Oh ok. I know them. I will ask when I am ready. Thank you.Stuckey Tyres in Brunswick / Sydney Road. About $400 each incl tubes and fitting.
Oh ok. I know them. I will ask when I am ready. Thank you.Stuckey Tyres in Brunswick / Sydney Road. About $400 each incl tubes and fitting.
Please tell me what sheet metal thickness did you use on the door repairs. Do you know if it was cold rolled?I certainly felt like Fitzee over the past two weekends - can’t say I missed the cutting, welding and grinding since finishing the chassis… but: what needs to be done needs to be done, so back onto the doors and outer panels:
Most of the bottoms of all doors are rusted - as are the bottom edges of the door skins. Some are a little better than others, so the process of fixing it is roughly the same for all four doors.
Folding the sections isn’t easy - the tapers, radii and angles are all a little different, which pushes my folding skills via a couple of steel angle to the limit. But, they all came together after all.
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I folded the door skin bottom edges over an offcut from a slightly thicker sheet, which worked very well.
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Once the seal holders were plug welded back into the recess and the whole door epoxy primed it looked pretty good.
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The sheet metal on the doors is super thin - very easy to blow holes into it, which then takes a bit of patience and practice.
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Added the drain holes to the doors. I will coat the inside of the doors after the dents are removed or filled. I will then add the seam sealer and also paint the bottom section with stone guard before the doors receive another coat of epoxy primer and then the final paint of Bleu D’Orient!
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A few more weeks of toiling and I should be close to handing the panels back to the painter…
What youtube videos were you watching about shrinking aluminium? This is one thing I haven't been brave enough to try yet!Time to get onto the last step of the outer panels. The bonnet needs a fair bit of work, stripping off all the old glue and corrosion.
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Once the old paint is stripped off the surface should come up ok, but it has a fair bit of corrosion.
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The bonnet had a decent dent in it that was filled with bog. After sanding off the bog and watching a couple of YouTube videos on how to fix aluminium dents, i was able to hammer and shrink the dent back into shape. Heat the aluminium up until the sharpie marks disappear, hammer the dent and then quench with water to shrink it. Worked a treat.
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The other panels are all repaired and the first skim of filler applied. Next is sanding, sanding and more sanding… then filling and sanding.
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I also got my seats and door cards back from the Trimmer - verdict: pretty good.
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He added a few new springs to the seats to stiffen them up a little, new foam and then installed the seat covers. I wasn’t 100% happy with the foam in the seat back, so added a bit more Dralon wadding to plump it up - happy now.
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The door cards are great. I am glad I picked the caramel colour. Really like it.
does anyone want the old red vinyl covers? They are still pretty good…
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Sven
I found the video below and thought: give it a go and it worked surprisingly well. Still needs a little filler to level the dent, but not a lot…What youtube videos were you watching about shrinking aluminium? This is one thing I haven't been brave enough to try yet!
Thank you for your reply.I found the video below and thought: give it a go and it worked surprisingly well. Still needs a little filler to level the dent, but not a lot…
Ramaling, I bought automotive sheets off the local metal wholesaler, pretty sure it is 1.2mm thick and cold rolled. It is not coated, so I wipe it with WD40 to stop it rusting while storing them.
The door skins are ok in thickness I found, but the inner edges where the hinges And locks are were terribly thin - maybe from stretching the metal when the sheet metal was pressed at the time… very easy to blow holes into them when chasing rust or cracks…
Geez you are good and quick Bob…. Checked my sheets and they are 1.0mm, not 1.2mm.View attachment 135328
DS door inner skin is 0.55
Door outer and rear wing are 0.80
So I would not use anything thicker than 1.0
Thanks for that.View attachment 135328
DS door inner skin is 0.55
Door outer and rear wing are 0.80
So I would not use anything thicker than 1.0
Thanks for that.
Then I better get real good at MIG welding 0.8mm - 1.0mm. I just connected the Argon and 0.6mm wire and tried it on some 1.2mm sheet. The welds are quite impressive with my WIA 190 MIG. I didn't know Argon made such a difference compared to flux cored. Its very controllable and sounds just like frying bacon.
You should be using Argon/CO2/O2 mix with MIG on mild steel.Thanks for that.
Then I better get real good at MIG welding 0.8mm - 1.0mm. I just connected the Argon and 0.6mm wire and tried it on some 1.2mm sheet. The welds are quite impressive with my WIA 190 MIG. I didn't know Argon made such a difference compared to flux cored. Its very controllable and sounds just like frying bacon.
That looks right.View attachment 135397View attachment 135398
This is my welding setup and an example of welds on quite a few settings. I've just discovered the argon.CO2/)2 stuff and its lots of fun. That sheet is 1.15mm. I just found out from Independant Steel Company in the Illawarra that cold formed sheet is supplied as 0.75mm, 0.95mm and 1.15mm.
On my machine the 0.6mm operates without any problems at all. If you turn the voltage up too high however it will fuse in the copper electrode which is quite fixable. My unit has a tension screw that prevents the spool from unwinding - that way the 0.6 wire doesn't get tangled. It would take me about 5 minutes to swap out the electrode and spool to use 0.8mm.