flyingbrick Posted June 1, 2016 Author Share Posted June 1, 2016 Cleaned up all the sharp edges and went back to bare steel on the important glued faces then painted everything in epoxy. Finally glued into place. There's also rivets top and bottom where they can't be seen. The washers were glued onto the new panel so that the two edges were easy to align.. I'll knock them off when the glues dried and all the rivets are in. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted June 18, 2016 Author Share Posted June 18, 2016 Finally got new front discs. A few things to do before front brakes are done- Machine hubcentric sleeve to center wheels and disk to hub (disk is a little too big in ID for the hubs spigot) Redrill disc PCD Draw adaptor plates for calipers and have laser cut. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post flyingbrick Posted July 12, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 12, 2016 Iv been plodding away at this. Redrilled the disks to Holden hq/chev PCD (modern mills have sweet digital readouts that make this very easy) I laid everything out on the lounge floor and sat everything together. I made a cad drawing and printed it 1:1 scale, cut it out and test fit it, then tweaked and repeated 5-6 times. Iv done something slightly unusual and decided to trim the bottom of the steering arm mounting boss so that the plate can go under it (and will be clamped down by the arm too) because this gives me a far more professional looking shape than this: I have also added onto the bottom of my adaptor plate the steering lock stopper as this has been cut off the end of the steering arm too (they did this in the above photo also but didn't add the stopper) Then I transfered my best template to sheetmetal and made sure it still fit ok. Then had a single item laser cut to again check everything lines up as expected. It's pretty damn good! I do need to spin up 4x spacers (to go between caliper mounting cradle and my adaptor, at the moment it's got a stack of washers) get some pads and then hopefully can document everything and send it away for tech approval ( or something) Huge thanks to Clint for answering my questions! 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted December 8, 2016 Author Share Posted December 8, 2016 Putting the wife through fertility treatment so money has been tighter than usual but managing to do cheap shit occasionally. I removed the bent grille in top center of the dash (is it for a single speaker?) Sent some bits off for gold zinc plating Drilled some holes in my fuel tank mounting frame as it's way too sturdy/heavy. Will get this gold zinc plated too Also did some trading and bought some fiberglass front guards (need to get these north from invers somehow!) And also a fiberglass nosecone that was made locally. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 I have been pushing myself to spend more time in the shed... So another 5 patches down.. no more left around the windows!!! A few pics.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted January 15, 2017 Author Share Posted January 15, 2017 I'll try this again Pushing myself to get this done. Today I tackled the floor. First I made a template using card stuck down with Ali Express magnets, cut out of 1.2 panel steel, removed the old rusty crap (messily) and am now taking my time to adjust things and get positioning right using clicoes to hold things down temporarily. If you don't have any- GET SOME as they are absolutely invaluable! I beat the beads in with a ballpean..Happy with how it turned out so far as it's far more than I have ever done before!! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted January 15, 2017 Author Share Posted January 15, 2017 Can everyone else see those images OK? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post flyingbrick Posted January 19, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 19, 2017 So that last post was fuckin terrible. I have never done any sort of sheet metal like this (just what's in this thread) so it was easy for me to bust out some garbage that filled the hole and sort of ignore how terrible it was. I made the mistake of sharing some of those images on Facebook and got many good comments and I fleas feeling pretty good about things. Nek minnit a friend (an Oldschool rodder who has done thousands of hours of high quality bodywork) was brutally honest about how shit that section of floor is and told me I could do better. It was embarrassing as hell and I remembered what it felt like to be an apprentice.. so started googling. First of all- I need to buy some decent hammers. It's pretty damn obvious but every dent in your hammer is going to leave a mark in the steel. I shouldn't have used my single planishing hammer for driving nails, basically. Secondly- it's not THAT hard to watch some videos and just do things properly. So I polished the face of my only hammer and gave my only dolly a file. Then I made a template of what I thought would be the hardest section to start with, transferred it to MDF and rasped some curves round the perimeter. I can flip this wood over and use it to do the driver's side (which I cut out way too eagerly) I pinned the steel into place with a few nails and started tapping it round...Which didn't last long as it soon became a pretzel. So if you don't have a shrinker stretcher there seems to be really only one way of shrinking things. You have to make a joggle tool..There seem to be quite a few diy solutions online but I just cut a slot into this big old