I had a crazy thought... there is a slim chance, that others may be using this as some sort of refference !! *faint-whump* Just remeber, Im employed as an IT Nerd, and enjoy rockclimbing and keeping tropical fish! Ive mostly taught myself, and realy just use this as an excuse to buy nice shinny tools... even though Im still not sure what some of them do!
Over the past month, I have practiced my welding and cutting on some of the easy outriggers. So far I have repaired and prime-painted the 2 outriggers that hold the fuel tank, and I have cut large "inspection holes in the firewall outrigger. I am painting the bare-welded chasis with a preparation spray paint "Wattyl KillRust Cold Galvit". Later I will use an etch primer, and a top coat (not sure what colour yet. Grey? Black?)
** painted fueltank outrigger **
Meanwhile... back in the garage... Cam scratches his head pondering the real problem... a huge hole in the bottom of the chasis, and cracks up the side, just behind the front spring mount. Now that I have "fine-tuned" my "talents" *cough-wheeze* I feel ready to take on the job of fixing this mamoth problem!
** original rusted spring mount **
I could have cut the whole front off, but I have decided to fix it, thinking it good life experience, and better than a replacement...
To get a look at the whole problem, its best to see whats inside the chasis, so I cut the hole underneath much bigger. Poking about inside the chasis revealed a lot of rust, that had been covered up with a side plate, by an owner before me.
** Hole Cut Underneath **
For all this cutting Im using a Hitachi 100mm (4") disk grinder with standard metal cutting disks are great, because you can abuse them abit, but they take out alot of metal. For a precise cut, I use 1mm thick disks, theyre fantastic! For grinding, i find the metal disks a good choice to rip through tough stuff, but the masonry disks are handy, as they dont cut in as much, so you dont take too much metal off by mistake. Another usefull tool are the wire wheels, they are so much easier than a wire brush. And then, for tight spots, the good ol trade tools die grinder, with a tungsten-carbide bit! Its works quite well with my old-clunky compressor.
** Grinder and disks **
Next, I made a template out of cardboard that fit the hole, using that to cut 2mm sheet metal (since my chasis is 2mm thick, thers no need to go thicker, its harder to weld!) I had to bend it a little to make it fit, using the vice, and a big hammer. With a few clamps holding it in place, I was able to tack it in place with the MIG. I found that welding upside down isn't too bad. The danger is catching on fire. However, if you set the voltage low, and doing spot welds, there are no drips, and no splatter. However, make sure you are getting good penetration. Its all about the penetration! =)
** Bottom plate clamp **
** Bottom plate welded **
Next i cut the side plate off to see what it was covering up. I found the spring mount to be good, it is thicker metal, but the main chasis was pitted deeply, and had a massive hole! Cant believe it was just platted over!!I cut into the main chasis, tidyed up the edges, made a cardboard template, cut more 2mm metal sheet to size, bent it a bit, and hey presto! Nice and snug....
** Cut hole with plate**
Then I got cocky... and decided to investigate a plate welded on top.... I should have done this before making a nice fitted metal piece for the side... Anyway, the sheet on top, was welded over the chasis to strengthen it, but there was a gap at one end, where moisture could get in. Result, the 2x 2mm plates had buckeled to about 10mm thick, full of rust! So I cut out the battery box (it was in the way) and also cut another big square hole it the top!
** massive rust gap **
Now, its nearly 6:30pm, and the neighbours are sick of grinder noise, so I thought Id use the time to clean and paint inside the chasis that I had exposed. Wirebrush, sandpaper, and air-gun did a good jop of getting the metal relatively clean before spraying with "Wattyl KillRust Cold Galvit". After making dinner and watching top gear =) I did a top coat of cold-galvit, making sure to mask the edges so that (a) I wouldnt contaminate the weld and (b) not die from smoke and fumes when welding (Check out the respirator I got in a previous post, it fits under a welding mask).
** Inside Chasis **
Day 2 was just about the welding. 2mm sheet steel is easy to buckle if you get too much heat into it, so the trick Ive found is this, concentrate on doing 3-4 decent spot welds, then type some blog. =) After getting a few blog thoughts down, the job is cool enough to weld some more! MultiTask!! (yes she knows its a multitask...) =D Anyway, by the end of the day, I had finnished, and it looked great! And Id even made a new mount for the battery box!! The welding doesn't look amazing, but the penetration is great! And I didnt buckle the plate at all!! =D
** Chasis Clamped **
*** Front welded ***
How Cool is THAT!! Cam's a welding machine! OOooh Yeah!
