Doesn't look like it but I have been getting more hours in every weeks since getting back to it this year. Instead of reading the paper every night, I just buy it once a week for the TV guide and then spend the extra 1/2hr in the workshop instead. That adds up over 6 days to 3 hours or another day for me!
It is just the same news but different names anyway.
I'm am always trying new ways to improve technique. I found especially on low crown panels that I would over stretch after welding getting the waves in the metal. So for the other side I got the main distortion out by using a nylon mallet and hitting into a lead filled rubber dolly.
I only did final stretching, metal hammer on metal dolly, after the grinding to get the weld area perfectly flat. Came out a lot better and was much faster.
Next it was time to finish off the back part of the bonnet after the guards were extended at the grille.
Brochures left from dads house came in handy as a card template. Hard to believe but the left side of the template is actually perfectly straight and the right side at the cowl has had a curve cut into it.
Unfolded you can see how the left side from the picture before, bottom in this picture, is now straight. Last bit of metal from the rear wall was used to make the filler piece.
I folded over a flange on the cowl side of the piece and wheeled flat before putting the curve into it. Used nothing more than my knee to bend it over.
Checked with a straightedge to make sure it was flat and hammered over the bench from the inside out with the hammer I modified for this sort of work.
I want to extend the joggle in the bonnet all the way to the end where it fades out. Just marked both sides of it first.
Then clamped it at both ends the piece over some metal the same thickness as the deepest part of the joggle. Concentrated the bolster mainly at that end so it would fade to the other.
One tapered and fading joggle!
I made the piece wider than the bonnet was short so it would cover the weld line I had from when I welded in the Landcruiser louvres. I'd rather not have two weld lines so close together when possible as makes it quicker to finish off.
Another piece of the puzzle done and only the other back corner left to do on the skin. Lots more refining of course and you can see the first side is already looking better. If the low spots were loose, ie. you could lift them with a finger, I use the 5" shrinking disc from underneath to lift them. Tight ones I would use off dolly and lift a low spot next to them at the same time. Sometimes hammering them down into the rubber dolly worked well. A flipper and a dolly pushing up under low spots was needed in some situations. Whatever worked!
