Having prepped the floor panel as described in my previous post it was once again secured in place.
Before committing myself it seemed sensible to check we were where we needed to be for the subframe mounting so the subframe and fittings were located and after a quick check of the parts book to refresh my memory of the correct order of assembly the subframe was attached on the passenger side. It also then jacked up against the repaired chassis leg which confirmed the mounting was slap bang in the middle which was a relief.
Just out of curiosity and to further reassure that there were no major alignment issues I then sat the inner wing onto the subframe mounts.
Again, all looked OK Nothing left but to weld the floor to the chassis rail and the original floor then.
I hate plug welding but we got there. Welds need dressing back, that will be a job for next time.
A few more hours spent covering the garage floor with Steel filings today!
I wanted to be confident I have not or would not introduce a twist in the shell given the extent of surgery it's been through.
I started by getting the rear of the car set level by putting some shims under one side of the Dolly it sits on. This achieved I then checked the unmolested parts of the front floors were also level, they were.
So I then again fitted the subframe to the existing mounts on the passenger side and jacked it up until it contacted the repaired Driver's side chassis leg via the mounting rubber. This done the inner wing was loosely put in place and the front subframe mount which it provides was bolted up. I then checked for level on both the subframe and between the inner wings, worryingly I didn't have it. I must admit I started imagining all manner of corrective surgery. Taking a step back I also noticed the inner wing wasn't tight against the bulkhead. The subframe seemed to be pulling it forward. The critical subframe mounts seem to be the front pair. There's a tube in the inner wing into which a rubber cup engages this cup is tapered and sits in a corresponding tapered cup in the subframe. The rears have a much more relaxed set up and it occurred to me that that may have enough tolerance to allow the subframe to sit at an angle when only one side was fixed. I slackened the bolts off and was then able to obtain a degree of fore/aft movement on the inner wing. Crucially we now had the bubbles where we wanted them! Phew
I quickly drilled for a few self tappers to enable me to find the correct position in future.
Moving on, with the correct relative position of the inner wing settled I was able to mark the position for the crush tube in the chassis leg. I also discovered that the tube I'd robbed from the pattern leg was slightly undersized evidenced by the fact the mounting rubber was not a friction fit on it, critical? Possibly not but a quick rummage revealed electrical conduit was a perfect size so I made a new tube and pad up.
Chassis leg was then drilled to accept the tube which was then welded in. During my alignment experiments I'd also settled on the correct place to weld the bulkhead return flange to the floor panel so this was plug welded in place too.
Final task was to fill the holes in the bulkhead where spot welds had previously been drilled out and this and the plug welding from the previous session was cleaned up and given a quick coat of primer.
I'm thinking that the logical next step is to crack on and reattach the inner wing whilst everything is to hand to assist with alignment. The only downside to this being its been quite handy having the extra floor space at the front of the car whilst it's off!
Continuing the alignment checks I pulled the new inner front panel out of storage and offered it up.
Further reassurance obtained. The panel sat level horizontally and also each side was precisely the same distance from the bulkhead when a tape measure was offered.
For completeness I then clamped up the inner wing bracing panel to confirm it would sit nicely which it did.
The rest of the session was spent making small repair patches for the inner wing. Technically its a new panel but diligent readers will recall it had already been fitted to the car once and whilst I was successful in removing it for reuse there are three areas where new metal needs letting in. No photos as yet of this. I will get some next time.
Got a bit sidetracked fixing the flashing on my roof today which seems to have moved in the recent Gales so only managed a couple of hours.
Repairs made to the Inner wing as discussed in my last update.
I didn't go to town grinding back the welds in most cases as they are invisible once on the car.
I then spent some time providing holes on all relevant flanges for spot welding and priming same before welding.
Final activity for the day was to rescue a piece of bar from the old Inner wing which I kept despite cutting it off around 30 years ago. I knew it would come in useful! Said piece of bar goes from the suspension turret through the reinforcement panel and is welded to the turret and reinforcement. I assume it provides some additional rigidity. I will need to clean it up ready for reuse.
Post by grumpynorthener on Oct 24, 2024 19:22:57 GMT
Said piece of bar goes from the suspension turret through the reinforcement panel and is welded to the turret and reinforcement. I assume it provides some additional rigidity.
