New Gloves

  Last week wasn't very exciting so didn't bother with an update, I only go one night on it so just finished off hole in the rear near side arch. I also moved on to the rear bumper hangers. This worried me, I cant seem to get one to fit anywhere near right so I've asked advice on VZi and I'm waiting to see what comes from that before I finish is off.

So tonight I got both of the front bumper hangers tacked in place and welded to the spare wheel well panel.
If you have been following this, you will know that I cut the existing ones off a while ago but I've not touched them since welding the spare wheel well in place. I've been putting off welding in these panels worried about the alignment and that it may be a bit too difficult for my ability. So tonight I had no choice but to start them and not that bad.

Cleaned up ready for new panel

First panel clamped up

Once the original surface was cleaned up, next was to bolt up the new panel to the wing bolt holes and marked it out for trimming. Once trimmed I aligned and clamped up the new panel and welded it to the spare wheel well and the lower part of the main body frame work. I didn't got too far up the frame, I want to get the rest of the panel chopped and aligned before I do this.

Levelling up the bumper

Now came what I thought was the hard bit. I bolted up the new panel and then bolted up the front bumper. I used a spirit level on the flattest part of the body I could find (beeltes are very curvy!) and used a jack to level up the body. Next I placed a piece of wood between the bumper irons and placed another spirit level on top of this to correctly align the bumper mounts. After about 20 minutes of tweaking and clamping, I finally got it all level and then welded up the second panel in the same way as the first.

First panel in

Second panel in

I decided to wear my new glove today that have a second layer of leather on the finger, just as well as I put the grinder through the top layer!

I was thinking the other day that I've probably saved myself around £2k so far by making the decision to weld it myself. When I started this I was a bit scared doing all the welding myself but now not I'm starting to find it more enjoyable.