Vehicle restoration course

[eddypeck]

I'm coming to the end of a Vehicle Restoration course at my local college, just 2 hours on a Monday night for 10 weeks.
The course is split in 2 parts, the first 5 weeks on panel beating, metal work and fabrication. the final 5 weeks on prep, paint and finishing.

So I thought I'd share what I've been learning. On week 2, and after a session of panel beating the previous week we hit the welders for the fist time and here's my first attempts:




week 3 of the course, and only second session with a welder, chop out a hole and plate it.






So last night was the penultimate night of the 10 week course.



I forgot to take pics at after grinding the weld and doing the filler skim, so the next bit, this ...



... and then ...



... the odd red smear is a reflection of something on the wall behind.



There were a few imperfections and a small run, so next week, the final class, will be paint correction, flatting and final polish.



It's been a great course, I just hope it isn't too long before I get the change to put it into action. I've got a pair of doors in the garage waiting for me to get my second hand compressor up and running (it won't come up to pressure I think it needs a gasket kit). Then it's just going to be a case of saving up for a decent gun and the materials.

[natedog]

Nice work dude

[Rhubarb]

Good stuff

In real life, don't do continuous welds on bodywork..Too much heat which creates distortion

[Karl]

You might want to wait for warmer weather before you try paint spraying at home

[Deleted]

Nov 18, 2014 19:36:06 GMT 1 Rhubarb said:

Good stuff

In real life, don't do continuous welds on bodywork..Too much heat which creates distortion

You know we like waffle on here

[eddypeck]

Thank's guys. And no I won't be doing anything for a while anyway, far too many projects on the go. I've got to replace the petrol tanks and all the suspension bushes on my wife's BMW e30 before I get to play with my own toys 

And the weld was done as a stitch weld then infilled so it wasn't a continuous hot line. In the reflection on the paint you can see distortion above the repeater hole. But on the picture of the weld I don't think it's there. I think it was actually my over enthusiastic grinding back of the weld that put the heat in the panel? So that lesson learnt.

So glad this was in class on a practice panel and not my own car. But apart from dabbling when helping out a mates over 20 years ago, this is the first time I've done anything of this kind so I'm pretty pleased with the progress. 

[eddypeck]

So the final night last night, and here's my final effort, wet flatting and machine polishing. Tbh, I wouldn't want it on my car, but considering the state the wings were in in the first place, and then we cut a hole and patched it up I've got to be pretty happy.



I had a small run and quite a few pin holes in the filler areas, but we were rushed through a few processes to just get the job done. It was more about learning the skills than perfecting them. It was great having access to all the tools and getting shown how to do stuff properly.