The Project Dixie thread!

Wally

Club Member
This is the route I went after what you said Gary. Bought a solid carbide one. More expensive but much more effective.

Made a little progress over the last week or two - although I’ve now run out of mig gas and am away this weekend so stalled until Monday when I can pick up a new bottle. Started the first element of the RHD swap...

Looking good. I'm cheating and having Andy do mine.
 

candy red

Club Member
This is the route I went after what you said Gary. Bought a solid carbide one. More expensive but much more effective.

Made a little progress over the last week or two - although I’ve now run out of mig gas and am away this weekend so stalled until Monday when I can pick up a new bottle. Started the first element of the RHD swap...

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These were helpful new toys - magnetic copper welding backers by Eastwood. Super expensive from Frost’s, but they sent me two by accident!
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Hi Richie
Some great work your doing there ,Could you tell me where you got the copper plates from? i take it there magnets in the corners look like they would be great for doing butt welds.

Sorry Richie just seen where you got the copper plates from if you want to sell 1 let me know.
regards Derrick
 
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Rushingphil

Club Member
Hi Richie
Some great work your doing there ,Could you tell me where you got the copper plates from? i take it there magnets in the corners look like they would be great for doing butt welds.

Sorry Richie just seen where you got the copper plates from if you want to sell 1 let me know.
regards Derrick

Ooh, does that mean we will be seeing some updates on your thread please Sir? EXTRA:)

Been waiting patiently since I read your whole thread - and before I start chopping mine up!
 

richiep

Club Member
Looking good. I'm cheating and having Andy do mine.
Lazy!

I’ll hopefully finish the welding and dressing of that panel this coming week and then do some test fitting of the heater and blower motor to mark up for relocation of the blower mounts and the blower intake.

Derrick - the Eastwood weld backers came from frost.co.uk. They are 30 quid each. They have four magnets set into them on each side and work very effectively. I needed them as I’d got a couple of gaps around the panel that were going to be a pain to weld up with nothing there. They make it much easier.

And yes, I did type this after 3am this morning - just got back to the in-laws in Derby after two nights seeing Dream Theater play at the Hammersmith Apollo! Still wired post-gig, although a medium tea, bottle of Coke, and Krispy Kreme donuts en route to keep me awake while driving may be playing a role!!! Needed to get here as it’s our youngest’s sixth birthday today so another night in a London hotel and leisurely drive up while the kids were palmed off on the grandparents was not an option!
 

richiep

Club Member
Yes but my welding skills are attrocious and I'm having the whole bulkhead replaced minus a few holes and a few extras added.
To be fair, mine aren’t great and are a work in progress! I’m cheating by having bought a nice R-Tech welder that really makes it much easier to do a nice job.
 

Turn & Burn

Club Member
This is a great time to patch in the holes that you’ll never use in future (If ur not doing a perfect factory rebuild), such as finding a better route for your wiper motor cabling so it doesn’t run across the face of the bulkhead, same for washer jets, battery cabling, air-con bungs etc. Wish I’d patched a few more up whilst I was at it, I got a few a left a load!
 

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Wally

Club Member
This is a great time to patch in the holes that you’ll never use in future (If ur not doing a perfect factory rebuild), such as finding a better route for your wiper motor cabling so it doesn’t run across the face of the bulkhead, same for washer jets, battery cabling, air-con bungs etc. Wish I’d patched a few more up whilst I was at it, I got a few a left a load!

I've asked that the new bulkhead going into mine has no holes so I can put the bare minimum in myself.
 

richiep

Club Member
Yeah, there’s assorted holes in the engine bay with “X” drawn across them in Sharpie! I’m planning to do something similar to what John (Johnymd) has done with his silver car (the one with the “240Z” side stripes) - reroute the engine bay loom through the RH airtube, down the outside behind the headlight and across the inside of the lower rad support. The aim will be clean chassis rails. Plus, I’m relocating the battery to behind the passenger seat, so again, cleaner engine bay.
 

Wally

Club Member
Yeah, there’s assorted holes in the engine bay with “X” drawn across them in Sharpie! I’m planning to do something similar to what John (Johnymd) has done with his silver car (the one with the “240Z” side stripes) - reroute the engine bay loom through the RH airtube, down the outside behind the headlight and across the inside of the lower rad support. The aim will be clean chassis rails. Plus, I’m relocating the battery to behind the passenger seat, so again, cleaner engine bay.

