The Story Of A Vit.

[Anton]

The thing about the brace (as I see it) is that it doesn't just make a good plan B - if you brace an ally diff, and then swap in a steel casing later on, you can always use the brace on the steel casing to make it super extra grenade proof.

I bought a dial indicator and a dial indicating torque wrench to swap the internals of a diff, but then I found myself wondering - if I do the job myself, am I going to be happy that I haven't cocked up the job?

Am I going to then spend the rest of my days wondering if I did it right, and whether or not I'm going to destroy my diffs because I thought I knew what I was doing and didn't?

I know a couple of guys who really know diffs. I'm hoping that eventually I can pop over to one of them when they rebuild a diff and help them with the job, learn a few things, and then I have some spare diffs I can practice on!

[r-nottz]

Yeah that's the problem with doing certain things yourself, I'm pretty confident on a lot of mechanical things bu never touched transmissions/differentials quite alot goes on inside those things and my head may explode a few times haha!


In other news got a few parts through yesterday.

Diff drop brackets and front strut spacers to allow my 3" lift to work safely

Also the truck should be done tomorrow, all the weldings done bar the Subaru seats getting welded in.
Cant wait to get it back and begin finishing it!

[r-nottz]

Trucks back.

Box sills fitted
Holes welded up
Subaru seats fitted
I also made some composite door cards for easy clean

Now to finish painting and get him all together again!

[r-nottz]

[r-nottz]

Finished a little earlyer today so managed to get a couple of hours in.


I've already painted the lower rear end of the truck in black hammerite so I got to get the front done now.


So got the old wire brush attachment out and got at the bubbly surface rust, took it to bare metal then stuck some rust converter/primer on ready to paint, bit over the top I guess but makes sense to do while I got the time.

Hopefully ill be able to get it painted up and the underneath of the truck undersealed soon!

[ScottieJ]

Coming along nicely! Are you going to cap the ends of the box sills off? Might be a good idea to stop them getting filled with crap.

Also don't be scared of diffs, as long as you take your time and check all the bearing preloads and backlash is in spec you are good to go. I've built them up by feel before and they have lasted years, in fact one I built by feel for mine, as far as I'm aware its still in the back of a mates 410 that used to be my dads and it's been through a few owners since

[r-nottz]

Cheers mate!

Yeah there going to be capped as soon as the front wings go on, obviously the wings need some cutting back then tacking onto the siils and front bumper so will do it at the same time.

And yeah mate I'm looking more and more into it, I think a quiet calm Sunday I might be able to do something with it!

[robbie1985]

Your truck is looking good mate, I've been toying with the idea of cutting out my sills for box section, my passenger side sill has had a right kicking. Cheaper then rock sliders too lol

[r-nottz]

Cheers mate were getting there!

And yeah I cant recommend doing it enough, I folded the sills horribly on my last vitara so it made sense to take advantage while I could!

[r-nottz]

So I got everything up together now to lift and finish off the Vitara (for now anyway)

Got the rest of the paint, and all the suspension stuff is ready to be fitted, hoping to have a good days painting followed by a good days fitting the new parts, really looking forward to getting her all back up together and seeing a bit of mud, it's been a long time coming but.hopefully the wait has been worth it!






Merry Christmas you lot hope Santa brings you what you want!