small french hatchback

[davenport]

ahh yes i`ve been nosing round a few cars at various rallys and noticed that area was done on the majority of them... which is odd because i didn`t notice it in the peugeot sport "bible" (although it was all in french so only have pictures to really go by...)


as for my method on seat bars... hard to say really... i had the 3mm sheet but had misplaced the tube and was itching to do something other than scrape underseal and seam sealer so boshed them in then found the tube (whilst looking for front wisbones which are still currently missing!!!!!!!)


as for cage?? yup i agree total overkill but fell in love with it as soon as i saw that blue shell on there site.... also a friend of mine ran 1 in his stock hatch saxo and i was ver impressed with its fit and quality..

 

[jazzbob]

Cool, don't worry, you don't need a reason to fit an awesome cage like that one!! (wish I had the pennies!!)

I would highly recommend looking into strengthening that boot seam, as it is notorious for splitting, and whilst it isn't structural it is much easier to do before the cage is welded in!! - the reason mine failed so spectacularly was because I bottomed out the rear suspension and pushed the boot floor up a little which made a big crack, usually they appear much slower.

Cool project though!

 

[davenport]

as with every old car restoration underseal and the ravages of time spell 1 thing...

RUST!!


armed with a new wire wheel in my grinder i soon found a hole up inside the rear arch.. about the size of a 50pence piece.. now i`m a realist so suspected that lurking underneath that hole may be some thing a dit more severe...

step 1- clean the panel around the rust:

step 2 - start cutting the rot out (bear in mind the shell is 3 layers thick in this area)

step 3 - once back to clean metal give everything a coat of weld-thru zinc primer

step 4 - start patching!!!!!!

step 5 - all cleaned up and welds dressed

step 6 - bang some red oxide on there until it goes to blasters/painters

unfortuntly... that was the GOOD side...

the passenger side currently looks like this:

YES that is the end of the boot floor crossmember!!!!

and

YES that big gaping hole at the end of the sill is.. erm.. the end of the sill..



if it was a horse it`d be shot... unfortunatly if i did shoot it i`d just have more holes to weld up...

 

[thirdtimeluckyfabricator]

Im impressed you cant even see the join between the saxo and the 106 anymore!!!!!!!!! Amazing what you can do with a grinder and some paint isnt it??????? PMSL

 

[davenport]

they say a picture says a thousand words???? i only need 2...

nuff said... bad times....

 

[Macoli]

That's impressive work there, davenport!!! Also, it's good to see where the rot is on a 106, my wife has one as an everyday car and I've noticed a small bit of rust beginning on the boot floor.

Weld-thru primer - stick to zinc based, it's got better electrolytic properties than copper. I've got some copper based stuff and it's good but I only use it if I can't get the zinc stuff.

 

[davenport]

ahhh zinc it is!! many thanks...

well not much has progressed really... after ending up with most of the rear corner of my car in a plastic bag my enthusiasm was at a low... i even went as far as finding out the price of a band spanking new citroen C2 shell and starting again.. (850+vat for those that care)

however!!! giving up is all to common for the french nation..

soooooooooooo

some panels have been ordered from peugeot fingers crossed they`ll turn up asap..

the bootfloor hasn`t gone too far as hopefully i can fabricate a section.. the same with the end of the bootfloor crossmemember and then its "just" a case of repeating what i did on t`other side...

 

[davenport]

well what can i say....

managed to attack the final rear arch with a new 115mm wire wheel in the sander..

so its all bare metal now and the full extent of damage can be seen...

gonna need to fabricate a section for the boot floor.. the inner arch.. the boot floor crossmember and butt weld all them in and clean welds right back.. also cut up and fit a section (if pug can get panel) of the inner sill or worse case.. fabricate a new section from sheet...

oh and it also gone high up in the inner arch where the seatbelt anchor and rear seat back fixings fix on.. (oh joy) so either that section needs cutting out and a piece fabricated or (fingers crossed) my old base model 106 can donate a few square centimeters of panel...

