The dreaded rot . . .

[John_McCartney]

Two problems with my KZJ which I'd appreciate some advice about.

1) The fuel tank guard is rusting away - indeed it's gone in a couple of places. Can I get a new one/second-hand one easily? And (because I've never had occasion to take the tank out) is the tank supported by the guard and the two big metal straps, or is it mounted to the chassis separately? Any advice gratefull received.

2) Embarrassingly one of my wheel-arch spats fell off yesterday while driving through a local village. The little mounting brackets which attached it to the front offside wing had rusted through. The wheel arch itself is not too rusty, and I have a few of the necessary brackets from a friend's 70. But is it easier to glue/mastic it back on rather than grinding off the old brackets and rivets and rivetting up the new ones? My thinking is that it might be kinder to the (slightly tender) wheel arch to glue it. If so, what product should I use to stick it back on. Again, all helpful advice gratefully received.

 

[ModelMakerMan]

I had the same problem with my fuel tank guard, youll find its even worse than you thought when you take it off. I tried to repair mine and beef it up but the metal was too thin and corroded to weld to so I just made a new one (pictures somewhere on this forum).

Yes the tank and guard is supported by the straps only, I would recommend replacing the feed and return pipes into the tank whilst you have it off because its not a job you want to do twice and if the guard is that corroded likelihood is the pipes wont be far behind.

 

[John_McCartney]

Thanks for that - anything difficult about removing the pipes?

 

[Ben]

you might be able to get a guard off some one breaking a 70. you could try Karl on here.

or if your handy on the tools you could make one easily. if it was me, id take some measurements, drop into my local metal fabricators and ask them to cut me a piece of 4-6mm plate, and put a couple of folds in it. maybe fold all the edges about an inch in, at 45 degrees.

then you would just need to paint it and bolt it on.

regarding the arches.

to remove the old brackets use a 4mm HSS drill bit to drill the old rivets out. there only alloy and the heads soon spin off allowing easy removal of the brackets. id then rust kill everything including the replacement brackets, quick coat of paint and then rivet them on.

one thing to check though is that the captive nuts on the brackets are in good condition, on mine all the bolt heads sheared off when i tried undoing them, meaning all the captive nuts ended up with a broken piece of thread stuck in them.

you could stick them on, id recommend using stikaflex.

regarding the fuel pipes, which are definitely worth changing.

snapped one of my pipes on top of tank.

new part cost me £41 from main dealer.  

18 years worth of crud had really taken its toll on the old one.

i should have ordered some new bolts for it but i forgot.
i managed to find some but they were a bit long so i had to cut them down.

all bolted up.

theres thousands of pics and lots of detail on my build thread about what i have done to my 70.  

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=11591

 

[John_McCartney]

Cheers Ben - I was being cheeky and hoping you'd spare me the effort of going through all 79 (and counting) pages! I'm waiting for warmer weather - I have until the MOT in July.

 

[Ben]

your welcome.