mulberry wrote:
try 3/8 unc.....im sure that was the threaded bar i bought for my lowering block. but it was a little while back
Thanks Mulberry, I'll give it a go.
And today the excuses finally ran out.
After lots of deep breathing and finding other things to do I finally took my cheapo 100 amp 'Silverline' arc welding machine out of its box and plugged it in...
Now, all the received wisdom suggests that I should've spent more on a mig welder.
And that I should practice for ages 'n' ages on bits of old angle iron until I could weld like a pro.
But that wouldn't really be in the pioneering spirit of Sammio ownership so I bought the cheapest (new) rig I could find and decided to practice on my shoddy chassis, partly because the only rusty bits of angle iron I have are Vitesse chassis shaped, and partly because I'm too mean to waste the box of welding rods I bought from Screwfix.
So, I figured I'd start with one of the rear chassis extensions, reasoning being: 1/ it's really rotten; 2; it's not going to be structural and 3/ most of it will get cut off and thrown away once the body is on and inspected by dvla anyway.
If you're a pro welder please bear in mind I've never welded anything in my life before so please forgive my absolutely amateur approach as follows:
First I engaged the services of my 9" angle grinder to cut out the rusty holes on the top surface until I had a clean metal and reasonably oblong hole.
Next I cut a length of 25mm x 3mm steel to fit said hole, using a couple of self tappers and G clamps to hold it in place.
And finally, after donning flame retardant overalls, leather boots, welders' gauntlets and my arc activated head shield I struck my first ever arc...
I CAN WELD! I CAN ACTUALLY BLOODY WELD!!
Well, I'm never going to win any prizes for the World's most beautiful welds, but I'm pleased with the results I achieved today.
OK, so I blew a few holes in the thinner metal surrounding my belt'n'braces repair section while trying to be clever by moving the weld along in zig zaggy stylee.
And I now know to make sure repair sections fit exactly because if the gap's too big you can't just fill it with welding rod.
But after a bit of trial and error I worked out that the most effective method was to do spot welds half an inch apart, then clean up with the slag hammer (sounds like something Peter Sutcliffe might have used) before joining the dots so to speak.
As for the too-large-gaps I'd left at the end of the repair section, I first spent about two hours fabricating carefully shaped steel fillets using needle files and working to the 1 thou' tolerances I was taught in the RAF School of Technical Training at Halton in the seventies. These all then evaporated when confronted with 100 amps of Silverline power, so I tried sacrificing a couple of 4" steel screws offered up with a plastic clamp at the point of arc. I don't know if this is allowed or advisable, but it sure as hell worked, filling the gaps quickly and easily.
Once I'd ground off all the lumpy bits I was left with a seamless join that looks good enough and is certainly better than a lot of the welding that had already been done on the chassis.
So, that's another box ticked and I'm now happy that I'll be able to repair my rotten chassis myself and do a good enough job.
ALL HAIL THE CHEAP WELDING RIG!
OK, so the last pic looks like there's a load of holes along the side of the chassis extension, that's just a trick of the light. Here's another shot taken from the side which shows there's no holes along the side but it looks like there's a big hole on the top. Again, that's just a trick of the light.
COOL! 
