Offroad-Express

Gidday

An explanation and a question:

The D/C Navara ute (1997) has failed the WOF for rot in the body.
Its the panel running under the A/C condenser that is bolted and spot welded on.
Who is the knob at Nissan who put a thick strip of foam on top of a steel panel at the front that will get soaked often??!!
Foreseeable outcomes people!

Time to get one of the magic drill bits, a tin of weld through primer, rust kill and borrow a MIG. Ill see if a worn out ex mechanic can do panel work!

So - anyone know of aftermarket panel part suppliers?

Ill price genuine but from memory Nissan charge lots. It would be good to compare.
You have to wonder how it passed a WOF 6 months ago without even a mention. oh yeah - shit WOF inspections. Go VTNZ!

Cheers.

You are more then welcome to repair it yourself the panel steel doesn't even have to be an exact copy. But like for like will make it easier as you know what you have to copy.

Go to you local panel shop and ask for some 1ml or 1.5 ml sheet.

best tools for this are a piece of railway iron, a vice, a pair of wide jaw vice grips and a ball peen hammer.

I prefer using the thin 1.0 ml 4 inch grinder discs for cutting they don't last as long as normal ones but make a much nicer job of the cutting.

Don't paint it till the WOF guy has inspected it.

Cheers for the info.

I need to check the regs, been a long time.

I wasnt sure how exact it had to be in terms of a match.
Its a bit of a fiddly shape with complex curves.
Cutting and patching it looks like a worse job and by the tie I cut it out might as well replace it.

I might go see them just to get it from the inspector.

Ta