Being the type of vehicle the old girl is, removing panels was easy and straight forward. We have kept every single nut and bolt and put them in labelled bags so we know roughly where they go and ones that are rusted or bent can easily be matched up for replacement. We have kept virtually everything that has been taken off the old girl. We kept the leather top and doors in storage and just recently i pulled them out and worked on cleaning up the leather which is still in really good condition. I will need to speak with an upholsterer to get the rubber inserts fixed and the clear plastic for the windows replaced as it's gone yellow and scuffed. I have recently removed all of the brake calipers which were disc rotor all round - if anyone knows if that was standard for this model that would be great. The front calipers were also Bendix which was news to me. The shockies were TJM but are completely had it and one of them even had a bash puncture in it. The bonnet, windscreen, front quarter panels and roll bar are all in good condition, all straight and minimal or no rust. The tub however has both floor pans rusted and one of the rear wheel wells has been torn out by what looks like an impact from underneath! I pulled off the hubs which had nice milky/dirty grease inside them however i need a hub socket to remove the rest of them and the front rotors. Still to take off are the leaf springs and diffs. After this has been done i will find an engineer to figure out how the coil towers will be installed and what suspension set up we will run with and also check if the chassis needs to be strengthened for the new engine. Once this has been checked and done i'll send it off to get the chassis sand and soda blasted then powder coated. I'll find a specialist to talk to about the diffs and what needs to be done to them. From there we'll address the suspension install then the brakes and rotors that are going to be used. After this is done we'll look at getting the rims repaired and restored. This is about as far we've planned for at this stage as we're divided as to what should be tackled next? The way we see it is this;
1. Install diffs
2. Tackle brake lines and brake system, Steering components and steering system then buy a wiring kit for all electrical components
3. Gearbox, adaptors,drive lines
4. get the floor pan and other body parts sorted out which would consist of cutting out rust and repairing damaged parts of the tub and then get everything sand blasted and primed and then get the respray when the build is nearer to completion
5. Mock it all up to iron any kinks and if parts need to be changed or modified
This is obviously a simplistic view but i've found it's better to look at it like this so as not to be overwhelmed. We are planning to alot $10,000 a year over 5 years for this project.
|