I really enjoy working on cars, as long as it is not bodywork, rust repair or paint. Seeing how bad this Rancho is, I would scrap it immediately. And then, there is this guy in a shed fixing it up, making patch panels and restoring it all by himself. Good work sir.
Thanks Tomislav - actually I'm much happier with making bits of panel than I am with trying to get engines to run or electrics to work. Sounds like we'd be a good team...
"I find this oddly satisfying" - nothing odd about that satisfaction, it's 100% earned. I have some much simpler panelwork to deal with - you've encouraged me to look into doing it myself.
Very impressive, Martin. Just see it as a kind of manual therapy to get rid of any stress you encounter during your work or something. The fact that you end up with a beautiful and unique car and that you entertain and educate some people on here is a nice bonus! 💪🏼😃🍀
Just like Tony Hart, you make the complex achievable by using basic tools and following a simple process. One day this rust will Morph into a superb Rancho!
Yes definitely agree nothing more enjoyable than having a sheet of steel in the beginning and in the end a repair panel that either didn't exist or would have been prohibitively expensive to buy pre-formed. Have done this many times before for a number of cars most recently a Lada Riva were most of the spare parts are only really available from a country we try not to do much business with these days. Great work spreading the word
Another cracking video and your fabrication, with basic, often home grown tools, is inspirational. Thanks again Martin. 'Please keep-um coming, you clever old sausage'. Yours, Tommy the Toolbox.
Martin, you relative novice... That is a good one. I'd call you the Sheet Metal Magician, very impressive work. Honestly, I had already given up, too much rust and work for me. But maybe it is because I'm struggling a bit with my XJ-S, mother of all construction sites. Cheers, Christian
While most patch=panels for my Beetle are available cheaply enough, there have been a few odd locations that some fabrication has been required. And there's certainly some satisfaction in having accomplished it oneself. I was very impressed with the tube anvil and will probably make one up in the near future. Thanks for the idea!
Marvellous - quite inspiring really. I have only recently discovered linishing with those flap wheels - makes a much tidier job than with a grinder disc. Love your ingenuity of coping with no press tooling. I’d have made a much messier job with loads of cardboard cut snippets welded together - great job
Yes, flap discs are great. I tend to start off with a grinding disc if it's really knobbly (I'm not exactly the world's neatest welder) as it makes the flap wheels last longer.
I made something very similar to that about 5 years ago for my Puma 1.7....still going very strong. Still very satisfying when I look at the pictures of that panel and all the others that I made. Now that battery angle grinders ar a thing, you can salvage panels and part panels from scrapyards too....and they dont need to be from the same model or even make. Its a well trodden path to fit LH peugeot 206 front wheel arches to the RH rear arches of a ford puma because there was no replacement panel available......also still going strong 5 years later. Great video. You have no idea of what you can achieve untill you try!
Nice piece of work. I remember making a new Scuttle panel for a Mk2 Transit about 30 years ago in exactly the same way……it’s something that requires a little thought but you’re right, it’s oddly satisfying
Great job. I've done lots of this and the only thing I do different is weld the pie cuts from the back. Less grinding and more weld thickness makes the piece stronger. Thanks for the video I enjoyed it.
Wow well done Martin that’s some real skill on display and a panel which looks like it was pressed like the originals were great to see excellent craftsmanship on display hope you are keeping well Daniel
@@GrandThriftAuto yes all good thanks just had a lovely fortnight down in Cornwall so catching up on vids lovely to have a break from work makes me happy to see these skills as my grandad was a foundry black sand moulder and many other relatives worked at BL glad you are well and it’s progressing well all the best Daniel
great video. im working on a car with rusted out fenders and there are no commercially avalable patch panels, this has given me some ideas about how i might go about fabricating some
Very nice! I suggest you try stick welding with skinny rods like 1/16th 6011 or maybe 309 filler. That's how I do rocker panels on my client's fleet of chevy express etc. I found there's a comfortable current level that makes a nice flat smooth bead with very little risk of burning through if you just zip along. I've done lots of that sort of "pecking at it carefully" with less ideal welding processes like MIG or 1/8 7018, controlling the heat and backing up the work etc. It is a lot faster in the long run and less hard on your grinding supplies to get a very flat continuous bead without fear of burning up the work
Nice job - as always! What intrigues me with repair patches is - how do you ensure that they remain rust-free - bearing in mind that the car originally would have been dipped in various anti-corrosion treatments, received a couple of coats of primer, then more coats of top coat, then baked? I’d be mortified to have spent so much time fabricating new panels, only to find them rusting through after 2-3 years……..
