47 replies to this topic

[wombatjock]

Got some more time in today. Fettling and fitting the upper dash rail. Now tacked into place. I need a smaller spot weld cutter as the 10mm one I have creates holes too large to plug weld. 6mm and 7mm ones on order.

 

Of course, I could have pre-drilled the holes, but that would have been easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wombatjock]

Bit more work today. Finished welding in the dash rail onto the bulkhead. Bit more to do on the inside of the car.

 

[wombatjock]

Cut some rot out of the bulkhead edge. Fabricated a repair panel and clamped it in.

 

 

[Cooper1980]

Looks great, keep up the hard work

[wombatjock]

Cheers.

 

Got some time today, and decided to make the bulkhead repair in 2 pieces due to the different bends on the outside edge. Got the top piece with the right angled bend fabricated and was about to tack it in when I realised I was out of gas. Gahhhrrrrhhhghh.

 

Should be able to get a refill tomorrow.

 

I didn't turn the main tap off on the cylinder, so there must be a leak in the regulator/mig. Lesson learned.

[wombatjock]

Quick trip to InstallOil on the other side of Edinburgh to get my gas (5/95 CO2/Argon) refilled and I'm back in business! £40 quid lighter, but providing I remember to turn the tap off every time (I did remember today), the 1200+ litres should last me a while..

 

So. I re-fabricated the repair section for the bulkhead in 2 pieces as I figured that was easier than trying to bend part of it and leave the rest straight. There's a notch in the edge where I got a bit over-excited with the cutting wheel, bit I'll just add some weld to that later when fitting the flitch (I thought I had a lot of extra metal, which I could trim off later - that didn't turn out to be the case).

 

Here it is clamped to the bulkhead (after several offering-ups of the inner wing to check, and *ahem* persuade it to fit - hence the extra bend made with the persuader):

 

[wombatjock]

And another view...

 

[wombatjock]

And one more view for luck

 

[wombatjock]

Then I tacked it in place. The plug weld at the bottom (onto the lower bulkhead lip/kick panel/whatever) didn't penetrate properly. It will have to be drilled and done again with more power on the mig.

 

 

[wombatjock]

Stitch welded (or whatever you call overlapping single welds).

 

[wombatjock]

I started off grinding down the welds with an angle-grinder mounted flap disc, but I don't trust myself to be accurate with that (previous experience of thinning a panel too much and having to replace it doesn't help). The finer grinding was done with a Dremel (ez-click grinding wheel on a flexi-extension).

 

Then I fitted up the inner wing with clecos and the shock mount bolts (so it was exactly as I previously fitted it.

 

Other than the notch in the repair panel, which is easily fixed, I'm really pleased with the fit.

 

 

 

 

[wombatjock]

Then I went off on a tangent and started to clean off more of the bulkhead with an angle-grinder mounted wire wheel.

 

Seal sealer makes some interesting candy-floss-like mess when spinning it off.... The pic is after I pretty much filled the vacuum cleaner clearing up the debris.

 

Still plenty of material to come off, but I can only handle so much tedium at a time. It was scary how easily the previous bodge paint came off (black) compared to the original red. Lesson in proper preparation I guess. Hope I can do better.

 

That'll do for today. I might even get some more time on it tomorrow!

 

[wombatjock]

I did get back in the garage today, but no pics, as there wasn't really anything picture-worthy.

 

Spent the day preparing for the inner wing attachment.

 

A lot of work grinding back welds and cleaning back paint and seam sealer (well!) away from the areas to be welded.

 

I also cleaned off the car side weld areas with wire brush attachments (angle grinder and die grinder mounted), panel wiped and gave a light coat of weld through primer (Electrox). I'll most likely follow others' advice and clean it back off the actual plug weld points before welding.

 

I have a good few holes drilled in the wing ready for plug welding - but a lot more to do. The areas are all marked and wire brushed off. Once all the holes have been drilled and deburred, I'll give those areas a coat of Electrox before offering it up again and beginning the welding.

 

It's scary how much time prep takes in relation to the actual welding!

 

On Neil's (sonikk4) advice, I have ordered a right angled die grinder from MachineMart and some Roloc stuff from Cromwell's to see if I can do better on weld grinding than with flap discs, grinding discs and my Dremel. Paranoid about grinding too far and thinning the metal!

[wombatjock]

Another afternoon in the garage! I'm actually making progress :)

 

Got my 90 degree die grinder and Roloc discs during the week, so I had a go at linishing the welds on the upper dash rail with it. Brilliant! Much more controllable that the angle grinder with a flap disc. Didn't take long to get it pretty smooth, without thinning any of the original metal.

 

I got the pedal box out, which I've been meaning to do for ages. One of the studs for the clutch master cylinder sheared off when I was dismantling it years ago, and I have a replacement pedal box with good studs there to replace it. That won't be going in until the paint is done on the interior though. Also took out the handbrake - another thing that takes 5 mins, but have managed to put off.

 

Back on the more immediate stuff, I nearly have the inner wing prepped for welding. I sprayed weld through on the car side last week, Just need to get the holes drilled and deburred for the bottom of the bulkhead (skipping the holes for the floor at the moment, as that has to be replaced anyway).

 

Inner wing outside:

 

 

Inside:

 

 

And the car side: Can see some of the linishing on the dash rail here too.

 

[wombatjock]

On a slight tangent. Just a note of some of the tools I regularly use for the work on this project.

 

My GYS Smartmig 162 (And Clarke light-reactive helmet facing the wrong way). Gas is 5/95 CO2.Argon:

 

 

New right angled Clarke die grinder with a 50mm Roloc disc holder (and disc) mounted:

 

 

My Dremel with a flexi hose and ez-clic grinder mounted (from grinding out the shear bolts on the pedal box):

 

 

A drawer full of clamps, including my copper backed plug weld clamp - need to up the power on the welder when using that.

 

 

Angle grinder with flac disc mounted:

 

 

Another angle grinder with a (finer) wire brush mounted:

 

 

And the essential PPE. Nitrile gloves, heavier gloves and a grinding mask.

 

 

Dust mask, various eye protection and welding gloves. Tend to only wear the left welding glove. Tut tut.

 

 

My compressor. 14cfm. Tank is only 50l, so an upgrade may be required at some point:

 

 

Cheap-ass straight die grinder with a (knackered) wire brush mounted:

 

 

And a mix of budget and quality discs for the angle grinders:

 

Edited by wombatjock, 16 September 2018 - 04:18 PM.