316 - m52b28 / individual+

[nas80]

hmm theres some good info for my next project lol (which i hope one day will be another old jap motor) Rust bullet have a 2 for 1 offer on the medium size can at the minute - so ill be using it copiously on my parts to protect them. I dont want to spray anything near my car so im glad rust bullet can be applied by brush. i might buy some of them scouring pads they look really handy to just have about. thanks for the info there mate.

yesterday i bought my first welder, its only a clarke pro 90 but it should be adequate for home DIY.

i have welded before but im not like an expert.. so im going to start little first and practise by making a front chassis rail strengthening bar out of an e36 original fit transmission tunnel bar.

I have also ordered a new set of camber adjustment plates so that i can adjust the camber on my e12 rear end, that will be my second job.
third job is fill a small hole i found near the rear beam mount on the sill (its tiny but it still bugs me).
final job - reinforce the boot area for the diff mount.

[drjim]

Clarke pro 90 is a good starting point, that's what I had - should be somewhere in DrGonzo's shed now! I have some tips/shrouds somewhere that you can have next time we meet (if I can find them!)

Jim

[nas80]

haha yeah i actually borrowed it from dr gonzo POW for a while, thats what made me buy one, its a more than adequate welder for my jobs tbh. Acutally Dave seems to have forgot that i have his welding helmet lol - so i been using it. ill have to buy one of my own tbh in case he asks for it back (dont worry ill txt to remind him!)

so i went ahead and made my own front chassis reinforcement wunderbar thing, i had this transmission tunnel brace left over from an e36 i fragged for an engine swap and realised it was probably a good idea to chop it and use it as welding practice.

dont laugh at my welding its my fourth ever time - but im happy with it, i was a bit eager with the flap disk but meh im not too arsed about that.



this is how it looked when i ground down the weld (i had to put the welder on fairly high to get penetration as the bar is a fairly thick grade)



in position..



i forgot to add a pic of the underneath - i missed bits but i blame the lance of the steamer being too long and an inability to get the car high enough. im planning on getting a smaller steamer but i think i might hold off that cos with a good soak of TFR / cillit BANG and some elbow grease i reckon the the remaining crap will come off

[Jeroen]

Nice! That bar can be a good upgrade for any E21 I guess, might even be able to use the holes from the arb. Nice idea for a groupbuy perhaps?

[nas80]

Lol i aint got time to start making 50 of them! but you can get these easy from a scrap yard. Simple case of measure twice cut once and weld it back together.. theres two holes either side (right size holes!) and the bar is v.strong. im not even sure its going to clear my front pully but thats easy to solve with a spacer...

I actually thought itd be good to make this bar as part of a sump guard... attach the front end with some u clamps to this bar.. and the back of the sump guard sheet to the front sub frame..

[Jeroen]

haha well I'm no good at welding but I'll keep this idea in mind!

[pandemonium001]

looks good mate, what diameter is the bar?
Practice makes perfect, not everyones welding is perfect all the time,
You dont think i post the bad ones do you??
I started when i was around 14 with a 240amp oil cooled stick plant making gates and railings on the farm from old scaffolding tubes!!
flattened the end with a sledge hammer, fill any big gaps with a 6" nail and away you go! you know you had a good one when the slag curled up off the weld, wire brush and your done.

[pandemonium001]

If you are making any framing up, tack it all up both sides, alternate sides ends when welding.
if its not jigged or tacked up, as the welds cool they shrink.
some times you can actually feel the part moving in you hand as you weld.

[raseeda green]

nice work....good garage space and i like the bar thing...

[raseeda green]

Might have ago at cutting up my push bike hihihu

[nas80]

updates are going to be a bit thin on the ground for a couple of week, im currently on "tour" by my work and not able to actually do anything on my car.

The bar i used is about an inch i think its 2mm gauge, i have a couple of little holes to fix on the inside side of the sill where the rear beam mounts, but the biggest head scratcher is working out a nice way to reinforce the area where the diff mount is. I havent really ever done a job like that before really - so i have been looking at how others have reinforced sections - got a few ideas.

