19?? chrysler sunbeam no 2 (+½ )

[Deleted]

I'm flattered, of course, but it may surprise you to learn I don't have much patience with paint. I have less patience with spray on paint than brush on paint too. I'd love to wade in and offer my help painting your car, but I'm not that confident in my own abilities to make such an offer. Preparation I could certainly help with and I don't mind filling and sanding, but I've never used a proper spray gun and my only car painting experience is rattle cans and brush on coach enamel.

I'd say that if you can tolerate doing the preparation work to the panels with the filler but not necessarily the primer, you can save a bob or two with professional sprayers. I was looking at £800-1000 to get the Polo resprayed without doing prep myself, but only £400-600 if I did the prep myself. As it is, I think I've spent about £80, and I'll probably top £100 only when I buy a polishing machine thing.

Best bet with paint seems to be to take your time and if you find yourself getting frustrated with it, to walk away and pick it up later.

[tonybmw]

Glad you found the Making Panels thread inspiring, and doubly glad to see you trying some of the methods out, don't worry if you don't get instant results, it really is a matter or practice practice practice, and it looks as though you will get plenty of opportunities for that with the Sunbeam.

I'm with Benzboy on the use of filler, its the best stuff in the world if used correctly, but more often than not its used to hide over crusty metal and that is where it gets its bad reputation from

Re the paintwork, good paintwork is 80% preparation, you might be surprised at how nice a job can be made with the most basic of equipment and in the most unlikely places, as long as your prep was right before you started to paint, I would say that 90% of my paintjobs were carried out outside, any flies and loose objects can normally be flattened and polished out, but if you have huge ripply repairs on your doors, no matter how good your paintwork is you will still end up with huge ripples in your doors once you have finished

Tony

[hairymel]

all this talk of the paint stage has left me feeling this

Sept 15, 2010 18:20:57 GMT tonybmw said:

...but if you have huge ripply repairs ...... no matter how good your paintwork is you will still end up with huge ripples.....

sorry to butcher your quote Tony but this sums up where my painting head is at


i spent last night worrying about what paint system to use and how to approach the job.

i even spent a hour or so randomly surfing ebay and practicing google-fu researching epoxy primers

Sept 15, 2010 3:00:50 GMT @volksangyl said:

Best bet with paint seems to be to take your time and if you find yourself getting frustrated with it, to walk away and pick it up later.

i will take your advise and worry about it (much!) later when i actually need to

[hairymel]

this afternoon i got sent on a 160 mile round trip up the a14 and back


this pic shows the only time the traffic was moving freely




i got back to work and strangely enough everyone else had gone home

my family had also 'just popped out for a bit'


none of my drinking buddies wanted to go out for our traditional thursday beer (or 6 ;D)


this left me feeling lonely


i made myself dinner and settled down to read a technical manual ;D




suitably refreshed and sporting bright orange fingers,
i sought out more things i could do without moving the car.
(paul is still mia )


i had noticed a small bulge on the front drag link bracket so i decided to investigate





a small incision was made





i had expected some surface rust but the chassis leg was perforated

i dug a bit deeper




this seems to be the extent of the bad rot in this area

- as far as i can tell by poking my finger in the hole







area tidied up





there was no way i could clean this up with a flap disk so out came a dangerous wizzy thing




at a speed that seemed safeish it removed the underseal but didnt shift the paint or rust.


turning the grinder up to 4/5ths power was a bit more effective but a lot more unnerving

the small hole, top left, is where i had ripped a spot weld apart



inside of chassis leg coated with rust converter





while the paint was drying i set about fabbing the repair pieces

the bracket is about 1.6mm thick and all i have is 1.2

i went for a wander round the farm (in the dark) hoping that i could find something suitable ;D

chucked round the back of a barn i found a heavy duty metal tray/drawer that had been discarded.

just right



i cut out a bit of zintec to repair the chassis leg




i cut a bit out of the drawer and set about it with a hammer and chisel





this technique which had been successful on the inner sills was a lot harder work on this thicker and less ductile metal.

the plate started to crack along the most worked parts


remembering tony's block with a rod welded to it i picked up the first rounded thing i could see, then hit it hard




worked surprisingly well for this






bit of bashing to get the ridges the right length and a quick trim to size





the paint was still wet so i looked around for something else to get on with





i kept looking at the quarter repairs





not feeling the love, i went for fallback option 2

this was not good either


only half a cup of coffee left




looking outside was the last straw



guess who cleared their phone memory
loads of space for taking pictures ;D




total time spent (taking pictures of coffee mostly) 139 hours

total spend £1331.50 (need more instant coffee instantly )

[gurnersimps1963]

Hey Mel you should contact BBC/ITV/SKY and get a docubuild made,1/2 hour show twice a week I for one would be hooked mate! Great work as usual.

