teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,113
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May 12, 2024 20:44:33 GMT
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Maybe make it standard operating practice to hit the bakery before the breakfast cafe? John That would be the sensible thing to do, John. I really should get myself more organised. It has been another scorcher of a day, by English standards at least. When I opened the tent it was like an oven with the heat rushing out to meet you. I might have complained a little bit when it was cold but you can dress up for that. There is only so much you can take off without making the lovely doctor go weak at the knees, or is it nauseous, I forget which... We did the tip run (recycling centre) this morning, the Doc had got five of those builder's ton bags filled with garden waste. It was mid afternoon-ish before i ventured into the tent. This is what I should be sorting out, daylight coming through the floor. In my usual style, I ignored it and got on with wire wheeling some more of the under body coating off first. Once my arms were aching and my fingers had gone white, I put the grinder down to have a look at the job at hand. I marked out my cut line and then measured where it was to check if it would cause problems inside. I was mainly concerned about the heater duct that is currently disguised as a Rice Krispies packet. Luckily, it is well out of the way. Time to make the incision. It took a bit of getting out, due to the rust on the flange I couldn't make out where all the spot welds were so it ended up being 'Swiss cheesed' with the spot weld drill until I found them all. The other side looks like this. And the piece of floor is similar. I cleaned them both up with the wire wheely thing to see what we were working with. Then it was up to the shed to start repairing the chassis section. I dug out my home made metal bendy thing. I did some bishing to get the first fold done, then checked it. Then it was bashing and boshing to get the other fold. The two fold lines are not parallel, because that would make it too easy. Once it was something like I cut the old bit off and started tacking the new bit on. Once it was tacked I could fully weld it. As this is 1.2mm steel rather than the 0.75mm of the floor, it was much easier to weld. So it has gone from this. To this. I made sure it was still somewhere near fitting. You might have noticed that I haven't replaced all of that rusty edge. There are two reasons for that. Firstly, the remaining bit gave me a point of referance to work to. Secondly, the next bit has a few more wiggles in it. I thought that it would be a lot easier to make that part separately, rather than faffing around for hours trying to make it all in one piece then cocking it up and throwing it away. Cheers.
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,113
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May 13, 2024 21:18:23 GMT
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Yesterday I did the first part of the chassis box section repair. That was the easy bit. The other part is more involved because it is a bit wiggly. This is 1.2mm steel so it isn't easy to put a joggle in it with a hand operated joggler so I clamped a strip of metal of the required thickness to the back then hammered and chiseled it down. It needed an up and down wiggle at ninety degrees to the joggle so I bent those by hand with it held in the vice. That was the easy bit. The joggled bit runs for part of the length then it opens out. This was a hammer, chisel, T dolly and whatever else I found job. Every time I moved one bit it would try to straighten out the up and down wiggle so it was a lot of toing and froing before It was something like. When it was what I wanted, I tacked it up. When I had fully welded it I picked it up to put it in the vice to grind the weld down but I dropped it pretty sharpish because it turns out that there is a hole in the thumb of my welding glove. That wasn't a very nice experience. Once I had regained my composure I cleaned it off. I think it will work. Got to make the piece of floor to fit it to next. Cheers.
