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Rusty Lee Bed & Lap Belt

My rusty Lee ¾ width bed arrived this month, as I was keen to get the mounting holes drilled before I paint the engine bay.

It took me a little while to work out how it all went together, but it seems really nicely designed and pretty straightforward.

Once I’d assembled it I got it into the van on top of the Madmatz closed cell insulation, a piece of 9mm ply and the floor tiles I’ll be using to make sure it sat at the correct height:

And then drilled and fitted the mounting bolts:

While the bed was in I made up a large strengthening plate for the lap belt and 3 point belt I’ll be fitting

And a quick test to make sure it fits:

These are the floor tiles I’ll be fitting much later on:

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Final Rear End Repairs

A few minor repairs left on the rear end before I can get it into primer.

Welded in my new fuel tank strengthener and the repaired strap:

Removed a patch repair on the Rear wheel tub and welded in some neater repairs:

While I was prepping the fuel tank shelf for paint I noticed some rot creeping out on the chassis behind the suspension mounts so had to cut out a big chunk of the mount to repair it:

And while I had the welder out I made a new bump stop for the trailing arm using the old torsion bar cover plate:

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Fuel tank shelf repairs

Max came down on Sunday to start prepping the engine bay for a spot of paint. Lots of sanding to do!

I have a few areas on the fuel tank shelf that need repairing, the worst being the O/S strap and strengthener that sit underneath it. 

Chopped out:

This is what was left of the strengthening plate after I’d cut the rust out:

The rest of the metal on the plate was pretty thin so I decided to make a new one instead of repairing. I don’t have a bead roller so I rigged up a little jig on the vice instead:

to add some pressings to a sheet of metal:

I then folded over the edges and after some careful bending, welding and spot of etch primer ended up with a pretty decent copy of the original panel:

A quick trial fit too:

I also repaired the fuel tank strap and fitted a new bolt as the old one had rusted shut:

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Inner repairs made up and fitted to rear hatch, epoxied and then outer repair panel fitted. Just a few pinholes to weld up and one further repair to the aperture.

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Finally got some proper strip lights installed down the workshop so I can see what I’m doing!

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Second corner on the rear hatch window surround pretty much repaired, and battery mounts added to N/S tray for the leasure battery.

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Bugger. Lower edge is much worse than I thought. It needs the entire section replacing! I thought tailgates were still relatively cheap but looks like prices have gone up. Reckon I’ll get the JK repair and fix this one as it seems a shame to chuck it.

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Tailgate repairs & O/S track cover mount

Onto the tailgate which needed some repair sections let in around the windscreen aperture and along the lower edge.

Both corners had rust holes, with the N/S corner having a crappy repair someone had previously made. 

All rust cut out:

And started making up some repair sections:

This corner is pretty much done, I just need to fill a few pin holes and grind a few areas down a little more. Much tidier:

I’ve also welded in the O/S track cover mount (the N/S needs some repairs in that area before I can get the mount welded in):

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Engine Lid Conversation

The new engine lid I bought for the van is for the later pin style hinge, and as I wanted to keep the earlier proper hinge I needed to convert the mounts.

The first step is to cut off the pin hinge and weld shut the hole:

Then cut the slots for the hinge:

I was originally going to fit rivnuts but I wanted adjustable nuts, and rivnuts would sit slightly proud of the surface so I had a cunning plan.

Firstly drill holes for where the nuts will sit, but additionally drill a secondary small hole next to it:

Then in an attempt to replicate a cage nut, fabricate a u shaped bracket with a tab to weld to which fits the nut with a small amount of wiggle room (I welded blobs to the corners of the nut too):

Then using a pair of allen keys coax the nut and bracket into position behind the holes and hold in place with a cleco clip (unbelievably faffy and very nearly resulted in me throwing the engine lid across the workshop):

Followed by a confident plug weld through the hole to hold it all in place. 

Repeat on the other 3 nuts and the job is done. The lid fits pretty much perfectly now:

And shuts with a satisfying thunk:

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