ernie1 wrote:
Kev,
What are the specs of your mig welder. I'd like to do aluminum too with my 220v mig but wasn't sure if it had the power. Did you also use the mig to weld the stainless?
Its a 180amp mig, good for about 6-8mm of aluminium. If what you want to weld is more than say 3mm thick then mig welding is good. Any thinner and i'd use a Tig for sure. I used the Tig for the stainless, just a bit neater looking for something that will be seen.
March update
I haven't really done quite as much as I'd hoped to on the van but I was giving a great opportunity to make some cash so I jumped at it. My wife's old boss just bought a new car because her old one was coming to its end of life and was worthless, as she said anyway. Its a 2003 Toyota Avensis D4D with 110,000 miles. The main reason she bought the new car was because this one would slip out of 5th gear all the time and she didn't think it was worth getting fixed.
She actually gave me the car for free!, she didn't think it was worth her while trying to sell on. I stuck it on my mates drive whilst I worked out what was needed to get it fixed. 5th gear is a very common fault on these toyotas. I found a tutorial on what to do to fix it on a Rav4 forum and ordered the parts, 6 in total. I contacted Toyota UK and they were wanting something silly like £650 for the parts but I found a great website called anayama.com that import genuine Japanese parts worldwide at a much lower cost, £280 for me including delivery and customs tax.
Anyway, I took the car to the garage , repaired the broken gearbox and gave it a dam good clean inside and out. It made me realise why my dad never let me eat in the car when I was younger. There was rotten bits of orange under the seats and sweetie wrappers everywhere. I think I wont be letting my future kids eat in my car either. After about 20 hours of hard work I had it finished and sparkling.
When it came to selling it on I wanted to get a fair price but not be stuck with the car for weeks so I went a little lower than the book price and put it up for £1495. Literally 5 minutes after the Ad went on I had a guy contact me wanting to look at it straight away. So I headed back up to the garage, showed the guy around, quick test drive and he bought. Knocked £95 off for him which left me with a cool £1400. Nice one! This means I have a pretty penny in the bank to splash out on the van when the time comes for all the bits I will be needing.
Back to the van. I did manage to get a few things done in between sorting out the Avensis and day to day life.
I needed to decide what my new seat height would be, after a bit of measuring I decided 8cm would give me enough clearance and still be driveable. I mocked up the seat height with a few bits of wood so I could physically sit in the right position.
I needed to have a good, strong support for the seat rail but it also had to be removable for when it came to removing the engine whenever I need to. I used 50mm box for the uprights and 50x5 angle for the top.
I missed a few steps but basically I used a piece of angle I had pre-drilled as a template for marking my holes and 4 bits of angle to bolt the top piece onto.
After that I countersunk the holes on the top angle and welded nuts onto the uprights. Once I had both sides done I welded a plate to the chassis and tacked them on top.
I then started to workout how I would box it all in at the back. I took the spot welds off the top cover and removed the back piece.
I spent a little bit of time trying to figure out how to do it. I want the back to be separate form the top and it will hold into place with 4 bolts.
I made a simple panel to fill in the gap that I don't need to be removable, its also wide enough to get a fixing on for the centre section.
I marked out how I wanted to cut up the rear panel.
Once I cut out what I was keeping I laid it in place and put the top bit back on to get a feel for it.
I then decided I'd need to strengthen the other parts of the seat area to stop it flexing. (the area where my hand is.)
I made up a simple bracket.
Tacked into place underneath.
That stopped all the buckling from happening.
Back to the top cover. I folded a lip on a piece of sheet I had cut and plug welded it back into place.
Now onto the sides. I don't want a really harsh sharp angle so I made up a forming stake.
Which allowed me to tap a very slight curve into my side panel I had cut.
I also tapped the upper panel and tacked them both together.
The front of the panel also had the same treatment.
tacked in.
I managed to set up the drivers side with door to see how it felt from the drivers side.
Got my arm lean spot on!.
So, im getting there. I don't have anything else on my plate for the next few weeks so lets see how I get on next month. Oh, also , you may have noticed the throttle body is now facing the front. I think this will actually be better. As the area around the radiator is going to be 8cm taller it will be a great place to have the air intake coming through to get fresh air. It just means a little bit of modification to the "bonnet". The radiator is away getting re-cored as we speak aswell.