Great question, and one I've been thinking about quite a lot (as you can imagine). My plan is to apply epoxy primer (which is waterproof) and seam sealer where I have access, then a good underbody paint like Dinitrol 445 or 4941. I'll spray Dynax cavity wax inside the box sections. If only I could get sponsorship like the big channels...
Nice work, that's the same method I used to make front valence repairs to the Firenza. I also tried pressing out a panel using a hardwood form, a shot bag and a large lump hammer. That wasn't very successful unsurprisingly.
Oooh, Firenza, tell me more! I'm planning to try the wooden form/hammer approach with the panel that goes behind this one, it'll be interesting to see how that goes. I'm not hugely confident but we'll see.
@@GrandThriftAuto It's a 1972 2000 sl. I was able to get wings and sills and rear arches, but the valance and rear inner arches had to be fabricated. I was using 18 gauge steel and couldn't quite get the definition in the panel I wanted using the wooden form and hammer. Thinner gauge steel would have worked better.
@@davidwilliams706 Very cool car! Ah yes, I bet 18 gauge was hard work. I’m mostly using 20 gauge (0.8mm) here as per factory, which is far easier to shape. The A-post inner strengthening layer is 18- or 19-gauge, so I’ve got that fun to look forward to.
Love your videos, hate to a health and safety test, but as someone whose being doing this for years, and has the poor hearing prove it, consider wearing ear defenders... Good luck with the Rancho, great that these are taken car of.
Thanks - I think for a panel of that depth it would be really difficult to do that cleanly without a heavy shop press (which I don't have) - and it would probably take longer to make the former than it did to do it this way, which took about a day in total. But watch out for the next video for some former work...
You’ve basically just fashioned a flat piece of metal into something that looks like it was pressed from the factory… honestly I wouldn’t know where to start, the only saving grace for me in metalwork lessons at school was if I made a mistake I could always weld a bit back on!
Sorry if the bright light was too much, that possibly wasn’t the ideal camera location for that shot. I wanted to show the welding relatively close up but…yeah.
@GrandThriftAuto not a complaint, it's what my uncle used to say when we were fixing farm equipment and he was about to weld! It just brought back a memory 👍
People can do amazing things with enough tooling and expertise but it would be incredibly hard to make a shape like this without a heavy press and a bespoke former…and this is my first restoration and my welder was, y’know, right there.
@HighWealder yeah you can do that but need more extensive tools like an English Wheel etc. It's tricky not to stretch the metal if you hit it too much! 😁
Thanks :) Actually it wasn't too bad - this panel took about a day in total, spread over three sessions, including some faffing about with camera angles. There was a fair amount of up-front thinking time as well, but I guess/hope that will reduce as I get more practice and experience. Obviously doing the whole car will add up to a lot of time though, sadly.
Novice. My only prior experience is a bumper bracket and part of a Honda Aerodeck wheel arch - if you want to see my rookie mistakes they’re all on this channel.
@@GrandThriftAuto Well you're doing very well for a novice! I was a welder years ago, and we kept pieces of copper busbar specifically as backing for wide gaps, and holes.
I really enjoy working on cars, as long as it is not bodywork, rust repair or paint. Seeing how bad this Rancho is, I would scrap it immediately. And then, there is this guy in a shed fixing it up, making patch panels and restoring it all by himself. Good work sir.
Thanks Tomislav - actually I'm much happier with making bits of panel than I am with trying to get engines to run or electrics to work. Sounds like we'd be a good team...
"I find this oddly satisfying" - nothing odd about that satisfaction, it's 100% earned. I have some much simpler panelwork to deal with - you've encouraged me to look into doing it myself.
