My aim (at the moment) is a straight road SJ capable of moderate off-road, but working and looking as good as I can get - for me looking good is v close to original but with some 'improvements'. I'm doing this on a tight budget over time and the brief might change as I go along. If there's a goal I'd say a really long trans Euro road trip.
Wheels and tyres.
It arrived with standard wheels and 195 75 tyres, all knackered. Got 5 Weller offsets from Andy which needed stripping and refinishing:
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Got 4 cheap tyres (Khumo I think) 215/75/15 which should see me 8k (at 55 quid I decided they owe me about 8k). I need a spare so on the lookout locally.
Worth noting I think the Wellers are 7J and bead-to-bead is 7". The 215s are about 6.5" bead-to-bead and whilst they will happily fit the 7J, I suspect a 225 would match rim width betteralthough I suppose steering would be heavier still.
I plan to repaint the original wheels and find some 205/75s for them - this time a more winter/offroad pattern probably. I'll be interested to compare weight of weller 215 combo v std 205 - the wellers feel heavy and unsprung weight being a bad thing etc.
Body
Chose this one because it was really good in a dead honest kind of way. Tiny amount of rust front nearside wing in usual place (front corner of arch), a small hole in offside sill which seems to have started from outside - inside sills so far look v good. One spot of rust at rear corner of floor just inside tailgate - I need to really scratch around under to locate source, but all feels very solid around there.
It's a bit untidy and just plain dull. Inside is grubby. I had to wire in the towbar so had the rear bumper off and took the opportunity to repaint as it was typical surface rusty. I used satin black but then later tested loadliner paint on a patch of the front bumper (a muddymesser trick I found) - this could be very good as it's supertough and a good balance of matt/satin (satin black is too shiny). One thing I found - do NOT wipe with paper towels, ever... looked great when it went on, not so clever now:
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The whole front needs tidying - found a bullbar I'm happy with and the wrap-round one that came with it is probs off to Wiltshire. The grill backing (perforated metal sheet thing) looks awful and I think it's plain aluminium. May be better black.
Inside, I need a new glovebox and there seem to be 2 different catches. See wanted if you have a rotary cam type one please?
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I also need to get inside some electrics - dipped beam nil, high beam one. Bit of a mystery at the mo - not bulbs, not fuse...? And a dodgy stereo and alarm need stripping out along with a bundle of spaghetti under the dash. I might fit a wireless one day
Carbs
Probs with the Aisin of course. To be fair it had been stored about 3 years before I got it. But the view seems to be fit an SU rather than spend time trying to sort the Aisin. So I await a modded manifold from Richard, and I have to sort air side on the SU. Also choke cable termination and probably throttle too.
I gather my SU needs a BDL needle/jet but the one in it was for a Metro 1300, I may give it a go
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General view - I'm hoping a good tune and the SU will more than compensate for the bigger tyres (only about 5% increase in dia) - it's running rich at the mo due to autochoke issues.
It needs dampers, and a Tbox (current is noisy and past good) - I suspect another 413 box for my purposes, prob a Richard rebuild. And there'll be a load more but my aim is keep in on the road at almost all times, and fix/improve as we go.
)
Got them done (4) for £48 incl vat.
