Mk1 Caddy Pickup aka Patches

Super_ted said

This is great Rich! Cant believe you are on to another project straight away, madness  

Cheers chap, looking forward to getting dad back over to get some serious momentum going.

Baggins said

Looking good Rich, will watch progress with great interest.

I'd like a Caddy as a future project - mainly so I can 'scratch the itch' of a proper engine swap this time, without ruining originality, but with a platform I'm now familiar with.

If you decide to sell the new brake compensator please let me know.

 

Yes the Caddy really is a blank canvas, long way to go yet before the exciting bits get added though

Not a great deal done over the weekend but had another look at the lower leg repair. The shaped section at the end wasn't correct and not snug against the raised lip on the reinforcement plate.

New toy fixed that

Much happier with that shape now and nice and tight against the section at the end of the leg.



Now I really need to weld it up and on  

where was your front panel from mate? looks good quality

You can weld and fabricate my chassis legs any day Rich! Skills+++


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

000dave000 said

where was your front panel from mate? looks good quality

Got it from Werkz 34 but is a Rhibo branded. I believe its the same one Heritage sell.

They just didn't have any stock at the time I was looking. Quality seems OK. Lots of sharpe edges though

Hef355 said

You can weld and fabricate my chassis legs any day Rich! Skills+++


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Send your leg over and i'll have a go  

Haven't done anything in a few weeks but got on it this morning.

I TIG welded the repair panel where I had tack welded the joint off the pickup and then plug and seam welded it with the MIG on the pickup.

Really pleased with it's fitment Got the front panel on for a first test fit and needs a bit of tweaking and should be good to weld on 

  

 

Nice to see you getting stuck in and saving one .

Rich. This is looking superb mate! Well done indeed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Long over due update The front panel is finally on and really pleased with it after a bit of tweaking.

I spot blasted the areas where the panel mates to and also where it will be difficult to reach once the panel was attached.



Removed the lower windscreen panel and not too bad underneath but the upper A pillar doesn't look too clever on the drivers side.



The gutter seam appears to be coming away so drastic exploratory surgery needed there. I've had a good search for a replacement outer skin but no one sells these as a pattern part. Otherwise a mk1 that is being broken up for spares may be an option. If anyone could cut both sides off a car they are breaking I would be very grateful otherwise I will need to remove the outer skin, repair it and replace it.

Got the jig preassembled ready for use

Now next bit is not for the fainthearted  .

Dug in to the upper A pillar and it's full of surprises!

To remove it I ground the top of the gutter where it folds over and then drilled out the spot welds.



A little bit crusty underneath  .

 

Removed the gutter section next.



Then cut out the rusty section it was sitting on.

  

Spot blasted the inside to clean metal.





Weld through primer on.



New repair section made.

 

Welded on and protected with weld through primer.



Need to make up a new gutter piece next as the original is pretty crusty .



The outer skin might be salvageable with a bit of spot blasting and some repair sections made where it's tucked in the gutter.





Had a look at the B pillar and removed all the filler. The previous repair was poorly done and there is a large dip in the panel. I will cut it out, inspect behind and remake it .




 

Loving this thread Rich, fantastic skills! Love that little spot blaster, I have an old bumper frame that I'm going to clean up and spray soon as the pattern frame I have doesn't seem to fit. Would it work on a job like that do you think? 

Campaigning for Dave said

Loving this thread Rich, fantastic skills! Love that little spot blaster, I have an old bumper frame that I'm going to clean up and spray soon as the pattern frame I have doesn't seem to fit. Would it work on a job like that do you think? 

Hi Dave thanking for the kind comments.

The spot blaster off my compressor ( 3hp 14.6cfm) made light work of removing the paint and pitted rust.

Would highly recommend it, especially useful in the nook and crannies.

It gets absolutely everywhere mind and you use the spot media very fast but I think that was me opening it up and giving it full send

For larger jobs a pressurised vessel would be better as has more capacity.

