The Fake Jaguar Thread

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I couldn’t take the faded pinkish powder paint, so it all had to come off.
12797B73-B11C-4E78-AA79-EB0A9FAD88BE.jpeg

Then I had to Vacuum up all that pink stuff from the bench, floor, my tools, etc.
 
When you think you are done cleaning, you need to look again. I wasn’t yet finished with the paint.

I also had to make a sleeve and some shims.
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These tubes have to be spliced, & I clamped them with some angles for alignment.
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I put a sleeve inside for backup. I drilled thru the sleeve & used a little wire clip to keep it centered until welding.
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There wasn’t enough clearance to install the crossmember, so I also had to modify my jig a little.
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I spent some time preparing for impending rain, so no actual welding was accomplished.
 
I will put a couple little plug welds there just because I already drilled one of the holes.

These get welded to a flat plate, that will basically make up the real splice.

But I wanted to have a back-up when I tig weld that butt joint, so I get a good full penetration weld.

Today is pouring rain here, so we are going to get no new welds at all.
 
Still raining here. A lot. No welding or much else outdoors for me.

They say Socal got 11” of rain so far. Maybe we had 3” in the same period.

Ag water was almost unavailable 3 years ago. I think crops will be stunning this year.

So while my trees are loving this, things are rusting in the boatyard.
 
I got argon, filler rods, and some new gloves today. This 300 amp bronze clamp and heavy 25’ cable replaces my crappy stamped clamp and short, thin ground cable. A good ground makes s big difference.

8E5B1B28-6F3F-461E-A666-B953890530C1.jpeg
Also, I got the rest of the crossmember welded up.
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I had a couple issues with the electro-seam-welded tubing. The seam weld was not solid, and defects started appearing. This seam was the most obvious defect.
A9472C47-60EC-42EC-8C55-61C5AC1F8B95.jpeg

I ended up re-welding most of the seams on the 1” square tubing. The first trial:
68CDCCC3-F276-4FA1-B80E-93EDD2BA72F7.jpeg


First fit-up to the tunnel. It’s not welded on yet. Just hanging on with vicegrips.
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Ulu said:
I got argon, filler rods, and some new gloves today. This 300 amp bronze clamp and heavy 25’ cable replaces my crappy stamped clamp and short, thin ground cable. A good ground makes s big difference.

View attachment 258612Also, I got the rest of the crossmember welded up.
View attachment 258610

I had a couple issues with the electro-seam-welded tubing. The seam weld was not solid, and defects started appearing. This seam was the most obvious defect.
View attachment 258613
I ended up re-welding most of the seams on the 1” square tubing. The first trial:
View attachment 258614

First fit-up to the tunnel. It’s not welded on yet. Just hanging on with vicegrips.
View attachment 258611
Click to expand...
It is hard for me to envision how parts are going to fit. I didn't realize this part went at a 90 to the floor. That really is looking good.
 
Thank you Kevin. This has job been about 60 days delayed, from the holidays, and the monsoon-like rains. It is so nice seeing this evolve from a pile of scrap parts.

Too bad the tubing isn’t better quality, but the steel is fine and welds like butter.

I am getting better with the welder, and I am glad the tubing defects appeared before it was welded on the chassis.

I need to finish re-welding all the tubing seams while I can still lay this weldment down flat.

Then the grinding and fitting to the tunnel starts. Once it is tacked in place I can start fitting the rails.
 
Things have been hopping here, but not on my car. We had family issues to deal with & then we had another random rain.

In between, I did get out to ride the bike, but there was no hope of welding yesterday and today.

These are the days where I sit around dreaming about really strange stuff to build.
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OK I had to take advantage of sunshine and finish my crossmember up. I finished re-welding all the tube seams, and the last ones looked great.

There were a couple ugly ones that needed dressing down.
129A384F-2259-4FC9-977D-79D35B7AD644.jpeg

Here I have finished welding and just started burnishing all the welds. I ended up burnishing every bit reachable, and it is almost ready to etch and paint.

As usual, it gets phosphoric acid and detergents, then a self etching black paint. I don’t want thick primers on any of this. I want it easy to patch.

I won’t paint this completely until it is welded on the chassis, and it is going to rain again, so it went indoors for now.
 
Paint will soon make some of the sloppy welds less evident. I am not entirely happy about my work. Some had to be hit twice.

I was losing the seam easily, where it had not already split. Then I had to go back and widen the weld. I was not adding filler unless needed, but some more places needed filling after that.

The helmet glass needs to be set much darker when welding at 150 amps than the 60 amps I was using for most of this.

I am trying to do everything on 9, where maybe 7 or 8 would often be more appropriate.
 
These two lumps exist because the tubes were short 1/8”. This is where the shims were placed. It won’t be a problem.
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I made the shims a bit large to get some extra weld on the joint.
 
I needed to straighten out the floor pan before I welded to the crossmember and it was rather curled up from all the mishandling.

In order to straighten it out I made this set of fluting pliers, from some harbor freight welding clamp and random pieces of old steel.
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I did a lot of grinding, filing, and sanding to get this profile smooth.
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It raises the panel a bit more than stock, if you clamp it all the way. If you crank the knob in until the clamp won’t latch, the process is totally controllable.
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They straightened up the pan edge a lot. I’ll do the fine touches as I tack it to the frame.
 
Ulu I admire your attention to detail on this restoration !! My only question of you is, are you going to get this finished and driveable before you get to old and senile to drive ?? Just kidding, great work !!
 
The truth is that many personal/family things have kept me from this hobby, plus I have have been loafing thru the wet weather.

Today I got the last bits of squaring up done. I clamped a pipe to the head to do so. It all seems impossibly level and square. I will blow that once the actual welding starts.

I also started cutting the new frame rails. I need to make 4 bends that come out the same. I don’t have any spare rail material if I screw up.
 
Ulu said:
The truth is that many personal/family things have kept me from this hobby, plus I have have been loafing thru the wet weather.

Today I got the last bits of squaring up done. I clamped a pipe to the head to do so. It all seems impossibly level and square. I will blow that once the actual welding starts.

I also started cutting the new frame rails. I need to make 4 bends that come out the same. I don’t have any spare rail material if I screw up.
Click to expand...
🤞You'll pull it off. Good luck. 🙂
 

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