The Fake Jaguar Thread

[Ulu]

Building up the thin metal .

Welding up the square holes with an aluminum chiller bar below.

The back:

After welding up the back too.

 

[Ulu]

This is the built-up area after I shaved it down. I only welded on the web and I have not touched the craters in the flange. I have shown them in red. They get filled next.

Here’s the back side of that web after scuffing off the blemishes but before I sanded it.

This is after sanding. I will drill out those little rust pits and weld them in. A few pits have popped up as I am TIG welding & my MO is to drill them out with a drill bit instead of a grinder.

I’m going to wind up welding all the square holes and most of the round ones. There’s a couple dozen on each rail.

All of this welding is going to be hidden by the fenders when the car is assembled, so I’m not going to stress about sanding every weld down 100% flush. It’s not a tight fitment to the body.

 

[Ulu]

This rail has a few big holes.

I need to cut off this white area flush with the rest of the rail and fill that big oval. I might actually just cut the whole corner off and weld in a new corner.

 

[Ulu]

It was too windy to weld today, but I was able to get this second frame rail mostly cleaned up.

Here I am grinding out the crack with my crappy old Dremel.

Now I have to finish cleaning up the other side of this rail and then I can start welding on it.

 

[Kevin B]

All of this welding is going to be hidden by the fenders when the car is assembled, so I’m not going to stress about sanding every weld down 100% flush. It’s not a tight fitment to the body.

That is a lot of work for something only you will see. Still, I can understand the peace of mind and satisfaction in craftsmanship.

 

[Ulu]

That is a lot of work for something only you will see. Still, I can understand the peace of mind and satisfaction in craftsmanship.

It’s a lot of work for a car that probably wasn’t worth it, but in the long run it may be.

The purchase price for this car was $9000 and it was a running drivable car, but NOT Very safe you understand. In my imagination, I just barely made it home alive!

I saw one of these advertised in the Netherlands for €54,000. It was pretty nice looking in photos, but it wasn’t as custom. For that price I would not expect the chassis to be all rusty, but there were no photos of that. Being in the Netherlands I think it could go either way regarding rust.

Speaking of which, while I’m doing all of this sanding and welding, I am not yet decided what to do about this mess.

All the tedious labor gives me time to decide.

 

[Ulu]

I spent a lot of time irrigating and messing with my aquarium pumps today So I did not get around to working on the car until very late.

I welded up the crack in the other rail,

And filled in 35 holes before I got tired.

Except for the one by the crack, I still have to weld these up from the other side as well. I’m planning to run out of Argon tomorrow around lunchtime. That way I can take a break get cleaned up and go to the welding store.

 

[Ulu]

I welded the back of all 34 welds, and skipped to the other rail so the first one could cool. You can see that I zapped my welding clamp a couple of times.

I made 11 more welds over the aluminum backer, before noticing my argon was gone.

I packed it all in and went for more argon. The welding shop is next to the bait shop, so I got 126 cu ft of gas, and Felix the Oscar got 4 tubs of fresh worms.

He has a big pimple on his chin from digging through the gravel eating baby snails.

 

[Ulu]

All the small holes in the webs are fully welded. Now I’m working on the flanges.

4 of (just) 84 welds remaining.

Edit….
After dinner I got my second wind; and I went out and welded for another hour, completing 13 more welds. 71 to go on the flange holes.

 

[Ulu]

I am not quite done welding yet and you can see there is a bit of warpage that will have to be straightened.

 

[Ulu]

I only managed to work on those rails for a few hours today. It got to 100° F outside and I was too tired to wear welding equipment in that heat. If you tig weld in flip-flops and shorts and a T-shirt you’ll get lots of sunburn.

With other forms of electric welding you will get burned by the splatter if you don’t wear sleeves and pants and shoes, but tig welding doesn’t make flying sparks.

I enjoy living in the desert, but I was an office worker. I would feel different if I was a welder in the desert.

Anyhow I have made about 194 individual welds and I still have about 30 left. Plus patching the large holes.

 

[Ulu]

The weather has gone to full on growth season here and everything is just beautiful.

These are mainly the efforts of my lovely wife. Except for trimming trees and mowing the lawn, which things are hired out.

The Ornamental Eucalyptus tree will definitely need pruning this year and I’m not climbing it myself.

Here you can see from the side of my house all the way out to the pet cemetery in the corner.

 

[Ulu]

Last night I got a boost of energy and went back out after dark to weld until almost 10 o’clock. I got all the small holes welded up from both sides now. I also built up the thin spots in the one that had a rusty flange.

I need to do some shopping today, but hopefully I will get all of the large holes welded up tonight.

 

[Ulu]

Well that didn’t happen, but I did get the patches roughed out.

I got 5 fitted in place (no pix), but not welded yet.

 

[Jude Ephesus]

The weather has gone to full on growth season here and everything is just beautiful.
View attachment 235392
These are mainly the efforts of my lovely wife. Except for trimming trees and mowing the lawn, which things are hired out.
View attachment 235395

The Ornamental Eucalyptus tree will definitely need pruning this year and I’m not climbing it myself.
View attachment 235396
Here you can see from the side of my house all the way out to the pet cemetery in the corner.
View attachment 235397

Spectacular!!!!! Every thing looks amazing!!!!

 

[Ulu]

Spectacular!!!!! Every thing looks amazing!!!!

Thank you Jude, but my wife is the amazing gardener.

 

[Ulu]

I have all those 9 parts ground down and tacked down and welded from both sides.

I would say that the welding on these is done, except that there are a few boo-boos where I will have to drill out pits and re-weld.

I am going to clean this up with a grinder, but I don’t have to shave all the stuff down flush. There is a clearance on both sides of the frame rail.

These are some of the nicer looking patches.

This was the largest one and also had the most clearance. I laid in quite a bit of 1/8” wire.

I might have to really shave down a localized spot here or there if it interferes with my crossmembers, and there will be a continuous bottom tube welded to each rail.

 

[Ulu]

These old floorboards will be used to box & brace the rails. They both need holes filled. (7 each)

One of them needs a patch, which will come from a corner of the old shifter quadrant.

I also have some other minor divots in these, and in the frame rails. They will get patches from the same quadrant.

 

[Ulu]

There’s my patch. I blew it a couple times here. This will need some touchup.

 

[Kevin B]

That came out good!