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Old 12-21-2017, 04:00 PM
orange_charlie orange_charlie is offline
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Default Austin Healey Sebring Sprite Front

Hi Everyone, My name is Charlie i am 27 living in the uk and i am a keen metal shaper, my day job is to restore and repair classic cars but i have never done a full build from sheet metal, i have only ever made repair sections. This is my first post but i thought i would share what i have created in the evenings after work.

i Have a austin healey sprite and the body was completely rusty so about 8 years ago i bought a fibre glass body to replace the rust, as many projects go i never got time to finish it.

i found an interest in metal shaping so decided to create a body using the fibre glass as a buck... so here is how i am getting on. this has been created by gathering a wealth of knowledge from this forum and various videos, all comments welcome. this is my first project so it has been trial and error so it is not perfect but i am happy with it so far. Photos Attached.

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Last edited by orange_charlie; 12-21-2017 at 06:14 PM.
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Old 12-21-2017, 04:06 PM
Arminius Arminius is offline
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superb effort! are you going to go the full williams and pritchard route as a coupe or run it as a soft top with the sebring front end?
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Old 12-21-2017, 04:30 PM
orange_charlie orange_charlie is offline
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Hi Will, have the sebring fast back in fibre glass as well so if this goes well i will build the rest. thanks for the comments,
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Old 12-21-2017, 04:39 PM
orange_charlie orange_charlie is offline
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Just started to dress the welds last night,

I used TIG welding as this is what i am confident with but had to weld both sides to help with penetration of rear of panel, would i be better off gas welding, Pros and Cons ??



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Old 12-21-2017, 05:25 PM
Charlie Myres Charlie Myres is offline
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Great work Charlie, thanks for posting!

All of the legends on this and other sites prefer oxy-welding,

Cheers Charlie
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Old 12-21-2017, 06:06 PM
orange_charlie orange_charlie is offline
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i had concerns of the flux damaging the final paint finish, is this something to worry about or is it quite easy to clean off ? also i have an FJ Edwards english wheel but i only have two bottom dies and they are dull and quite marked hence the dull finish on the panels i made, also the top wheel has a flat and grabs the bigger panels any unevenly shapes if not careful, does anyone know the best place to get a new top wheel and dies for this type of english wheel.
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Old 12-21-2017, 07:24 PM
steve.murphy steve.murphy is offline
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Charlie I like the work you have done so far.
You could take your top wheel to a machine shop and they can probably dress up the wheel on a lather if the damage isnt too deep.
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Old 12-21-2017, 09:47 PM
trentesept trentesept is offline
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Charlie, I took the top spindle out of my big McPherson and took both it and the top wheel together to my grinder and had the wheel ground between centres , then to my metal polisher who got it a mirror finish, you can do the same with your bottom anvils , total cost in English money about 30 quid!!Doing it this way makes sure your top wheel runs true to the spindle bearings without any "hop" which might happen if you just bolt on a new wheel!!
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Old 12-21-2017, 11:18 PM
crystallographic crystallographic is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by orange_charlie View Post
Just started to dress the welds last night,
I used TIG welding as this is what i am confident with but had to weld both sides to help with penetration of rear of panel, would i be better off gas welding, Pros and Cons ??
Attachment 44554
Nice work, Orange.
Good to see.

fwiw,
I use the tiggy and O/A gas welding both.
Pros - you don't have to weld both sides with gas welding. I can also make espresso in the shop with gas. And anneal. And do hot work. And the circuit boards don't go bad. And soldering is nice. And brazing. And drying glue. And removing stuck nuts and bolts.
Cons - you have to wash off the flux.
And listen to how wonderful the tiggy is.
Happy Christmas.

For my wheel, I have a machinist who does precision grinding (also spherical ) ... and I take my rolls in and have him dress the flats while on the shafts and bearings - so the surface is perfect and the runout is zero.zero. I also have the upper done, from time to time, same way.
Whisper perfect.
Reflection perfect.

p.s. Remember the 7 Dwarves?
Well, the 8th dwarf hangs out in the tin shop.
His name is "Lumpy."
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"All it takes is a little practical experience to blow the he!! out of a perfectly good theory." --- Lloyd Rosenquist, charter member AWS, 1919.
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Old 12-22-2017, 12:41 AM
orange_charlie orange_charlie is offline
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sounds like i need to see the local machine shop for some grinding work !!

also sounds like i need to visit your web page kent and get some better goggles and a smaller torch, i do practice my gas welding every now and then but i think a job this size would need some better equipment !
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