Project #2...Nissan Figaro

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Unfortunately I still have a problem with gas...actually more a lack of gas!

Hopefully I can pick some up during the week...very irritating!

In the mean time I've got on with something I've wanted to try for some time. Doing butt welds on floors is difficult as sometimes you need the help of a copper plate but there isn't any way of clamping the plate....half the time I just make do...the other half I hold it in the other hand which isn't ideal.

This is a prototype...it's a copper bar with 2 top hat shaped strong magnets. The back is just epoxy glue to stop them falling out the back. The steel is to ensure the magnets make good contact while the glue sets.

Will post how useful it is....problems I can foresee are...the glue and or the magnets getting destroyed by the heat. Or the magnets being so strong they interfere with the mig...steel plasma....magnets...hmm. I'm hoping that if I keep the active weld in the middle of the bar it will still be of use. Only one way to find out I guess!

I picked the weakest magnets I could find which would hold the copper bar on...

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

These tiny magnets really are quite amazing...where were these when I was a kid?

That's a pair of 10 inch mole grips...very impressive indeed given their tiny size. When I was a kid magnets were big black blocks which would pick up a handful of paper clips if you were lucky....this thing is no bigger than a watch battery!

 

[jpmillermatic]

PD2, Im just catching up and am amazed with how much progress you are making...glad to hear the welding is going well....now that we are back from a very long weekend of driving kids back and forth to college and then up to NH...we are getting some much needed rest.....gotta get going on my own sills again!

great work getting through those layers of metal....Im amazed at how much patching was done previously on that car. how badly do you think it affected the metal around the patches?

JP

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Cheers JP...I was trying to crack on and get as much out of the way as possible before I get busy with regular work again. Whenever I come across an old patch I'm basically having to cut out an extra 12mm (1/2 an inch in old money) of steel to get rid of the rust which has formed under the patch. It's a bit annoying as I'm fairly sure this wouldn't have happened if the original repairer had just cut out the rust, treated with weld thru primer and then welded the patch in.

Unfortunately I'm now stalled as I've run out of gas and my regular supplier seems to be having problems getting my bottle size in...it is most unlike them so not sure what is going on there!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Managed to get some gas today...apparently there is a bit of a shortage of cylinders at the moment in the UK.

Marked up rough positions of everything. Starting on the left I'll be adding an inner sill drain. Next a couple of vertical ribs to stiffen the plate around the jacking point. Then there will be a vertical bend to match the inner sill....the top will have a flange and plug welds. To the right I've marked the rough position of the original seatbelt strengthener...this is a bit of a guess as most of it had already gone of course. It was only held in by a couple of spot welds....the intention is to stiffen and strengthen the area around the belt mount and also the jacking point to the left. The original inner sill is pretty flimsy....there are 2 vertical ribs but I still felt it needed a bit more beefing up.

There is a lap weld to the right hand side...I've lapped all of the inner sill repairs and welded both sides. To the left of the lap is butt welded to allow the stiffer to sit over the top. I know double sheets is a big no-no but the original design was like this....I've smothered everything in weld thru primer and will be waxing the sills when done to give them a fighting chance.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Here is the stiffener

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I also recovered the seatbelt bolt...smothered the rear of it in weld thru primer too.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Here is the stiffener plate with the seatbelt bolt in place...quite happy with how this turned out....but still a heap of work to do on this part of the sill. Everything is getting a coat of zinc rich primer to give it a some protection.

I think the next job is to repair the inner arch where it meets the bottom of the sill....this needs to be repaired before the sill reinforcer can go in as part of the inner arch bends into the sill and is connected to a triangular piece of reinforcement on the inside of the sill....oh fun!

 

[jpmillermatic]

That bolt is one of those "little" things that HAS to be done before anything else in order to proceed.....very nice

JP

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Cheers JP, it was quite a challenge to get to this stage but I feel like I'm making progress now. I was very lucky that the brace I made uses the same seatbelt bolt so basically acts like a jig and allowed me to re-drill the hole in the same place as before. The reinforcement plate is a bit over the top I know (pun intended )but the jacking area just felt a bit under designed to me so I extended the plate across. It's plug welded into the top of the sill too so it's not going anywhere + the sill reinforcer will go over the top of it at the bottom edge.

