Project The Austin 2dr 1100 story - Part IV - Now in sharleys hands

[SiC]

Yeah it's annoying the MG Midget Speedo was broken. The needle assembly from the others is a different design so I couldn't easily just swap bits over. At least I have a functioning unit though.

 

Longer term though, I have another solution. Already ordered this:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F132723897036

 

And this:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F253731627241

 

[SiC]

Floor is now 95% complete. Yes I know I should have sprayed zinc primer on! I'll give it a zip over with the flap disc to take the top rust off.

 

Still need to put some angle steel here to finish these bits off. Might cut a bit further up as the steel is pretty pitted and buggered.

 

Cut back the hole to make it into a triangle and welded a patch in. Ground off the welds.

 

Annoyingly I either went to hard with the grinder and/or the metal was thin and I made the hole bigger to the side. I might just cut a bigger square hole and put a nice big new section in.

[vulgalour]

*thumbs up*  That spot was a pain to weld to, I ought to have cut further back to do it properly.  A bigger square blobbed in and you'll be fine.  It looks a really nice job now you've started dressing it all back, it's going to look brilliant when you get some paint thrown about.  Still hard to believe this is your first ever attempt at welding.

[SiC]

It probably has helped that I've had many years of surface mount soldering and model flying to hone my hand-eye coordination skills. Soldering especially requires a very steady hand.

 

Welding, dare I say it, has been the easy bit so far. The hard bit is shaping the metal to get a nice close butt joint and trying to keep the panels (especially big pieces) in the right location. I have found myself putting on the thicker gauntlets and holding the work piece as long as I can stand it, while putting a tack weld down to keep it permanently placed! Probably not a recommended method nor good practice...

 

Clamps I often can't get into place and magnets don't hold strongly enough or not get a flat enough for the area to weld. I've often resorted to wedging in a jack underneath to push into place or even wedging an old fence post in and hoping I can get it tacked quick enough so that it doesn't catch fire!

[DodgeRover]

Sounds like you have reached professional standards!

Try getting someonelse to hold/ wedge things while you get a tack on to hold it, to reach true professional level your assistant should be as young as possible whilst still being strong enough to hold said piece.

 

PS it takes ages to set wood on fire with a MIG, oxy acetylene can have a hammer shaft charred before a decent weld is done!

[vulgalour]

If it's getting too hot to hold, a magnet on a telescopic stick can be your friend, especially if there are no impressionable youngsters to help.  This is particularly handy with very small pieces you can't clamp in place but stand a real risk of dropping inside a structure where you can't then retrieve it from.

[sharley17194]

looks good! you must be happy with that!

[Scruffy Bodger]

When trying to fix a small piece in exactly the right place I often just grab a spiky off-cut and tack it to the new piece at whatever angle makes sense to make it easier to hold. Once you've spotted the piece in place a few waggles and the off-cut just snaps off, then touch it with the sander to get rid of the evidence.

Those 40 grit disks are seriously abrasive (especially on skin  ) Burning through like that has probably done you a favour in the long run though as it really must have been pretty thin as that is quite a big hole. I'd investigate the bit to the right of it too where that hot spot is, that's often a good indicator of where it's getting very thin.

[sharley17194]

2nd on the fact they cut thru skin with ease!

 

The metal around that hole is thin, id cut a largish square hole and plate it if you try and weld anything to thin metal you will end up chasing a hole. 

 

When trying to fix a small piece in exactly the right place I often just grab a spiky off-cut and tack it to the new piece at whatever angle makes sense to make it easier to hold. Once you've spotted the piece in place a few waggles and the off-cut just snaps off, then touch it with the sander to get rid of the evidence.

Those 40 grit disks are seriously abrasive (especially on skin  ) Burning through like that has probably done you a favour in the long run though as it really must have been pretty thin as that is quite a big hole. I'd investigate the bit to the right of it too where that hot spot is, that's often a good indicator of where it's getting very thin.

[PhilA]

Butt weld clamps for big sections?

 

 

Phil

[SiC]

Butt weld clamps for big sections?

 

 

Phil

I've got a bunch of them, but they can end up being more hassle to set up than roughly fixing then tacking. Especially if the panel starts flopping around or I can't get my hand on the other side to put the bar through.

 

Any misalignment and height differences after tacking can usually be resolved with those handy body shaping hammers.

