Good progress Panky 
"You,re only supposed to blow the bloody SLIDING doors off"
"You,re only supposed to blow the bloody SLIDING doors off"
Back of the garage
- Thread starter Panky
- Start date
The weather has been a bit too changeable to crawl around under Bonnie so turned my attention to something I could do indoors. Every time I move the centre seat section in Harvey's cab, to get to the engine, always left a few pieces of dried out plywood on the floor - so I had the seat to bits
The years of neglect didn't do the ply backing to the seat any good:I
No wonder I kept finding piles of tinder[xx(]
A quick trip to B&Q for some ply and a staple gun and then to work. About 200 staples removed - most of them rusted through, a new piece of ply cut out and stapled in.
New piece for the seat back
And all boxed up:I
Centre seat is nice and firm now.
How refreshing
The years of neglect didn't do the ply backing to the seat any good:I
No wonder I kept finding piles of tinder[xx(]
A quick trip to B&Q for some ply and a staple gun and then to work. About 200 staples removed - most of them rusted through, a new piece of ply cut out and stapled in.
New piece for the seat back
And all boxed up:I
Centre seat is nice and firm now.
How refreshing
You cheapskate, where,s the African mahogany
"You,re only supposed to blow the bloody SLIDING doors off"
"You,re only supposed to blow the bloody SLIDING doors off"
Now where was I?
Oh yes welding up holes in Bonnie
I had fun getting this grotty bit of inner sill out, makes it difficult when you're working from underneath, but by drilling out the spot welds and judicious use of a sharp bolster chisel it came of nice and cleanly. Very pleased that the floor edge and outrigger were in good condition
New section welded in, all one piece and butted up nicely to the outrigger.
The jacking point next, one of Martin's creations[8D]
Martin makes them out of good heavy gauge metal, as thick as original and are easily up to the job, but when I do jacking points I always think a little reinforcement wouldn't go amiss
I went for the corrugated effect this time
A little bit of fettling and it was in position, held in place by self tappers initially to get it nice and tight to the floor.
Then welded in
The section fitted perfectly but as I'd gone about it arse about face as usual I had to do a little fettling to get it into position, but everything tapped back into place one I had it wedged in place[^]
A decent afternoons work
How refreshing
Oh yes welding up holes in Bonnie
I had fun getting this grotty bit of inner sill out, makes it difficult when you're working from underneath, but by drilling out the spot welds and judicious use of a sharp bolster chisel it came of nice and cleanly. Very pleased that the floor edge and outrigger were in good condition
New section welded in, all one piece and butted up nicely to the outrigger.
The jacking point next, one of Martin's creations[8D]
Martin makes them out of good heavy gauge metal, as thick as original and are easily up to the job, but when I do jacking points I always think a little reinforcement wouldn't go amiss
I went for the corrugated effect this time
A little bit of fettling and it was in position, held in place by self tappers initially to get it nice and tight to the floor.
Then welded in
The section fitted perfectly but as I'd gone about it arse about face as usual I had to do a little fettling to get it into position, but everything tapped back into place one I had it wedged in place[^]
A decent afternoons work
How refreshing
Looking good Panky, great idea with the strengthening, they do need it [^]
"You,re only supposed to blow the bloody SLIDING doors off"
"You,re only supposed to blow the bloody SLIDING doors off"
Wow I made it, 165 pages! Congrats on your retirement Panky. Were you an apprentice when you started this thread?
Blimey Paul all 165 pages, you've got far too much time on your hands
Took advantage of the dry(ish) weather and spent a few hours on Bonnie over the weekend[^] The last bit of grotty inner sill by the rear wheel arch was cut out and replaced with a section cut out of one of Martin M's. It was a shame to chop it up but there was no need to go to the trouble of removing the lot as only the bottom inch was shot, I did cut it back considerably more than that though. After a late lunch I carried on making 1" sections to join the bottom of the outer panel, I'd cut off previously, to the length of the inner sill - I said to Barb 'I'm going to finish this side today' half an hour later I ran of of welding wire:I I should have the drivers side finished in the next couple of days then it's time to turn Bonnie around and start again on the other side:I
No pics I'm afraid but I'll remedy that soon[8)]
I WANT CAKE
Took advantage of the dry(ish) weather and spent a few hours on Bonnie over the weekend[^] The last bit of grotty inner sill by the rear wheel arch was cut out and replaced with a section cut out of one of Martin M's. It was a shame to chop it up but there was no need to go to the trouble of removing the lot as only the bottom inch was shot, I did cut it back considerably more than that though. After a late lunch I carried on making 1" sections to join the bottom of the outer panel, I'd cut off previously, to the length of the inner sill - I said to Barb 'I'm going to finish this side today' half an hour later I ran of of welding wire:I I should have the drivers side finished in the next couple of days then it's time to turn Bonnie around and start again on the other side:I
No pics I'm afraid but I'll remedy that soon[8)]
I WANT CAKE
Here it is warts and all, not my best bit of welding but my MIG is being a bit temperamental:I
Grotty bit chopped out
New section 'welded' in
The bottom of the inner and outer sills in the process of being joined together with a strip of metal
That's the welding done on that side, the underneath looks a lot worse than it actually is in the pictures, plenty of scraping and painting ahead. I had a right old job getting the wheel back on, It came off no problem but that was with no edge left on the sill - the trouble was I had to jack Bonnie up even further when putting the wheel back and Bonnie's roof was hitting the drain pipe on the side of the house. What would give first, Bonnie's roof or the drain pipe - luckily the pipe is plastic and it bent enough to give me the clearance I needed - phew.
I bought a fridge for a tenner a while ago - it looked like a tenners worth of fridge:I So I spent a little bit of time stripping, cleaning and painting
I WANT CAKE
Grotty bit chopped out
New section 'welded' in
The bottom of the inner and outer sills in the process of being joined together with a strip of metal
That's the welding done on that side, the underneath looks a lot worse than it actually is in the pictures, plenty of scraping and painting ahead. I had a right old job getting the wheel back on, It came off no problem but that was with no edge left on the sill - the trouble was I had to jack Bonnie up even further when putting the wheel back and Bonnie's roof was hitting the drain pipe on the side of the house. What would give first, Bonnie's roof or the drain pipe - luckily the pipe is plastic and it bent enough to give me the clearance I needed - phew.
I bought a fridge for a tenner a while ago - it looked like a tenners worth of fridge:I So I spent a little bit of time stripping, cleaning and painting
I WANT CAKE
I ripped all the gas stuff out because it looked extremely dodgy and Bonnie doesn't have an external flue - don't want to cut into the side to fit one. I fitted a 240v element so I'm fine with a hook-up, make look at a 12v element as well or maybe run a hot water circuit from the engine cooling system for some free energy
I WANT CAKE
I WANT CAKE