O/S Sill & Floor - Mid

 

The first real fabrication challenge .....

I guess this was the time that the size of the project started to sink home. In choosing to work around the car, bit by small bit, I had had no real appreciation of the extent of rust in the car as a whole up to this point. Uncovering this gaping rusty hole in what was a complex part of the chassis was probably my first wake-up call.   

One thing you realise quickly on such a project is that once started, it cannot easily be stopped. A car on axle-stands and in pieces is a 'project' and a 'project' with large holes is pretty much worthless. So, you wrap yourself in the warm blanket of belief that it can't get much worse and soldier on, eating the elephant a little at a time. In truth, I realised that I enjoyed bending and forming metal and with time not being much of an issue, uncovering each new section and solving the puzzle became something I began to look forward to. The project has never become a drag, a drudge, something I must finish.         

.... and so I began, cutting back to good metal and always in a shape that eased fabrication; straight lines, easy folds and with an eye to future welding. The outline of each piece of metal removed was transferred to card, joggling over-laps added where needed together with crease lines. The card sections were then 'assembled' with masking tape to form the finished assembly and checked as a unit for fitness. Minor adjustments made, the cards were then unfolded and each individual piece cut out of sheet metal. I used 0.8mm sheet where strength wasn't so much an issue but 1.0mm for sections that would clearly take load. The thicker section was much easier to weld with the distinct downside of being harder to fold. It was a judgement I made as I went along but not a worry in that the original steel was invariably 0.8mm or less. 

I used a jigsaw to cut the sections and after bending, joddling and edge cleaning, I assembled them using drilled holes and Skin Pins. These are common in aircraft assembly and were given to me as an 'aid' by a kindly neighbour who happened to work on RAF Jaguars. They were invaluable and you'll see them used extensively throughout the project.  

The above photos show the assembled sections secured in place for welding. 

The assembly was then tack-welded at various points to secure it for stitch welding. I probably used too many tacks in the early days but it was important to keep the butt edges true and distortion to a minimum. I ran my stitches no more than 3 cm, moved from area to area to allow intermittent cooling, used a damp cloth abutting the weld on occasion, took my time and had very few issues with distortion.  

All seams were fully welded (throughout the project) and once completed, I applied a thin skim of filler to remove any imperfections and applied a coat of Brown Hammerite.