Paul's Projects

[Paul#25]

These are the latest batch of Wheel Locating Pin sets that I've made for orders.
The two on the left are for the Disco 1 and Defender up to 2010. They have a M16x1.5 thread instead of the M14x1.5 thread for the Disco 2 that I have made previously.
The middle two aluminum sets are a new design. They are for the Disco 3 and 4 as well as the Land Cruiser 70 Series that has M14x1.5 studs but the outside diameter of the nut is 22mm and not 28mm like the other Land Rover nuts.
The two on the right are the normal Toyota/Ford/Nissan sets for the M12x1.5 studs.
I'm being kept busy with making these and 8 other sets that were ordered after a thread on the 4x4 Community Forum where a member gave me a good review after buying a set for his Amarok.

[Paul#25]

I have fitted an oil catch tank to my Disco. I have had the catch tank for a while but hadn't go round fitting in. The biggest headache was to fabricate the bracket for mounting it without making any new holes in the firewall. I used the hooter mount flange and the bracket for the impact reset button as the mount points for the bracket. I used fuel/oil resistant rubber pipes to connect the tank to the inlet pipe and cam cover. I've covered the pipes in heatshield material where they run closest to the turbo and exhaust manifold.

[jakeslouw]

Thinking I should put one on the Tata. Seeing a lot of IC pipe oil sweat.

[Paul#25]

One of my latest project was to repair a broken hinge on the rear door of a Bush Baby trailer. The trailer belongs to a member of the "other" forum and asked for someone to do a welding repair.
The rear fold down door right-hand hinge has torn away from where it had been welded to the trailer. As I suspected, the hinge was totally seized, and the original weld was only onto the trailer skin and not the structure below.
I removed the door inner aluminum skin to access the hinge bolts and found a bit of surface corrosion inside the lower structure of the door. With the door removed, I found that the left-hand hinge was also on its way to being ceased too.
On the right hinge, I cut out the damaged skin and cleaned out the sand and grit from between the skin and frame behind it. I then cut a piece on steel plate the same thickness as the skin to fit into the hole. I drilled 2 10mm holes in the plate so I could plug-weld the plate as well as welding around it. This was then smoothed out for the hinge to be welded back into place. The old hinge was so seized that the pin part broke off while trying to get it out. I cut the old hinge off the plate and welded a new one in place. The door was then refitted for me to get the correct position for the other half of the hinge barrel to be welded to the trailer. Once it was tack-welded, the door came off again for proper fillet welds to be done.
I had found that the original welds weren't very good and had been covered in a layer of filler-putty. I took this filler off the welds on the left hinge and found the start of a crack that it was hiding. I rewelded the trailer side of the hinge and the side with the plate as it also had the start of a crack. The hinge brackets were then repainted, and I primed the trailer side as Mileage has the correct color match paint that he'll use for its final coat.
The surface corrosion inside the door was cleaned up, and I sprayed a thin oil in the area before refitting the door and closing it all up. The hinges got a good coat of copper grease on assembly.
The door on the trailer should be good for another 20 years.

[jakeslouw]

Nice Paul. Venter standards seems to have dropped badly. And it is SEIZED not CEASED.

[Saxj]

Nice Paul. Venter standards seems to have dropped badly. And it is SEIZED not CEASED.

The seized hinge had ceased moving.

[Paul#25]

Thanks for the spelling check. I'm guilty of not checking the predictive text changes when I post on my phone.

[Paul#25]

As some might have seen, I posted some info and photos on Pierre's thread about a job I was doing for him. Well here's the story and photos.
Pierre wanted a frame built into his VW Toureg to accommodate a fridge on slides and a ammobox stowage that he had.
I started off by working out the length of the mount legs to make use of the standard seat mount points and other mount points in the back area to get the frame level. Then the basic framework was welded together and test fitted in the car. With the basic frame securely clamped to the welding table the rest of the structure could be welded in place using the fridge and box to get the correct placement of the additional angles that they rest on. With that in place the raised structure in front of those two items could be welded in place. An additional item that Pierre wanted was a panel along the side and back of the fridge area to stop loose items falling in behind the fridge when it's pulled out. I added the frame for this and cut the aluminum panels to be fitted after everything was painted. For the tiedown points for the fridge on it's frame and for the other top stowage areas, I cut links from a chain and welded them in place. Pierre asked for his tyre inflation compressor to be mount to be mounted in front of the fridge. I welded in a shelf for the compressor but it's placement wouldn't allow for conventional latches to then be used to secure the fridge in the stowed position. I made a swivel plate that blocks the fridge slide and is held in place by a spring.
The frame was painted with 2 coats of etch primer and then 2 coats of black. Once the slides and the fridge frame were refitted I installed the frame back into the car. With that all secure I could fit the fridge, ammobox stowage and the compressor.
This has taken the best part of a week to complete. When I complete a job like this there, it's satisfying to see the final product. Something that you first sketched on a notepad and now it's a functional item.

[Woolf]

Nice

[Paul#25]

The latest vehicle I've been working on isn't a 4x4 but a nice classic BMW 2002. The customer wanted modern seat belts fitted to the vehicle as the 70's erra equipment fitted for the front seats wasn't in great shape and there were no belts at all for the rear seat.
I was able to use some of the factory mount points but had to fabricate some others. At the places where I could get to the back of the area where the attachment point was, I fitted a spreader plate with a nut. The two front seats shoulder harness upper attachment points had to be welded onto the B pillar because I couldn't fit anything behind the structure. On all cars the seat belts mount bolts are an imperial thread. They are 7/16" x 20 threads per inch. For the spreader plates I machined a shoulder onto a nut to locate them into plates before welding them in place. For the shoulder harness points I machined and tapped similar nuts from round bar so that I could limit the size of the hole I had to drill into the pillar.

[Paul#25]

I've had 2 small projects using aluminum bar stock and a lot of hand tools.
The first was to make up two blocks to replace the plastic fittings for the window awnings rods on a trailer tent to fit into. This was a quick cut, file, and drill the holes.

The next project was to make a solid base for a fish finder to be attached to. This is getting bonded to a small plastic molded 2 seater bass boat. The section for the transceiver mount had to be raised for its arm to clear the lip on the edge of the boat. The base needed to be solid enough to stop the flex in the plastic molded stowage area. The two sections are held together with countersunk stainless steel screws and the mounts are also secured with stainless steel screws. The surface was given a brushed finish before being treated with Alodine to help it not get surface corrosion.

[Mad Manny]

The next project was to make a solid base for a fish finder to be attracted .to.

Why does it need to find fish if they are attracted to it?

[Paul#25]

The next project was to make a solid base for a fish finder to be attracted .to.

Why does it need to find fish if they are attracted to it?

Thanks Manny. Fixed it.

[Saxj]

The first was to make up two blocks to replace the plastic fittings for the window awnings rods on a trailer tent to fit into. This was a quick cut, file, and drill the holes.
20230706_162042.jpg
IMG-20230709-WA0012.jpg

I could do with some of those. The plastic ones get soft when it is hot and the rods fall out

[Mad Manny]

Hate it when my rod falls out....