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Last Edit: May 13, 2024 21:22:40 GMT by teaboy
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,113
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May 14, 2024 18:04:02 GMT
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Right, I'm calling this piece of chassis repaired and ready to go back on. I can't put it back on until the piece of floor it goes on is fixed. It doesn't look that bad from the inside, does it? I have already taken most of the tar board off the floor when I replaced this bit. I have saved the jig that I used to knock in those fingery lumpy bits, I hope it will be some use when I have to make the new piece. Anyway, the tar board, there was one little piece left. I didn't remove that previously because I didn't think that I would need to and also, it is right next to the plastic heater duct and I didn't want to risk melting it with the heat gun. Now it needs to come off so I had to root through my stash for something to protect the plastic. I found this much used plumber's heat blanket. Luckily, that did the trick. Now I have to cut the old bit out. I marked up where I was going to cut but also where the foldy and fingery lumpy bits go. Partly to see if the new ones und up somewhere near where they are supposed to be but mainly to kill some time because the grinder was in the shed and it was raining. I may have complained about the sun and it being too hot just recently, but I have changed my mind and I want the sun back. When the rain eased I got the grinder and... The small hole is now a big hole. That is quite a scabby piece. I took it up to the shed and tapped it up a bit to get it back to its proper shape. It had been deformed a little by wire wheeling, drilling and peeling chassis sections from it. Now I have something to copy. I haven't started copying it yet because I ran out of energy and enthusiasm. The Doc made a cake this morning to take in to work and in a massive stroke of fortune, she managed to save some to bring home for me. Cheers.
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May 17, 2024 11:41:19 GMT
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Very nice looking repairs. You have the patience of a patient thing....
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,113
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May 17, 2024 20:19:00 GMT
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Very nice looking repairs. You have the patience of a patient thing.... Thanks, Duckie. I've been missing in action for a couple of days; Wednesday was quiz night. We came fifth, we were short handed again so we were on the back foot to start with but it was still a poor showing. Too many sports questions, especially when our sports expert didn't turn up. Yesterday was the Lovely Doctor's birthday so I thought it might be considered to be bad form if I went in the shed... I was hoping to make up for lost time tonight but as (bad) luck would have it, I was late home from work and feeling totally done in. I didn't feel like doing anything when I got in but I managed to make myself go to the shed for an hour. I need to make a new one of these. It doesn't look too complicated but as usual it is more involved than it looks. The curved edge is not a straight line because it kicks out at one end, right in the middle of the area where the 'flat bit' has an up and down kink. I cut out a piece of steel to start roughing it out. I started with the curved edge then bent the up and down bits. Because of the uppy downy bits I had to stretch and shrink the curved edge. It was a bit oversized there so I cut it down a bit to make it easier. It was then a case of working on the curvey bit then the bendy bits one after the other several times because working one bit effected the other bit. It is roughly in the right place now. I didn't have the energy to start chasing those lumpy fingery bits in tonight. I've got some stuff to do tomorrow so I don't know if I will get much, if any time in the shed. Cheers.
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braaap
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,709
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May 18, 2024 10:24:55 GMT
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You are a very brave man!
I am not.
So if anybody ever will donate me a free e46, no matter if a m3 or the other end of the engine range, I will go away and shout No thanks, after reading about all Your efforts to make this one rust free.
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,113
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May 20, 2024 20:20:55 GMT
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You are a very brave man! I am not. So if anybody ever will donate me a free e46, no matter if a m3 or the other end of the engine range, I will go away and shout No thanks, after reading about all Your efforts to make this one rust free. I don't think it is bravery, more like me desperately trying to drag myself out of the hole I dug for myself when I bought this rotten old banger. I did expect that there would be a bit of rust to sort out, it is twenty years old, but I was quite shocked by just how much rust there was hiding under there. Well, the weekend just gone; On Saturday, the weather was lovely so I hung my washing out then went to the cafe for breakfast. I had some stuff to do in town, which is four miles from home and it continued to be red hot and sunny. When I got home I found that it had hammered down and my washing was wetter than when I put it out. Someone has got it in for me, it's a conspiracy! Anyway, I thought that I would watch the F1 qualifying before I went out to the shed. I did watch the F1 but my mate Nige turned up after so there was no time left for mucking about with bits of tin. Never mind, I could make up for it on Sunday by getting up earlier and going straight for breakfast then I could go in the shed before the F1 and get back in there afterwards. Except just as I was about to set off, my dad called saying that his water tank was leaking and could I help. He is about fifty miles away. I went over, sorted the plumbing (I hope) and I also took the opportunity to see my mum and my sister. That meant that I missed breakfast, I missed the F1 and I didn't get in the shed, again. I watched the race highlights later. Today was back to work and it all want reasonably to plan, until my last job. That was annoying and made me late home. I was thinking that I wasn't going to bother going in the shed again because I was not feeling it but I had a long drive home to think about it and decided that I really should do something. I have the roughed out piece of floor, seen here with the original piece on top of it. The roughed out piece doesnt have those square-ish lumpy bits in it, yet. When I made this piece of floor, ages ago. I made a simple hammer forming tool by cutting out where the lumpy bits would go into a piece of 1.2mm steel. This was it before I cut the slots out, I don't seem to have a picture of it after. I managed to re use it to make the lumpy bits in this piece. There is absolutely no finesse in this, I just clamped the thing in the back and knocked the lumps in with a chisel. It is only a piece of floor and you will not see most of it anyway so I think it is ok to not go mad trying to make it perfect. I offered it up to the floor so see if it looks any good, the piece is still oversized at the moment. It didn't look too bad so I got the repaired piece of chassis out to try with it. They will both need a bit more tweaking to make them sit together more comfortably but I should be able to do that. But I won't be doing it tonight because I really have had enough now. Cheers.
