2118 replies to this topic

[Elmo]

Marcelo, who's been doing all the metal work, cut it here for minimal re-welding.

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[Heath]

Hi Elmo, sorry I'm confused. Are you not the one doing the work on your hatch? Is there a build thread somewhere? I don't know who Marcelo is.

Cutting above the steering column is a perfectly fair suggestion, but mine went together nicely and I didn't need a weld on the top of the dash panel which is precisely what I wanted to avoid.

 

Welded up each of the holes caused by un-picking the UC dash from the steering column support:

 

 

Clamped in place:

 

Yes this is the lightweight dash from the ever-elusive 6cyl Persian Sand A9X sedan from Bathurst. Some of the other bits of sheet metal seemed to have jumped in there too haha.

 

This is the weld to put it back together in the car. Very subtle, and of course totally hidden when the car is assembled.

 

Worse job there is... putting the welds on the back of the dash below the base of the A pillars, so much body contortion to achieve this, lol.

[Bigfella237]

Holy crap, looks like someone got a new holesaw for Christmas...

 

But really, just how much would all those holes save in weight, it would take a lot of them to add up to a single kilo, versus how much strength is lost?

[Heath]

Yeah every bit you cut out weighs virtually nothing, but if you didn't cut it out then you'd have lots of extra bits in your car that weigh virtually nothing and work against you.

When you're talking about losing strength, it's worth considering what is actually in the car for structure, and what is just there because that was the cheapest/easiest way to get a few mounting points where they needed them.

[Heath]

I trial fitted the guards to check my measurements, but the only actual references were the distance between two guard bolt holes along the top of the inner guards that are furthest back near the firewall, and the height of the rad support in relation to the ends of the chassis rails.

The guards are glass and will need adjusting around the panel gaps anyway, so they weren't an awfully accurate reference on their own.

[wot179]

A man of your skills could machine up a couple of dimple dies to strengthen up those holes and to make them look cool, too....

[Elmo]

Heath,

Sorry for the confusion. I don't have a build thread as yet but I am rebuilding a hatch, but only supplying a small contribution to the metal work myself, fabricating the lower apron repair, drilling off the LX dash from a front cut and cutting the wheel arches an fitting the flares and spoilers. I don't have a build thread as yet but have an excellent panel and paint man and enjoy assisting him in fabrication of parts (where I can). I posted the picture of the dash cutting to give other readers another option for consideration when researching for there own build. I was flat out trying to work out how to compress a photo, add detail to it and post it, give me a set of Snap-on spanners anyday   

[Heath]

A man of your skills could machine up a couple of dimple dies to strengthen up those holes and to make them look cool, too....

Such a thing could be possible. Knocked these up tonight:

 

Result looks alright!


A lot of the holes are positioned in such a way that using a dimple die isn't really feasible, however.

Edited by Heath, 13 May 2021 - 06:13 PM.

[wot179]

Cool prototype.

Needs more radius.

[UC308Hatch]

Any updates Heath? Keen to see your progress....


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[eyepeeler]

The jig you made up is very similar to a Q-Max hole punch. Have a look at Q-Max punches cause you could knock up a jig that could punch the hole and flare them at the same time.

Such a thing could be possible. Knocked this up tonight.A lot of the holes are positioned in such a way that using a dimple die isn't really feasible, however.

[hawk]

Should be an update soon from what I saw on facebook earlier. Keep up the awesome work.

[UC308Hatch]

Yes I did spot that after my post, just make me even more eager!


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[Heath]

If work stopped sending me to Sydney then I'd be making some better progress lol... And just doing a decent job of finishing putting dash and plenum top on (and taking down all of the welds gracefully) has taken far longer than I expected.

No mega update, just steady progress.

 

Welding the top of the plenum back on and smoothing it out. It has taken ages but is mostly complete.



Tail Light Buckets that I bought. Specifically asked the vendor to cut them a long way in near the number plate to compensate for the length of the UC tail lights... he failed to follow that instruction lol


Started trimming them back and cleaning the junk off them:

 

Welded up the trim holes that I won't be using.

My mate will hopefully media blast these during the week so when I'm back in Melbourne they will be really nice to work with.

 

Snip snip! That was a scary move, step one of the biggest bodywork modification I've ever done:

 

Just overlapping them on there and inching away at getting the shape right. I will need to make my own flat areas between the bucket, and the numberplate area.

Also having to do some work behind the new tail light buckets - as many of you are aware, the sheet-metal (false floor assembly) inside the UC hatch is at a different height and is constructed differently to that in an LX. This directly fouls on the tail light assembly so you need to make clearance for that, and then some extra to actually get the globes in an out. I will try and cover this part of the build that some of the other threads have brushed over very lightly.

Edited by Heath, 13 May 2021 - 06:39 PM.

[eyepeeler]

Nice work Heath,
Looking to see the tail light clearance like you talked about, am interested to see that.

[ben23]

Some good work there mate, looks tops, I read that you fly up to Sydney for work, interested in repairing rust as a second job in Sydney??

[Heath]

If you Sydneysiders had the pleasure of living in Melbourne, you'd understand my lack of enthusiasm to spend time there! hahaha

 

Got my media blasted tail light buckets back:

Little repair with the TIG:

Clamped them down to the bench and used a pencil torch and scraper to pull the silver solder out of the joins:

 

Bit of KBS into the nooks and crannies:

 

So... clearance behind the tail lights. The globes hit the frame work there, simple as that.

Started cutting the heck out of it:

Now you can see how tight the brake/tail light globe holder is. Totally fouls on the edge of the false floor after that frame has been partially removed.

 

Shown here on the right side, I cut the floor back and clamped on a bit of small SHS and used it to form a rolled shape on the edge of the floor:

 

Then put a new strap in the side to hold the floor up from the rest of the body (otherwise it'll just bend away if you stand on the corner)

 

Made a scallop for the brake light globe holder which is the main culprit:

 

Rinse & repeat on the LHS:

 

Bit closer to welding:

 

So in summary...

Before:

Part way:

After:

[Rockoz]

OHS is good there.

Loved the extension lead socket a few pics back.

Awesome work Heath.

Following with huge interest.

[Bigfella237]

Hands up everybody who just trawled back up the page looking for Heath's extension lead...

[Heath]

hahahaha, in my defense - when I installed that 15A plug on that 10A lead, I did not expect the internal wires to stretch that far! 

[SHEEL]

awesome work mate.. your doing a first class job!