Breaking tools on a rusty front end.

Today I fitted the deformation panel - annoyingly some of the lovingly applied paint melted off it and messed up the seam weld along the bottom edge by putting gas into the weld.


Patched the cab floor, patched the door step (got the profile a bit wrong, there will be filler.. and peeled a door step or two off in the process. Seem to have been about 4 layers of metal there.



Interestingly with the inverter welder running 0.8 mm wire, setting to wire speed 40 for 1mm steel is right, and wire speed 80 for 2mm steel. Or numbers around that. Set to 120 and 2mm steel is in trouble.

With 0.6mm wire, you need to set it to wire speed 80 for 1mm steel, as otherwise it runs cold.
Because the cross section area of 0.6mm is 56% of that of 0.8mm it makes some sense.

 

Tonight got the new front panel piece out and carefully adjusted the headlamp bowl edges to allow the stainless headlamp surrounds to fit flat without rubbing




Then ran some seam sealer into the crack round the headlamp bowl.
That is the £20 panel from Schofields - Brazilian.

 

Good work Mike!

 

I had the top part of that panel - full price minus a bit less post than a whole one. I bet they have a huge pile of bottom halves, £20 is a bargain.

 

Knocked off work an hour early after a deep dive through some Python code I wrote about a year ago, followed by some C++ that somebody else wrote.

The brake pedal rod rubber boot arrived, so I can fit that. Also during my investigations, although I found the clamp bolt on the brake pedal shaft through the chassis rail up above the lever that goes up to the pedal, it did not give way when I undid it and hit the lever. It almost looks like they welded the end of the shaft to the lever - theres a ring of weld where you would expect the end of a splined shaft. I put the bolt back.

Measured up for the big cutting of the new front panel and the matching of the old front panel edge to it.

I am still keeping on with the idea of joining horizontally about 30mm below the air box because the top edge of the new panel is not a complete straight edge where it meets the airbox.

Also somebody unspeakable has got the top edge of the lower inner panel about 4mm too low. Its dead level with the air box ... I dont know who did it, some cowboy. But some of the distance is because the panel has to be stretched down when you fit it - the skin should be under tension for stiffness.

 

You lost me there, which end? One end does have a lever welded on and you have to knock the shaft through with a drift poked through one of the holes in the chassis to change the spring for instance.

 

Its over at the far right end of the assembly in that picture - on mine the clamp bolt is on top rather than the bottom .
The end of that splined shaft looked like somebody had run a ring of weld round it and then ground it down - I will try and get a picture tomorrow.

 

Today I trimmed down the front panel, and then joddled the edge to make welding "easier".
Dry assembled with sheet metal screws into the lower panel.





Many welds, some of them actually not cold and cracked- the gas bottle has gone from full to nearly empty on this job, the inverter welder is now my friend.


Had to put the doors back on so I could attend the Hamble River Sailing Club AGM via Zoom in the bus.

Then we had a BBQ in the back garden , my hands have stopped being numb. The four of us shared two bottles of prosecco and I had a couple of bottles of beer.


After the food was cooked we started burning the prunings from the garden,..

 

Good work!
I appreciate it wasn't working out for you but you can see the advantage of making the cut halfway up the indicators if it had (and it knocks on to the filling too, just the two easy outer bits, no long lightly curved section which you also can't buckle welding).

 

Good welding skills there Mike.

Looks like you’ve turned a corner fitting that front panel.

Stirlingmoz

 

The new panel was originally cut just about 25% of the way up the indicators - but I felt I had a better chance of attaching it to the remaining metal - the only reason I went that far up was the headlamp bowls were rotting too.

Also I booby trapped the next restoration of the front by making the inner panel sit 5mm too low - some of that should be taken up with stretching it out, but I am sure there will be swearing at the PO.

I was also less confident welding to the edge of the air box - something about the very thin metal there - it has rusted and been treated a few times I think ..

As it turns out its just as well because while poking above the air box at the rough looking paint there in the groove above the air box, I found that the metal in the groove has some holes - the profile of the top edge of the strip I cut off the bottom of the panel will be turned upside-down and used to make repairs for the groove just above the air box. I will probably be fixing even more of the air box. I must stop chewing away at the edges ..

I have just run out of welding gas while sticking little bits of metal over the holes in the top of the air box, then revisiting the spots along the join in the front panel.

Had to go off and help fit a larger cat flap to our house, because our little kitten we bought a cat flap for, turned out at 18 months old to be a 7kg (but very friendly and loving) monster. Of course we fitted the cat flap by knocking a hole in the wall..

 

Today after work I got out the angle grinder and had a go at the holes in the front. This was after a bit of a poke with a screwdriver. You can see how thin the lip of the air box has become, also my dodgy repairs where the metal just kept on burning away as it was so thin.

