The First Floor

I’ve been a slacker with regards updating the diary over the last few weeks.   Just after the last post I had a few good evenings work and the new floor was cut to size and all the panels were clamped or clipped together with Cleco clips and clamps.  It felt like progress just in time for my holiday so off I went for a week.

Upon return from holiday I had a day to myself so was able to get into the garage and fully prepare the panels for welding. It is amazing how much time the fine fitting takes and after 5 hours I fired up the MIG and started welding some panels into place.  The inner and outer sills were welded together off the car and then added as an assembled unit.  One thing I did discover is that the 5mm holes created by the punching tool really are too small for MIG welding, especially on the vertical surfaces. As a result a lot of the joins will also be seam welded as well now to ensure it all holds together.

Part way through the welding I replaced the regulator and welding clamp on my Clarke 135TE welder. This made a huge difference to the consistency and quality of the welds and I wish I’d done that earlier.

Here’s the latest photo – there is still a lot of welding to do including seam welding the floor panel along the transmission tunnel.  For the time being attention has turned to the side panel and A post.

dsc00745

Dude – where’s my floor?

Over the last few days I’ve attacked the floor with the cutting disc and grinder. The cutting disc came out to and a few cuts later had most of the floor out and the sill dropped off with one good cut. The door is now wedged shut and is all that is holding the drivers side together.

dsc00730

A couple of hours this morning had the remains of the floor removed. I was hoping to create a flange in the foot well along the transmission tunnel but the steel was too thin to be used so I had to grind all the spot welds holding the floor pan to the chassis rails.  It was well worth doing and I’ll have a very solid chassis afterwards and lots of nice clean edges to weld to.

dsc00732