[james008]

Don’t scrub, gurney is your friend. Gives you more beer time.

Now may be the time to bite the bullet and buy a pressure washer.
Because of the oven cleaner, of course, but my work car is also due for replacement, so I need to clean it and the reverse camera has been covered by mud for the last few weeks. Along with everything else.
Hopefully I can get away with claiming it as a work expense.

You love it mate, you thrive on a challenge .

I hope that's sarcasm.
I take on a few challenging vehicles, rarely finish them.

 

[james008]

Suppose I should post something about the POS.

I got wheel ramps, so naturally the first thing I did was flex test the ute. Did alright.

I think the shocks are holding it back a touch. Neither front or rear are touching bump stops, and both springs/shackles appear to have a bit more in them.

Does a lot better the turds that Dobinsons spat out and I mistakingly fitted to an otherwise good shorty.
But I digress...

 

[Ethanissan]

Suppose I should post something about the POS.

I got wheel ramps, so naturally the first thing I did was flex test the ute. Did alright.
View attachment 538292
View attachment 538291

I think the shocks are holding it back a touch. Neither front or rear are touching bump stops, and both springs/shackles appear to have a bit more in them.
View attachment 538294
View attachment 538293

Does a lot better the turds that Dobinsons spat out and I mistakingly fitted to an otherwise good shorty.
But I digress...

Are they extended front shackes? Or are they the factory MQ "flat" shackles I've heard about? My MQ ute has the MK stepped out shackles so I've never seen factory MQ ones, to me they look extended or MQ shackles are just longer, or it could just be the perspective. Genuinely curious.

 

[james008]

Back to the paint.
I ended up sanding the cab back to mostly the original paint. Don't mind the white marks from wet sanding.

Looks okayish as mostly one colour. So good enough.

A couple passes of oven cleaner and some pressure washer love got to this.

Now, cars usually aren't painted for no reason. And this one has been painted twice.
It's not shown too much in the photos, but I have blown off or sanded through much more paint than I had initially thought. Even the cab edges in between the cab and tray where it wasn't sanded before previous coats of paint has blown off back to black E-coating/passivated coating/whatever Nissan originally used on the panels, especially the bonnet and roof, where the paint is bubbling and peeling quite bad. And I'm only at 400 grit so far, still have to work up to 2000, but doing so will hopefully not remove too much more material.

So I have a few options.
A. Continue sanding/stripping paint as planned, polish, and protect with linseed oil or something.
B. As above, but with clear coat.
C. Since neither of the above will stop peeling, rattle can it again to temporarily stop the peeling.

Way, way, way off in the distance is:
D. proper respray, that'd mean going to bare metal on most of the car, at which point I'd want it straight.... so new front quarters and doors, most likely cutting and plating the sills since they look like the surface of the moon, fixing the rust hole in the roof, replacing the rain gutters that have rusted.... nah, not happening.

 

[james008]

Are they extended front shackes? Or are they the factory MQ "flat" shackles I've heard about? My MQ ute has the MK stepped out shackles so I've never seen factory MQ ones, to me they look extended or MQ shackles are just longer, or it could just be the perspective. Genuinely curious.

They are indeed extended shackles. Home made from flat bar with an extra flat bar cross brace booger welded in.
I assume they are there because of the presumably heavy PTO winch and additional cantilever affect of that, and the bullbar which has had 4" extensions welded into it.

But yeah, regular MQ shackles look reasonably similar, except not cobbled together from scrap metal.

 

[james008]

I gave underneath a pressure wash a couple of days ago, did nothing so I spent half of yesterday underneath with a paint scraper, degreaser and a pressure washer. Pretty sure that counts as a full restoration.

The rust on the inner cab corners turned out to be worse than initially thought.

Not too worried about it. No one's gonna see it, I'll clean it up, flood it with some sort of rust converter or sealer and patch the hole well enough that it won't take on water.

While the pressure washer was out I gave the tub a bit of a blast to remove the junk that had collected over the years. That was a mistake. The tub has gone from not too bad to swiss cheese around the wheel arches. Some holes also appeared at the front of the tray, but thats ok, it'll stop it holding water when it rains.

Doesn't look as bad in pics, but whatever, you get the idea. It'll be harder to fix than the cab corners.
I could buy that welder that I've been meaning to for years and fix it properly. Probably a good place to learn to weld sheet metal since it isn't flat, and blowing a couple of holes or warping panels won't matter because its just a ute tub. Or I could spray some rust converter to make myself feel better and cover it with a rubber tray liner since I'll probably need to do something with it for roadworthy..

