Gertie the 72 crossdresser. Full resto....and it needs it!

Back home today but back to Aberdeen on a course on Sunday so not much progress gonna happen till next week I'm afraid!

 

Just sat at Bistol airport going back to Aberdeen. I did manage to buy an air shears, cut off tool and another compressor (2.5 hp) in Aldi this week for £124. Result.

 

Saw them air tools, you'll have to let us know what there like

 

Swapped out the airline connectors to PCL so I could use my existing air tools on it and tried the shears. In all honesty I'm quite impressed with it.

Anyway, I managed to get in 6 hours today.

Welded in 2 patches and used the flap wheel in the grinder to get rid of the snobs then used the powerfile to smooth it right out.



then another patch,





I then used a paint strip disc and took the whole panel back to bare metal before giving it all a coat of etch primer.



next up was a cardboard template to make this.



then welded into place. Still getting to grips with the Portamig and I've had some nice welds but I still need to get up to speed with it.

 

Managed around 5 hours work today. After yesterdays repair I cut a strengthening piece for where the cross member joins the chassis rail and welded it in place.



I'm getting used to the Portamig now and was getting some reasonable welding done.

A quick lick with the grinder later and it's covered in etch primer.



Back to my chassis rail. The job I've been putting off for long enough so thought it was time I bit the bullet. I had to dress back the outside face a little which let it sit in a little further than before and gave me the gap I needed to weld it in place. I tacked it in then made a start welding.

Spot welded in the hangers.



Looking good.



Seam welded in the hanger. It was originally just spot welded in place but due to the work I have done I wanted belt and braces. I don't want this coming away later.



I welded up the cut around the torsion tube and started to build up until I had a wide fillet made of weld.



As I say I wanted belt and braces repairs so I decided to cut a piece of cardboard into shape to make a fillet to pretty it up a little.



The shaped and tacked it into place before welding it all up.



I did make a start welding the underside but it's all hanging grapes so I decided to leave that until I flip the beast over on it's other side for the opposite chassis rail.

 

looking good mate!

 

Great stuff dude

 

Managed around 4 hours work today.

Decided to make a start on the infill piece between the end of the chassis cut and the original (read-repaired) mid chassis section along side the jacking point.

This is how the chassis looked before joining to the torsion tube.



I had a piece of the cut left which was meant to go in here but I had been a little too enthusiastic with the plasma so decided to drill the spot welds and salvage what I could and make the rest from new 2mm plate.

This went in first.



Then I used a piece of the old bit.



Then the top side got the treatment.



Then welded a thick multi pass until I had a fillet to git it some strength as per the previous repair from last time then it got all dressed back.





Then I made me another shame plate D) to cover everything up and give a belt and braces repair.

Not bad eh?

 

Nice work, looks solid that does

 

Cheers dude. My welding has come on leaps since getting the Portamig. Now it's all down to my talent (or lack of), got nothing else to blame now have I

 

Got another 4 hours in today.

Cut some of the rear bulkhead out as it was perished along the floor and I needed to get to the other side of the repair along the top of the chassis cut.

Cleaned and vee'd the slots ready for welding.



Welded them up and put a few runs around the tube for strength.



Cleaned up the welds but left some thickness there for strength then made another shame plate for a belt and braces repair around the torsion tube.



Gave it all a good coat or Zinc182.







Looking good!

 

Well done, I had a similar repair to do last year and yours is much neater, I don't think you should use the term shame plate as the work you have done is excellent.

 

Nice repairs around the torsion tube, keep going pal.

 

Nice mate looks like its strong now

 

Cheers people

 

Got about 2.5 hours in today.

Where I cut out the patch to allow me to weld the top of the chassis yesterday, due to my ineptitude, I was trying to hack out the top of the patch by bursting the spot welds with a chisel, only to find the patch I was trying to remove was not spot welded where I was trying to remove it, it was in fact the full length base of the tank and rear bulkhead! So I cut the panel with a grinder instead which meant I had a poor looking edge to tidy up before I replace it.

So I decided to cut back the edge which would need some tidying up and made another piece about 10mm longer which would allow me to either joggle the edge of the patch when replacing it or even just give me a clean edge to work to, to dress back the patch.



Dressed back with a grinder then a power file, it looks ok. Well, the MOT man will have to look hard when I've finished with the stonechip etc!



Next I turned my attention to the rear corner which was looking in poor condition. Turns out it was just the outer skin. I unpicked all the spot welds and gave it a clean in preparation for a new piece to be made. More tomorrow!

 

Got about 3 hours in today.

I had to replicate the tea bag in the pic below.
There was a 20mm wide high point on the side and lower edge, I can only assume this is to space the panel off to create an air gap or something? Not pretty is it.



Anyway, to copy it, I marked the edge and placed it along the edge of the vice and used a wide blade bolster chisel and beat along the vice jaw into the plate until it was the depth I needed. I then squashed the edge in the vice as the edge need to be flat where it joined to the vertical post behind the panel.



Using my little vice jaw bender I put the required bends in the plate to produce this.



I put my portamig down to setting 3/12 and wire speed at 4 and got this lovely run from it.



All spot welded in place. I just have a small repair in the pillar just at the corner where the inner pillar has holed. I'll sort this tomorrow.



All painted. I'm really pleased with my work. It's nice to buy panels but nothing feels as good as making your own!

 

Not bad dude

What gas are you using again?

 

5 or 7% argon I think. I get it from a guy about 20 miles away for £22 per refill and no bottle rental. Not 100% sure what gas it is but deffo some form of argon as I had to change my gauge from CO to an argon one when I started getting gas from him.

 

well that's cool!! What's your gas flow rate? should be around 10l/pm

I'd say that you might want to increase the amps and speed a little, and just slow down how fast you're drawing across the metal... try a pulsing trigger pull...

Just a small observation dude, as it looks like your weld is almost there, but could do with a little more penetration!!

But that said, you're doing a proper thorough job!! Should be proper proud of how you're doing