rechassis or not - help please

Marmaduke said:

Should be a relatively straight forward swap whilst you've got it stripped down and I did mine all myself. Amazing what you can teach yourself to do when you're skint......

Mine looked like this



All depends on who's doing the work and how deep your pockets are....

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Thats amazingly bad!

Smack the rusty bits with a decent hammer, if it doesnt bend or dent its good enough to go again, it really is that simple.
Galv chassis is nice, mate just done his, but the amount of time and money he spent as he found other stuff is unreal!
Basically apart from the tatty body its nearly a new car
Dont forget defender bits are always worth money on the bay of e

lynall said:

Smack the rusty bits with a decent hammer, if it doesnt bend or dent its good enough to go again, it really is that simple.
Galv chassis is nice, mate just done his, but the amount of time and money he spent as he found other stuff is unreal!
Basically apart from the tatty body its nearly a new car
Dont forget defender bits are always worth money on the bay of e

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Well - some clarity at last in my fogged brain:clap2:. Just logged in with my latest idea which is pretty much what you're saying Lynall.
The MOT tester is the judge so ...hold on .....bang bang bang... see pic

I tapped with a pointy panel hammer which got the main chunks off; tapped in a few places that were good (like new) and could definitely get the indent of the hammer there too. I think she may go again for a few more years. I'm gonna get the bump stops of next and check there but this is definitely helping me decide it could be worse.

any welders from saltash Plymouth on this site - I think patching may be the answer and a new spring and brake line hanger.

Very good, it certainly doesn't look as bad as mine, a couple of coats of POR15 once your welding has been done and I'm sure it'll last years. It would be a shame to strip it and then sell it, you could always pick yourself a used mig welder of ebay and do it yourself, you'd be surprised how easy it is with a bit of practice, my mig welder must have paid for itself a few times over and I think I paid about £100 off ebay a few years ago.

Marmaduke said:

Very good, it certainly doesn't look as bad as mine, a couple of coats of POR15 once your welding has been done and I'm sure it'll last years. It would be a shame to strip it and then sell it, you could always pick yourself a used mig welder of ebay and do it yourself, you'd be surprised how easy it is with a bit of practice, my mig welder must have paid for itself a few times over and I think I paid about £100 off ebay a few years ago.

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I'm tempted by the welder - I have to admit I even have a qualie in it from nearly 30years ago. I knew I'd blagged it though which is why I am so ashamed of myself and weeping on landy zone.

I guess that's not a first thou...

When it comes to owning a tratter a welder is a worthwhile investment, if your chassis is in that state I bet your footwells aren't far behind, just take your time, practice on some scrap and remember if you do a really crap job you can always get the grinder on it and start again

the bulkhead footwells are gone. Repairable with a welder..........cheap too...............
I have a fiesta with dodgy sills to practice on- real tights snaggers. 11.9 5 months MOT so plenty time to get it right.
I hear ya. any models come recommended for the task?

I've got a Clarke 105 and I wished it was a bit more powerful.

Have a read....http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f16/what-size-makes-mig-welder-266368.html

With welders bigger is normally better, you can then turn them down and they work fine, but small welders working at full chat are crap, do the job.

Marmaduke said:

I've got a Clarke 105 and I wished it was a bit more powerful.

Have a read....http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f16/what-size-makes-mig-welder-266368.html

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Think it's always the same, I bought a sealey 150 and would like something better.
Or at least something with a proper power knob as opposed to 2 switches.

aaronmorris said:

Think it's always the same, I bought a sealey 150 and would like something better.
Or at least something with a proper power knob as opposed to 2 switches.

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I bought a Sealey Supermig 185 around 5 years ago and although not without its problems, it seems to weld pretty much anything i need. I did change the wire from .6 to .8 and this has made a massive difference. Much easier to fill any holes that usually appear with rusty metal.

bigsam said:

I bought a Sealey Supermig 185 around 5 years ago and although not without its problems, it seems to weld pretty much anything i need. I did change the wire from .6 to .8 and this has made a massive difference. Much easier to fill any holes that usually appear with rusty metal.

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I too changed from .6 to .8.
To be honest it does what I want it to do and I wont buy anything better for how little I use it. As much as I'd like too.
I find the power switches don't offer enough variety. But I've managed up press.

The Supermig has adjustable wire feed speed and 6 power settings but tbh, i tend to leave the wire speed alone once set and then only the power settings 1,2 and 3. havent welded anything yet that needed more grunt than 3.

If possible get a welder with as much adjustability as possible, even if you think you won't need it, as you progress and hone your technique you will realise some slight adjustment would make all the difference. For example, welding on an outrigger: The horizontal fillet weld along the top of the chassis rail will require a slightly different setting to the vertical up stringer you'll do on the side of the rail and a slight adjustment again for the overhead weld required along the bottom. Not saying you can't do it all on the one setting and any welder that gets people out there welding stuff is great, just consider having the having the adjustment to improve and progress your skill in the future.