my first car* 1.4 1990 340 Carburettor Help Please!

[valman]

well, seeing as I did some proper work today on it, i thought i should introduce it to you guys in more detail.
i bought this car from a bloke in essex (oops bad idea ) for £400 "immaculate inside and out" he said. which was a good deal when you look at the pictures of the interior (cant be happier with the inside)and the exterior from far away:




and it came with 9 months of MOT, couldn't complain really for that price.
but once you have a poke around, not all is well
the sills for example:

oh well, gives me a chance to do some body/structural repair work to do and a bit of experience

*my first car was a 1500 midget. but this is the first road legal car

[valman]

So the first major bit of work i did, well started, today was fixing the driver's side sill: couldn't help myself, got a new angle grinder from Homebase***
first cut *gulp*
thankfully the rot didn't spread too far

then this was the final result after a couple of hours of cutting and cursing:



pretty pleased with the result. good that the volvonium is thick too, as my welder can't take anything less that 1mm

***the angle grinder in question was a Powerbase extreme 1010watts 11k rpm grinder. came with a few discs and a handy carry box too. all for £24.99 I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a cheap angle grinder

well thats all folks more progress tomorrow hopefully

[valdemaras]

i could not spot that DB9
and back to volvo, nice purchase, mine first legal car was also a 340 with 1.4, i can`t think for better chose for first car what a grate time i had
enjoy yuors

[valman]

it is certainly better than buying some corsa or fiesta. RWD FTW .

anyway, after the sills the next jobs are as follows:
-new sound system, speakers in the post at the moment.
-new wheels, 13s or 15s, not sure yet. or better if anyone has 3 more of these laying about?

-possibly a stainless system, this is provided i can weld stainless ok with just a mig welder? (i've welded stainless to mild before but need some better advice on this if possible, thanks)
-find a spoiler to cover some nasty dents left on the boot too
oh, and become old enough to drive too

[SteveP]

Damn, you don't hang around...

Really nice looking car so the work you'll put in will be worth it!

[Chris_C]

Yup, that brings back nightmares

I've another too do soon too. Good effort though bud, from where you are now I made up cardboard templates a layer at a time, using how the rusty ones stuck together as a reference. Stick on a layer back first, then mod your next template, stick a new layer on etc.

[volvodspec]

possibly a stainless system, this is provided i can weld stainless ok with just a mig welder? (i've welded stainless to mild before but need some better advice on this if possible, thanks)

if you can weld steel with MIG, stainless is pretty much the same; just make sure you use the correct welding wire to prevent corossion.

[valman]

Yup, that brings back nightmares

I've another too do soon too. Good effort though bud, from where you are now I made up cardboard templates a layer at a time, using how the rusty ones stuck together as a reference. Stick on a layer back first, then mod your next template, stick a new layer on etc.

thanks for the advice man, just need to find some cardboard, recycling bin rummage time and fingers crossed, after helping my mate do his headgasket, will be able to make up the panels and weld that all up
hopefully i have enough wire left, which brings me on to the next question:

if you can weld steel with MIG, stainless is pretty much the same; just make sure you use the correct welding wire to prevent corossion.

what wire do i need?
thanks all

[valman]

made a start on the jacking point today during my lunchtime at school hopefully will have that tacked in tonight or even welded in provided i have enough wire left till tomorrow where 2.5kg of it is coming through the post

[volvosneverdie]

Good work there dude!
Looks like a tidy little car apart from the JPs.

Hope you have a lot of fun driving it man.

[valman]

small update, like said above the jacking point on the drivers side is now done, however i still need to add in the other panels that go over the top - strengthening i presume. and i wouldn't recommend doing this on your back. my welding ended up looking like a drunk cat has done it . didnt think it would make so much difference when doing it upside down .
the drivers side should be done this weekend though as im planning on spending half of friday+all of saturday doing it

after BOTH of the jacking points are done.. MORE welding drivers side rear light, underneath it nice biiig hole! this was hard to notice because it wasn't in the boot floor

i also have soma laavly speakers to go in, and around may/june time a smack from the lowering stick and some wide 13"s
can't wait to drive it, had a few goes up and down the road and its great!

thats all

[valman]

had alot of difficulty welding the metal with a gasless welder. blew holes on the lowest settings but managed to get this done:

as you can see my panel making skills are as good as a donkeys, but itll do a bit of underseal and it should be covered up ok.

[classicswede]

Good effort. Gasless is a bit cack from my experiance. Practice and a good mig should give you decnt welds. You need a machine that turns the gas on before feeding the wire.

[volvosneverdie]

Looks like good work to me dude.
Well done.

[valman]

thanks guys, the welds along the bottom were fine because it was new metal to new metal, but along the top and on the right side joining it to the standard stuff was a right pain, must have spent half an hour on one spot building up weld to cover up holes, and there is still a tiny one there . im considering buying a gas bottle as it would allow me to weld thinner stuff