aprilia project

[chugga boom]

Slowly getting there with the gussey, hope to get it running by the end of the week and wings painted begining of next week

[chugga boom]

Work has comenced on my aprilia, at the moment all  the structural welding is finished, wings bootlid and wheels have been shot blasted and ready for repair, all the inner wings prepped and into prima, floor primered inside and underneath, 3 doors repaired and only minor repairs left to do on n/s front door bottom now, hopefully this will be finished this weekend and the shell will be ready to prep for paint, I have anothe aprilia in for major surgery at the moment and thought i may aswell be working between both cars, i've also done a bit more to "thing" and i'm slowely getting the bodywork sorted on that too, will put some pics of progress up this week if i get time

[the.cern]

Great to hear from  you Chugga and to know how works are progressing. Sounds like fun, but how is it that you think that 'I may as well be working between both cars', whereas as we mere mortals, well me at least, seem to struggle with just one !!!!!!!

Looking forward to seeing the photos,

                                  Andy

PS no obvious signs of the Appia problem so today we start the gearbox out process !!!

[lancialulu]

there you are Andy - working between 2 cars!!,

Tim

[chugga boom]

Andy technically i'm working between 3 at the moment as when i'm fed up with aprilias i do a bit on the pickup, Tim valid point!!! i think all of us with more than 1 old car end up doing what i do, i'm only putting pictures of my own cars progress up as i dont think its fair to publish pictures of work done to customers vehicles without their concent, the work i'm doing to mine is more or less identical to the other cars needs, i will put more pics up later if i get chance but here's a few for now 

[chugga boom]

todays work, doesnt look much but its quite alot of work making a complete door bottom from scratch and making it fit , also included a couple of pics of boot area and front inner wings just to show progress

[chugga boom]

more....

[chugga boom]

finally.....

[simonandjuliet]

Very nice !

Do you joggle (?) the door panels before welding the new pieces ? Also how do you prevent panel distortion esp on wide flat panels like the doors ?

ps I got a set of floor panels made up by Bill so thanks for his details !

[chugga boom]

Very nice !

Do you joggle (?) the door panels before welding the new pieces ? Also how do you prevent panel distortion esp on wide flat panels like the doors ?

ps I got a set of floor panels made up by Bill so thanks for his details !

Hi Simon, glad to hear you got sorted and i promise you wont be dissapointed with their fit, difficult question about joggling, the rear door i didn't the front door i did, reasons being the rear door skin had little distortion and because of the amount of metal that had been removed what was left was very tought and not floppy so tends to stay put, the front skin was a different story as the door had had a hard life and the skin is dented and stretched so a joggled edge is far stiffer to join to and gives less distotion, the trick of minimal distortion is as follows, with both types of joint i use a copper heat sink behind the panel rather like a copper spatular to stop the panel heating up too much and distorting, use very short bursts of weld approx 3mm long every 6 inches appart, let it cool and repeat the process but weld between the 1st set of welds again in short bursts, keep repeating this process untill its seam welded , generally you can feel the heat build up in a panel and should never become too hot to touch, also with a butt weld leave a small air gap between the panels and this again helps with little distortion, i have a set of clamps from frost that space the panels perfectly for butt welding
http://www.frost.co.uk/automotive-welding-tools/intergrip-welding-clamps.html
these work a treat, hope this helps  j

[chugga boom]

this is like my heat sink, same idea except mine isn't magnetic and has a handle instead, frosts looks better than mine though to be honest
http://www.frost.co.uk/automotive-welding-tools/eastwood-4-inch-magnetic-copper-welding-backer.html

[simonandjuliet]

A couple of nice gadgets ! - The heat sink looks really useful because it holds things in place at the same time, very tempted ...

Thanks for the "insider's knowledge"

[chugga boom]

Now then, favour time again  if you look at the boot floor in my car the spare wheel well is completly missing, in the car i'm restoring the entire boot floor is missing, now i have a pattern for the spare wheel well and have managed to reproduce the well and fit the customers car entire boot floor and wheel well, what i'm after now is some good photo's of the lids that cover the diff and fuel tank sender unit as i have none and intend on making reproductions for these cars as origional as possible so can anyone help, also i'm missing the fuel filler cap (hinged part attatched to boot floor so if anyone has one or more they are willing to part with i'd be gratefull as we have 5 aprilia's a sixth on its way none of which have these items  thanks for any help

[BlueSky]

Here are some pics of the fuel filler cap on my S1 car, note they hinge from the front on early cars, up to const. no. 4661 I think, then they hinge from the left side. I'll get some pics of the sender unit cover for you soon. If anyone has a spare original petrol tank cap I'd like one!
Noel

[BlueSky]

The sender unit cover fitted to my car, I think it is original. James if you need any more info let me know, don't suppose you have those dimensions yet?
Noel