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Ke11 Beams


drift freak

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So a little more progress today which was good. Fabricated up a panhard rod mount and made an adjustable rod out of a KE70 item just to get things in and located.

I welded the original KE70 diff mount to my EF diff and mounted the panhard rod (i'd already shortened the panhard rod by about 130mm and welded in a thread for adjustment)

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I then folded up some 1.6mm mild steel sheet in two pieces to make the body mount. I then welded both pieces together and braced the open ends.

To ensure I drilled the holes in the right spot I marked one side with a centre punch and installed the rod end to ensure the mount didn't crush while I was drilling.

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Now I've had to position the body mount so that under full suspension compression the panhard rod will clear the spare wheel well and still be aligned correctly with diff mount when the diff moves back with suspension travel.

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Things are only tacked in at the moment due to wanting to put the car back on stands and make sure everything is going to clear properly with weight in the back of the car.

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So I spent yesterday making up a new dash panel to house the LCD panel for my gauges. I had to remake this panel because the first one didn't quite fit properly and due to it being made out of the thicker 1.6mm was really difficult to work with. I remade this new panel using the thinner 1.1mm sheet and it turned out heaps better.

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So the next challenge is to replace the damaged inner guard with a section I cut from the spare car I had. I haven't attacked anything this big before so if anyone sees something that they think I'm missing just shout out.

So I've trimmed the donor piece of sheet metal to the approximate size I think I'm gunna need and marked out the outline of where to cut on the body (cutting the dotted line on the body so I can trim it to suit later)

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I have also braced the rails from underneath to try and stop the car flexing out of shape with this piece removed.

I'm going to try and get this sorted in the next few days so if anyone has any comments let me know. Cheers guys

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So I hooked in this morning and replaced the damaged section with the spare panel I had. I supported the front end of the car with my floor jack and some timber to stop the car from sagging when such a large section of the inner guard was removed. I positioned the floor jack where the original gearbox cross member would be located and took up some pressure.

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I then cut the bulk of the panel out leaving about 10mm of overlap to ensure I didn't take to much.

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I then re-marked where the edge of the new panel was and set about trimming the edges until the replacement section sat neatly in the hole. From here I tacked all the corners and stitched it up.

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I'll grind the welds on the inner side relatively smooth and re-weld the joins from the outside once its all sandblasted.

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Yeah Buz440 I've looked at it since putting the panhard setup in but there is no room on the passenger side due to the exhaust running through the available space, also the lack of room between the diff and spare wheel well is limited so fitting the diff bracket in would be super tricky.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I've been concentrating on the rust in the drivers side chassis rail. I was lucky enough to be able to get my hands on another section of body that was in much better condition than mine.

 

So I just unstitched the area I needed to repair and cleaned it up.

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The replacement panel had some rust so I had to replace that too. I did this while the section was all together to ensure the panels didn't distort with the welding heat.

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From here I unstitched the replacement panels and got them ready for welding into my chassis.

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One of these panels also had some rust in it and I can't access it once the panel is welded into place so I repair this area once everything was separated.

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And here is it all starting to go back together :)

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I also got my extractors back from Jordain after he ceramic coated them for me. So stoked with how they turned out and I think they will really set the engine bay off!!!

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So I finally finished the rust the other day and I have to say I am quite happy with how it has finished up. After all the stressing about how difficult it would be it actually turned out easier than I expected. Once I'd broken the replacement pieces apart I found one of the pieces needed repairing before I could put it back into the car.

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I then cut and filed it to the correct size to fit the area I'd cut our and welded it in.post-10705-0-62888800-1377816722.jpgpost-10705-0-72323700-1377816727.jpgpost-10705-0-79422200-1377816734.jpg

I then etched it up with weld through primer (this stuff ensures I don't have exposed bare metal between the welded panel) and tacked in the first piece of the outer surface.

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Once this was in I then quick clamped the final piece into place and got it neatened up then welded.

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I then welded the last piece into place and etched it all up

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To have this part of the repair phase finished is so rewarding, it has been in the back of my mind for months now and I even thought about outsourcing the job thinking it was too big a job. I am so glad I just jumped in the deep end and had a go now though!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Haha no way Dave, the panel stuff will be left to the pros!! I'd rather spend a little cash to have a great job rather than try and bodge it up at home.

I'd have to agree OrangeLJ jumping in the deep end is the only way to go!!! Just glad I did a little research first :)

 

So anyway back to the updates. I spent most of my weekend (after wasting a few hours voting for those lying scumbags) paint stripping the shell ready for the sand blaster and my panel beater. I decided to strip the quarter panels and roof because I didn't want to risk any warpage of the panels during sand blasting. So I initially scratched the surface up with some 80grit paper to allow the stripper to bite in a little better.

So I applied a layer of stripper to the panel, covered it with plastic and waited

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It pulled a reasonable amount of on the first go but it actually took me 3 turns with the stripper to get it back to reasonably clean panel.

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And one of the roof after stripping it twice

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Once I'd washed all the stripper off with water and dried the panel it was time for my new favourite tool to come out.

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This stripper disc works wonders on the remaining paint. I would say its comparable to 60grit paper in the way it strips paint and surface rust but doesn't create too much heat when pressed against the panel.

I sanded both quarters and the roof before etching them to prevent rust.

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Although it is time consuming paint stripping the results speak for themselves and it eliminates the stress of sand blasting major panels. For the $40 in stripper (and I still have half a tin left) compared to $40/50 per hour for a panel beater to straighten warp panels I know where Id prefer to spend my money :)

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