Cant remember my inside leg measurement but I can remember the said piece of reinforcing bar from fitting a nearside chassis leg & inner wing to a accident damaged Dolomite 40 + years ago
Especially for Chris here is the infamous length of bar after cleaning up.
It protrudes through the reinforcer here
And welds to the turret top here
I concluded I had a better chance of doing the welding of the bar to the turret if the inner wing was still loose. The upper seam would be OK when the panel was fitted but the underside would be less convenient so everything was mocked up to determine where on the turret it needed to reside and also as a further confidence boost that everything lined up. So the reinforcer was positioned with reference to the splash panel, and the Wing was offered up to confirm everything looked OK
Looked OK so we could then tack the bar in place on the turret top.
Inner wing was then removed to allow the bar to be fully welded thus
Not the prettiest bead, however dear reader, that's exactly what it looked like from the factory so I'm not going to finesse it.
This was the final bit of prep required before the Inner wing went on for good so it was clamped and screwed in place for the final time and I then provided a further series of self tappers on the seam in the wheel arch to pull it tight as there was no access for clamps. Once in place I proceeded to undertake the plug welds (which I hate)
These were then ground back and checked for penetration.
It mostly went OK apart from making good one screw hole which was on the face of it was a trivial task but for some reason I managed to blow a massive hole in the (new) inner wing.
We then moved on to the welds to the chassis leg which were fairly straightforward.
As can be seen the leading edge of the chassis leg was dressed up to meet the underside of the Inner wing and this seam was seam welded, again as per the factory. I have a couple of metal tabs to trim back to tidy this area up and it will be done.
I also need to trim back the flange in the engine bay. Space is tight in this area as there are two steering column couplings that need clearance. Although the flange is spot welded the factory also edge welded this flange so I shall do likewise.
All in all a decent day's progress.
Next steps are to finish off the welds to the chassis leg and clean them all up and then get some protective primer on it all. Then I can fit the reinforcer, this needs a small amount of prep but shouldn't take too long.
The chassis leg mating flange was trimmed back to align with the flange on the inner wing and the already completed spot welds were supplemented with a continuous edge weld as per factory practice. A modicum of further seam welding was done to complete the chassis leg to Inner Wing joint and ground back where appropriate. This area will come under further scrutiny during the dry build stage to ensure clearance is adequate for the steering joints that occupy this area. I then welded the crush tube to the Inner Wing and ground off the excess length so that it sat flush with its surroundings.
Attention turned to the reinforcer. I spent some time finessing the profile of the flanges to get it sitting flush. I had not rsalised previously that I had pretty much destroyed a 75mm section of flange when releasing it from the donor so folded up a small repair section and let it in. I then provided holes ready to plug weld it.
Once cool all the mating flanges were primed and panel was clamped up and welded. Essentially a process of filling in the holes previously made when releasing the panel from the donor but I did add some extra holes where the factory hadn't, I suspect they couldn't reach that area with the spot welder, there was no obvious reason not to weld all of the flange that I could see.
Welds were then dressed back and a temporary coat of primer applied.
This allowed me to have a bit of a tidy round. I also loosely attached the subframe for no other reason than it was getting in the way propped up against the welder!
Very, very happy with this. Whilst a casual inspection of the mating flanges would make it obvious the car's had work, the panel shapes and joints are now as per the day it left the factory and the hideous bodges perpetrated by yours truly are consigned to the scrap bin.
Onwards then. Next for attention will be the Sill assembly on this side.
So with a fresh supply of brave pills we crack on.
First step was to give the bracing a review to satisfy myself it was going to cope with the total absence of Sill. I was happy with it in that regard but one thing did cross my mind. The car is sitting on wheeled Dolly frames. The rear ones are in the rear trailing arm mounts which are substantial, but welded to the floor, the floor which could soon be less than ideally rigid. After a close look at things I reassured myself that a simple extra vertical brace from the existing frame to the top of the floor area above the mounting would stop it moving up under the weight of the car. So an extra piece of box section was cut and welded in. I also provide two extra vertical pieces from the underside of the main lengthways brace to the top face of the inner sill with the aim that they will serve as location stops for the new sill. Both were positioned by specific features in the sill pressing to guide for and aft position although I'm not expecting there to be much scope for movement in that plane. Totally failed to photograph any of this so I hope my description is adequate.
