Rexanne - Gold s2 restoration project

[Steve-A]

This is kinda less welding practice for me and more helping Dad out! His company do all their fabrication in house, and have just enough to keep one full time welder/frabricator busy but over the last few weeks they\'ve been rushed off their feet and are after all the help they can get.

So while video work is slow, Im doing a day or two here and there moonlighting as a welder/fabricator. I made the piece pictured today, took a couple of hours from CAD drawing to what you see there. Its a small part of something like this:



You\'re right, its not great practice for the welding skills for the car, as 10mm plate doesn\'t weld much like 1mm But its good fabrication practice and skills to learn, and machines to learn to use. Especially as I\'ve future plans for rack and pinion steering conversion that will require a new subframe and I want to do something about the rear suspension geometry! And it\'s working with and learning from Bill, who did the beautiful fabrication work for me on my rotary mx5, like the sump he made for me:



Mostly its a few quid to keep me going and really helps my Dad out!

[Ian65]

sorry to see the demise of your workshop Steve!

[Steve-A]

Yes me too, but we have the technology, we can rebuild him/it.

Bit of bodge work and it\'ll be good as new. Already straightened out the bent poles and welded on re-enforcements. Just need to deal with the smashed corner sections and a few staples and a bit of glue will sort the ripped fabric

Maybe i need to join the gazeboclub.com forum and start a restoration thread

[Ian65]

Yes me too, but we have the technology, we can rebuild him/it.

Bit of bodge work and it\'ll be good as new. Already straightened out the bent poles and welded on re-enforcements. Just need to deal with the smashed corner sections and a few staples and a bit of glue will sort the ripped fabric

Maybe i need to join the gazeboclub.com forum and start a restoration thread

and WELD-IT.UK........ there\'s no stopping you now!

[Nik da Greek]

Proper aircooled Monster FTW , before they got all bloated and fat with a collector/cat like an oven ready turkey dangling from their gusset!. Probably about the only reliable Ducati ever, too. The 620 is a bit frustrating and gutless, though

....can\'t believe my first post on your thread is about a bike, sorry :o. Been lurking in the shadows for a long while, but I\'ve been too overwhelmed and embarassed by the talent/skill gap between you and me to say anything before. Great thread though, I\'ll go back to hiding in the background again

[Steve-A]

I have to say being able to basically glue metal together comparatively quickly and strongly, is so handy!

Haha, I think you over estimate my skills Nik:P I agree that modern bike exhausts are kinda lame, no longer so elegant. I\'ve not had the pleasure of trying a 620 yet. But I want something that I can ride day to day to keep fuel costs down, but also has some style and fun element. So to me the monster fits the bill well, and I figured the 620 would mean better fuel economy than the 80o or 900. I did used to get close to 60mpg from my 748 when I was commuting on her, rather than having fun, but thats fuel injection and water cooled....

My 784 was impeccably reliable for the year I owned her, daily ride too, before I learnt to drive. Went to that bike dealer on my 21st birthday, and made a dream come true when I bought that bike. But she didn\'t quite work out in the end. For a sports bike she wasn\'t nimble enough for my taste, drop dead gorgeous though....

[Steve-A]

I took that picture just a week or two before I sold her, I always come back to it. The RGV stole my heart though, but she\'s just not a good commuter!

[Nik da Greek]

And the 748 was :3Confused!? Two strokes feed your soul though, I covet your RGV too . Last 2T I had was a 350 YPVS LC that tried to kill me on every possible occaision it could, but such a bike when it all went according to plan! Bit like a Rex, really :Giggle

[Steve-A]

The 748 was a better commuter than the RGV. I\'d say it was about as practical a daily as a silly loud mx5 that does 20mpg, needs premixing and has got lightweight barely padded seats

[myatt1972]

. Last 2T I had was a 350 YPVS LC

Those were the days, tankslappers and engine rebuilds were a daily occurance
Keith...

