March 2005

 

This month I will try and finish off all the body work to the stage where I can weld in some bracing so I can lift the body up to seal and paint the underside. I only have a month or two before it gets too cold to paint, so it's all stop out.

 

On the opening page I tell that this is a warts and all attempt to show how I went during each phase. Well here is a huge wart. This here is the start of a semi catastrophe. The plan was simple. Weld  the piece back in that was cut out of the bonnet where the blower poked through. I bought a pack of magnets that they use on cupboard doors to hold the piece in place. The first obstacle was the trimming that occurred after the original piece was cut out. I cut out some same gauge sheet to fill in the gaps. I then tacked all in place. So far, so good.
All went well until we started welding. I got my mate to do the welding while I had the hammer and dolly job. It wasn't until we got to this stage that we saw some warping occurring. We both agreed it was to late to do anything about it and will beat it back into shape when we were finished. Well, it was so badly warped, that even with a lump hammer it wouldn't move. 

The second pic is after we tried numerous attempts to get it straight. We gave up after a couple of hours. It now sits in my yard and shows the scars of the autopsy that I performed to find out where we went wrong. From my observations, it is both stretched and shrunk, making it near impossible to get it right. 

So how did it go pear shaped ( well actually banana shaped ). Firstly, I still had it mounted and latched in place so the gas struts were working some weird stress points along the length. Secondly, the oxy is a bit too hot, even when I was hammering  1/2" welds continually. Thirdly, if I was going to do this again, I would have the bonnet off the car and laying flat on the ground or raised on stands. Lastly, I would use the mig and hold a brass block under each weld. That proved quite successful when I welded in the cowl vent. No warping at all. Why didn't I do the same this time? Well I was trying to reduce the amount of grinding I would have to do with the mig. Also I wanted to try hammer welding for the first time. I guess that is an expensive lesson. I am on the trail of a new bonnet.
Putting the bonnet to one side and out of sight so I don't get to depressed, I thought I'd finish off a few smaller jobs. This is the radiator top supports. The lower brackets are quite substantial and all I need on top is something to hold the radiator forward. I didn't want it to be ridged and work against the slight flexing of the chassis. That might cause stress on the cores. So this is what I came up with. Its just a simple  bracket that clips behind the core straps. I will use a small strip of rubber between the bracket and that should allow slight movements. I still have to cut the bolts down, but at least it will be affective and easy to remove.
I finally got hold some seam sealer and sealed all the potential rust spots. The guards have a wire insert to stiffen them up. It is affective, but is a source for trapping mud and water. I used an eye dropper to squirt some rust converter in all the seams. Once it was cured, I seal everything. I will primer that next.

The next pic is the grill under primer. I had to weld in about half the mounting nuts as they were missing. I also welded one stainless slat back into place. Apart from that, it's in good shape.
New stainless bolts add a bit of class.

The next pic is back to the bonnet latch. I welded on some tabs and  modified the levers to accept a normal bonnet release cable
I found a convenient place for the lever under the dash. It is close to the accelerator but I will  bend that over a bit. The cable will clip to the kick panel so there should be plenty of room.

The second pic is the route the cable takes. It is not in the way and not to noticeable. I had to cut it down and solder the lug back on. It works great...pity I haven't got a bonnet to give it a real try;-(. I have also dreamt up a secondary bonnet release that is different and possibly quite simple to make. More on that later.
It was time to get the convertible top back out and see what needs to be done. I cut off the heavy thick vinyl that was made for it way back and fitted the iron work back on. I must admit that the roadster mechanisms are rather simple and not the same as the cabriolets, which are better IMHO. The roof line on the roadsters look horrible, so I will need to think about what I need to do to get it looking better.
Since I chopped the windscreen some time back, I needed to modify the hood irons to suit. The first action was to lower the roof. Since the iron work is only attached at 2 points, it seemed easier just to turn the mounting bracket upside down. That got it close to level, but I will look at possibly cutting the upright as well. I need to consider how it all folds together before I commit to any game plan.
I had an old sheet that I used to cover the iron work so I can gain some sort of image of how it will look. I will have to extend the front bars so the rear hood bows can come up to their required height. That was due to the windscreen being chopped. As it looks now, it's not a pretty sight and I don't think the rear bows will help anyway. Possibly make it worse. One thing I will do is have the sides made in the roadster style , and not like the cabriolets. This should make the rear passengers feel less claustrophobic.
The rear doesn't seem to bad from this angle, but I won't know until all the iron work is in its right place.

Next pic is the 2 1/2"extension I made to the side hood frame so the top fits better. At this stage it looks OK. Nice and level. The proportions look good as well.
The drivers side gets  the same treatment. 

Next pic shows the hood irons folded back. If I pushed it back further, it would over lap the boot. This may, or may not be a problem. As it looks, it seems to be in a normal position and similar to what I've seen on cabriolets, but this is not a cabriolet so I can't be sure. I will try and gets some insight to this before I go changing anything. I will need to replace the wood sections of the bow as they are to far gone. I know there are places that copy fancy ornate wood pieces for heritage homes, so I may see what they can do.
Back to the handbrake. The centre bar on the seat frame is in the way of where I want to mount it, so I cut it out. 

Here is the position I will have it mounted.
Two pieces of scrap tube steel are welded either side and a tab welded on the locate the handbrake. I will weld a flat plate between the two for the rear mount. I will also drill two holes out of the rear of the frame for the cables to route through. This will make a clear line down beside the transmission tunnel. I will weld same plates to the frame where I drilled to give the frame back some strength. I may be able to use these holes as a locator for the cable ferrules and do away with the brackets that came with the handbrake. That will mean there is nothing bolted to the floor at all.
Well that's it for March. An interesting month to say the least. The destruction of a bonnet was the low point. The good news is I think I may have located another one so we might get to see the car with all its panels bolted on soon.

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