The stainless steel mounting plate for the secondary fuel filter is only secured at the base and will probably vibrate more than that English entertainer Rolf Harris’ wobbly board. My guess is after a few thousand corrugations it will have cracked the wheel arch. Obviously I don’t want to damage the vehicle.
My solution was to visit Bunnings and buy a length if flat steel bar. I’ve already cut it to length and drilled a hole in one end.
The plan is to connect one end of the bar to the mounting bolt on the battery bracket. The bar will have a 90 degree twist and then a 90 degree bend which will enable it to be bolted to the mounting plate.
A – Mounting plate for 2nd fuel filter
B – Bolt on battery mounting bracket
If this works then the ability of the mounting plate to oscillate should be significantly reduced. Fortunately my brother-in-law is a plumber and I should be able to “borrow” his oxy-acet torch to heat and bend the bar.
Postman Gary has delivered the box of stainless steel nuts and bolts purchased off Ebay from China. This enabled me to do further work on the radiator insect screen. After the upper portion of the front grill was removed, I managed to fit four plastic cable clips into the bottom of the lower grill.
Then another five clips were attached to the skirt which fits between the grill and the radiator at the top
The bottom nuts were particularly difficult to both fit and tighten so I’ve smeared all of them with Sikaflex in an effort to prevent them working loose with vibration.
The grill was then reassembled. I now have four clips at the base and five at the top as anchor points for the mesh screen. The last task is to insert eyelets into the top and bottom edges of the screen.
When to go off formed roads in the outback it’s a requirement that the vehicle has a sand flag. The flag has to be made of orange high visibility material approx 300x300mm with a reflective ‘X’ on both sides. It’s flown on top of a pole attached to the front of the vehicle. The purpose of the flag is to warn vehicles coming from the opposite direction. You don’t want to drive up a steep sand dune a speed only to have a head on collision with a vehicle coming the opposite way.
These flags are expensive, so I’ve decided to make one. My ancient fibreglass fishing rod has volunteered to be the pole. All the ‘0’ rings for the line were removed (apart from the one at the tip) and I cut off the base in the middle of the steel reel holding bracket.
Next I drilled a 5.5mm hole in the base and then threaded it with an M6 Tap from my Aldi Tap & Die kit (thank you Aldi UK).
As I don’t plan to fit a bullbar to the front of the 4x4 I’ve decided to mount the sand flag pole on a bracket attached to the bonnet gutter on the passenger side. The bracket will be made from stainless steel in a reverse ‘Z’ shape. I’ve already asked the family chief financial controller if she will make the flag from one of those orange safety HiViz vest which I hope to buy dirt cheap in the disposal shop.
With a little luck the DIY flag will cost $20 compared to $120 from a shop.
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