OT plastic kit car

[Ulu]

After taking some time off to build battery chargers and welders and do various important repairs on my house and maintain my other vehicles, Today I went back to work on the SS100.

 

First I had to take one of my rail mock-ups completely apart so I could get into the end of the tunnel and finish working on it.


Of course I still have to clean rust and paint but there’s also an issue of reinforcement. This tunnel was repaired previously where it had rusted out at the seam, and what connects the top and bottom pieces (after removal of all the cancer) is this pitiful piece of 20 Ga.

 

This 12 ga frame cutoff has been sitting in my garden, and it’s full of leaves and spiders. All of that departed when I took the sawzall to it. Now I have a piece of 12ga metal suitable to join things back together solidly.

 

After some beating on the anvil, the patch is starting to take shape. I test fit it in the tunnel.

There’s my frame patch, after shaping on the anvil, and trimming with saw & grinder.

 

I circled a hole in the tunnel bottom, and next to it, the tiny remains of a long tube that was welded inside the frame there.

There are 4 of these tubes, from the old control cables, inside the tunnel. They are all in my way and must be removed. This turned out to be a slow and tedious process.

I got two more cut loose on the forward end before the 105F heat got to me.

 

I had bought a Harbor Fake pneumatic hammer with muffler chisel, & I will hit it some more with that tomorrow . . .

[Ulu]

I was able to remove the front heater control cables/tubes by drilling the forward ends, where they penetrate the tunnel. (Not shown)

 

The rear ends were spotwelded into the tunnel, right where it sits on my jig.  I couldn’t drill from the outside.

;(

 

So, I pounded this pipe over the tube welded to the frame. I just wiggled it until the weld broke out of the tube.

These had lovely s-curves until I pounded the pipe on them.

 

 

 

Edited July 16 by Ulu

[Ulu]

I am in the process of grinding and sanding the rust and lumpy welds in the tunnel. It’s not yet clean enough inside for paint or welding.

 

But this is much easier with the heater controls removed.

 

I made this flap-sanding attachment from a Harbor Fake bit extension.

 

 

 

 

Still much cleaning to do, but it’s 107% better already.

Edited July 12 by Ulu

[Ulu]

Hey this Evaporust is great stuff! Half this part soaked 4 hours & look at the progress.

 

That is a door to cover an access hole in my tunnel.

Ok it was really a tiny rust hole that wound up this big. The hole is still very rough & needs cleaning.

 

After that, more cleanup needed in the tunnel!

 

Edited July 12 by Ulu

[Ulu]

I made the hole bigger, so I made a bigger door. This will be a PITA to fix, but I can’t live with this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This will need a bigger patch. I cut another chunk from the old tunnel.

 

Edited July 16 by Ulu

[Ulu]

I finally gave in and removed the entire ragged, rusty area with a sawzall.

 

 

Now I have to make the patches.

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

sometimes you just got to bite the bullet and back up to a good starting point...sorry to hear this, but in the long run you likely be better off doing this.  

[Ulu]

It really was inevitable. I feel much better about the whole business now.

 

I spent some time re-welding the backside of old tunnel patches, then I worked on the new patches.

One patch mounts the pedal assembly to the tunnel. Originally this had 0.082” steel with a small doubler inside. I made it from 0.105” and it will also have a (smaller) doubler.

This took some time to fit, and it still doesn’t quite. It wants more clearance at the big hole, & it needs a curve to match the tunnel. Hammer time . . .

It was Nice to actually get to a point where I got to do some welding again. If everything’s already fitted, it’s not very noisy and so I can go out there at 5 o’clock in the morning when it’s cool, without disturbing the neighbors.

I actually was irrigating from 4AM. I welded & ground from 6:30 until 3:30 in the afternoon, when it was 112°.

 

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

We finally got a bit of rain after a very long dry spell, my yard was totally stressing in the heat.  The garden I would water but even at that, the heat would take its toll and cook the plants during the day.  I also did some trenching for installing new water lines in the same heat....like you early morning was the better hours and well, still are for working as I continue the task of a total replumb of the house.    If no more rains today, then tomorrow will be mowing the lawn.  

 

Stickwith it, you making progress now.  I do not think I will be doing any welding anytime soon with what I have slated to do before hosting a family gathering.  Then I may start a bit of metal work on the Bugeye Sprite.  

[Ulu]

“Bugeye Sprite”

Ka-Thump Ka-Thump!😍

[Ulu]

Well thar she be! I cut this patch from some clean tunnel scrap.

Just a bit of tuning more, and the patches will get tacked in and welded.

[Ulu]

From below… the fancy patch.

I must remember to weld the M10 nuts on the back first.

[Ulu]

I got all of the patches finished and cleaned up and tacked on the car today, and then when I went to start seam welding, I was out of Argon.

 

 

After a trip to the welding shop for gas,  I realized it was 114 Fahrenheit out there and I did not want to weld anymore.

Edited July 13 by Ulu

[Ulu]

By the way, I zapped myself with the TIG welder yesterday.

