TimS wrote: ↑Tue Jul 11, 2017 3:26 pm
Good advice, Foggy. It is cracked now on the right and displaced badly.
So I have started a precursory cleanout of the back of the bug. In the process I am learning lots of things.
The increased exhaust noise was probably not from the exhaust but from the multiple cracks in the body. Same with the dust intrusion.
Sometime six years ago, I thought that I could bridge a 4" wide gap with silicone chaulk spread over duct tape. It worked, until the gap grew. At least access to the torsion housing will be easy.
Those tools that you put in your car "because it might come in handy" don't come in handy at all once you forget they exist. They migrate to the low spots and add extra weight.
Antifreeze is not a rust inhibitor.
It wasn't my body that was flexing, it was the car flexing under the body. Hence the cracks and whatnot.
It was a good thing I used a side post battery because I was worried about a hard hit pushing it into something metal. It moved, about 2" upward along with the floor.
I have done a lot of good upgrades once I realized what I was doing, just not enough of them.
My cage tie in's cracked not because the body was moving, but because the cage was moving. The places I tied into "because they were strong" were the places I should have strengthened.
I found a $28 headlamp still in the box. :Lol:
When I told Ed Horton that I had no more paper towels, that was a lie. I actually had three more rolls.
Bagels definitely, absolutely, and without any doubt in my mind keep far far longer than bread... And they still don't taste half bad.
When I asked Brandon for a 20 amp fuse and also when I had to do some bypass wiring because "I didn't have one", there was actually a new unopened box of 10, 20 amp fuses in the seat pocket the whole time.
Six screw drivers. Did I really need six screwdrivers? Same with pliers. Found a bunch of those.
I'm sure there are other lessons for me to learn. Right now I am seeing some doable fixes and opportunities for upgrade. My knowledge and skills are upgraded from the last time I've even seen some of this metal.
Aaaaaah... yeah!
From what I think I read you have more than just A-pillar to torsion tube problems. No offence meant but wouldn't it be easier to start over with a new rig? Cracks in the body, my goodness!
I learned a lot this year when putting my seats in my black buggy and I told it to XXX (I forget his name this minute) who is building a super glass bodied off-road, beautiful toy that if I started over I would do a couple of things differently plus... violate one engineering rule:
The body lift I built is good... much better then the commercial ones just because it supports both the pan and the body in a 360° parameter (Ignore the pedal thing as I wouldn't get into that again) of thicker materials.
The second thing, which drives the violation of engineering principles, a flaw dealt with the 1" square tubing I put in the body mount gutter from the underneath side. When I was fitting the seats I was getting in and out often and had others help me with the fit check getting in and out and, I did not have the pan and the body + body lift all bolted together. I sometime later noticed that the 1" square tube in the body mount gutter had bent some; yes I could pull it back into shape but it wasn't doing all I wanted it to do. One other thing I didn't do was to extend the 1" square tubing up the rear body mount to the tunnel like I now think I should have.
I like the idea but instead of a 1" X 0.095 wall square tube for the body to mount to but now I think I would go with a 1 X 2 X 0.095 wall rectangular tube or maybe a 1 X 3" X 0.095 wall rectangular tube assuming they made one. The rectangular tube could then hang beneath the body and could be used as a rock slider or a sacrificial piece could be added to the underside that to protect the basic construction. There is one drawback to it... the nuts that tie the whole thing together would be facing down and extending in a way that they could be susceptible to damage or hanging up on things like trees or other nasty things.
Here is where the violation to the basic principal comes in. I would open up the side of the rectangular tube and put the head of the bolt there, with the shank and threads pointing up, then weld it is place and close the hole(s) up. I would then use either a locking nut or add a second jam nut (acorn nut?). Normally you have the nut on the bottom so if the nut loosens up and drops off... the bolt is still there doing some holding in place. A lot of work but it may be worth it. The other option would be to remove the body mount galley and replace it with a 2 X 4 X XXX rectangular tube to be the body mount and the pan's floor mount.
I would also tie the torsion tube to the pan in at least 2 additional places per side and maybe use the body lift as the attachment device and use a fastenered contact to the torsion tube so the lift can be removed.
Over-kill, I'm not so sure about that, I want that potential pan and pan to body flex out of there; as you start to cut the body up you are changing the paths of stress to some or more than some of an extent. There are times that a light duty recreational Baja takes as much or more abuse than a class racer does
, after all, stupid is catching.
How you mount the cage also can make difference but still, there is the possibility of the basics to get damaged based on how the cage is attached to the pan and the wracking of the stock pan when the body is modified.
Again, I am basing this on a glass body that has no real structure to it and also to the damn-age that I hear about from Baja owners.
Now that the seriousness of the problem is staring me in the face, it's easier to justify cutting into the body and messing with my cozy dust free cabin. It's kind of refreshing to not wonder how much is holding it up but instead know(!) that the torsion tube is little more than a dust cover for the torsion bar. 
It is good to have some stash on board just incase 