[Nik da Greek]

Those were the days, tankslappers and engine rebuilds were a daily occurance
Keith...

Lol. Frames made of pipecleaners, brakes that didn\'t, and an engine that would either spin the rear or lift the front when it hit the powerband...place your bets kids :Giggle All in a de rigeur riding kit of jeans, baseball boots and paddock jacket

[Steve-A]

an engine that would either spin the rear or lift the front when it hit the powerband.

Yep, and if you don\'t rev it hard enough it bogs and you go no-where. That\'s always a fun choice to make when exiting a salty wet winter roundabout!

Dammit I\'m trying to make the decision to sell the RGV to have a more sensible bike thats more usable, stop tempting me with rose tinted memories of 2 stroke fun

[CHC (RIP)]

This is kinda less welding practice for me and more helping Dad out! His company do all their fabrication in house, and have just enough to keep one full time welder/frabricator busy but over the last few weeks they\'ve been rushed off their feet and are after all the help they can get.
 
So while video work is slow, Im doing a day or two here and there moonlighting as a welder/fabricator. I made the piece pictured today, took a couple of hours from CAD drawing to what you see there. Its a small part of something like this:
 

 
You\'re right, its not great practice for the welding skills for the car, as 10mm plate doesn\'t weld much like 1mm But its good fabrication practice and skills to learn, and machines to learn to use. Especially as I\'ve future plans for rack and pinion steering conversion that will require a new subframe and I want to do something about the rear suspension geometry! And it\'s working with and learning from Bill, who did the beautiful fabrication work for me on my rotary mx5, like the sump he made for me:
 

 
Mostly its a few quid to keep me going and really helps my Dad out!

Well if the skills you pick from Bill enable you to produce items with only 50% of his quality level you\'ll be fantastic and we\'ll all be queuing up outside your stapled/glued gazebo with cash in hand and drawings and templates a plenty - nice one and enjoy the experience mate.:cool

[Ricco_04]

Just gone through almost the entire thread.  You seem have so much patience.  For me to do that amount I think would take me 5 years! :Thumbs-up

Keep it up :wave

[Steve-A]

Haha, tanks Ricco. Whether it will take me 5 years or not is yet to be decided

Made a good chunk of progress yesterday

Got a reasonably early start, and began to replace the metal around the upper suspension mount. Here\'s the inner piece tacked in.



I was pretty pleased with how the seam welds went, I guess the practice is paying off!







It\'s not wildly neat but much better than the other side!

Then I started to prep the outer piece. I think it was even ore rotten than the other side!



Unfortunately, as I was wire wheeling the outer piece, the wire wheel managed to catch an edge and drag itself into the hole in the middle of the piece, jamming the grinder and bending the piece

The result was a burnt out grinder and a pringle shaped suspension mount brace. The brace hammered flat easily enough, but the grander is dead

So I cut and welded a plate to rebuild the brace, and then welded the whole lot onto the car.



 I and have just given it a quick blast of primer to keep it safe till I get chance to grind the lumpy welds back. These seams weren\'t as neat, becuase it was so awkward to get the torch into them. :Grrr

Ian had popped over to help, and with the welding on hold for a bit, I decided to steal some of his knowledge! Ian works part time at a garage, when not at uni, and so has tricks of the trade for some things :cool So we made a start on removing the bushes from the rear suspension arms.

First up we sawed the outer lips of rubber off the bush, so they would drive through easier. Here\'s me with a saw.



Then we used an old exhaust flange to press against the suspension link, and a socket to push the inner bush, and used the vice as a press to push the bush through.



Ian said this normally works first time, but the bushes on Rexanne are so perished they are infact crazy flexible, so we had to push them one way, then the other a couple of times before they popped. A couple of them popped right out then, one of them only the metal center popped through, but after that it was easy to saw through the rubber removing the tension, then knock that out.



Results:



Two lower links down, lots to go! I went out a bought a new grinder yesterday too, so can get on with more welding soon