 

[davenport]

another day another job to tick off...

can finish the seat rail fixings.. drew these up and had a local laser cutter knock them out for me.. lazy - yes, but so easy and all 8 will be identical..

i have an inner sill section from pug waiting for me at the bodyshop and in an unprecidented ordering miracle... all my left hand drive wiper setup has also arrived at local dealer...

just gotta order a sheet of 1.2mm steel.. cold reduced.. and get busy with the TIG again...

 

[davenport]

swung by the bodyshop and collected my inner sill section....

80 quid and this much of it is useless!!!

but the end 18" or so piece (once drilled to puddle weld and cut to suit) fitted a treat:

then it was a case on fabricating and end section to finish the sill and also make a start on the skins in the rear arch...

2 of the 3 are half complete now but i still need to fabricate the crossmember end section..


also need to cut a section of the bootfloor out and weld in a new fabricated chunk as thats got rot in it too....

ran out of steel now so ordering a 2000x1000 1.5mm cold rolled mild steel (i think thats what its called?? the stuff with no scale lmao)

 

[davenport]

decided it was time to do a bit more to my custom breather/catch tank...

i had started making 1 similar but found some 2mm ally sheet at work.. having found myself being quite anal about weight i decided to ditch the 3mm one...

the shape my look odd but it should follow the lines of the inner arch and top of wing and sit up against the turret..

also decided that a couple of tabs and bolts to fix it was a bit gash lookin so machined these up:

weld them in the base and once fitted should keep things looking clean and tidy...

just need to buy a weld on -10 aeroquip fitting and machine up a boss for the breather filter and its time to fire up the syncrowave!!!

 

[davenport]

seat tabs on...

remains of scuttle panel:

result:

cut right down low along the 2 panels which meant the spot welds ended up getting cut off.. so the edge was clamped together and i ran over the top with the TIG welder to rejoin them all in an effort for more room for the inlet/throttle bodies/trumpets/filter.. and should make the left hand drive wiper conversion easier...

also... more repairs on the back end....

another panel fabricated 1.2mm CRGP sheet... and the end of the crossmember fabricated 3mm CRGP and welded in place...

but before i could finish working my way back the boot floor needed some attention...

by attention i actually mean cut the hell outta it....

the new sections all butted up and tacked in place...

this needs fully welding in place... then finish off the inner arch..

 

[simon718]

looks good mate what engine's going in?

 

[davenport]

it`ll be the same 8v 1600cc racing engine i had built a while back mate but running on an emerald ecu with throttle bodies instead of R6 carbs...

i plan on running it for a while while i build the next engine up.. which should be a turbo`d 2litre ford zetec... 450bhp and sub 800kilos should make it nippy....

 

[simon718]

nippy is a bit of an understatement

 

[davenport]

WOO HOO...

i have a solid **** end again!!!

and it is with a great sense of releif i can say the shell no longer has any more rusty holes (ok thats a lie it has 2 very very tiny (smaller than a 5p coin) but there cleaned up and patches made)

final card template made:

inner arch completed and red ox`d for the time being:

the cage was ordered last week so fingers crossed i can collect that next week... all tubes come ready notched and SHOULD resemble this once done:

CDS tubing... as i cant afford the lighter T45..

 

[davenport]

well in anticipation for the arrival of the cage and after some inspiration from the gentleman on here who made a similar swaging tool for his ally bucket seat i decied to knock 1 up during my tea break at work...

machined this baby up from 60mm solid bar to flare 30mm diameter holes....

tested it on some 1.5mm thick mild steel and miraculously.. it bloody worked!! very very little distortion either.. over 7 holes there is probably 2mm deflection maximum..

even though i only used the fly press (brake press was in action) very very easy to use..


if anyone wants 1 i drew it up on AUTOCAD and can forward the file on...

 

[davenport]

also on a sad geeky note...

i bought a new 30mm "MORSE" branded hole saw for these and despite a blunt pilot drill in the arbor they measured 30.14mm..

plesantly suprised!!!

 

[wyn]

Have you tried these type of hole cutters/ punches .....nice on sheet aluminium if you have a few of the same size to do.

Nice looking work on that sheet, are you making a seat as well.

 

[davenport]

the cutters look nice.. but a bit £££ for the few holes i have to do...

i used to work at a place that had some similar to those... you could cut.. then rotate the base and it would flare also...

no seat for me i dont think my back would survive track days in 1 of them....