Are you worried about turning into a bit of a trigger's broom and needed type approval as you have created an entirely new vehicle? From what I can see in the photos I would say your concerns are warrented.
More seriously though that looks like a crumple zone and I personally wouldn't touch it...
I can't find the video but there was a guy on youtube that straightened out an oven element and hand bent it around a crucible for melting aluminium, don't know how long it lasted but in your position could be tempted to make something fit in a similar way if you could get one similar enough.
Can't answer any of your questions but I bookmarked this company, https://www.gaterosplating.co.uk/plating-kits probably a good price or they offer something others don't, I can't remember and I still haven't bought a plating kit.
Soft supple boots with enough slack are fine with a decent cable tie properly tightened. The proper clips and and the a tool good enough quality for occasional use is so cheap it really is worth doing a proper job.
Probably a remote start capacitor, does it have a 4 core cable from the black box to the motor? If so the earth wire probably only goes as far as the black box and the motor will need earthing seperately.
If it was just uneven concrete then I would be happy lifting lengths of steel off the back of a lorry with a normal forklift but probably wouldn't want to be lifting a tonne 5m high or maybe not even a top heavy load like a milling machine on a pallet. I would say a manual fork lift or engine...
I searched 3m 6500 and 7500 respirators on aliexpress, there appears to be copies and local market offerings, so who knows for sure. I also searched Scott tornado to see if anything I would buy comes up, the results were "interesting" but no respirators.
The outside packaging has the dates of the relevant standards the product is made to. You can Google the codes.
The internal packaging has a date of 3/2026, probably the expiry date but you need to check.
Are you buying for yourself?
I wouldn't buy offbrand stuff as there is no way of knowing they are properly tested/approved no matter what markings they have. I do buy Scott powered respirator particulate filters off ebay for less than 1/2 new price but this is DIY only, I assume it's priced low as the majority of users...
Various ways to use it, I stipple with a brush every few minutes to get a bit more out of each application, scrape it off when it appears to stop working then apply new. Very thick is a bit subjective so don't know exactly how thick you mean but about 2mm thick worked well for me and thicker...
The only way I can see £500 of steel being worth £1000 is if they build the bench for you, or you have some money that needs laundering then Rapid Metals pricing starts to make sense.
13a sockets will get hot used at 13a for extended periods and if the contacts aren't perfect they will get hotter, faster. I have burned the pin out of a plug running a compressor for an extended period while spraying, my outside plug socket also has a brown burn mark where I ran my clarke 150...
I've used 2.5L of Crown trade fast flow satin over the last 3 years, I've been happy with it, not yellowed in or out of the sun. I've not experienced any adhesion problems but everyting was sanded and primed with 1 coat of Crown contract quick dry primer undercoat.
The welds in that link don't look consistant enough and the settings don't look dialed in well enough to make a good comparison. Although I only have proper experience with 100% co2 and 5% co2 with an old Clarke 150 on car bodywork and up to 5mm angle/box, I'm pretty confident you will have a...
Any particular reason? 5% CO2 would be more typical for 1mm to 3mm mild steel.
If you do look at the Oxford/Portamig transformer based machines check how many voltage steps it has, some I think only had 6 and won't give you very fine adjustment.