Dakar Rebuild - part 5

Dismantling the Dakar - part 2

Here's a shot from inside before the main bulk of the dash was removed:

Removing the dash would've taken approximately half an hour, however the steering wheel was having other ideas. It had become one with the steering column and nigh on a day of bashing, pulling waggling and drifting refused to shift it. Eventually the wheel was cut to bits and a bearing puller attached to the wheel's hub. It broke the puller! An oxy-acetaline torch and a bigger puller later and it eventually came off...:

Once the steering wheel gave in, the dash came out without further drama:

The existing paint job wasn't exactly thorough!

Spare wheel holder had seen better days...

We'll jump forward a bit - I decided to attack the shell with an orbital sander. While I knew this would chew the gel coat, I decided it would be the easiest way of removing all seven layers of paint and graphics stickers. The transformation was astonishing! The reason for it being painted became obvious as I went along: the gel coat wasn't a consistent colour from front to back and the bonnet was completely different!

You'll notice the engine is still in place at this stage: time to remedy that:

Out comes the transmission next...

...which leaves a nice big hole in the middle of the vehicle, which was subsequently jet washed. Galvanised chassis have to be the best things since sliced bread :-)