Then the surgery commenced.
First step was to remove what's referred to as the Sill Diaphragm.
Which didn't take long, this allowed visibility of the full horror of my previous bodges to the Inner Sill, please don't judge me!
It was then a case of cut, grind, chisel and generally faff about to remove the Inner Sill, timed out before I got it totally removed so there's still about a foot left at the rear to remove.
There will be some remedial work required to the floor flanges before the new panel goes on. I also have better access to repair the box section under the front seat area I discovered was in need of attention when fitting the front floor.
Lost quite a bit of time getting all of the original outer Sill off from the underside of the B Post but perseverance paid. I do have a new one bought just in case but it looks like it's not going to be needed.
I'm on other duties for a couple of days, may get back on this on Friday.
Your fair racing along with this now, I like a splash of paint/primer it makes everything look loads better and a real mojo boost I find!
Thanks. Getting through my Dad DIY projects and finding more time to get stuck in.Totally agree with you about the primer, massive boost seeing everything a uniform colour.
These are the panels that will fill the gaping hole
Nearest is the inner sill, then there's the Sill Diaphragm, and furthest away is the outer Sill. Inner and outer are genuine Triumph parts, the Diaphragm comes from the club. Apart from the rear light panel, genuine factory panels are rare and you have to grab what you can, when you can.
The inner sill is damaged at the front.
Typically the damage is around the jacking point making it very difficult to Dolly out. I suspect I will have to remove the reinforcer and jack pad to have a chance of dressing this out, if may be quicker to just cut most of it out and let new metal in.
For a mojo boost the temptation to offer new metalwork up was too much to resist.
Outer Sill first.
Looking OK. Not discernible in the picture but the Sill has depressions to accommodate the foot of the A and B posts. They lined up perfectly! Comforting given the work undertaken on the A post.
I then offered the inner sill up.
Thought I'd taken two pics of this but apparently not. It's a tight fit and wouldn't quite rotate into place completely. Suspect this is partly due to its misshapeness. Ideally it could to with being 5-10mm shorter and it would drop in readily. It may well end up being adjusted that way in conjunction with the damage repair referred to earlier.
Consensus is the Factory fitted the Outer Sill and Diaphragm as a preassembled unit. The Diaphragm flange sits on a step in the bottom of the Sill and its spot welded in place.
It's very tricky to replicate that if your just replacing the outer so most people fabricate an L shaped piece which they weld to the base of the Diaphragm and then weld it to the flange of the Inner sill. Happily given we're changing the lot here I will be able to replicate factory practice. The Diaphragm needs a minor tweak at this end to follow the top flange faithfully.
And at this point there will be a pause in proceedings as deal with some other stuff domestically.
I managed to squeeze a couple of unplanned hours in yesterday so turned my attention to repair of the damage on the new inner sill.
Much of the damage lay around the jacking point and reinforcer. These were removed.
They panel was very crumpled so took quite some time to get it flat.
Once it was reasonably flat a review showed that we were no longer straight in two planes. The metal had clearly stretched, either as a result of the initial damage or my corrective hammering, or likely a combination of both.
I toyed with the idea of heat shrinking it but I've never had a go at this so decided the best option was to fabricate a new floor for the panel, a new section was fabricated. However that took the rest of the available time and that was as far as I got.
Pondering this later I did wonder if I would have been better off doing a full height repair, I discounted it as there's a pressed shape that would need replicating and also there's a threaded plate in the floor that would need removing too so I think I'll stick with this approach.
Nice, you have a decent selection of panels to keep you going!
I've had a policy over recent years of buying anything NOS that comes up unless I already have one. I also splashed out on quite a few things that have since become pure Rocking Horse manure way back when I first took the car off the road when supply was more available and not extortionately priced. All acquired just in case the original metal was too rough and it usually has been!
When I first got the 304 I should have stocked up on all sorts of parts. Especially mechanical parts as some of them are now difficult and expensive to source. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
