Then on to all the rest, one by one. They were each carefully positioned and clamped in place before being welded.
The welds were then cleaned up...
...and a coat of primer sprayed on.
Sunday, 17 June 2012
Welding in the cover tabs
Well, over the week I managed to get a new supply of mig wire, although my gas bottle is now running very low! Despite this I thought I'd try and get the cover tabs welded in place. As I'd already started with the first one I just continued plug welding it.
Then on to all the rest, one by one. They were each carefully positioned and clamped in place before being welded.
The welds were then cleaned up...
...and a coat of primer sprayed on.
`
Then on to all the rest, one by one. They were each carefully positioned and clamped in place before being welded.
The welds were then cleaned up...
...and a coat of primer sprayed on.
Sunday, 10 June 2012
Small step backwards and a slight hiatus
After cleaning up the inside of the chassis spine I was ready to plug weld the cover tabs in place.
First job was to coat the tabs with weld through primer on the side that faces the chassis spine in order to avoid corrosion at a later date.
Then the first tab was positioned and plug welded in place. Unfortunately this led to a rethink. Where I had pre-drilled the tabs for the Camloc fasteners, this made it very difficult to position the tabs, to the extent that the second tab I tried would have been completely out of alignment. The only thing to do was to start again and leave the drilling of the tabs until they were in position.
Having also seen the tabs in place I decided I didn't like the look of them either so took the opportunity to re-design them. Below, the new tabs are marked out.
Then rougly cut to shape. You can see that this time I opted to make pairs of tabs together. This should resolve any aligning issues.
Here they are trimmed to the final shape. I also chose to round off all the corners.
Masked up ready to prime the inside face.
The rear-most tab clamped in place and plug welding started. Unfortunately at this point I ran out of mig wire so all stop whilst I order up some more! Even at this stage though I much prefer the look of the new tabs so am kind of happy I had the earlier problem.
First job was to coat the tabs with weld through primer on the side that faces the chassis spine in order to avoid corrosion at a later date.
Then the first tab was positioned and plug welded in place. Unfortunately this led to a rethink. Where I had pre-drilled the tabs for the Camloc fasteners, this made it very difficult to position the tabs, to the extent that the second tab I tried would have been completely out of alignment. The only thing to do was to start again and leave the drilling of the tabs until they were in position.
Having also seen the tabs in place I decided I didn't like the look of them either so took the opportunity to re-design them. Below, the new tabs are marked out.
Then rougly cut to shape. You can see that this time I opted to make pairs of tabs together. This should resolve any aligning issues.
Here they are trimmed to the final shape. I also chose to round off all the corners.
Masked up ready to prime the inside face.
The rear-most tab clamped in place and plug welding started. Unfortunately at this point I ran out of mig wire so all stop whilst I order up some more! Even at this stage though I much prefer the look of the new tabs so am kind of happy I had the earlier problem.
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
De-rusting inside the chassis spine- Finished
Well, it's taken a while and was rather fiddly but I now finished removing the rust from inside the chassis spine. I also took the opportunity to clean up the top of the frame horns, torsion bar tubes and shock mounts.
Best I could do for a picture showing inside the spine!
Once again, covered in a coat or primer to keep surface rust at bay.
Best I could do for a picture showing inside the spine!
Once again, covered in a coat or primer to keep surface rust at bay.
Sunday, 27 May 2012
Sunday, 20 May 2012
More rust removal
As the title says, more rust removal from inside the chassis spine this week so no pictures. Same technique as described in my previous post. I've probably still got a couple of sessions of this to go before I'm ready to weld the cover tabs in place.
Sunday, 13 May 2012
Getting rid of the last of the rust
I've now got a couple of sessions of cleaning off the last of the rust. This is inside the chassis spine and concentrated on the lower panel...so the remainder of the original panel where I now have two covers.
No pictures this week as getting shots of rust in this area is difficult and not that interesting.
To get rid of the corrosion I'm using the trusty wire brush on an angel grinder which just about goes up inside the tunnel but is tricky to use as it can catch quite easily. I also have a small wire brush for use with an air drill to get into the bits not accessible with the angle grinder. Lastly I'm using an old screwdriver to clean the seam joints.
Once the loose rust is removed I give it all a blow through and wipe down. Next I use a product from POR 15 called Prep and Ready. It's a liquid that is sprayed onto the rusty areas. It eats the last of the rust away and etches the metal, leaving a zinc phostphate coating. This takes a while to do it's job and requires agitating with a brush every 30 minutes or so. It's good stuff!
Finally once any remnants of the Prep and Ready are rinsed away and the area dried thoroughly it's primed as I have done with the rest of the chassis spine.
No pictures this week as getting shots of rust in this area is difficult and not that interesting.
To get rid of the corrosion I'm using the trusty wire brush on an angel grinder which just about goes up inside the tunnel but is tricky to use as it can catch quite easily. I also have a small wire brush for use with an air drill to get into the bits not accessible with the angle grinder. Lastly I'm using an old screwdriver to clean the seam joints.
Once the loose rust is removed I give it all a blow through and wipe down. Next I use a product from POR 15 called Prep and Ready. It's a liquid that is sprayed onto the rusty areas. It eats the last of the rust away and etches the metal, leaving a zinc phostphate coating. This takes a while to do it's job and requires agitating with a brush every 30 minutes or so. It's good stuff!
Finally once any remnants of the Prep and Ready are rinsed away and the area dried thoroughly it's primed as I have done with the rest of the chassis spine.
Monday, 7 May 2012
Marking up for the cover tabs
This week I'm marking up in preparation to weld in the tabs that will hold the covers.
First up is to mark and drill the covers for the Camploc fasteners.
With this done I attached the tabs to the covers to find out where on the chassis spine they will finally be located.
This was then marked on the spine.
For the rear most cover, the back two tabs needed to be angled.
Final marking of the chassis spine for both covers.
Then the spine was drilled. I decided to use three plug welds per tab.
First up is to mark and drill the covers for the Camploc fasteners.
With this done I attached the tabs to the covers to find out where on the chassis spine they will finally be located.
This was then marked on the spine.
For the rear most cover, the back two tabs needed to be angled.
Final marking of the chassis spine for both covers.
Then the spine was drilled. I decided to use three plug welds per tab.
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