The Fake Jaguar Thread

[Ulu]

This week was kind of a bust. We had a storm that messed up the boatyard. I spent some time cleaning up, then I caught some stomach bug that spoiled my week.

I did make an extension for my brake pushrod. I also made a floor for the battery tray, some small frame reinforcements, and a pedal stop, but none of that is welded yet.

I got some better brake lines flared up. I still have to bend and install them. This old one was too short.

But there is where the little brackets go.

I won’t install the brake lines yet. I want to install the front axle at the same time, but there is bottom welding yet to do on the frame. I should paint the bottom first too.

I took off the forward pivot clamp business for access to the brake lines, but it will be reinstalled soon.

 

[Ulu]

I decided to finish the car just enough to get it back in the garage. It will start raining soon here, and I hate rust.

I’m making heavier floor panels.

I reimagined the whole front floor as a structural diaphragm and was then able to reduce gusseting requirements.

This is the new battery floor. I put a lip on the flange with this little slotted rod.

(All the heavy junk is just to hold it on the bench.)

This next panel goes in the rear bay.

I’m forming lips and flanges by hand.

Making the notches and bends.

Now I just need to dress the corners and fit it in.

Then I can remove the unwanted paint and weld these in.

 

[Ulu]

I had a bad reaction when I tested that existing paint. I sprayed some rust-converting black primer on it and the edges curled instantly.

I spent half a day removing every molecule of paint on these panels.

Sandpaper and wire brushes finally made it all ready to weld.

 

[Ulu]

I thought I was going to get to weld, clean and paint a little bit today; but instead I ended up working on my garage door, again.

For some reason it just would not close and yet when I disconnected it from the closer required almost no force at all to close the door.

I had several problems with the travel limit adjustments, which are all made out of plastic gears, and 40+ years old now.

Part of the solution there was an easy one. I just set the door so it didn’t open as far, and it didn’t close under force.

But after variable results, I finally determined that the closing force adjustment potentiometer (which was turned all the way up) wasn’t actually working at all.

I bridged across it with solder and a tiny piece of wire. This is essentially the same as turning the “force” knob all the way up, forever.

It’s not as safe now but at least it still has the electric eye, to prevent it from crushing small animals and children.

 

[Da Gas Man]

 

[Ulu]

No animals were children were harmed in the production of this vehicle. So far. So far as we know….

Today I managed to get the floor panels tacked in. The truth is that each one got about 50 small TIG weld‘s.

Now I need to flip it over and weld them on the other side.

I also welded in the pedal stop which I didn’t photograph, & I fixed the brake cylinder pushrod.

This is a stock pushrod that I extended by cutting it and welding it into a long 3/8”chrome vanadium socket from SK Wayne.

This Just Happened to be exactly the size I needed, and some contractor had left it laying in my yard, so it didn’t match any of my tools.

I also welded in these little corner brackets which help tie together the rear of the frame.

The pink arrow is just pointing to a weld, that welds to another weld, that is on top of yet another weld. It’s complicated.

Anyhow it turns out I made 136 welds today, but over half of my time was actually spent cleaning the things that I needed to weld.

 

[Ulu]

I got the boatyard 99% dried up. It was over 65°F.

I did Not do any welding, but I did start to cut and fit the new seat frame supports.

 

[Ulu]

I believe it was Lord Admiral Nelson, who said to forget about tactics and just go straight at the enemy with everything you can muster.

In direct opposition to this theory I am always trying to think outside the box. But sometimes I should just go directly at a problem and solve in the most obvious way. (Saw & hammer FTW!)

I wanted to reinforce this chassis a little bit and build some new and improved seat risers at the same time.

When I originally got this car the seats were kind of off location, because somehow the original kit had included four right seat risers and no lefts. They just buggered up the hole locations and made it work (sort of.)

In order to correct the seat locations (in a hurry) I had to “reverse” two of the seat risers. I reversed them with a large hammer, over my homemade anvil.

The first one turned out so ugly that I decided to do the second one by cutting it with a saw and welding it back together the opposite way. I did this with an oxy/ acetylene torch. It looks pretty crude, because it was one of the first things I torch welded in many years. I put those in the photographs for comparison.

