The End pt.2*

Two men, by the roadside frantically scrambling around a big, yellow campervan that appears to be on fire. All doors are wide open and smoke billows out across the street, disrupting traffic and generally attracting unwanted attention.

1st Man- "JESUS CHRIST"
2nd Man- "Where's it coming from!?"
1st Man- "I think it's the horn? The horn's on fire!"
2nd Man- "The horn's on fire?!"
1st Man- "The fucking horn's on fire?!
2nd Man- "What's it made of?"
1st Man- "Metal?!"
(In  unison)- "Jesus Christ"

A car suddenly arrives on the scene, pulling up behind the big, yellow campervan. A man steps out and approaches the two men. 1st Man is laying underneath the vehicle, trying to ascertain exactly which part of the horn is so flammable.

2nd Man- "Shit, I think the police are here"
1st Man- "Jesus Christ"

An overtaking car swerves to avoid 1st man's legs which poke out into the road in a similar fashion to the wicked witch of the west in Wizard of Oz. The stranger has now reached the big, yellow camper and tries to get the attention of 1st man

3rd Man-"Alright mate?"
1st Man- "Um..." (thinking.....'oh god, this is it, the dream is over, we're never going to make the Isle')
3rd Man- "Is this yours?"
1st Man (straining to blow out the fire) "Yep" (thinking...'I'm going to prison, what was I thinking?')
3rd Man- "Is it 1975?"
1st Man (slightly taken aback and momentarily forgetting the fire, pokes his head out from under the vehicle and looks up to see 3rd Man) "Umm...yes it is."
3rd Man- "I've got one exactly the same!"
1st Man (relieved, but wary once again of the fire) "Oh....well yes, they're very good....but, I mean.....ummm.....mine's on fire at the moment...."
3rd Man- "Jesus Christ"
2nd Man (to himself)- "Jesus Christ"

It was Thursday afternoon and my friend Graeme and I were finally heading out on the 164 mile maiden voyage from Birmingham to the Isle of Wight. We were all packed, The Supercamp was ready-ish and we were generally filled with pioneering spirit and the potent sense of adventure. So far we had gone 0.8 miles (up the road, to all intents and purposes) and had come to an abrupt and firey stop. By that roadside, I learnt a valuable lesson about the importance of fuses in averting electrical fires......let me explain, lest the same foul fate fall upon you.

What does a fuse do?

A fuse is inserted into an electrical circuit to act as a 'weak link' If a short happens within the circuit (when the +ve and -ve come directly in contact) the fuse will 'blow' breaking the connection and stopping the whole circuit becoming very hot and eventually setting on fire. It is 'rated' by using a certain thickness of metal that will withstand a little above the normal current flowing through the circuit. If this current increases above it's threshold, it -somewhat nobly- throws itself upon it's sword and saves the day. It is the canary in the mine. An indicator that all is not well....

So, when a fuse blows is not wise to simply replace it with a much thicker piece of metal (a 25mm wood screw for instance) as a 25mm wood screw is not rated to 'blow' when too much current flows through it. Doing this would be the same as resuscitating the canary, putting a little gas mask on it and marching proudly into the darkness.


We managed to extinguish the fire, opened all the windows to get rid of the smell and drove on, hornless. Although shaken up by FlamingHorn, a fortnight before I didn't think we would even get this far. Let us rewind..........


She had just passed her MOT and I was fully geared up to get on with the conversion. On the premise I would be working from the floor up, I had a final bit of rustproofing to do on the subframe before being able to put the floor in. So I was happily angle grinding away when I heard a loud CRACK....

I AM JACK'S BROKEN HEART

Finally making it WATERTIGHT, SECURE and MOT'd
Finally ready to start on the inside
Finally getting somewhere......

And yes, dear reader, I will happily admit that I actually shed a tear. Desperation and disappointment is a terrible thing. It was a big, window-smashing punchline from the universe. While one hand giveth, the other taketh away.

PLACES THAT YOU CAN'T SOURCE A 1975 MERCEDES 206d WINDSCREEN FROM

1. eBay
2. Classic Camper Club forum
3. 206d Facebook page
4. Professional windscreen repair companies
5. UK scrapyards
6. The Internet in general
7. Anywhere you can possibly think of

HAIRBRAINED SCHEMES YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU CAN'T SOURCE A WINDSCREEN

1.Making a plastic replacement that you will heat bend and sort of bodge into place

2.Use a smaller windscreen and make up a frame to bridge the gap

3.Wear goggles (It is worth a mention at this point that the only good thing to come of not having a windscreen is that when your passenger -Joe- is asking you what all the controls do, you delightedly await his coming to the windscreen washer button, knowing fully well that the passenger side washer always comes on before the driver side one......Ha!)




HIGHLY UNLIKELY SOLUTIONS THAT COME FROM NOWHERE

Remember FellowHanomagOwner? I had found him through watching a youtube video of his campervan earlier on in the year. Since then we had been in contact and so I asked him what he thought of my hairbrained schemes and indeed whether he may have any of his own. He (quite rightly) dismissed by ideas as fraught with problems, however he did pass me the contact of a man who -as it turns out- had what must be the only windscreen for a 1975 206d in the whole country......A quick trip to Cardiff, a lot of quilts in the back of Joe's fiesta and I had a new windscreen! 

I AM JACK'S CHILDLIKE DELIGHT

If any life lesson can be taken from this episode, it is clearly that-

Gold can quickly turn to Shit, however it can just as quickly turn back into Gold. Though don't hold your breath, because it is more than likely to turn back into Shit again.

How do you fit a windscreen?

You will not believe that this works so well until you see it in action. It is almost worth smashing your windscreen to have a go. 

1. Fit the rubber seal on the windscreen and wrap a length of string twice around the groove into which the frame will sit. 

2. Place the windscreen up to the frame, mounting it in on the bottom edge

3. As you pull the string out from round the windscreen, it pulls the inner edge of the rubber seal over the lip of the frame. The whole process takes about five minutes.... It is just missing a huge POP! sound to make it the most satisfying thing ever......

So, where were we? Ah yes, vehicle fire. So, apart from FlamingHorn the SuperCamp sailed straight and true right the way down to Portsmouth (via Gloucester to pickup a leisure battery) and then onto the Isle of Wight, all at a very respectable 55mph.

Whilst waiting in this ferry queue, we took the opportunity to wire in the internal lights. The next morning, we plumbed in the gas (also picked up on the way) so as we could have breakfast. We then wired in the water pump when we needed to wash up. Once again, necessity is the mother of action. 

Eight months after The SuperCamp came into my life, broken and tired as she was, she was now alive again, doing what she was born to do- taking people to places far away from their house and making them still feel at home. We made fresh coffee, we cooked huge breakfasts, we listened to music, we played cards, we slept soundly. I could finally look back at all those steps along the way- the welding, the sanding, the researching, the panic, the delight, the apathy and the obsession and I could feel how every part had made these simple pleasure not only possible, but worth much more.

7th September 2012, Mercedes 206d MWW102P is officially christened on her maiden voyage-

Heidi Von SuperCamp

*I fear I was too hasty in calling these latest few  blogs 'the end' There is still much to do and much to write about. Let's see what happens.

The end? pt.1

We last left our tale with the Death of Perseverance and the LossOfTheWheel. I have always warned of my caprice, of my tendency to obsess and then lose interest. Well, it seems that this blog has nobly born the brunt of this and thankfully The SuperCamp has escaped unscathed. What I am trying to say is that the progress of The SuperCamp has far outrun the progress of this blog and I come to you now only with good news. As much as I don't imagine you waiting on the edge of your seat, I also don't want to leave this story open ended and hanging in cyberspace. If this may well be the last entry, let's at least end on a good note.

I think the best way to cover the substantial ground of progress made is by a series of pictures, and chronologically seems as good a way as any. 

After securing all wheels, this time she made it to the MOT...she failed- the main point was brakes 'registering little or no effort'

Getting to the rear brakes to find out why they were not working proved horrendous. Five of the ten nuts were completely seized. I battled with sockets, mole grips, scaffold bars, blowtorches, monkey wrenches before finally accepting the fact that I would have to cut and cold chisel them out. Each nut took two hours to remove whilst the constant danger of damaging the threads from the wheel hub bolts loomed.....

This is my (ingenius) method for balancing breaks. Place a socket and bar on the central nut of the wheel whilst the brakes are locked on. Then add weights into the bucket to find the point at which the wheel overcomes the brakes and rotates. Then adjust all the brakes until they take the same weight in the bucket.

With the brakes now bled and balanced and several other minor issues addressed, I put her in for MOT take 2 (3 if you count the wheel falling off episode, but I hardly think that's fair) Unbelievably, SHE PASSED!*

*Between you and me- I can't be sure, but- I think I overhead the head mechanic saying to the junior mechanic who carried out the MOT (in hushed tones) "The thing is, if you fail it, then you have to fix it, that means you have to find parts. Do you really want to open that box?" Either way, I am definitely going back there next year.

Remember the original goal? well 7 months in and The SuperCamp was

MOT'd, Watertight and Secure

The last bits of welding on the front end

At this point I shall regale you with a tale of a hard learnt lesson. In this picture you will notice I am wearing a full face welding mask. Unfortunately, sometimes I get this small voice inside my head that goes a little like this.

Me- "Right, better get my mask on"

Little Voice- "Ha."

Me- "Pardon?"

Little Voice- "Nothing."

Me-"No, what did you say?"

Little Voice-"Nothing" (it turns away and I know it's smirking)

Me-"Have you got a problem with me wearing a mask?"

Little Voice-"No, not at all" (this is sarcastic, I can tell from it's tone)

Me-"You don't think you should a wear a mask when wielding white hot, UV emitting electricity?"

Little Voice-"No, no, you do what you want. If you think you need a mask...."

Me-"Oh yeah, maybe you're right! Maybe I won't use a mask!" (I'm trying sarcasm now, but I lack Little Voice's subtlety.

Little Voice-"Whatever, you do what you want."

Me-"Oh yeah, I bet you'd love that wouldn't you? well maybe I'll do what you want. Keep your mask!"

So, cutting my nose off to spite Little Voice's face, I threw caution to the wind and my mask to the floor. I then spent 4 or 5 hours welding through squinted eyes. I finished the day and left for home, happy that I had wiped that smug smile off it's imaginary face.......

This picture was taken at 4am after a trip to A&E with SuddenBlindness AKA ArcEye. It was incredibly painful and pretty scary, especially the first 15mins between waking up blind and realising that it was from welding. Funnily enough, LittleVoice was nowhere to be seen.

Once the last of the welding was done, it meant I could treat the underside with Waxoyl, get the floor in and start on the interior.

This is the original inside. The starting point.

This is the final plan. The end point.

Carpeting the cab using Veltrim. Joe cut, I fixed.

Repairing and treating the original floor to go back in.

Insulating the walls and floor using double foil insulation.

Battening around the windows for the plywood cladding to fix to

3.5mm WBP ply for cladding the walls. Joe again.

The passenger side bed using 18mm ply

Top priority....soundsystem

Milestone

Two single beds and underlay on the floor. Cushions, kitchen unit and cooker from a Mk 1 Ford Transit.

This is the very basic skeleton of the inside and was the milestone point from which she would make her maiden voyage.... Just like the MOT, sometimes you need a deadline to kick yourself into shape. So when this photo was taken, there was 5.5m long space reserved on a Wightlink ferry to the Isle of Wight. Does she make it? does she make it back? what does she look like now? We are certainly nearing the end of our SuperCamp journey, but there is definitely one more installment left in it..............

MOT take 1

So much time has passed since my last blog that I don't really know where to start. I fear I have tried to sweep The SuperCamp (along with this blog) under the carpet in a distant corner of my mind. But as mentioned in a previous entry, no Mental Carpet can contain the Yellow Peril and she remains, as Big and Beautifully Loathsome as ever she was. Today was the 3rd MOT, so please accept this backdated tale of the first one......

What follows is a tale of the death of Perseverance

Spontaneity is okay to start an action but is pretty useless when it comes to completing one. As soon as any hard work begins, he casually exits, laughing to himself that he's had me over once again, leaving me and my perseverance to finish the job. 

My perseverance, if a person, would be a wheezing, Victorian child. Destitute, propped up on a crutch and barely able to muster enough energy to scratch at his litany of skin disorders. So, I figure that an MOT is exactly what he needs in his life- a bit of structure, a bit of direction to boost his morale, a milestone.

The MOT will bookmark our progress. It will give my small coughing cohort and I a list of instructions on black and white DVLA approved paper, a ten step plan if you will. A map to get us out of this mental quagmire.

