6 February 2021 Not much time in the garage today but enough time to get the wheels on the skate and get it back on it's wheels. I spent some time fiddling around with the air driven pop riveter I got for my birthday. I had to set it up and filled with hydraulic fluid. Then I tested with some spare pop rivets so I was familiar with it before I used it for real. 7 February 2021 Had another tidy up and moved stuff around, so I could move the chassis on to the lift and fit the floor pans. Frances gave me a hand flipping the chassis over and moving it on to the lift. With that done I could wheel the skate back in the garage where the chassis had been, and close the door on the cold weather. First task was to mark up where to drill the pop rivet holes on the alloy floor pans. They come ready cut to size and the position of the chassis rails is marked on the top. I drew lines within the chassis rail markings, then marked off using the 100mm spacing recommended by Andy, with some adjustments. I drilled the alloy panels with a 3mm drill into a piece of wood. I flipped the panel over and positioned it carefully on the chassis. I clamped it in place and then drilled through the pilot holes and into the chassis with a 5mm drill. I lubricated the drill with a blast of WD40. I popped a rivet in each hole as I drilled it to make sure all the holes lined up. There were 60 holes in each floor pan so that is a total of 240 holes drilled! I gave everything a wipe over with a cloth and some brake cleaner and pulled off the protective film from the alloy panel. I ran a bead of grey Tiger Seal along the chassis rails, it was cold in the garage so I had to sit the tube in front of my warm air blower for a few minutes to get it to flow! I positioned the panel on the chassis, carefully lining the holes up with pop rivets in each corner. Once the floor was aligned I used my air driven pop riveter to fix it in place. It made the job very simple and quick. I think it would have taken me 3 times as long with a manual pop rivet gun and no doubt my forearms would have been aching afterwards!
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AuthorThis is my first kit car although I've messed about with cars all my life. Archives
November 2023
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