Bongo Fury

I was going to knock on for a brew but it wasn't even 5am. Had to be at "work" for 6....

How did you get on, is it finished.

well they are all welded in --------.
inner arches all welded in to place, they went in very well and am glad i used the original panels off a scrapper, this allowed me to just trim out the complex shape of the rot to the end plates of the sills and the rear edges of the arches where the mudflaps mount and the little plastic splash pieces hang, the small panel under the rear/side vents suffered badly on mine and the bottom edge of both sides was chopped out and replaced, all this was then seam sealed with a good quality panel adhesive, then body schultzed for stone protection.


the inside of the outer skin above the wheel arch is fitted with a sound deadening strip of foam like stuff to stop the panel drumming i presume, this was easy to remove from the new part to be added to the old wing, however the strip inside the van side is a lot harder to get at and should have been removed, not removing this fully has led to small local fires when the new wing is welded in, these small fires have caused the panel to distort more than i would have liked . this has led to a lot more work and time trying to get the panels to look right, this may infact be impossible or impractical for me to achieve working outside so i may have to just live with it.
anyone who has ever done this sort of thing before may say the secret to doing filler work is to keep it local to the job as you end up going further and further across the panel until you loose the lines/shape of the panel. so far ive spent about 3 full days sanding/ guide coating/filling/sanding/guide coating and ive had enough for now. i will return to them when my fingers get some feeling back.

ive looked closely at my wifes repaired arches and hers has slight panel distortion just above the repairs so maybe this is something to watch out for if doing your own.

muz may call round tomorrow so we may get some photos.

You're a brave man Vanessa.

A few photos of the finished steelwork, still some paint to go on yet but a rock-solid job that will easily outlive the rest of the Bongo....

Jeebers it could outlive Ady! Mammoth - I can only admire those brave enough to tackle it.

nice work, mate. Regards paint, just clear coat it, it'll look fine.

blobber wrote:nice work, mate. Regards paint, just clear coat it, it'll look fine.

Ah yes, the shabby chic look

mikeonb4c wrote:

blobber wrote:nice work, mate. Regards paint, just clear coat it, it'll look fine.

Ah yes, the shabby chic look

Wasn't Vanessa one of the first exponents of that look?Cutting edge as always.Seriously though,nice job.

How did they turn out.

they were not too bad really, but i was putting the back bumper back on though the day before the big bash, i havnt had time to even clear coat it yet so may return to do a better finish when i have a week off next week. i may even have a fresh start and buy one of these.

http://www.tool-net.co.uk/p-362113/seal ... tAodrnYIRw..

its good enough for me and for the winter if need be as ive got a bike trailer to remake, and a motorbike for the daughter to do.

never mind there is a heat wave coming in august. .

to sum up,
im glad i did it, i could not afford to pay someone to do it, its done right cos i did it, i learned a lot and would do it again, but probably better.
and the main thing is the bongo didnt get scrapped so i win.

Nice summing up.

teenmal wrote:Yes looking good, its an awkward job, NB is the welder using gas or gasless.?

just an update 12 months later.

i went to fill my mig gas bottle today its a 30 ltr big un and usually last one year, the gas chap (who i bought it from) looked at it and said what am i doing with PARTY / BEER GAS, i said its for my mig, and he scratched his head and said that welding with 30% co2 and 70% nitrogen would have been fun, when i pointed out that he had refilled it the year before he went all cagey.

any way. if your going to weld your bongo arches up best to check the bottle is argon / co2 in some percentage of your choice or even straight co2, but defo not nitrogen, then you may get a better weld.

And don't pump gas into your beer.