Here's a couple of shots of the further work on the door. I'm please with the way it came out - at most a 1/16" skim of plastic filler will take care of the slight imperfections.
Got half a day on the truck today. Finished off the door and then remembered that I wasn't quite finished with that rear axle. Like the previous full-floater I had on there, the sway bar link mounting holes on one side of the axle were pounded out a bit, so I welded a couple of high-strength washers in to repair it.
another three. in the third I have started wok on the passenger side apron. This apron came off a BJ40 with a 3B. There is a little bracket welded to the inside of the apron to support part of the air cleaner ducting, so i removed it.
After putting primer onto the mounting strut, I commenced work on converting the apron to mount 70 series signals. Because the set I picked up from Australia did not have DOT/SAE compatible lenses and bulbs, I had to source another set from a Canadian spec. BJ70. They were in good used condition and set me back $200, but the quality is noticeably better than the after market ones I have.
The 70 series lamps have three mounting studs: the ones towards the front angle back and in (the difficult ones to fit), while the lone one at the back goes in at 90˚ to the apron (the easy one). Also, the studs emerge from plastic bosses that sit proud of the lip of the lamp body, so the mounting holes need to be dimpled in. I used a pair of sockets of different sizes and the vise to accomplish this.
Also, to fit the wiring harness through the wall of the apron, a 32mm hole was needed for the rubber grommet on the wiring harness. Fortunately I had just the right size hole saw in my collection.
Here's the finished product. The lamps fit really well, except for a tiny amount they protrude at the very front. Not much I can do about this as they can't be mounted any further rearward and I'm not prepared to fabricate a custom mounting plate (though I'm thinking that an aluminum base plate would be a pretty nice way to do this conversion...)
Once I was happy with the position they mounted in, I decided to weld stainless washers on the backside to tighten the mounting holes up a little and provide a flat base for the nuts to press down against.
[EDIT] there I go jumping the gun...they're not quite ready for epoxy primer yet. On the passenger side apron I need to weld in a bracket to mount the glow plug relay and starter relay. I am relocating those relays to that position from their original location in the passenger foot well. again, I'm taking a cue from later series cruiser improvements, and the location of the relays inside the engine bay is what you see on the 60 series trucks, so I'm going with that. Better there than in a place where they could be kicked or stepped on all the time.
I went back after dinner for a little more fun, and made some progress for sure. I grabbed the brand new fender and worked on patching the holes left after the removal of the signal lamp support bracket. I decided to do it piece meal, one hole at a time, instead of chopping the section out and fitting in one large patch
Last one, just to show a flat angle on the panel. Look ma, no distortion.
Today is a brand new day, and i plan to make some progress. I will be welding and grinding on the cab again, and that should keep me busy, along with some more work on the steering column conversion.
