Les Henson Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 With enough care you can do a reasonable repair to a dumb iron - maybe not enough for the stresses and strains of heavier recovery/off-road work, but certainly for every day use. The dumb iron in this thread is on a 200TDi90 - owned by ajlorton of this website. Repairs are only required to scrape it through the MOT for now. As is always the case - the rust you see is a fraction of what there actually is. Corrosion of the chassis nearly always starts from the inside, so a small hole reflects a larger/weaker area that's not always visible. Once the bumper, grille, front panel, etc is removed. The rust extends further. Cut away the rust and clean the inside of the chassis as much as possible. Bearing in mind that the dumb iron will have extensive internal rust, and therefore is generally weaker, I'll use 2.5mm hot pressed steel plate for the repair. Cut the plate to give a decent overlap of the hole, clamp it in place and then tack weld it in position. Gun is a Sapphire, and nozzle is No5. Oxy is set to max 12lbs/sq/in, and Acetylene is max 7lbs/sq/in Side plate welded in position. The top is cut away, and a plate made to fit - allowing for the later fitting of the bumper, brackets, etc. All finished bar the paint or whatever you are going to coat it with. This type of repair is ok for normal road use, but if you use your truck for off-road (even occasionally), then replacement of the dumb iron/crossmember is always a better idea. Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid_From_Hell Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Sadly I know.......But I absolutely love the look of proper gas welded repairs .........Just nipping out now to buy a life from woolies Nige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missingsid Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Mighty purdy gluing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daan Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Who needs tig welding. Were did you learn to develop such a steady hand, Les? Daan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbeaumont Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Who needs tig welding. Were did you learn to develop such a steady hand, Les?Daan The shaking stops after he's had a couple of drinks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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