teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,125
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Nov 24, 2023 20:38:59 GMT
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Today has been quite chilly, like winter only colder. As I was driving home I was trying to think of excuses to not go in the shed when, 'risk of ice' popped up on the dashboard. I like ice cream but I'm not keen on icicles so that was that. Sitting in the kitchen drinking a cuppa I started to feel pangs of guilt about my lack of commitment. Maybe I could just do half an hour to assuage my guilt. I have done the drilling and welding back up on three of the four plates so it wouldn't take long to do the last one. I know it seems absurd to drill holes and then weld them back up straight afterwards but it has to be done. I had marked out where I thought I needed to drill and when I checked through my pictures last night it turns out that I was there or thereabouts so I went through the same procedure which was; Step one, pilot holes.   Stage two, 8mm standard drill. If you look in the centre of the holes you can see a circle where I have just gone through to the receiver plate.  Stage three, square off the bottom of the holes with the spot weld drill.  As I said last time, I was aiming for 4mm depth.   That's close enough. Stage four, weld them back up again.  Stage five, file it off because the subframe bush is going to be landing somewhere on there.  Stage six, go back inside for a cuppa and some lemon fancies.  The forecast is to be even colder over the weekend so I might have to dig out those long underpants which I can tuck into my socks. Cheers. |
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Last Edit: Nov 24, 2023 20:43:24 GMT by teaboy
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Nov 24, 2023 20:46:40 GMT
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Don't know if that's enough Lemon Fancies to repel such cold !!
😁😁😁😁
Nigel
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,125
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Nov 25, 2023 20:20:05 GMT
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Don't know if that's enough Lemon Fancies to repel such cold !! 😁😁😁😁 Nigel The shops near me don't sell them so I have to stock up when I get the chance. The lovely Doctor and my youngest daughter have gone on a secret mission 'darn sarf' and left Fat Al and me to fend for ourselves. I went to Ten Acres for breakfast. They usually give Fat Al some sausages but this weekend he hit the jackpot and got some bacon too.  He was delighted of course, because he is obsessed with his gut. When I had done all my usual Saturday stuff there wasn't enough time to go into the shed before the F1 so I didn't get out there until just after three. It's properly cold now, about five degrees. I have these extra platey things.  I was originally thinking that I would fit those after the panel has been installed in the car, but than I thought that it would be a very uncomfortable job to do because you get to them them through the boot. They go on here.  And the other is a mirror image.  They are directly above the rear subframe receivers. If you looked through the boot they would be at the outer edges of where the 'spare wheel well' is. Hold on, let me find a picture... Here you go, they are under the outer edges of that curvey bit which is in front of and above the curvey bit of the 'spare wheel well'.  They don't just go on top of the panel, you have to cut a bit out and this replaces it. This is half way through riving it out.  When it is out, you find this blue part melted plastic thing. This was a BMW update to try to strengthen their hopelessly weak design.  We don't want this plastic bit so we need to cut some more metal away to be able to remove it (the piece I am holding).  I need to do a bit more trimming on the left to get the new piece to fit.  I also have to do some welding around the subframe receiver before it gets closed in. You see all this white stuff here?  That is from the zinc coating being burnt off by one of those plug welds I did the other day. It looks like I drilled the holes in the right place because that brackety bit is part of the subframe receiver. Anyway, my fingers were starting to freeze up by this point so I went inside to thaw out with a cuppa and a creamy bun cake from today's stash.  I think I might have a cream horn. Cheers. |
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Norman
Part of things
Posts: 449 
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Nov 25, 2023 20:35:44 GMT
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Nice work, perhaps I could give you a hand. I could eat some of those cakes while you work, that will give you more time to weld. Joking aside, you are making some good progress there. Norman
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Last Edit: Nov 25, 2023 20:36:01 GMT by Norman
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,125
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Nov 25, 2023 20:47:21 GMT
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Nice work, perhaps I could give you a hand. I could eat some of those cakes while you work, that will give you more time to weld. Joking aside, you are making some good progress there. Norman They are on offer, four for the price of three on the creamy ones. I'll save you one, Norman.  |
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"I think I might have a cream horn." Corrected it for you ... "I think I might have a serious addiction.." |
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Nov 26, 2023 10:37:19 GMT
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That piece of plastic is very odd. Imagine the amount of flex in that box section, if filling the cavity with a piece of plastic is worth doing... ( and then for a factory to do that instead of actually fixing the problem...) You are doing beautiful work teaboy . |
