Late in March of this year, I made a post, which addressed the main issue of lil' Pickle - rust. Now, five months after starting the actual sheet metal work, the outside is patched up. The thing is, obviously there was a lot more work done than to "just" fix the sheet metal, in the same go, I fixed the transfer-case mounts, body mounts and prepared everything for a fuel tank swap.
But let's start with... fixing the rotten lower corner of the A-pillar.
What is truly nice about the lil' Suzuki is the fact that repair panels are still available and rather affordable. The only issue with them is: usually they are available from the 413 and newer models, which at first glance look identical, but then are ever so slightly different.
Outer sills: no drama, quality and fit 'n' finish are a bit questionable, but once the previous owner's repairs were removed they were well acceptable. The floorpans on the other hand...
Looks quite alright, doesn't it? Well have a closer look at the transmission tunnel - quite the gap isn't it? So are the panels cut incorrectly? No, this is an early 410 and it has the older (narrower) transmission tunnel. Which is also the reason, why people tell you to avoid the pre-1984 models, if you want to do an engine swap...
Going with the later transmission tunnel would have been a smart move as it would have made work on the firewall A LOT easier, but the narrow tunnel also has its merits, as you have more space round the throttle pedal. Besides, at the time I didn't know you could just buy the tunnel as a spare part. As such the flange was widened by about 30mm.
In order to make rust-proofing the cavities a lot easier (and having been given a bunch of expired yellow spray cans for free), I decided to paint all the cavities in a bright colour to make later inspections easier.
And because the roof is leaky right above the dome light (and pretty sure in some other spots as well), I pulled out the inner roof liner and started removing the foam.
Whenever the frame became this nicely exposed, I brushed on a few coats of paint, because... well you know.
After ordering new rubber body mounts, I decided that they were utterly unsuitable for the job, so a bar of black POM-plastic was bought and 9mm was decided to be the new spacing between frame and body.
With the floor pan removed, I was able to access the mounting bolts for the transfer case - after wondering a lot, why the previous owner only did the rubber insulater on the other side, I realized that the only way one could do this with the body on, would have been by cutting two holes in the floor in order to get the bolts out.
Needless to say, the old stuff was hopelessly shot.
Test fit of the first POM bushing. It will be a bit more harsh, but then again this lil' truck is never going to be a Mercedes S-class and it'll make all the joints live a lot longer and probably with all the other stuff rattling about, what's one more sound. (I later flipped the mounting bolts upside down - so in case it really annoys me too much, I can swap in rubber bushings again without cutting holes in the floor.)
With rust being the main topic on this car, I decided to do one rather controversial mod: usually the reinfocements on the bottom of the floorpan extends all the way out to the inner sill creating an absolutely lovely pocket for all sorts of dirt and debris to collect and rot out both floorpan and the sill as it's almost impossible to get it out from there...
Then drill roughly a stupidizillion of holes for plug welding and work out a way how to sneak the inner sill and the floor pan in place.
weld in the pieces and rinse and repeat on the other side.
Btw.: have you noticed how the shifter boot of the transfer case shifter disappeared somewhere along the way when welding in the flange? Funny story... remember how some people say something like "I am *this* close to burning the whole bloody car down? Well... I was *THIS* close. 😆
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