I have a 75 series with about 280,000ks on the clock and 27 years on the calendar. A little side story first. I had a noise in the gearbox and a friend and I drove around trying to isolate it. After we figured out it was probably the lay shaft (counter shaft) i.e. little noise in 4th but present in every other gear, I decided to let the experts deal with it. I’m getting to old to lift h55f’s out of a ute now. $4400 later all fixed. The clutch was tired so he suggested replacing it with an Exedy Heavy duty while he was in there. Safari tuff being overkill for a 1hz. New Cluster Gear, Input shaft, long spline final and all bearings and seals throughout the box and transfer. I received a phone call telling me the Pinion nut had come loose at some stage and pinion shaft had flogged the flange splines out. Did I want him to fix it? Sure, why not! His version of tightening a nut was to recondition the diff with new bearings throughout, shimmed limited slip with 80 flb side to side and even regreased the rear wheel bearings and fitted new genuine seals. So, everything from the new rear main seal backwards is reconditioned. BTW, Hart Engineering in Brendale did the work and I’m very happy. Fast and done properly.
Anyway, I’m driving around listening to hear any strange sounds from the new work when I thought; I can hear that a little too well. Went home and lifted the vinyl floor up and … sure enough a huge rust hole through the floor on the passenger and a few pin holes (big pins) in the driver’s side.
So, swore a lot, started thinking about it and decided to have a go myself. First I wire wheeled the floor, rust converted what was left and decided what to cut out. I wasn’t going to buy a whole floor pan for the section I needed so I made a press jig out of some MDF and a ‘ground to shape’ piece of 15 x 12 mild steel bar. I made the piece in 4 sections and welded them together. I figured it was too hard to make a jig to do the whole piece at once. I put a 1mm slitting wheel on the grinder and started hacking. I ground down the spot welds on the sill. I spent ages fitting the plate to the hole so welding would be easier. I drilled holes through the new plate and welded through them to the old spot weld positions on the sill. I bird s***ted around the cut section and ground the welds a bit flatter but not flush with the plate. I wire brushed the floor and spray painted it with a zinc undercoat because I needed to leave it for a few weeks.
When I got back to it I painted the floor with Dulux Rustoleum undercoat and white epoxy topcoat, and forgot to take photos of the finished job. Looked that good that you’d think someone knew what they were doing, sort of. The floor has now been covered with Car Builders sound deadening product. It is an aluminium sheet with about 2mm of butyl rubber underneath that you roll onto the surface and the rubber sticks without glue. I covered the floor from the from under the vinyl on the firewall back to the seat bolts and stopped there. No photos yet. It’s quieter but not a good as I expected, so I have also bought some new waterproof underlay from the same company. Haven’t fitted it yet. I’ll try to get some photos while I’m fitting that.
Note: should have bought the replacement floor pan panel.
Anyway, I’m driving around listening to hear any strange sounds from the new work when I thought; I can hear that a little too well. Went home and lifted the vinyl floor up and … sure enough a huge rust hole through the floor on the passenger and a few pin holes (big pins) in the driver’s side.
So, swore a lot, started thinking about it and decided to have a go myself. First I wire wheeled the floor, rust converted what was left and decided what to cut out. I wasn’t going to buy a whole floor pan for the section I needed so I made a press jig out of some MDF and a ‘ground to shape’ piece of 15 x 12 mild steel bar. I made the piece in 4 sections and welded them together. I figured it was too hard to make a jig to do the whole piece at once. I put a 1mm slitting wheel on the grinder and started hacking. I ground down the spot welds on the sill. I spent ages fitting the plate to the hole so welding would be easier. I drilled holes through the new plate and welded through them to the old spot weld positions on the sill. I bird s***ted around the cut section and ground the welds a bit flatter but not flush with the plate. I wire brushed the floor and spray painted it with a zinc undercoat because I needed to leave it for a few weeks.
When I got back to it I painted the floor with Dulux Rustoleum undercoat and white epoxy topcoat, and forgot to take photos of the finished job. Looked that good that you’d think someone knew what they were doing, sort of. The floor has now been covered with Car Builders sound deadening product. It is an aluminium sheet with about 2mm of butyl rubber underneath that you roll onto the surface and the rubber sticks without glue. I covered the floor from the from under the vinyl on the firewall back to the seat bolts and stopped there. No photos yet. It’s quieter but not a good as I expected, so I have also bought some new waterproof underlay from the same company. Haven’t fitted it yet. I’ll try to get some photos while I’m fitting that.
Note: should have bought the replacement floor pan panel.
