Club 80-90 Forums

If that's the case, I'd better start calling around and see who can form me a piece as I can't see the Shriner being small or cheap!

You can buy a full width repair section ready made, no fabrication or shrinking or stretching required.

boatbuilder wrote:You can buy a full width repair section ready made, no fabrication or shrinking or stretching required.

Ooh, I'll go and have a look, that's very interesting indeed. Thanks.

If it helps, this is the bit I bought from schofields to repair it:

http://www.alanhschofield.com/ourparts/ ... 05036.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I haven't yet made any progress (my back has been playing up again) but I have got myself a spot weld splitting chisel and a metal disc for my 9" angle grinder. Hope to tackle it soon

thecyrusvirus wrote:If it helps, this is the bit I bought from schofields to repair it:

http://www.alanhschofield.com/ourparts/ ... 05036.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I haven't yet made any progress (my back has been playing up again) but I have got myself a spot weld splitting chisel and a metal disc for my 9" angle grinder. Hope to tackle it soon

Topman, I've just struggled in vain to find this part. I'd suggest you also buy a good spot weld drill as too much chiselling will probably cause deformation of the panels from the impact. Good luck with yours.

Buy a decent cobalt spot weld drill. Or else buy some good 8mm normal HSS drills and learn how to grind a spot drill on a bench grinder.

I have some wurth spot drill bits but my drill is too fat to get a decent angle of approach to drill the spots, especially as some of them seem very close to the inner edge. Even with an angle adapter on the drill the chuck still fouls on the front panel. How have others managed to drill them out?

Can't really remember how I drilled mine out... now that I think of it, I thiink I had the same problem ... You can hammer and chisel the metal around the spot welds, leaving the spot welds themselves intact. A cheapo sharp woodwork chisel will cut through the 1mm metal pretty easily without doing damage to anything else. Don't try to just hammer at the spot welds themselves - they need grinding off. Think I used a combination of a big grinding disk and a powerfile. I remember the powerfile being really handy for that area.

Really interesting stuff. I was going to steer clear from too much chiselling but it sounds as though it's unavoidable. I've bought a powerfile in preparation for this and loads of belts to go with it.

I was hoping to get the area sandblasted first so that I could see what I was letting myself in for - hit a brick wall as nobody locally will touch such a small job. a***! Oh well, it's getting removed anyhow. Pics to follow...

Yeah the powerfile is great. Only problem is the belts don't last long.

I've fitted quite a few of the scholfields repair panels, they are OK for all that they cost. As above you need a big grinder. I bond the new ones on with panel bond, that way there is no grinding of welds in a hard to get area and no oxidised metal surrounding the weld in a known water trap.

Well, that's a another method to consider. Do you have any more progress pics please?

I'll try and dig some out, this one was done about three years ago, and is still looking good.

Right, keep changing my mind on what course to take regarding this front panel. Several people are suggesting that it's actually easier to replace the entire panel rather than the lower piece that has been shown in pics above. I've looked at it today and I can't figure how to weld the r/h and l/h edges, even with the rad removed and the washer bottle out the way, access for a welding gun looks very tight. So, many have done it successfully but how?

Thanks, Mitch.