Found Object

[Errol62]

I got about three wheel barrows of clay from under the EK215 after some paddock work one autumn up near Snowtown. Mostly in the front guards. Sat real low.


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[ardiesse]

More dis-covery.  I melted and wire-brushed the remaining body lead away, and decided to excise the oxy-welded patches, just to see what lay underneath.



Yep.  The patches had been laid upon rusted-out areas and then welded in.

And when I tried to hammer the ridge back to its original profile, it split open.  Sure enough, attempting to weld the split was a fool's errand.  So.  The body file had obviously been taken to the headlight peak.  My repairs are going to be more extensive than I thought at first . . .

Rob

[ardiesse]

This "office work" can get quite involved, what with size, shape, curvature and other formatting options.



The unused piece of the Rare Spares RHF lower guard repair section was the right size for the headlight peak repair.  It was then a case of cutting and trimming to size, then putting the roll and peak in, and then making the surface convex (gently!).  The headlight surround is the best template, but its profile and the mudguard's profile didn't always agree.  The surround was offset towards the right at the bottom, so I widened the screw-hole and moved the speed-nut until the headlight surround was centred.  Then I was able to grind the leading edge of the repair section so it lined up with the headlight surround, and "rolled" the leading edge over.  Which disturbed the profile as seen from the front.  But the good thing about rolling the edge over is that it lends some rigidity to the repair section, and it didn't take too much effort to get the repair section to line up with the headlight surround.

So that's the bigger of the two outer headlight peak repair sections.  The inner section, with the flange for mounting the headlamp bucket, came next.

The "door that keeps giving" abruptly stopped giving, because I discovered bogged-up holes in the part I cut out.  The door was from an FC Special, and I'd reached the holes for the chrome strips.  But I had an old FJ front door that had seen better days.  My plan was to make a cylindrical section, and then "tuck-shrink" the headlight flange.  I had the wooden form to do it (a 9" diameter cylinder).  How hard can tuck-shrinking be?

"What's tuck-shrinking?", I hear you ask.  Google it.  You need a tool called a "tucking fork" (I am not making this up, Reverend Spooner), which you can make out of two old centre-punches welded side-by-side, with a T-handle welded onto the back.  You use the tucking fork to pucker the edge you want to fold over, and then bit by bit hammer the puckers down flat with hammer and dolly, then put the puckers in again, lather, rinse, repeat.

With thin sheet-metal, you can use round-nose pliers instead of a tucking fork.  But it's hard on the hands.  I got the flange to about 45 degrees, and then it got too hard.  As you hammer out the puckers, the metal shrinks, gets thicker, and gets harder to work.  So I got out with the angle grinder, put in a dozen or so nips, hammered the flange to shape, and welded the cuts.  Not as pretty.  Much easier.



Then I reproduced the cutouts in the headlight flange by looking at the marks in the headlight bucket's gasket and grinding to suit.  And finally I relieved the places around the mounting holes where the speed-nuts go, lined the headlight bucket up and drilled the screw holes.

The plan is to cut away the rotten top half of the headlight mounting flange, which will give me clear access to the seams when I weld the outer peak repair into place.  When that's done I can splice in the inner section, trim to shape at the front, and weld in the "return" for the headlight peak.

What can possibly go wrong?

Rob

[Errol62]

Clever work Rob. Hey don’t the mounting screws tap into little spring tabs like the FB EK ones? Apologies to those in the know if I’m being a philistine in making this comparison with the obviously inferior younger siblings of the venerable FC.


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[ardiesse]

Clay,

Yes, the headlight mounts do have the spring tabs.  I'll enlarge the holes to the right size and install the tabs when the piece is welded in place.

Rob

[FireKraka]

Great work Rob
Neil

[ardiesse]

"What could possibly go wrong?"

Not much.  Apart from it being 13 degrees, grey and drizzling . . .
The outer headlight peak repairs are now metal-glued in place.  Inner repair section and bridging-of-the-gap tomorrow.

Daytona 8 mm spot-weld drill works well, I am happy to report, and I haven't even broken the tip off it yet.

Rob

[ardiesse]

Well, that was no trouble at all [\sarcasm].



Outer peak repair sections welded into place.  Headlight flange massaged into position and then welded.  But, as usual, the smaller pieces are the time-consuming ones.  To join the outer and inner repair sections took three smaller pieces.  It just seemed easier doing it that way.

And getting the headlight surround into the right position is a topic worthy of its own thread.

Next: rust converter, primer, epoxy enamel on the inside.

