Steve's unexpected Series 3 rebuild.

callisr said:

A great thread that I’ve only just finished reading start to finish! The workmanship is fantastic and the results should make you deservedly proud!
That engine leaves me lost for words. I think I’d want that in my lounge!!
Rich

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Thank you. I would like it in the lounge but I think i'm already pushing my poor wife's patience to the limit.
Maybe I could just leave the wings and bonnet off then more people will get to see it as I (eventually) go down the road.

just read it all, keep up the good work we've got a 1986 110 V8 which is planned to get some work done comming summer hope to have a lot less work on it.
will keep following this great thread.

Now this next bit makes no sense but I did it anyway. The right angle brackets for the door check rods are both in a right mess. Manky an badly twisted. They can be bought easily enough for about £7 apiece. But as usual I just see a bent piece of metal and so I must be able to straighten it out right? It's official, I'm addicted to doing this stuff. I tried to bend it back, heat it, twist it, anything but because of it's various shapes it wasn't having it. So the only thing left to try was to separate the two pieces. I was sure that this would make it easy but even now I couldn't get it straight so I had to cut it and then I would finally be able to get it back correct. You can see from the cuts how much it needed twisting. Then after a bit of welding and grinding we end up with this.Then after a bath in Deox-c we get to here.This set up makes sure the pin lines up and it stays correctly spaced.And finally here we go. Am I the only one who thinks that this looks like a happy duck?

@Stretch you might like this.
As if I've got time I've got a little side project on the go.
For a while I have been thinking about some kind of tool trolley that I can wheel to where I'm working. This can hold tools, goggles, gloves, mask, ear defenders, workshop manuals etc. Maybe a small vice could be mounted on one side. This way I might be able to finish a session in the garage without half the tools I own strewn all over the floor. We'll see how it goes. By the way it was a freeby from my wife's work. They were going to chuck it in the skip.

So it was time to close in that last section of the bulkhead. Same system as before. Coat and protect the surfaces that will be closed in, leave patches for the plug welds. The splattery primer you can see all over the place happened when an aerosol can of zinc primer sprung a leak from underneath the nozzle. It went everywhere and I couldn't stop it. I just had to quickly get it in the bin and let it empty itself out. Like before the big holes are for the plug welds and the small ones are to pull it into place. I did a better job of joggling the edge this time. It's deeper and means the repair piece sits more flush. A much better fit than before. Still lots of smoothing and finishing needed even before I get to body filler. The under side definitely needs some work but I'm sure I can get it looking smart.

LincolnSteve said:

The splattery primer you can see all over the place happened when an aerosol can of zinc primer sprung a leak from underneath the nozzle. It went everywhere and I couldn't stop it.

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Buzzweld?

The Mad Hat Man said:

Buzzweld?

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No. Like everything I use it was a cheap brand so I maybe shouldn't expect too much. An unexpected shower in primer was a bit of a shock though.

The next bit has the additional problem of this strengthening piece. I thought about ways to work around it and not have to remove it but it would have been more trouble in the end. It's interesting to see what's under there. Looks like just primer and yet it has survived for 40 years yet more exposed places a few centimetres away have rusted through even though they were better protected. I have a confession to make here. I rushed this bit. It was Sunday night and I wanted to get just a bit more done before another tedious week of work started. As usual when you rush stuff it goes bad. I lost my temper with it and it ended up like this. I got it straightened out but let's hope I've learned a lesson.

Here we go again.

Hi Steve
Just to thanks for the comment on my build. Yours looks very good with a lot of time and effort been spent.
I left my bulkhead bolted to the chassis at the four mounting points for repair work. I cut the offside pillar out bit by bit and marked and measured its position before replacing it, then rebolted it in.
After fitting the new pillar I chopped out the footwell after removing the bracket. The stage I am now.
It is quite sturdy with only 3 fixing points and helps to keep it lined up.
Peter

Overdue for an update I think. Side projects first.
The garage trolley had to be reduced in size to make it useable.

