The fun stuff

So back up again this weekend, started stripping the undercoat off the floor pan section of the front bulkhead.

It came off reasonably easily. things were looking really good until i got the the rear passenger side body mount (middle of the right hand side in the photo above) but man its a time consuming job.

There's a bit of rust in the body around the mount plate, it doesn't seem that huge and looks much worse in the photos as the left over undercoat has a redish rust like tinge to it

So that brings the rust tally to, the bottoms of the doors, a small hole in the bottom of each A-pillar, the heater box and two small bits in the front of the front guards.

From the looks of it water has been getting in through the hole in the A-pillar and pooling in the cavity about that body mount.

All and all i cant complain, it could have been a lot worse.

I forgot i would need the ute to drop off the bulkhead so its still at my parents, I'll drop it off next Saturday.

Also found out it's quite likely that i'll be spending a couple of weeks up in Palmerston North for work in the next month or two, so hopefully that will allow me to get some serious progress on the chassis

Finally the container arrives

The container arrived in NZ last night so hopefully i'll have my suspension components soon, all depends on how long it takes for them to clean my mates tools.

Unfortunately I'm getting stung with GST too, so VAT and GST which sucks, but it still works out slightly cheaper than if got them shipped direct.

With all the bearings and suspension bits almost here the timing has worked out pretty well.

Body is off! sort of :D

So, with much swearing and gnashing of teeth the body has been separated from the chassis.

Also i've recently replaced my phone so the pictures should be somewhat improved :) LG G2 the camera is spectacular

 No hidden surprises which was nice, the chassis looks really good, on the front half at least, i couldn't lift the rear tub off solo so that's still sitting in place.

This one is a bit hazy, my dad was having a burn off outside and the wind changed and started to blow smoke straight in :) I've started grinding the surface rust off the front bulkhead and treating it with POR-15 Metal Ready, so far it seems really good. I put some on the top section of filerwall a few weeks ago and the metal is still clean and rust free.

Ideally i should get the bulk head cleaned up next weekend and drop it to the panel shop for repairs and paint next Saturday.

Almost at the point where there's no more to pull apart. if i can get someone to help me lift the rear tub off, then i can start pulling the diff and rear suspension off and then i'm actually FINALLY done with dis-assembly. I have to chase up a work mate to see if i can steal his soda blaster, which should speed up the process of cleaning up all the little bits and pieces

So first step in getting the body off the chassis.

Pulled the dash out, had one seized screw on the main dash mount, which i ended up leaving to soak in WD40

its the one in the middle of the picture. Not much left of the car now :)

All thats left is to remove the sills then pull the 20 bolts that hold the body to the chassis and then i'm read to start sending it away to be repaired and painted.

Did find one badder than i thought part

From the firewall side

From the interior

So the rust in the heater intake goes all the way through. Ah well...  more rust repairs.

I ran out of time and was held up with a couple of screws in the sills that just wont budge, i think i'm going to have to drill them out. not too bad. I've only found about 5 screws or bolts that just wont budge.

Had a play around with the firewall and a nylon stripper wheel and covered it all with rust convertor to seal it up

But basically the body is completely stripped now.

Heard from my mate the ship has apparently left Singapore with my door skins and suspension bits. Hopefully will be here by the 16th July