Compressed Air Cooler - very 'home made'!

Getting ready to Epoxy prime a fair amount of stripped metal I'm sorting out my Paint Spray system. I've read the air needs to be cooled as much as possible to minimise the water content in the paint-spray. So I've created this 'Heath-Robinson' system of 15mm copper pipes, compression fittings and valves to help cool the compressed air coming out of the compressor.

What I should mention here ofcourse is why I've made the whole system on a portable MDF mounting board. Most people would probably just fix all their pipes on the wall of their garage - but as it's my father-in-law's garage and I'll likely be moving the car to a new garage soon...you can see why I didn't!  

All-in there's about 30 - 40 ft of pipe which I reckon is the least I can get away with - copper pipe ain't cheap after all! So the air is warmed as it's pumped through the compressor which increases its water content; the air needs to be cooled before it reaches the Spray Gun - the water condenses on the inside of the cold pipes and runs down into the 'traps' where it can be bled through the ball-valves.

I've also got a £10 water-trap fixed to the gun itself to help further...

Here's the front...with the filter/regulator, input from the compressor (bottom right) and standard outlet valve/connector(top right)...

Here's the back...the pipes obviously pass through holes in the bottom of the mounting board. Ofcourse I've had to put ball-valves on each of the uprights (both sides of the board) to be able to drain any collected water..

That's it...it'd be a shame if it doesn't work!! Took me a fair amount of time to make and cost a fair bit too!

Trunk Floor Hole Repair -reinforcing 'band'

So in patching a hole on one of the reinforcing bands in the trunk floor I inadvertantly created 'another' hole; basically because I over-sanded the weld I made at a corner... It's hard to describe it exactly and unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the hole made...mainly because I was so annoyed! But look at this pic and you'll get a better idea; it was the top patch of the two.





















So I cut out an even bigger hole...aghhhh!




















I had to fabricate the replacement patches to have the exact same bends to match the reinforcing band you can see in the pic...bah! Not bad for a first effort if I do say so myself. I folded the sheet in the vice and between metal plates and came up with these beauties..





























VERY carefully fitted, tack-welded in place..then welded and sanded away. I need to be more careful with the sander as I always seem to over do it! Still, alot better this time. I used the Dremel to do the tight radii...very slooow. But OK...over and out.

'Quick' Trunk Floor Patch Repairs

Before welding-in the floor, I needed to patch up some holes in the trunk floor. These were holes created where the OEM jack was strapped into the trunk (I know I should be saying 'boot' as we're in the UK...but this 'is' an International blog after all and I don't want to confuse people talking about 'holes in boots'..)

So....the points of the jack fixings had rusted out and left holes. So what did I do?...I cut them out ofcourse and welded in patches..

Holes....
















Patch...

















...then, to cut a long story short I bodged sanding off the welds on one of the patches and made another new hole that needed repairing. Only this time it was MUCH more complicated. Read the next post if you are having problems sleeping!

Oh, by the way...we have just had an offer we made on a house accepted. So in a few months, the car will be at home and worked on more often during the evenings..as opposed to being a 15 minute drive away...phew, gripping stuff!

Useful Job Time Estimation Calculation

I've figured out a way to realistically estimate just how long it will take to do specific jobs:...first-off, estimate how long it will take to get hold of the things you need (allowing for delivery time if buying online); factor in prep time (stripping paint, grinding or drilling out spot welds and removing rusted metal etc) usually one or two days, then allow one or two days fabrication; cutting and measuring replacement patches and panels and then finally apply an extremely simple mathematical equation (you need only very basic mathematical knowledge to do this)...you either multiply your estimate by 3 or alternatively, multiply it by 4..or possibly 5; very worst case, multiply by more than either 3, 4 or 5.

Cutting and measuring-in the new Trunk Floor

The new replacement floorpan needed to be cut and fit into place before welding. This was quite painstaking to get a neat and tight fit.. The pics show the cut through the existing floorpan exposing the transmission mounting beam..


















I put-in, took-out, put-in, took-out, put-in, took-out the replacement pan..(get the point!?)..to make sure it fit perfectly; shaving of micrometres of steel until the floor fit neatly.















While the inside of the 'transmission mount beam' was exposed, I took the opportunity of cleaning it out properly and rust-protecting it with epoxy mastic..

Removing Original Trunk Floor Remnants

Another killer job...drilling and grinding out the final remnants of the original trunk floor..aghh! So first I had to clear out the previous owner's bodge floor just to get to the rusted-out factory floor..then clear all that up. Ahhh..'tis done now, ready for the next stage of the new floor going in.

Here's a pic of the tight corner with no sign of the original floor. It was impossible not to do a little damage with the spot drill and grinder but I'll weld over any little holes and grind them clean.

Tow Bracket and Bumper Mounts - clean up!

The re-inforceing brackets for the bumper mounts aswell as the Tow-Eye bracket were in a bad way following the former owner's bodge 'fix' of the trunk floor. I reckoned it was best to just cut them out and 'start again' - bearing in mind I will be using lighter fibre-glass bumpers anyway for the GT 'look'; home-made replacement brackets will probably be better.
















So here you can see I cut the brackets out and patched-in new metal. This will need to be further re-inforced before I weld in the new floor and get the shell onto the rotisserie - as the rotisserie will be fixed to the shell at this point. I can't see how the weight of the shell can be supported by the single layer of the patch without damage..


















Watch this space and you'll understand what I'm blabbering on about...!