[tonybmw]

Superb fabricartion

[hairymel]

Neil

i think i could get 1hrs footage a week.


10mins of it would be me boiling the kettle,

15mins drinking coffee

12 mins trying to find my safety glasses (i just took them off how could they have disappeared )

15 mins bashing a random bit of metal then throwing it away

5 mins rolling fags

leaving 3 mins for comfort breaks.


great tv indeed ;D

Sept 17, 2010 5:44:45 GMT tonybmw said:

Superb fabricartion

i spent 20 mins bashing away to get the first ridge.

then i realized i had bent it the wrong way

i can think or do but not always both at the same time

luckily i started massively over sized so used it the other way round

second ridge took literally 30 seconds

i just hope i have a 'good welding day' when i stick it on ;D

[Deleted]

Well if Big Brother can be a hit for so long, your TV show would be positively rivetting!

Great work though, keep it up and you'll be bolting on stuff you don't need to weld before you know it. Get yourself a 'caravan' tin of coffee, when you get towards the bottom you can just weld a handle onto it and turn it into a giant metal coffee mug. No biscuit too large to dunk either, perfect.

[tonybmw]

Mel

And next time it will take you even less time, as you wont need to think about it

Oh and by the way just because your dinner was orange it does not count as 1 of your 5 a day ;D ;D

[hairymel]

when i got home last night i got told that i had 'promised' to get home early tonight so my other half could go on the lash.

this was a bit of a blow to my car plans for this evening, but just rewards for saying 'yes dear' to everything while surfing the interweb

we all knocked off early at 5.30 and i got to the unit at 5.31 ;D


first job was to squirt a bit of zinc primer about






now i am posting i realize i should have chucked some topcoat inside the box section as well

too late now but it will get a thorough waxoylish treatment later and its still better protected than the rest of the chassis leg, probably


first layer tacked in




box section closed off




i am still having issues with the weld spitting, sparking and blowing out worms like the old tabletop volcano fireworks, leaving the weld porous as if there was no gas.

not sure if its a welder issue, something to do with the metal, due to the coatings behind the weld area or me being useless something else?

seems very random i can weld 1/2 fine then it will go weird for a few cm and then is fine again


ground back sort of




not really good access for a grinder so i used my dremel subsitute.

fairly slow progress and i destroyed nearly all of the different abrasive tools that came with (mostly falling off the shaft as they got hot )


bracket repair welded in



i used a bit of ali bar to stop the weld running past at the bottom

how many times can i thank tonybmw for his tutorial without sounding like i am on commission?



and ground off




i had been tempted to just leave the welds proud but i wanted to know what it would look like

it was a bit of a pain with limited access and the huge complication of not wanting the whole lot to be flat

i also ended up with a very sore arm covered in grinding spark rash


covered in antirust for now



not a world class repair, it could have been better but i was in a rush.

it will do though and overall i am fairly happy

i sat around for 10 minutes drinking the last half cup of coffee, to make sure nothing was going to burst into flames, then went home to babysit


total time spent (experiencing the smell of burnt skin ) 140.25 hours

total spend £1331.50 (out of coffee and need soothing ointment and a long sleeve top ;D )

[The Doctor]

fantastic project this!
I really like reading your ramblings about this car!

