rob_bell said:

It is absolutely nuts!!! I investigated a lock up garage near the local garage. The price wanted for it is astronomical: any bit of any, anything, is now being prime residential development land, even without any planning permission. Result: nothing left for the small business person or hobbyist

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Yep nightmare. Nearly 20 years ago I was convinced the whole housing situation would implode and there would be angry peasants with pitch forks at the gates of Buck house / Westminster. Didn't happen. Doesn't look like it will ever happen. Don't under estimate the power of ambivalence and blind sheepish acceptance!

More of the English wheel frame.



Little bit of internal bracing on the bends



(Just tacked in place with MMA - not pretty - doesn't have to be - won't be seen - not like I'm posting up pictures of it on the internet or anything like that...)

Still bucking the trends since the 1970s - I don't care what anyone says - welding thin sheet (this is 2mm thick) is best with out a gap! {OK I agree that 2mm is pushing it a bit, but I've been careful and DC TIGed the joints so they haven't warped (well I say haven't warped - it looks good so far!)}



So this is the plan - bit different from most English wheel frame designs I think. I'm not sure if it is unique - could have been done before but so far google images hasn't shown me something similar...







Bit of a filleting job needed of course

All I can say is it's a good job you don't get easily distracted by random stuff or your grit blasting cabinet wont , oh wait it was the English wheel..no it was spray booth no no that wasn't it Ah yes it was the rust removal/electro plating. No it's gone you will have to remind me what you started doing. Got it you were doing something to a Merc or am I crossing forum, forums? forea? internet sites!

LordOWar said:

All I can say is it's a good job you don't get easily distracted by random stuff or your grit blasting cabinet wont , oh wait it was the English wheel..no it was spray booth no no that wasn't it Ah yes it was the rust removal/electro plating. No it's gone you will have to remind me what you started doing. Got it you were doing something to a Merc or am I crossing forum, forums? forea? internet sites!

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Yeah that's right - I think that was the plan - yeah I'm quite sure that was it...

...wasn't it?

Distraction?





Distraction?

Stretch said:

Distraction?

View attachment 124883

View attachment 124884

Distraction?

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Ooooooooo, that looks like fun. Errr, Wot is it?

Ooops, just reread the previous posts. Good luck with it, they look like fun.

BTW, what do you think of the chop saw? I've been looking into buying one but can't make my mind up whether to go for one like yours or one with a metal toothed blade.

Alibro said:

Ooooooooo, that looks like fun. Errr, Wot is it?

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Sorry - I thought I had explained.

I'm building an English wheel - well the frame at the moment.

The usual way of doing it is to make an over sized C clamp like this =>



I have had an idea in my head for a few years now about re-inventing the (English) wheel. See these "single row" frames are known the stretch and bend. Many just go for thicker and thicker walled tubing which makes it very heavy: Perhaps as heavy as one of these beauties =>



In a bid to try and make something that can sit on a bench top and still be moved about (with out that fork lift truck I still haven't got) but have enough stiffness to perform well, I've decided to use thin wall tubing but in a doubled up construction. With any luck it'll come good.

######

The reason for having an English wheel is to smooth out / make curved shapes in sheet metal. It is a nice and quiet method of metal shaping (that unfortunately requires great skill I haven't got)

Do you remember this bit for the bulkhead?



With an English wheel I should be able to smooth out that curve (I bent by hand) and make it gucci.

Alibro said:

BTW, what do you think of the chop saw? I've been looking into buying one but can't make my mind up whether to go for one like yours or one with a metal toothed blade.

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I would much prefer to have the metal saw version but - wow - have you seen the price of the blades? (And I'm not sure a single phase electric motor would be man enough for it - might be better off with 3 phase versions - also more expensive)

Despite it not being as nice as the metal saw version I think it is a good compromise - doing something like this frame work and being able to cut at 90 degrees helps one heck of a lot.

Alibro said:

...
Ooops, just reread the previous posts. Good luck with it, they look like fun.

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All cool

Here's a video showing the kind of things you can do



Hair cut is not obligatory... [EDIT: Hair cut not a problem in this video actually - there's another one out there however...]

Respite from the welding - day off today. Time for some fun.


