Final Chassis Stiffening - Strut Tunnel

Last(ish) job to do on the chassis stiffening was to re-inforce the Rear Strut Tunnels. This pic shows the area prepped on the driver's side.

...and here's the passenger side ready to go.

I fabricated the plates out of 1.5mm again. Weld primered and drilled for plug-welds.

Driver side plates welded:

Passenger side plates welded:

The weld obviously came through into the inside of the trunk, scorching the primer there. So that was cleaned up ready to be re-primed.

All of the welding was ground down and then epoxy primed.

Chassis Primered

Here's some pics of metal with paint on it!

Isn't that nice...!

Suspension Console and Chassis Strengthening continued...

Next up, adding the kit from Tangerine Racing to the Suspension Console on the Driver's side. I tacked into place the small box section shown in the bottom left of the pic above. Then the larger half box was tacked into place. This part virtually covers the whole console and ties it to the wall of the wheel-housing above. I taped over the unfinished join before stripping paint from the chassis behind. Here's that pic...

I fabricated the stiffening plate out of 1.5mm thick sheet and tacked that in place too. You can see a cut in it to help seat it against the chassis better.

Here's the whole area cleaned and ready for weld primer..

I also made a small section to extend the stiffening to tie-in with the transmission support. Now the re-inforcement is effectively connected on both sides of the car..or at least will be when it's finished.

Here are the two plates clamped and ready to weld..

I welded them at inch intervals to keep the heat to a minimum. I'll be seam sealing it all later after priming.

Here's the welding finished..

...and here's lots of pictures of shiny metal after grinding, and cleaning-up.

Next comes the epoxy primer...

Chassis Stiffening - Driver's Side

After the Long was patched up, I added a further skin to stiffen the chassis - inline with the passenger side. Paint removed, metal cleaned up...

..and weld primered.

The Jack Post area was plated first in two halves of 1.5mm steel with curved upper and lower edges to fit perfectly against the Long beneath.

I drilled the plate that sits on the angle of the Long and removed the paint around the holes..

All 3 pieces were tack welded in place..

 Welds were finished, cleaned up and ground smooth-ish..

Jack Post & Long Repair - Drivers Side

Like the passenger side, the driver's side Jacking Point was in need of some love. So I cut-out the original one and removed the worst of the rust.

I made a point of marking the position of the Jack Post so I know exactly where to position the replacement part.

8mm holes were drilled out around the edge of the cut-out to patch-in a plate on the inside of the Long itself.

The inner plate (1.2mm) was plug welded using the drilled holes..

This inner-plate gave me something to weld the second layer to. The bottom edge of the Long was fine so I just needed to put a single bend in the patch (1.5mm) to fill the top curve of the Long. The holes are obviously for me to plug-weld it to the inner-plate..

Then it's just a case of fully welding the patch in place and then grinding it smooth. I could have stopped here, but because of all the additional stiffening I'm doing to the chassis, I decided to add another layer. I'll show this in the next post. This thing ain't going to flex at all!

Firewall Patch

The Firewall separates the cabin from the engine bay. It has sound & heat-proofing material glued to the engine side which can trap moisture and start rust. This car's firewall has a few holes that need patching. Here's one done...

Here's the hole I cut out to fill...you can see how pitted the piece was that came out of it below.

Here's the replacement piece I fabricated..

 Held in place with Intergrips..

Tack welded, then fully welded. After all this, I ground it smooth and primered it.

914 Maddog Inner Long Chassis Stiffening Kit - Grind and Primer

After loads of welding, it's time to grind the welds smooth-ish and get some primer on them. So that's exactly what I did! I didn't grind the welds flat but I took them down to a level where they wouldn't be noticeable beneath a carpet..if indeed I do carpet the interior.

Here's the driver's side.. 

Lower Firewall left.. thrilling!

More shiny metal!! Lower Firewall right..

The Longs: Driver's..

Passenger's..

...and after plenty of wire-brushing and degreaser, it's time to lay down a nice coat of tough 2K Epoxy Primer. I've got some new stuff made by Lechler which is lovely and smooth. I never thought I'd feel strongly about paint(!) but this stuff, dare I say it, is alot nicer than the stuff I got from Rustbuster and was alot less expensive too....does anyone care?? I should go on 'Watchdog'! Here's the passenger side sprayed up in RAL 7035 Light Grey.

914 Maddog Inner Long Chassis Stiffening Kit - Weld

So to start welding.. It was important to really keep the heat to a minimum so I really took my time doing this. I cooled each weld with compressed air and avoided welding in the same area for too long. I'd weld on one side for 3 or 4 plug welds then move to another area.. For the bead welds I'd do an inch then cool it with the compressed air. It goes without saying that it's a very good idea to brace the door opening to help prevent it from distorting during the welding.

Here's a shot of the Firewall corner. You can see where the screws have been removed; these can easily be filled with weld. I'd only take the screws out when there were plenty of close welds to hold the plate tightly in place.

Here's the Driver's Long. You can see the indent for the handbrake. The metal needs to be hammered in this area to fit snugly.

Here's the welding of the firewall section pretty much finished. There's a ton of welds here because of the extra holes I drilled. You can probably make out the separate inch long beads along the edges.

Here are the beads along the top edge close up.

I wouldn't remove the screws until it's pretty much surrounded by the welds, but then that's just me being ultra-careful!

Work in progress! You can see the door braces..

I cut off the bottom edge of the sections so I could weld them to the Long itself. You can see the short separated beads. I guess you don't really need to do this but I figured it might add a bit of stiffness and I'm also thinking I may not put carpets in the cabin so finishing the edges cleanly like this just made sense visually. ** ref comment below.

More details....

 ...and more...

..and job done!

** See far right of picture above and picture below. I decided to take the opportunity to better weld the actual Long to the outside of the wheel arch. The factory welding is sketchy at best and I thought a bit of extra welding would be a good idea to strengthen the join... If you do this, be aware there's a nice load of weather proofing 'tar' on the other side of the metal which will happily go up in flames if you're not careful!!