Found Object

[ardiesse]

Other things get in the way . . . my Humpy took badly to sitting idle in lockdown, developed relevance deprivation syndrome, and leaked brake fluid onto the carport floor.  It just needed new seals in the RHR wheel cylinder, but it took me all day.  Cleaning parts takes time.

Rob

[Harv]

It could be worse. The FB did that too… puddle under LHR wheel. I drove it 5m out of the shed to get at other stuff. Handbrake on. Later that evening reversed it back. Forgot it had no brakes. Could not find the handbrake quick enough. Hit the shed roller door 2x4 post and drove it back 8”. Got out of the car, fearing the worst. It had hit the tail light fin chrome. No damage to the car. Fibro shed needed some love.

Kids still laugh at me.

Cheees,
Harv

[Errol62]

Heh heh heh heh……

Lucky!


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[ardiesse]

Back onto "Found Object" . . .  I'm getting closer to the rear wheel arch.  The ribbed U-section at the front of the wheel arch is a favourite of the metal-mice.  I thought I could make the front and bottom of the section out of one piece, but you can do things with paper that you can't with sheet metal.  The fold lines are not straight, for example, so one piece of sheet became two.  Here's the front section, with ribs, welded in place:



Easy access with a camera to take a photo does not translate to easy access with the welder.  No.  Once the scone and helmet are in place, there's not much room left for the handpiece.  And then the helmet knows when conditions are not ideal, and fogs up.  I was largely flying blind.

The bottom section was more of a challenge to fabricate, because of the returns.  But it came good with a few tack welds, followed by massaging with a hammer.



Still to go is the part of the U-section you can see from the inside of the wheel arch.  It's rotten up the top where it meets the wheel arch and floor, and also on the lower outer part.

Rob

[Errol62]

That will be part three of the series. A lot easier if you have the car on a rotisserie Rob, with apologises for stating the obvious. Keep up the thorough work. 

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[ardiesse]

Part Three (as advertised): rear wall of U-section in front of RHR wheel arch, together with the remains of the old one -



I'm building a shortage at the moment.  I was able to make this repair section out of a piece of FJ rear door, but otherwise, I've run out of 1 mm mild steel sheet.  Bunnings sells 1.6 hot-rolled sheet, and 0.95 mm galvanised.  But galvanising and the welder don't agree with each other.  I'll have to ask the sheet-metal worker most politely if he wouldn't mind cutting up a sheet.

Once trimmed to size, it was easy enough to stitch the repair into place:



Of course, it's tempting to continue with repairs to the dogleg and rear wheel arch while the sill is wide open.  A good idea, in fact.

Rob

[ardiesse]

The RH dogleg, with a piece of the door seal retainer removed:



I made a paper pattern, and transferred it to sheet steel, complete with some cuts to allow for stretching.  It seemed easiest to use the dogleg as a form for shaping the repair piece.



I used whatever was handy (a stick and a wheel nut) to hold the section in place while I shaped it over the dogleg.

Then I traced around the section, and made a few cuts.  Had to finish off the cuts with a hacksaw blade in a few places.

As the saying goes, "Cut your way in, . . . "



And yes, there'll be a few more small pieces to cut out and replace yet.  But I can see inside now.

Rob

[ardiesse]

" . . . and weld your way out."



The rain held off just long enough to make one repair section and glue it into place.

Rob

[ardiesse]

Another three small repairs today.



It's just fiddly.

Rob

[camxsmith]

Mate I know the pain of that only just finishing mine ...  I think most others FE FC members have just finished they sessions with their therapists on this one ... 

[ardiesse]

Two days of cutting and shaping sheet metal, and half an hour of welding:



This time I took the photo from inside the wheel arch.  It's the usual thing - one repair piece per day seems to be my pace.  But the sun was still up, so I welded up the cuts in the outer repair piece:



It's even got some "Rust Reformer" on it now, inside and out.

Rob

[ardiesse]

. . . and weld your way out.



 - Rain Stops Play -

Rob

[ardiesse]

Every so often, things appear to take a big step forward.  I spliced in a fair-size section of inner sill this morning.



Once I had it trimmed to size, lining it up wasn't too difficult.  I traced around the U-section to work out where to drill the holes for plug welds, and used the returns of the U-section to get the repair piece co-planar with the inner sill.  Then a tack weld at the front, and another at the rear.  It only took a few taps with a hammer to get it looking pretty good by eye, and I welded the join at the front.  Next were the plug welds.

One minor oops: I didn't put in the drain at the rear bottom before welding the piece in, although I put in the one at the rear top.  The missing drain can wait until I replace the outer sill.

And Of Course:  Rust scale pinged off the remaining part of the inner sill, revealing some holes around where the chassis member joins the sill.

Lunch time.

Rob

[Errol62]

Progress. What is this top drain hole you speak of?

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[ardiesse]

Clay,

You know the long, narrow drain slots along the sill . . . the ones which are either (a) spot-welded shut at the factory, (b) sealed up with bitumen at the factory, or (c) sealed up with mud?  They are also present along the top face of the inner sill.  (a), (b) and (c) still apply, though.

Rob

[Errol62]

Ok, haven't noticed these, though my van the inners have been entirely replaced. I'll have to get under the ute and have a decent look.

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[ardiesse]

A couple of weekends ago, I formed up the piece of rear floor pan immediately in front of the rear wheel arch.  It's got a return at the very end, where it's spot-welded to the rear wheel arch.  I thought I got the profile right, but, of course, the closer you get it to its intended location, the worse it gets.  So I had to cut through the return, bend the piece to a better shape, then weld and dress the return again.  Here it is, in place.



And the usual follow-on effects.  Rust scale became pinholes, which then grew as I welded them up shut.  And the astute observer will notice charring of the cotton waste.  A weld-quenching rag serves more than one purpose . . .

And a couple of weekends ago, I remarked that there were some new holes around where the chassis member joins the inner sill . . . and naively I thought I could "just" weld them up . . . Here is what it looks like from the inside (after some work with the MAP gas torch and a wire brush):



As usual, the bottom section of the inner sill will need to be replaced, making it 100% of the lower quarter of the RH inner sill.  Tel est mon sort.

Rob

[Harv]

Tel est mon sort.

Pensez coupe soudure meulage pense.

Cheers,
Harv

[ardiesse]

Always amusing to translate back:

(Youse) think, cup, soldering, grinding, (you) think.  The semantic range of the French words includes several possible translations into English.

[Harv]

Cup? I thought it was "cut".

Then again, cup perhaps makes better sense 

Cheers,
Harv