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,125
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Nov 26, 2023 19:58:10 GMT
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"I think I might have a cream horn." Corrected it for you ... "I think I might have a serious addiction.." That piece of plastic is very odd. Imagine the amount of flex in that box section, if filling the cavity with a piece of plastic is worth doing... ( and then for a factory to do that instead of actually fixing the problem...) You are doing beautiful work teaboy . It is disappointing that they would get something like this so wrong. There were several revisions to this area over the production run of the E46 but none of them actually fixed the problem, it just delayed the inevitable failure a little longer. I had an errand to run for my daughter this morning which meant that I had to skip breakfast at the cafe. I hope that I don't waste away... After the 'Where did Max go again?' show I went into the shed. It was two degrees, even the brass monkey didn't want to go out. I've got these platey things which are zinc plated. I want to paint these with weld through primer but paint doesn't like to stick to zinc so They need to be treated with mordant solution.  When it has done its stuff you wash it off and let it dry, but it doesn't want to dry at two degrees so I hung them on the clothes airer with my smalls.  Then I was able to paint them and dry them off in a similar way.  There is a bit more messing about to do before they can go on. There was a convenient hole in the receiver thing which got plug welded and I got a bit of weld around the edges that I could get to.  There wasn't a hole on the other side of the bracket so I had to drill one.  Which I then filled back up again.  I managed to get a bit of weld on the left hand side of the bracket but torch access was quite limited.  Then I offered up the freshly painted platey thing to see where I needed to trim the hole to get it to fit.  If you look at the left hand side of the vertical part of the platey thing there is a sticky out bit. This sticky out bit.  I'm thinking, 'What is that sticky out bit for because it is stopping me from pushing the platey bit flush with the panel'. I went to have a look at the 'instructions' to find out. I say instructions, it is a usb stick with loads of photos which are sort of in order but also not really in order. It seems that there is a vertical platey bit, which when you fit it, it sits on that sticky out bit. The position of the vertical platey bit is dictated by the chassis section in the boot so I can't really weld in the painted platey thing until the panel is in the car, so I left that and went to the other side to cut that up.  Now I have a panel with a huge hole in each side.  No lump of plastic to contend with this time. I need to do a bit of welding on the receiver. It needs a plug weld in the middle of these four spot welds.  The fact that it lands right on the crest of that rib is a pain but I used the pilot, 8mm and spot weld drill technique to get a hole which goes through the bracket and the panel to the reinforcement plate on the other side.  The next picture would be the hole plugged back up but I'd had enough, my neck has been pretty bad for a few days and I've had a throbbing headache since last Thursday. I'm going to use that as my excuse for not doing any more. It has nothing at all to do with strawberry tarts...  Cheers. |
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Nov 26, 2023 21:01:03 GMT
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Strawberry Tart = LUSH. Your work = epic. Carry on  |
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Nov 26, 2023 23:41:28 GMT
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the blue stuff is structural foam, it usually comes in a plastic case then expands to tightly fill the cavity in the paint ovens, it can make a difference when a section is distorting under load usually used to stiffen things like door pillars where the loads are fairly evenly distributed, I'd be suprised if it did much where you have high local stresses like around suspension attachments though,
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,125
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Nov 27, 2023 18:59:06 GMT
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the blue stuff is structural foam, it usually comes in a plastic case then expands to tightly fill the cavity in the paint ovens, it can make a difference when a section is distorting under load usually used to stiffen things like door pillars where the loads are fairly evenly distributed, I'd be suprised if it did much where you have high local stresses like around suspension attachments though, BMW did offer structural foam injection into this section as a warranty repair solution, depending on the size of the cracks which had developed. If the cracks were over a certain size, I can't remember what that was, they would replace the whole panel. The blue thing out of my panel is a moulded plastic block which they put into all the later cars. If you look at the top of it, those two white bits were 'fir tree' clips that I cut off to remove it. They located it in place inside the box section as the panel was spot welded together. The weather is putting a downer on things today. Not only is it bitter cold it's wazzing down as well. I wasn't keen but I thought I would have a quick half an hour before the Doc gets home. When I drilled out a spot weld to remove the second section I got a bit giddy and went right through to the plate below.  I plugged that back up.  I had to file it back because the new platey thing goes on there.  This bit is the inside of one of those holes that I drilled and welded from the outside the other day.  It only just caught the edge of the bracket so I will probably do another drilling to the right of it from the inside. I did a bit of welding around the edges but it was awkward to get the torch pointing in the right direction through the gap with the remains of the panel on the left.  I'm sure it will do the job. I managed to get a little bit on the other side. There was also a hole in the bottom of it that I plugged up.  I will probably think of some more messing about to do with this next time so that I can keep procrastinating over re-fitting the panel a bit longer. Oh I was sent this picture today. I didn't realise my granddaughter was a Wallace and Gromit fan.  Cheers. |