Next job is to sort out that wheel arch...which means lots of measuring and templates plus I need to make the arch lip like last time using the shrinker and some hammering!

 

[Onoff]

Cheers rtcosic...I knew someone with the MK1 MX5 many years ago....he fitted a turbo which he "imported" in his suitcase after a holiday in the USA. The thing was frightening fast...and I mean faster than an MR2 Turbo I reckon....especially frightening as the brakes were left as standard!

I'm going to have a think before doing the second Figaro I think....need to make things a bit easier for myself so might be worth investing a little time and/or money. My plan involved some kind of frame made of RSJs maybe and a pivot but will need some design and load calculations etc before I give it a go I think.

A mate on the Capri forum made a heavy duty rollover jig that was designed up by his SE type mate. He's happy for me to share the drawings.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Hi Onoff....thats exactly what I had in mind too. Basically an RSJ steel joist frame to pin the chassis in place and then some kind of roll over hinged mechanism to get it over. I've looked at the simple A frame setups but on a car like the nissan I think the body would twist as it isn't designed to be suspended from each end...especially if someone cuts half the sills out too! Would be great if you could either PM me the drawings or just post them...goes without saying I accept full design responsibility...I'll be checking the structural load calculations myself anyway but it's easier to have something to work from that someone has already built.

....I feel a new intermediate project coming on. Well...a queue of 3 cars to restore isn't really enough to keep me out of trouble

 

[Onoff]

Hi Onoff....thats exactly what I had in mind too. Basically an RSJ steel joist frame to pin the chassis in place and then some kind of roll over hinged mechanism to get it over. I've looked at the simple A frame setups but on a car like the nissan I think the body would twist as it isn't designed to be suspended from each end...especially if someone cuts half the sills out too! Would be great if you could either PM me the drawings or just post them...goes without saying I accept full design responsibility...I'll be checking the structural load calculations myself anyway but it's easier to have something to work from that someone has already built.

....I feel a new intermediate project coming on. Well...a queue of 3 cars to restore isn't really enough to keep me out of trouble

Here you go. One thing he said was the weight varies as you spin the thing. Really he needed I think to drop the pivot bar below the level of the pivot.

Cheers

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Cheers Onoff....they look nicely drawn and thought out too. I like the triangulation at the base...my plan was to make something using a bunch of RSJs but I think the weight might be more than the entire car!

 

[Onoff]

Cheers Onoff....they look nicely drawn and thought out too. I like the triangulation at the base...my plan was to make something using a bunch of RSJs but I think the weight might be more than the entire car!

Yep they're immense. He did offer to lend them to me but the weight!

I've got two farm jacks to do the lifting onto whatever jig I go with.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Been cracking on with the inner arch..first job was to copy the shape from the passenger side using a card template. I then used a wire coat hanger to put the factory curve into the edge.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Next job was to sort out the little triangular reinforcer. There was literally no room so it was basically a "best effort" basis on this one....if you look at the drill bit you can see there is actually another reinforcer about an inch in front of the triangular bit I'm working on. I was certainly not going to start cutting the sill up to fix this little piece. I think it came out ok...I decided to fix the reinforcer separately and then join it into the inner arch by leaving a small flange on the arch side....the drill bit was used to pull the pieces together without crushing the flange...I find I use all sorts of stuff to get things done....I guess it's the end result that matters not how you got there.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

The original Nissan design was in 2 parts so have stuck with that approach. Here is the outer followed by the inner bits. I also found out that body mastic and welding don't mix!!

The inner part was seam welded in the same way as the passenger side...am hoping this will keep the water out. The original was spot welded.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Here is the rear part of the inner arch...you can see how that triangular reinforcer links into the inner arch. I did the best I could given the limited access.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Lastly I added in the sill reinforcer...it needs a little tweaking but am happy enough I think. Covered it and the inner arch with some etch primer to keep off the rust....I actually meant to switch over to my zinc rich primer but I just forgot.

Next job is to remove 2 previous patches on the remaining part of the outer sill which are hidden by 5mm of under seal...then add the last reinforcer and I think that will mostly be it for the sill at least for now.