Rob

[Errol62]

Tidy welds. They look continuous rather than individual spots.

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[ardiesse]

Yeah.  I put in tack welds every inch or so, then laid in a series of half-inch welds between them, then zipped up the remaining quarter-inch gaps.  I overlapped the ends of the welds, so that when dressed down, the seam looks continuous.

Rob

[my8thholden]

Rob..Coming along nicely ,good work ,if you start a headlight surround thread ,we can contribute in a small way ,lets start with a A3 spreadsheet !!!!Vern

[ardiesse]

. . . wire-brushing the inside of the guard before rust-converting pinged a few more rust scales away, revealing holes.  Out with the welder and file again.  I think I've got them all coloured-in now.

Rob

[RET]

That old door may have stopped giving, but this is the thread that keeps on giving.

Excellent work Rob, both the attention to detail on the Found Object, and the documentation of the process, the techniques and the tools for those that come after you.

You're an asset to this forum.

cheers
RET

[ardiesse]

The "Correcting the Mistakes of Others" Department -

The LHF guard didn't have the "difficult" bolt - the second from rear, the one that sits directly below the rear corner of the bonnet when it's open.  The hole had been seam-sealed up shut, which made me wonder . . .

This is what lay underneath when the guard was removed:



A second hole had been drilled in the subframe skirt, which looked way out of whack.  After scraping the usual layers of dirt, body schutz, bitumen paint and sealer away, this is what I found:



A second hole had been drilled in the body also.  Between the body and the subframe skirt was a good-size lump of sealant, which looked original.  So I'm guessing that the car had been assembled with a bent subframe skirt.  Because when the car was built, Holden was supplying half the new car market in Oz, and the pressure would have been on to get as many Holdens down the production line as possible.  It would have taken too long to pull the car off the line to rectify the fault, and instead the big drill came out.

I can get the guard to fit properly either before I take the subframe off, or after I put it back on.  Before is better.  With the delicatest of instruments (12" multi-grips, Mister Hit and a piece of wood), I brought the subframe skirt back into alignment, and probably for the first time in 60+ years, these two screws are now in their correct places:



Here's the pile of crud I scraped off -



And here is what lay underneath.



No surprises really.  And that's a good-looking outer subframe leg too.  I think it's going to be rotisserie time very soon.

Rob

[Errol62]

The fun continues Rob. Will you brace the lower part of the car to do the sills or just get the gaps right and tack weld the doors shut? Presuming it needs inners as well as outer I suppose.
Cheers
Clay


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[ardiesse]

Clay,

I broke all the rules with my last FC, it seems.  I laid the bare body shell down on a mattress, nearly rolled over on its side, to remove the outer sill and repair the inner.  Then when I was ready to fit the outer sill, I put the body back on the level, swung the doors, and tack-welded and self-tappered the sill in place when the gaps were right.  Then I removed the doors, put the body back on the mattress and put in the zillions of plug-welds at the bottom of the sill.

I'm going to repair the inner sills in place without replacing them.  At the very worst they'll to have the bottom inch or so (bend included) replaced, and fingers crossed, the body shell won't sag on the rotisserie with one outer sill removed.  A bare body shell is quite rigid and doesn't weigh all that much.

Suggested plan of attack:  outer subframe mounts and cowl repairs, No. 1 body crossmember rebuild, test refit of subframe, remove subframe, then front floors, rear floors, rear doglegs, then inner and outer sill, one side at a time.

Which reminds me: I'd better rebuild the front door hinges and get the front doors to swing right before replacing the outer sills.

Rob

[ardiesse]

OK, so . . . I take to my chrome with a wire brush.  There wouldn't be many others who would do the same.



The grille, like everything else, needs work.  The lower grille bar has a few more holes in it than appeared at first sight.  This is going to be some fun.

Rob

[my8thholden]

all the hidden challenges , yet they are typical of most of the cars on here when being dismantled after 60 yrs … vern

[ardiesse]

The lower grille bar's repaired.  A lot of holes to fill in, and two larger ones which I patched with sheet.  There's an art to repairing rust holes, but with a non-ferrous quenching block and patience, it's fairly straightforward if time-consuming.  Of course, your average sane person would just go and find a lower grille bar without rust holes.



And your average sane person would not bother to repair the drip rail.
I repaired the drip rail.
Syllogisms, anyone?

And the grille frame had a handful of rust holes.  It was easier, though, because it's made of 16-gauge sheet.  The holes are welded, dressed and primered.

Rob

[Errol62]

Very satisfying I’m sure rob.


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