Rich. said

Campaigning for Dave said

Loving this thread Rich, fantastic skills! Love that little spot blaster, I have an old bumper frame that I'm going to clean up and spray soon as the pattern frame I have doesn't seem to fit. Would it work on a job like that do you think? 

Hi Dave thanking for the kind comments.

The spot blaster off my compressor ( 3hp 14.6cfm) made light work of removing the paint and pitted rust.

Would highly recommend it, especially useful in the nook and crannies.

It gets absolutely everywhere mind and you use the spot media very fast but I think that was me opening it up and giving it full send

For larger jobs a pressurised vessel would be better as has more capacity.

 Brilliant, thanks Rich, one ordered now. I did have a blast cabinet but it was too big to store and annoyingly too small for lots of the bits I need to restore - the gun is definitely the best of both worlds!

Your fabrication work is incredible dude, are you self-taught? I've a pretty crusty Campaign that's mothballed down at Mums that needs rear arches, sills, spare wheel well and god knows what else so I'd love to know how you built your skills! 

Definitely getting stuck in .respect to you mate

Campaigning for Dave said

Rich. said

Campaigning for Dave said

Loving this thread Rich, fantastic skills! Love that little spot blaster, I have an old bumper frame that I'm going to clean up and spray soon as the pattern frame I have doesn't seem to fit. Would it work on a job like that do you think?

Hi Dave thanking for the kind comments.

The spot blaster off my compressor ( 3hp 14.6cfm) made light work of removing the paint and pitted rust.

Would highly recommend it, especially useful in the nook and crannies.

It gets absolutely everywhere mind and you use the spot media very fast but I think that was me opening it up and giving it full send For larger jobs a pressurised vessel would be better as has more capacity.

 Brilliant, thanks Rich, one ordered now. I did have a blast cabinet but it was too big to store and annoyingly too small for lots of the bits I need to restore - the gun is definitely the best of both worlds!

Your fabrication work is incredible dude, are you self-taught? I've a pretty crusty Campaign that's mothballed down at Mums that needs rear arches, sills, spare wheel well and god knows what else so I'd love to know how you built your skills!

Yes all self taught from watching youtube videos . I like the challenge.

The brilliant thing about metal is it can be worked again and again and if you mess it up then flatten and start again. Some of the trickier bit's I found it easier to make as separate parts off the vehicle, weld together and weld on.

Oh and a lot of patience and perseverance.  

Started looking at how I could create the open hem gutter on the upper A pillar.

Started making a prototype part out of aluminium using a sheet metal bender. It worked quite well but the height wasn't right.



Made a few more until I got the measurements right:



Then tried to create a final version in 18g steel, got one end spot on but the final bend didn't go very well in the centre and the other end.

With steel being stiffer than aluminium it was much harder to get a defined edge. I think it's back to the drawing board. I might use my bead roller to produce the open hem and then bend the rest of the part.

If anyone can think of a better way please let me know. The added challenge is that the part im making needs to be welded first and then the outer skin placed in it. The open hem will need to be fairly open to start with before the out skin can be placed in it and then the final fold made.

This is my attempt in steel.



 

Got an hour in tonight and think I cracked the gutter rail.

Instead of doing the initial bend with the metal bender I used a hemming die on the bead roller. Gave a much tighter bend.

I need to repair the outer skin next but there is enough room to slide the 2 pieces together.

I can weld the gutter first and then weld the out skin on top as per the factory and then finish the gutter with hemming pliers to fold it over tight, hammer and dolly and give it a good sand 

So the scary bit. I was hoping to do only minor repairs to the outer A pillar skin but it turned in to my most complex repair to date.

I spot blasted the pillar to see what I was dealing with.

Before:



The mess afterwards. 

The result:



Only half the part was worth saving. Fortunately the most dominant swage line was not affected by rust so I could cut it half.



Many hours later on the T dollies, bender and bead roller and I have this.



It needs some fine fettling but with the gutter repair part I think this will work.