Roverjoe Posted May 17, 2023 Author Share Posted May 17, 2023 Did some more welding yesterday pretty chuffed with how far ive came to say ive only had two lessons on MIG. Ive done a Fillet weld on 2mm steel and 1.5mm steel (which is around the same thickness as the inner sill of the civic) the welds aint perfect however im pretty chuffed with them to say the least. Most of the sill will be Plug welded and Stitch welded which i also had a go at on some scrap metal and it seemed to be successful! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roverjoe Posted May 19, 2023 Author Share Posted May 19, 2023 Today i went to get some Sheet metal to start fabricating the inner/lower sill sections Hoping to borrow a metal bender on tuesday so i can get the Shape right, for those all wondering i got 1.5mm steel which is around the same thickness that Honda used for the inner/lower section of the sill it seems to be an easy shape to make thankfully i had a small piece of Sill from a donor car which helped me with the measurements. for those who are wondering the Sill comes in 3 segments, for the time being im making the middle section which is shown on the diagram the dimensions of the middle sill i have done them at: L: 1200mm W: 240mm Thickness 1.5mm Then there is the Front section which houses the outrigger and jacking point, this bit is way more complex as the pressing contains sections of the chassis rail and inner wheel arch this bit is usually where the rot starts at the seam where the front floor meets and is sandwiched together with three layers of metal. For this bit i will tackle it by just fabricating a piece which fits just the area i need as the rest of the outrigger seems to be perfectly fine thankfully. And Finally there is the Rear section which is the extension piece which houses the rear jacking point, and Trailing arm Mounting point. There was in fact a NOS Rover 45 panel for this online however sadly i was unable to grab it in time, that or it was an old photo that i found of an old ebay advert. But still allows me to get some sort of knowledge on how it is shaped and what panels are missing on my civic due to them rotting away. Thankfully on my Civic the backside of the Sill isnt rotten at all, just a few surface blemishes, so really i just need to cut out the bottom section of the sill and weld new in there alongside a new reinforcement piece which helps with the weight of the jack. This panel is fairly complex as it interlocks with the middle section of the sill and is then spot welded together but thankfully i wont have to mess around with that bit as the rot doesn't spread that far up the sill. Im looking forward to getting these panels made up as once that is done then i should fingers crossed have all the panels i need for welding, (thats until i probably find more rust) Needless to say its a huge project however it will be very worth while when its done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_broon Posted May 21, 2023 Share Posted May 21, 2023 Love the detail of what you're doing - planning a proper job. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roverjoe Posted May 22, 2023 Author Share Posted May 22, 2023 You know what they say, do it properly and it wont have to be done twice, i honestly cannot wait to get cracking on with it. Lots of updates coming so it will be a nice little thread of the project from start to finish 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_broon Posted May 23, 2023 Share Posted May 23, 2023 Good stuff 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roverjoe Posted May 25, 2023 Author Share Posted May 25, 2023 So an Update on the Lower Sills I Managed to cut them out the other day, i got all the pieces i needed to create the sections that are required. As shown i used the existing cutout to get the shape of the sill, for the Rear Extension piece and also the mid section The welding course that i was doing said that we are able to do a project in the last lesson, so i used this time to start bending the metal to the profile that i need for the lower sill. This saved me buying a Metal bender that fit the requirements for the job as i needed one that was capable of bending 1.5mm steel and the length had to be 1200mm or more for the mid section if i was to buy one like that youre looking at £1000+ for a decent one that will last you. So here are some images to show the final product really chuffed with how they have turned out, they do require an ever so slight bit of fettling to get right as the profile of the back part actually isn't straight however it comes in at an angle then straightens out when it gets to the wheel arch There are a few other little panels that i still need to fabricate such as the panel that joins the wheel arch to the sill and also the jacking point reinforcer that sits inside the sill. These will all be made in due time. I then offered it up to an existing panel to see how well it fits into place, and to be honest i was surprised how well it did! After all the Testing of fitments and other things i thought nows the time to get them protected so they dont rust. I keyed the surface and made sure that the panels were clean from dirt, rust and residues and then used some Bilt Hamber Electrox Zinc primer. Coated them twice to make sure there is a good layer of protection. Overall im chuffed with the outcome, who knows i may end up getting a Metal bending machine and start making repair panels for these cars lmao certainly ideal as a lot of the panels that are out there for these cars aren't the best. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted June 4, 2023 Share Posted June 4, 2023 Amazing work on making the new panels mate! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roverjoe Posted June 18, 2023 Author Share Posted June 18, 2023 Thank you! Sorry for the late reply, just got back from holiday today. Hoping to do some more fabrication work tomorrow! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roverjoe Posted September 3, 2023 Author Share Posted September 3, 2023 It has been a while since the last update, however we do have some good news, the welder is finally here all set up and ready to go and the welding commences tomorrow. I have removed the fuel tank out today which proved itself to be a nightmare due to all the rust but after 6 hours of rusty bolts and seized hose clamps it came out! I do have a series of videos starting on youtube, heres me comically struggling to remove the tank. should get a few laughs of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roverjoe Posted September 9, 2023 Author Share Posted September 9, 2023 Good News, The Boot Floor is now Welded in! This is my first ever proper welding experience on a vehicle so it wont be the best job in the world but theres room for improvement as i go along. The Panel was from a cutout of a Scrap Rover 200 and i managed to get that sand blasted and painted ready for this job. As you can see from the photos the boot floor is pretty rusty all over, and underneath was worse. i cut out the worst effected area and went back to bare metal in the lesser effected areas. I trimmed the repair panel to size to fit the hole that i made, this took some time as i wanted to butt the panel in so there was no lapping. i made a 1mm gap and got away with welding the panel in. Once that was in i grinded the welds down, used Hydrate 80 to treat the metal that originally had rust on it, then used electrox zinc primer to protect it. Once that was done, i then used tiger seal to seam seal the weld that i did, then once that was set i then overpainted it with grey primer to prepare it for the base coat when i get round to doing that at a later date. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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