Small project turned a bit of a nightmare

[jo1010]

Pulling power: most dozers are 10 ton...but you get additional power from additional 10 ton porta powers inside the vehicle if access is ok

The approach is always to peel off layers of bodywork ie removing spot welds of panels in the damaged area and remove one section at a time to reveal underlying damaged panels - some of which can do one times be pulled out...sometimes not.

Some videos explain this better...this one had a newb trying to pull out some range rover damage - and the later vids show the pro solution...

Range Rover Evoque Write Off Rebuild

Share your videos with friends, family and the world

youtube.com

Here's some side damage a non pro was repairing....

And just for fun.... this guy built his own car o liner type jig.....

Alu channels inside the sills? (Rockers in USA) I didn't even know they did this - adds another complexity. If you need to cut and shut this you'll need TIG to weld it. I don't recommend learning tig just for this one area though (learning curve is months unless you've done tig before).

Measuring? Tape.... and I used to use roofing battens to transfer measurements from one side to the other. A 1m ruler can be useful too. A proper trammel is about 200£ now so not worth it for a one off repair

Study the vids and you'll get there....one other thing some times useful - have bracketry on the dozer to allow downward pulls - the pull chains run under the bracket
And redirect pulling force downwards - in one of the vids above you see the Dozer levering itself up in the air when they tried a very optimistic pull (which was going to fail anyway for other reasons)

 

[Nesmy]

Noted. I have some days off in the next two weeks I will get my hands on the mig welder, dozer and perhaps a jig... I already have a portapower used it in the past for something unrelated

I can leave the tig welding to a professional , would butting the beams together and exposing them through removing small sections on both sides of the sill work? That way once the tig welding is done I could close it up with one section of the sill butt welded bilaterally?

 

[jo1010]

.....butting the beams together and exposing them through removing small sections on both sides of the sill work? That way once the tig welding is done I could close it up with one section of the sill butt welded bilaterally?

Yes that's the right approach...but interested to know how the factory has attached the alu beam to the inner sill...... But in any case you could just weld from one side assuming access is ok

 

[Nesmy]

Sorry for no updates was so busy with my day job!

Just finishing sectioning the quarter panel I bought, i counted approximately 250 spot welds that needed to be removed.

Issue was, UHSS is tremendously difficult to drill into.

Tried normal spot weld drill bits - didn't even make a scratch on the panel.

Cobalt HSS drill bits were better but even using cutting oil and taking my time, low RPM and all still would be blunt after 5 spot welds. Went through a pack of 10 bits in a single sitting. Tried to resharpen them but I could never get them to last after that.

Finally went all out and got tungsten carbide spot weld drill bits - £27 each mind you but they cut through like butter. So much so first one I tried went right through the panel and chipped

I understand they are brittle and need to be handled carefully but that's the only reasonable solution - I started using a 10mm wide belt sander but only on the inner skins as the holes they leave are unsightly.

I have read somewhere tungsten carbide bitd need to be used dry - and they create a lot of friction - sparks and metal shavings were turning blue.

My worst enemy so far is structural adhesive - that stuff is plastered everywhere and tough as well.

 

[Matchless]

As for the adhesive, heat may be your friend there.

 

[Nesmy]

I found a heat gun on the full blast softens is just enough so that I can pry it apart with a flat chisel.

Was considering a propane torch as the heat gun takes a while to heat it up especially when larger area is involved but I was worried it will weaken the structural strength of the steel.

And I need my legs so it would be a shame if a panel breaks and takes my legs clean off in a crash

 

[jo1010]

Oxy propane will be quicker - just got to watch the heat doesn't build too much...

Re spot weld removal I found this link using belt sander on I car.com....which may be easier than drilling - and easier to preserve the underlying metal....

I-CAR Just In Time: Protecting UHSS Panels When Removing Spot Welds

rts.i-car.com

 

[Nesmy]

I got myself a 10mm belt sander to tackle all the spot welds underneath the outermost layers - i found them to be removing slightly too much material which according to a friend who mig welds will make it more challenging to plug weld neatly. I love the trick with a piece of metal that pries the panel on both sides of the panel though - I don't know how I didn't think of it before!

I will just cut away a middle section of my wide flat chisel and that would be perfect!

On the side note that website seem to be full of useful information. It goes to my bookmarked websites

 

[jo1010]

... I love the trick with a piece of metal that pries the panel on both sides of the panel though ....

Yes, might need a slightly different approach for some high stress panel joins (eg b pillar to sill) where the OEM bot has welded spots at what look like 4mm centres (presumably time delayed for adjacent welds to not overheat the panel).......