Lee, dont cut your kids push bike up thats crazy talk lol, the garage is a right godsend, it didnt cost too much to build but it is a lovely big space with a really high roof.

[pandemonium001]

I was going to put a 1/8" plate boot side of the beam that the hanger is welded to then triangle that to the rear strut brace, mount twin hangers and make a spacer plate with twin eyelets between the diff casing and backplate then use twin hangers.

it didnt cost too much to build but it is a lovely big space with a really high roof

How is it constructed? sounds Ideal. I may need to build something again cheap later next year if i end up moving house to suit the kids for school. Funds may not allow a Block garage straight away, how do you find it in the winter?

[nas80]

I was going to put a 1/8" plate boot side of the beam that the hanger is welded to then triangle that to the rear strut brace, mount twin hangers and make a spacer plate with twin eyelets between the diff casing and backplate then use twin hangers.

please come and do the same for my car and i will cross your palm with money ?!!!

How is it constructed? sounds Ideal. I may need to build something again cheap later next year if i end up moving house to suit the kids for school. Funds may not allow a Block garage straight away, how do you find it in the winter?

I know exactly what you mean! houses need a budget of like 1000x more than a car lol.

heres a skydrive link to it - please excuse the state of my house, its pretty much a project still, needs all the driveway doing again (doing it myself!) but before that the house is scheduled to be re-rendereded and painted soon as the weather gets a little better. i live in a nice enough neighbourhood, neighbours are great and never winge at me and im a stones throw from some beautiful parkland.

http://sdrv.ms/145jMyR

It isnt exactly finished yet, still needs painting on the outside and then boarding out and insulating on the inside.

hardcore and 4m3 with fibre crete, wacker plate hire £600 -- dug and layed the groundwork myself.
scored a second hand sectional garage from scumtree for £150 van hire £50
second hand garage door 8ft wide and 7ft high £50
second hand trusses £150
roof (anti condensation) window and labour to pay a garage company to assemble £1200 + 50 cups of tea (*sigh*)
loads of second hand factory type metal racking £50

so about 2k all in all, for a proper brick built one it would have probably cost about 10k for a breeze block 5m x 6m space. Its actually very warm in there, the sun heats the concrete panels up and they are like a radiator and now i dont need a beanie hat to protect my slap head from the freezing cold winds..

[pandemonium001]

garage looks the biz Nas, I thought it looked like sectional marley panels, but wasent sure if u maybe clad the sides with insulated sheeting when you said it was nice an high. I did the same for my last garage, i put an advert in Gumtree for Wanted concrete sectional garages, dismantled and upliftet Free.
I ended up gettin 5 for nowt, just had to deal with the asbestos sheeting correctly. The wooden height extension is a top notch idea.

If you do a monoblock driveway, compact the HCore in several layers and use 1" wood strips for screeding the sand to level for blocks, measure it out and figure out the best start point according to the pattern. cheap lazer level from screwfix is a must.
seal the drivway once finished, oil stains very easily.

When i get round to the diff support I may make something up for forum members if they want. cost plus postage.

[nas80]

well im using an e12 diff - ill work something out, i should stop crapping myself and just do it!

The extra height makes all the difference - im 6'2" and i can jump and not bang my head. its very stable too - we had some real strong winds up here and it didnt even flinch. I was actually looking at your pics of the car and comparing garages the other day haha - i think yours looks about the same type of size if not prolly bigger?

ive layed a MASSIVE patio before using slabs, type 2 base and then some type 1 MOT on top, im faily familiar with how much of an arse that is lol my dads a builder and ive known from the age of 9 how to mix cement and stuff.

I'm planning on making a nice long ramp up to the garage as my car is going to be more lower then previously. I bought a lazer level the other day actually! bloody handy thing to have.

dont worry no one is parking a car on my new drive without me making sure its nice n dry underneath it lol ARSHAD!