Page Twelve – The Un-Doing and the Re-Doing
The tedious tale of a teleworking
weekend. (Alphie is getting plenty of
attention during these COVID-19 times.)
The Situation
To fix the rocker panels, I must
fix the x-member and its assorted components.
I have fixed the passenger side forward x-member, and the middle
extension, but the aft x-member has more problems than the other two. The leaf attachment is anchored to the aft
x-member and a smart restorer would take pains to keep the alignment of the
passenger side’s leaf spring shackle to the driver’s side shackle.
Next time I pry a Sunbeam Alpine
from its crypt, I’ll be sure to do that!
I could have easily locked the
alignment by welding in a temporary brace before I happily hacked away at the rusty
supports. But no, my smug little self lit
up the grinders with blissful abandon.
 |
| Aft X-Member Tip Fabbed before the Re-Do |
The weekend before the Un-Doing, I
had made two of the shackle supports (there are three) and welded them in place. Feeling quite pleased with myself, I glanced
at the driver’s side leaf spring shackle, and something didn’t look right. Things had gone cock-up! (And you thought
this post wouldn’t have any British slang.)
I scurried over to measure the driver’s side. You won’t be surprised to learn that things were, indeed, cocked-up, all cattywampus for those raised in ‘round here.
I scurried over to measure the driver’s side. You won’t be surprised to learn that things were, indeed, cocked-up, all cattywampus for those raised in ‘round here.
The passenger side shackle was lower
than the driver’s side, and the bolt was not at a right angle to the center line of the car. Furthermore, the opening where the leaf
spring bushing sits on the fubar-ed bolt had spread too wide… All my “Oh shit” bells rang like Quasimodo was
in the belfry!
 |
| Bracket - Post-hack |
Desperate measuring, despondent
head scratching, and prodigious “oath-making” commenced. There are damned few common reference points
between the driver and passenger’s side – I mean reference points that aren’t
tattered rusticles. Now that I had
hacked everything up, how the hell was I going to get solid measurements?!
Then I remembered…
Bob’s Butt
 |
| Bob's Butt - My Savior! |
My Sunbeam buddy, Bob (only first
names here on the blog) gave me a complete Sunbeam Tiger rear section, lovingly
referred to as Bob’s Butt (apologies Bob). I say complete; the guys rebuilding Bob’s car
carved many chunks from it, but I got the leftovers, see the pic The Organ Donor is far too derelict to give
any good numbers, but Bob’s Butt saved mine!
Speaking plainly to myself, I
said, “Dumbass, why don’t you measure the passenger side of Bob’s Butt? Der!”
But Bob’s Butt is worth far beyond
good measurements – solid, (mostly) rust-free pieces. All I had to do was cut them off (after
measuring EVERYTHING!) and paste them on.
Well, it’s not as easy as that, keep reading.
Add a 1966 Sunbeam Tiger to
Alphie’s Frankenstein body count.
I’ll spare the details, but I amputated
one support that was made of 14-gauge steel (I only have 16-gauge) and that gave
the reference measurements I needed.
The excision took about two hours of
Thursday afternoon. Straightening and
prepping the piece took another two.
A good blogger would have taken
pictures of the whole process.
Unfortunately, you’re reading my blog.
The Un-Doing
Friday afternoon started with fitting
the piece of Bob’s Butt to Alphie. No
pictures, so I’ll pause while you imagine the cutting, the straightening, the
cleaning, the rust treating, the fitting, the grinding, the filing, the
supplemental measuring, the second, third, etc. fittings... Pause some more; it was a week’s worth of
tedious.
That’s about three-plus hours of
Friday afternoon. Add another two hours
of Saturday morning for spot welding the flanges for the rocker panels attachment,
an extra couple of fittings, bead blasting, priming and MIG welding it to aft
leg of Alphie’s x-member.
Un-Doing all the pieces I had laboriously
fitted the weekend before and prepping everything for the Re-Do took the rest
of Saturday and the first hour or so of Sunday.
As it turns out, my ugly welds stubbornly resist “letting go.” Oh, let’s not forget bending the shackle back
to its correct position.
Plenty of
measuring, all of which was about a week late.
The Re-Doing
Sunday, after finishing Saturday’s
work, I made a paper template of the bracket that goes above the shackle and boxes
it all together. Make that two paper
templates; I decided that I would have to make the bracket in two pieces and
spot weld them together to get the measurements and shape I needed.
No pics, of course. Here’s a drawing to help you visualize it.
 |
| Not drawn to scale nor particularly well |
Hold it – I forgot that I hadn’t
made the third support that connects the inside of the shackle box to the inside
leg of the x-member. It’s in the
drawing. It’s a fairly simple
fabrication, but it took three pieces of file folder to get the shape right,
and I had to MIG weld on a flange because it’s curved – um, I didn’t MIG
anything to the paper template. Work
with me here. (Refer to the drawing
because, again, I didn’t take any pictures.)
(Note: It's a kerspIoded view. I circled the parts I fabbed in red. The blue arrows are supposed to show you how it all glues together.)
(Note: It's a kerspIoded view. I circled the parts I fabbed in red. The blue arrows are supposed to show you how it all glues together.)
Each side of an Alpine’s forward
leaf spring shackle is reinforced by three pieces of sheet metal. They were a bugger to retro-build and
retrofit, but they are plenty strong.
It’s about 2:00 Sunday afternoon,
but I have all the pieces bolted and/or vice gripped into place. I mentioned it before, but this is when I
noticed the bolt wasn’t at a right angle to the center-line of the car. Geez!
What to do? I slotted the bolt hole that was
incorrect. It was the outside hole,
thankfully, because slotting the inside hole would have been a test of
ingenuity and forbearance. OK, with a
slotted hole and machine square in hand, I corrected the right angle correct
and weld a 3/8th thick washer on to create the new bolt hole. Not stock looking but aligned!
 |
| Welded but not cleaned or primed (I see things that won't work already) |
The driver’s side x-member only
needs half this much fiddling, and me having learned what not to do! Pity.
When I install Alphie’s new floor
pans, I’ll tidy-up the welds, maybe add a small cover to prevent water from
getting to all my ugly welds. I’ll
decide that later.
Next up:
Rocker – friggin – panels! Finally!
I have already surveyed the pieces of Bob’s Butt I’ll need to get the alignment
of fender to rocker panel.
I will endeavor to take pictures
next time – no promises…
1 comment:
John,
What a great job! Many people better than me would have walked away.
Glad to help, Curt Classic Sunbeam Inc.
Post a Comment