Rudolfs 2+2: The gleaming emerald......

[CroS13]

UPDATE 25.5.14-  Welding up the firewall.

 

Well to start off i did get the rest of that mastic off, it took about 3 hours over 3 days, then also about 3 more kg of dry ice and about 4 hours worth of work took care of the rest of the sound deadning. I never...never want to do that again!

 

Now i decided to tackle the holes in the firewall, i had been meaning to smooth it all out for awhile, as i wanted to run my fuel lines to my fuel regulator. Where i wanted to run them, the braided hose ran right across all the old holes for the heater core and choke cables. I wanted to secure the hose to the firewall with either storff clamps or saddle clamps, so i needed to clean that whole area up. I also wanted to get rid of that blanking plate i made that the fuel regulator mounted to on the passenger side.

 

I had made it up to cover the holes in the firewall made for US spec cars, but It didn't really give a nice neat finish in my eyes. So i removed the plate, and tackled the holes on that side. Lastly, i wanted to remove the bracket and post used to mount the accelerator linkages. I wont be needing them as ill be running a cable for the bike carbs, so that went too.

 

The offending area:

 

Drilled out spot welds and chiseled off the linkage post for accelerator:

 

 

On the passenger side:

 

 

Smooth!

 

 

And hit with some primer:

 

 

The next thing is to re mount the fuel lines and regulator, clamp it all down and that job is done.

 

I will also need to weld up the hole where the accelerator rod goes through the firewall, its waaayyyy too big for what i need, i think the hole only needs to be between 12 to 14mm for the accelerator cable. Ive seen people just use mudflap washers and sandwich one on either side of the hole, with the cable running through the middle, but ill do it properly.

 

Only problem i see is getting a grinder in the area to smooth off the welds, as that panel is 2 layers thick, and im working on the second, sunk in panel. I'm thinking to weld from inside the firewall, so all i have to clean up on the outside is the small weld penetrate. If its not 100% and some small gaps i can bog it to smooth it out.

 

Rudolf.

 

 

 

 

[Wayne G]

looks good but how will you run your heater?  In Qld we must have a device to demist the windscreen for safety certificate and a rag doesn't count!

[CroS13]

The same applies to NSW, I plan on running a basic "vintage air" heater unit. It will be a basic electric heater/demister in the cabin made for hot rods.

 

Rudolf.

[PeterAllen]

Gee, I'd forgotten about that demister requirement, I was going to submit mine less the Vintage Air unit, looks like I'll have to install it beforehand.

 

Rudolf - Make sure the opening is big enough to get the ends of the cable through! Why don't you just go to Grippy Rubber (Silverwater) and get a rubber grommet to suit? I've just used the rubber plugs to fill the unwanted holes in my firewall.

[CroS13]

to be honest i wanted something basic i could practice on before i tried my hand at doing the rust repairs, this way i could weld, and go inside and see how my penetration was. Plus i plan on having a minimalistic engine bay when finished. Ill tuck all the harness too. It makes it a lot neater i think.

 

As for the cable hole, yes it will be big enough, i plan on using a universal Lokar accelerator cable, so it will have a point to bolt to the firewall, ill just need to drill the hole the correct size for it. I only plan on doing this once might aswell do it the best i can, if i can weld up a hole instead of using a grommet ill go for that.

 

On a downside, with that mentality my car might never get finished haha!

 

Rudolf.

 

 

[CroS13]

Update 6.6.14: tackling some rust:

 

So while doing some other work, i accidentally caught my jumper on the little tab that the grill bolts to, and ripped that tab right off. Well that's odd i thought to myself, so i went to the drivers side one and wiggled it around, and its quite loose too!

 

Hrmmm... time to get out the grinder with brumby wheel and see what we have under that nice paint....

 

 

 

so my initial reaction was:

 

 

 

but then decided to jump on evil bay and buy some spot weld drill bits. A few days later we were left with this:

 

 

so i dusted off the old air grinder and hacked away until this was left:

 

 

I also painted inside the radiator support with KBS rust seal, (or Por15) as far up as my brush could go anyway before i would weld in the new panel.

