Suzuki Club UK

Not updated this a while, although only started getting back into it last week, these posts are copied from another forum so bare with me

Once i cut out the old arch....












Ignore all the tac welds along the outer arch, I wish i had tac'd it on the inside, and it'll be grinding them all off, as i've now seem welded along the inside of the wing and i'll get some photos of that today...

I was abit hesitant without trying to remake the corner that was rotten, but i thought I might aswell try to learn on a car that will be getting used and abused anyway, so i gave this a bash too...





Open to any critism, guys on here have done this along time before me, so open to any pointers you may have for me!

So today i got the arch finally all seem welded along the wing, and finishing off the weld on the patch at the rear would of got more done but i ended up giving my neighbour a hand with a van.





Tomorrows plans are to finish off the arch on this side, box it in, and join it into the floor where the bulkhead to the pickup bed will be going back in. Might even try get a start on the next side too





Hopefully it stays dry so i can get the sheet steel outside to cut it!

So today I actually got done what I wanted to, still need to position and seem weld the inner part of the arch which hopefully I can squeeze in tomorrow between dropping a pals wheels off in Hamilton and I get a strange feeling the misses may have said a while ago she has a doctors appointment i've to take her to...

But anyway, some pictures...

Need to go get more gas tomorrow before I can do any more, but today I got the arch finished off apart from a very small patch I need to cut and weld in place, amazing feeling seeing one side done, has motivated me to get the rest finished all the quicker!







And that's me now up to my latest progress, must say having the one arch done on that side has certainly given me the motivation to fire through the rest of the sj now, would love any pointers and/or guidance from people if they see anything from the pictures...

Cheers

So with the arch all finished, I started to move towards the front on the same side, found some rot where the floor goes into the rear bed



So cut it out and plate a new plate in...




I was hoping to get onto the holes in the driver foot well once I had finished that, but the car obviously had other plans, as i've discovered this rot, some of it even where the seat mounts are, so i'm assuming i'll be best to cut out the seat mounts out, replace all the metal around that area and then reweld the mounts back in place...







And it's even started rotting below the seat belt mount :( Glad i've found it though, just a pain to get into with the grinder, open to any suggestions!

Tidy. Neat welding too.

donkeychomp wrote:Tidy. Neat welding too.

Thanks mate, my first time welding thin metal and on a car, so appreciate feed back on it

But with this being an off roader and not having to be 'show quality' I'm using it as a learning curve

I really admire someone who can weld and do body work like that,i dont have a clue,wish i had taken lessons years ago but not at my age.I can do all the mechanical work but even that prefer to get someone local to do that as well.

Great work

RickUK wrote:I really admire someone who can weld and do body work like that,i dont have a clue,wish i had taken lessons years ago but not at my age.I can do all the mechanical work but even that prefer to get someone local to do that as well.

Great work

Thanks a lot mate, not fancy getting a welder and just teaching yourself?
I learnt basics of mig on thick metal while I was at college, but it wasn't really part of my course, just always had an interest in it, but I'm really enjoying it, and a lot of the time it usually helps when I'm out on the rig anyway