MadaboutKitcars

Monday

Well, I had to visit the dentist again today, but after that, I set about getting material for my rear bumpers.

A friend of mine managed to get hold of a set of steps for a swimming pool, they were in, (you guessed it!) Stainless steel. He wanted them for an exhaust system I think.

This was two or three months ago, Since then, I have been waging a relentless psy-ops war against him, (Psychological warfare) but he would not part with the pipes.

I was quite good at psy-ops in the military, so I intensified my efforts, and
BINGO! Today he cracked, and let me have my evil way with the pipes!

I whizzed round to the garage and lopped off the needed bits before he even finished his coffee, so now I have my bumpers all catered for at last.

and here are the pics:

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Later on Monday

Well, I like doing the bumpers, so I spent the rest of the day doing exactly that.

I now have four reasonable looking shiny bumpers which now need the bolts fixing to them, then some holes in the body-work, and I'll bolt them on to check what they look like.

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Scottie - I love the way you see parts of your car in so many other things.

Good luck fitting them, Paul.

Paul, I always do!

When I saw the wood burner chimney I knew it would look good on my car as a heat shield!

I am dreading welding the bolts to the bumpers in case I blow them through!!

Might glue the bolts on with something else yet.

Hey scottie
Why dont you weld the bolts to a bit if thin flat and sikaflex or tiger seal them inside the curves, much safer.

Hey Peeps, do you reckon sikaflex will adhere to stainless steel?

The stainless is very "slimy" due to the chrome content, and I was wondering if sikaflex or indeed any other epoxy adhesive would stick?

Obviously, I would really rough up the steel first to give it a good chance of sticking well.
Your comments would be most welcome, or anyone else that may have more experience of stainless than me.

Hi Scottie, I MIG welded some mild steel M8 nuts onto stainless steel about the same gauge as your bumperettes using .8 mm mild steel wire only the other day and it was rather successful. The stainless blued but it polished out easy enough. I suggest have a play with some offcuts you may be pleasantly surprised. I wonder if the mild steel pool goes through the stainless far enough for it to rust though ? Although that would add to the authenticity and ageing process if your an optimist.I also used an adhesive to attach some solar panel GRP brackets to the aluminium roof of a motor home recently and in the morning I tried my hardest to get them off ,they where stuck that well that the aluminium sheet was bending. Think I have the tube in the workshop I will let you know what product it is. Ed.

I understand what you are saying Ed, but the road to get to where I am now, has been so long and twisty, that now I'm here, I am not prepared to risk f***ing the bumpers up now by welding at all.

And as you say, welding does change the metal properties and seems to push the chrome out from stainless, causing it to rust sometimes.

I think I will do as Peeps suggests, and weld the bolts to metal strips then stick them in with adhesive.Should that fail, I still have my bumpers intact and there is no risk.

Tuesday

I carried on with the bumper work today,welded all the bolts for the bumpers
onto strips of metal (following peeps advice) and then used 4 minute epoxy to stick the inside the bumpers.

The epoxy was used more as a "clamp" really,
as I followed peeps advice totally and once the bolts were reasonably firm, I covered them in sikaflex, having roughed both surfaces with 40 grit first

I will leave them to set really well before I drill the holes in the bodywork and bolt them on

What I have just described does not sound like much, but took the best part of the day to complete!

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Wednesday

Today, I wanted to bolt the windows to the doors, but as usual with this built I can't because of even further complications, which must be resolved first.

I will explain, the top part of the door is angled inward far too much, so the windows would lean inward, inside of the windscreen edge.

With the original D Type perspex surround, this did not matter, but when the window (now) is in place, it has to have exactly the same inward angle as the windscreen in order to look right, seal the gap and be waterproof.

I cannot do it with filler, as I want to grind away the inner edge when I have the angle correct, and there would be no integral strength left, so it has to be back to fibre glassing.

Once I have the thickness to give the support I will be able to use filler to fine tune.

Since I wrote this I have now done the work on the drivers door,

I put four of five layers of matting to build the strength, and have filled over the top to get the right profile.

When I get that right, I can grind away the inside edge to keep the slim profile look which I want.