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,125
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Nov 28, 2023 21:21:13 GMT
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According to Anders Celsius there are no degrees in my shed tonight. I decided to use Kelvin because 273 degrees sounds like it should be warmer. Farenheit is just too weird for me to contemplate. If there are no degrees in the shed then I expect there to be less than none in the tent so I wouldn't be going there with my panel. This means that I have to get on with some more procrastinating in the shed. Last night I threatened to drill an extra hole in that bracket so I did that first, before I forgot all about it.  I welded it back up again, which is what I seem to be doing these days.  It's a bit blobby because I lingered too long on the trigger but I CBA to file it off because it is going to be hidden inside the panel. Now I need something else to waste a bit of time on. A while ago I fitted these extra bits above the front subframe mounts.  I'm sure they do a good job of strengthening that bit but it is just relying on extra material rather than science for that strength. What if I could triangulate it? Pythagoras liked triangles and if they are good enough for him then they are good enough for me.  There is a similar platey thing at the other side.  This also looked like it was in desperate need of a hypotenuse.  Obviously, with my anti-corrosion obsession I had to paint the insides.  Before I stuck them on.   That is another evening of time wasting completed.  I might have some ice cream to warm myself up, I fancy a bit of raspberry ripple.  Cheers. |
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braaap
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,748
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I'm still wondering why You should mention a former balear car company that built very vintage looking kit cars based on 2CVs, but I just can't be ahaharsed to ask You for details. Have a CBA Condetha (pronounciation adjusted):  |
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,125
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Nov 30, 2023 21:00:03 GMT
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Hello campers. It happened to be quiz night last night and we managed to prevail for once more. Actually a five point gap to the runners up so it was quite a convincing victory. Didn't get the football question again because I know nothing about it. It was, which team has the nickname, The Valiants? Anyway, that was last night. I was definitely planning on going in the shed tonight, despite the snow. I got all my jobs sorted and it was looking like I would be getting home early but it didn't happen as I ended up having to go on a mercy mission instead which meant that I was much later home than normal. I've mentioned this before, and I am sure this kind of thing happens to other people as well, but, parcel deliveries... I have this on my back door.  But this is what I kept getting.  Today they actually made it to the shed door.  But left them out in the snow/sleet so I now have wet parcels, which is mildly annoying if they are for me but not ideal if they are presents to be passed on to Santa. Maybe I need to draw a diagram to explain how the coal shed door latch works because it is quite complicated.  Maybe I expect too much of people? That is two nights in a row without any work on the old banger, I must try harder. Hopefully, normal service will be resumed tomorrow. Cheers. |
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braaap
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,748
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Perhaps they are not allowed to open a door?  You probably need one of those letter/parcel box combinations, perhaps they are trained on how to use these? But I don't think so myself, they rather are just lazy gits always in a hurry. |
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or, more likely ,they are focused on putting parcel down to photograph it for PoD .... still irrating though |
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,353
Club RR Member Number: 64
Member is Online
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I think you'll find they're not supposed to open doors; other than porch ones that they can clearly see what's behind before they open them.
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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our neibours have a lidded plastic box with parcels written on it, most of the couriers seem to manage to get the parcels in the box.
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our neibours have a lidded plastic box with parcels written on it, most of the couriers seem to manage to get the parcels in the box. My sister in law had this and I kid you not they had to fit a single handed opening system (hinges on rear and a bright red rope to front top) as the couriers kept breaking the boxes trying to open them without activating brain function. We live in a world where people with 2 legs struggle to operate 3 pedals....... |
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