So, a weekend spent with the welder & grinder, and the NSF chassis leg is almost done, about 20hrs to get to this point, I didn't take pics along the way, but essentially the chassis leg was boxed in internally, with two CDS tubes welded in, and then boxed on the external side. Engine mounts will hang off one of the CDS tubes, that's next weeks job Cheers Pete
Thanks gents - I'll update when I get more gas this week. Engine and gearbox in time! In the meantime, I'm working on which parts I need to use a Polo clutch pedal and 02J/Seat cable clutch, finding a light stock sized Golf flywheel, and a smaller lighter alternator, and drinking tea whilst staring at the huge hole I've cut in the front of my first car.
I`m going to do the armchair thing again.. lol I really like the fabrication work, lots of time spent getting it right BEFORE welding You are obviously doing the `spot` weld technique, but IMO you are leaving it a fraction too long between spots. The centre of the weld has a small dimple, that`s a cold spot and a bit weaker. If you do the same technique, but wait about 1/2 to 3/4 of the current time between spots, you still get a similar effect and don`t blow through, but you get what looks like a more continuous weld, rather than lots of overlapping ones. When you are welding, don`t wait for the weld pool to fully cool before moving on and starting the next I did some sill repair on the E46 last week, welding upside down and I wasn`t able to do a continous bead. I did the same on-off-on-off-on- technique, but the welds look almost as if it was done as one, rather than on-off-------on-off----. See what I mean ? Yours will be plenty strong enough, you`d done the entire seam rather than just bits of it, but it`s for info really
It's a good point, and I have a poor excuse... Although have fixed it! When going a little quicker (welder has a timer so can dial in) I kept getting flashed as my 25 welding helmet is, well... 25. Que Christmas, and a 3M Speedglass, problem solved. I'm probably over cautious with it too- even though the plate is 3mm thick, it's being welded to Spanish steel, and I really wanted to keep heat to a minimum. Hopefully nothing will fall off. Cheers for the advice anyway- much appreciated! Pete
Aspiration (this is what Nige is talking about!) Will need to chop a fair few more Polos up before anything I do looks like that- haha! Cheers Pete
has the fate of the guru polo been decided yet? I haven't deliberated over buying a car this much in a very long time lol shame i already have this lot | \/
Pete, When I made some boxes for the seat mounting on Matt`s E36, I welded externally down the sides of the box. This was done using the quick on-off-on method I mentioned above (I`m using this as an example as it`s better than any similar stuff I`ve done on the Golf ) Internally, you can see the individual welds But externally (the vertical seam and horizontal weld) they look much more `joined` without the cold spots. By having a hotter weld pool, I also find you get better penetration without the welds `sitting on top` of what you are trying to weld to
It's for sale - silly amount of interest (3-5 e-mails a day since advertising) but cash talks! Wrong time of year to sell really, but we're in no huge rush.
Indeed- I agree, it's a fairly difficult technique on two dissimilar sized sheets though, well, it's above my skill level currently! Penetration I'm happy with (Mrs Yoof may say different) there's consistent witness marks on the inner wing. I should stop making excuses and practice on some scrap I have laying around, if I can weld 3mm plate to a scrap sill I have using this technique I'll post a pic! Cheers Pete
If I`m welding 2 dissimilar thicknesses, like the 3mm plate to the sill I did on the E46 (pic above), I get the weld pool on the thicker piece, then `drag` it across onto the thinner piece, release, move gun to the thicker piece, further on a little bit and repeat. When I say `move gun`, it`s a few mm, but you know what I mean
I'm john's friend the lad who put up the link on facebook and tried to persuade us all to buy it back haha
Few cheeky welding practices as I know you love an experiment Nige : Easy one first, squeeze trigger, swirl it around abit and go: Strong?, but a fair amount of heat - I'm not confident welding say an inner wing to some 3mm plate using this method, perhaps with time... Stop & go technique, but without cold spots this time: Both together: Penetration better on the continuous piece, although I could fart around with welder settings to optimise each. If I get a chance I'll cut into both at the weekend, I've not really got anything to test the strength of both methods. I'll continue to use a stop/start method for thin/thick stuff, and a blast it on method for thick/thick stuff. I'm convinced enough there's plenty of strength in the stop/start method (even with cold spots), for my application, although accept this isn't best practice possibly! Also I'm using no data to back that statement up! Cheers Pete P.S- I'm no professional welder, so take the **** I write with a pinch of salt!
Little more done recently, B-mount is now done, and mocking the A-mount up currently. Time consuming part is dropping the subframe and engine/box out constantly. Hopefully I can get it sat on it's own mounts this weekend, and then measure up for driveshafts. RobT and Gurds have been useful sources of knowledge regarding gear shift/clutch cables so thanks chaps! More pieces of the puzzle coming together. Cheers Pete
Completed the A-Mount now, dropped it down to give similar mounting heights cross chassis to the B mount, engine now sits on its own mounts Need to weld up the C-mount, and push it outside for a wash. Chopped the front panel for turbo clearance, I really don't like it in it's current state, so will invest in an edging tool and neaten it up. Cheers Pete
So, the last few weeks has seen a few steps forward, and several back! First off, the Team Guru Derby sold- appearing in VWDRC 2015/16 8) some pics of the old girl all clean: And I finished all the engine mounts and pushed the Polo outside for a wash, first time in a long while! So with that bit done, my next bit to sort out was the driveshafts. I need to get measurements as soon as possible as they're fairly long lead time items. Now, Polo CV joints aren't the strongest out there it's fair to say, so with my new stronger gearbox, it makes sense to look at the driveline too. Inner CV joints easy- bought a set of 100mm bolt in flanges and some Mk2 Golf GKN joints. Job's a good-un. Outer CV joints, little more difficult... A Mk1 Golf and a Mk2f Polo share a very similar wheel hub design though: After spending a few hours in a huge SKF catalogue, I had myself convinced they'd fit... I was wrong. Split everything down (discovered my brakes need new dust seals) ready to go: And had two clashes (after some light machining) still with the outer CV to bearing housing: and with the bearing housing to rear of the wheel hub face: Solution is fettling in all available areas - I'm about 3.5mm off it fitting, so removal of some more material from the outer CV face, the bearing housing, and taking the 0.8mm feature of the rear of the wheel hub (polo one doesn't have this) should see it all clear. Main pain is every time I fit everything together to check clearances, I knacker a set of bearings, 60 down thus far... ho hum. So with that I also started looking at shifters, I need a short cables to fit in the Polo- so I did a little reading and purchased a set of 2003 Polo cables and shifter mech, only to find it's identical to the Mk4 Golf one I have... d'oh - Gurds confirmed cable lengths on his Mk1 for me (thanks mate!) circa 960mm and 1010mm. I was hoping to avoid bespoke cables, cost and availability (in future) are the main worries- so if anyone knows of any VW gearshift cables that are much shorter than the ones above, I'm all ears! VW Lupo/Fox/Up lengths would be good- I can't find any information on the interwebs. Cheers Pete
Amazing work and car!!! I think I saw either Sambo, Sparrow or Prawn (or all of them??? lol ) making up some cables that were originally from a Volvo.
So, a little more fettling and everything fits up. Modified wheel hubs, strut housing and outer CV... all good fun! And wheel studs re-fitted with Loctite 270 - stood up well the last few years Brakes back on and mounted: Subframe modified for clearance at the rear, now picks up on the redundant cat brace, d-mount also added: C-mount finished: Engine back in, OSF strut assembly to finish then I can measure up for driveshafts: Cheers Pete
