1986 Toyota MR2 - We’ve got a damn great hump...

[Sweetpea]

Thanks chaps! George, you could be right about the ikebana stuff. As an aside, having looked at a few photos of ikebana, I actually quite like it... Anyhow...

A chap on another web site was persuading me to get a proper bottle of gas for the welder. It's something I'd already been thinking about but hadn't actually done anything about.

Finally, galvanised into action, I raided my piggy bank and trundled off to the local Hobbyweld dealer with my pocket money. I returned sometime later with a largish bottle and a largish problem.
When not in use the bottle gets chained to the wall of the garage. No problem there but the pipe to the welder is not long enough to leave the bottle safely chained to the wall. And what if I want to work outside? The bottle needs to come with me.

I need a welding trolley so the bottle can be strapped to the back of it. I'm know I'm a man of great ingenuity, massive skill and very good looking (and so modest too…) I'm sure I can come up with something.

Well here we are!




In the front is a little cupboard where I can keep my hat and gloves.




Now I know what you're thinking.
1, Why'd you make it of wood?
2, Why'd you make it so short?

Well, I made it of wood because I had some. An old kitchen cabinet gave its life for this. And because I wanted an enclosed cupboard to keep the dust off my stuff.
And I made it so short because it has to live under a work bench when it's not being used.




And Portia saw everything that James had made, and behold, it was very shonky but it'll do.
One thing I've found already - I wasn't running enough gas through the torch. Funny what you learn when you have a gauge that tells you what's actually going on.

My next challenge is to work out how to weld with this old girl. It's a family heirloom.




Nothing to do with the car - everything to do with keeping my house roof on top of the house rather than in my neighbours garden.

James

[generaldogsbody]

This thread is a laugh-riot! Keep up the amazing work

[ToolsnTrack]

That welding trolley is so utterly, horrendously blue-peter homebrew shonk that I'm actually raging I never thought of it first. Good effort!

[georgeb]

Nov 24, 2014 7:37:44 GMT ToolsnTrack said:

That welding trolley is so utterly, horrendously blue-peter homebrew shonk that I'm actually raging I never thought of it first. Good effort!

There should be an empty toilet roll to get a BP silver badge though. Fairy Liquid bottle would get gold.

[camper damper]

Nice work I've always like the MR2 and I do like the 4A-GE engine I'm working on dropping one into my corolla but I'm going the 4A-GZE the supercharged one just for a laugh

[bstardchild]

Thanks to Georgeb for nominating this thread so I could find it.

I don't care if you never finish the car.... What I hear people cry it's build thread FFS bear with me on this chaps and chapesses.

I despaired for you sanity taking it on

I embraced your philosophy of practicing and learning on a rusty bumper iron

I loved the ingenuity and approach to making stuff so you could plate and blast

I cried for the loss of the Bailey puss

I chuckled frequently and I laughed a lot at your prose

I'm pleased that Portia is guiding you well even if her zen like wisdom is a strange skill for a cat

Thank you for posting




I'm hoping I live long enough to see you finish it realy.

[actionslaxx]

I did a bit of that zinc plating last summer and gave myself a really bad cough that lasted three weeks, my results were ok but nowhere near as good as yours.
Did you change the valve stem oil seals when you did the valves?
Fantastic attention to detail there , looking forward to more, the only thing I saw recently that compares was the cleaned up screen wash bag on that american estate car,strangely pleasing to see things brought back from the past.

[Sweetpea]

Just catching up with my own thread and found Georgeb nominated it in the awards.

I went through a moment of "Nominated? Nominated for what?!" before I finally worked it out.
Thank you and thanks to BC for your kind words. I'm very flattered.

As for my welding trolley - I did wonder if I should carve a Blue Peter badge in the side with the router but I've probably got better things to do.

Camper Damper - a GZE in a Corolla estate. I'll be keeping an eye on that!

Actionslaxx - The head still needs to be skimmed so it'll have to come apart again before it goes back on the car. The Toyota head set has valve stem seals in it so it will get them.

I've got a non bumper related update to come too. I'll get that posted shortly...

James

[Sweetpea]

Apart from building "My First Welding Trolley" I've been wondering what to do with my winkers.




They just need a clean and polish.