Back in time - way back when in the days of yore - I had a go with HTS 2000 aluminium welding sticks as a potential hole filling material for Birmabright

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/1965-series-2a-station-wagon-in-holland.298002/page-21

It didn't work out very well - that thickly applied HTS 2000 stuff warped the panel =>



There's little way of adding a similar thickness of HTS 2000 in the holes - so there's no way I can see how to use this stuff (or the many others like it) as a hole filler on sheet aluminium with out getting some distortion



Thicker new material contracts when cooling to make this kind of a cock up =>



########

So I suppose I have to make a new quarter panel (after messing that one up even more). Buying a new one is possible but they seem to be retailing at about 70 quid a side...

########

Having also bought a load of 5251 aluminium (way way back in time too) I'm good to go



#######

Using a bit of 1.2mm thick sheet I marked out the basic shape



I didn't fancy digging out the jig saw (as it turned out I needed to do this anyway) but decided to dedicate a small cutting disc to "aluminium only" because you don't want to push steel fragments into aluminium and start off that white powdery corrosion before you fit it to the Land Rover!



As usual rough cuts made around the shape - then trimmed with tin snips (and yes they ought to be specially reserved for "aluminium only" too)



Remember this distraction?

Well it has already been used for Land Rover things! Wow!

The bottom of the panel has a joggled edge that fits behind the sill side skirts



I forgot to take a picture of that bit being made - sorry - you can see it later (below)


The tipping wheel was put back on and used to try and make the curved flip bit





Unfortunately the bloke using the tipping wheel isn't very experienced yet and he managed to put a curve in the bit that was meant to be flat...

...nuts...

...so he then wrapped the edge in botch tape and stuck it in the stretching jaws =>



(Shrinking and stretching jaws shown above - you can see how by squeezing these things together you can apply a sideways pulling or pushing motion to either stretch or shrink metal - simple geometry - no rocket science - no voodoo)



It kind of helped a bit but despite the padding from the botch tape the jaws started to mark the aluminium (no great surprise) so I decided to stop





So plan C came into force - hammer form (Plan A was tipping wheel - Plan B was correcting tipping wheel error with stretching jaws)



(You can see in the picture above I've done the bendy bits on the side of the panel and you can also the joggled edge I forgot to show at the bottom of the panel)



So cutting out some scrap plywood and using a router to make a depression in the end for the joggle step =>



Firmly clamped =>



Tapping with hammer at the edge - turns out the crease made by the tipping wheel in the metal helps direction - so all of plan A wasn't lost...



...also turns out I should have spent more time trying to find a plastic faced hammer as the metal one did leave a few marks...



...still the panel is now flat where it should be and curved where it should be...



There's a little bit of fettling to be done and some holes to be punched as well as a reinforcing strip to be spot welded in place so...



...to be continued (but don't be surprised if I end up getting distracted by the welding again)

Good job!

Distractions, distractions...

...bad enough with Mrs May being so "strong and stable"...

...Katy Perry's new hair cut (which reminds me of a few times I've seen a conquest come out of the shower and thought - oh dear!)...

...and worrying about these strange females =>



(What are they doing?)

To top it all off I got these in the post today =>



They don't work (apparently) so I'll have fun seeing what makes them tick (possibly literally). Might use them if I can fix them - might not - they are after all post 1968 Land Rover additions (according to the Jame Taylor book) so can not strictly be seen as "original optional" for a 1965 series 2a station wagon.

(In other news - progress has been made - I'm in the process of collating and summarising and doing my best to think of ways of showing welding and metal bashing in an interesting light - might fail with that one!)

Very confused by the video. That doesn't look like a fun toy at all.

As for cutting ally with a grinder I found it is much better if you have a speed control and turn it down to quite slow. A full speed grinder melts its way through instead of cutting and leaves a nasty edge.

There isn't much to a freewheeling hub, they seem to get crud in them and they seize up.

Alibro said:

Very confused by the video. That doesn't look like a fun toy at all.

As for cutting ally with a grinder I found it is much better if you have a speed control and turn it down to quite slow. A full speed grinder melts its way through instead of cutting and leaves a nasty edge.

Click to expand...

The little battery powered Bosch thing I have doesn't spin so fast under load so I didn't get that trouble. But point taken - a very good excuse to think about buying a nibbler! (Although the cheapest way might be to use a jig saw that I've already got) The cuts that I make are also "broad cuts" - I trim under more controlled circumstances with tin snips to try and avoid cock ups (!)

LordOWar said:

There isn't much to a freewheeling hub, they seem to get crud in them and they seize up.

Click to expand...

Well that's good news.

I don't suppose you (or anyone else) know(s) anything about "Selectro" as a brand / company?

