Sunday 29 April 2012

Fabricating the cover mounts

This week is about making the tabs for the cover mounts.

Started off with some Camloc products. I thought I'd need seven but, after having ordered them, I changed my mind about where to locate them. I also ordered the type that you use a flat blade screwdriver with but again, after having received and tried them I have decided to go for the cross head type (which are now on order).



First job was to make a card template for the tabs.



Here they are marked up and cut out.



...and with the holes for the Camloc fasteners. After I took this picture and tried a few tabs in place I also altered the design slightly, making them a bit narrower, so they fit better.

Sunday 22 April 2012

Finishing the second cover

With the lip panel made up it was time to trim the centre, in the same way as I did with the first cover.



Just making sure everything lines up correctly and so that the panel ribs underneath could also be marked out...



Trimmed to allow for the ribbing...



Tack welded in position.



...and final welding. In this picture the lip panel is still flat so does not follow the contours of the chassis spine.



Here the lip panel has been dressed into shape around the chassis spine.



...and some primer to keep the rust at bay.

Sunday 15 April 2012

Trimming the cover and fabricating the lip

Cover is finally trimmed to size. This was done by removing very small amounts of material then "trying for size" a number of times. Because the shape is curved this took some time to get right.



Using the card template from before, the pattern was transferred to sheet steel. Note the datum marks were also transferred.



This gave a panel size identical to the hole so I needed to add an edge to this.




The final panel was then trimmed...



...and the edge joggled to give the lip that was needed.


Sunday 8 April 2012

Aligning and sizing the cover

This week is all about aligning and sizing the cover panel. First though I needed to do the final trimming of the chassis spine hole so I knew exactly what size to make the panel. Corners have a radius to minimise the risk of cracking.



The shape of the hole was transferred to a cardboard template and then on to the cover panel.



Testing for size and alignment as there is no going back after the final cuts are made!


I decided that the panel needed to be moved to the rear slightly so marked up again. Good job I left sufficient material at each end when doing the rough cutting.



Final alignment check and I was happy.



Here you see the card template I made. Note the datum marks for alignment (dashes at top and bottom). These were duplicated on both the cover panel and chassis spine to make sure everyting went back where it should as I started to do the final trimming.



Final check before cutting. As always, measure twice, cut once!

Sunday 1 April 2012

Continuing the second cover

This week continues the fabrication of the second chassis spine cover. Firstly the paint was cleaned off and all dents marked.



Dent removal started. Whilst this panel has some dents it was in far better condition than the original.



After a lot of panel beating the dents were removed! First picture shows the outside and second the inside of the panel.




To help prevent cracking of the chassis spine, radii were put at each of the corners.



Here you can see the old and new panels side by side showing the damage and corrosion on the old one.