I used to own a '73 Black Tulip BGT, until it was accident-damaged and written off (NOT my fault!) about 6 1/2 years ago. This weekend I went to look at a near-identical car for sale near me.
This car has been off the road for some time, but looks in quite reasonable shape (for the price!), and shouldn't take much too get it roadworthy again (I hope!). The only major body problem is the drivers side inner sill - or rather lack of it! The outer sill is there and mostly sound, the upper inner sill (what you can see from inside the cabin) is fine, but the lower inner sill is pretty much non-existant (I hope I'm making sense!). The jacking point is barely hanging on, and part of the tranverse floor stiffener is pretty bad, although the floor itself is sound enough. Apart from this, the body is pretty sound, just the occasional surface rust patch that you'd expect, and a 1" hole in the front wing - the passenger side sill looks perfect, oddly!
Anyway, my question is this - for a home mechanic who is pretty competant, but has never learned to weld, how stupid an idea is it to make a sill job my first learning welding experience? How much (in the UK) should I pay for a useable welding kit?
Thanks a lot,
Richard
This car has been off the road for some time, but looks in quite reasonable shape (for the price!), and shouldn't take much too get it roadworthy again (I hope!). The only major body problem is the drivers side inner sill - or rather lack of it! The outer sill is there and mostly sound, the upper inner sill (what you can see from inside the cabin) is fine, but the lower inner sill is pretty much non-existant (I hope I'm making sense!). The jacking point is barely hanging on, and part of the tranverse floor stiffener is pretty bad, although the floor itself is sound enough. Apart from this, the body is pretty sound, just the occasional surface rust patch that you'd expect, and a 1" hole in the front wing - the passenger side sill looks perfect, oddly!
Anyway, my question is this - for a home mechanic who is pretty competant, but has never learned to weld, how stupid an idea is it to make a sill job my first learning welding experience? How much (in the UK) should I pay for a useable welding kit?
Thanks a lot,
Richard