And some way of fastening them to the car. That could be a challenge.




And. And. Oh pants.
After the bumper got ripped off the car its remains were left over a sand bag in the garden of this chaps house. One of the lamps was face up and filled with rain water. I remember these bulb holders were problematic when they got a bit corroded and this is more than a bit corroded.

So these are scrap and I need two new lamp units.

Yeah right. You know me better than that.

Tape it up and sand blast the rusty bits.




While you are at it, sand blast the bulb holders too.







That's cleaned up the electrical connections nicely (I guess we'll see how long before corrosion gets the better of it again) but has knocked off the silvering. That was only paint though so it's easy to fix.




After a good clean and polishing the lenses…




Just need a way of screwing them to the car.

It turns out that the hole left by the old fixing was about M8 and the mounting stud was M6. So I just need to buy a bolt that's M8 at one end and M6 at the other. Preferably in stainless steal. An exhaustive search suggests they aren't that common.

So butt two bolts together and weld the ends together.




I tacked a washer in there too to replicate the original. Cut the heads off and a bit of grinding and we have new fixings.




All stainless apart from the welds.

These get screwed into the old holes in the plastic.




Neat eh?
Getting this out turned out to be surprisingly easy.




Just welded a bolt to the end and the heat allowed it to pop out of the plastic.



(That bolt I used is the prototype fixing.)
So there you go. Tidy job I reckon.







Just need a car worth putting them on.

James

[georgeb]

Dec 12, 2014 20:07:00 GMT Sweetpea said:

Just welded a bolt to the end and the heat allowed it to pop out of the plastic.

Nice bit of lamp resurrection. I know if I'd tried that, I'd be left with a big blob of melted black plastic.

Although I suppose at least I then wouldn't have to worry about having something to screw it to!

[Dr.AK]

This was an enjoyable read! I like your approach, your 'ignorance' as you call it. It's kind of inspiring to not to be afraid of stuff and just try your own hand at it!

Will be following this further, as I find your writing to be highly amusing, heh.

[MiataMark]

Nov 24, 2014 8:24:44 GMT georgeb said:

Nov 24, 2014 7:37:44 GMT ToolsnTrack said:

That welding trolley is so utterly, horrendously blue-peter homebrew shonk that I'm actually raging I never thought of it first. Good effort!

There should be an empty toilet roll to get a BP silver badge though. Fairy Liquid bottle would get gold.

Can't use empty toilet rolls anymore, health & safety (my wife works at childrens centre and they can't use them for craft sessions).

[maybachman]

Dec 13, 2014 14:49:21 GMT MiataMark said:

Nov 24, 2014 8:24:44 GMT georgeb said:

There should be an empty toilet roll to get a BP silver badge though. Fairy Liquid bottle would get gold.

Can't use empty toilet rolls anymore, health & safety (my wife works at childrens centre and they can't use them for craft sessions).

Sorry why???

[Sweetpea]

Covered in poo and wee I'd expect.
Never did me any harm though.

[greeners]

A cracking read....any updates

[Sweetpea]

Sorry old chap / young fella, me lad, (Delete as applicable)

I've been a bit busy on another project which you can read about here... Roof Trouble ...if you happen to be a masochist. But even that project has come to a crushing halt as a result of me unexpectedly going on holiday for a couple of weeks.

Still, back now, so nose to the grindstone and all that.

James

[jonsey]

Love the work, your attention to detail and write up. Me and my 2 brothers also have a stick set family heirloom. SIP 180 (same as yours but yellow).My late father bought it in early '80's. My older brother had dragged it out last weekend to do the frame for his new garage. Hadn't seen it for years but it's buzz took me back years

[Sweetpea]

I'm finding the stick welder surprisingly fun to use. Haven't done anything serious with it yet. Soon though...
My biggest problem with it is that the garage is on a 16 amp trip and there is a 75% chance of winding up in darkness when I turn it on.

[jules]

If its on a modern MCB rather than a fuse wire, you could change the MCB for a type C one. Which will help handle the initial high start up current flow and therefore much less likely to trip.

[soupacharged]

Excellent thread, thank you.

A very enjoyable read and looks like great quality workmanship.

Looking forward to the next update (as and when).