DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

As ever slight change of plan! I’ve cut off the front wing supports now as they were getting in the way and I couldn’t get to the surface behind them. The Dansk replacements I’ve bought look pretty good and have lined up ok.

But the main change of plan is to get the torsion bar areas on both sides finished next and to do that I need to dry fit the rear floor for alignment. So Flintstones mode!



I’ve cut the main area out of the way so I can really see what I’m doing and carefully remove each flange to minimise damage to the tunnel and rear heelboard.

The outer seat mount is also attached to the floor and I decided the best way to clean it up and do some local repairs was to remove it completely. I put a couple of self tappers through it for reference then drilled the spotwelds out.

A few minor repairs and it’s ready to go back in:


It’s now temporarily back in its place, I’ll blast and paint it before final assembly (in a few months!)



The seat mount on the other side is in a bad way but at £240 for a replacement I have motivation to fix it

Looks like you will be working under the car a lot drilling and grinding, a tough time !

Great progress though and on target for Barry?

Yes it’s going to be swarf in the face time...
I was going to flip it but Derek is still using the frame so I’ll crack on like this.

To be honest looking at it now I’m running out of shell to keep it stable as it rolls so keeping it flat is fine with me so I don’t end up with a parallelogram!

Rolling can wait until after it’s welded up

911hillclimber wrote:
Great progress though and on target for Barry?

I’ve tentatively mentioned September to him, but I’m too far out to really name a date and I don’t want to mess him around.

Bizarrely this was a simple satisfying job! Clean spot weld removal, touch of angle grinder to the edges and out it comes.

Very little repair required to the flanges. Inside of tunnel is mint (above the waterline) Makes a change!

Every now and again you get rewarded with an easy job. Helps keep the motivation up!

Nice one Gary.

Way to go Gary.....in awe of your aptitude and skill

Cheers gents,

Next stage is to get it rolled on its side to save my back and avoid anti gravity welding

I collected Dereks ‘lightweight’ (!) frame yesterday, now he has his shell on a ramp, and started making the mountings a bit shorter as it won’t go in the garage otherwise. If I ever need to flip a 7.5 ton truck I think it might be up for the job



New front mount made tonight, keeping it really close to the slam panel. The rear is going to be similar, just clear enough to fit the lid and no more.



I’ve never tried to lift the shell before, wow it’s light! With stands under the torsion tube I can lift it with one hand at the front and with a bit of straight backed effort lift the back with it mounted to the frame at the front.

This makes me a little happier about hanging it off the bumper mounts and it not bending too much. I’ve added a big spreader plate behind the front bumper mounts to take the strain a bit.

Should get it fully mounted tomorrow then back onto the floor repairs.

I've never done what you are doing so, how do you estimate the shell is well balanced to make rotation easy and safe?
Seen some USA programs where they make a big thing of balancing the shell before they start work.
This must make the next stages a breeze Gary, CLM for sure next summer!

Balance point importance is debatable! Derek had his shell on this rig much higher with the pivot level with the bumper mounts and he didn’t have any issues with it. This frame is so heavy the CofG is nice and low so very tolerant of the shell position.

I’ve lowered it a bit as I needed to shorten the mounts anyway and I’d rather it turned within its own space if you know what I mean.

Others have it very high and again no issues. I’m probably going to do this to paint the underside as the frame doesn’t get in the way.

When rotating the shell I inserted a long 2.0 metre thick steel bar into the end of the mounts. That was enough for one person to have control over the rotation but one person on each end was more reassuring especially the first time. Plus someone to reinsert the bolts to lock the rotation in the desired location.

Looking good Gary and a pleasure to see you again.

I’ll hopefully be able to use a shorter bar with the offset, but still planning on rolling being a two person job just to be safe.

Really needs a big gear and a motor...

Well, it rolled, no one died, it didn’t fall off

One hand on a metre long bar, gets tight at vertical but this is as far as it needs to go. Really easy.

Now for more repairs!

You get my vote for thread of the year so far Gary. You have tenacity in abundance.

Nice to hear a little bit from Derek too. I hope you are keeping well.

Regards
Mike

I should have thought first & done something similar. Instead I just welded upside down (holes in jacket to prove) then crawled underneath and sprayed the car (epoxy puddles on the floor and my jacket)

Good job Gary - keep it up


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