Alanapone's Red VTS. Caged, stripped, track toy. - Page 12 - Saxperience

mark1311 · 13th November 2011, 21:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alanapone

Okay, well looks like I need some spreader plates making up. What sizes should I be after?

I can't remember how think the box section is. probably about 1mm?

This lads quoted me about £40 so not too bad. Like I say, I'd like to see if he can weld in the seat rails too so I reckon about another £20 or so.

I use 2mm for spreader plates on seat rails. Some kits use 1.5 some 3mm. IMO 2mm is plenty.

If it's onli 1mm wall it's no good either mAte way to thin bolts would just rip it out. It's like bolting seats to floor you just wouldt do it lol. Get some thts about 2.64 mm thick.

Alanapone^p · 13th November 2011, 22:00

I'll double check the wall thickness tomorrow then. What do you do just cut some squares about 50mm square?

weld them to the car then weld the box section to the plates?

Hope it's the right stuff... I got it for free so it's not an issue but I did want to do this as it'll save me buying more stuff.

mark1311 · 14th November 2011, 22:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alanapone

I'll double check the wall thickness tomorrow then. What do you do just cut some squares about 50mm square?

weld them to the car then weld the box section to the plates?

Hope it's the right stuff... I got it for free so it's not an issue but I did want to do this as it'll save me buying more stuff.

yer let me no if its not thick enough i think i have some lenths left at work as i got some for myn,

plates yer just some 50x50 welded on end, again if u aint got some pm me and al post u some out

yer but its easyer to tack the tube in place to the plates remove seam weld it then weld in car easyer to weld that way.

Alanapone^p · 14th November 2011, 23:05

K, I'll have a look when I get 5 minutes. I hope it's thicker than I thought :-/

Alanapone^p · 19th November 2011, 18:23

Well, I got something done today!

Rust hole is cut out, just need to cut some metal up to fit back in. My mates just nipped home for some tea so if he comes back, we might just get it finished tonight!

Will be WELL chuffed if wee can!

Also, looks like the box section I have doesn't have the thicker walls that I should have. This means I'm going to have to beg, steal or borrow a seat mount for the time being!

I'm absolutely brassick and have no money to spend so don't bother posting that you have some for sale lol.

I've also hit a massive stumbling block with the insurance on this thing. Going to spend a few hours on the phone through the week to see if I can get a reasonable quote for the year! Just to give you a taster... I got quoted by money supermarket.com just over £2k!!! I'm 33 FFS not 19!!!

MuZiZZle · 19th November 2011, 19:34

Dude i'm 31, 3rd party, 1k miles through a track day friendly company was £300

Hertsinsurance

MuZiZZle · 19th November 2011, 19:34

That was mods declared too

Alanapone^p · 19th November 2011, 20:07

Nah, No mods, no points and NO no-claims

company cars FTL!!!

Alanapone^p · 19th November 2011, 20:08

OH... And the car is being welded as we speak!

WELL CHUFFED!!!

mark1311 · 19th November 2011, 20:15

day insurance? cost us 25quid for the day, 21year old lad drove it. sure its about 17quid for your age

Alanapone^p · 19th November 2011, 21:35

Who with Mark?

I tried a few short term insurance companies but they wouldn't provide cover for some reason?

MuZiZZle · 20th November 2011, 12:13

But what about tax etc??? I thought a car needed insurance to be taxed now?

Alanapone^p · 20th November 2011, 12:45

Yeah, well, if I can't insure it, it won't get taxed and I'll have to trailer it!

MuZiZZle · 20th November 2011, 13:51

I was thinking about trailering mine too

I can Just get away with it using my current car!

Alanapone^p · 20th November 2011, 14:22

Well, i'm now all set and have the metal cut and ready to go inn to the hole where the rust used to be. I've even given the new brakes I got a clean up and drained the old fluid out of them... Just waiting for my mate to turn up now So he can weld in the bits and help me drain the brake fluid out!

OOO... as I type he's reversing onto the drive

NICE ONE!!!!!!!!!!! lol

Update later... hopefully with some nice pictures too.

Alanapone^p · 20th November 2011, 19:42

AWESOME!!!

Hole welded up! Just got to get some primer, paint and under-seal then that's that little job finished.

Also I now have a seat mount lined up so that's another job off the list.

This coming week, I've got to get the welding tidied up and finished then I can get the front end back on the ground. Once that's done, i can get the rear beams swapped.

I'll get some pictures of the welding up tomorrow.

rorz_vts · 20th November 2011, 19:43

Good to hear its all go again mate

Alanapone^p · 20th November 2011, 21:54

Yeah mate... Me too! I was starting to think that this may end up like the cars it is meant to be proving wrong lol.

Anyway, managed to get on my pooter rather than the laptop so here's a few photos from this weekends work.

Now I know 2 days is a long time to do this little bit of work but, I was very apprehensive about taking a grinder to the car! this coupled with the fact that both me and my mate Jon are both more "Brew" than "Work" means it took forever lol. That being said, I'm happy with the result and the metal and welds are not budging! (tested with rubber mallet!)

SO, First here's a picture of what I was faced with when I removed the ECU tray:

After some poking with my fingers only this is what I was left with:

I then gave it a knock with a hammer and marked out where I thought we should cut out to:

Then I covered as much of the engine bay with my flame retardant overalls from work

Then came the whizzer and a 125mm cutting disc!

I noticed that their was some bad bits on the vertical part of the inner wing also:

So I chopped that out too:

Then I gave it a whiz over with a flap wheel:

So we ended up with a nice clean cut hole and started to weld back in some metal... Fortunately, I had a spare wing from when I swapped one over on the VTR.

Jon turned up with his old MIG welder that he's used to rebuild 2 VW Beetles and work began.

First was the vertical part:

Then today we filled in the main part:

The finished article now looks like this:

I know it's not the best in the world BUT, it's strong as fuck! I'm going to smooth the remaining welds down give the underside some underseal, then acid etch primer the top and give it some red again! Hopefully when it's done it'll all be fine again for a good few more years!

I'm glad it's done now so I need to keep up the momentum and get the rest of the work finished.

Still to do:

Set wishbones and ARB bushes
Fit callipers, Disks and Pads
Fit rear braided hoses
Replace old brake fluid
Swap rear beams
Fit Rear Billies
Fit seat
Sort interior??
MOT

Then I have to look at tax and insurance... If I can't get that sorted in time then I will look into hiring a low loader for the day. I know their is a company nearby that hire out car transporters for around £150 a day... Will work out cheaper than the insurance quotes I've had so far!

SO... That's the weekend done... Now for tomorrow... Set suspension!

AlexB^p · 21st November 2011, 16:21

Alan just a suggestion of something fun and in your budget

Have you ver heard of ppc magazines 999 challange??

Alanapone^p · 21st November 2011, 17:06

Nope... I shall googles it just as soon as I've found out where all my wages have gone! lol