|
|
Post by John Kanters on Mar 13, 2012 20:24:02 GMT -8
Been chipping away at the side panels the last couple of nights, decided that it would be better to make a whole new section rather than patching the rusted out piece. I figure these cars were not primer dipped at the factory? its weird because there's paint inside the rear quarters yet in other places its completely bare steel!!  Again the bead roller to the rescue! man that thing has been handy.............. Made cardboard templates and traced those onto sheetmetal, with the one pattern I was able to make both left and right sides. Got the RH one trimmed pretty well and sitting in there with panel clamps, will sandblast and prime inside the rear quarter first before the new section gets welded in.  Also tried some sandblasting on the panels I drilled off the car, I bought one of those Harbor freight pressurised blasting tanks which really work awesome! Filthy job but hey thats life....... Not sure wether I'll blast the whole car myself, probably will but the enthusiasm for that may run out before then. |
|
|
|
Post by John Kanters on Mar 17, 2012 12:43:56 GMT -8
Got up this morning to see a wet driveway and thought OH GREAT here goes a week of prep down the toilet, not much good sandblasting outside when its raining! Anyways headed off to work and finished making the other side C pillar panel which has sorted another big hole. Also final fit / trimmed the big panel so thats ready to be welded in now.  By lunchtime I looked outside to see the sun and pretty clear skies so looks like sandblasting is back on the program!  Pushed the body outside and layed out a big tarp to make recycling the sand a bit easier as it seems to catch 80% of it. Spent quite a few hours blasting the rear area where I've been making stuff for, quite nice to see some of the rust vaporised. Plan was to blast the whole area then epoxy prime it but as per usual the NZ weather threw a spanner in that plan and started spitting as I was finishing blasting so the mad rush was on to get the bare metal back inside.  Thats what I hate about NZ weather, often you get all 4 seasons in 1 day  Not much point priming it after getting a little wet so I ended up acid washing the whole area, next week I can clean the acid off and prime it. After all of that its actually not a dumb idea to acid wash it as in some places the metal is very pitted and chances are some rust will remain but the acid should take care of that. Other areas look like swiss cheese, more metal to be replaced Maybe the badge on the front should be Fiat...............   |
|
|
|
Post by John Kanters on Mar 24, 2012 13:50:54 GMT -8
Finaly feel like I've turned the corner with this rear area since the welding has begun, no longer does it feel like I'm just tearing stuff apart anymore. Got all the holes pre drilled in the new panels and also epoxy primed inside the rear chassis legs before welding the new stuff in. Finished final fit on the smaller shelf which will get welded in next, just have it located with a bunch of screws right now. Idealy I wanted to re blast the area I did last week but watching the weather it said there would be rain so I flagged that and did a bunch of other rust repairs instead.   Repaired both lower corners of the body where it meets the pan, finished off the rear wheel house and also around one of the heater outlets, funny thing was that as I finished up for the day the sun was still out so could have done blasting anyway! You can never tell..................    |
|
|
|
Post by John Kanters on Mar 30, 2012 22:12:29 GMT -8
Bit of an update from this last week with the welding, got the rear bulkhead / firewall back in the right spot and also welded in the new panels below the C pillar. When I removed the parcel shelf I found the ends of the box section under it to be quite rusty so rather than patch them I folded up a new one. With the side panels in place I could finally measure the length it needed to be and finish that piece. Trial fitted the parcel shelf held in with some bolts giving me the exact place to weld in the new box section. Also finished and installed the small lower back seat shelf as well.   The small corner pieces at the C pillar were completely rusted through so new ones had to be fabbed up. I used one of the old ones to make some cuts so that I could squash it flat to be able to make a card pattern. With that done I traced it on to metal. cut it out and folded it. Bit of extra hammer / dolly work to get the rounds and curves in it like the original. Welded up the cut lines and ground up it looks just like the original, now to make a reverse one for the other side!  Saturday morning I started on one of the C pillars, best way forward was just to make a new one and replace the whole thing. Again a card template to give the rough shape did the trick and with a combination of hammer / dolly and the bead roller we have this...........almost ready to weld in    Seeing as the weather was playing ball this afternoon I decided to re blast the interior rear area plus all my welded bits and prime them. Since it was just the remainder of the gluggy acid that was left it came off in a big hurry so I kept going and also did the top of the rear compartment as well as the water drain area right at the back and inside the C pillar while its cut apart (well whats left of it anyway............) All epoxied it sure looks a whole lot different now than that rusty mess I had before.   |
|
|
|
Post by Jürgen Klein on Mar 31, 2012 6:43:52 GMT -8
What a lot of work ! Great work !
