Defective

Sika flex isn't a permanent fix for anything. It will eventually dry right through and shrink in the process. It's designed to bond lightweight items that need to move slightly, eg mouldings.
 
My personal choice would be Lord / Fusor adhesive. I've used fusor 112b panel bond to glue roof skins on cars with hail damage. Pretty sure I've also used the fusor 2098 crash durable adhesive. Similar stuff but cartridges use a normal style gun for application like silicone.
 
Both apply to bare metal best, so clean paint off the direct contact area then apply a bead of glue and clamp or screw panels together. Screws could be ground off and filled over. Rivets would also work. Prep and paint as normal.

3M panel bonding adhesive

I was told by the smash repairer who made the bonnet on my Project Goldie that Sika flex shrinks back apon drying out 
and can cause warping of panels. The bonnet on Goldie was bonded together with some sort of glue but it wasn't Sika flex
for this very reason. I have no foggie do what the adhesive was called so more home work needed before gluing together.
I cant go back and ask em as the smash repair has changed hands but im sure if somebody rocked up to a 'prestige smash place' 
(somebody who repairs european cars, BMW, MERC etc, they glue a lot of these together now) they may give you the product name??
I was told its expensive stuff to.
Explore the sika flex range by all means, hey they might just have the product for the job, just want to relay what i was told is all.
Im all for this idea.   

That would be way too convenient haha

i like the idea..
surprised there's not a full panel in fibreglass or plastic like the holden Gemini panel van came with(converted wagon)

If its that simple I like the idea. I certainly can see how that modern panel bonding stuff could make it neat and very simple. 

I've been mulling over ditching the side windows in my van, but the whole idea of finding someone to weld up the holes and having the van out of action for a while does not interest me at all.
 
The other day on bookface i saw a pic of a white van where the owner had just cut out some stainless the right shape and screwed it in place.
 
I'm not a fan of exposed screws, but I was thinking of maybe the new bonding agents they stick modern cars together with.
 
What would be the pros and cons of going this way?
To be honest I'm only seeing pro's at the moment.
 
Easy to diy
No warped panels from welding
No paint damage, would just need the new panel painted
About 11ty times cheaper than paying it to be welded, filled and painted
 
What am I missing?

One free windscreen with your insurance company.???  There's another way.......

My xf has the turning circle to rival a oil tanker...

My xf has the turning circle to rival a oil tanker...

That will be a killer ride.
I've always like,the big boxy kit that was popular on mk2's back in the day, zakspeed maybe? That with the rs2000 nosecone is damn near small car perfection in my eyes.

No, I just so happen to work at Repco, been there for 6 years. 
Im not plugging Repco and that why i say "shop around" because you have to in todays world.
There are bargains out there 

This is what I have setup on my wagon

 
Each light is a 7 inch wide Osram 8 degree spot beam(known as fish eye lens) with 60W power rating, they cost me $50 each off ebay. They are really really good on long straight sections of highway, or if the road is lined with high trees as the beam is quite high and it will shine to the top of the trees. The beam from the light is not suited for use on roads that do have tighter corners as they are really only for long distance coverage which these sound like they might suit. I would estimate that the light show reflectors on guide posts(or reflect animals eyes) et at about 1km and throws actual light for atleast 350-400 metres down the road. I have used very expensive spot lights when I was driving trucks and these things are an absolute bargain compared to the cost of good hella or lightforce spotties. They will never outright compete with the $400-500 per spot light range but they would be at least 75% as good in my opinion.

Be surprised how little is done, to 'remanufacture' them.
 
Usually just sift through their box of steering parts to find the least worn components bolt everything together - chuck a seal kit through it,
bit of black paint, and she's out the door.

 
My advice would be to either re-kit your own steering box, or spend some time adjusting it.
X-series boxes need adjusting every 50-100,000km or so.

The problem with adjusting a worn out box is that most of the sector wear occurs at centre, so you go taking up that slack and it binds or even locks up when the sector gear goes into a less worn area, ie when winding on more steering.
 
Not sure how many places still reco them but I'm sure somebody does. They'd re-cut the gear teeth and harden them, replace worm ball race, bearings and seals. Probably a couple of hundred bucks.

Not much to the non-power steering boxes.
They're pretty easy to adjust, but time consuming to get right.
 
Depends where the wear is - ie, definitely in the box, or steering column rag joint, or the pitman arm, or idler arm, or tierod ends etc.
Or a combination of the above things.
 
Or the mechanic has forgotten how these things steer from factory.

There's guys doing basic Barra looms for a few hundred bucks now, use original ecu, get all the security stuff turned off. Bolt in a ba pedal and you're laughing.
 
Between Barra and Ls conversions car guys have never had it so good.

There's guys doing basic Barra looms for a few hundred bucks now, use original ecu, get all the security stuff turned off. Bolt in a ba pedal and you're laughing.
 
Between Barra and Ls conversions car guys have never had it so good.

There's guys doing basic Barra looms for a few hundred bucks now, use original ecu, get all the security stuff turned off. Bolt in a ba pedal and you're laughing.
 
Between Barra and Ls conversions car guys have never had it so good.

Biggest cost is the ECU and wiring setup for a Barra.. 
But a Barra Engine is $500 all day long. 4 speed auto about $800 and a good 3.23 or 3.45 LSD about $500 all using 2nd hand parts...
 
182kw stock..... (BA Engine) 190kw stock (BF engine)
 
Better still a 5 speed....
Might need to add some decent rubber too cos this will have no traction at all
 
And it will munch any BA/BF/FG XR6........
1250KG for a XD/F compared to 1750KG BA+
and it also lends itself to a turbo upgrade later if you so wish....

For 5k I'd just put a Barra in there.

For 5k I'd just put a Barra in there.

That's a bit surprising.

That's a good point, I've never seen a buckled one.

The last thing you want is au traction control.... It's about as subtle as a brick in the face...