BXProject

[Vanny]

Back from Rotterdam with the missus (didn't see a single BX!) and I've pulled a bit more off the car ready for some serious surgery tomorrow which will hopefully see the front slam panel being removed. Once its out I'll get some pics as to WHY it is being removed!

First things first, pulled back all of the wiring from the front, removed the radiator top panel, fans, headlight brackets (one is stuck because of some modification!);


You'll notice something peculiar about the water though, its green, bit weird, but not too worrying as its had two sets of glycol in it and i think one was very green;


More for reference than anything, this is the rad that's coming out. Its from a Mk2 309 1.9 DTurbo, brand new two years ago for £200!! Needs flushing but otherwise excellent condition. I'll be putting a proper valver panel back which i have (unchecked) but dont yet have decent hoses for!)


Then cleaned up both sides of the original slam panel and marked up the spot welds so a) i know where they are and b) so i know where the where so to speak;



And that's it ready for the chop tomorrow. Also cleaned down the bench ready for taking bits of choppy choppy and to refurb the welder (new tip, new sleeve, possibly a new spindle bracket etc etc);



I'll be going for a zinc rich primer and galv repair panels which will more than likely be 2mm. The new slam panel is primed and i am debating if i will finish it in black or red. Ideally I'd like some super hard enamel type paint if only to resist the beating it tends to take! There's also a few bits of the crash attenuation panel at the front that need a bit of seeing to. I can see a fair bit of spray painting coming up

[Philhod]

I know I said 1.5 mil but 2 is ace really.

Paint it your normal red. (or black if you want) If you want to protect it from the missiles that will come hurtling towards you at 135mph, use a very hard clear laquer over your colour, after its been cut.
You can get this in spray cans from specialist car paint suppliers.
When it's had a week to harden, buff it and the shine is permanent. If you finish it with a polymer sealent
(like the one I gave you), the finish is outstanding and impervious to, well, almost anything.

[Vanny]

works for me. bit obvious really, not that i'd have ever come to that conclusion.

[Philhod]

when you've dun it eleventy trillion times it's obvious.....

Seriously, there are different levels of hard finish. Make sure you get the one you want.

As a guide the hardest are the dearest. (Well they would be wouldn't they)

[Vanny]

Rattle cans ok for a top coat, I tend to use weld through primer, xinc rich primer, red oxide (oil based) a couple of undersoats and a couple of top coats

righty then, to me that sounds like 7 coats;
===== cut the panels =====
1) weld through primer
===== weld the panels =====
2) zinc rich primer
3) oil based red oxide (giddens)
4) under coat
5) under coat
6) top coat
7) top coat

So stoopid questions, should there be a number 8, laquer, or is the 'top coat' the laquer and the shiney nice red paint the 'under coat'? and i guess the underbody sealant will be the absolute last coat.

[docchevron132]

If you lacquer it that would be No. 8.
Depends how shiny you want it really, I only ever bother with lacquer on bits you can see, but if you're going for a well mint pro look then yes, I'd lacquer it.

Waxoyl underbody sealant would indeed be the last coat, DO NOT use anything other than waxoyl based sealant though, as it'll dry and crack, then hold moisture against the structure, and regardless of how many layers of paint you've got, it'll still find a way in and rot.
The waxoyl stuff stays flexible for about eleventy billion years so doesn't crack.

[Vanny]

so what undercoat do i want?

[Philhod]

Well I disagree with Doc here, it's just my welder head coming on.

ANYcoating will contaminate the weld. Therefore I use, (bollox I cant remember what it's called)
but it's high build and it's pale yellow.

Then err.... what he said but if you use weld thro' turn your juice up to the top like Doc does .

[Vanny]

Well having taken on Doc's advice I nipped out this morning and bought a 6mm spot weld cutter. Very very well worth the money! The general gist is to drill through just one side of the spot weld (about 1.8mm), then the two panels will fall apart. I'm not that good with a drill and the 6mm bit is slightly small for the hole so I punched through just three times, which out of 30+ welds, first time, and through such slim material, I'm more than happy with the result. Once drilled I separated the panels using a special chisel. Special in that it was bought with the intention of cutting up cars, otherwise its just a wood chisel!

