Added these gusset plates between the lift kit and the beam support tubes. Then added the front brake line tubes on top of that and bent and fitted up the last of the front brake lines.
After that I dropped the body back on and found that I had some clearance issues. I had the fuel filter bolted to the air bag frame with a right angle bracket (You can see the holes). This was contacting the body in the position shown in the picture. So I had to move it. You can also see the air line in this shot for my air bag. Fill point will be a schrader valve under the backseat that I can easily top off with my compressor.
So I swapped the fittings around and swapped it to the other side. I also had some concerns with the trailing arm hitting the drain valve it the previous position on full compression. The new spot fixes all of this. I welded up the holes in the frame and welded a new bracket to the top of it too.
While I was at the back I had a few more things to work on too. I added a small bracket in the centre of the frame to mount my fuel changeover solenoid to.
Next I cut up a piece of angle that ties into some bolts on the side of the gearbox for the clutch line mount. First I made it fit and then cut it to the height I needed and welded the bracket on top.
Trimmed the handle to length. Still might need some more, I will use it first then decide.
Got my old front bar to fit with a couple of small mods. This is just temporary, I am planning to make a new one later that fits better with the bodylift and has mounts for a winch.
Put the axles together with the Porsche CVs. Thanks again Rich, I can't get over the quality of these things! The cages are incredibly thick! Only one of the CVs had a little bit of galling on the star and that's it. And I installed it so it wasn't the load bearing side when driving forward. Will certainly have to chase down some more for spares when I get spare time.
The angle was a little more extreme than I was expecting, nudging 25-26° at full droop. But I clocked them when assembling and the wheels spin freely so will run them and see. I think that they should be fine, I was running 20° with the old CVs so these good Porsche ones should handle it ok. The extra angle has developed from having to move the trans rearward and up slightly to get it all fitting nicely. I think it should all work quite nicely if I ever get 3x3s or the like under the back of this thing.
Finished welding out the tank frame.
After lifting the body onto the pan all by myself, it was time to put some sealer between it and the pan and get them glued together. This is where I ran into a few dramas with bolts not fitting/lining up etc. So I ended up lifting the body back off the pan. It was parked under the mezz floor in my shed so I just ran some straps up to that and hoisted it clear. Then I die ground the offending holes into submission before redoing the sealer and lowering the body back down into place. Both times I used long M8 bolts with the heads cut off as guides studs to lowert the body into position. After many hours of stuffing around and setbacks I tightened the last bolt and the body was mounted.
Once this was done I dropped the engine in it too, and ran into more problems. Seems that the engine mounts I have chosen are too soft and the way they are mounted exacerbates this condition. With one finger I can rock the engine back and forward about 100mm. I am going to add a rear engine support bar like a bus has with 2 more mounts on it. I am also going to mount them sideways which gives them a better load holding ability. It this doesn't work I will have to go back to square one and come up with something better for the drivetrain mounts.
The rear barwork was also bolted into place. I had to move it back close to 75mm to get it to clear the engine now that it is further back because of the way the gearbox is mounted. The plan is to redo the rear barwork also, but I am going to wait until after my engine change and make it to suit.
I enlisted my girlfriend as slave labour to help with bleeding the brakes. That was a bit of a mission in itself. But we ended up getting them to bleed up nicely after raising the back of the car to get air out etc.. I could work out why we weren't getting good pedal even though there was no air coming out of the system. So I said let me had a feel of it and jumped in to try the pedal, I instantly noticed that half the pedal travel was free play as I hadn't set the pushrod on the brake pedal. Adjusted that up and it is very good now, not as good as it was in the past but I am blaming the cutting brakes for that, I might give it another bleed once I drive it a little.
I bolted the seats in and the shifter. it changes gear nicely and I really like the long shifter, I think I'm keeping it. Sitting in the car just feels right
The drivers position is good, the seat height is god, the shift is good. I think I might have fluked it and got some stuff right
It's nice to know I am slowly dragging myself closer to be able to drive this thing after 2 and a half years downtime.
This is how she sits presently. The front is on the stops and needs to get loaded up so it will come down, and the back is way too low. I think I got the torsion bar settings very wrong and they will need to be reset. the rear tanks, spare tyre etc still need to go on so it will drop plenty more. I also need 33s on the back too.
Oh, and I fitted the side windows too.
Thanks for reading.
Smiley
