Cheers. I guess the temptation with a baja is to just patch it up and say it's part of the look; I'd rather do it well and not have to worry about rust for at least a few years!
A lovely sunny day down the yard today so got this batch of repair panels and the hidden sections on the shell painted with epoxy. Made a start on welding the first one in:
Fuel tank filler recess had seen better days so out with the old and a trial fit of the new. As always it needed a fair bit of trimming to fit nicely and to get the flap to sit flush with the body.
Just finished reupholstering the Baja’s sunvisors to match the rest of the interior as the old ones had no sponginess left in the foam. Much nicer!
Rear bench frames back from the powder coaters this week and new covers fitted. Note to self: wear gloves next time as I stabbed myself so many times on the evil hooks that hold the back cover on.
Lots of metal going back into the baja. N/S front arch pretty much done and have made a good start on the N/S rear quarter and O/S front arch.
Pretty much finished up the O/S rear quarter and front arch today before running out of welding wire! So chopped out the rotten washer bottle panel and lowered the shell back onto the chassis so I can start replacing the rear chassis mount panels.
N/S chassis mount strengthener removed to see if I could salvage any of the metal underneath. It was all rotten so chopped it all out as well as the edge of the boot panel: Decided to separate the repair panel so I can get some paint protection between the two panels: and have welded in the repair panel for the wheel arch:
N/S chassis mount strengthener welded in: and N/S Boot repair prepped and part welded in today: Pretty toasty in my welding gear in this heat!
Finished up the N/S boot repair tonight and chopped out the O/S chassis mount strengthener and boot rot ready to start repairing them.
Oh arse! Went digging into some filler I found on the bonnet seal channel and discovered it’s completely rotten. The O/S might be salvageable if I clean it up a bit more, but the N/S needs chopping out. I’ll make up some repairs in small sections so I don’t loose the shape of the channel. First repair welded in today.
About half way there with repairing the top lip of the N/S front arch now. To avoid repairing more than I need to I’ve started trial fitting the baja nose and bonnet. A bit more trimming and fine fitting to get it looking good but it’s nice to see it start looking a bit more “baja-ry”.
Outstanding customer service from Kartek. California to Dorset in under 4 days! I’ve a transaxle adapter for the baja so I can run the stronger bus gearbox, and the big bolts to fit as part of my IRS conversion. Next months job I think.
Lunchtime trip to see Simon over at NOSW to strip the IRS components from this knackered chassis. Came complete with vines, ants and woodlice . Should clean up nicely for the baja.
A lot of fiddly repairs to make for the front arch. Seal channel all repaired (made up from about 10 small panels). Style line for the front wing had rusted through along a big section so used a rear arch repair panel to fix it. I still need to repair the arch where it joins the front scuttle panel.