25-08-2022, 02:23 PM
Finally have some time to make inroads in to tidying up one of my garaged 306's. Have cleaned up, treated & primed most of the boot floor. Still pondering how to tackle the bump stop mounts but beating them repeatedly with a hammer seems to have knocked most of the flakey rust off.
The few little rust holes at the back corners of the wheel arches & in the upper P/S wheel arch have been repaired (Sorry, don't have pics of all stages of repair). I'm not the greatest welder in the world and when I look back at the pics I can see it really isn't a great job. Tbf, I'm just glad I was able to achieve anything. I really didn't want to get in to having to deal with MIG gas & didn't have a whole heap of money to throw at a welder so got a small Clarke gasless one. If you read around most people say you can't weld thin body panels using gasless wire. A few say it is possible, with care. I actually managed half decent results when practicing with off-cuts, but that is generally ideal conditions. It's a different matter when you're cramped in the car boot & can't get the torch at the angle you really want or can't see properly when you start the weld.
All the settings on the welder are set as low as they'll go or it's super-easy to blow holes in the panels. That led to a lot of the welds being on the cold side but it's the only option I have really. I made it even harder for myself as I have no mains power at the garage & so have to use a generator. The output to the welder isn't totally consistent & so the arc isn't hugely consistent when welding either. I ended up with a few areas of slag inclusion, which could also have been user error tbh. Would have liked it to be better, but can live with it. It'll all get several layers of paint & a good covering of seam gloop so will hopefully last a while. If it doesn't hold up I might try using epoxy specifically designed for joining body panels. Anyone else tried it? e.g. Viking Thorflex 10 Two Part Adhesive 50ml – Viking Industrial Products Ltd (vikingtapes.co.uk)
Once all the bodywork is done I'll crack on with putting it all back together. There's a rebuilt beam to go on, new mounts, newly made cu-ni brake pipes, a new brake compensator valve & a few other bits. That'll have to wait until the Autumn tho....holiday first.
The few little rust holes at the back corners of the wheel arches & in the upper P/S wheel arch have been repaired (Sorry, don't have pics of all stages of repair). I'm not the greatest welder in the world and when I look back at the pics I can see it really isn't a great job. Tbf, I'm just glad I was able to achieve anything. I really didn't want to get in to having to deal with MIG gas & didn't have a whole heap of money to throw at a welder so got a small Clarke gasless one. If you read around most people say you can't weld thin body panels using gasless wire. A few say it is possible, with care. I actually managed half decent results when practicing with off-cuts, but that is generally ideal conditions. It's a different matter when you're cramped in the car boot & can't get the torch at the angle you really want or can't see properly when you start the weld.
All the settings on the welder are set as low as they'll go or it's super-easy to blow holes in the panels. That led to a lot of the welds being on the cold side but it's the only option I have really. I made it even harder for myself as I have no mains power at the garage & so have to use a generator. The output to the welder isn't totally consistent & so the arc isn't hugely consistent when welding either. I ended up with a few areas of slag inclusion, which could also have been user error tbh. Would have liked it to be better, but can live with it. It'll all get several layers of paint & a good covering of seam gloop so will hopefully last a while. If it doesn't hold up I might try using epoxy specifically designed for joining body panels. Anyone else tried it? e.g. Viking Thorflex 10 Two Part Adhesive 50ml – Viking Industrial Products Ltd (vikingtapes.co.uk)
Once all the bodywork is done I'll crack on with putting it all back together. There's a rebuilt beam to go on, new mounts, newly made cu-ni brake pipes, a new brake compensator valve & a few other bits. That'll have to wait until the Autumn tho....holiday first.