Thread: Stirlsilver's Disco Ute Project

Hello again everyone!

I've been too social lately and haven't really been around during the weekends to work on the car! Anyway, got to spend some hours on it yesterday and managed to weld in the rear winch mount:


Welding is still hit or miss... I need more practice.

Looking good.

One comment to help with your welding, looks like you are using fairly thick steel which is good. To help get the penetration required I would be bevelling your edges first. It may take 2 or even 3 passes to fill in the void, but you would end up with a stronger weld.
I personally would not have used a straight but joint where the winch plate attaches to the chassi but would have had the joins at an agle giving you a longer weld.

Originally Posted by crash

Looking good.

One comment to help with your welding, looks like you are using fairly thick steel which is good. To help get the penetration required I would be bevelling your edges first. It may take 2 or even 3 passes to fill in the void, but you would end up with a stronger weld.
I personally would not have used a straight but joint where the winch plate attaches to the chassi but would have had the joins at an agle giving you a longer weld.

Thanks for the information there Crash. I did bevel all edges where I had plates or sections butting up to each other. Most of the time I tried to achieve welding sections at 90degrees to each other so I could get a fillet weld in.

I beveled both the 3mm wall of the chassis and the winch mount to allow me to do a full penetration butt weld. Then I fillet welded in 5mm plates across these joints just in case.

On another note, I went to Enkelman Engineering today to have a chat with one of the guys there at the office. We wemt through some of the diagrams and photos I produced and they were quite happy with what they saw. Turns out all the schematics and photos I am producing can be compiled into the engineering report to make things easier.

I basically just need to finish the car, also weld up some samples of SHS tubes and take it all round to them to get inspected in one hit.

One area which has been flagged up as a potential sumbling point is the engine, if I take the V8 engine and put two turbos on it, I will need to get it tested to make sure it meets emissions requirements which could be tricky...

Mate, the Solid Works and FEA that you are using - I am mighty impressed, I am aware of them and have an understanding of FEA but have never used them.

Is the FEA program one you have at home or do you have access to it?

good project,

Hay Ewe

Originally Posted by Hay Ewe

Mate, the Solid Works and FEA that you are using - I am mighty impressed, I am aware of them and have an understanding of FEA but have never used them.

Is the FEA program one you have at home or do you have access to it?

good project,

Hay Ewe

Thank you very much Hay. The FEA is a component of the SolidWorks Simulation package. I managed to convince the company I work for to purchase the software, and it has been a good investment! So I just use the software at home when the license is not in use.

FEA is quite powerful and I use it at work from time time, along with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). When I get around to doing the design work on the engine, I can see that I will use some CFD to design some things there... Got to finish the back first though! I simply don't have that much time to do all the work I want to do!

Hey Stirling its coming along nice mate.Ive got my turbo manifolds off my Rover SD1 and will be selling them soon.Let me know if your interested.
There just sitting here in the shed ready to go to a new home

Hey Chris,
Thanks for the offer mate, from memory wasn't the manifold you had for a single turbo sitting above the engine?

I'm dreaming up a couple of turbos siting on either side of the engine at this stage

I had a single set up but the manifolds are set up for twins 2 high mounts on either side of the engine.I can send you a photo on your phone
tomorrow if you like.