Anyhow, here you can see me cut & hammer new seat risers from some nice old 14 gauge steel.

I spent some time making them as accurately as I could, considering that I don’t have a press, and had to use angle irons and a vice, and a bunch of clamps.

Now I can drill them & strip them & I will have two proper pairs.

 

[Ulu]

I clamped those 4 risers up in pairs to match drill them, which I did, but I didn’t get them set up for welding, as I was short 3 bolts.

Thus I didn’t weld them down while the boatyard was 99% dry, and now it’s 107% wet again. Must have blown in from Siberia.

We’ve had 8+ hours of rain, & it stops sometime today. Theoretically. Then Tule Fog on Wednesday. Partly sunny predicted for Thanksgiving.

Then it should dry up again, and get continually warmer until it (supposedly) hits 63°F in 8 days.

I should be able to shoot some paint then, or thereabouts.

Meanwhile, things are mainly on hold.

 

[Da Gas Man]

This is a most ingenious Manual Brake. That is definitely one that I will be using. Thank you.

 

[Ulu]

It’s tedious, but it works.

 

[Oldbiscuit]

Not to hijack your thread, but I just picked up for $5 a 3’ Harbor Freight metal brake that a friend had. His shop caught fire and burned down a couple months back. Paint all burnt off and it’s all surfaced rust now, but it’s not warped and everything still swings and moves. Should still work for light sheet metal I work with. I’m going to take it apart, wire wheel, sand and repaint it. Cheap enough that I figured I’de take a gamble on it.

 

[Ulu]

I have considered buying a new one from HF, but I’m running out of room for more tools.

 

[Ulu]

I got all 4 seat risers burnished down to bare metal & match drilled in pairs. I won’t paint them until after I weld them to the floor.

 

[Ulu]

Today it's the dreaded Tule Fog. Highway visibility is naught. It might be damp all day.
There may be some welding but no sanding or painting. Everything is going to rust fast.

According to the forecast, Thursday should be the day to paint.

I did some more work on the seats and seat rails, getting them set up to weld in the seat bases. There is an issue with fitment, as the floor pan rises at the rear inner corner of the seats. I must modify two of the rails as necessary to fit the floor.

 

[Ulu]

“I must modify two of the rails as necessary to fit the floor.”

That was me trying to think too far out of the box again.

What I needed to do was simply reshape the floor pan a little bit with a ball peen hammer. One side is done and the seat rail now sits down quite nicely.

The original builder just ignored this and mislocated the seats all crooked.

Anyhow you can see where I hammered by the missing paint.

Also you can see one of the seat risers attached through the crossmember with the temporary bolt.

Now I must do the passenger side.

 

[Ulu]

I got the seat risers installed and the seats fitted.

Then the seats came back off during welding & paint.

The back of the seats bolt through the steel crossmember, but the fronts just bolt to the pan. This was flimsy & always needed its own crossmember.

This new crossmember tube is only 16ga so just enough to stiffen the floor.

 

[Ulu]

I got all the rust and dirt out of that tube and coped it a bit more. Then I drilled the holes and the access holes.

It needs a bit more trimming but it is almost ready to weld.

 

[Ulu]

I got the crossmember all bolted tight to the risers and welded down to the pan.

I did not weld it to the frame rails yet because there’s going to be some additional little gussets.

Also I ran out of time to make and weld those gussets, because I got a bad bottle of gas, and had to take it back to the welding shop, after I figured it out by spoiling a couple of welds.

If you wanna give somebody a bad day, put MIG gas on their TIG welder.

What happens is that you think that you’re not getting enough gas. I turned up the gas and it got worse.

Then you think you’re welding over dirty metal, because you see little sparks that shouldn’t be there.

But those are the same little sparks you would see if you were welding along and the wind started to blow away your argon, or you simply ran out of gas.

Anyhow it took a few minutes for me to figure this out, As it has never happened to me that I got the wrong gas, but I have heard of it before.

 

[Ulu]

The seat riser crossmember is welded to the pan.

That really squares up the floppy pan.

Possible fuel tank bracket base.