This week saw the repair section on Dorothy’s radiator panel finally finished off.
It’s not been without its woes though.
Busted angle grinder…
‘Wrong’ thickness plate…
Busted welder.
It was another of those ‘fighting you at every turn’ jobs.
But we got there in the end.
And while the end result may look messy to you, it looks perfect to me.
I’m not a fan of pristine, concourse looking, motors. There’s nothing wrong with them but they’re not my cup of rosy.
If I’m out at a car meet and there’s a line of shiny looking Series Land Rovers there, and a scrappy little Series, with dull & battered paintwork, on the end then I know which one I’m already making a beeline for.
Dorothy’s a 50 year old motor and she’s had a life and a half in those 50 years.
I think it’s only fair we celebrate those 50 years and get her wearing her life on her sleeve, so to speak.
Why hide the shit she’s been through?
I say put it on display for all to see.
Still got some finishing off to do on the panel…
Need to tidy the plate, and drill the bottom mounting holes.
Plus, need to start stripping off the nasty navy blue – that someone hand painted on at some point – revealing her garish Regatta blue underneath (even if it’s not my first choice of paint, we’re celebrating her history – and it turns out this Regatta blue is something a little special from the factory. More on that another time).
Lessons learnt from this
Two main lessons learnt from this repair job:
1. Small, frequent, spot welds
I wasn’t happy with this.
After fixing the original welder, and using it again, I was blowing holes in the steel (the welds without the holes, above, are from the backup welder I was using).
Turns out, a little fine fettling of the settings on the welder and a different approach mostly sorted it…
…rather than spot welding it in one hit, I started taking about 3 smaller stabs with the welder, to create one weld.
I’m guessing this has the effect of not heating the metal too much, thus not blowing holes in it.
In the end it got f’n messy but 5 minutes with the angle grinder sorted that out:
2. I’d use only one panel next time
After trying to fabricate a single panel, in the previous attempt, this time around I thought it’d be easier to do it in two stages (see above).
Turns out it got unnecessarily messy.
Because the panel was so small, and because I was being impatient with the welder, the panel heated up and buckled.
At the end of the day, because of the finish I’m after for Dorothy, it didn’t really matter too much.
But, if I had to do it again, I’d probably make a single panel up or…
…if I really wanted to do it in two pieces (like I’ve done this time), I’d weld the two sections together before welding it into the panel being repaired.
I’m presuming it’d probably turn out a little neater than it did.
Regardless. These are only small things. I’m not after concourse and, as Dorothy’s my motor, it doesn’t matter if the process is not typical 😂.
Quick shout out to Dick…
He’s been cracking on with Uriah’s engine now the weather’s a little more appropriate.
But has ended up having to strip out the steering lock.
Still, he made good progress on Uriah’s V8 beating heart so, while not running and on the road again, it’s a damn sight closer 👏