No problem, ill get the pics up soon.

The garage who did mine said disconnecting the batter should be ok, but he warned up it may damage the ECU. He also said on all the cars he has repaired it never has, but he had to warn us. But mine is still fine so you should be ok, no harm in taking the ECU out if your worried though.

I have never bothered to disconnect anything and have never had a problem, mind you there's always a first time. Having been a TV engineer for over fifty years gives one a somewhat gung ho attitude toward electricity.

Pics:

This is the only pic i can find before it was repaired (spot the snail!?)



The repair (horrible picutres!): The marks are mud, i did give the sill a very quick wash before i took the pictures, looks like i missed a bit! Seems quite a neat repair to me.







Infact the picutres make it stand out much more than it does in the metal, the sill isnt as shiny as it looks there either.

Ok... FIRSTLY I want to make clear! NO Laughing! Im not a perfect welder.. This is my first job. Tonight I started on my S1 24v sills.

The task:



Yes a lovly hole.. The jacking plate in the inner sill wall is ROCK solid!



Then I did a bit of prep... grind the paint, underseal and galv away to bare metal...



Weld along the rear... Yes its not perfect, but as the MOT man has not seen the hole/mess yet, I can get round to smoothing off the weld, and tart it up with under seal after Im done...





And now at 8pm, its too late to continue closing up this last gap:




So, all in all for a first time, Im quite pleased with the effort....

The metal I have used is a bit too thick to be honest... so im having a bit of trouble shaping it .. a bit more hammering should do it. But I beleve the weather is crap this weekend .. at least Ive made a start..

Thankyou for reading and entertaining yourself


Rgds
Paul

The more profesional amoung you may very well think its crap welding... however, the pictures make it look worse then it is to be honest! SERIOUSLY!!




Paul

Hi Paul.

No. No laughing from this quarter!!

First let it be totally clear here, I'm NO welding expert and get frustrated trying to get welding
done on my non galved Cits. What I've learned though is the secret to this MIG lark is the correct
power to get enough penetration of wazz into the metal and sufficient gas - the pics you show
suggest you're laying the weld onto the heavy gauge top plate and not getting enough 'reach'
into the surrounding sill - I know, easy to say and a git to do and the surrounding sill will be a
lot thinner and more prone to meting away - Niceties such as the angle of the gas/weld tip when
you're grovelling about the lower extremities of the car need to be taken in the spirit of the task
at hand too!

A bit of noisy dressing back of the extreme blobby welds will make it all good but bear in mind
the 'knit' of the two metals in the seam of weld may not be too deep!

You'll need to get some practice in for prospective future CX ownership!!

Andrew

Hi andrew

Thankyou! I take that kindly, any pointers greatly recived...

In all honesty, I used the wrong piece of metal, and its FAR too think for body work, but before I realised I got myself commited and it was too late to start again, so had a great HARD job shaping it... Ill use the thinner metal for the drivers side...

Thanks in advance

Paul

Hi Paul

Welding thin metal is never easy, my results are similar, what does help is a DC welder, they have always been very expensive but I recently bought one from Wolf, they are offering a gasless MIG (not the best sort) but they are very easy to strike an arc with, the problem with this one is that it only goes down to 25 amps which is too much for thin metal, so, when I get round to it, I am going to try and mod it to reduce the output. They have been reduced from about £350.00 to under a hundred and its a proper one with a transformer. I would think it would be possible to modify it to use as a stick welder.

Peter.

It may help if you slow the wire speed down a bit. That's how most of my welds on light body panels end up looking. The metal bits being welded must be spotless or it'll just crackle and pop and throw welding slag down onto you while your trying to weld "upside down".

BTW: Best thing to do with computers .... Pull the battery terminals off and join them together. All the electrical circuits in the car would then be "joined"

seeya,
Shane L.

Wow! credit for having a go yourself Id never attempt that, in fear of something odd happeneing like being left with cinders and no car! With the luck i have that would happen

Lets us see the finished result once your done

Seems good to me, nothing that cant be sorted with a bit of practice, you will find the other side easyer to do with thinner sheet though.
Once i had to weld a horrible little car, all i had was my arc welder......................big mistake (paper thin rusty orion sills+arc welder+2am=one s**t job) used a mig ever since
I bet you will be glad to get that 24v back on the road Paul.

D

Ooooooo yes I cant wait, hence the late night work under a flood lamp

Thanks for the comments chaps... Ill most DEFENATLY gonna use the thinner sheet.

Rgds
Paul

Hello, I'm back

With all my welding skills I hardly suggest you to use epoxi and glue the new panel over the existing one. At least thats what I do!!! and for finishing apply a rubber coat.

cheers to all
Caique

PS dont forget to clean surfaces

Ah here in the uk though, with all the rain, it would soon fall off again! It will need to be afixed permanetly! Also the MOT man may very well tap on it to see how SOLID it is...

Rgds
Paul

Structural adhesives have been used on aircraft for many years under really arduous conditions (temps down to -56C, 500mph headwinds, continual flexing etc.) so that's the way I'd go too. It's got to be stronger than welds with uncertain penetration.

I'm not trying to rain on your parade Paul, it's just my opinion.

Derek