Found Object

[my8thholden]

My car was supposed to come from Orange NSW ..the soil I got out of it was typical of the potatoe growing country around Milthorpe near Orange ..

[ardiesse]

March has been washed away.  But I must be hallucinating.  It wasn't raining yesterday.  So I spliced in the "longeron" repair I made up earlier.



Then, the Humpy Helpline (IV): FJ short motor stripdown.  Surprisingly good.  Ring grooves and piston pin bushes in excellent condition, crank 20/20 but otherwise sound, bores 3-1/16.  Plus B-series gearbox, which didn't get beyond taking the bottom cover off, inspecting the gears and pronouncing it in excellent condition.

And as for today, well, there were ten broken roof tiles to be replaced before the inevitable deluge comes in a couple of days.

Rob

[ardiesse]

Yesterday I made up the floor repair section and today I spliced it in.  As usual, the closer I got it to its intended position, the more massaging it needed to fit; but this is where holding it in place with tack welds helps.  I could then tap down the plug weld sites until they sat down hard on the member below.



Speaking of plug welds - nineteen.  All in a piece 5-1/2 x 9-1/2".  This was one piece that took less time to fabricate than to weld into place.

Rob

[ardiesse]

And this weekend I repaired the floor under the rear seat, on the passenger's side.  It took two repair pieces, mainly because I didn't know how hammering the complex curve into a single piece would go.

I did a small piece near the transmission tunnel first.  Using the body as a form, I got it close to the required shape, then tack-welded it in a couple of locations.  Then I cut around the outline, hammering and tack-welding as I went.

One trap for the unwary - if you don't pay attention you tack-weld the new section to the old section, as well as to the body.  A thin screwdriver separated the welds, except for one stubborn one which I had to cut through.

Then there was the longer repair.  It was mostly a one-dimensional curve which I formed roughly to shape, then cut around the outline, pushed the repair section into place, and tack-welded.  A few of the gaps narrowed to nothing, and a few opened up quite wide, but nothing I couldn't bridge with the welder.



A gentle kiss with the grinder to dress the welds down, and a quick coat of pressure-pak primer to stop the inevitable rust.  Because it's either just stopped raining, or it's just about to rain, or it is raining.

There are a couple of postage-stamp-size repairs still to do on this section of the floor; and on the driver's side are a couple of pin-holes.

Rob

[ardiesse]

The small postage-stamp-size repair grew a little as I chipped rust out and discovered more pinholes.  As before, it was a case of forming the replacement roughly to shape, with a stretch here and there, before cutting around the outside and tack-welding into place.  Then I could get the edges into alignment and weld all the way around.



Rob

[ardiesse]

I got onto a bit of a roll today with the RHF floor -



Four grafts, and quite a few craters filled in.

I've discovered another use for masking tape.  After forming the replacement section to shape, I trace around its outside, either with a scribe or a pencil.  Then I lay masking tape down so it just covers the marked line, and then cut to the edge of the masking tape.  This way, I seem to get better control over the gaps when I put the replacement section in place.

Rob

[ardiesse]

The forecast rain didn't appear, so I fabricated another repair section.  A bolster chisel (the one you would use to split bricks) comes in very handy, along with the profile gauge.



It's only tack-welded at the front and right side, because there's a lot more work to be done there.

Rob

[ardiesse]

I can now call "Found Object" my coronavirus project without any sense of irony at all . . .

I started on the repair piece for the area around the front seat mount, driver's side, front.  After cutting to size and drilling the holes for the front seat bolts, I marked up for the folds and two ribs.  For the ribs I made a pair of cross-shaped cuts, hammered the metal to shape, then welded in narrow wedges of sheet metal, and then ran out of welding wire.

That's probably a safeguard, so I don't try to do too much.

Rob

[Errol62]

Take it easy Rob. You’ll get there.


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[ardiesse]

Now that I have highest-quality Bunnings MIG wire, I could continue with the repair section.  A few more welds and some hammer work to massage the ribs, another cut, and two folds -



It may even go into place easily.  The masking tape is the outline of the cut.

I found about half of the spot welds by inspection.  The others I found by driving a screwdriver between the sheets and looking for the dimples.  I drilled them out one by one, and then the old section came free.



And then, chipping the rust away from the "longeron", a few rust holes appeared.  Nothing I couldn't fill in with the "hot metal glue-gun".  The welds are now dressed flat, and I've got rust converter on, ready to prime tomorrow (rain permitting, of course).

Rob

[ardiesse]

The RHF front seat mount panel is in place.  I trimmed it to size, drilled it (hopefully) in the right places for the plug welds, welded up the diagonal cut, and painted the underside.  I used the two front seat bolts to hold it in place, put some tack welds in, and started plug-welding.  Then I aligned the gaps with a little hammer work, and butt-welded three of the four sides.



One seam was easier to tackle from the underside (body tipped on its side).  May even have to get a replacement floor pan from Rares for the rest of the driver's floor.

Rob

[Errol62]

Great detail in the strengthening indents.


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[my8thholden]

complete sections is way to go ...Vern

[ardiesse]

Three more repair sections today (and more than a few air-welds of rust holes):



New repairs helpfully marked in chalk.  I'll procrastinate some on the driver's floor pan, and concentrate on the A4-size void at the RH B-pillar.  The floor reinforcement/jacking point will go in first though.

Rob

[ardiesse]

Here is my home-made jacking point, clamped in position to check its fit.  The longeron repair needed a fair amount of massaging with hammer and dolly to line up with the jacking point, but it came good in the end.



I've rust-converter'd the longeron, welded up the gaps in the jacking point and painted inside.

Rob

[ardiesse]

Jacking point welded into position.



That's a step forward . . .

Rob

[ardiesse]

OK, so the sun went down on me.



But you get the idea.  This is the RHR floor repair that covers the jacking point.  Holes for plug welds yet to be drilled.

Rob

[ardiesse]

An Exercise In Dodging Raindrops:



Which is a whole lot more than I expected to get done this weekend.  Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Rob

[ardiesse]

Dodging Raindrops (II) - The rain did let up for a couple of hours today.  So I made two small repairs to the floor under the rear seat cushion, one more small repair to the RHR floor, and welded a home-made drain hole shut.



It doesn't look much, but I think I just passed a project milestone of sorts: one complete floor pan repaired.

Rob

[ardiesse]

LHF floor this weekend.  Some scraping, a lot of wire-brush work, then three repair sections.



And I plug-welded the floor to the no. 1 body crossmember just to the left of the LH inner subframe mount, because that section of the floor I declared "good" after repairing it.  And while I can still get inside the no. 1 body crossmember, I'll paint it with red oxide primer as far along as I can get the radiator brush.  Same goes for the RHF floor when its time comes.

Rob