Very impressive, Martin. Just see it as a kind of manual therapy to get rid of any stress you encounter during your work or something. The fact that you end up with a beautiful and unique car and that you entertain and educate some people on here is a nice bonus! 💪🏼😃🍀
Thanks as always Frank - it has been a difficult few weeks actually and you're exactly right about metalwork being good therapy.
That was thoroughly impressive! When you showed us the finished piece at the beginning, I couldn't fathom how it was done. That was great 🙌
Just like Tony Hart, you make the complex achievable by using basic tools and following a simple process. One day this rust will Morph into a superb Rancho!
Ha! I see what you did there :-D
Yes definitely agree nothing more enjoyable than having a sheet of steel in the beginning and in the end a repair panel that either didn't exist or would have been prohibitively expensive to buy pre-formed. Have done this many times before for a number of cars most recently a Lada Riva were most of the spare parts are only really available from a country we try not to do much business with these days. Great work spreading the word
Another cracking video and your fabrication, with basic, often home grown tools, is inspirational. Thanks again Martin.
'Please keep-um coming, you clever old sausage'.
Yours,
Tommy the Toolbox.
It's all down to the quality of the tea ;)
Quality crafmanship 👍
Thank you!
I wish I had just 1% of your skills and patience.
Beautiful job. No filler needed.
You are an artist in sheet steel. Great video.
Thank you very much!
Martin, you relative novice... That is a good one. I'd call you the Sheet Metal Magician, very impressive work. Honestly, I had already given up, too much rust and work for me. But maybe it is because I'm struggling a bit with my XJ-S, mother of all construction sites. Cheers, Christian
Hoi Christian! I love what you're doing with the XJ-S: mine needs some attention as well but I'm scared to go near it.
That turned out real slick!
While most patch=panels for my Beetle are available cheaply enough, there have been a few odd locations that some fabrication has been required. And there's certainly some satisfaction in having accomplished it oneself. I was very impressed with the tube anvil and will probably make one up in the near future. Thanks for the idea!
Super impressive.👍
Thank you!
Very good, a really appropriate August Bank holiday watch.
Thanks! Especially if it's as rainy an August bank holiday there as it is here /-)
really made that look easy. sweet panel build.
Marvellous - quite inspiring really. I have only recently discovered linishing with those flap wheels - makes a much tidier job than with a grinder disc. Love your ingenuity of coping with no press tooling. I’d have made a much messier job with loads of cardboard cut snippets welded together - great job
Yes, flap discs are great. I tend to start off with a grinding disc if it's really knobbly (I'm not exactly the world's neatest welder) as it makes the flap wheels last longer.
I guess you’ve confirmed my oddness, because I, too, found (watching) you create and paint that panel satisfying. Please keep up your fine work.
Thanks Alastair!
I made something very similar to that about 5 years ago for my Puma 1.7....still going very strong. Still very satisfying when I look at the pictures of that panel and all the others that I made. Now that battery angle grinders ar a thing, you can salvage panels and part panels from scrapyards too....and they dont need to be from the same model or even make. Its a well trodden path to fit LH peugeot 206 front wheel arches to the RH rear arches of a ford puma because there was no replacement panel available......also still going strong 5 years later. Great video. You have no idea of what you can achieve untill you try!
Nice work. 👍👍
Very nice process.
Thanks for sharing.
Have a great weekend. 👍
Thanks, you too!
An innovative use of common shop tools.KUDOS!
The gift of making it look easy!
Enjoyed this 👍
Nicely done with the simple tools approach 👏
Nice piece of work. I remember making a new Scuttle panel for a Mk2 Transit about 30 years ago in exactly the same way……it’s something that requires a little thought but you’re right, it’s oddly satisfying
Wow, awesome work!! Good luck with the project - it'll be awesome when finished, for sure!!
You're barking, but that's a skill.
Fabricating that from a sheet, respect.
Great job. I've done lots of this and the only thing I do different is weld the pie cuts from the back. Less grinding and more weld thickness makes the piece stronger. Thanks for the video I enjoyed it.
That’s a great tip, thanks 👍
Just watched your video, great job, very satisfying re-creating metalwork panels even better when they fit, just subscribed. Cheers Marty's projects
Thanks!
