1146 replies to this topic

[fabdabcab]

nice work and inspiring too just goes to prove that if you dont try you will never know what your capable off, practice makes perfect and all that, i'm jsut about ready to start putting panels in alice like you im just practising my welds and figuring out how to remove the flitch, then i have to courage to weld on th car, keep up the good work!

[hughJ]

Got the floor welded in today.

Thanks again for comments and advice. Neil thanks for the tips. I couldn't seam weld it anyway. It's difficult enough pulse welding and I do space out my welds doing about an inch at a time. I gleaned this from your post a while ago. Thanks for the help on lining up the flutes. Hope you think I've done it OK from the photos.
Graham I'm the same - I can only pulse weld when it's this thin, and as you say go by Neil's advice.
tino and fabdabcab all I can say is get stuck in. I'm an older guy, 56, and am still managing it to some degree. Just get the grinder in and commit yourself. I do appreciate your nice comments.

I drilled the prepared panel for plug welds and put on some weld-through primer.



And tacked it in. I just remembered to photo at this stage - you can see I had started one run of weld on the left side.



Then butt welded it in and plug welded at the front where the old panel had been spot welded. The front was difficult. It took a lot of persuasion with a hammer from above and a bottle jack from below to get the panels to meet to get the plug welds in. Even so there was a fair bit of blasting through doing them. I just wanted to get a clamp on them but there was no way.



And the inner sill



I had to weld in a thin strip at the front of the inner sill where it meets the flitch panel

And after a wee bit of etch primer it looks less offensive. I'm not going to bother grinding down. They will be hidden by carpet and it will keep the strength.





Graham had asked about my front shock mounts - I thought they looked good but I can see why they are called shock mounts - I had quite a big one.



I had taken the mount off a couple of weeks ago. I snapped two of the bolts and then had to carefully drill them out. It was annoying as I had soaked them in penetrating fluid and had got them all moving rocking them out and in a bit at a time. But I do get too impatient!

I don't think I'll manage anything tomorrow. I'm going into my school to help senior pupils with revision! What a dedicated teacher!

Welding on

Hugh

Edited by hughJ, 20 April 2011 - 06:19 PM.

[iDemonix]

A big thanks for the surprise comments when I opened my topic to update. I thought it would be well forgotten. Thanks Matt, Neil and iDemonix.

Please, call me Dan

You're doing a great job, I can appreciate how disheartening it is, I'm in the process of doing my bike up slowly, but what keeps me going is the thought of having an absolute stunning classic at the end of it, if you could call a '92 400cc a classic

[hughJ]

Hi Dan - sorry didn't know your proper name. I too am a motor bike addict. I have a 30 year old Yamaha XS650. It's not concourse but I love it. I rebuilt the engine last winter as it was leaking and burning oil. It still leaks it!

Hugh

[grahama]

Epic Hugh !!

loving the work, very neat and can't see any blow through nightmares, you must be chuffed. I am stuck doing a deck for the wife at the moment, but tomorrow I will get to it again!!

Graham

[sonikk4]

Hugh the floor looks good and you are doing the right thing by leaving the welds the way they are especially if you are doubtful about any strength issues.

The shock mount is not bad news but there are several ways of approaching it.

1st one is to cut back all of the rust until you have got clean metal edges then weld in a single piece of steel approx 1.8mm thick. Grind back flush and job is done. Before you done weld up have a good clean in the box section and paint if required. You can Waxoyl later.

2nd one is to do the repair in two separate sections each piece .9mm thick. Cut back the damage as above, weld in the first section then rich zinc prime then plug weld and seam weld the top repair section, grind back flush.

You will need to do a decent repair as well as it being the damper mount it is next to the main subframe mount section of the cross member.

[iDemonix]

Hi Dan - sorry didn't know your proper name. I too am a motor bike addict. I have a 30 year old Yamaha XS650. It's not concourse but I love it. I rebuilt the engine last winter as it was leaking and burning oil. It still leaks it!

Hugh

Ah nice, I've been looking at cheap motorbike projects and engines - in fact there was engine in Freebies not long ago I was going to try and nab, it was pretty *******, something major had cracked, but I just wanted to take the entire thing apart to see how it all works, most I've done with my bike is replace the exhaust, ******* about with the carbs and hopefully today my clutch plates arrive!

[benjy_18]

cheers for the comments on my thread hugh! greatly appreciated.

good to see somebody else's way of doing the front floor, thats tomorrow job for me although i have a fair bit more of it to replace due to bad repairs previously

this is going to be an awesome car once its finished!

[hughJ]

Thanks for the advice on the shock mount repair, Neil. I went for a compromise as I didn't have thick enough steel. I sandwiched two thinner pieces and butt welded them in.
Thanks for the encouragement Ben, Dan and Graham.

Here's the shock mount repair story - really quite boring - sorry if you've seen it time and again

Cut out the damage



Made up two plates to fill the space



And plug welded together



Cleaned up and painted



Welded in



Ground down



And primed



Probably too many photos for a trivial but necessary repair. And I'm afraid that's all I've done. I've been repairing my push bike. My daughter gave me a second hand frame for my Xmas - much lighter and better than my present steel one. So have to find time to get it done - I usually cycle to school.

Hugh

[fabdabcab]

nice repair, nice project and may seem trivial, but people like myself will refer to such jobs and learn from it keep up the good work
wayne

[hughJ]

Wayne - thank you. I'm afraid I'm no-one to learn welding from!! Maybe if it was Chemistry that would be different - teaching it is supposed to be my job! But I do appreciate the responses.

Today I tackled the floor on the passenger side. The panel on this side in some ways was harder to get to fit. I had to straighten out one bend - where the floor meets the inner sill towards the back of the panel - and reposition it to get a reasonable fit. All I have to do the bending is my vice and various hammers!

Here's the damage



And here's a big bit cut out





Had to do this little repair



A wee bit of weld through primer and the edges cleaned of paint ready for welding



And the panel drilled and prepared



So hopefully I'll get it welded in on Monday.

Grinding on

Hugh

[myredmini]

Looking very good Hugh, keep up all the hard work !

[hughJ]

Hello - Dan - good to hear from you again - thank you.

I got the passenger side floor welded in today. And it fought me.

Made up a wee clip to hold the fuel line - you will see why I know about this in a wee minute



And plug welded it to the underside of the floor panel. Me being me forgot to put the gas on and had to redo one of the welds. Will I ever learn?



And here's how I know how to put that on



Yes! I went merrily through the fuel line with the grinder when removing the old steel on Saturday. What a wally. I knew the battery cable and the brake lines went down the right side so was careful cutting through the drivers side. But I just merrily ground away.

Well I tacked the panel in. You can see on the front left that I had cut too much off the replacement panel. I just never learn.



And welded it up



Look at the mess at the left front where I had to put in patches and extra pieces to join it all up. It's really horrible. Thank goodness for carpet!



Somehow its less offensive when covered in primer





And this warms my heart - despite all the disasters, ugly mistakes, etc - I have the floors at the front and the flitch panels all sorted out!!



So I move back a bit now. I'll put the sills on later.

I'm shattered!!

Hugh

[jagman.2003]

Great progress & good photos too. Very helpful to see how it's been done.

[Deathrow]

This is coming along brilliantly!

I look at the excellent work you've done and it makes me want to tear bits of mine back off and try and do them better. Can't be a bad thing!