peterd51
happy to be here!
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Hi,
my sons ten year old Ford Escort needed a minor patch for its MOT. Also, the brake-pipe near the weld was starting to look a bit dodgy so it was an 'advisory' to change it while I was working in that area.
The problems started as soon as I crawled under the car...it was raining on and off all day, the exhaust system was in the way, I couldn't get a grinder in even with the back-box off, the brake-pipe was hidden under the exhaust heat shield. The only good news was there was an existing joint in the brake-pipe so I only had to renew the last 41 inches from that to the flexible hose leading to the brake cylinder rather than the full length of the car.
So I started to unclamp the back-box, the clamp sheared off but that's normal and they only cost around 1.50 to replace. Then I saw the smudge of soot on the back-box so I knew there'd be a hole somewhere that'd also need welding...
I got the back box off, and cleaned up around the chassis hole with emery until it was mostly clean metal, just the odd spot of stubborn paint that I couldn't shift. I'd decided to put two plates on, one vertical and one horizontal and the top weld on the vertical was going to be the killer.
that bit of rag over to the right is stuffed into the end of the exhaust pipe to stop bits falling in. The shiny metal around it is the aluminium (I think) heat-shield that I'd folded back out of the way. I was reaching up almost full stretch, couldn't see where I was going as my arm blocked my view, so it was mostly done by 'feel'. Run some weld, have a close look, run some more weld, look again, fill in burn-through holes, have another look. It's not pretty but it's solid...
and now it's had the underseal slapped on it's looking a lot better...
Now for the exhaust, done in the workshop so no problems with the weather, but it wasn't exactly 'pin-holes'...
as it needed a biggish plate with multiple curves, I decided on three smaller plates. Two of them were around 3cm wide and formed a new 'collar' welded on to the thick joint in the front face of the box. The final piece covered all of the rusty stuff forward to the front hanger-bracket. Again it's not pretty but it'll last at least a year and my son plans to scrap the car next year.
six hours in total!
Regards
Peter
my sons ten year old Ford Escort needed a minor patch for its MOT. Also, the brake-pipe near the weld was starting to look a bit dodgy so it was an 'advisory' to change it while I was working in that area.
The problems started as soon as I crawled under the car...it was raining on and off all day, the exhaust system was in the way, I couldn't get a grinder in even with the back-box off, the brake-pipe was hidden under the exhaust heat shield. The only good news was there was an existing joint in the brake-pipe so I only had to renew the last 41 inches from that to the flexible hose leading to the brake cylinder rather than the full length of the car.
So I started to unclamp the back-box, the clamp sheared off but that's normal and they only cost around 1.50 to replace. Then I saw the smudge of soot on the back-box so I knew there'd be a hole somewhere that'd also need welding...
I got the back box off, and cleaned up around the chassis hole with emery until it was mostly clean metal, just the odd spot of stubborn paint that I couldn't shift. I'd decided to put two plates on, one vertical and one horizontal and the top weld on the vertical was going to be the killer.
that bit of rag over to the right is stuffed into the end of the exhaust pipe to stop bits falling in. The shiny metal around it is the aluminium (I think) heat-shield that I'd folded back out of the way. I was reaching up almost full stretch, couldn't see where I was going as my arm blocked my view, so it was mostly done by 'feel'. Run some weld, have a close look, run some more weld, look again, fill in burn-through holes, have another look. It's not pretty but it's solid...
and now it's had the underseal slapped on it's looking a lot better...
Now for the exhaust, done in the workshop so no problems with the weather, but it wasn't exactly 'pin-holes'...
as it needed a biggish plate with multiple curves, I decided on three smaller plates. Two of them were around 3cm wide and formed a new 'collar' welded on to the thick joint in the front face of the box. The final piece covered all of the rusty stuff forward to the front hanger-bracket. Again it's not pretty but it'll last at least a year and my son plans to scrap the car next year.
six hours in total!
Regards
Peter