Serious question, couldn't aluminum have been shaped and reinforced to do the job? Guess steel option was just cheaper maybe?
Anyway, reason I ask is I finally started working on my truck. Got engine compartment cleaned out, grill out, axle and springs out, and finally wings off. Found a nice little mess of a bulkhead behind the wings. The bulkhead doesn't look terrible from inside the vehicle and now I see that is because someone long ago "fixed" the bulkhead by welding in new, custom bits without any real dis-assembly. So now what to do?
A little about my truck and project (I know, I will move to the hybrid page if you guys are mad at me and want me to leave.). Its a 74 SIII 109 three door. I got it as a bitsa with a 2.25 diesel that I promptly killed driving from New Mexico to Raleigh, NC. I've decided over the past 4 years while the truck has been "resting" that I would put a 4BT cummins in it as opposed to rebuilding the 2.25. Recently, my fiancee (sp) has decided she is tired of hearing me talk about my rover so she wants to help fund the rover project as a wedding gift. Deal is though that I'd like to have it on the road by November, for the wedding, so we'll see how it goes.
Having said all that, I do not want to nor can we afford to restore this truck. Its not going to be perfect. It will still have rust and dents and stuff in it when I finish. I will hopefully finish this now and work to combat rust and other issues for the rest of its life (or mine).
So, does anyone have a spare workable/repairable bulkhead around you'd part with? Anyone have much experience using the replacement parts available from RN? (Problem with that, I just recall, is they don't seem to offer RHD options, although I haven't called them, yet.) Other thoughts from you guys? Thanks.
Also, I'll consider doing a build thread although I'm a little scared to. It will never live up to the precedent I am most familiar with, that being Jac04"s!!
Final thought for now, I'm just happy to finally be working on my truck, I just hope it all works out in the end. I want a truck that I can hope in and tool around town when I want, take 150 miles to the beach when I want, or 200 hundred miles to the mountains when I want. Is that too much to ask!!