Another R17 owner planning to upgrade

Na fishing the mountains of Japan was brave. Acually, stupid! - because I went by myself many times.
Swiss cheese is back. I blasted the bits he missed and treated.

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After a good treatment and all surface rust removed I have welded the two A pillar layers back together and ground back the puddle welds. I can do these! :rolleyes:
I have also pin welded the sill in place where I want it ready for Glen the professional welder tomorrow at 8am. We will get the A pillar done and dusted. Then I can move onto preparing the inside floor and pillars for paints.
RH A Pillar ready.jpg

RH Sill spot attached & ready.jpg
 
After a good treatment and all surface rust removed I have welded the two A pillar layers back together and ground back the puddle welds. I can do these! :rolleyes:
I have also pin welded the sill in place where I want it ready for Glen the professional welder tomorrow at 8am. We will get the A pillar done and dusted. Then I can move onto preparing the inside floor and pillars for paints.
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Just as well John. People are starting to ask about your absence at Classic Cars and Coffee - as they did today! :)

That looks like great work to me.
 
Lunch time quick job. Yesterday I got to sorting a few McGyver tools for TL spring removal but stopped short of not having enough nuts in 10 x 1.25 for the long thread. Bit of spray grease and down she came. I sat high in the engine bay for safety whilst operating the McGyver tools. Piece of cake. 30 min job - now back to Sydney job.
(last pic is of the homemade tool to compress the spring to remove the shock and top wishbone)

R17 TL spring removal.jpg
No spring.jpg
R17 TL & TS springs.jpg

Shock removal McGyver tools.jpg
 
Lunch time quick job. Yesterday I got to sorting a few McGyver tools for TL spring removal but stopped short of not having enough nuts in 10 x 1.25 for the long thread. Bit of spray grease and down she came. I sat high in the engine bay for safety whilst operating the McGyver tools. Piece of cake. 30 min job - now back to Sydney job.
(last pic is of the homemade tool to compress the spring to remove the shock and top wishbone)

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Well done John, those springs are fun things to play with. :unsure:
 
Lunch time quick job. Yesterday I got to sorting a few McGyver tools for TL spring removal but stopped short of not having enough nuts in 10 x 1.25 for the long thread. Bit of spray grease and down she came. I sat high in the engine bay for safety whilst operating the McGyver tools. Piece of cake. 30 min job - now back to Sydney job.
(last pic is of the homemade tool to compress the spring to remove the shock and top wishbone)

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Be very afraid of those springs............
 
Four hours today and quite a bit was done. Cleaned out both wheel arches and applied some black sticky tar in places.
The wire wheel on an angle grinder are not fun. A few blood spots appeared on my arms.
I also tackled the engine bay with some citrus cleaner to see how bad the soot embedded into the paint. Not too bad! I won't need to paint the whole bay.
Wire wheeled the burnt area but had enough today. Bit more sanding before any paint work in the bay and arches.
I also want to clean the underside of the floor from engine bay to the rear where I refurbished in post 855 and paint that up too.

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So good Shoji. You will be able to eat of this thing when it’s done, and it dam well will survive the end of the universe. :)
 
So good Shoji. You will be able to eat of this thing when it’s done, and it dam well will survive the end of the universe. :)
Yes, after the nuclear holocaust, there'll be Shoji's R17, a certain driller's barbeque in Kalimantan and the cockroaches.....

Nice work John btw.
 
Another effort today with removing the factory sound deadener flooring pads to find some pitting in the two rear foot wells. A split at one bolt area for the drivers seat that needed welding up. Sorted all this and treated the metal. Again those wire wheels are so dangerous. I went through two today. They just start shredding after a while.
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Yes feeling sore today but with progress. Had a bit of a shoulder accident some weeks back.
I finally got around to some body work starting on the guards. I bought some from Angru a few years back and I'm using them for the build.
Doing a few mods to these which included the A pillar by shaving off 25mm for more wheel clearance (Owners of these R17 will know about this) and inner guards removed because of rust in the roller over seams. They tend to suffer here. Sand blasting as I go. The two guards have rust at the base so new panels stitched in are needed. One done today and I have surprised of what I have achieved. I have fashioned some .8mm sheet steel into curved new panels and welded them in from the inside. A piece of copper clamped along the seam stops the blow through and really works well! Kept the wheel arch curve within the guard as I wouldn't be able to copy these that easy. I slit the guard close to the edge and puled it back 25mm. Worked well.

Guard rust.jpg
Inner panel removed.jpg
Inner panel mods.jpg
25mm trimmed.jpg
Ready for welds.jpg
Stitched.jpg
New panel.jpg
Arch.jpg
 
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