Action shot anyone?



Simply repeat 30 or so times (dropping the other wing in the process) and slip the new panel in. The new panel is a little twisted so will need some fettling, but i suspect this will become pretty easy as i start tacking the bugger in place! Anyways, it will look something like this;



That's as far as i have got for today as i set about recommissioning the welder, its not been used for a year and travelled over 200 miles. Didn't take long to strip and rebuild and looks to be working well bar a leak in the gas hose.

The slam panel is being replaced because of a bit of a bodge performed some years ago, basically the flanges that go down either side of the radiator where cut clean out of the car to allow a Xantia rad and inter cooler to fit in when the car was originally converted to a TD engine. Not a huge problem as this was reinforced, with a 4mm plate!!! This is a piece of the fecker i still need to cut out without killing the lower cross brace;



end on, this is a piece i cut out mid section;



It is not helped that the plate was welded in using a gasless clarke welder, totally shit on two parts a) its gasless, b) its clarke!

Anyways, this is the back side of the repair panel tacked onto the original slam panel;



And this is another big chunk that's missing in order to fit a rad further towards the front of the car, might have been a 19rd rad? i forget, but the round ish missing part was for a header tank/filler port affair. Its not required to fit the standard 16v setup, and it makes the top of the slam panel twist. Really i think it should have been brought up on an MOT but never was!



Next job will probably be to clean the whole lot down, order some paint and welding bits, then have a practice on the scrap i've just made!

[Bx Bandit]

Well I disagree with Doc here, it's just my welder head coming on.

ANYcoating will contaminate the weld. Therefore I use, (bollox I cant remember what it's called)
but it's high build and it's pale yellow.

Then err.... what he said but if you use weld thro' turn your juice up to the top like Doc does .

Do you mean you don't/wouldn't use weld through primer???

The yellow primer - do you mean filler primer?

Looking good Vanny!

[Philhod]

Personally, no I wouldn't Bandit, but that's because it's engrained in me that you weld clean surfaces only.

Not saying that you can't, coz on thin stuff it doesn't make that much difference.

Yeah that's the stuff. If you make any small blemishes when you are doing your metalwork, it covers it nicely

[Vanny]

If you make any small blemishes when you are doing your metalwork, it covers it nicely

shit, sign me up, i'll need some of that!!!!

I'm not using a weld through primer, i was also taught to have the workpiece shiney bare metal, i was also warned that its a little pointless for what i'm doing.

Just need to sell my soul to santa to afford all the paint and gubbins.

[docchevron132]

I do take the point about weld through primer, and on straight seems where you can get to both sides to paint after welding I tend not to use it.
But for closed seems or large overlaps I tend to slap some on purely so that any bits you can't get to after it's welded do at least have a coat of paint on to keep the weather out.
So, like, I kida use it really to protect the metal around the weld rather than the weld itself..

[Philhod]

Yeah I know what you mean Doc. There is some paint you can get that runs behind a blind weld.

We used to use it on plates going in as blanks on, say a box beam.

We would paint the plate first, within 25mm of the edges. When the weld was done, the paint was supposed to "flow" towards the hottest part.
Never took any off to see if it worked tho', . It was while I was working in Germany and we had a coatings technology engineer

For internals Doc, I normally drill a small hole and spray in the black type waxoyl. There's even some little black rubber plugs they supply to push in after.

[Bx Bandit]

I was wondering about that myself...as in, how do you stop a sill rusting after having welded it but you've both answered it. I guess using galv sheet would be a bonus on sections like that!

[Philhod]

When I mentioned the little black plugs Bandit....I didn't mean anything by it...really

[Bx Bandit]

I don't like black ones anyway!

[docchevron132]

You've tried one?
Cos ya know, once you've had a bit of black, you dont go back! Or walk properly ever again...

[Bx Bandit]

That's why I wear butt plugs - to stop all me shit tumbling out! But I have gone back after the black as since my sphinctoral tightening op, I'll go 'ping' if I get expanded that much!

[docchevron132]

Christ, these docs can do everything these days huh, even make whores virgins again! Impressive!