Over the past month, I have practiced my welding and cutting on some of the easy outriggers. So far I have repaired and prime-painted the 2 outriggers that hold the fuel tank, and I have cut large "inspection holes in the firewall outrigger. I am painting the bare-welded chasis with a preparation spray paint "Wattyl KillRust Cold Galvit". Later I will use an etch primer, and a top coat (not sure what colour yet. Grey? Black?)
** painted fueltank outrigger **
Meanwhile... back in the garage... Cam scratches his head pondering the real problem... a huge hole in the bottom of the chasis, and cracks up the side, just behind the front spring mount. Now that I have "fine-tuned" my "talents" *cough-wheeze* I feel ready to take on the job of fixing this mamoth problem!
** original rusted spring mount **
I could have cut the whole front off, but I have decided to fix it, thinking it good life experience, and better than a replacement...
To get a look at the whole problem, its best to see whats inside the chasis, so I cut the hole underneath much bigger. Poking about inside the chasis revealed a lot of rust, that had been covered up with a side plate, by an owner before me.
** Hole Cut Underneath **
For all this cutting Im using a Hitachi 100mm (4") disk grinder with standard metal cutting disks are great, because you can abuse them abit, but they take out alot of metal. For a precise cut, I use 1mm thick disks, theyre fantastic! For grinding, i find the metal disks a good choice to rip through tough stuff, but the masonry disks are handy, as they dont cut in as much, so you dont take too much metal off by mistake. Another usefull tool are the wire wheels, they are so much easier than a wire brush. And then, for tight spots, the good ol trade tools die grinder, with a tungsten-carbide bit! Its works quite well with my old-clunky compressor.
** Grinder and disks **
Next, I made a template out of cardboard that fit the hole, using that to cut 2mm sheet metal (since my chasis is 2mm thick, thers no need to go thicker, its harder to weld!) I had to bend it a little to make it fit, using the vice, and a big hammer. With a few clamps holding it in place, I was able to tack it in place with the MIG. I found that welding upside down isn't too bad. The danger is catching on fire. However, if you set the voltage low, and doing spot welds, there are no drips, and no splatter. However, make sure you are getting good penetration. Its all about the penetration! =)
** Bottom plate clamp **
** Bottom plate welded **
Next i cut the side plate off to see what it was covering up. I found the spring mount to be good, it is thicker metal, but the main chasis was pitted deeply, and had a massive hole! Cant believe it was just platted over!!I cut into the main chasis, tidyed up the edges, made a cardboard template, cut more 2mm metal sheet to size, bent it a bit, and hey presto! Nice and snug....
** Cut hole with plate**
Then I got cocky... and decided to investigate a plate welded on top.... I should have done this before making a nice fitted metal piece for the side... Anyway, the sheet on top, was welded over the chasis to strengthen it, but there was a gap at one end, where moisture could get in. Result, the 2x 2mm plates had buckeled to about 10mm thick, full of rust! So I cut out the battery box (it was in the way) and also cut another big square hole it the top!
** massive rust gap **
Now, its nearly 6:30pm, and the neighbours are sick of grinder noise, so I thought Id use the time to clean and paint inside the chasis that I had exposed. Wirebrush, sandpaper, and air-gun did a good jop of getting the metal relatively clean before spraying with "Wattyl KillRust Cold Galvit". After making dinner and watching top gear =) I did a top coat of cold-galvit, making sure to mask the edges so that (a) I wouldnt contaminate the weld and (b) not die from smoke and fumes when welding (Check out the respirator I got in a previous post, it fits under a welding mask).
** Inside Chasis **
Day 2 was just about the welding. 2mm sheet steel is easy to buckle if you get too much heat into it, so the trick Ive found is this, concentrate on doing 3-4 decent spot welds, then type some blog. =) After getting a few blog thoughts down, the job is cool enough to weld some more! MultiTask!! (yes she knows its a multitask...) =D Anyway, by the end of the day, I had finnished, and it looked great! And Id even made a new mount for the battery box!! The welding doesn't look amazing, but the penetration is great! And I didnt buckle the plate at all!! =D
** Chasis Clamped **
*** Front welded ***
How Cool is THAT!! Cam's a welding machine! OOooh Yeah!