 

So i went to work over a day or 2 cutting out a new bit of metal, trimmed it all up and here is the final fit as of now:

 

 

Also a big thank you goes out to Scoota G for making me up the outer panels! I managed to find some of that UPOL copper weld through primer, and i hit the middle of the panel with some KBS rust sealer. Here they are:

 

 

Over the weekend hopefully i can atleast attempt to weld in the inner patch panel. Ill need to beat on the nose first, as its all warped around from me grinding, getting snagged on it while i was rushing around the garage and from hand filing it here and there to make the patch fit.

 

Rudolf.

 

 

[thriller]

Nice work!

 

Just remember to go really, really really slow when doing the inner panel. Even slower than that. Slower again.

 

There's only a few cm of metal on the outer edge to absorb the heat, rather than the rest of the car where it's completely connected. And because there's no real curves, it'll want to warp pretty quickly.

 

Anyways good stuff Like reading your updates.

[PB260Z]

Hi Rudolf

 

I am enjoying watching your build, that rust in the front is very familiar I have a similar photo 

 

Cheers

 

PB

[gav240z]

Nice work, yeah can't believe how cheap Scoota is able to make those parts for the front of the car. Seems you're quite proficient with the welder there. I'm still trying to master the oxy but slowly getting better. I do wonder what other surprises await you (and me for that matter). .

[CroS13]

I don't know if i would say im 'proficient' with the welder just yet, im scraping by, which means spend 3 hours cutting and practicing on scrap steel before i hit the car. For example, yesterday i made up a test patch to butt weld together which i have painted on the bottom with the KBS rust seal, so i can practice at different voltage settings to see how the kbs will react when i weld ontop of it. I also made a long strip to test my plug welds with, it has about 60 holes ive drilled into it, so im coating the length with different thicknesses of Upol weld through primer to see at what point it wont strike a good arc.

 

And yes, i think it will be very interesting what hides under the rest of the paint. After i repair this nose section on both sides i think ill take it to the sandblasters, i have already been able to push a screwdriver through the dog legs, so ill probably be asking someone to make me those panels too sometime in the near future. But hopefully it shouldn't be too bad, my slam panel is fine, my doors are perfect, as in not even surface rust, my front guards are the same. 

 

How do you eat a elephant? ......

 

One bite at a time.

 

Rudolf.

[Brabham]

Good work Rudolf.

 

lurch does the doglegs for a +2, they are different to a 2-seater. Sounds like your shell might be too good to need blasting, once you do all the usual rust areas it may not need it, would only do it to a heavily rusted shell.

 

Keep it up

[CroS13]

^^^

i know were your coming from, but if it cost 2k to get it blasted and find out exactly what i'm dealing with then so be it.

 

Update 21.6.14:  Dolf the fabricator?

 

So since we left off i did a bit of work over the last 2 weeks, not much to say really here are the photo's:

 

 

I cant remember exactly what i did wrong, but i stuffed something up, and there ended up being a gap between scoota's panel and where i cut my panel. but the main issue was the step in the factory section and the replacement panel. i had to bridge this gap somehow:

 

 

so after scratching my head for awhile i grabbed a hammer and beat the crap out some scrap metal i had and ended up with this:

 

 

welded that section in, got some more weld through primer and the KBS rust seal:

 

 

welded it all together:

 

 

then hit it with some primer:

 

 

Pretty chuffed with myself for a first attempt at doing some rust repairs to be honest. plenty more to come!

 

Rudolf.

 

 

[peter t]

Good work M8.

[Scoota G]

Bulletproof! Bet it's a strong as hell now too. Top Job, you should be very proud of yourself.

[George]

 

Pretty chuffed with myself for a first attempt at doing some rust repairs to be honest.

 

And rightly so. Good stuff Dolf the Fabricator. :-)

[CroS13]

Update 21/7/14: more rust, its like ive done this before?

 

Cheers for the Kind words lads, coming on here really gives me motivation to get in the garage and give it a go, like most of you do, gives me the drive to keep at it.

 

So a few things happened, Firstly i decided to mount my fuel regulator and braided hose, so that was done:

 

 

I then looked to attack the drivers side nose section. after strip disking all the bog away i saw this:

 

 

Oh...Nice try, but no.... well it seems atleast they did a better job than on the passenger side right?

 

well no... not really.....

 

 

So i wire wheeled all that crap off

 

 

then i cut out the dirty part... i decided to do this in 2 steps, easier for me.

