So I saw a TV show last month. The host was talking about doing rust repair using a TIG torch and bronze rods.
The gist was that you can fill holes easily since the bronze has such a low melting point compared with the base metal.
I bought two packs of rods - some Silicon Bronze TIG rods (3/32, I think) and some plain bronze brazing rods (3/16 or thicker).
Yeah, that went poorly. All I accomplished doing was making the holes bigger. The TIG rods worked better than the brazing rods (surely no surprise).
Additionally - I got a new cell phone, tried using the camera from that. Won't be doing that again; these pictures kinda suck. The thumbnail-creator I use has been making some horrible looking thumbnails, too. I'll look into a better program there.
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So here's what I started with. The holes are in the package tray on
the inside of where the back window goes.
I have not found
where the leak was that allowed all the water in, but the seal for the
window seemed to be pretty old. |
Alternate view of the holes. I successfully filled one, and made several others much larger than they were when I started.
I know this is not structural and it'd be safe to fill with something other
than new metal - but that's not the way I want to do things. | |
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So after trying to clean up the rust-holes, I sanded the flat panel below
the window. I knew I had drilled some holes for the front attachment
on the tonneau cover, but what I found surprised me: about six separate
other sets of holes for tonneau attachment, filled with some sort of
caulking or bondo. All of these will get welded up. |
So I figured out why the bandsaw keeps throwing the band (other than
being a cheap HF saw): there are several places on the blade where there are
no teeth. When it hits one of those areas, the blade stops and comes
off the pulleys. I've known I needed a better blade, now it's
confirmed. I don't like the way it twists the blade 45 degrees offset
for the cutting surface either, perhaps the whole saw needs to be adjusted -
I don't need the setup where the saw can be lowered onto a piece of metal. | |
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So I cut the mounting points for the pedals (with the band saw) so they'd fit the adjusted column mounts. Got them reassembled, lubed, and mounted as shown here. |
So the ATS clutch master bracket mounting holes don't QUITE fit the
A-body pedals - which surprises me, but is simple enough to correct. | |
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Of greater importance - I am going to have to rethink the master cylinder,
or at least the ABS system -- I cannot reuse the lines that the donor
Camaro/TA had as they put the ABS box in the PS pump. I can probably
just make new lines but I think that somebody mentioned that an S10 MC has
the same piston diameter but has the ports on the driver's side of the MC. |
So this is a picture of the sail panel inside. I am assuming that
this bracket is what a shoulder belt would attach to - but I've got two
threaded holes around what I would think was the belt attachment unthreaded
in the middle. Anyone know what bolts here? | |
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Next up, the column-base-trim was wrapped around the steering column to
properly locate the shaft at the firewall. Still need to screw
everything together - and will have to cut a hole for the clutch pushrod,
but this is progress. |
And then a reminder occurs: I've got some rust issues on the windshield
frame too.
And both cowl sides. And the driver's side floor.
And my crappy repairs to the bed 10+ years ago. | |
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Really I need to sand down the whole firewall, or at least this side, before
mounting things. |
So that's where I stand: 1 step forward, 2 steps back. At least it's progress, of a sort.
Trans-Am buyer flaked (wish I could say I was surprised) so no influx of money to buy parts. Plenty to do without more parts though.