What did you do to your Volvo today? Topic is solved

[abscate]

Got my Fourth acquisition for Beryls Volvos (cars for Community College Kids) delivered.

Its a 100k mile 1998 S70 in the Aqua Blue. Still to be evaluated and qualified as a runner.

I hope you had your glasses on when checking the mileage on this one

[DennisCA]

Today I've mostly worked on making a patch. So I make the patch separately first, then I weld it on. I lack sheet metal tools for shrinking and stretching, so I'm using the method where I weld everything in simpler shapes myself.





Parts are made and fitted, welded and ground and so on it goes...



I leave some pieces oversized, I grind them down later.



The metal looks good towards the rim so I don't have to try to make that part too. It could have been difficult to get it looking good. It's still a more difficult geometry than I thought, there are compound curves in it and it will have to be hammered and shaped the slow way.

Now that I get to the top part which is the visible part I thought I would try to shape it in one piece to reduce the chance of it all going wrong.



It's actually starting to come together, now I have to take a break and have a beer or something now. But I'll keep hammering until it follows the contours more closely, then I can start cutting and welding in the new parts..



It will probably be the case that the lower repair has to be welded in first, then I'll weld the visible section separately. This is because everything will have to move both up and inwards, it'll be a lot easier to match up the corners and shapes,

[abscate]

If you can take the fender to Mumbai a guy there will give you back a perfect fender in metal in one hour

[DennisCA]

Yesterday I welded in the patch and ground down down the weld. There are probably a few things that still need to be welded that I thought I would do after I got the main piece in. I can feel some distortion on the panel above the patch, going a bit wavy, I can't see it though, I've been using hammer and dolly on the welds too and the distortion seems to have eased.

I haven't needed to try and shrink anything, which I guess would have been a separate project, making a shrinking disc for my rotary polisher.



Yes, I actually had a single welding clamp and not just plastic clamps. I should get more but they are $$$ IMO for what they are. Still haven't tripped over that box of 2nd hand welding clamps for 50 cents a pop at any flea markets, seems like everyone wised up and wants about as much as a new one for these.





I wasn't completely satisfied with how the bottom visible line matches up here, disappointed to be honest, we'll see if the putty can hide all the problems or if I have to take the angle grinder and weld again. I've been refining some of the shapes after welding using a hammer and dolly and other materials. Got this solid chunk of steel with sharp corners that helped define the edges.

Test mounted on the car

[5underpressure]

Decided to charge the air conditioning, held a vacuum for a half an hour.

Started adding refrigerant, compressor kicked on clutch didn’t sound so good. But I succeeded. Was sitting there enjoying the nice cold air out the vents in the hot garage. I turned it off oops, so much for premium materials in a premium vehicle, found the weak spot in the rusted steel drier canister.

[Chieber]

Got myself a mighty sword that adds 10hp when equipped.

[scot850]

I hope you got the mounting brackets with that! They look really good when fitted to your wagon.

Neil.

[Chieber]

I hope you got the mounting brackets with that! They look really good when fitted to your wagon.

Neil.

Yessir. Purchased through skandix. The mounting kit was more expensive than the spoiler.

The brackets arrived with sealing/adhesive kit to glue the spoiler to the tailgate.
But I’m probably going to grab some double sided tape together with the brackets.

[scot850]

Most of the ones I have seen removed have double sided tape and the 2 mounting metal brackets, one each end.

Good Luck!

Neil.

[Louiseravot]

Great idea for a thread! Always fun to see what others are working on. I just finished a brake pad swap and planning to tackle a coolant flush this weekend. Looking forward to seeing what projects everyone else is up to! If you’re organizing local meetups or sharing location-based tips, this postcode lookup tool could be a great help.