Found Object

[Rod]

Gee Rob, that cross member / hump repair is "top notch". The attention to detail on the crush tube, that won't be seen, is amazing. Having just gone through this myself, while I put in crush tubes, I didn't go to this extent. Given that, the crush tube was rusted beyond recognition of what it looked like originally.

I enjoy following your build and build of others. It drives my enthusiasm. Have you ever considered a Youtube channel? I follow some other builds / channels and I look forward to new "episodes" being released. I am sure you would have many views and the subscribers would grow fast, bringing about income to fund your build.

I look forward in hopefully seeing an update this weekend on your build.

Have a ripper.

Cheers

Rod

[Errol62]

Hear hear Rod. Celubriously thorough Rob.

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[ardiesse]

I put on my "Holden Helpline" hat today . . .

An ex-president of the Humpy club succumbed to cancer a couple of weeks back, and his FJ developed separation anxiety after his wake on Monday.  His wife said it made bad noises in engine-bay-land, and the GEN light stayed on after it started.  They had the FJ tilt-tray'd back home.  Fortunately, the tow-truck driver lives in the same suburb, and was super-careful with the FJ.

The generator's armature had spat out one commutator segment.  So today I swapped generators over, but it was the classic "working on somebody else's car" scenario, and ended up taking all afternoon.

Good thing I grabbed ekute's generator when I could . . .

But on "Found Object", I did manage to weld in the bottom part of the repair to the body crossmember.

Rob

[ardiesse]

The passenger's side of the no. 1 body crossmember is quite rotten, and needs bigger repair sections than the driver's side.  This is the rear wall where the gearbox crossmember bolts up, cut out and bent to shape.



I got to the stage of making a cardboard pattern for the front wall and cutting the section out of sheet metal, but putting the return and bend in will be a job for tomorrow (starting to rain).

Rob

[ardiesse]

I made up the "front wall" of the repair to the no.1 body crossmember this morning - I didn't have to stretch the metal as much to make the return, and the gentle bend appeared almost on its own.



I made the crush tubes, and also worked out that when I can't visualise how the parts go together and undo perfectly good work as a result, it's time for lunch.  Then I put the bends for the "floor" into the two repair sections, and wondered how I was going to line the two sides up to put the "floor" in.

The body is the best alignment jig.  So I got out with the angle grinder and spot-weld drill to remove the rotten parts, and tacked the repair sections in place.  Then some more work with a cardboard pattern and the angle grinder to make the "floor", and I tacked it in place, trimming with the cutting disc as I went.  And then I discovered that I got over-zealous with straightening the U-section of the gearbox crossmember on the driver's side, and it didn't fit any more.  A few minutes with an adjustable spanner and some persuasion with Mister Hit, and the gearbox crossmember went on, so I could mark up the locations of the mounting holes.



And then, of course, my "temporary" tack welds held fast, but let go after a stern talking-to.

I now have to seam-weld the section, drill the holes, paint it inside, fit the crush tubes . . . and then I can put it back for good.

And I have at least a dozen more weekends like this one, just on the body shell . . .

Rob

[camxsmith]

Great work rob. looks nice

[Errol62]

Very smooth work. Rough burger that I am, I would have welded it in and filled up with fish oil via 3/4” sawed hole in the floor above as I did in the fb ute. Don’t forget to seal up the place where the muck gets in. Between the floor strengthening swage lines and the body member facing forward.
Cheers
Clay


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[ardiesse]

I finally figured out why I needed to rework the gearbox crossmember to make it fit last weekend.

(I put it on backwards.)  So I guess I need to chalk mark the underbody with a big L on the passenger's side and a big R on the driver's side.

First repairs on the body shell today.  That was a long time coming.



Who'd have thought that the top of a box-section rusts out?  Condensation, I suppose.

Rob

[ardiesse]

This bracket was the object of an afternoon's work.  After cutting away the dodgily-repaired-and-rusted-out-for-the-second-time no. 1 body member, I found that there was more rust and less metal inside the bracket than I'd have liked.
 The prudent thing would have been to replace it, but instead, I repaired it.  I thought that using the welder as a hot metal glue gun inside the bracket would have been tricky, but I managed to colour-in the holes.  And the rusted-out section at the front was a relatively easy fix.



Then I could try fitting the repair section I fabricated for the passenger's side.  It took a couple of attempts to get it lined up (hopefully OK), and a little work with a round file on the bolt holes with the gearbox crossmember in place (N.B. the right way around this time).  Here it is, tacked in place, with the gearbox crossmember fitted:



No. 3 Phillips screwdrivers make admirable podgers.

Rob

[Errol62]

Podgers 👍👍


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[Harv]

Podgers 👍👍

That made me smile. Podger was a name I learnt from Dad. The kids look at you funny when you ask them to pass you a podger.

I learned a new one last month from Jim, the Windscreen Whisperer. Chicken Stick. The small plastic tool, about twice the size of a paddlepop stick, used to remove excess sealant from a windscreen.

