Steps forward and back

I've been working away on the car and QMLIrc. In both cases, I've made a little progress but some setbacks.

The car. I'm currently working on the LH rear sill - the bit between the rear wheelarch and the bumper, where the boot floor drops down to meet the rear wing. I've successfully patched the outer panel and I'm now working on the inner panel, which is a slightly complicated shape. See below...

Here, I'm trying to make a patch from sheet steel. The trouble I'm having is that the metal is a bit thin in places, so I'm blowing holes. I keep having to cut back. At the moment, I've cut right back, which will allow me to get inside the panel and clean up the metal a bit better.

On to QMLIrc. I have made some progress. I've created a IRC channel selection dialog, which shows channels and topics. This uses the QML ListModel system, and it worked surprisingly well. The QML UI code sends a signal to the C++ IRC code, which requests a list of channels from the IRC server. As channel list messages are received from the server, the C++ code creates a list of channels and their topics in a custom C++ class. When the list is complete, the C++ code registers it with the QML code and emits a signal. The QML code then responds to the signal by creating a SelectionDialog from the list.

The trouble I'm having with QMLIrc is that there's a bug which crashes on exit when there's been more than one channel tab open. It's annoying.

I'm not married anymore!

I kinda lost interest in this here blog. I mean, no one was reading it. And I'm lazy.

Anyhow, in the two years since I last posted, I've:

• Got a job as a Trainee Accountant at a small local firm. I like the work, they like me, and as soon as they're sure I'm free of the wobblies they'll pay to further my training. Wobblies? read on...
• Passed my AAT.
• Got separated, and moved back in with Mum and Dad. Hence the wobblies. I'm not talking about it - it's water under the bridge, and this blog's about me now. Besides, I have a lovely girlfriend now, who inspires me. I still see the girls regularly.
• Not done all that much to the TR7, but I've recently restarted, now that my ex has cleared the garage in her new home where she's kindly allowing me to keep it.

So I'll try again to keep this blog up to date. I'll use it to document the TR7 work as normal, and also my attempts at writing apps for my Nokia smartphone using Qt.

Black Goo

I've not been looking after this here blog, and so I've decided that I'll make more of an effort to document my TR7 rebuild. The story so far...

(cue Wayne's World-style wibble effect)

I've been repairing the left hand side of the floorpan, where there was some corrosion at both the front and rear edges. This is not good, as the TR7 is a monocoque, so the floor forms part of the structure, as does most of the metalwork, to be truthful. The rear floor area is especially important, as this is close to the area where the trailing arms that hold the rear axle to the chassis bolt in.

So I've been busy - cutting out rusty metal with tinsnips and angle grinder cutting disks, and welding in new metal. I've been using both sheet steel and commercially available repair pieces as appropriate. Once the new steel was welded in, I cleaned up the remaining areas of original metal with a twisted wire cup in my trusty angle grinder, before treating any remaining surface rust with Kurust, which chemically neutralises the rust. The surface rust formed in part because the bituminous sound-deadening panels fitted at the factory were fixed to the floorpan underneath the paint, so I am hoping to prevent this by putting the replacement sound-deadening panels on top of the paint.

At the moment, I have primed the floor, using U-Pol Acid #8 etch primer aerosol and normal grey primer. The next step, which I did this evening, is to seal the seams and welds using U-Pol Tigerseal, which is a polyurethane adhesive sealant which comes in a tube.
Here's the primed front floorpan before Tigersealing:

And here it is afterwards:

Tigerseal is very gloopy, and it's hard to get it looking neat. But it's sealed the edges well, and once it's dry will be ready for paint. Hopefully, I'll get the paint done (as it's completely hidden by carpet and the like, I'm going to use a few coats of satin black) before the TR Drivers weekend at Billing Aquadrome, Northampton next weekend. Like last year, we're dragging out the tent and will be camping all weekend. The car will be there next year, honest...

TR7 Progress

A wee note about progress on the TR7.

• LH Door is reskinned, awaiting fitting and tweaking (which I will do once the floor on the LH side is completed). It also needs seam sealing inside.
• The LH front floor is practically complete. All I need to do is dress the plug welds, and get rid of the remaining surface rust on the interior before giving the bare metal a temporary coat of primer.
• The quarterlight frame for the LH door needs starting again, as there's some surace rust reappearing. It needs stripping, derusting and repainting.
• I have enough parts to repair the LH rear floor.
  
• I have rebuilt the LH rear drum brake, and have some parts to re-build the RH rear drum brake. I only need to rebuild the brakes enough now to ensure the handbrake works, as I plan to pull the rear axle out. This is so I can turn the car round on my slopy drive so I can fix the floor on the RH side.
  
• The bumpers are in the process of being refurbed - they need stripping down, derusting and the plastic parts repainting. I need two new sidelight assemblies - the fixing bolts were seized and broke on both of them, as well as a replacement front centre bumper cover.
  

That'll do for now...