Sliced off section of panel, turned upside down mentally, ready to provide new upper air box lip section repair pieces.
Crustiness chopped back - the inner panel has a few holes too, might patch them or just leave them alone, then its all sprayed with Fertan. - those are the dark pools on the lower air box, not holes !

I will be getting some more welder gas from BOC Portsmouth on Wednesday, as well as dropping into the works car park to exchange some electronic gear- a NMEA0183 compass heading sensor for one with a GPS in it, and off to get some sealant from B&Q on the way too.

Much less paperwork than actually going through the door at work.

 

Ran a wire wheel along the groove, found more holes, so cut back more of this section - there seem to be three layers here - Inner two layers are spot welded, then the outer panel is tack welded to the air box where it curves up. A brilliant water trap for when the bottom of the screen surround rots through (which has obviously happened in the past - I have seen the repairs when working on the windscreen area)

 

I looked closer, there is actually a stiffener running across under the screen inner panel spot welded to the inner screen panel - it has an L shaped profile and provides another water trapping joint.

I was called away today to discuss the construction of a floor for a small marquee down the sailing club - it has to sort of float but not drift off when the tide comes in too far...

Then went back home and did some welding. Definitely better success on thin lacy metal where I put a piece of 1mm sheet behind it, and welded along that, "catching" the thin eroded edges on top of the new metal.
The inverter welder will run happily generating a tiny weld with the wire speed about 60-70 with 0.6mm wire.

Back into welding therapy - cut out a bit of metal, tack it into hole, weld it into hole, repeat.

 

Finished off fixing what I could see of the inner screen panel, and the junction with the air box, then started welding on the inverted piece chopped off the lower front panel.




Then A TOOL BROKE! - it was the welding gas regulator - it started making farting noises and putting out massive pressure which opened the gas valve on the welding torch so it was constantly venting gas with the regulator buzzing away and the output flow rate / pressure gauge flickering up and down. It made welding doubly hard with the wind gusting and the gas pulsing- you can see the dark stains round the welds where the shield gas has gone missing.
Too many cylinders of gas have been through the regulator .. and it only cost £36. So I have ordered another cheap one off eBay that should arrive by next weekend- I looked at the BOC price and a good quality one is £145. As that is almost as expensive as the welder, I decided to buy another in a line of cheap ones, this is the first one that has gone wrong.

Will switch tack to doing other jobs around the work - filling the front panel for instance. ..

 

Ran some seam sealer around where the steering box lives and in the offside corner - will have to wait for welder gas regulator to fit closing panel and then complete seam sealer.
In the worst case, I will have to re-fit my Euro torch conversion off my old welder to get it to work. Or use the horrible old torch off the old welder, to get hold of a torch or setup with a working gas valve.

Picked at a bit of something and a strip of steel tore off the step - there are about 4 layers of metal there .. .

Played with the new fine filler, and started profiling the front of the bus, the join I made conveniently dips in about 4mm, visible from the side but not too deep.

 

Could have been a good time to convert to hobby welding gas, each bottle comes with a gauge, no rental actually barely more expensive than BOC to refill and NO RENTAL - BOC killed me for rental if I didn't keep welding non stop it wasn't worth it. I was on hobby gas at work, still got it somewhere.

 

SGS gas bottles seem like good value to me. Probably on my 3rd or 4th refill now but have done most of the bug welding from one bottle. Plenty of distributors around Southampton.

Found prices in my emails from when I got my first bottle (in 2014!):

• 10 Litres - £38 + £60 surcharge
• 20 Litres - £58 + £70 Surcharge
• 30 Litres - £75 + £75 Surcharge

 

The SGS stuff looks better value, but usually the BOC Portsmouth depot is a lunch break trip a few miles from work. The SGS website seems to be down at the moment too.

I may well change down a cylinder size with cheaper rental after this session.

The regulator arrived today and I had a bash at carrying on welding in the groove above the airbox, after I "fixed" the welding torch by oiling the valve plunger because it was sticking down after the regulator abuse.
And then chopping a bit off the button so that it didnt lean on the end of the valve all of the time, another reason for the leak was the plunger in the valve was always being lightly pressed in the torch.

The new regulator actually has an "inspect in 2026" sticker on it - makes sense if the old regulator failed after about 6 or 7 years.

I will convert this setup to a Euro torch , fit a solenoid gas valve in the welder, then I dont need to rely on a simple valve in the torch. I will raid the parts off my old welder which I had upgraded.

 

Tonight I finished welding in the groove above the airbox, ground down the welds and put on some filler on it.

Still two closing pieces to fit, then more seam sealer and then filler.

Underneath, keep forgetting to weld on a bracket for the horn.

Looked closer at the old welding gas regulator and I think there is a December 2008 date code on it, so it was probably time expired .