WHAT YOU DID TO YOUR TRUCK TODAY!

And yet more punishment

After several days of frantic working the garage was a bomb site so spent 2 hours having a tidyup so I could find the floor

Today i bled the brakes after removing all of the bleed nipples and running a small drill bit down them to clean the crap out, they now have little rubber hats to make sure it doesn't happen again

Removed the torsion bars and reindexed them

Fitted front and gearbox bash plates, got all the wheels on and dropped it onto the floor, double checked all the front suspension and steering nuts n bolts to make sure I hadn't missed any and then tweaked the torsion bars to get the ride height sorted. CV gaiters clipped in place with new cable ties and refitted the heat shield covering the brake pipes

On to the rear and out with Mr Grinder to remove the factory towing eye on the rear chassis only to find where the road dirt had been trapped there was a hole in the chassis, just what I need :roll:

So cut out the rotten bit back to the rear crossmember and then cut up a piece of 50mm x 50mm x 3mm angle to fabricate a repair section.

By now its too late to make big noises so marked out some plates so I can fit the front recovery points that were on my old LWB and got my shopping list for tomorrow

Dunno how much time I'll get tomorrow, gonna be a late one in work and taking the little one to the fireworks

The only 2 big jobs left (theres loadsa little jobs) are the rear bumper which is not going to be a simple nut an bolt job, looks like the tolerances on a Frontera chassis are quite loose, on the LWB my bumper was a tight fit over the chassis rails and needed gentle persuasion to get it in place, on the SWB I reckon there is at lease 3mm of slack to sort out, also need to make and weld onto the chassis additional mounting points and captive plates for the bolts.

The other job is to make an exhaust, I acquired a stailess system that was a combination of Fronera 2.8 and Trooper 2.8 LWB cobbled together, plan has always been to make it fit the SWB but that isn't going to be a 5min task :lol:

Have been taking pictures as I go along, will get them posted after the weekend

Took Betsy in for the dreaded MOT, she failed but i knew that anyway. The surprise is that she didn't failed on things that i thought she would.
Fail list is:
1/ Front offside CV gaiter. Already have one.
2/ Center box exhaust major leak. E-Bay £56 delivered.
3/ Offside rear lower anti-roll bar bush worn to excess Milners full kit £18+vat.
4/ Nearside rear lower anti-roll bar bush worn to excess included in kit.
5/ Offside front anti-roll bar bush worn to excess Milners x2 £8+vat Total £36.60
To me that a cracking result!!!!!!! :dance:

Grand Total £92.60 :clap:

Fitted my new to me alternator to the Mk.II

Now have elastic trickery.

Note:

The Frontera 2.8 uses the Isuzu Trooper/Bighorn/Vauxhall Monterey 3.1 4JG2 alternator. This is different to the Trooper 2.8 alternator. The plug is different, and the 2.8 Trooper alternator is only 50amp.

Note 2:

Not attaching the engine earth results in swearing and cussing as the car won't start. This makes you think that you have to rip it all apart again to make sure you haven't made a mistake somewhere. This is even more annoying as your outdoor lamp blew your last bulb and you only have a small torch to work by. Added to the fact you need the car to drive 250 miles for a work meeting the next day ... stress levels rise.

dont you have light bulbs in the house up there you could of used neal :butt:

It was my halogen worklamp Fogman ... and I don't have any outside lights on the front of the house.

Where you been BTW Foggy???

ive been lurking once in a while but its not the same when you're frontyless mate

Only one way to rectify that buddy

Manny fitted my rear bush kit from Milners and the new exhaust center box from CES our local exhaust manufacturer/supplier after a cockup from e-bay.

Tried to fit the flexi brake pipe on the back axle but couldn't undo the nut for the steel pipe so I gave up

Then made some quick release drop links I don't think they turned out to bad

Plus put a new sticker on the car ( that really says it all :lol:

)

Last edited by yaki on Mon Nov 17, 2014 10:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Took off the Special Tracks and refitted the Coopers

My quest to have it ready for last weekends play day failed, just too much to do and not enough time get it all done and since then have lost the motivation as I now have 8" of water sloshing round in the pit :roll:

So today, armed with some fresh enthusiasm I tackled the water problem, using a loooooong masonry drill bit (its about 4' long) I drilled a hole under the floor from the pit out through the outside wall. Pushed a 15mm copper pipe through it and then rigged up an old AirCon condensate pump to pump out the water. Its not going to be a quick process as it only does about 6l per hour but will just leave it run. Gonna give it a helping hand tomorrow after work and bail out what I can with a few buckets

Cleaned off the workbench so tomorrow I can try and finish off its construction and fit the vice and power sockets

Replaced `some` vacuum pipes, sourced new boot liner, blacked out rear quarterlight windows......... :thumbup:

I have one of them already and they are a superb bit of kit for shifting large volumes of water, only downside is unless you have a sump you need about 8" of water for it to get started and then it will keep going until the water level drops to about 2"

The pit was built on a large piece of DPM which was pulled up the sides to floor level so logically it should not be filling up with water, only thing I can think of is it must have got holed somehow and when the water table rises in the rainy season it comes into the pit. It has been completely dry since Feb and I should have got my arse into gear and sealed it this year but there have been other priorities.

Now that winter is here it is going to be a constant battle to keep it dry.

I would like to see if I can make it watertight, if that fails then will dig a sump and stick the big pump in there

Manny fitted the last bits for my retest tomorrow!!!! :clap:

Should have another 12 months worth of driving!!!! :dance: