My car has a nose at last!

Phew. Friday was a marathon welding day. I got to Don's at about 11:00, and I worked on getting the nose clip on the car for the whole day, until about 5:30. Net result: the replacement nose is installed, but not "finished" yet. Let me say though that I am feeling a major sense of both accomplishment and progress for the project by completing this step. It is the first time ever since I have owned the car that the nose hasn't been either majorly bashed in or simply cut off. It changes the whole character of the car.

As usual, a pretty complete photo gallery is available, with highlights here to go with the text.

I suppose a description of what I did and what remains might be useful. After I got the nose back from Dee doing some additional metal work on it, I clamped the nose onto the car and proceeded to take detailed measurements from many points to insure both symmetry and height both horizontally and vertically. I also checked the alignment/fit of the bumper brackets and bumper through the nose, where the brackets attach to the battery box. Diagnosis: not perfect. It will be easier to slightly modify the angle/fit of the bracket mounts on the battery box sides rather than change the nose itself, because of where the cutouts are already positioned, and I will do this when I finish the nose. At this point I also left off the fog light brackets, and plan to install those next week. The replacement brackets, while good, will need some trimming and small modifications to fit well. Satisfied with the fit, I began using the "peel and weld" technique to tack weld the nose onto the car. Beginning near the center, I used a thin cutting wheel to slice off the very edge of the replacement nose, through to the original car metal that lay underneath. I would then use clamps and additional assistance from my hand or a screwdriver to bring the car/nose panels flush, and place a tack weld every inch or so. I proceeded out to the edge and down the fender, and then proceeded the process on the opposite side. Getting the nose all tacked in like this insured that there would be minimal warping when the real welding began, as the nose would already be securely attached to the car. After finishing the tack welds and making sure all the old metal was removed from the rear/inside, I removed all the remaining clamps and proceeded to begin the longest butt weld of my life. OK, not like I was running a continuous butt weld, but the whole seam of this weld must be like 6 feet long. To avoid heat input, I began at the center of the nose and simply welded 1 inch long lengths, alternating left to right out towards the fenders. I also pulsed the MIG gun, and cooled the welds with air occasionally. When doing this type of weld, it is important to begin your next weld just overlapping with the previous one so as to avoid pushing the wire through the gap between the panels and getting "whiskers" of welding wire protruding through the rear of your seam. Also, angling the MIG gun away from the weld pool and using a "pull" motion rather than a push motion minimizes heat input. The net result of using these techniques was minimal heating of the panels, and a very small heat-affected-zone (HAZ).

After completing all of the weld, I had time to begin grinding the weld down, but not much. Quite a bit of finishing work remains ahead; I am sure that there was enough heat from the weld so that the joint contracted/warped a bit and a small amount of filler will be required to make everything perfectly smooth. In any case, I think the result is quite good, utilized original rather than reproduction parts, and best of all, I did it myself. I wouldn't have believed I had the skill (or will!) to do that a couple of years ago.

Maybe the bodywork will get finished up relatively soon after all.

Posted by pbrown at April 24, 2005 4:55 PM