[93fxdl]

serious case of sows ear into a silk purse going on here
the place i usually find my missing safety glasses is on the top of my head
suggestions for the iffy welding
is your wire binding or the reel sticking
give the hose a blow through in case you have a build up of muck in the liner
clean the inside of the shield and clean or replace the tip
clean the drive and pinch wheels and try varying the pinch pressure
ttfn glenn

[hairymel]

volksangyl

i have been trying to move towards smaller cups=stronger coffee+shorter breaks

your giant biscuit idea is almost irresistible but may set me back months maybe even years ;D



pic (re-hosted) but from www.pimpthatsnack.com/projects.php land of giant food projects


tony

for dinner tonight i had peppers on my cold pizza and i think there is some fruit juice in haribo micromix.

are hops and barley vegetables? if not i will search out some potato crisps to redress the balance ;D

[hairymel]

the doctor

thanks, I enjoy rambling


Glenn

I have 4 pairs of glasses\goggles and I can misplace all of them within a six foot radius

I have replaced/cleaned everything very recently except the wire.

it is very soon to run out, so I will go for another strip,clean and rebuild then

it is a hobby sip though and many people seem struggle with them.

I am keeping my eye open for a new mig but my tool budget is fairly tight at the moment

[tonybmw]

Mel

At the rate you are working through my tips, I might have to think of some more, great work.

Re the welder - out of all the welders I have had, and that I have heard other people complaining about, the SIP ones always seem to have problems, if you've done everything 93fxdl suggested, then there can't be much left to try, perhaps try to make sure that your torch lead is as straight as possible and not kinked or twisted, as that sometimes has an affect on the wire feed. But that fact that the weld is splattering and going porous sounds more like a gas problem, ( the welder - not you ;D)

you need a power file for those awkward bits, its was one of the best tools I ever bought when I started welding, and it gets used every time.

Love your ramblings too, keep up the good work

[hairymel]

Sept 18, 2010 7:59:34 GMT tonybmw said:

you need a power file for those awkward bits, its was one of the best tools I ever bought when I started welding, and it gets used every time.

previously in my world there had been a powerfile related chain of events.


i have not ever used one

i have never felt the need for one

the chippie at work loves his for when he has to butcher any metal

he is on holiday

i borrowed it to do the filler hole

it was very useful

i broke it



hopefully the near future will see me repairing rich's powerfile (and buying a few belts )

and sneaking it back onto the powertool shelf ;D


i guess i will add a powerfile to my wish list

[hairymel]

i am a little bored of the drivers underside

i would like to move on to the nearside bottom but cant turn the car around





so this afternoon for change of scenery i rotated the car to expose the nearside top




i had almost forgotten what it looked like right way up

i removed the rear vent trim and at first glance it looks ok.




i know it will probably have rotted from the inside out so immediately ran away to the other end of the car ;D


the nearside inner wing has had a plate welded over the washer bottle hole.
there are also several things attached by bashing coachbolts through the wingtop.




i removed the offending items and their bolts and attacked around the holes (both sides) with a wire brush in an air drill. i need can manage without a bigger compressor





wait... whats this tiny blemish?








not too bad really, the top cup seems solid just the top of the wing rotting away!

bit of further exploration and a lot of wire brushing



patch made , everything zinc primered pictures taken, pictures not saved by phone!


welded



ground off




bit of ali angle held under the bolt holes and welded across to fill the voids






ground off





i attacked the top of the washer patch with a flap disc until it was [montypyhton voice] 'wafer thin' [/montypyhton voice]

then i peeled it back gently with a hammer and chisel



i then ground the proud weld back with the flap disc.




the hole wasn't very round, and as i have destroyed all my abrasive dremel bits, i had to fix the borrowed powerfile i had broken earlier




round enough to worry about later





pictures of painting with gloop not saved by my phone

with a few minutes spare (until i had to be elsewhere) i foolishly gave the rear vent a tickle with the wire brush ;D





almost as bad as the other side.
the problem here is the plastic vent boxes, in the pillars, that are almost impossible to remove for welding

anyway thats all for today as i had to go to the town carnival



total time spent (its a grind ) 142.75 hours

total spend £1338.64 (own brand gold coffee, value bottled water, own brand twix and bounty, mini cheddars, cheese strings and a chicken& mushroom slice ;D )

[Deleted]

Amazed at what you uncover and fix on this.

[hairymel]

bloody thing is rotten or dented from one end to the other.

luckily, all i need for motivation, is to pop over to turbosport and thank my lucky stars its not a mk1 escort ;D

[eternaloptimist]

Heroic work.