Opel Kadett C Coupé 1974

[Sune]

Some stuff is addressed in between visits to the car. Here's on of them. After removing the inner sill (that also needs to be recreated) other rusted areas emerged (supprise). One are is the floor underneath this bracket. Its for the factory jacking point right under console where rear axle arms are mounted to the car.





Here the opposite side, removed. I'm not yet proficient at removing spot welds. Event though I mostly find all of them, the drill bit often removes maybe 90%. The remaining 10% spot weld create havoc when removing the piece



Clearly the floor metal needs repair, but the bracket is not too bad. It could be reused. But sometimes my brain have a short circuit and I take on something just for the challenge.

When recreating panels or brackets like whet you have seen so far, I prefer to do it in CAD. That way I can sit in the comfort om my chair and, with a cup of coffee, take my time to get it just right.

Here is the bracket drawn up



But to do the short flanges/reinforcements along the top, I need a press tool, Once the bracket is drawn, that's not too hard. Here's what I believe I need



Sent to be laser cut. Here's the original bracket, a blank and the press tools



The blank is laid down into the tool. Edges on the tool has been radiused. A little grease to help the process





Into the press. 5 tons was all it took. 2,5 mm sheet



The two holes in the tool is to allow me to knock over the tab while in the die



The tab is massaged the last bit with a rounded chisel



Fresh off the "press"



By un-bolting the tool and flip it over I can do both left and right with the same tool



Punched a notch in the tab with a chisel. Clamped it in the wise with a piece of flat bar with a groove grinded into it. You can see it in the background



Now I just need to bend the bottom and they are done

Of course I had 10 blanks, so I have 4 extra sets I'll try to put up for sale

[DarkLightning]

Nice work! With sold extra parts, that's a big help keeping the cost down.

[Gojeep]

Love how that bracket came out.
Make extras to sell for sure!

[tom walker]

Very nice work, thanx for showing your process.
Tom

[DavidB]

Sune,


I don't know what the original finish would have been but it might be worthwhile seeing if there's an electroplater in your area particularly if they do tumble plating. A couple I used to know ran a Lancia spares business and had lots of refurbished parts zinc plated by tumbling and passivated so they came out looking factory new, they said the tumble plating being a bulk process was quite cheap and worth it for the improvement in appearance.

[Jaroslav]

Sune, nice result. Better then new.

[rockable]

Slick solution and great final product!

[Sune]

Thanks all!

@DavidB I have actually have several shipments of fastners, brackets etc. plated. We have a handful of platers in DK but only few will deal with private persons. I've had mixed results. Some batches has been fine and some not soo good. Problematic batches has often contained assemblies (i.e. a door latch) where acid has not been rinsed out properly. Anyway, that becomes a rant. It's just important to find a plater that you can trust.









I've dabbled a little with other surface treatment optins as well. The company BodyCote has done some heat treatment for me on engine components (Nitride hardening of end plates after surface grinding and induction hardening of stationary gears).
The do a process they call Corr-I-Dur which is a treatment that is significantly more corrosion resistant than zinc plating and it also hardens the surface (very shallow hardening and does not add thickness like plating). I had some of the running gear components treated that way. Obviously I have not had a chance to gain experience with the longivity of my components. But I have seen it fare well in other applications (industrial machinery)

Creates a matt black surface



BodyCote is global, so should be available more or less everywhere. Just FYI.

[DavidB]

Sune,


You seem to have the zinc plating and passivating sorted by the look of it, shame not all platers produce the good results. It'll certainly make for a very nice rebuild with all the new shiny bits. I've not had issues with getting personal plating done here in the UK but most have a minimum order charge you have to pay regardless of how much you need done but at least one I know once you've built up a relationship with them they'll consider the odd smaller job added in while doing similar work.


I had not heard of the BodyCote people and will investigate further when their site is accessible again, seems to have been down most of the afternoon, maybe tomorrow. Good to know you've heard good things about Corr-I-Dur elsewhere.

[Antoine_P]

Love how you planned the tool in CAD and how clean the result is..well done !!

Bests

Antoine