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May 20, 2024 21:03:40 GMT
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I don't think it is bravery, more like me desperately trying to avoid making an oil tank Don't be hard on yourself. Hey - it's still all very entertaining and we can all just look forward to the day this car is finished and you get back to the porsche by then you'll be a world master at manipulation of tank steel.
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,113
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May 21, 2024 20:30:31 GMT
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I don't think it is bravery, more like me desperately trying to avoid making an oil tank Don't be hard on yourself. Hey - it's still all very entertaining and we can all just look forward to the day this car is finished and you get back to the porsche by then you'll be a world master at manipulation of tank steel. Is there an oil tank, for a Porsche? I had forgotten all about that. Tonight, I went and retrieved these bits which were stuck to the car with magnets. They needed a slight bit of manipulation to make them play together as there was a bit of a gap instead of a flush joint. They now go together like peas and carrots. When I removed the chassis piece it had a couple of massive self tappers in it, I can't remember what they were for but probably the exhaust heat shield. Anyway, they were not the proper screws, they were bigger in diameter so now the two holes were too big to fit the proper screws. I thought that now was as good a time as any to fix that. The holes look like they were slightly recessed so this is what I did. I drilled a 4mm hole then taped a washer on to the piece, with the hole in the middle of it. A quick root through my drawers produced this ball bearing. With it sitting in the drilled hole and the washer at the other side I gave the bearing a whack with a hammer. It left me with this. As there were two holes on the chassis piece, I made another plate. I had just started cutting out the old part of the chassis piece when I had a visitor in a very lovely 944. It was yer man broady and he was bearing gifts. We retreated to the house to drink tea and have a natter. In fact, we were so busy gassing that we forgot to eat the biscuits. Cheers.
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Last Edit: May 21, 2024 20:40:09 GMT by teaboy
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In fact, we were so busy gassing that we forgot to eat the biscuits. Cheers. I frankly find that very hard to believe.......
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broady
East Midlands
Posts: 406
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May 22, 2024 17:07:04 GMT
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While I am serveral years behind on this thread. Ill chip in here and say thank for the brew! Nice to meet someone who suffers with the same afliction.
I will attest to biscuit forgetfulness. But I'm sure there will be other chances to eat some!
Amazing work on the Beeeemer.