Nice work Martin, it's a fascinating process and really good to see how it can be done with simple tools.
Thanks Mark!
Superb skills Martin, well done
Nicely done.
Wow well done Martin that’s some real skill on display and a panel which looks like it was pressed like the originals were great to see excellent craftsmanship on display hope you are keeping well Daniel
Thanks a lot Daniel! Hope you're keeping well too.
@@GrandThriftAuto yes all good thanks just had a lovely fortnight down in Cornwall so catching up on vids lovely to have a break from work makes me happy to see these skills as my grandad was a foundry black sand moulder and many other relatives worked at BL glad you are well and it’s progressing well all the best Daniel
Amazingly Brilliant! Thank you for sharing this video. Greetings fron Madang, Papua New Guinea!
Wow, PNG - hello and thanks!
Thank you. Educational and inspirational.
Thank you!
Only just stumbled upon your channel--late to the party per usual. Subbed & liked. Thank you for sharing & teaching!
Welcome aboard!
great video. im working on a car with rusted out fenders and there are no commercially avalable patch panels, this has given me some ideas about how i might go about fabricating some
Good luck!
Aaah the Rancho, ahead of its time ... and the iconic car from La Boum .. yeah I know, shows my age
I’ve never actually seen La Boum 😬 Heard about it, obviously. I really must watch it.
Excellent job sir, and even better I've learnt things
Excellent job Martin. You told me the other day you were afraid of electronics, well, metal working is nightmarish to me. 😅
Cheers Robert - each to his own, I guess!
Fantastic work again.
Great job
Good work, just one bit at a time
Nice job 👍🏼
Wow great job! You're getting rather good at this.
Thanks Ben! A bit of practice does seem to be helping.
Nice work a pro job.
Superb work
Bravo, hopefully the other A post is significantly better.
It's *slightly* better. I think. Maybe.
Brilliant!
Nice job!
Thanks Ants!
Very nice! I suggest you try stick welding with skinny rods like 1/16th 6011 or maybe 309 filler. That's how I do rocker panels on my client's fleet of chevy express etc. I found there's a comfortable current level that makes a nice flat smooth bead with very little risk of burning through if you just zip along. I've done lots of that sort of "pecking at it carefully" with less ideal welding processes like MIG or 1/8 7018, controlling the heat and backing up the work etc. It is a lot faster in the long run and less hard on your grinding supplies to get a very flat continuous bead without fear of burning up the work
That’s very interesting, I’ve not tried stick welding. Maybe if someone who makes welders wants to sponsor the channel…😉
Every time I see the rust mess on the Rancho I fear you would give up. But fortunately you won't
So do I, believe me...but hopefully I won't. One foot in front of the other.
Nice job - as always! What intrigues me with repair patches is - how do you ensure that they remain rust-free - bearing in mind that the car originally would have been dipped in various anti-corrosion treatments, received a couple of coats of primer, then more coats of top coat, then baked? I’d be mortified to have spent so much time fabricating new panels, only to find them rusting through after 2-3 years……..
Great question, and one I've been thinking about quite a lot (as you can imagine). My plan is to apply epoxy primer (which is waterproof) and seam sealer where I have access, then a good underbody paint like Dinitrol 445 or 4941. I'll spray Dynax cavity wax inside the box sections. If only I could get sponsorship like the big channels...
Nice work, that's the same method I used to make front valence repairs to the Firenza. I also tried pressing out a panel using a hardwood form, a shot bag and a large lump hammer. That wasn't very successful unsurprisingly.
Oooh, Firenza, tell me more! I'm planning to try the wooden form/hammer approach with the panel that goes behind this one, it'll be interesting to see how that goes. I'm not hugely confident but we'll see.
@@GrandThriftAuto It's a 1972 2000 sl. I was able to get wings and sills and rear arches, but the valance and rear inner arches had to be fabricated. I was using 18 gauge steel and couldn't quite get the definition in the panel I wanted using the wooden form and hammer. Thinner gauge steel would have worked better.
@@davidwilliams706 Very cool car!