From the little I have gleaned from the interweb they seem to have started as a company called Husky: American company that was building overdrives to compete with Warn. They got bought out by an other company called Mile Marker (who apparently still do spares and sells freewheel hubs for trucks and other off road vehicles). It seems (from internet chat) that this Selectro brand started in about 1970ish with this strange old fashioned (almost 1950s) look / style to them.

I'm not sure if Selectro were one of the authorised companies that Land Rover used to enhance the usability / variability of their product. Anyone know?

Wow - looking back - it has been ages since I actually got something done on the bulkhead. I know lots of days have past but I think I'm only on =>

BULKHEAD (partial) DAY SEVEN

(I think that's correct - I'm only counting the half days I'm actually working on the bulkhead and not including all of those lovely distractions)

This bit I have named "the middle bit". It is one of the middle bits - in this case it can be seen from the inside

I'm quite sure the lads from Project Binky would be impressed with this genuine CAD design - in this case it is actually cardboard and not my usual masking tape or paper aided design...



Made up a quick plywood template



And a second for the other side - using Black and Decker power file to make them more or less the same shape.



Transferring shape to bit of Zincor and cutting out with snips



(The length of the Zincor has already had a bend put along it which I have skipped in the pictures)

As before - hammer form - clamping the plywood firmly and whacking with hammers / air rivet gun



This time I got some big folds that didn't seem like they were going to cooperate...



...so for the sake of cracking on (!) I cut the bugger out.



It will be welded later on



Quick check to see if I'm barking up the right tree with the hammer form shapes - comparing with the bought door pillar replacement part.

With a bit of fettling I reckon it'll come good



########

I got to play with the hole punches today. (All very exciting)

Pilot drill - drill again - drill to over size so you have wiggle room to fit the punch in the position you want



Bit of cutting oil on the punch



Bob's ya auntie



##########

Back to the boring - trimming edges



Now that's man's swarf!



Flipping hammer forms other way for the t'other end of the panel





Cut again - will be welded later



After a bit more trimming and a bit more bending I've got a new middle bit =>



Because I couldn't transfer all of the information from the old part (still on the bulkhead) onto the new by careful measurement I've decided to cut the old one out of position slowly so I can use it as a stencil



So destroyed bits will still be of some use to help transfer positions of holes and such =>



######

During this process the bulkhead is slowly being dismantled from the inside out...



...the next bit is a bit more tricky (I need to go slow and not arse it up!)

BULKHEAD (partial) DAY EIGHT

Bit of a lost day today - too much time spent scratching me nuts trying to find ways of causing the least amount of damage - too much time kicking myself for forgetting about the bit on the other side...

...carnage!

Subject of this post: Finishing off removal of the "middle bit" started in the previous post (see above)

I started out sedately enough with a bit of CAD - well I suppose it could be called MTAD or even MAD cos of the masking tape.



These are the holes for the wires and bits that go to the gauges



On the front side of the bulkhead I grew some and went a cutting (messed up a few bits actually - will show the damage some other time once I've cheered myself up!)



Cutting out the ends of the "middle bit"



In this picture you can see how I've made several cuts in this back of the dashboard "middle bit" to get the pocket structure of the bulkhead away from the main parts.

(In case someone is really trying to figure stuff out for their own rebuild => Note an orientation change has occurred - I've rotated the bulkhead 180 degrees to reach bits - so these pictures are showing the other end - thus different position from the previous pictures)



You can see that "the middle bit" is spot welded to a strengthening web that is connected to the front outer section of the bulkhead and then spot welded to the foot wells



The serious damage under the "middle bit" is now easier to see in the corners =>

(RHS / Driver's side RHD vehicle)



(LHS / Passenger side RHD vehicle)



#########

I've been ignoring it up until now - thought a bit about it - but mainly ignored it so far: The panel on the inner side of the vents is utterly buggered.

This is the bit that'll either make or break this bulkhead.

[Dramatic music in the background]

If I can't make this panel them I'm up poo creek with out a paddle...

...Pegasus parts make the bit =>

http://www.pegasusparts.co.uk/oursh...amp-Nut-Plates-Type-1-1958-to-early-1967.html



No price given / not available / made to order / gets sent in its own specially made box =>

Cuh ching



There must be a way - but it is a surprisingly complicated bit

(English wheel frame update)

Only had a bit of time to do some welding today - kind of therapeutic distraction - put in some corner bracing...



...still not stiff enough - need to add more...

...trying to keep it light...