Author Topic: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan  (Read 14795 times)

AndyL

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #15 on: January 24, 2015, 04:31:54 PM »
GRP would do the job, although I think I'd run the risk of being labelled a bodger mind. Epoxy resin with glass cloth would provide a very strong repair, and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference from the original steel, as it's easy to fill the weave to provide a smooth surface.
1959 LHD 3-wheel Isetta.

marcus

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #16 on: January 24, 2015, 04:43:27 PM »
I think I'd run the risk of being labelled a bodger mind.

Not by me, and I'll explain why: bodger is an old name for a chair maker, a craftsman.

A botcher is an unskilled numpty who does a botch job!

Poor chair makers, always getting mistaken for cack-handed fools!
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AndyL

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #17 on: January 24, 2015, 05:28:25 PM »
I'm aware of that term. However I think it's generally entered common parlance as a purveyor of the makeshift repair.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bodger
1959 LHD 3-wheel Isetta.

Big Al

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #18 on: January 24, 2015, 07:35:58 PM »
I think I'd run the risk of being labelled a bodger mind.

Not by me, and I'll explain why: bodger is an old name for a chair maker, a craftsman.

A botcher is an unskilled numpty who does a botch job!

Poor chair makers, always getting mistaken for cack-handed fools!

I will sit this one out on the bench
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Big Al

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #19 on: January 24, 2015, 07:39:33 PM »
I'm aware of that term. However I think it's generally entered common parlance as a purveyor of the makeshift repair.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bodger

So is an Australian bird wot don't talk to well called a bodgie? I always thought it would be a great name for a small home built car.
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Rusty Chrome (Malcolm Parker)

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #20 on: January 24, 2015, 11:25:14 PM »
The Oxford English dictionary Lists:

bodger, n.1

Etymology:  < bodge v. + -er suffix1.
 
  One who ‘bodges’; a botcher.In modern dialects.

1552   R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum   Bodger, botcher, mender, or patcher of olde garmentes.
1567   Harding in Jewell Def. Apol. (1611) 500   Be they..Tinkers or Tapsters, coblers or Bodgers.

?bodger, n.2

Etymology:  ? = badger n.1
Obs. or dial.
Thesaurus »
Categories »
 
  ? A travelling dealer, a pedlar.
1736   W. Ellis New Exper. Husbandry 49   The Sheep-Bodgers, or Dealers.
1810   G. Crabbe Borough v. 74   The warmest Burgess wears a Bodger's Coat.

bodger, n.3
 
  In full chair bodger. A local name in Buckinghamshire for a chair-leg turner. Hence (chair-)bodgering , the action or process of chair-leg turning.
1911   G. Eland Chilterns & Vale vi. 136   The men who thus work in the woods are called ‘chair-bodgers’.
1911   G. Eland Chilterns & Vale vi. 137   The purchaser then employs the ‘bodger’ to turn it [sc. a ‘fall’ of beech] into chair-legs.
1921   K. S. Woods Rural Industries round Oxf. ii. i. 102   Most village turners or ‘chair bodgers’ confine themselves to the making of legs which they sell to the factories, mainly at Wycombe.
1939   D. Hartley Made in Eng. i. 23   The shed for bodgering jobs may be left standing the whole year.


The bodge bit is

† bodge, n.1

Etymology:  < bodge v.: compare botch n.2

  A clumsy patch; a botched piece of work.
1589   Pappe with Hatchet (1844) 20   You shall blush at your owne bodges.
1598   J. Florio Worlde of Wordes   Sbozzi, bodges, or bunger-like workes.
1877   E. Peacock Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincs.   Bodge, a botch, a clumsy patch.

However you choose to fix it. All the best with the repair!
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Big Al

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #21 on: January 25, 2015, 12:52:13 AM »
Chair leg turning was often done with a sapling lathe. Bend the sapling over, wind the string tied to it round the leg and to splat so your foot agitated the assembly up and down, the sapling providing the spring to tension the assembly. The action of bodging?

Old woodsman locally, when I was young, told me that some sawyers used the same idea to run one man saw pits locally, when the Vale was the centre of wood industry specialising in Elm and Beach. They were competing with those who had invested in donkey engines, and could no longer afford the second man. These men were reckoned to be stronger than the smith and many a backsword champion was a sawyer, a 'skill game' the Valesman excelled in. A lost world now.
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Bob Purton

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #22 on: January 25, 2015, 09:32:56 AM »
I guess if Andy has a suitable sapling in his garden he could rig up such a device to stir a resin pot and that way it could be a bodge and a botch at the same time. ;D
With restoration projects one has to decide on a standard from the start and maintain it throughout I feel. As to restore means to put back as it was before then steel is the only choice for a restoration. If its a fix/repair/mend then any number of methods suggested will be strong enough. Job satisfaction is the other thing to consider. What the individual themselves will be happy with.  Which ever method you choose I'm sure you will do it well.

marcus

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #23 on: January 25, 2015, 09:41:38 AM »
My attitude is that if a car is genuinely original, then it is nice to keep as much originality as possible, but not to he point that structural integrity might be compromised. However, the floor of this Isetta now seems to me to be too damaged and porous enough that if it were mine I would prefer to replace it with a new floor, on the basis of "quality over originality".
If there were only 2 or3 Isettas left in the world, then originality WOULD be more important!
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AndyL

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #24 on: January 29, 2015, 04:08:05 PM »
Further wire brushing and prodding with a sharp implement has revealed a few more holes as expected, with the bulk of the rot on the lower left of the picture. I'm guessing this would have taken the bulk of foot traffic with folk getting in and out of the car. That area would require a fairly large patch, the other bits might get by with small plates let in carefully, but I'm thinking it's going mean a new floor to get it A1.



Gospert gave me a quote of about £220 shipped for a complete floor pan from Germany. This a galvanized panel, and going by the picture it looks totally faithful to the original, although I would need to trim the master cylinder hole to a slot for the Girling model, no big deal.

I looked at the Jim Hacking floorpans, they're £498 plus postage. I prefer to support a British supplier but not when they're more than twice the price!


1959 LHD 3-wheel Isetta.

Jim Janecek

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #25 on: January 29, 2015, 04:12:33 PM »
Gospert gave me a quote of about £220 shipped for a complete floor pan from Germany. This a galvanized panel, and going by the picture it looks totally faithful to the original, although I would need to trim the master cylinder hole to a slot for the Girling model, no big deal.

Gosbert's floor pans are excellent for LHD, he has been supplying them for many years. 

AndyL

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #26 on: January 29, 2015, 04:23:57 PM »
I think they pressed out aren't they, rather than the ribs being hammered or rolled in?

To be honest it's more than what is required, because the corrosion is limited to the front pan. However the difference in cost is quite small, and if I have to have the floor out, might as well make it look like it came out of the factory.
1959 LHD 3-wheel Isetta.

marcus

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #27 on: January 29, 2015, 06:31:33 PM »
You probably know already but be VERY careful of fumes when welding galvanised pieces, extreme ventilation and quality mask absolutely essential. It is very toxic and cumulative, a friend of mine was not careful enough (despite my warning!) and he was hospitalised for 3 weeks.
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AndyL

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #28 on: January 29, 2015, 07:04:21 PM »
If I need to get the complete floor, I will hire a spot welder for a day. It would be done in an open space too, so plenty of ventilation.
1959 LHD 3-wheel Isetta.

marcus

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Re: Inspecting my Isetta front floorpan
« Reply #29 on: January 29, 2015, 07:29:28 PM »
Glad to hear it!
Just remember: as one door closes behind you, another slams in your face