All I wanted to do was Paint the Rear Cross Member!

[Dan_Trials]

Just had a read from the start, it snowballed a bit didnt it!!, Top work though, cracking welding ( are you a pro?)

Keep the pics coming

Yeah things did get a bit out of hand that weekend! Thanks man. I'm by no means a pro at all, I do have experience welding car panels in a body shop and chassis repairs etc and I do work for a fabrication company right now but my welding isn't pro level or coded or anything. I guess it's just time on the welding that helps, unfortunately at work I don't get to do a whole lot of welding, on site assembly and refinishing is what I'm on mostly. But yeah, I guess you learn something with each weld, so anyone looking to improve their welding just grab a load of metal and start welding it!

 

[trax]

Great jon, keep going, not far till it's done! And winter isn't that far off

 

[Tenz]

Thanks. You got a thread for your's? Yeah it can be hard to get motivated, but like you say once you get over that hurdle it is satisfying.

Not yet but keep meaning to start one ,got loads of pics ,ill sort it soon

 

[discomark10]

Good work, bet in a way your glad you did take it apart.. #### driving around like it was!

 

[Dan_Trials]

Great jon, keep going, not far till it's done! And winter isn't that far off

Yep, will be chasing this one to the end mate!

Thanks. You got a thread for your's? Yeah it can be hard to get motivated, but like you say once you get over that hurdle it is satisfying.

Not yet but keep meaning to start one ,got loads of pics ,ill sort it soon

Good stuff, yeah plenty of pics!

Good work, bet in a way your glad you did take it apart.. #### driving around like it was!

Thanks. Yeah I'm not a bodge it and leg it person, once I found some rot like that there was no way I would have not checked the rest and stripping to a bare chassis is the only way to get at all of it properly to do the job right.

 

[Dan_Trials]

Not been at it much this week but a quick update:

Chopped basically the whole side out from the out rigger to the trailing arm mounting:

Small repair to the radius arm mounting:

Hopefully get this welded on and at least make a start on the out rigger this weekend!

 

[Pikey]

this is an awesome thread I really should do the same with my 96 110. but I don't have access to a 2nd vehicle so I'll be going down the chassis swap road.

 

[andrewblueboy]

must say those welds are just amazing. they look as if been done by a machine.

 

[mick the builder]

First of all let me say as others had that your welding is 1st class, but (not wanting to put a downer on it) your chassis, as good as it is, is still made up of lots of small pieces of steel welded together. I would just wonder how rough roads, off road or worst of all a crash would would affect it. I would guess it would be like one long crumple zone. I might be wrong and i hope i am as im no engineer but as a belt and braces approach,i would weld a front to back lenght of HT re- bar along both rails, inside and out. That might be just the builder coming out of me

 

[Dan_Trials]

this is an awesome thread I really should do the same with my 96 110. but I don't have access to a 2nd vehicle so I'll be going down the chassis swap road.

Thank you Redhand! That's a shame, but needs must I suppose. You going to repair the chassis after the swap and sell it or build up another vehicle to keep it in use?

must say those welds are just amazing. they look as if been done by a machine.

Thanks man!

First of all let me say as others had that your welding is 1st class, but (not wanting to put a downer on it) your chassis, as good as it is, is still made up of lots of small pieces of steel welded together. I would just wonder how rough roads, off road or worst of all a crash would would affect it. I would guess it would be like one long crumple zone. I might be wrong and i hope i am as im no engineer but as a belt and braces approach,i would weld a front to back lenght of HT re- bar along both rails, inside and out. That might be just the builder coming out of me

Thank you. Yes I understand what you are saying and I spent a lot of time going round in circles as to whether or not I would do it. I spoke to many people about it (including welders, engineers, racing car builders), read up on here and other parts of the internet, watched many many videos on YouTube. The points that kept coming up were:
- It was in such bad condition yet still held itself together.
- Cutting out the rot and adding new material can only be a good thing.
- Stagger the joins as much as possible.
- Use correct gauge steel.
- Set your welder up correctly.
- Use the right welding technique for the type of weld you are doing.

The front and middle bulkheads are braced by the sill bar and the roof (if fitted) and the seat box and transmission tunnel too.

I know what you are saying and believe me I'd find something that had been said to go against repairing it and go to one of those people who were for doing it and say "but what about such and such?" and they'd always have an answer. A few people I got advice from have been round to see how I'm getting on and everyone of them have said how much stronger it is going to be than original.

Sorry if this bombardment of a reply comes across as though I've taken offence, I totally haven't, I just wanted to try and explain it as best as I could.

 

[mick the builder]

Thank you Redhand! That's a shame, but needs must I suppose. You going to repair the chassis after the swap and sell it or build up another vehicle to keep it in use?



