O/S Bulkhead Outrigger

The old front fuel tank outrigger was never welded along the top, and since it was welded along the bottom moisture had run down behind it against the chassis rail over time and sat there - and rot through the rail.

When I cut rot out from behind it I looked at the driver's bulkhead outrigger and knew it would be the same since there was an enormous pile of bad weld on its top edge that had not penetrated well and so popped away from the chassis rail under stress. It was also not level, being too low beneath the door pillar.

So I cut them both off at the same time, along with about 18" of rail..

Old driver's bulkhead outrigger

Behind the rail it was ok. The floor and sides all rang well under the hammer. I re-taped the wiring loom with insulation tape, ground out and drill-brushed the floor, top and sides of the rail inside, and painted it all out with Chassis-in-one.

Before. I forgot to photo 'After' I'd cleaned it up and painted inside..

This time I started with a slightly larger repair section and ground down to fit. This went much better than before. As it was 18" long I tacked the points that were flush with the adjacent metal and then used the point of a chisel to slightly lift over sections into line before tacking. Then I welded all around the section and flushed it off and was happy I could run my hand along the rail without any obvious contours. I probably spend too much time on this kind of thing.

18" chassis rail repair section ready for tacking

When I offered up the new outrigger the fun began. It didn't fit. I measured it against the new one on the N/S and it was the same. I got the spirit level out and checked various points on the chassis, and the driveway.. after a while I turned the radio off. I do that when I get worried. :)

I couldn't work out was wrong, and then I noticed the door pillar's foot on this side, that the outrigger bolt passes through, was not running parallel beneath the edge of the floorwell like on the other side. I know the pillar needs replacing as it's badly corroded, but I think it may also have taken a hit at some point as there's lots of other evidence for the previous owner using it for leisure off-roading.

I couldn't weld the new outrigger on to fit the damaged pillar because when I replaced the pillar the outrigger would then be wrong. I had to the weld the outrigger on correctly, square and flush with the top of the chassis rail, as I'd done on the passenger side, and bring the damaged pillar into line.

To cut a long story short, it took two hours, two jacks, some bits of wood, an axle stand, and a lot of swearing, but eventually I got the outrigger square on the rail with its bolt running through the pillar's foot - and quickly tacked it into place. Then I slowly removed the shims I had holding everything square, one-by-one, and slowly welded the outrigger on as I exposed more and more edges of its back plate.

Compare the pillar foot running straight underneath the floor well with the angle it runs at in the photo of the old one above..

The result is square and straight, unlike the previous one

This solves a mystery and a problem. The old outrigger was not level. I suspect it was welded on after the door pillar sagged or was hit, which is why it ran down toward the pillar's slopey foot instead of sitting level. This also explains the huge pile of bad weld on its top edge - because it was running downward off the rail there was a huge gap at the top - too much to fill with weld, but that didn't stop them trying.

One more outrigger done, and the bulkhead should be sitting a bit better now too. I've wondered why my driver's door didn't fit very well.. :)