Floor... started

Time to start with my first build job... OK, I've been at it quite a while and done a fair bit to get to this point, but as I was preparing for the build I saw a common theme. The first picture in most people's build logs was the floor being held in place by rivets. So this is my version!

Of course, this isn't the first step of this particular stage. First off was cleaning up the welds on the floor so I had a flat surface;

Then a paper template made for the two sides;

A quick transfer to the aluminium to cut to size;

The cuts were done using an aluminium blade on a jigsaw, with the wood mounted on top to keep the edges from buckling (I needed both edges to stay usable). It did a great job to keep everything flat;

Then the panels were laid in place;

And the first few holes drilled;

After a bit of geometry to get the position of the other rails, the rest of the holes were drilled to bring us back to the first picture;

(And yes, I don't have enough Cleko's).

So that's the passenger side done, and this was the end of the night. Turns out drilling more than one hundred holes is really hard work, my back and shoulders were screaming. And I've not even got to the point where I'm applying rivets!!

Oh, and on the subject of rivets, I didn't buy anywhere near enough. I bought 100, thinking that it would be distributed between the panels. Thinking about it now, I have two floor panels, one back panel and four side panels to rivet. Even getting every rivet right first time, that would leave me with about 14 rivets per panel!! Considering I did A level maths, this didn't quite register in my brain.

So I've gone and bought another 500 rivets. Even with that I'll use up to 400 just for the floor and side panels, that doesn't leave many for the back panel. 

And I'm not looking forward to doing each rivet. As an experiment I did one to a point where the pin sheared, I can still feel the bruises on my palms. I'll be putting some extender bars on to the handles I think. 

Anyhow, that's the passenger side drilled. It needs to be cut, then it'll be on to the drivers side. I'm not going to put them in place until I've done all the panels, as it's quite useful to have an open chassis. 

I'm also hoping for one day this week to get the chassis out on to the drive and put the engine in place so I can weld up the engine mounts. That is determined by the weather though.