 

I was all sweaty and I managed to touch the chassis, and the filler rod, at the same time I accidentally touched the torch to the filler rod.

90 amps but low voltage, yet it got me right off the pedal.

 

Anyhow I didn’t feel like welding today but not because of that. I just needed a recovery day in general.

 

Still I spent some time cleaning up the mess I’ve been making with grinders. It was getting deep…

 

[Ulu]

Sadly, I never did get back to my welding. I got something in my eye that put me out of action for the day.

Grinding grit.

I wear eye glasses and a full face shield when grinding.

But I was only vacuuming when it happened. No face shield.

 

That 5 hp shop vac can blow some stuff around.

[Plymouthy Adams]

last couple particles that ended up in my eyes came from my hair and since have been more alert to wearing a beanie cap to prevent some of this and trying to remember to lower my head and remove the cap and whisk my hair free of likely particles.  Most uncomfortable for sure to have trash in your eye.  I have been dragging my feet going under the house to get onto the new water pipe installation.  Going over the drawing I made I am lacking a couple small items (running change) but nothing to really hold me back at this time.  

[Ulu]

Here it would be black widows slowing you down, but our new house is slab-on-grade, so no crawling under.

[Ulu]

I got the long seams on “top” welded, but there was still contamination in that old steel. I drilled out a dozen spots that “popped” because of oil and rust specks coming out of the pores.

 

Anyhow there’s a lot of stops snd starts snd it looks like crap. We will see what I really have once I grind it. I did this without backup bars, except at the collar, and the exposed backside looks better than the top.

 

I did all the top plug welds to the collar, and patch-to-patch plug welds. I drilled for all the side plug welds, then didn’t do them.

 

I realize I should have bought that harbor freight spot welder so I wouldn’t have to make “hanging” plug welds. Not overhead welds, but still past vertical. It might be a challenge.

So the sides of the collar only got one plug weld each from the inside, and a few tacks. Those and the long side seam weld might have to wait until I can roll the frame again.

 

There’s no sense doing out-of-position welds if I can put them off without danger.

 

 

Edited July 16 by Ulu

[Ulu]

I tried to square up the tunnel enough for a test fit of the crossmember.

I quickly trimmed off the collar, over 1/4” at the top, and then spent some long hours shaping the lumpy seam weld and spot welds.

 

[Ulu]

Today I am down to the part of my chassis mods that I have dreaded.

 

In order to trim the floor I have to assemble the weldment and then mark the interference points and then disassemble it and then trim. Then I have to do the whole thing again and again: disassembling and trimming, and assembling and marking, until I get the whole thing to fit.

The good news is that after several rounds of this it is almost in alignment.

Just a few more trims and it will be ok.

[Plymouthy Adams]

I give you a lot of credit out and cutting welding grinding in the current weather patterns.  We did of late get some rain in our area, much needed for sure, but now the trade off for that is muggy due to the humidity increase.   Stick with it, you seem to be whittling it down at a steady pace.  I have alternated my visits under the house on the water upgraded to be every other day.  Got the hot plumbed first then the cold, little resupply then ran out of cold PEX tubing so had to resupply.  Just a bit of work left and it will be done deal.  The new whole house 4 stage filtering is a big improvement and ridding myself of the old iron pipe is a plus.  I had no idea the amount of iron pipe in place as it was buried with short copper stubs to the fixtures.  such is life in a 116 year old farm house.   While not today, I plan to sleeve the new lines with insulation. 

[Ulu]

I am going rather slowly, as I can’t make a racket before 8am and before noon it is 100F out in the boatyard.

 

Not unexpected. This heat happens every year in the desert.

 

But also, I’m not facing some artificial schedule. If I survive long enough to finish it, well, that’s the basic schedule.

[Plymouthy Adams]

folks I am sure laugh at the number of cars I have in the barn and state that I will never get them all done in my lifetime.  That is 100% true and IS Not my goal, I own them they bring me great joy knowing they are here and being protected till that day when maybe one of the grandkids would like the opportunity to do a bit of what I chose as a hobby.   So like yourself, I set no deadlines...deadlines now make it a job and I have had my fair share of jobs over the years.  This stuff is for fun and for expressing a bit of my creative side.   I am closing in a bit on some of the major tasks about the house and yard this year despite the heat.  Maybe if all goes well do the NEXT final addition to the barn (18 x 30) come fall and then settle in maybe for a bit of body repair/welding come winter.  If not, well if I continue to have good health, there is always next year.  

[Ulu]

I am having great difficulty making the cross corner measurements I need, accurately, to get this car square.

 

So I have decided I could build a trammel. Over 12 feet long.

 

Fortunately  it doesn’t have to be industrial and last forever.

 

I have some lovely light gage painted tubing I can use. Lots of junk. 

[Ulu]

I built the trammel, and I find that I’m off over 1/2” from corner to corner. (I thought it would be much worse!)

I need to take some more diagonal measurements, but everything thing else is pretty much possible with a tape measure.

 

Then, Back to the marking and trimming.