 

[james008]

I also pulled the interior out.
Pretty dirty in there.

Given the amount of dirt in there, some wet due to nearly every seal leaking, after a blow out with compressed air I was surprised how good the floor pans were.
Until I poked a screwdriver around one of the drivers side body mounts.

Both windscreen corners have rust
Both cab corners have rust
The tub has rust
The doors have rust
And now a hole in the floor.

Not ideal, but not unexpected. This isn't a full restoration so once again I'll treat it, patch the hole and call it good enough.

 

[rgren2]

Shoulda just started a veggie garden. 😉

 

[Benny Jahmin]

Have you checked out fitzees fabrication on YouTube. He makes these sort of rust repairs achievable to most that can vaguely use a welder and grinder.

 

[james008]

Have you checked out fitzees fabrication on YouTube. He makes these sort of rust repairs achievable to most that can vaguely use a welder and grinder.

Yeah I've seen a bit of his stuff, he's good at what he does and explains things fairly well.

I might end up getting a welder and having a crack at it, I've wanted one for a while, and it'll be useful for the 2 Patrols that I actually want to be nice.
Or I'll admit defeat and part this one out. Not sure yet.

 

[james008]

Shoulda just started a veggie garden. 😉

I have a chilli plant. Haven't killed it yet, does that count?

 

[rgren2]

I have a chilli plant. Haven't killed it yet, does that count?

Not until it’s growing in the back of the ute. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[Benny Jahmin]

Yeah I've seen a bit of his stuff, he's good at what he does and explains things fairly well.

I might end up getting a welder and having a crack at it, I've wanted one for a while, and it'll be useful for the 2 Patrols that I actually want to be nice.
Or I'll admit defeat and part this one out. Not sure yet.

Once my current project is on the road I'm keen to try rescue a rusty old car after watching his stuff. Ideally a 2 door range rover if I can find one.

 

[james008]

Once my current project is on the road I'm keen to try rescue a rusty old car after watching his stuff. Ideally a 2 door range rover if I can find one.

Whats the current project?
I would also like an old Rangie, my old man had a couple and I was convinced for many years that I'd have one.
Finding a semi decent one for a reasonable price is the challenge, given the increase in their value over the last 10-15 years.


An MQ body with coils or on a GQ chassis with a V8 swapped in is probably close enough...

 

[Benny Jahmin]

This is the current project. All engineering is passed, just waiting to get a blue slip. Not that it means the project is finished but it's time to start looking. Isuzu 4jj1 (Dmax) engine and gearbox into GQ

Yeah there is something about the 2 door range rover. They are ugly but in a good way and being the first coil spring live axle 4wd that was way ahead of their time, they have a respectable history. Atleast to me.

 

[james008]

Finally something other than procrastination and delaying wet sanding.
Have I ever mentioned that I hate sanding?

Well I finally got annoyed with the brakes after nearly running into the fence for the 47th time, while pumping the brake pedal 15 times and ripping the handbrake on.
Using the highly scientific vice grip on the brake line and stomping on the pedal method, I isolated the issue to the front. Moving aforementioned scientific clamping device from front left to right soft line did not affect pedal travel, so both calipers seemed a touch sad.
RH disc appears alright. Surface rust as to be expected. But the wheel bearings feel alright.

LHS did not fare so well. Significant wheel bearing play, which I believe caused uneven wear on the disc.
It looks less severe in photos.

The pads tell the story.
LH pads to the left, RH pads to the right.

Notice the gap in the LH pads. I suspect in addition to the bearing play, the pads were not sitting correctly in the caliper carrier due to welding on the pad surface of the carrier. Dunno why. But it is noticeable, will affect where the pads sit and require replacement. And also poorly done.

Caliper bores and pistons had a fair bit of gunk, but the pistons were easily removed with a bit of compressed air, so unlikely to have been seized.

Both caliper bores and pistons cleaned up pretty well, so I can reuse them with a new seal kit. Piston and slide pin dust boots are trash. Both calipers have been replaced at some point anyway, and the presumably aftermarket seals have broken down.
So why did the calipers seize?
I suspect a combination of aftermarket slide pins which, on the top pin, do not have a lip for the anti rattle sleeve. And someone had used regular moly grease in the pin bores, I.E petroleum based, not brake grease. Hence why the anti rattle sleeves have expanded and broken down in the bores, causing the pins to seize.

