1962 Vauxhall Victor FB - Making Panels

[tonybmw]

Meanwhile Gordon and I had been looking at the front panel, superficially it looked okay, but there was a lot of rust on the inside of it, in all the difficult to get to areas

The Battery tray was also shot






Fortunately Gordon was able to get hold of a NOS front panel





I got finished early at work today, so decided to make the most of the fact that the wife was still out


So straight in the garage and off with the front panel ;D





This has exposed a rather suspect looking repair to the front chassis leg, not sure why this side is so poor while the other side is perfect







Also decided to remove the bracket that was here, it will help to sort the rust out





Bracket itself is pretty rusty on the inside, I will get that shot blast and welded back on later





Once the battery tray was removed, it became clear that the inner wing was going to need some attention too





So a repair panel is going to be needed, as this could be seen from both sides, I decided that a butt jointed repair would be the best option

So clean up the wing and cut out the rot





offcut of metal





Radiused bend needed so bit of tube in the bender





A bit oversized but will be trimmed





Trimmed and offered up





and Tacked in place





View from the rear, you must ensure good penetration when carrying out butt welds that will be ground off later






Then it was time for tea, so hopefully get more done tomorrow

[mirafioriman]

Nice work. Will be watching your butt welded repair to pick up some tips!

[mirafioriman]

Just found the rear arch repair section. Missed that before! That was great and seeing the shrinker/stretcher you have was useful too. Now I must save up and invest in one. Also ordered some of that zintec sheet today from my local supplier. Will be here Monday. I'm going to use that all the time from now on!

[tonybmw]

Oct 17, 2009 13:34:53 GMT mirafioriman said:

Just found the rear arch repair section. Missed that before! That was great and seeing the shrinker/stretcher you have was useful too. Now I must save up and invest in one. Also ordered some of that zintec sheet today from my local supplier. Will be here Monday. I'm going to use that all the time from now on!

Mirafioriman - Glad to hear that the tips are being put to good use, look forward to seeing the results on your thread

[xbo11ox]

I too am zintec'ing all the way from now on. Brilliant!

[tonybmw]

Xbo11ox - Mirafioriman - Zintec is the future, you wont regret it


Not sure if its really a tip or not, but you really have to get good penetration when carrying out butt welds, so you really need to know your welder.

to set up my welder, I keep turning the power and wire speed up until I start burning holes, and then I back the power setting down 1 notch, and adjust the wire speed until you have a nice steady weld, without spitting stuttering or burning back into the tip.

When butt welding 1mm steel, you really should be expecting to burn through, if not you don't have penetration, but this should be after 3-4 seconds of continous welding, so here is what I do

First of all you need plenty of tacks, and the patch must fit well, and be level, extra time spent getting this right will pay off. Then I will try on a scrap piece, perhaps as the weld starts to flow and get hot it will start to burn through after 15mm of travel, so then I only weld for 10mm, and then stop for 0.5 second, then weld another 10mm, then stop for 0.5 again, and so on and so on, just stopping for that 0.5 second, gives the metal just enough time to cool, without going cold, to allow you to continue without burning through. and if your tacks are spaced about 20mm apart then you stop and start on a tack.
Then move around the piece, welding between other tacks, this stops the piece or the surrounding metal distorting with the heat. all being well you should finish with this


All fully welded





Check the rear for penetration





Now grind off the rear with the flap disc, it does not need to be perfect as primer and paint will cover it later





But more time needed on the front, again grind with 40 grit flap disc, then 120 grit Roloc, then Brown scotchbrite Roloc, then 40 grit DA disc, the DA disc just helps to smooth and even everything out, and nicely rounds all the edges





Then it was time to get rid of the suspension so I could get a better look at the chassis repair needed and also to make a more thorough job of the painting it later.







So I dusted off my AF spanners and soon had these







Hopefully next time we see those they will be all cleaned up and going back on


So then stripped the steering coloum and box out and the wiring under the dash, so nothing stopping us now





Victor now looks a bit sorry for itself, but this is definetly a turning point for the front end





More next weekend

[gurtbeastin]

readin the tread and some exelent work goin on , just hope that do such a good job on my own car . and so cant wait to see it done

[nickbrad]

This threads is truely an inspiration to all, the work you are doing shows us that a bit of welding is not to be run away from and can be taken care of easily if approached calmly and methodically.

[chip83]

just read this from the start, skills ar inspiring. will keep watching with intrest.

[tonybmw]

Small Update today

Decided to focus on the chassis leg repair








So cut off the old plate and the rot











and made up this repair panel, out of 16swg this time, so a little harder to cut and work with. Transfered the Anti roll bar mountings over too, I hope to get it welded in this weekend





Meanwhile Gordon has almost finished the rust removal to the inside of the bulkhead

[anthonyg]

That's some really impressive work there.

It's also great to see a Victor FB being saved - I love the Primrose yellow colour.

[angrydicky]

Great work Tony. I have just read through eight pages of this saga. Inspirational stuff.

[Ratters]

only just seen this AMAZING work

if any of us need any motivation & inspirtation [which i will need this winter ] then i know this is the place to come to

[s123]

AMAZING !

I think i have learned more from thread than any other tech article I've read.

Keep up the good work :-)

[tonybmw]

Thanks Guys, this forum is great for inspiration and encouragement

Got back into the garage today the plan was to get the chassis leg finished and then have a go at getting the new front panel fitted


So got the chassis repair tacked in








Then fully welded, and zinc primed





Then cleaned off





Then measure up for the closing piece, measuring the angle





Then as before transfer to the sheet





Few more lines and we have it marked out





Cut out





And into the bender, the same as before














Half way there














and finished





Check for fit





Just needs the split welded up, the copper block comes in handy again for these, firstly it is a flat surface to clamp too and keep the 2 halves level.





And secondly it allows you to fill the gap without creating big snots on the inside, this is the inside, it will need just a quick flash over with the grinder to smooth it out





Then spot weld that in, to make it look factory, bumper mounting nut already added to the rear





Coat of etch primer and jobs done





The red primer on the front panel was lifting off in places, so I decided the best thing to do would be to strip it all off and start from scratch, so I do all the difficult to get to bits first and then try it in for size





Again I am going to use the spot welder, the most important advice I could give re the spot welder is to make sure that you dress your tips regularly, it does make a huge difference to the strength and uniformity of the welds, you can buy a small tool that you put in a drill and a few seconds later they are done






Then spot weld away










Finally feels like progress is being made now

[mirafioriman]

Looking good. Must get a steel ruler like yours to measure angles acurately instead of guessing!

[remmoc]

Top workmanship

[Seth]

Continue to be dead impressed by all of this. I will be giving that home brew spot weld drill sharpening a go soon.

[tonybmw]

Oct 26, 2009 21:45:56 GMT Seth said:

Continue to be dead impressed by all of this. I will be giving that home brew spot weld drill sharpening a go soon.

Let me know how you get on with it

[Killbill]

Well i was going to post some pics of the e28 i own but that will take away your well deserved top spot .Great stuff.BTW trisman has a nice e12 project on the way seen it yet?