Saturday 15 June 2013

WE DRILL DRILL DRILL

SATURDAY 15TH JUNE 2013

Thank you Carol (a canal chum) for your comment and to set your mind and any other concerned mind at rest, the aluminium panels are covered in a plastic film, to help prevent them from getting scratched. Before final assembly the plastic will be peeled of and the aluminium polished, the plan is for the top side to be painted Morgan Red and the bottom half to be lovely and shiny, thus satisfying my need to always be polishing something.

Almost all the rivet holes on the left side have been drilled and the panels removed exposing the transmission tunnel and most of the compartment where the single rear wheel will be attached. I used a 10mm drill with the shaft end ground down to fit a hand held chuck and set too with the laborious job of cleaning up all the drill holes to remove any swarf and ensure a flush fit when it is time to bond and rivet the panels to the chassis.




 All of the ali panels are a perfect fit, with the exception of a small section of the large floor panel, which for about 18 in.at the rear,m projected beyond the chassis rail by no more than an 1/8 in. I carefully marked the overlap, dropped the panel in that area, clamped it with 2 in.blocks to the chassis rail, so that I had room to grind without damaging the chassis and with my angle grinder, dreadnought file and emery paper, produced a smooth flush edge. Almost certainly I will have to do the same on the right when I get to it.

The bonnet halves are formed, but not a perfect fit to the nose cone and scuttle, with a bit of extra bending here and there the left half now sits fairly accurately and once the rubber strip cushion  and spring bonnet catches are fitted it should be fine.


That's it for now, all tools tidied up, drilling and grinding  swarf vacuumed away and off to France for a few weeks to ride my Moto Guzzi amongst other enjoyable holiday pursuits and on my return I will start on the right side, see you then.

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