Water ingress may also be a factor, as all the pins and bores had some surface rust.
Anyway, I'll dispose of the junk bits and order a genuine rebuild kit and replace that booger welded carrier.

 

[rgren2]

Anyway, I'll dispose of the junk bits

Yeah, right, they’ll go into the stockpile of “I might be able to use that one day”. 😂😂😂

 

[james008]

Forgot to order parts lol.
Which turned out ok, because I now need to add a wheel cylinder and rear axle seal to the list.
One rear brake still had the original Nabco cylinder which aside from split dust boots and is still fine it was sticking a bit due to a build of crap but it cleaned up ok. The other side had a replacement cylinder which was pitted and the pistons siezed.
The passenger side, with the siezed wheel cylinder, also has the leaking axle seal. Apparently one or both issues have been there for a while as the drum shoes were significantly less worn than the drivers side lol.
No photos, between the severe brake dust on the drivers side and the oily brake dust goo on the passenger side I was a smidge too dirty.

Due the aforementioned failure to order parts to actually fix anything, I pulled the PTO off the back of the transfer. Pretty simple arrangement, sliding collar and gear to engage it, and a 1:1 ratio single row chain drive.

Between the single row chain driven PTO and straight keyed shafts, I don't think it will be quite as robust as the gear driven Nissan PTO and splined shafts. But it's lasted this long, wasted a couple of shear pins and nothing that I have heard or read suggests that they often fail, so it should do just fine. Plus being transfer driven, not gearbox, I have as many winching speeds as the transmission does gears.
Despite the above, it does seem like a well made unit, nice thick castings especially around the bearing housings, Japanese bearings, pretty beefy chain and nicely machined parts.

Its a bit dirty from old oil and probably some metal particles floating around in there from wear, but all components are in good nick, bearings are still good, chain does not have excessive slack, so it'll just need a new output shaft seal and rear cover gasket.
Pretty happy about that.

 

[james008]

I sorted out a couple of boxes of parts, and it turns out I have a genuine caliper rebuild kit here. Happy days. I think I bought it for the white shorty for when I go through the body and driveline on that. It'll happen one day... maybe... after the ute and wagon are done.
Grabbed some wheel cylinders as well. Still need to sort out a caliper carrier though. And/or front diff.

There's a bloke in Vic parting out a blue L28 shorty, from the pics the doors and front quarters appear better than what I currently have, and It'll have a 4.6 diff like the ute, so if I can get in contact with him I might end up buying half the car lol.

Bullbar and winch were removed from the ute, only had a rope hanging from the shed roof to help me. It was bloody heavy.
Pulling the winch down was a bit of a fight too. Mainly cause I had no idea how to do it and no press.

Dog clutch housing is just grease filled, interestingly once the winch is out of its mount, the housing just slides off. Which means it is also unsealed.

The gearbox end was a fight, the hub that the bronze gear bolts to is siezed to the driveshaft, and the worm needed a hell of a lot of persuasion to be separated from its front bearing before it could be removed.
To remove the driveshaft from I had to file down some burrs from, otherwise it would just jam in the bushings, so I'll try and clean it up again.

A parts diagram that I found shows an oil seal on the gearbox housing output, but this winch does not have that, so I assume its for a later revision, unfortunate because that leaves the gearbox unsealed in deep water.

On the plus side, all parts look to be in good nick and I don't forsee myself breaking it, it's ridiculously overbuilt for its 8000lb rating.

 

[james008]

Well the clutch housing is buggered.
It looked a little off when I went to clean it, wiped the crap off the front and its cracked pretty good.

With second hand Thomas winches and parts being a bit thin on the ground, getting a new one will be quickest and easiest, can't imagine it'll be cheap though.

I had a thought on a repair catering my inability to weld cast aluminium: grind the rib off the inside of the housing, cut some appropriately sized steel plate for both sides of the mounting flange to essentially sandwich the cracked face. Probably through bolt it in each corner of the sandwich plates and of course tap the mount holes into the steel plate inside the housing.
Not an ideal repair, especially since the mounting flange doesn't appear to be 100% square anymore. But its already stuffed, I can't stuff it any more.