The Rebuild

Rear Tub. . .

Parts Required:
Steel Aluminium, Bent sections- Lilleker Engineering (£140)
 		 Total Costs (so far):
£140 (approx)
Tools Required:
 drill, jigsaw, tin snips, spot weld cutter, clamps		 Other Information:

I Decided to make a start on some of the bodywork, it didn't make much sense in running all the wiring and then having to unclip it to sort out the bodywork.

The rear tub is particularly damaged by corrosion caused by the meeting of the steel bolts on the aluminium panels.

This picture shows some of the damage, the lower seatbelt fixing point had corroded completely through the rear bulkhead, and the vertical panel that meets the seat box had also corroded away the mounting tab halfway up.

This picture shows the lower panel that passes above the rear wheel. I was initially going to repair this panel but looking at the extent of the damage - plus the repair job that had been done previously i will also be replacing these panels as well.

This had been caused by the rear tie down points plus the bolts through the aluminium.

There wont be much of the original rear tub left soon!

I decided to tackle the rear bulkhead section first.

After removing the old one I took it to Lillekar Engineering and had them fold me some new sections.

Although Aluminium is soft and easy to bend by hand its hard to get a nice tight bend without some kind of bending machine, I didn't have anything large enough to bend sheets of this length, so I had it done by the experts, although I will be doing the smaller more difficult panels myself.

 

This picture shows the other panel that I had bend attached to the bulkhead section.

Once you have taken the old panels off you realise how over complicated the old panels were especially in the front of the rear wheel arch. I think this was done to strengthen the seatbelt mounting points. I'm planning to make up some mounts that extend out to the rear fuel tank outriggers  rather than relying on the aluminium tub alone for seat belt mounting points.

A view of the mounted bulkhead from the front.

I've secured it with pop rivets rather than spot welds as I've not got a spot welder or the various arms i would need to successfully spot weld some of the more difficult areas.

A view from the rear.

I've re-used the old strengthening sections as they were still in good shape.

Need to add some more strengthening horizontally where the front door locks mount through the bulkhead. Again, I will re-use the originals once I've removed them from the old bulkhead.

I eventually worked out that the wheel arches and floor were too far gone to save so I've replaced them all with re-fabricated sections. the long straights were folded by Major Sheet Metals, the rear quarter panels and door latch panels were done by myself. Note the added hole to accept reversing and fog lights. The floor is a single piece of Ali Chequer plate and the strengthening rips to support it underneath were also replaced. I've also added more strengthening from the wheel arch to the bulkhead, which just makes the whole structure that little bit more rigid.

This picture shows the passenger side with all lower bodywork test fitted, including the new door bottoms. The old ones were severely rusted and had dropped at the latch end making the door hang down lot lining up correctly with the rest of the body work. I've also changed the door hinge pins as they were worn and bent out of shape.

I've made up new door sills but these will eventually be replaced with some rock sliders.

Another view from the rear with some more bodywork in place.

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

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