screwdriver. You slip it over the edge of the panel where you need it shrunk and twist then move along and twist in the other direction. Eventually you end up with what looks like a cupcake case. But rather than being twisted like before it will now have a flat bottom ..Like TS The joggle tool is also great for shaping the edge of panels.. you can slip it on and lever the steel up or down in little increments and grandually change things quite nicely. Next you need heat. All I have is a little MAP set but it suits my limited space and does the job. Heat the joggled area cherry red and then tap down quickly and gently over a dolly. This squashes the z's down flat but somehow doesn't spread them back out.. dunno how but it works waaaaaay better than expected. So.. a heap more tapping and adjusting with this new dolly I made and suddenly I have something nearly ready to fit! Now I need a hammer with a pick end and a way of forming the swage in the rear section. 30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted February 3, 2017 Author Share Posted February 3, 2017 The rear cab mounts/ front deck mount things had rotted through all along where they were welded to the chassis. Various patches had already been done and the only option was complete replacement. (Lol..Cat added one extra brown hole to this photo.) Probably mentioned these heaps but had them laser cut out of 3mm steel (significantly thicker than factory) and then folded at work during smoko. I cut the old mount off on one side and used it as a template to mark cut and fold lines on my new pieces. Have acquired a TIG welder to use at home. The GOOD body guys use Tig to weld up their panel steel- the benefit being far less material to clean up and a much softer weld that you can hammer (I'm told MIG will crack) The professionals don't even use filler wire- their gaps are so minimal that they can fuse the panels together and planish the seam out so that virtually no grinding is needed! I'm nowhere near that skill level but made my first decent part for the driver's side patch that I stuffed up earlier. This part is a front corner and it is a mirror image of the factory floor on the passenger side (I have nothing on the driver's side left to copy) As I don't have one of those fancy contour tools I used very low tensile bent wire (I think it's gas welding filler wire) to transfer and check shapes. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post flyingbrick Posted March 6, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 6, 2017 More stuff back from the platers, hinges, axle spacer things and a few brackets. Drilled lots of holes everywhere. The handbrake took a bit of planning (used CAD) There is 10mm between each hole and the sides of all the holes (except for the last big one) are all in a straight line Holes cut with a combination of rotabroach tooling and normal drillbits in a mill for no other reason than because I can. Oh and used big blocks of steel, a press and a hammer to fold over the curved bottom lip on those chassis bits. And yucky. This is why the old ones had to come.off 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post flyingbrick Posted March 11, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 11, 2017 Ordered the correct door hinge bushes from Jonseys garage in Hamilton after measuring my hinges and finding imperial equivalent. They have an excellent website and they sell a range of hinge bushes for less than HALF the cost of buying an actual HQ/WB specific set (just $3 a bush) They were the ONLY source I could find in NZ so I'm very impressed...It's surprisingly hard to find small bronze tophat bushes! http://www.jonesys.co.nz/clips-fastners/pins During lunch I tig welded the bottom of the handle and after a bunch of measuring milled in these finger dimples- work days go faster if ya skip smoko and focus on little projects like this. Had a very stressful Thursday morning and was too worked up to go back to actual work so did the driver's side floor piece. Shaped the opposite side of my MDF former, pinned my steel down with a pair of nails and tapped it round while watching TV. My pleats are getting much nicer now. Fewer pleats and larger seems much tidier than lots of little ones. And then I had a pair! Still lots to go :'-( Having a decent hammer and tools makes this a whole lot faster and easier. It's amazing how much you can push mild steel around to adjust the position of folds and joins....A very fun learning experience. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 Wire wheeled out some dirt and rusty, ground off the spot weld bumps and the rusty remains of the old skin and then hammered everything straight again. Now the passenger side needs the same. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post flyingbrick Posted March 26, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 26, 2017 To continue with the theme of not finishing any of the utes sub- projects before moving on to another, today I decided to clean up and repair the leather Audi seats so they are ready for installation (even though the rest of the vehicle isn't, lol) Research was done and I did my best while also being extremely cheap. Firstly the seats were given an extremely through cleaning using an old toothbrush and soapy water to get human filth out of all the stitching, seams and cracks. Just this made a huge difference which is hard to show via pics. Before After Next I got a $6 bottle of liquid shoe polish. It is NOT like shoe nugget- this is a thin black liquid that dries and will not rub off- more of a dye. Multiple layers of this were applied to each cracked area- allowed to soak for a short while and then rubbed off with a rag (so it pretty much only remains in the cracks and damage) Before After So the cracks in the color layer are still there- they just don't stick out like they used to. Next up was this hole in the driver's side bolster. This side is pretty fucked and I always said I'd get it replaced properly....But reality says NO right now. Here's the hole. So I copied some instructional videos for $100 repair kits and made a backing patch out of vinyl. I trimmed the hole up a bit cleaner and stuffed the vinyl in there with the cloth surface facing out so the adhesive had a nice surface to bond. Next I grabbed a tube of trusty simpson panel/chassis adhesive and squeezed some out onto cardboard. I agree this is a strange choice of poo BUT in my defence- I know it sticks to EVERYTHING extremely well, it remains flexible when cured AND it is easily painted. I used a flat blade screwdriver to push glue between the vinyl and leather and pushed the leather down as hard as I could. Then I filled the depression with adhesive and smoothed it out as best I could using a rag soaked in thinners. I tried to stipple the surface so it wasn't glossy smooth. Once that was cured I used my finger to apply some cheap black paint. This was WAY WAY WAY WAY more effective than I expected and after a damn good rubbing have established it's pretty durable too! Not perfect but you wouldn't know it's there unless you look really closely! So after a through coating with leather conditioner cream here's the end result.. I'm EXTREMELY happy with how they came out 23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post flyingbrick Posted March 26, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 26, 2017 I also am too cheap to spend $8 per pin for the door hinges so machined some high tensile bolts to the right length and diameter and grooved them to take a tiny c-clip. Then heated them up really hot and dipped into waste oil to blacken em. No idea how well this will last or protect from rust but YOLO it was cheap. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted April 25, 2017 Author Share Posted April 25, 2017 Lunchtime today I get a call to say I need to go to work and a few minutes later I get a message to say my glass guards will be dropped off in a few hours what was my address. I completely forgot about things due to workload and 12 hours later arrive home to a pair of guards lovingly wrapped in thick sheets. This is why I love OS....There are some seriously good bastards here who insist on doing something for nothing.. it's seriously awesome and I thank you all Also... IV been zapping new steel bits into my chassis! Then bought some chromoly and weld spuds plus a bias valve 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post flyingbrick Posted May 2, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 2, 2017 Had bias valve mount laser cut. Clamped it in vice and folded legs with a hammer. Drilled out holes and tapped. It fits. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post flyingbrick Posted May 27, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 27, 2017 This is the most racecar looking piece I have ever made.. When the car was last together (quite some time ago now) the throttle pedal feel was terrible. I tried different cables and spring rates etc but always felt like it should have been better..maybe I'm just used to more modern things....I dunno. So the goal here was to reduce the cable length significantly- the snake will now come through the firewall and start directly behind the carb rather than above the gas pedal. I was going to use an aluminium or stainless tube but then found a carbon tube cheap on AE. I bought bearings from AE too- the housings are self aligning and they are CHEAP. Next I measured up the factory gas pedal assembly, copied it's basic geometry, made some quick drawings and had these cut. And bent the pedal pad Then this morning I took some aluminium And made these ends up in aluminium. they have lots of drilled and tapped holes for mounting the arms. And here it is together with the ends pressed in. It looks totally badass and is pretty cool to hold and play with as it's SOOOOO light and rigid....a shame it will never be seen haha. The pad will be welded on when it's bolted into car and I know that angles etc are right. 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted May 28, 2017 Author Share Posted May 28, 2017 First bit of floor in! Damn photo makes it look much less complex and note flat than it actually js 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted May 30, 2017 Author Share Posted May 30, 2017 Sheet metal is poo, got some spuds and chromoly tube then Tig welded the start of some rear arms/links. Waiting on bushed rod ends to arrive from America. I'm so paranoid that I actually emailed a meturoligist (is that the word?) To ensure I was using the correct process for chromoly. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted June 3, 2017 Author Share Posted June 3, 2017 Bolted in the new pedal assembly with some rivnuts through firewall. It had to be mounted far higher than expected so I need to either make a new gas pedal arm or use a longer pad. No biggie and I deserve the bother for poor planning haha. But aside from that I'm happy as..it will work well. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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