Welding Birmabright

So I have been trying just about everything suggested by other Land Rover owners to weld my aluminum body panels.  I think I have landed on a solution that seems to work fairly well with novice welding skills.

I have been using that front panel as a test section, and in order to prepare it I have drilled out the end of any cracks with a 1/32 bit.  This is to stop the crack from getting any worse.

Once the cracks were all treated and the panel had all paint removed I tried out Alumiweld as a first go.  The process to get the solder to melt into the crack is a bit tricky.  After a few attempts I had some luck, but it doesn't hold up to any sort of flex in the panel.

Flexing the panel a bit and the weld just pops open again.  So that's not going to work, on to plan B, which is TIG welding with a friends TIG.

Props to all the welders out there who can get TIG to work properly.  I spent 3 days in my friends garage working with his ESAB and I just couldnt get it to work properly.  I ran down to the local welding shop, got all kinds of advice, tried different tips and rod, changed out the gas.  However, I just couldn't get it right.  Couple that with the fact my friend lives completely across town, and this welder requires 220 (which I dont have) I had to try something else.

The results of some TIG practice.  I think now, my problem may have been not enough shielding gas, but maybe someone with some more experience could tell me just by looking at the welds in the pic.

I have a 135amp MIG at home that you can buy an aluminum spool gun for, so that is the next plan, buy the spool gun and give it a go.  After purchasing some pure Argon for my welder and messing about with the gas settings I managed to get my first decent weld on the Birmabright.  I realize the picture below doesnt look like much but the weld is solid, and it has penetrated both panels.  Although small, I consider this a victory.

The problem with my shop is that 20amps is the largest circuit I have, and I cant put anything more in there, 220 is unavailable in my unit.  So I have had to work around that, and I think I have settled on a good solution.

One of the issues with welding aluminum is the gases and byproducts that it releases when welding.  So I built myself a small fume hood with a bathroom fan and some flexible ducting.  It actually works pretty good for the welding, and just about everything else, so I have been using it pretty consistently.

Front Fender

I continue to work on the front fender to get the large crumple out of it.  I had a bit of help, my dad stopped by to have a look and gave me some tips on how to get the whole thing straightened out.  Initially, the front piece had a 4 inch bend in it.  I have managed to get that down to about an inch.

One of the things my dad gave me when he shut down his shop is this handy profile tool.  I used it to take the profile off of the good right wing.

Using that as my guide, I worked on the bent fender to get it straight.  I was successful in getting one edge matching the correct profile.

The trouble is the side of the front panel that was really bent is still out by a fair bit.

Its getting closer but not quite there yet.  It needs to be within a sixteenth of an inch across the face of it so I don't have to use any filler.  As I have been working this I annealed it once so far.  To anneal it I rubbed engine oil on one side of the panel then heated the back side until the oil started to smoke.  It softened the birmabright enough that it was easier to work.  Trouble is I was using a square hammer and the metal was so soft at that point that I marred it with the edge of the hammer.

Second tip from Pop was to use the correct hammer.  You can see there is a couple tiny tears in the metal.  Once I have it more or less straight I will be drilling the end of the crack out and filling it with Alumiweld brazing rod.

Rear bumper

I felt like we were on a roll having taken the front bumper off.  Since I had a bit of help in the shop decided to take a crack at the rear bumper again.  I decided the best way to go about it is to cut the bumper in sections in order to get it off.  6 blades later, and we had our first section of the bumper off.

Its going to take a few more blades, or a different approach to get the rest of the rear bumper off.  It may have to wait until I get the cab removed, which it will make it easier to get the saw blade in between the bumper and the frame.

Front Bumper

The Rover has a non OEM Bumper on the front and back.  They have been built out of two four inch channel steel sections welded together.  Not sure what the history of this vehicle is but my guess is it was used for some serious off road.  The bumpers have been welded to the frame in multiple places, and has taken me several hours to get down to the original frame.  Well, with a bit of help today I managed to finally get the front bumper off.

Once it was finally cut out, the Front bumper lifted right off the frame.  It needs a bit of a clean up, some paint and maybe even a little bit of patching but overall its in good shape and will go back on (eventually).  The frame is in really good shape, considering it has been welded up in a number of places.  I will clean up the patches as best I can, fill in any welds that need it and paint it.

Starting to look like a Series 2 again.  Thanks to my able assistant!

Front Fender Repair

I have the front left wing off the Rover.  Its a bit crumpled, not sure how that happened since it was like that when i bought the vehicle.  I have a second hand fender that is in a bit better shape but the front panel on it has been cut up. So the solution is to take the best parts of both fenders and mate them together.  Since the front panel is in the worst shape I am going to start with getting it straight.

Here is the original front Fender.

And the second hand fender I picked up from someone in the Land Rover club.

I have taken the front panel off of the original.

I took a few pics to show just how bent up it was.

Three coats of paint stripper to get it almost bare.

I took out a few of the large dents.  It still needs a bit more work, which I will do over the next few days.  And I am going to attempt to anneal it at some point as well to see how that affects the ability to work it.

I am determined to get this thing fixed though, a new one is $260 CDN and I am way to cheap to lay that kind of money out on this thing when I know I can get it to half decent shape.