 

 

made something that resembled what was there before

 

 

and slapped that on here

 

 

and that's what im up to at the moment.....

 

Rudolf.

[George]

So I'm guessing you don't like surprises then?

[EvilChuckie]

Great work so far Brings back memories of my build (about 25 years ago) still got the old girl (car and wife lol) due for another rebuild/refresh I did all the same thingd you are doing and it was well worth it as there has been no rust returned in all that time. will be adding an RB30 this time around and rear disk brakes along with many other upgrades. so keep up the good work, and it does get easier as you get towards the end. if you can actually call it finished? as there is always something else to do, add, replace or upgrade

 

 

Cheers Evil

[gav240z]

You know Rudy, I think you're actually enjoying yourself. I pulled the door skin off my drivers door yesterday and I actually enjoyed it haha. Now I know what the radiator support looks like from that side thanks to your photos .

 

Oh and don't get me started on previous owner botched repairs.

 

 

Why you would get out of bed in the morning to do this I don't know? I mean surely doing it right wouldn't take that much longer?

[CroS13]

UPDATE 13.10.14 - MORE RUST REPAIRS, IM NOT DEFEATED YET!

 

Wow time really flies, and its been a few months since my last update! Its safe to say life has taken over and work in the garage has slowed down considerably over the last month or two, but not to a grinding halt which is good.

 

Over the last few months i struggled to get 2 to 3 hours a week to work on the car, i really can say i didn't have enough hours in the day, mainly due to me building an extension on the house, which is also a work in progress:

 

 

but in that time i did manage to finish the rust repairs in the nose of the car, and i also got stuck into the drivers side dog leg.

 

Here are some photos:

 

 

Hit with some weld through primer and KBS rust seal:

 

 

Once again thanks to scoota for making me the outer panel which i welded in:

 

 

And then hit with some primer:

 

 

a photo of the final repairs on the nose with the workshop supervisor overseeing my work:

 

 

 

I also got cracking on the drivers dog leg, it also rusted through the inner sil panel, which ive already cut the cancer out of and replaced, but those photo's are for another day

 

Rudolf.

 

 

[KatoKid]

Keep at it Rudolf.....you're doing a great job not helped by the extracurricular activities!

[Scoota G]

Top work! You must be breathing a big sigh of relief now that section is repaired.

[George]

I don't know how you find even an hour to work on the car with that house reno! Good stuff.

[CroS13]

thanks for the kind words gents, yes this extension has really slowed things down, but it will be worth it in the long run, and scoot, i did sigh in relief when the nose was finished, especially when i welded back on the grill brackets, then mounted the bonnet and grill and everything still lined up about 95% straight. But unfortunately now what i have noticed is my bonnet hinge or pins must be worn, as the bonnet sits high at the front of the car, and when i lean on the front of the bonet, it will compress back to where it should sit. Don't know what i can do about that one yet.

 

And yeah i struggle to find time George, i have had to sacrifice in other area's, before this extension started i was going to the gym for 2 hours every afternoon, but now doing 12 hour days to help pay this off, the gym has been canned, id rather try and squeeze in a extra hour in the garage, but i can tell im burning myself out real real quick.

 

but anyway... time for a....

 

UPDATE 20.10.14 -- attacking the doglegs and sil panel!

 

So even though i am proud of the repairs i did in the nose, the Dog legs have been intimidating me since i got the dam car, with their bubbled fresh paint, hiding god knows what. I decided to kill them... kill them with an angle grinder and sanding disk.....

 

and this is what what revealed on the drivers side:

 

 

hrmm... time to bust out the cut off disk, once i had removed the panel i saw what lied beneath.... more rust, which deflated me for a hour or two:

 

 

then i snapped out of it, and got back to cutting:

 

 

and the last month and a half i spent maybe half hour each day trying to make a patch panel for the inner sil, with no real template to work off, as the rusted section was pretty mangled... but after lots of trial and effort i came up with this:

 

 

which once welded in looked like this:

 

 

and finally once hit with some KBS rust seal and weld through primer, this is where i am up to:

 

 

Rudolf.

 

 

[George]

 

then i snapped out of it, and got back to cutting

 

 

 

Hive five to that one buddy!