I was going to sand, but one of those annoying showers came along, and all the kit has to go back inside yet again!

Here's where I am:

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Wed after the rain

I glued both the bits of lexan into the quarter lights, and filled and sanded the drivers door a bit more when the rain went.

After I had stuck the first bit of lexan in, I realised I had not roughed up the stainless frame first.

So when it was dry, I pulled it and it came straight out! Of course I was overjoyed, and did not swear at all!

It is so important to rough the stainless up first, it just does not stick otherwise.

I believe the epoxy must adhere to the film of oxydisation which forms on the surface of the metal.

Once roughed up with 40 grit it sicks very well.

That's it, the day has gone...........

The way my build is going, and all the extra work that seems to keep coming forward, I am really wondering whether I'll miss another Stoneleigh!!!

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Anyone know why the forum clock is two hours behind normal current UK time?

It is the right time on mine, you probably need to change the time zone in the User Control Panel.

Thanks Landmannn I'll have a go at that!

Scottie - These rain showers are certainly a pain.

Keep at the detail work, you know it will be worth it in the end.

Good luck, Paul.

Thursday

Modifying the driver door top to get the window to sit at the right angle was a reasonably straight forward job, as it needed building up at either end and a wee bit in the middle.

The passengers door is not going to be so easy, it needs the whole upper edge to be moved outward by at least a quarter of an inch, (thats 6 or 7mm for you Eurohphiles)

I don't really think its practical to build that much up, so serious surgery is required. Gulp!

After all the time and effort I put in to bond the door skin to the door, and get it to look like I wanted, it really hurts to have to butcher it all over again!

However, after, a bit of thought, I cut both sides and will to re-angle the whole top edge, and re-glass the lot back together.

Is nothing simple with this build?

I had a hard time trying to clamp the door top in the right position, but eventually hit on the right way.

I have always been a big fan of Heath-Robinson, (William, as he was known to his friends) who was an English cartoonist famous for cartoons of extremely complicated machines made to do very simple tasks.

I seem to get inspiration from his wonderful ideas, and the method I used to finally clamp the door top in the right place, he would have been proud of!

I am no expert at fibre-glassing, but it always amazes me how strong it is.
After just one layer on just one side, it was so strong that it would have been okay like that!

Of course its layered and done both sides now.

I both love and hate fibre glassing if that statement makes sense!

I love how easy it is, how strong it is and what can be done with it, but hate

how it sticks to your fingers and all else, how messy it is and all the cleaning

up afterwards.

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Scottie, have you got some cellulose thinners? As long as the resin hasn't hardened it cleans up very nicely.

Thanks Scottie, I forgot all about Heath-Robinson. My old man used to use it in a phrase, 'that's a bit Heath-Robinson!'

Cellulose thinners I would never be without Landmannn!

I use it for cleaning my carpets, getting stains out of everything,
taking paint off everything, cleaning my hands, cleaning my filler materials- everything!

Saturday

Because XKSS's are so thin on the ground, I have to work from photographs to see the detail I need to copy or modify, and its quite rare for me to find pictures I have not already seen.

So I was surprised today to see two pics like that.

One picture must be very rare, as it shows an XKSS with the "boot" actually open, and there is only room for the spare wheel, and even that looks as though its very cramped!!

The other picture gives me more incentive to complete my build!

Such beauty!!

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Sunday

Today I got the car out in the sun, and fitted the bumpers on it.

I was pleased with the rear ones more than the front, which I had two goes to get on right. I now have holes to fill in where I got it wrong.

I changed my mind about the position of the rear ones, and moved them further inboard under the rear lights, which I think looks better.

I have dug out an old pic which I have posted before, showing the XKSS rear end, which I have never really liked, but I had the chance to change my cars rear, and I have done so, and prefer the look I have ended up with, so I am happy.

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But Scottie, you havn't put the faux VW front on the little van yet...!!!

Guilty as charged M'lud!

Scottie - It must help with motivation when you can see the car really coming together now.

Keep chipping away, Paul.

Just finished reading from the start. Outstanding work and fantastic looking car.