Frankensteins GQ Resurection

so time to bolt the cab down firm, new bolts of course and nice big washers. the rear two had done what they all do and split the nuts out of their captive housings and the factory hole isn't big enough to fit a decent sized washer through so i ran a hole saw through and made them the same size as the others in the floor, i'll just put a grommet in to cover them up and they will look like that's how they were meant to be

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pulled the roof lining out

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and the factory insulation, no sign of rust at all :) no wonder these things rust so often though there is bugger all paint under the roof lining, pretty much just thin primer.

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splashed the first coat of paint on, couple more coats on the roof and a few on the floor and I can start to put the insulation in.

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Awsome mate, it's coming along well. Looks like so much fun would love to do this to my GQ, maybe one day. . .

You might as well spray some fish oil along the sides of the roof in behind the roofside support panels and the roof itself, as this is where any rust will start on the inside and eat its way out to the outside in the gutters.

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Originally Posted by happygu

You might as well spray some fish oil along the sides of the roof in behind the roofside support panels and the roof itself, as this is where any rust will start on the inside and eat its way out to the outside in the gutters.

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great minds think alike, that's the plan. i'll coat everywhere in fish oil that i can't paint and hopefully it will stay rust free :)

Awesome job if only I had the time and space to be able to do this, well done
Might want to think about putting some acoustic batts down inside the 1/4 panels
makes a big differece

so this turned up with a courier yesterday :)

it's 12sq meters of butyl rubber (doing the firewall, roof, floor and doors), 8sq meters of dense foam underlay, (firewall and floor under carpet), and 4sq meters of thermal quilt insulation (for the roof under the roof lining)

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now i just need to finish painting the inside so i can start to lay it all down :)

even though the picture doesn't show it the best, i scrubbed the floor with sugar soap and got all the crap off it, after it dries i'll wipe it over with prepsol ready for paint.

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drilled out the spot welds to a couple of unnecessary brackets

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Excellent write up of a great build. I look forward to seeing more of it.

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Originally Posted by mudnut

Excellent write up of a great build. I look forward to seeing more of it.

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thanks mate :) i'm just looking forward to it being finished

How's this going mate?

How's the build coming along OLY great thread mate

Hey Oly, I have a 91 Nissan GQ - she's in great shape but had a hard life with the dirt roads over here in Tanzania. I would like to take the body off the chassis for two reasons - the first, to brace the rear suspension mounts as you have done and the second, for a complete respray before fitting some sound insulation and new carpets etc and third, to replace all of the bushes and engine mounts. How hard is it to remove the body from the chassis? What time is involved? Have you got a diagram of all of the bolts holding the body to the chassis? Sorry for the hundred questions, relatively new to the forum and looks like you are doing more or less what I'd like to do...

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Originally Posted by Shummezz

Hey Oly, I have a 91 Nissan GQ - she's in great shape but had a hard life with the dirt roads over here in Tanzania. I would like to take the body off the chassis for two reasons - the first, to brace the rear suspension mounts as you have done and the second, for a complete respray before fitting some sound insulation and new carpets etc and third, to replace all of the bushes and engine mounts. How hard is it to remove the body from the chassis? What time is involved? Have you got a diagram of all of the bolts holding the body to the chassis? Sorry for the hundred questions, relatively new to the forum and looks like you are doing more or less what I'd like to do...

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It is a big job that's for sure. Unsure on a time frame though..
There are 10 bolts in a wagon.
4 do either side of the cabin and 2 next to the radiator.
There is a main loom plug under the passenger seat (we have right hand drive cars so unsure if it's the same for left hand drive)
But then you also have to strip out things like air conditioner hoses to body, heater hoses, brake and clutch lines, fuel lines, battery cables and whatever else there is in the engine bay..

hey fella's sorry about the late reply, have been flat out lately, and the mrs car sh!t itself so that's taken a bit of my spare time too (who'd buy a cruiser, honestly)

I have done a little bit i'll have to load up some photo's cab is nearly ready for paint..

Shummezz it's not a technically difficult endeavour to lift the cab and if you plan on putting down sound deadener then all the carpet and inside goodies will already be out. Westy is fairly onto it with having to pay attention to making sure everything underbonnet is disconnected such as air con and things and all of the wiring does unplug so not too bad there. the crappy bit to look out for is the two rear cab mount bolts that come up from the bottom have a really weak cage holding the nut so spray with WD40 and some freeze and release every day for at least a week before attempting to undo them. sometimes they break anyway and you have to cut a larger hole as I did anyway. a hoist also helps because the way I lifted the cab was sh!t too..

so as i mentioned progress has slowed down alot. but hasn't completely stopped

these photo's show where the front clip had separated from the cab below the windscreen

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welded the back up and welded the last few cracks in the front inner guards

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then i went and found myself one of these brace kits, painted it up as it would be a bit hard to get to after its welded

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and set about zapping them in

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i had to run through the passenger side brace with a 3 and a half inch hole saw for the snorkel hole before i could finish welding it in and i'm going to try slip a piece of pipe in to fill the hole so i'll head to the steel shop tomorrow to try to find some.

after bracing the front i started on the back...

pulled these little trim bits off

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bit of marking out 10mm down from the crease, a bit of duct tape gives me a nice straight edge

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then i very lovingly cut the f*#kers off with a grinder. It was getting a bit dark so i didn't get any more photo's but i'll grab some tomorrow and hopefully weld the plates on the bottom

Looking good mate. Where did you get those brace kits from, i like those. Have a suspicion mine is making some clunks from that area.

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Originally Posted by Rossco

Looking good mate. Where did you get those brace kits from, i like those. Have a suspicion mine is making some clunks from that area.

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if it's a GQ then it's more likely cracked than not. i phoned andrew at Big-O 4x4. it was about $110 delivered i think from memory

a few quick snaps of the rear quarters cut off and the plates being tacked on

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a few little dents sanded. then i beat them out as best i could and filled them up

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after sanding back the whole cab it's now in primer, starting to get to the pointy end of the stick

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and a couple that i forgot to put up before of the pipe where the snorkel hole is

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