192 replies to this topic

[76lxhatch]

... and started cutting:

The outer guard is cut to the finished height I want, and some extra left on the inner guard to fold up to it.

After massaging/stretching the inner guard up to the outer guard and tacking (without pulling on the outer guard):


I was hoping the corner shown would stretch far enough without cutting, but it wouldn't. So I made a cut in the middle of it, and everything came together:


You can see the gap created by the cut here, I will weld a small filler piece into that hole. You can also see how (once I've welded and cleaned everything up) there will be a reasonably flat surface at the top just in case the tyre still occasionally makes contact, hopefully it won't cut it.


And a final shot showing the clearance with the flare, I'm happy that it should be ample.

As noted above the flare still needs some modifying and a bracket to hold it out a little further.

Will finish welding it at some stage, that will be a slow process so hopefully no warping! I'll probably tidy up the two bottom corners of the cut first too so the line is a little smoother, you won't see them under the flare but I'll know...

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:46 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Thanks, I was quite disappointed when I first saw how butchered the hatch ones are and they are bloody difficult to work with once a mess has been made, so I want to do this one properly

[76lxhatch]

Finished welding and cleaned up the guard, came out ok

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:46 PM.

[tsn007]

Great work

Attention to detail is awesome !

Will there be a need to cut the rear door away as well for clearance issues?

[76lxhatch]

Will there be a need to cut the rear door away as well for clearance issues?

Yes I'll cut a small chunk out of the door to match the cut in the guard, hopefully that turns out tidy too because it will be quite visible with the door open

[76lxhatch]

Fixed some minor rust in the door, removed the trim around the window and cut off the things that hold it on there (it won't be going back on). Cut the door edge for wheel clearance:


and mucked around with trimming the flare and added a couple of brackets to get the angles right and make sure everything sits in the right place



Had to sit a wheel up in there to see how it looks:

The clearance to the front and rear of the guard is good, and there is around 70mm between the tyre and top of guard as it sits in the photo, which should be ample for suspension travel; I like the height of the wheel about here too.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:47 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Waterblasted the cross member, cleaned it up and painted it


Also started fishing through my various piles of suspension and brake parts for the best combination. Will use UC upper control arms and steering arms to get the RTS caster, and front brakes will be reduced diameter (12mm smaller than HQ, 8mm larger than Torana) HQ discs on Torana stubs with early HQ calipers


Cleaned up the control arms, and removed the ball joints and bushes from the top arms. One of the top arms had a little tweak which was easily fixed but the pivot wasn't so good:

It has quite a bend at the end on the right side of the photo - luckily I have a spare or two laying around that are straight because this one's bin material now

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:47 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Been a bit slack lately, too many other vehicles to work on!

Got back into it last weekend, the plan was to give the underside a quick wire brush so I could throw some paint at it but one thing leads to another and its three quarters of the way stripped back to bare metal...


Looking forward to spending a bit more time on it over the Christmas break with a bit of luck

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:47 PM.

[76lxhatch]

just wondering though ,where your flare ends at door gap and door flare starts you have a end flap to body ,wont that be smashed if wheel goes up into guard when you hit a pot hole .

I think you are talking about what this pic shows?


You can see above that I cut a bit out of the ends, they originally curved the other way (more in toward the wheel). However its not a major issue, as the only time the wheels tend to sit right up into the guard is one side at a time when the diff rolls, and this action is likely to see the outside edge of the tyre further in at the metal area. Take a look up inside some guards of low flared Toranas and you'll notice that any rubs are usually just inside the original guard, they don't get very close to the flare. I've got rub marks on the hatch to prove it...

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:47 PM.

[Stinga]

looking good so far! are they the wheels yor going to use?

[76lxhatch]

Yes I'm hoping to use these wheels, just not 100% sure whether the offset of the rears is going to suit as yet, will have to put the diff back in and try it at some stage. Planning to paint the recesses black with the faces raw alloy similar to how most hotwires are done.

[76lxhatch]

Spent a bit of time on it the other day, stripped a bit more of the paint off the floor pan in the tricky spots, knocked out a few little dents etc. The driver side chassis rail had the usual dent from careless jacking which I hadn't planned to fix, but the passenger side was perfect so I couldn't leave it alone.

Before:


After:

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:48 PM.

[76lxhatch]

nial8r I tried that but I'm not patient enough so I cheated and cut a window in the floor ;-)

A little more progress...

Fixed some rust in the front of the driver side sill, before:

and after:


Also chopped the firewall seam on the driver side, and pushed the edge back a few mm for wheel clearance at hard lock:

(you can see how far forward the original seam protruded by the bit at the top of the pic)
welded and undersealed:


Also tidied up the underbody enough to start putting some paint on today:

the same black will go over the existing underseal in the wheel wells/guards also once I've cleaned it up a bit

Hopefully get a few things tidied up tomorrow then it will be ready to spin around and do the rear windscreen rust, guard chop and firewall seam on the passenger side

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:48 PM.

[76lxhatch]

It looks neat because I haven't shown any photos of the welding before grinding...

Thanks for the kind words