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,113
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May 22, 2024 18:54:40 GMT
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In fact, we were so busy gassing that we forgot to eat the biscuits. Cheers. I frankly find that very hard to believe....... What can I say? Maybe I have senile dimensions... While I am serveral years behind on this thread. Ill chip in here and say thank for the brew! Nice to meet someone who suffers with the same afliction. I will attest to biscuit forgetfulness. But I'm sure there will be other chances to eat some! Amazing work on the Beeeemer. The biscuits have almost gone, I think the mice might have been at them, or possibly the Lovely Doctor... I'm going to have one before it's too late. It has been a horrible day, constant rain and it was still raining when I got home. I was feeling done in and was very tempted to give it a miss but I thought that I might just replace my old holes with the new holes. This is one of the new holes. I marked the centre of the old hole and also marked the new one, so I could get it in the right place. I cut the old one out and clamped the new one in, lining up my markers. It got welded in. Then I went to do the second hole and I made a total pig's breakfast of cutting it in which left me with a massive gap to fill. I tacked it in place, lining up the markers again. I started welding it a bit at a time, luckily, the thicker chassis is a bit more forgiving than the paper thin floor. I eventually managed to fill it all in. I gave it a quick clean off, it doesn't look too bad. It is only a chassis rail and not the middle of the bonnet so I think it will do. I wasn't tempted to do any more after totally making a meal of that. I'm going to have a biscuit. Cheers.
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jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,916
Club RR Member Number: 40
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May 22, 2024 21:46:11 GMT
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Nice job on not sharing the biscuits with the person who brought them round so you get more and extra points on blaming the Mrs. That takes skills Work on car is ok too I guess. James
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Last Edit: May 22, 2024 21:47:41 GMT by jamesd1972
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,113
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May 23, 2024 20:04:19 GMT
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Nice job on not sharing the biscuits with the person who brought them round so you get more and extra points on blaming the Mrs. That takes skills Work on car is ok too I guess. James You've rumbled me, James... Long day today, twelve hour shift and, consequently, late home and tired so I wanted a quick and easy job tonight. Now that I have the chassis section repaired. I could give it, and the piece of floor, a quick clean up and some primer. In the picture above you can see the two little holes that I replaced and there is one larger hole which I didn't. The large hole had some corrosion around it which I had sanded off and treated with phosclean stuff from rustbuster which is supposed to kill the rust and phosphate the metal so it is ready to paint. It isn't a very good picture but you can just see the pitting around the hole here. The other side was pitted too and when I started sanding it to prep for primer there was rust coloured dust coming from that area. I'm pretty sure that hole doesn't do anything so... That gets rid of the rust and the rust inducing hole. A quick tidy up and here we are. Oh, the original plan was to get some primer on there, wasn't it? I wasn't planning on priming my workmate bench, that was just an added bonus. Right, I'm off for a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea. Cheers.
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Last Edit: May 23, 2024 20:06:53 GMT by teaboy
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,113
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May 24, 2024 21:04:28 GMT
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Limited progress tonight I'm afraid. I have my bits prepared and primed. When I made the new piece of floor I used the outside face of the old floor as the test template. This meant that when it was somewhere near I could offer the oversized panel on top of the hole to check the shape. There is a slight downside to this method and that is that the flanged over edge is in the wrong place by roughly the thickness of the metal. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem because you would trim the other edge of the panel and move the whole thing over until the flange was in position. In this instance, I couldn't do that because of the fingery dimply bits. There is half a dimply bit at each end of the new piece which has to mate up to the corresponding half that remained in the floor and it is these which dictate where the panel fits, not the flange. When I started to cut the piece in I marked a line where the curved flange should, well, curve. Then it was a case of taking it to the shed to work on it. I did it over a T dolly with a dead blow hammer. The dead blow was kinder to the metal and didn't ruin all the detail of the dimply fingers. It also has a much larger head than a metal hammer so it spreads the load and moves a bigger area of metal. It took a fair bit of faffing about and walking to and from the shed but I think it is ok now. In fact, I was that convinced that it was ok that I started to tack it into place. In the bottom right hand side of the picture you can see an intergrip which I used to ensure that the joint was flat. I didn't get beyond that because the lovely Doctor decided that it was time for me to pack up and go to fetch her a pizza. Cheers.
