The Dark Wob

captain_70s wrote:In semi-related bodged Dolly news, just arrived home from work to discover the repair I had done to the Dolly's sill seems to have lasted less than 2 years before starting to fail.

67803477_3472337256125315_9052296200895594496_n.jpg

I wonder what glorious bodgery I paid £230 to have done (by the same garage which condemned the Acclaim)... I don't think I've ever had any decent repair work carried out by anybody I've paid money to for as long as I've been driving...

Talking to a mate who works at a classic resto garage he says that the vast majority of nice looking classic cars that roll in are patchwork death traps which would probably start to fall to bits after a year if they were ever subjected to rain...

Goes to show how good a deal your Sprint was...

Ouch! Looks like filler under that paint, also rust too.

Not sure what you mean by that comment on if I got my Dolly as a good deal or not?! Sarcastic or not?

Does make me appreciate even more how solid my MGB is. Even though some rust patches are starting to show through, most of them was from being outside one winter - rain and even some snow.

Also made me realise that the 1100 was pretty solid by the time I finished with it. Still kinda regret letting that car go.

I'm happy that I got the Sprint for a good price though. This one I've got a keen interest seeing what it goes for: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 3612891122

Doesn't look in too dissimilar condition but it's poo brown and no current MOT. Going for more than I paid for mine already.

captain_70s wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 5:20 pm In semi-related bodged Dolly news, just arrived home from work to discover the repair I had done to the Dolly's sill seems to have lasted less than 2 years before starting to fail.

67803477_3472337256125315_9052296200895594496_n.jpg

I wonder what glorious bodgery I paid £230 to have done (by the same garage which condemned the Acclaim)... I don't think I've ever had any decent repair work carried out by anybody I've paid money to for as long as I've been driving...

This is precisely the reason I started doing my own work on my vehicles.

SiC wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 5:47 pmOuch! Looks like filler under that paint, also rust too.

Not sure what you mean by that comment on if I got my Dolly as a good deal or not?! Sarcastic or not?

Certainly legitimate. Your car has transpired to be crusty in places but also cost less than a third of most decent looking examples, which are probably hanging behind the scenes anyway.

That's probably the last welding repair I farm out, the only thing stopping me doing everything myself is lack of facilities/tools.

Lucky you if it's only facilities/tools, which can be acquired.
I'm completely void of talent when it comes to these things and there is no remedy for that.

I'm the same; I started an Airline Engineering Management degree before it became apparent that there was no way I was ever going to fly on an airliner I'd worked on. Theory was great, practice was shit. I took the hint and moved from manipulating aluminium to numbers.

Junkman wrote:Lucky you if it's only facilities/tools, which can be acquired.
I'm completely void of talent when it comes to these things and there is no remedy for that.

It can be got passed with a good panel source, big hammers and a decent welding set. If it wasn't for the excellent and cheap supply of panels from the Triumph Dolomite Club, I'd probably never have touched these cars.

chadders wrote:I'm the same; I started an Airline Engineering Management degree before it became apparent that there was no way I was ever going to fly on an airliner I'd worked on. Theory was great, practice was shit. I took the hint and moved from manipulating aluminium to numbers.

I deal with numbers for my day job (well programming hasn't really been dealing with numbers for decades) and it's not great. I'd rather be smashing metal into shape and place. Unfortunately that doesn't pay well.

I started the numbers thread off as a COBOL programmer, shows how long ago that was, moved into accountancy and qualified and then spent most of the time advising on and implementing large financial systems for Vodafone, Bayer, Brother et.al..

Needless to say I much prefer working on my MGB, albeit with a very limited skill set, which definitely excludes welding.
Given my joints are showing their age it's too late to learn now.

I would also like to be able to weld, like everything you have to start from the beginning and learn. But, for the amount I need doing from time to time its easier and better if I just pay a professional to do it.

As I always say, the actual welding bit is easy and really quite straightforward. With half decent kit that is set up correctly pretty much anyone with a half steady hand can do it.

The real art, skill and magic is being able to shape metal stock into curvy body panels, while making it look completely original and out of the factory. That is the really difficult bit which takes years to master. E.g. see TripleRich and others.

I'm just buying preformed panels, cutting them into shape and sticking them together. Stuff I'm fabricating, you won't see and isn't likely to be historically correct. This is why I'm fabricating the inner sill section (not least as panels don't exist) and buying in the repair panel for the wing - it helps that panel is only £45 posted.