Thanks man!



Thank you. Yes I understand what you are saying and I spent a lot of time going round in circles as to whether or not I would do it. I spoke to many people about it (including welders, engineers, racing car builders), read up on here and other parts of the internet, watched many many videos on YouTube. The points that kept coming up were:
- It was in such bad condition yet still held itself together.
- Cutting out the rot and adding new material can only be a good thing.
- Stagger the joins as much as possible.
- Use correct gauge steel.
- Set your welder up correctly.
- Use the right welding technique for the type of weld you are doing.

The front and middle bulkheads are braced by the sill bar and the roof (if fitted) and the seat box and transmission tunnel too.

I know what you are saying and believe me I'd find something that had been said to go against repairing it and go to one of those people who were for doing it and say "but what about such and such?" and they'd always have an answer. A few people I got advice from have been round to see how I'm getting on and everyone of them have said how much stronger it is going to be than original.

Sorry if this bombardment of a reply comes across as though I've taken offence, I totally haven't, I just wanted to try and explain it as best as I could.

I never intended to offend you or question your welding, just you and your passengers safety.If you are happy with it then thats good enough. BTW, what thickness steel are you using, and what are you cutting the shapes with, Plasma? Carry on with the good work

 

[Dan_Trials]

I never intended to offend you or question your welding, just you and your passengers safety.If you are happy with it then thats good enough. BTW, what thickness steel are you using, and what are you cutting the shapes with, Plasma? Carry on with the good work

Don't worry mate, didn't take offense Yeah wouldn't do it if I thought it wasn't safe. I'm using 3mm mostly, base plates for the out riggers are 4mm with 50x50x5mm box welded on then plated up to look like original. I just cut the stuff with a 1mm disc on angle grinder. Thanks

 

[natas]

Wow!

Very nice work, will be well worth the effort.\
Keep going, looking forward to the rest of the build.

 

[Dan_Trials]

Wow!

Very nice work, will be well worth the effort.\
Keep going, looking forward to the rest of the build.

Thank you! Yeah should all be worth it in the end!

 

[Dan_Trials]

Ok so got a bit more done....

Suspension mounting doodah welded on

Thought I'd show a bit of detail on how I do the outrigger for anyone that's interested. First of all some 4mm plate on the side and top of the chassis rail.

Then some 50x50x3mm box section is welded on with a slight notch so it sits in the right place.

Then the bottom plate is cut and a slight fold put in it so it sits at all the right angles:

Then the support is cut to fit and welded in:

Then it's just a case of cutting some panels to the right shapes and box it up to look nice:

Oh yeah and one for the weld porn lovers:

 

[aaronmorris]

Ok so got a bit more done....

Suspension mounting doodah welded on

Thought I'd show a bit of detail on how I do the outrigger for anyone that's interested. First of all some 4mm plate on the side and top of the chassis rail.

Then some 50x50x3mm box section is welded on with a slight notch so it sits in the right place.

Then the bottom plate is cut and a slight fold put in it so it sits at all the right angles:

Then the support is cut to fit and welded in:

Then it's just a case of cutting some panels to the right shapes and box it up to look nice:

Oh yeah and one for the weld porn lovers:

Ah I thought I recognised that out rigger, That would be you with the videos on youtube? (Some one posted it on fb the other day)

Oh and good work by the way

 

[Dan_Trials]

Ah I thought I recognised that out rigger, That would be you with the videos on youtube? (Some one posted it on fb the other day)

Oh and good work by the way

Aye that's right, keep forgetting to link the videos on here lol, here's my channel: DansGarageProjects - YouTube

Not many videos on there yet but I have a lot to come!

Thanks for the positive feedback

 

[Puchacz]

Very impressive fabrication and welding!

Out of interest, where is your accent from Dan? You don't sound like a Lewis native anyway!

 

[discomark10]

Man you can see the rot even worse on vid.
Also I like the trailer, I plan to make one soon!

 

[Dan_Trials]

Very impressive fabrication and welding!

Out of interest, where is your accent from Dan? You don't sound like a Lewis native anyway!

Thanks mate. Aye my accent is a bit mixed up alright. I was born in England, lived in Uist most of my life and moved to Lewis about 4 years ago. There's also a good bit of Irish comes through from my Grandad. Plus my mates say I sound Ausie some times, no idea where that comes from though!

Man you can see the rot even worse on vid.
Also I like the trailer, I plan to make one soon!

Thanks. Yeah the trailer was fun, I sold it about a week later for a good profit.

I'm keen to get away from the videos being a 'how to' thing, there's plenty of how to videos out there already! For some reason I always end up veering towards the how to do it side of things so I'm going to try and make them more 'this is what I did' rather than 'this is how to do it'. What do people think about that?