Ah yes, I bet 18 gauge was hard work. I’m mostly using 20 gauge (0.8mm) here as per factory, which is far easier to shape. The A-post inner strengthening layer is 18- or 19-gauge, so I’ve got that fun to look forward to.
Haven't seen a rancho in years.
There are low single figures left on the road in the UK - and you can kinda see why. Can’t wait to get this one back to road legal.
Cracking stuff Martin, very edjumicational too. Hope everything is all good over your side of the bay?
Getting there thanks :) I just pinged you a long overdue WhatApp...
Nice job. You had to say though, "how hard can it be?". Oh dear. . .
I never learn
Love your videos, hate to a health and safety test, but as someone whose being doing this for years, and has the poor hearing prove it, consider wearing ear defenders... Good luck with the Rancho, great that these are taken car of.
That’s a very fair point, thanks.
Great vid, great job well done. How thick is the metsl sheet and what kind of spec?
Thanks! It’s 0.8mm.
great skills but as to is it worthwhile ?-also could you not make a former that shape and try to press out a duplicate?.
Thanks - I think for a panel of that depth it would be really difficult to do that cleanly without a heavy shop press (which I don't have) - and it would probably take longer to make the former than it did to do it this way, which took about a day in total. But watch out for the next video for some former work...
This appears to be a chassis modification, how will you get this past the inspectors?
It’s not a modification, it’s a repair to the original specification - so the car can keep its original registration under UK rules.
You’ve basically just fashioned a flat piece of metal into something that looks like it was pressed from the factory… honestly I wouldn’t know where to start, the only saving grace for me in metalwork lessons at school was if I made a mistake I could always weld a bit back on!
6:34 adopt safety squints
Sorry if the bright light was too much, that possibly wasn’t the ideal camera location for that shot. I wanted to show the welding relatively close up but…yeah.
@GrandThriftAuto not a complaint, it's what my uncle used to say when we were fixing farm equipment and he was about to weld!
It just brought back a memory 👍
What thickness?
How much was knopfler for the music lol - fab dog obvs 😂
LOL, money for nothing (and the chicks for free)
Good, but I did watch a video by some American bloke who managed to form complex shapes without welding.
People can do amazing things with enough tooling and expertise but it would be incredibly hard to make a shape like this without a heavy press and a bespoke former…and this is my first restoration and my welder was, y’know, right there.
@HighWealder yeah you can do that but need more extensive tools like an English Wheel etc. It's tricky not to stretch the metal if you hit it too much! 😁
Great job but very time consuming
Thanks :) Actually it wasn't too bad - this panel took about a day in total, spread over three sessions, including some faffing about with camera angles. There was a fair amount of up-front thinking time as well, but I guess/hope that will reduce as I get more practice and experience. Obviously doing the whole car will add up to a lot of time though, sadly.
What gas do you use for welding?
Hi - it's 93% Argon, 5% Carbon Dioxide, 2% Oxygen.
@@GrandThriftAuto And what do you say if you use only carbon dioxide?
@@user-nb9lq9qd9x Carbon dioxide works, but you usually get more spatter to grind off afterwards.
@@GrandThriftAuto Thank you from Siberia
@@user-nb9lq9qd9x You’re welcome - good luck!
Remember those tales about cool cars, particulary British ones, built in shed? Sure you do. I think you have skills necessary to build one too.
I mean, that could be one way to use them in 100%. To start a new British car brand. That would be something.
Btw, that propably would be less laborious...?
Ha! That would be cool... but I would probably go mad in the process. If I'm not already mad.
Novice?
Novice. My only prior experience is a bumper bracket and part of a Honda Aerodeck wheel arch - if you want to see my rookie mistakes they’re all on this channel.
@@GrandThriftAuto Well you're doing very well for a novice! I was a welder years ago, and we kept pieces of copper busbar specifically as backing for wide gaps, and holes.
@@1man1guitarletsgo Thanks! I’ve picked up tips from watching a lot of TH-cam videos. A lot.
Brilliant work im jealous
When can i come over as a student ?
Ha! Maybe when we get to the really unpleasant stage of welding upside down underneath the car...I'll just stand here and supervise ;)
Well we are all waiting for the next episode on the rancho so please dont put the dust cover over the car and leave it till next yr