Everytime I see this I feel very lucky that my 34 was not rusty so much as yours , especial at that places .
Jürgen
|
|
|
|
Post by Lee Hedges on Mar 31, 2012 9:05:51 GMT -8
What an amazing quality of work, John! Your T34 is so lucky to have you as its caretaker! It could not be in better hands.
|
|
Tom Reay
Pro
Central California USA Rep
Posts: 74
|
Post by Tom Reay on Mar 31, 2012 9:19:54 GMT -8
Amazing work!
It is almost a shame to cover it up with paint and upholstery.
|
|
|
|
Post by bobnotch on Mar 31, 2012 9:55:17 GMT -8
Amazing work! It is almost a shame to cover it up with paint and upholstery. Agreed. I just did that (covered with upholstery and carpet) on my own. Very nice metal work.  |
|
|
|
Post by John Kanters on Mar 31, 2012 13:18:42 GMT -8
Thanks for all the positive comments guys, I'm really enjoying it so far.
Its a funny thing but I always say its more about the journey rather than the destination, metal work like this has always facinated me so this project allows me to experiment and play with different techniques to make replacement parts and hopefully this thread can help others with their cars in the future too.
|
|
|
|
Post by John Kanters on Apr 14, 2012 19:33:17 GMT -8
Just a bit of an update from the last few weeks, been plugging on with finishing up the rear pillars and also welded the rear parcel tray back in along with the new lower C corner pieces I made.
Blasted and primed all the welded areas so now that whole rear inner area is nearly complete.
No pictures this week I'm afraid, going to get onto stripping the rear wheel tubs of all its underseal to enable the underside to be blasted and primed..................stripping underseal............fun fun fun!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by bobnotch on Apr 16, 2012 13:09:28 GMT -8
The easiest way I found to remove that underseal, is with a propane torch and a putty knife. It might sound "barbarack", but it does work pretty nice and easy.
|
|
|
|
Post by John Kanters on Apr 19, 2012 0:44:54 GMT -8
Been chipping away at the underseal the last couple of nights doing one wheel arch each night, I started out with the propane torch but that set the underseal alight so in the end a heat gun set at 300 C and a gasket scraper did the job very well. Didn't end up taking as long as first thought so both arches are ready for blasting, they look to be in pretty decent shape which is a nice surprise! Looks like Saturday is going to be a cracker weather wise so I'm going to make the most of it. Here's a couple of pics of the finished pillars too, not much to look at I know but its all progesss............    |
|
|
|
Post by Carsten Klein on Apr 19, 2012 2:05:33 GMT -8
great work ! thats kind of a complete rebuilding of a T 34 !!!!!!
awesome ... and ... good lesson for all guys looking for T 34 s now knowing and realizing where the problems are hidden in that cars
bodies
|
|
|
|
Post by Tobias Ebner on Apr 19, 2012 5:06:59 GMT -8
Wow... great work! Very very interesting thread...
|
|
|
|
Post by John Kanters on Apr 20, 2012 2:46:18 GMT -8
I got given some stripper discs to put on a grinder some time back so I thought I'd try them out tonight, wow what a violent affair!
They work awesome, doesn't heat the panel much at all unless you spend a long time in one place.
Stripped one whole rear quarter panel right down to bare metal in 30-35 minutes, also really good for doing right in the shallows of the swage line.
Uncovered a previous repair that had filler in it, quite a rough job with dent puller holes just left as they were so I spent a little time with a dolly and slap stick straightening the area out.
Still needs more work buts its 100% better already, have a high spot too giving the panel that oil can pop so that will need shrinking and all the holes welding up.
The aim is to repair the area so that little to no filler goes back in, I know the RH door also has a dent puller repair like the quarter has but I'll come to that in good time.
|
|
Thats what I hate about NZ weather, often you get all 4 seasons in 1 day 
