AT LAST! Hairys Resto!!

Sound work. I need to repair this area in the near future, ill have to ask you a few questions if i get stuck :wink:

Ask away Pete, I'll tell you how to make your welds look like bunches of grapes!

Your welds are fine, do the job and thats the main thing.

I have a bit of rot in that hole where the breather pipes for the tank pass through the chassis leg, need to sort some time soonish

Hairy mate,
How long did you roughly spend in man hours on each rear chassis leg and are you using 0.8 wire for the mig?

I've got about 7 days spare at xmas to do the legs  

Make sure you grind the welds down. (MOT tester friend is always telling me to grind them down, he says it stops water sitting on them?!) I use 0.6mm wire, 0.8mm is to heavy! Looks good tho must have taken you a while!  :y:

cheers for that Allan.

so it's only been 4 months since I last did anything  :roll:  

On OSR chassis leg today. Here's how it was…



..here it is now… (couple of holes from the spot welds, oops!)

..had to cover over cut out on the repair panel I don't need (Not sure if for cabby?) Was going to weld to inside to look tidy then fill, but thought if on the outside no chance water to ever seep in to the leg - and you'll never see it!

..panel held in place - ish!…


That's it for today. I'm about ready to weld in but not sure if to loosely tack on, or being more swayed towards doing rear panel first (holy crap that scares me! ) so I can get a better reference.

Either way, determined to get cracking with this. With no girlfriend at moment to distract me and a mate in the village who can spray well and cheap, I want to finish this year or worried will never get done…we'll see though!!

Been out in the garage today (damn cold!) Popped in for some lunch so thought put some pics so far up. Rear panel is coming off!!

Now you see it…


….now you don't! (well, mostly)


Doubt I'll get new one on today as aside from removing the rest and cleaning up, I want to repair the spare wheel well first. Would be nice to just clamp the new one in place for a looksee though :wink:

I was really daunted about doing this but it's been quite easy really - and I only smacked my thumb with the hammer once   The most time consuming bit is getting rid of the huge lumps of seam sealer in those hard to reach corners.

Instead of drilling the spot welds out, I ground out with cutting disc so I have slots in the flange now. Tip I learnt from Chudd (thanks mate!) Easier to weld than a plug weld and stronger so I'm told. Then just a case of cold chisel and a bit of fettling and off it comes

Right, time to get back out there…

Cheers again for everyone's tips about doing this job on my other thread

Andy

nice work.

better progress than mine.

Cheers What'  :wink:

It's nice to attack a big panel, looks like I've actually done something for a change! It started to hammer down with snow, so stopped working, packed up and now it's stopped, so not got much further

Here's the previously mentioned slots from grinding out the welds.

Under the floor flange needs a little tidying too - no new metal, just de-rusting. Can't wait to get the new panel on though, that will really look like progress! 8)

Nice work!

Iv been at mine most of the weekend and seemed to get no where with it, looks like your making some real progress   :wink:

First time I've seen that method of taking out spot welds too, like it!

I dont drill them out either, if you find where they are then grind down until the top layer is wafer thin, (you can tell because it goes black very quickly with the heat) the metal will peel off with a pair of pliers, leaving the metal underneath perfectly in tact :wink:

No idea if anyone else does this, have to admit it takes a lot longer than drilling or doing it your way!

that looks like a lot of work!  8O

but will be soo worth it when it is done!
keep it up - it's only going to get warmer, and easier to get motivated as the spring comes in..  

Cheers Greg. TBH I think you have it sussed too - will try to avoid drilling welds in future as it just seems to make such a mess of things (well I do anyway!)

Rich - not too much - only spent about 4 hours on it today. Just shame I didn't manage to get much more off than the last photo - damn seam sealer again, spent about 3.5 hours getting this off I reckon!!

Other than that, was a really easy job. Will be nice to get the new one on as my work so far has been under the car so you never really notice the progress!

a really easy job??  8O

not something i'd fancy doing myself…  :?

got to be the best way though - to start underneath, get the nasty fiddly bits out of the way , then it gets easier as you get further through. and as you say, the progress becomes more obvious too..

roll on the summer.

…I did want to do all the rear underside first but OSR corner is so rotten I've got no decent reference for the chassis leg repair panel, so thought if I replace the rear panel, I can get its location a lot easier!

8) nice progress there Andy

Hairyarse said

Cheers What'  :wink:

It's nice to attack a big panel, looks like I've actually done something for a change! It started to hammer down with snow, so stopped working, packed up and now it's stopped, so not got much further

Here's the previously mentioned slots from grinding out the welds.

Under the floor flange needs a little tidying too - no new metal, just de-rusting. Can't wait to get the new panel on though, that will really look like progress! 8)

 :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :wink:

Good to see you getting proper stuck in 8)   Is the MOT booked yet?

ew said

Good to see you getting proper stuck in 8)   Is the MOT booked yet?

Not quite yet!

Wow just read this whole thread VERY inspired right now ..
can someone advise me on this zinc paint and seal sealer i keep hearing about .. sounds like im gonna need some soon .. gonna start learning to weld soon