Ivan's coupe: bodywork is done

[corolla4agze]

what kind of accid you use to clean last rust bits from metal?

[jasper]

en ik heb een kaal chassi staan waar dit allemaal nog prima van is

[Ivan141]

I used HG rust dissolver, which is basically phosphoric acid in a 30% solution with some additives to make it thicker (and stick better).
It doesnt really dissolve much at this strenght.. but you can see where the metal turned black that it does convert some rust into something else.

I'm getting myself some foodgrade 75% acid soon which I have higher hopes for.

[Ivan141]

Done some more work. Decided to keep the original spring perches but change the shock pickup into something that will accept any old coilover without the need for custom top hats and hammer blows.
I'm getting the feeling I'll be welding for at least the next half year until things start to shape up the way I like them to on the levin..

Panhardsupport removed( +- 3 hours of work ):


Chassisbeam removed:


Damaged the whopping 0.5mm thick floorplate in the process.. but it wasnt looking great to start with:


Solution:


Some quick jigs for the suspension pickup points.



Reciprosaw is your friend with this type of stuff (3 layers of sheetmetal!)


Filled in the hole in the floor.


Welded up:


Made a start on my new chassis beam.. still needs a top and some reinforcement since I plan to run the suspension loads into this at some point:

[Bean]

I'm getting the feeling you would have been quicker building a car from scratch

Keep up the good work.

Fortunately I got plenty of time to attack the little rust I need to repair as it's got no chance to grow in this desert country

[Ivan141]

That's for sure.. building something anew is much easier. That's also why I start chopping off more rather then less when a bit of car is looking hopeless to begin with.

[Ivan141]

Been at it again:

Welded in some small patches just for originality's sake (hard to see because their zinksprayed and my phone takes crappy pictures).


After that I added a bit of floor back in, quite challenging to get big patches to fit:


The start of a turret:


After some more welding:


This is how it looks from the inside (for now):


The turret is not welded in yet, need to drill some welding holes and the shock pickup point in. The idea is to connect it to the chassis beam, but the panhard support is going to be a pain in the ass to get back in.
I was considering an inverted watts link, but I need to choose in order to be able to continue so I think I'll be putting the panhard back in. Can always add another tower and make it a regular watts link, it's just not as nice. Any input on this is more than welcome.

Next time I will be restoring the old spring seat, then hopefully welding the whole shebang in.

[Aram]

Nice work mate, but get a better camera!! :-P

[Ivan141]

I have a better camera, but I forget to take it with me..
Furthermore.. lighting is pretty crappy in the garage. Need to look for a good working light to hang above the car.

[Ivan141]

Captain Bodgit's log, past 2 weeks:

Bought myself some lighting so I can see how bad my welds are:


Patched up the upper spring perch:


Taped together, imagining how it will all fit together later:


This weekend:

Persuaded the panhard support to be part of the car again. It aint pretty, but it will do.


In this pic you see the misery that awaits me beneath the filler neck. Also a last minute captive nut for the fuel tank that I forgot to put in earlier.


Unfortunately a hollow space is going to be created above the spring perch, so I just took the same approach as toyota did and made a hole so the water has a place to go (down). Good opportunity to test my hole swaging kit for the first time.


Working atmosphere:


Then I welded some stuff in place and thought I'd have a look at the fitment so far. Sadly I made an oversight on the angle of the shockabsorber relative to the body, so it will need some wedges to reduce the load on the shock topmount. Mistakes are easily made when you dont know what you're doing


Here with the original spring.