My First Disco

fair play mate...best colour

Just dropped 500 notes on new welding gear from weldequip

Going to order the panels from YRM next week, provided I don't get bankrupted by the sharks in our upcoming house purchase.

Luckily I have a good supply of Zintec from offcuts at work for the rest of the patches required, I did consider patching with stainless but I thought that might be a bit much...

Joel

Interesting project!
Before you set to on the car with the welder, if you've never welded before it'd be a good idea to have some practice on a bit of scrap steel.
4 or 5 hours practice should get some decent beads.
My welding isn't particularly fantastic but I seem to get the best results doing figure of 8 technique. Apparently that's the easiest???

Best of luck,

Jon.

Aye, I have a load of off cuts from work to practice on, plus the advice of a couple of our welders at work. We make commercial catering equipment, so the welds in stainless have to be perfect - taken some tips from those guys.

Joel

Firstly, a couple of new purchases

Halfords were doing a two for one offer on their industrial tool chests last weekend, so picked up this



Then I ordered my first mig welding kit from weldequip - have to add they have awesome customer service.

Gys smart mig 162, plus argon regulator and Syf helmet. Not fired up yet as I forgot to get a cylinder key



Back to the rust bucket

Managed to remove the rear quarter panel - took absolutely ages to get off, but now I know the best route, other one shouldn't be an issue. Cut out some of the major rust areas from it and started cleaning some of it up.



Continuing to try and remove the boot floor, but I need to remove the fuel tank first, fecking fuel line connector just twisted, so will need replacing



Then the nuts on the carrier mounts rounded off, so at present, the boot floor still remains in.



You can just about see the bend in the rear crossmember in this pic

Looks like its had some kind of previous repair, all thought not sure why as the other side is different

Left:


Right:


Couple of questions

1) is the rear arch liner thing removable? Would help with welding and means I can rust proof in the inside
2) is it ok to take the metal back to bright metal, even if its pitted from rust? I was planning to fertan it all before welding

Not sure how I'll get the thing off my drive to turn it round to get to the other side. May need some assistance from someone local to tow it off so I can turn it round.

Going to order the panels and stuff I need from YRM tomorrow, and I have some zintec plate being fabricated for patching work.

That's it so far, but the goal is to have it ready for the northern laning trip in April....

New update,

Other quarter panel out



Boot floor out



The last owner must have driven though a swamp judging by the amount of mud stuck to the chassis.



Also looks like the sedimenter has been bypassed at some point, and I found out what the additional wires are for running over the boot floor - the loom for the fuel sender looks like it got chopped and they just bodged it.

Next jobs are to pull all the loom out and then pressure wash the whole lot, wire brush all the chassis and then treat with fertan then paint it. Once that's done I can weld in new inner wing panels and floor supports.

Additionally I need a new fuel tank support, as its rusted away.

Slowly getting there

Slow progress at the moment, it looks like we are gonna be moving house within the next month or so, we've had our offer accepted on the house we wanted, so I'm now in the process of being taken for a ride by solicitors.

I need to remove the fuel tank so I can finish the boot repairs, however it needs new pipes and connectors, which means it won't be drivable once I take the tank out. There ain't much space to tow out, and our drive slopes, I'm gonna have to drive it out. It's gonna have to be trailered to the new house and driven down the drive again - although at least now I'll have a garage I can work from, and will be able to get all the way round without having to turn it round. (If anyone knows a decent vehicle mover in Doncaster / Rotherham let me know - the thing only needs moving about 5 miles)

So I've started on some of the other bits - removed passenger seat and carpet - given how wet it was I'm surprised there was only surface rust underneath. Will probably remov the front wings for a better inspection tomorrow

Gd work, keep it up!

cracking job, thought my dashboard was bad enough, this is inspiring.

I really like the color! :cool2:

Small update, we are looking to move in the second week of Jan - provided the solicitors get their finger out, so I'm not doing anything that would mean I can't move the sucker.

However, the alternator is shagged as far as I can work out, I get nothing out of it when the engine is running. Are the Denso 100amp aftermarket ones OK? I didn't fancy a ****part or unbranded model. I've no idea what model the current one is, or whether its worth trying to refurb it.

Secondly, if the fuel sender electrics are disconnected, will it still pull diesel through? Mine was mangled before I started, but is a lot worse now after I pulled the floor out.

Trying to work out if I will be able to drive it out, or if I will need a winch as well as a tow truck / trailer.

Nice work :0)

Great work, got any updates???

Love the colour

Finally, an update of sorts. Our house purchase went though on Friday morning. So despite being delayed by a few hours, after several trips in the van to drop off all the house ****, it was time for the disco to move.

Unfortunately it had decided that it didn't like starting anymore, and all the air fell out of one of its tyres. So, a battery and a couple of booster packs later and it moved out of the drive. I may need a new starter motor now though!







I don't have any pictures of her new resting place - but I do now have a garage and space to work round it, so I will get some pictures this weekend.

Been a little quiet on the disco front.

She's still sat waiting for the rain to stop so I can start the work. In the mean time I've been working on the house and garage (garage mainly, much to the annoyance of the mrs)



Floor has been levelled with epoxy leveller, and painted with epoxy paint. The whole of the internal brickwork has been repointed and then painted. New UPVC windows to replace what was left of the wooden rotten ones

I've also removed the rather shabby electrics



And the 2.5mm cable strung over the house:



And started installing the new electrics. 2 x 10MM SWA cable to be buried under the drive.



When summer arrives, it needs re-roofing, the external either re-pointing or rendering, new facias and soffets as they are all rotten.

I want to fit a taller garage door also so I can get the disco fully in, but I'm not sure if i can get one to fit.

Finally making some progress.

Garage is now finished, with the exception of the electrics, but I'm getting the drive block paved so the SWA cables will go in then,





I picked some some cheap ebay shelving which is actually pretty good.



Got the disco fired up and moved up the drive, finished removing the boot floor and then got the pressure washer out.



Unfortunately I have found a few little issues - they are in really akward areas I couldn't inspect when I bought it.

The big round crossmember is OK, but the brackets are like Swiss cheese

Left


Right



Unfortunately the hole goes right though into the chassis rails



I think I will have to cut the floor out to get to it to weld in repair patches, as I don't have the facility to lift the body off.

Other than that, the chassis is pretty good, there is some surface rust, and some pitting in areas, but nothing too bad.

And i managed to cover the interior with the mud and **** stuck to the chassis...