"Gimme that podger, your making a mess with the mastic. Use the chicken stick". Little wonder the kids look at me funny 

Cheers,
Harv

[my8thholden]

AHHH !!! the podger , that tapered mirical alignment tool ,the one that requires three hands can be a bugger ...Vern ..

[ardiesse]

Drizzling and eighteen degrees.  Doesn't do much for motivation.

Instead: distributors.

Ha.

Vern's freebie (BR 54, from an EJ) took unseizing, to get the drive gear off, and the cam off the shaft.  And the advance weights were quite loose where they engaged with the pegs in the cam . . .

"Found Object's" distributor (BR 36, from an FC) definitely had a bent shaft.  Any thoughts I had of using the shaft from Vern's and the rest of the internals from "Found Object" vanished.  The shaft, cam and advance weights were all different.  I straightened the bent shaft (approximately) using bearing blue, three pieces of 1.6 sheet and a vice.  And when I was happy with the fit of the shaft in the body, I discovered that the shaft was cracked around the hole for the drive gear pin.  So that one's good for the bin too.

There are the two I got from ekute, and another couple I scrounged a few years back.  One of them (BR 41, FB), still has the Bakelite thrust washers, a working vacuum advance, and the centrifugal advance doesn't feel too worn.  Let's see what happens . . .

But I think all distributors are basically worn out.  Now, if I had a precision lathe, it might be possible to re-make the advance weight pins for the shaft and cam.  Which just leaves the flogged-out holes in the advance weights.

[camxsmith]

Mate would love to see the pictures of you working the lathe and making the new parts, things are looking good under the car

[ardiesse]

Extraordinary Discovery of the Day:  You can recondition a distributor with a MIG welder.
That, and a file.  And a Texta.  And patience.  And some Super-glue.

I figured I had nothing to lose by trying, and was wondering what to do with two cactus distributors in pieces.

It was easier than I thought to weld up the worn part of the slot in the advance weights where the cam engages.  Then some work with a bench grinder and file, using an unworn part of the pins as a "no-go" gauge, until the pin went into the slot.

Next: the worn part of the pins.  It's trickier filing a cylindrical profile.

There's a sheet of Bakelite which sits on the "platform" of the distributor shaft.  Normally it's supposed to be located by the pivot pins for the advance weights, but bits break off and it floats around.  I cleaned up the parts and super-glued the Bakelite in place.  Then I got some zinc-plated washers, filed the holes out to clear the pivot pins, and put the washers in place.  The originals are Bakelite, but they fall to bits too.

I did a trial assembly of the centrifugal advance mechanism, and it bound in a couple of positions.  This is where the Texta came in.  By colouring-in the welded-up pins, I could see where the parts interfered.  Disassemble-file-colour-in-reassemble a few times until the parts ran freely.

Then I played mix-and-match with Bakelite washers and shims to get the shaft's end-float right, more mix-and-match with Bakelite washers and shims to get the clearance between distributor cam and breaker plate right; and made a drive-gear pin by filing some steel rod down in the drill press until it just fitted the hole in the shaft (dodgy as, I know, but I don't have a lathe).

The hole in the shaft is 3/16" (4.76 mm), while the hole in the drive gear is closer to 5.00 mm.  Which means you can't just use a C-section pin, because the drive gear will be loose.  The drive pin has to be solid steel, and it has to be peened into place, otherwise the drive gear works loose.  A vice does the job OK.

Disassemble and lube breaker plate, test vacuum advance unit (petrol-mouth).  Fortunately the breaker plate, vacuum advance, cap retaining clips and capacitor from the earlier distributor fitted the later one.

Test run in "Found Object's" motor was a success.

Vern: your donor distributor lives again.

Rob

[my8thholden]

I'm pleased about that Rob ,If you encounter any problems ,I do have a few more ,cheers Vern .

[ardiesse]

The rain held off just long enough today for me to slice out the rotten gearbox crossmember mount on the driver's side, trim the repair section to size, line it up with the gearbox crossmember, and glue it into place.

So here's the complete repair, welded, dressed, Deoxidined and painted.  The weather is such that you can watch bare metal parts rust before your eyes . . .



Not shown is a piece of firewall insulation which caught fire as I plug-welded the tunnel from inside the shell.  Panicky lunge for the hose, and then memories of what my father did in the early '60s to the family FJ's front seat.  Mum could never drive the car again without laddering stockings . . .

Rob

[my8thholden]

great job Rob ..as good if not better than new ...keep well Vern

[Harv]

Not shown is a piece of firewall insulation which caught fire as I plug-welded the tunnel from inside the shell.  Panicky lunge for the hose, and then memories of what my father did in the early '60s to the family FJ's front seat.  Mum could never drive the car again without laddering stockings . . .

If you gas weld up the floor pan in an early Mini, the insulation may smoulder for 15 minutes before bursting into flames. Don’t ask me how I know...

Cheers,
Harv

[camxsmith]

Super neat job , looks great