[Ben_O]

Has anybody suggested backing the butt joint with copper prior to welding?

It makes a good heatsink to keep distortion down, provides a decent backing to reduce blowing through allowing you to up the weld time a fair bit to get a stronger weld (and also a neater backside) and is also good at holding the pieces to be joined level.

 

I have a thick sheet (6mm I think) of the stuff cut into various shapes and sizes to suit most jobs and use them all the time.

 

Your welding is looking stellar though and will just keep improving with practice

 

Cheers

Ben

[SiC]

I have invested in one of these:

https://www.frost.co.uk/welders-copper-helper-welding.html

 

I've tried using it but it's quite difficult to get your hand the other side while being in a position with the torch on the other!

[Ben_O]

I've seen those and agree with the problems using them.

I use the flat plate because it can be clamped into position with welding clamps/mole grips or whatever.

 

I have replaced lots of inner sills on Mini's when restoring them and I have often used an old scissor jack effectively jack up the copper plate snugly into position on the underside of the join.

[SiC]

I've yet to find where I can buy a big lump of copper though.

[SiC]

I have to admit, having to put more work fixing the inner sill is annoying. I'm quite looking forward to getting stuck into the outer sills and inner membrane. A bit nervous that cutting it off will end up breaking is back and ending up with a rather large mess of metal!

[Ben_O]

Brace up the door shut by welding a length of steel box section across it

[SiC]

Things I regret in life:

• Buying a car that needs loads of welding
• Buying a car that has absolutely awful paintwork
• Buying a car that needs loads of other mechanical stuff doing - clutch, suspension, brakes, electrics, interior
• Buying a car with all the above

Gave the car a good hoover out tonight. The footwell had a good centimetre of welding dust in the ridges. I really need to clean down the new metal in the footwell and paint it. Water is getting in some how and causing a fair bit of surface rust to come through.

 

Also cut some holes in the body. First was cutting that inner sill out as a nice big square.

 

This is the backside of that cut out piece. You can see the pitted section quite well.

 

Reassuringly the edges around this have mostly uniform metal thickness. I'm planning to now just splash Krust all inside the inner sill and then put paint over the top.

 

With a nice big hole, it's given a good chance to look at a bit of that inner membrane and inside the outer sill.

As can be seen from the black metal, it's been replaced at some point in the cars life. Having a poke around it doesn't seem to bad in it. I do wonder if I could get away with not having to replace the sill and just clean it up then refit on.

 

I cut away the right angle piece that attaches to the driver's floor and cross beam as it was pretty much coming off.

 

Inside this cross beam section was full of rust and dead bugs. Lovely.

 

Next up hopefully this week will be welding a new patch onto that inner sill, welding right angle steel onto that floor and then clean up the floor with a wizz over on the grinder with a splash of paint to finish.

 

Speaking of things to do, I haven't updated my to-do list recently. Scrubbed off all the jobs done and put the next lot of bits to get done.

[vulgalour]

I could never figure out for definite if water was getting in because it was always dry when I looked but if I were to suspect it coming in anywhere at the front it'd be through the scuttle vent on the outside and then down through the hole where the heater goes which has been repaired before and needs some more repair in the future.  Try taping up the scuttle vent with gaffer tape (it can't make the paint any worse) and see if it stops the water ingress.  There was never any water sat around the inside of the windscreen so I assumed that the seal was good there.

 

I'd recommend protecting the bits you've welded and not worrying about dressing back the welds.  Paint can always be removed easier than rust and you don't need to finish all the welding before sticking something on the bare metal.  Even brush-on Hammerite will be good enough in the short term.

 

The to do list looks really sensible and you really are dealing with the worst part of the car first here so it should get easier as you get that current list ticked off.  You've filled the biggest hole the car had, after all, so all your patches get smaller now.

[JeeExEll]

I've yet to find where I can buy a big lump of copper though.

Maybe cut up an old scrap domestic hot-water-tank into a long strip, and fold it over and over again tightly till you get a suitable sized 'lump'. Oldskool make-do and mend sort of thing. Very satisfying when you make / adapt tools, even simple ones.

[SiC]

I could never figure out for definite if water was getting in because it was always dry when I looked but if I were to suspect it coming in anywhere at the front it'd be through the scuttle vent on the outside and then down through the hole where the heater goes which has been repaired before and needs some more repair in the future.  Try taping up the scuttle vent with gaffer tape (it can't make the paint any worse) and see if it stops the water ingress.  There was never any water sat around the inside of the windscreen so I assumed that the seal was good there.

