ok, so not much visual progress last night, but sometimes its best to sit back and think. the plan was to go down last night and try and sort out the area around the rear bump stop bracket. however, it was soon apparent that this was not going to be possible with just a grinder at hand. cutting the bump stop arm off, cutting chassis ssection out and then welding the bumpstop arm back was not an option i wanted to take. so i'm awaiting my dad to come down on friday with his plasma cutter from work. with a bit of luck we should be able to get it plasmered out, a template made, make the section and weld it in.
as we couldnt do what we wanted to our attemtion went back to how the best way to get the old front clip off and the new one grafted in - in the right place!!!! this is our plan:
we are going to fix some brakets to the Bpillar and the wheel arch which span across to the top and bottom door hinges respectively and bolt in place. this will then give us the exact height of where the new clip has to be. we can then unbolt the door hinge side, cut the old clip off, and by offering the new clip up and bolting the door hinges back up will position the clip correctly. we are going to put some tabs on the brackets to stop any of the adjustment in the door hinge and latch bolts.
we are also going to notch the 4 chassis legs that run towards the front clip to give maximum strength. we were going to pick all the chassis legs off the donar, keeping the original, but where the chassis legs of the donar meet the front looks like its just come out of a factory - which i dont want to spoil.
o ye - i managed to get the steering arm off the steering box with a chissel and hard hammer
hopefully friday i will have some progress pictures for you guys.
again advice on the big jobs are most welcome.
NaFe