Improvements to the folder haven't actually improved it very much.
It's much more solid because of the extra bracing and everything holds together better. It's also a lot more accurate now and much better built. But it still doesn't give bends that are as sharp as I want.
Good enough for the time being and the Mk 3 might come along later.

LincolnSteve said:

Improvements to the folder haven't actually improved it very much.
It's much more solid because of the extra bracing and everything holds together better. It's also a lot more accurate now and much better built. But it still doesn't give bends that are as sharp as I want.
Good enough for the time being and the Mk 3 might come along later.View attachment 185079 View attachment 185080 View attachment 185081 View attachment 185082 View attachment 185083

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Is it because you have to go past the point you want, so that the metal can spring back or is it the sharpness at the point of fold ?

LincolnSteve said:

Improvements to the folder haven't actually improved it very much.
It's much more solid because of the extra bracing and everything holds together better. It's also a lot more accurate now and much better built. But it still doesn't give bends that are as sharp as I want.
Good enough for the time being and the Mk 3 might come along later.View attachment 185079 View attachment 185080 View attachment 185081 View attachment 185082 View attachment 185083

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Have a look at this it might help you suss your project out a bit ...

I have been carrying on with the bulkhead when I can. Chop a bit out, put a bit back. Very tedious. Then I reached the point where the back was done and the front needed sorting. YRM make a repair section for this. It was such a relief to do a big section in one go with a properly made, correctly fitting repair panel. I managed to get it to fit really well. No prizes for guessing the part number. Nothing a skim of filler won't fix but for now I just primed it all to protect it while all the other bulkhead repairs are done. Then it's time to offer up the vent flap to get the hinges back on, drill the holes for the wiper spindle and washer jet and we're there. Strengthening pieces back on. The other one wasn't as neat as this because I rushed it and put too much heat into it while welding. I don't know how long it's going to take me to learn to calm down and take my time.

Dippypud said:

Have a look at this it might help you suss your project out a bit ...

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It's the sharpness of the bend I want to improve really. Looking at Colin's one in the video I just don't think mine is heavy duty enough for 1.2mm steel. I think everything just needs to be beefier. Even down to where it's fixed. It's on a piece of thick MDF with a kind of kitchen work top veneer at the moment. If it were all steel I could maybe heat it a bit as well before bending. If I try that now it's just going to catch fire. I need to try some aluminium soon so we will see how it does with that. Thanks for the info.

Right, that's going to be it for a little while. Better get some kip now as we've got to be up at midnight again to get to Manchester airport. I'll try to look in while we're away. Looks like we're going to be leaving 30 degree temperatures behind to go to different 30 degree temperatures. That was money well spent. I could have had a galvanised chassis instead and had change left over.

Lovely attention to detail as always Steve

So as I got stuck into the end of the bulkhead I found filler. Not just a nice little skim either! It's properly deep. Must have been put on with a spade. Never a good sign so I kept digging and found this row of holes. I think someone has screwed in self rappers and then pulled out a dent. The question is if it ended up as bad as this then how bad was it to start with? I've bought repair panels, more of this later.

So while wife and son go to see the evening entertainment in the hotel (which I can't stand at any cost) I get the chance to sit here in the bar drinking zombies (apparently rum, apricot brandy, orange juice and grenadine) and speak to you lovely people. This either makes me the luckiest bloke in the world or a total anorak. Not sure which.
More photos to share with you. Things may well jump around a bit now. I have done random bits as time allows recently. No plan to it. Just thinking it's better to be doing something rather than nothing even if it doesn't make much sense.
I have my first control! It's not attached to anything but that doesn't matter. I really want all the controls and bits you get your hands on to feel good and tight. I wanted a new bush in the pivot thingy even though it was a bit expensive for what it is. I have also shimmed the lever with washers to make sure there isn't too much side to side wobble.