Sheila

[Oli_88]

Needs a second coat but I'm thinking purple for the engine block would look good with this.....

Now you're just trying to make me jealous...

[Spunkymonkey]

Needs a second coat but I'm thinking purple for the engine block would look good with this.....

Now you're just trying to make me jealous...

Did I mention the red suspension and purple drive-shafts as well?

Meanwhile, back in a more monochrome world, she went flying today:


so I could start cutting out the nasty stuff on that os sill. I'd hoped to be able to lift her on the jacking points so that the arms wouldn't get in my way but the os front wasn't too happy with that - it held ok but crushed a little before settling, so I decided that the sub-frame was probably a better (safer) plan. Does leave me a problem getting at some of the rot but I'll have to work round that somehow.

As usual, the problems turned out to go a little further than hoped - including up part of the inside face:


and the flange of the outer sill wasn't as good as I'd hoped either. But the strengthener is intact:


and the rest of it doesn't look too bad - great access for looking inside with that bit cut out!




Nothing there that can't be glued back together with a bit of sheet and some hammer work

After a couple of months of "can't face more rust" after the Dafs it's nice to be getting back into the swing of it and I'm really starting to look forward to the old girl rolling again

[Spunkymonkey]

Mmmmm, a thing of beauty....



New bearings on input shaft, main shaft, top gear needle rollers, new synchro, all shimmed to just below mid-tolerance, oil-filled and ready to fit

Now I just have to worry about the big holes, the little holes, the suspension bushes, the paintwork and (maybe) the mains & big-ends while I'm swapping the box. Hopefully back on road as my Christmas prezzie to myself

[Spunkymonkey]

Having no more fun (ie: mechanical) stuff to do on her until she's back on her wheels, I bit the bullet this afternoon and started to tackle that o/s sill. Didn't get as far as I hoped thanks to a mix of badly wound MIG wire that kept screwing with the wire feed (so much for Clarke stuff!!!) and the difficulty of bending a lower sill / flange section with just a vice and a few bits of angle iron to form it with.

Still, the first section of new flange is tacked in place:


And attached to the inner reinforcing web:


And the damage in the inner upright face is repaired, cleaned up, and ready to become invisible once some paint goes on:


I really don't enjoy this stuff as much as spanner bending but it's nice to feel there's some progress! Even with the grit in my hair, odd spatter burns and a mild case of arc eye

[Spunkymonkey]

Progress is frustratingly slow on this at the moment, with something else coming up every time I think I might spend some time on her. But did manage an hour or two earlier today and now have a completed sill section for my troubles:





In the end I had to give up on my cheapo mig because of wire-feed issues and revert to the trusty old stick welder - who says they can't be used on cars?

Now I just have to work out how the hell I'm going to get that lift arm out of the way to tackle the front part without dropping a car o my head. I'm sure I saw an old acro lying around down there somewhere..........

[Spunkymonkey]

Long time no update on this, mainly because very little's been done for the past few weeks. So I started to put that right over the last couple of days and have now almost got all the new metal in place on the driver's sill.

The underside got another large bit put in and welded, at least as far as the lift's arm would allow:


And, of course, that required some more on the outer to join it to:


That bit needs tidying but, again, the arm is in the way for now. In order to finish it all up I need to get the lift under the jacking point so that it's outside the sill line. So I had a dig to see how safe it looked:


Not too bad at first glance, but (as usual) there was more metal needed than initial inspection suggested! On the inside:


And the outside:


And the front:


I need to get the wheel off (and lower her a bit) to weld up the top edge of the front patch, and rebuild the missing nose of the sill, but once that's done I'm reasonably happy that she'll lift safely on that corner so I can get in and join the two sections up. Then it's just a small patch on the closing panel at the rear and I'll be onto the NS.

Doesn't feel like quite such a lost cause anymore

[Spunkymonkey]

Slowly getting there with this one. Tidied up the front of the sill and got the wing-base back in place today:


Now, for the purists out there, yes this is effectively a patch-up and yes, new panels may well be the "proper" way to go. But if she had to wait for someone to invest those in her then she'd be waiting in a scrappy by now - pair of sills (inner + outer), sill strengtheners and new front wings would be lovely and all but someone with the cash to do that would be picking a much better example to start with. So she gets sheet metal, and lots of it, at a fraction of the cost cos my time is free to me

As for strength - I'm not planning on crash testing her but I'll happily stand under my work to take pics and start the next bit. If you can't jack on a jacking point there's no point in having them

[VYO 372M]

Good luck with the Daf. I always admire people who have the skill to do welding repairs properly.

Steve

[Spunkymonkey]

A bit more progress today - with Boris the Daf due next weekend I figured I should at least get Sheila back on her wheels so the lift is available for the new arrival:


Obviously, in order to do that I had to finish off the underside stuff:


But decided to leave the outer sills to do on the ground. That was mainly because of this:


which has convinced me that I really need to put full length metal in on both sides. The lift arms will get in the way of that, and I'm not over-keen on the idea of chopping out a full-length slice while she's in the air anyway. There should be enough metal there to hold shape because the plan is basically a "full length patch", with the existing (sound) sill tops & bottoms remaining, but, just in case, I'd rather she was being supported where she's designed to be supported while it happens.

So, the rest of the afternoon was spent making the "patches" - all 5'4" of them (x2):


I'm not willing to guarantee that the curve is exactly factory spec but it matches the existing metal well enough:


and you try curving a piece of metal that length accurately and without introducing a twist!

[Spunkymonkey]

Been a long-time stall on this one thanks to all sorts of stuff - not least the new Daf needing far more welding than expected and the poly bush guy doing a runner c/w the 3 phase genny that ran the lift.

Still no more progress on poor old Sheila but she DID move today for the first time in about 9 months! The workshop owner wanted to shuffle stuff around so connected up a can of fuel and a fresh battery and away she went Even moving her 50 feet across the workshop has given me reason to not give up on her (yes, I had been feeling a little that way after she'd stalled for so long).

May have to make a point of starting her up every week just to remind myself that she WLL get done in the end

[DazasDolly]

Hello Joe

I was reading this thread today, looking at the way you have done the sills with, mostly sheet metal. I need more pics so hurry up

Keep going mate it will be worth it in the end, I stalled a lot last year, but now it's all systems go.

All the best

Darren

[Pauldaf44]

aye me too