 

I'd recommend protecting the bits you've welded and not worrying about dressing back the welds.  Paint can always be removed easier than rust and you don't need to finish all the welding before sticking something on the bare metal.  Even brush-on Hammerite will be good enough in the short term.

I think a lot of the leaks are coming in from the knackered door seal. The car is still at an angle up on ramps which I think is allowing an easy path for rain water to come in. I suspect it is coming down the window glass, then running in through there. The glass seals have almost completely fallen off now.

 

The to do list looks really sensible and you really are dealing with the worst part of the car first here so it should get easier as you get that current list ticked off.  You've filled the biggest hole the car had, after all, so all your patches get smaller now.

I dunno if its the biggest hole. I keep poking the rusty bits on the rear subframe mount area...

 

I'm also suspecting that the rear subframe itself might be not in the best of shape. I was poking part of it and it flexed a fair old bit using my fingers - especially considering it should be pretty thick steel. I hope not, as if the subframe itself is shot, then its a big part of the car (both size and expense) to replace. Especially as they're known to rot through and spare rear subframes aren't in massive plentiful supply.

 

 

Maybe cut up an old scrap domestic hot-water-tank into a long strip, and fold it over and over again tightly till you get a suitable sized 'lump'. Oldskool make-do and mend sort of thing. Very satisfying when you make / adapt tools, even simple ones.

Good idea. Unfortunately I don't know any plumbers nor have a hot water tank to cut up.

[Guest Hooli]

Things I regret in life:

• Buying a car that needs loads of welding
• Buying a car that has absolutely awful paintwork
• Buying a car that needs loads of other mechanical stuff doing - clutch, suspension, brakes, electrics, interior
• Buying a car with all the above

 

 

But enough about the MGBGT.

[vulgalour]

If you want a block of copper you can get copper pipe, hammer it flat, and fold it back on itself a few times.  That way you get to dictate the size of the block too.  Hope the rear subframe doesn't end up being rotten, having never poked it I have no idea on its condition.  Subframes do pop up from time to time on eBay and on ado16.info, they seem to be about £140 or so if they're not restored, considerably more if they've been repaired and painted up.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Well done SiC, you're doing some great work here, fair play to ya for wading in

[sharley17194]

I have a complete rear subframe if one is required, its currently stopping my bin falling over in the wind....

If you want a block of copper you can get copper pipe, hammer it flat, and fold it back on itself a few times.  That way you get to dictate the size of the block too.  Hope the rear subframe doesn't end up being rotten, having never poked it I have no idea on its condition.  Subframes do pop up from time to time on eBay and on ado16.info, they seem to be about £140 or so if they're not restored, considerably more if they've been repaired and painted up.

[sharley17194]

Water ingres will almost certainly be rot around your heater box. I intend to seal the holes over on my VP and take air from somewhere else. Its fairly easy to do with a hole saw some ducting and a will to use the welder.

[SiC]

I'll have a look to see if any water is in the heater box area when we get another big rain shower. Most of the water is mid car though. When the car was flat on the floor, the inside stayed pretty much dry. Admittedly the weather was a bit warmer then.

 

This is why I haven't welded over those holes in the mini floorpan right?

[SiC]

 

 

I have a complete rear subframe if one is required, its currently stopping my bin falling over in the wind....

Really useful to know. I'll see what it's like once I take it off. I've pretty much conceded it's going to have to be removed. Hopefully the hydrolastic pipe fittings won't put up too much of a fight at the rear end.

 

If it's savable, I'll weld it up and give it a paint. Quite keen to clean up and reuse parts on this car when I can. Not just cost, but also I want to save waste on parts that can be reused rather than swapping with second hand and binning the old.

[purplebargeken]

It really is taking shape mate, good stuff!

[SiC]

Back to doing small jobs in the evenings. Despite being knackered from work and cycling back+forth, I need to force myself to carry on in the evening. Even if it's only little bits done, it still slow but steady progress.

 

I really ought to invest in a proper metal folder though.

 

However they do make a reasonable job of it.

 

Should I drill holes, puddle weld those holes and then put a bead down the edge? Or just putting a bead down the edge enough?