The issue I can see with routing them through the air tube is the cabling rattling around. Would look clean though. I think I'm going to be using some bulkhead connectors. Mines having an RB25DET in it so I'll have an engine loom too.
 

richiep

Club Member
Uh-oh! Where does the steering go?!

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Still got a bit more tidying to do along the outside edge weld line to get things seamless, but close now. This weekend will be about moving the heater blower brackets over and marking out for moving the blower air intake.

Also, popped out at lunch to check on this for the first time in a couple of months:
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All was well. Managed to reach through the zippy air vent at the back of the Carcoon to open the rear hatch and retrieve Dixie’s rear arch flares which I'd left in there!

Sitting in Dixie’s engine bay a lot recently has led to me looking closely at the tweak to the right front chassis rail. Next post might be about that and opinions on what to do. Get pulled or replace the whole thing...
 

richiep

Club Member
That image is super useful, thanks!
Just taken a couple of quick measurements. The twist and bend has put the part of the frame rail from the tension rod mount back about 10mm out of position at its extreme. Everything else - strut towers, rad support, etc - are straight and true.

As I’ve mentioned before, my theory is that at some point, the car ran over something really hard; there is no other damage to the right front area other than a twist that seems to suggest energy was transferred through the tension rod. With it, the twist also put a crease into the lower bulkhead where the chassis rail joins it. Ultimately, that’s not an issue as that section of bulkhead is being cut out for the RHD conversion and the battery tray area adjoined to it will be refabricated due to rust, but I need that frame rail and inner wing to be in the right place before I think about any RHD conversion work on that side.
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The other issue here that has me ruminating on the idea of a new rail is that it shows evidence of battery acid-inspired rust. Obviously the inner wing is shot adjacent to it, and the top of the rail has some pitting, although nothing really nasty. However, there’s a couple of small rust holes in that multi-skinned triangular section under the bulkhead, suggesting battery acid got in there. If it can be pulled straight, I doubt the rust is severe enough to really justify anything more than a welding repair to the rust holes, but I don’t know...
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Obviously, replacing the chassis rail is a bunch more work. Straightening it would require all the hassle and expense of taking the shell to be pulled - or expense of me getting a body dozer and trying it myself (not something I’m sold on the idea of tackling).
 

Turn & Burn

Club Member
It looks like one of those jobs where it’s sometimes quicker to just go for it and cut the old rail out and remake the holed patch plates. Jigging could be a major hassle and you’ll always have the unknown of the internal rust if you patch it.
The rest of the rail is perfect though and do you have a spot welder to recreate the original look?
Tough call!
 

Wally

Club Member
One of my rails has a very slight kink in it. I think it’s had a hit from the front right. Everything measures square though and all the measurements are within 5mm bar one which is 8mm. I think I’m going to leave it as it is.
 

richiep

Club Member
Progress, in and around dealing with household isolation, doomsday prepping, etc...

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Managed to get the bastard blower intake out. Not fun. Then it was a case of working out how to mount it in the left hand side of the scuttle floor. I did consider refabricating the area to create a flat surface to mount the vent to, but looking at Andy’s (Woody) gallery on his full bulkhead swap, I decided to copy his method and if I cocked it it up, I could always do the more elaborate, complicated approach!

Basically, it’s a matter of cutting a hole for the intake to be pushed up through. It can then be plug welded and tacked into position. Any gaps will get the bejesus fibre-glassed and seam sealed out of them. Managed to have a session on it today and get the hole opened up and the intake inserted.
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It’s more functional than pretty, but for something hidden behind the dash and under a rain shield in the scuttle, it will be more than sufficient.
 

Turn & Burn

Club Member
Neat work, it is a fecker of a job that one. At least ur scuttle floor is nice and solid, I had to re-fab large sections of that too.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Rich whilst stripping my dash to extract the loom I was considering if I could simplify the heater/vent ducting and just use the air-tube vents for the side dash vents. Could you have used those to get air into the blower box instead of from above?
 
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