Suzuki Club UK

0.6mm wire is a must on sj bodywork as it's only 0.8mm sheet in most places.

With a bit of practice you can use 0.8 but you have to go really slow.

I use soft wire wheels or poly abrasive discs for clean up so you don't loose any thickness in the good steel before repair.

I very rarely run beads on the body, just tack it in place then tack, watch the pool nearly stop glowing and tack again etc. Doing that you can run the mig on a slightly higher setting, ensuring good penetration and it's not that much slower than running a bead. Also on any external panels go really slow, spreading out your welds, it's all too easy to warp sj panels with too much heat build up in one area.

Cheers guys for the advice, i guess ill use some 0.6 next time. Scottie where do you get the poly abrasive wheels from as ive only ever used one from Screwfix and it was like £8 a disc?

Got bored so i started painting rust patches with rust converter and then primer, but got a bit carried away




I did intend to finish of the rear virtual lift and weld the drivers floor but my brother took the grinder to work

Also found some pics of when i first saw it.

Looks like its coming along nicely.

Got some more done today!
Hope you enjoy

Fixed the screen surround and then started the front virtual lift, well almost completed it.

I cut the bottom of one screen surround i had and tack welded it to my yellow screen surround. It worked out quite well as my yellow on had a good top part and the primer coloured one had a good bottom part but rusty top part.

Rusty yellow one



Good primer coloured one


Welded together




I then did the VL. I ran out of slitting discs so i couldn't do the trimming of the bulkhead








Ive marked out where i think i'm meant to trim it but i'm unsure. Does this look about right?

Excellent, looking really good, keep it up!

Looks about right that line, Ive just followed the curve around

Update!

Haven't done loads as i've been cracking on with my A-Levels but i managed to strip down the chassis ready for cleaning and painting . I've ordered a load of parts and am going to wait until i'm free to start repairing broken bits and the re assembly.
I've used a big strap to help re arch the old front springs, if it doesn't work ill throw on another pair.

Couple pics.



The stack goes old flat one, good condition spring and then "re arched" spring.






I was on a walk when i saw this just down the road from me in a farmers field . Don't know why people do this, there seems to be alot of cases of people burning out other peoples vehicles around the area i live in . Although i love the SJ's i do like a nice defender so its a real shame, i think its someone whos local as i saw a post of Facebook about one that'd gone missing.





Anyway watch this space as i'm sure there will be more regular updates on progress soon!

I wouldn't count on the re arched spring to stay that way for long. They never do!

Coming along nicely though