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,113
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May 28, 2024 20:41:01 GMT
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It was a bank holiday weekend, yay! It was the Lovely Doctor's Birthday the other week and as this was the nearest weekend to it that she was free, so we went away to celebrate it. We stayed in York so that we could also spend time with our youngest daughter. This is the Doc training to be an axe killer. On the bank holiday Monday we went up to Filey for a walk on the beach. I did find a tea bar so all was well with the world. All this means that the floor that I tacked in on Friday. Was still only tacked in when I got home from work today. It did look like it was going to stay like that for a bit longer because when I got home it was pouring down. I sat in the kitchen drinking tea for some time and complained that it was a conspiracy, but it did eventually stop and the sun even came out, so I quickly dragged the welding gear down to the tent before it changed its mind. I welded it in from below, which is not much fun with all the sparks dropping on you. That went reasonably well, considering, so I gave it a quick tickle up with the power file. I don't need to file it all off because the chassis piece will cover the rest of it. I also gave the inside a quick going over. I decided that I didn't need to go too mad with that either because it will be painted, covered with sound deadening, painted again then covered with carpet, so who is going to see it? I might put some epoxy on the inside bit of the chassis before I weld it back on, I haven't decided yet. Cheers.
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,962
Club RR Member Number: 71
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May 29, 2024 23:39:39 GMT
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Catching up after working a "weekend" and then buggering off to Spa to watch cars going roundy roundy and get rather wet.
My summary
You found more new rust holes than you had cakes or biscuits
You've repaired most of them
I think you need to stop looking for holes or prodding brown stains with your finger
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,113
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May 30, 2024 19:06:35 GMT
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I think you need to stop looking for holes or prodding brown stains with your finger I can't help myself, Bstardo, I'm mad for it! It was quiz night yesterday, we were third. Two team members missing, our sports expert who seems to be making a habit of not showing up and the Lovely Doctor who has gone on a secret mission to Madagascar. I did have a quick look in the tent before the quiz, had a bit of a clean up on the new piece of floor then treated it to a drop of spooge. I woke up this morning feeling a bit pony, I think I'm coming down with the man-flu which isn't ideal. I was feeling tired and aching when I got home but there is no point moping around feeling sorry for myself so I went out to the tent. Looking at the new piece of floor from the inside. The eagle eyed amongst you might notice a slit in the floor at lower left of the picture. This is a leftover from when I replaced a different piece of floor ages ago. I had only welded three sides of the repair for some reason and left the forward edge so now was as good a time as any to finish it off. With that taken care of, there were a couple of plug welds to do where the front seat crossmember sits on top of the latest new piece of floor. I spot weld drilled them. Plugged them up. Then filed them off. Now I just need to put the piece of chassis back in over the floor repair, but I decided to get some epoxy on as much of it as I can beforehand. Of course, I did the piece of floor too. The bits of masking tape are to keep the epoxy off the areas where I need to weld, they will get weld through primer. That was enough for me tonight, I'm going to see what medication I can have. Cheers.
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Norman
Part of things
Posts: 449
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May 30, 2024 21:46:13 GMT
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Hi Tom, You are doing great work there, this car should last for years. As to medication, have a large glass of something strong. It won’t particularly make you feel better but you will get a good nights sleep. Norman
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,113
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May 31, 2024 21:03:01 GMT
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I'm still feeling a bit under the weather today. The sun came out this afternoon so if I'm going to be under the weather it might as well be under the sun. I'm not the fastest of workers even when I'm feeling tip-top so I'm really slow at the moment. I managed to drag myself into the tent to do a bit more welding. Now that my parts are painted... I unmasked it, sprayed on some weld through primer then welded the chassis back in. I had a cup of tea then went to smooth it all down. I was reasonably pleased with that so I cleaned off the back end of that chassis rail and treated the whole lot to some spooge. At my current speed, that little job took me two hours. In other news, my car came with an armrest. I'm not a fan of armrests in cars because when I'm driving I am usually holding the steering wheel or changing gear. This brings us to the second problem with armrests, it is in the way when you are changing gear so I always had mine in the lifted position. What this all means is that I don't need an armrest so I got one of these. It is a short, armrest delete console. I shall look forward to the time when I can fit that. Cheers.
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