[project] The Ultimate Track 205

[Cameron 16]

So, what an awesome day today has been! Despite waking up with a pretty bad hangover after only a few drinks last night (must be getting old), the sun was out so I downed some breakfast and coffee and made a day of it.

 

First on the agenda was finishing the workbench, namely cutting another sheet of wood then fitting the steel top. Took me a fair bit longer than I'd planned to do this, 3mm steel is a bit of a bitch to cut through and I had a lot of cutting to do! Got there in the end though, and I'm really pleased with how it's come out!

 

 

So in the afternoon I turned my attention to the car..

 

 

Too late for a concourse project?

 

 

It's surprisingly heavy actually! Tomorrow I'll clean up all the leftover underseal, then it'll be ready to start welding in the box section reinforcements.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

 

 

 

 

Is that you? I always find it really wierd finally putting faces to names.

[swordfish210 20]

More to the point, is that a moustache on you lip or just a shadow

[feb 47]

You are very handy with cutting and welding, good skills to have!

Keep up the good work!

[Cameron 16]

Is that you? I always find it really wierd finally putting faces to names.

 

Yeah that's me!

 

More to the point, is that a moustache on you lip or just a shadow

 

Hahaha no it isn't I promise! It's just where I've managed to smear filth across my face.

[Lan 24 1 Cars]

you look like your doing some sort of strange 205 meditation in that picture

 

nice job on the work bench, just needs a vice now and maybe a bench grinder too

Edited February 25, 2012 by Lan

[Cameron 16]

I've got a vice for it, Record no. 25 and it's fookin huge!

 

Will get it in place during the week I think, need some longer bolts first.

[p1234 22 2 Cars]

Savage work so far,

 

 

A little off topic but roughly what size is your garage, going to be building one soon and dont want anything too big or small, yours looks about the right size.

[stu8v 68 1 Cars]

Savage work so far,

 

 

A little off topic but roughly what size is your garage, going to be building one soon and dont want anything too big or small, yours looks about the right size.

 

You cant have a too big garage????

 

Mines 15ft x 20ft and its still not big enough by some margin....

[shalmaneser 26]

 

That is a top brew! Tescos special?

[Liquid_106 97 1 Cars]

Read brew, assumed Tea

 

I see you have your favouirite tool close to hand

[Cameron 16]

The angle grinder, or the beer?

 

Not sure what the measurements are but it's just a single garage, seems bigger than previous singles I've had but it's still.. compact.

I've put a lot of effort into the layout of it though, so everything I need is in there but nothing is in the way, seems to work pretty well.

[p1234 22 2 Cars]

The bigger it is the more crap you gather up, If I had a warehouse id manage to fill it.

 

Something dedicated to working on the car and nothing else is needed.

[Cameron 16]

Yeah if I had a double garage it'd be full of all sorts of crap!

 

More work today, though not quite as visible as yesterday's as I spent most of the morning removing all the seam sealer from under the sills so I could get to the spot welds and drill them out. I just chopped the floor out yesterday so the edges were still attached to the sills, but it's a lot easier to drill the spot welds without the floor in the way!

 

The undersides of the sills are absolutely plastered in sealant, I am getting pretty efficient at removing it now though!

 

 

Then a bit of cleaning and drilling later.. much better.

 

 

Cut a bit more of the floor out so I could get better access to the rear sections of the sill, not much left now!

 

 

 

Then offered up the box section beam and started to trim the rear sill section to fit, these taper towards the centre of the car so need to be cut away. I'm not sure whether I'll be reconnecting them to the sill beams later or not so didn't want to get carried away and remove them completely.

 

 

While I was chiselling out all the seam gunk I noticed the sills weren't quite the same side-to-side, so had a little investigate into why.. this is a bit of an insight into mass production body tolerances, which can be a little.. loose. Especially on old French cars.

 

So I stuck a level across the sills just to check they were still good, and also checked the floor..

 

 

Then measured from a point near the middle of the sills down to the floor on one side then the other..

 

 

 

You can hopefully see there's a bit of a difference there!

 

The outer sill panel is some 6mm lower on one side than the other, while the upper surfaces (i.e. the door shuts) are pretty much spot on. If you look closely you can see the bottom of the inner sill panels are at pretty much the same height. Anyway.. it's not an issue, I'll just trim them a little to match - this will be the lowest point of the car btw.

[guffe 2]

Those rear box sections are just in way too good condition, I had to basicly make mine from scratch as they were so corroded. And this was on the "rust free" body

[Cameron 16]

The whole shell is in unbelievably good condition throughout, was an absolute bargain!

[Cameron 16]

Been doing a little nibbling this week, cutting and profiling the first sill box section to fit. These box rails will serve to stiffen up the sills, give me a nice flat surface to attach the floor and running boards to, and a good surface to weld seat rails and seatbelt anchors to.

 

I'll exclude the details, but a fair bit of trimming and profiling needed to be done as the sills are anything but square. I took the time to remove the standard seatbelt anchor point, this won't be used so is nothing but excess weight and therefore has to go! I chopped it out, then welded in a plate to fill the hole and smoothed it over.

 

 

Once that bit was gone I could tack the box rail in position:

 

 

Was a bit of a PITA to be honest as I only have one pair of hands but need about six! In the end I cut some spare RHS to the right length and balanced it on top, checking it was level in all planes before welding it in. Feels pretty good to have the first piece of custom metalwork in!

[Cameron 16]

I ran in to a problem at the weekend when cutting the rail for the other side, in that it warped into a banana when I cut one of the sides off! Must be some stresses left in the material from when it was formed.. I had a close look at the side I already had on and noticed it was slightly warped too, running out by about 5mm along the length. So I'm having to abandon that idea and get some rails folded up from sheet instead - not exactly cheap seeing as they're 1.7m long, my first quote has come in at £60 each!!

 

Not much I can do without these in either, as I can't cut any more floor out until I have the lateral rails in to hold the bottom together.

[Matt180 31]

Looking good!!.

 

Why dont you straighten the box with a bit of heat?. Thin wall like that will go with ease. I work with 15mm-25mm thick stuff, thats a little harder to budge

[Rippthrough 98]

Hmm, don't think my folder is quite long enough, will check it later.

[Batfink 201]

You are having it three sided or its warping when you cut the ends off?

[Cameron 16]

Three sided, the sills have a taper so I needed to trim part of one side off to get it to fit. The problem is it's warped in such a way that it'd be really difficult to straighten, I'd be better off just scrapping the bits and getting stuff folded up.

[dave richards 26 1 Cars]

you got any pics of the bent item Cameron?

[Leet205 48]

you got any pics of the bent item Cameron?

 

[Cameron 16]

I'll have you know my "item" is straight as an arrow!

 

Will get a pic of the beam later.