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LX sedan body resto

Started by _dirtbag_ , Jan 20 2011 05:21 AM

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372 replies to this topic

#26 _dirtbag_

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Posted 25 January 2011 - 06:30 PM

Hi Nicko. Yes I weld filled that small rust spot. After die grinding it out it was still only a tiny hole and welded easily. If the metal is too thin/rusted you wont be able to weld it. With rust pits, just make sure you have removed ALL of the rust scale, or it wont weld properly.

Hi Ruts, no it's not the camera angle, and the flare isn't too far back, it's just whoever cut the guards cut the whole edge of the wheel arch off, meaning the sill is shorter than standard. Plus these flares are so incredibly the wrong shape I'm amazed they line up with anything : )

Speaking of flares, I refitted the right rear flare after fibreglassing it yesterday. I added some filler to the rear part and it's going to be an improvement, but the front piece was a problem. I don't know if fibreglass "pulls" as it drys, but the front piece was a different shape from yesterday so I recut it and glued i into shape with some more bog.

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The edge of the door flare lines up a lot better with the rear flare section now.

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I didn't get to spend all day on it today due to other car but I'll get back to this on thursday.

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#27 TerrA LX

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Posted 25 January 2011 - 06:56 PM

Thanx Tim, just to clerify I am more interested to see the inner guard that is exposed when you open the door thanx.

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#28 Ruts

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Posted 25 January 2011 - 07:03 PM

Different kind of flare mate, where it mounts to the door is different to yours.

Yes I totally agree. Mine is the L34 type and Tim's is an A9X style. I may be wrong but I thought both styles lined up with the edge of the door. Anyone have photo's of an original A9X to show me how they sit to put my mind at ease?.

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#29 Ruts

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Posted 25 January 2011 - 07:07 PM

Thanks Tim, just read your response and it all makes sense now that you stated that the sill had been cut (shortened). Keep up the great work mate.
Ruts

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#30 _dirtbag_

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Posted 25 January 2011 - 07:38 PM

Hi Terra. I don't have any pics of the inner part that you want to see, so I'll take one tomorrow for you. It pretty much follows the outline of the rear door, and the rear door isn't cut at all.

When I built my old LH LSR5000 (avatar car) I knew I wanted 10s on the back with 265s but I also wanted it LOW!!!! I used A9X flares and cut right up to the bolt holes. You can sort of see it in the middle pic. Sorry there's 3 pics but I scanned them all in together ages ago so this is all I have. The cut looks really bodgy, I don't remember it being that bad : ) Oh how we live and learn hahaha. I also cut the door up to the bolt holes too.

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Edited by dirtbag, 25 January 2011 - 07:40 PM.

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#31 TerrA LX

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Posted 25 January 2011 - 08:03 PM

Cheers mate.

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#32 Ruts

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Posted 26 January 2011 - 09:17 AM

There you go this is how it should and I guess WILL look when your finished. I'm talking about where the door flare meets the end of the sill panel.

http://australianmus...5628-a9x-torana

Edited by Ruts, 26 January 2011 - 09:20 AM.

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#33 _Big Fella_

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Posted 26 January 2011 - 10:14 AM

hey mate awesome work. any one have any idea on where to get those widened gts rims from, the wife wants a set for her torrie!

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#34 _dirtbag_

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Posted 07 February 2011 - 08:10 PM

Hey Ruts the more I look at the pic you posted of the yellow flare you fixed the more I feel I'll have to weld some metal back into the sill so it all lines up. That one you did just looks so neat.

Big Fella, you can buy GTS wheels (but they're known as rally 2) from classic industries in USA. Californian Image in Qld here deal with them a lot and can get them in easily enough. They come in sizes from 14x6 up to 15x10.

Well I had to have a bit of an op last week so was stuck on my ass for a week but went back in today and started chopping one of the front flares, seeing as they fit so well.

Here's a before shot. I've even moved the flare a bit here to improve it. It was worse.

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You can see the front and rear of the flare are totally the wrong shape.

I took the flare off and found quite a collection of flare bolt holes.

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Along with some nice big cracks in the paint.

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While sanding the paint off the old holes before I welded them up I found some filler. Not good to have around when you need to weld up holed so it got sanded back a bit away from the holes.

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The front of the flare was so twisted it was physically impossible for me to bend it back into shape by hand. I started by making some long cuts along the flare so I could twist it straight. I'll end up putting a lot of cuts in the flare to reshape it, but i don't mind. It has to be done.

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I also cut a wedge out f the back of the flare where it curled back in towards the wheel. After seeing it back on the car I could tell it needs to move back a bit more so I'll cut more before I fibreglass it up.

I made about 8 cuts in the front of the flare so it would line up with the spoiler and pull the lower corner out so the tyre doesn't hit it. I then taped the front and back of the flare into shape to have a look.

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I then did the old tape and bog trick to hold it in place to get fibreglassed.

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At least now it holds a much better shape, even without the clamps on it.

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Here's an old pic to show how it was. You can see how far in the lower part of the flare is behind the spoiler.

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Now there's only one set of holes : )

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Here's the inside of the rear of the flare. I did cut a bit more out to pull the lower part away from the tyre.

