Paul99
Member
- Messages
- 606
Well our poor old Jeep has finally been let down by the killer of nearly all Fourtracks - severe rot. We anticipated a bit of welding on the sill for an MOT and asked a mechanic friend to sort it and get it MOT'd. None of us were expecting what he found between a good looking underseal and the carpets...
Initially we asked the mechanic to sort it but when we saw how much needed to be done and the way he was going about it (covering it up) we decided I'd better do it myself before a huge bill was run up. Although I've done quite a bit of welding on exhausts and other thinner stuff I've never touched bodywork. As it's so far gone the only way I can justify sorting it and not just scrapping it is by treating it as a learning exercise as much as anything (after all the desire to do my own welding on cars, as well as the more usual heavier stuff I mess with, was part of the reason I bought a decent mig in the first place)
Being a fourtrack I can't find replacement panels to make life easy so it's going to have to be done the hard way and I'll have to fabricate everything from scratch. I didn't want to go attacking it with a grinder cutting it all out (including those dodgy patches ) without having some idea how I might make up new arches so set about making a very rough mock up with cardboard. The plan was to make it as simple as possible and avoid bending where possible (I'm not really kitted out for it) so I ended up with the picture below as a kind of proof of concept all be it very rough.
The only bending I hope is needed on the front to allow clearance for the back seats the rest I hope to be able to cut all the rot out make decent CAD templates roughly along similar lines cut the bits out from 1.2mm zintec and weld mostly straight edges but am unsure if there is a major flaw in my plan or a simpler way to do it?
Any and all advice from those who do this kind of work is welcome...
Paul.
Initially we asked the mechanic to sort it but when we saw how much needed to be done and the way he was going about it (covering it up) we decided I'd better do it myself before a huge bill was run up. Although I've done quite a bit of welding on exhausts and other thinner stuff I've never touched bodywork. As it's so far gone the only way I can justify sorting it and not just scrapping it is by treating it as a learning exercise as much as anything (after all the desire to do my own welding on cars, as well as the more usual heavier stuff I mess with, was part of the reason I bought a decent mig in the first place)
Being a fourtrack I can't find replacement panels to make life easy so it's going to have to be done the hard way and I'll have to fabricate everything from scratch. I didn't want to go attacking it with a grinder cutting it all out (including those dodgy patches ) without having some idea how I might make up new arches so set about making a very rough mock up with cardboard. The plan was to make it as simple as possible and avoid bending where possible (I'm not really kitted out for it) so I ended up with the picture below as a kind of proof of concept all be it very rough.
The only bending I hope is needed on the front to allow clearance for the back seats the rest I hope to be able to cut all the rot out make decent CAD templates roughly along similar lines cut the bits out from 1.2mm zintec and weld mostly straight edges but am unsure if there is a major flaw in my plan or a simpler way to do it?
Any and all advice from those who do this kind of work is welcome...
Paul.
Last edited: