1985 Opel Monza. Mothballed 12/08/08 Pg 11.

Know what you mean, i thought it was only me. i love getting stuck into stuff like this but when i have to do it again on the other side i tend to slow down a bit.

MRJ´s doing a Passat in similar condition, and i spent best part of four years welding up a rotten Splittie and we keep getting asked whether we are sane or not...

I just smile and get the angle grinder going...
oh and i´m sure you´ll sort it all out! ;D

After another bit of a layup due to work commitments over the last couple of weeks, I got a little more done last night.

I had a revolutionary idea!!!!

Cardboard inner wings!!!! ;D





Much easier to replace than the standard items and probably just as durable!!! ;D

The offside strut top is as near as dammit in the right position judging by the measurements I got from PheonixC's post on another forum, but the nearside one's going to need a bit of persuation when it comes time!

I had hoped I might be able to make the repair out of one continuous piece, but I reckon it's going to have to be done in at least three sections!

Anyways, I'm mindful that getting the panels aligned wehn it comes time will, shall we say, be a challenge. So I thought it prudent to offer up the wing and bonnet to check how they fit so far. (Bearing in mind nothing's permanently fixed yet.), Is that a normal sized gap between the top of the light unit and the leading edge of the wing/bonnet? (The bonnet's not sitting right as the trailing edge was perched on a 'G' clamp holding the box section in place.)





And finally, a little panel I fabbed just before I went to bed. (Note the little chamfer at the bottom to allow water to drain!!)



Tonight using my recently acquired airsaw I'll be mostly cutting out and beating the pattern for my inner wing repairs and maybe making a start to welding it all in.

LOL! Actually, the wheels will be going on long before I finish the welding!!

BTW BC, what's your opinion on the gap above the light cluster in the pics with the wing on? Does it look too big to you? Can't see how it can be any other way though and the marks on the flange of the wing match up to the light lens too but it just looked huge to me.

Comparing with this original pic', it does look OK though........



Funny, just looking at those pictures again, it dawns on me that I've done that last panel slightly wrong. Not a big deal, all it'll involve is a little persuasion with a hammer and suitable dolly and the 'letting in' of some more metal before I tack that one in place.

^^^^ That, is awesome I love attention to detail like that.

Good to see your still making good progress with it despite your work commitments, keep up the great work

I'm really disappointed with last night's efforts!!!

Bit of a saga this, but let me furnish you with the details of my attempts to move forward.

A bit of background first. My nights in the garage usually coincide with SWMBO being out of an evening, usually the gym. What happens is, she goes out, I put the rugrats to bed, wait on them settling then go out to the garage taking their respective monitors with me and then cut and beat lumps out of bits of metal to my heart's content. I've seldom had a problem doing this even though the garage is attached to the house next to the kid's bedrooms.

Last night SWMBO decided to give the gym a miss. No problem, but I'm still going into the garage as I'd an airsaw to trial. I mentioned that I'd be using my compressor and airsaw to SWMBO and if it was too noisy she should call me on my phone and I'd try to be a bit quieter.

So I sets about making a template to fill a gap in the 'A' pillar and cut out the appropriate pattern To cut a long story short, the airsaw was rubbish! The first blade blunted and when using hte second blade, it kept stalling and the compressor couldn't keep up with it's CFM capacity. Dejected, I resorted to my jigsaw and had the cut out in less than a minute. I'd used 2mm sheet for this as I'd measured the thickness using a set of micrometers which made it quite difficult to bend, but some hefty swipes with a suitable hammer saw the flat piece of steel start to take shape.

Once I'd put a right angle along the length of the piece, it was only then I realised I'd folded it the wrong way!!! So rather than cut out a new piece, I reckoned it'd be easier to straighten the original piece. Much battering ensued. Cue phone ringing!! Our boy couldn't get to sleep. 'OK', I said, 'I'll try and be a bit quieter.'

So that kind'a left me high and dry! So I stared at the hole in the side of my car and deliberated what to do next. Then I realised that the piece of steel I'd measured was in fact double skinned and wasn't as thick as I'd originally thought. This meant that it was 1mm thick and would be easier to cut and bend!! Yay!!

So I cut out the 1mm patern and bent it to shape, (the right way this time!!), using the slightest of blows from my hammer. Cue ringing phone! Boy still can't sleep! I never have this trouble when SWMBO's at the gym, so why tonight?

By this time, I've got the pattern bent into shape anyway, so I can now set about welding it into place!! After it's tacked in place, I ran out of welding wire!! :roll: I had new stuff, but it's 0.1mm thicker than the stuff I'd been using so wasn't sure if it'd fit, but it did. I'll tell you what! that 0.1mm makes a helluva difference to the settings on your welder!!! knocked the wire speed and power settings all to cock, so I had to be continually resetting them while I worked to get them set properly.

Result, some absolutely sh!t welding, (It is still sound, it just looks rubbish!!), and a very dejected me!!!

Here's the pictures....................




Then I thought it'd look better with some zinc primer on it!! (!) It doesn't!!!

Grider's going to be busy methinks!!!



On a slightly different note, the local Co-op was having a refit a couple of weeks ago and I saw these in the skip outside..........

[scavenge_mode]



[/scavenge_mode]

So I 'ad 'em!! They're ferrous in some way shape or form as they're rusting. I had designs on using them for roll cage extensions, but not sure. Still they're better in my possession than in the skip eh?

don't use that tube for roll cage!

Roll cage should only be made of CDSII tubing of at least 2.5mm wall thickness.

Tough work you are doing there, it so much easier to chop it all out and make a new chassis for the body to sit over, but what would be the fun in that, lol

JFI Roddys cage dates from late 70's early 80's and is Alloy ;D

Not being funny, but if its not really necessary as you wont race it, why bother putting one in then?
If you are going to have one, it might as well do the job (you could get away with std gas pipe to save money).
The stuff you found will be zinc or galvanised, both produce dangerous fumes when being welded, so its a bit of a no-no imho.

Really wound'nt use that gate for even extensions mate - it'll bend like a goodun in no time, and won't give you any rigidity at all, let alone safety.

I think the idea behind the cage blackpop is to simply add structural rigidity to the car - monzas work very well and handle like a dream when they have a cage in them because it stiffens up the whole car no end. Like he says, it doesn't have to ever pass any MSA standards or scrutineering at any point so it's just there to do one job.