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And here's the mess I had to make of the front of the flare. I'm sure there's a simpler way of doing this but I know NOTHING about fibreglass. I just kept the cuts long so the flare could move a lot and still keep it's shape. I don't want to have to pull the flare into shape to bolt it on, that's when they and/or the paint will crack.

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I know it looks bad, but it really was that badly out of shape. It was more out of shape than me if you can believe that : )

It looks good now though.

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Well tomorrow I'll peel the tape and bog off and bolt it back on, with my fingers crossed : )

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#35 _Bomber Watson_

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Posted 07 February 2011 - 08:53 PM

Tim, i've been glassing on and off for years, thats how i do it mate.

Cheers.

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#36 _L32M20_

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Posted 07 February 2011 - 08:57 PM

The sill would look better with the bit replaced,but youd have to blend it back into the arch to.is it achieveable?

Edited by L32M20, 07 February 2011 - 09:02 PM.

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#37 _dirtbag_

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Posted 07 February 2011 - 09:11 PM

Thanks bomber. Feel free to share your knowledge any time you see me do something dumb : )

L32M20 yes the wheel arch can be blended in. I'll just have to add more metal. I think it would make it look a lot neater with it done so there's no step in under the flare.

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#38 _Bomber Watson_

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Posted 07 February 2011 - 09:22 PM

Na masking tape and bog are the way to go hehehe.

That and ply wood.

Cheers.

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#39 Ruts

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Posted 07 February 2011 - 09:33 PM

With all the labour hours the owner will be up for it would have been cheaper to bin those flares and buy a better set. I must admit I haven't cut flares up like that before but in the long run all will be good. Just fold up a small piece on your folder and weld it to the end of the sill panel. If you want Tim I have a shell I'm about to cut up for parts and I'll be happy to cut the sill ends off and post them to you if need be, just a thought.

Ruts

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#40 _dirtbag_

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Posted 07 February 2011 - 09:44 PM

Yeah Ruts these flares are a lot of work. I've just had to work with what was there. They'll come up well though.

Thanks for the offer of the sill panels, but they'll be easy enough to fabricate. I appreciate the offer though, thanks.

I don't suppose you have a decent sedan body and a couple of hatch doors? I really want to make a torana 2 door sedan delivery to go with my ute : )

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#41 Ruts

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Posted 08 February 2011 - 07:38 PM

Wish I could help buddy but the shells I have spare are rusty. Can't help with the doors either, sorry mate.

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#42 MictheAussie

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Posted 09 February 2011 - 02:17 AM

Ruts can't you see Dirtbag loves rusty shells. Seems that's all he works on. :lol:

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#43 Ruts

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Posted 09 February 2011 - 08:27 AM

Ruts can't you see Dirtbag loves rusty shells. Seems that's all he works on.

Sorry how silly of me I should know better shouldn't I, LOL

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#44 _dirtbag_

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Posted 15 February 2011 - 09:08 PM

This is the right front flare from below just to show how out of shape the front flares were.

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Here's how the left flare now sits.

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It's had a bit of filler put on it now. As have the old bolt holes in the front guard.

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I thought I'd better do something about the right front flare. Here's another shot of how good it is.

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I took the flare off to discover there was too much of the guard cut away to mount the flare.

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The easiest way I could think of to get around this was to weld some washers onto the guard to mount the flare.

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It's not pretty, but I don't have unlimited time to spend on this and the flare sits on there fine now anyway so I'm happy enough with it.

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After a few cuts to allow the flare to sit in the right spot.

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Had to make the usual cuts in the rear of the flare too.

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Got one of the seats mounted too. They're recaro seats and will look good in there once trimmed.

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I used some 8mm nutserts in the front of the seat mount as the front mounts lined up perfectly there.

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I had to cut the rear mounts off the seat runners and move them forward so they'd line up with the stock torana mounts in the floor. The good thing about this is the original seats can just bolt back in if needed as none of the factory mounts are changed.

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That's it for now : )

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#45 _nzstato_

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Posted 16 February 2011 - 05:34 AM

Gee someone really made a hack jobs of those flares, you're really going above and beyond to fix a poor product/workmanship. I agree the washers were probably the easiest way out, only alternative would be to source a new guard to cut, nice work as always.

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#46 Peter UC

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Posted 16 February 2011 - 06:27 PM

Nice work as always but I would look at something more substantial to mount the front seat than a hexsert, they are really designed for high strength applications, also the sheetmetal needs a backing plate to reinforce the mount as well.

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#47 _Bomber Watson_

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Posted 16 February 2011 - 09:13 PM

Not this again.....

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#48 MRLXSS

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Posted 17 February 2011 - 08:45 AM

Looking good Tim! You'd hate to look at my car up close! You'd see how bad my flares line up and wanna rip them off and fix them! LOL. Next time I'm just gonna splurge and buy a full set of Wilson Flares! LOL

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#49 _dirtbag_

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Posted 17 February 2011 - 06:43 PM

Thanks Matt. Yeah I should have just bought wilsons ones for this but I just worked with what I was given.

Speaking of what i was given, I fibreglassed up the last flare today.

Instead of using tape and bog to hold the flare in place after cutting it I just used fibreglass. It can be ground into shape easily enough.

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Once that was dry taped up and fibreglassed the inside.

Of course I had to cut a wedge out of the rear of the flare.

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Seeing as the car will be coming off the hoist soon I thought it made sense to mask up the tank and pipes while it was up nice and high.

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