed never to try it again (I ought to re-think that if / when I do anything like this again). Anyway all the new metalwork underneath was stone chipped. The arches got a thin coat of the same matching metallic blue 2K used for the outer arches etc. Ignoring the fact I needed to put it all back together the garage also booked it in for an MOT next Tuesday - I thought I might struggle to get it all done in time but after a few hours yesterday afternoon and most of today and it's all done. In my rush to get it done I forgot to take photos before all the bits were bolted back on.

The worst part was putting the carpets back in - all them hours of work totally hidden not to be seen again... (fingers crossed)

Sills and cavities have been treated to a coat of cavity wax and the whole underneath is going to get a dose of oil once it's back on the road.

There's a a few bits of paintwork left that the painter wants to touch up now it's all together but otherwise I've declared this project finished - hopefully it'll sail through the MOT Tuesday and with some luck it'll not need any welding for a good few years to come...

 

[octo0072000]

well done or should i say weld done

 

[Bill Edwards]

You have certainly done a good job, I'll give you a well done!

 

[Nomolos]

Nice Job there

 

[vitus992]

great work, well done.

 

[@antonio]

Well done, need this kind of motivation for my project. ....great thread...