"Where are we going sir?" asks Percy (it's a pun on perseverance. Please keep up)

"We, my young asthmatic, are going to ride this Yellow Chariot to the local inspector to get an outside opinion on our work thus far"

"But" he starts. Overcome by coughing, he takes a minute to regain himself, "But… we have no insurance sir"

"Yes, 'tis true m'lad. However, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that in this fair land we have policies known as FullyComp that allow holders of such a policy to drive other  vehicles."

"Not always sir….[more coughing] ….it's always best to check the small print"

"Yes, thank you Percy, I am well aware of that. Anyway, should we find a FullyComp person whose small print is compliant with our plan, we shall sail, maybe just as passengers, but sail we shall."

"And he'll…….[cough]….fix me up proper, will he sir?"

"Erm…"

"He'll cure this damned pox, will he?"

"Well, not exactly…"

"He'll be my benefactor, clothe me, teach me a trade and find me worthwhile employment, will he?"

"Erm….one step at a time, my ill-fated friend. One, hesitant, polio-inhibited step at a time.."

So work on TheSuperCamp began in ernest to get her ready for the big test. Sprucing her up, trimming her edges, powdering her cheeks and shining her shoes; like a child going to the first day of school or a loved one going to a job interview. This proved to be fairly immediate and satisfying work. Imagine if you will a montage of me and Percy working away together, sun shining, soft focus, slow motion, chasing each other round the SuperCamp, collapsing into a heap and gazing up at the clouds. His health ever improving, the Supercamp looking better and better.

1. We fitted the rear window from the original door into the new one and the two gas struts to hold open the rear door.

2. After some modifying of the frames to work round the new wheel arches, we fitted the two front seats, complete with seatbelts.

3. We fitted all exterior items- bumpers front and rear, lights, number plates.

4. ...then had a general tidy up, removal of tools, tubs of filler and four tonnes of sandpaper.

It only took a day and served as a satisfying reflection of the past few months of work. I even had someone with insurance to drive. My-slightly nervous-Girlfriend. As demasculating as it was to hand over the keys, I bravely set aside my pride and booked the MOT appointment.

The morning of the test, I was very nervous. Today I was opening up to the rigors of the outside world. Today she would leave the safety of my care to be poked and prodded by men that don't realise how special she is. Men that can't see past the red oxide, dodgy welding and flagrant safety risks to see her true beauty. Her potential!

I made all the appropriate checks- kicking the wheel a couple of times. And we saddled up, 'buzzed' out the gates and onto her Majesty's highway to the usual slight smell of burning.

100m down the road and it all seemed to be holding together...."We're doing it!" I cried, slapping the dashboard "We're actually bloody doing it! I knew you'd be alright SuperCamp!"....she rumbled ahead, another 200m down the road...I felt like a king, I felt like I needed my own national anthem. MyGirlfriend looked petrified, but I could live with that, she may be the pilot but goddam it I'm the captain of this big, yellow brute! 500m away from the site and we're racing up the gears now...to 4th. 

"Is that it?" asks MyGirlfriend. 

"40mph is a perfectly adequate speed, thankyou very much" I reply. 

"It doesn't sound right" she said. 

I'm going to have to quell this mutiny, I thought...though slowly realising that something didn't feel quite right. 

There started a sudden juddering right below my seat. "The sea is an evil mistress" I whisper. "I'm pulling over" she says and just as she starts to  indicate there is a sudden lurch and a drop down on the passenger side. 

SCRREEEEEECCCCHHHHHHH!!!!! 

Metal on tarmac. 

We skid about 10m, veering onto the grass verge and narrowly avoiding a shiny, parked Audi. When we stop the stillness is disturbed only by a wheel rolling down the road and collapsing into a hedge. That would explain why my side of the van is sitting considerably lower than MyGirlfriend's who from my point of view looks like she is sitting on the high end of a see saw. "Shit."

The scratch in the road was quite impressive and certainly justified a few years worth of my road tax. It would seem that whoever had put the wheel on last had not tightened the wheel nuts as much as they should. The slight movement of the wheel on the hub increased with the speed, bending and widening the holes more and more until it was enough for the wheel to slide clean over the nuts and escape into the hedge.

"Hi, is that the MOT garage?"

"Yep"

"Yeah, erm Hi. I'm booked in for an MOT in half an hour, but unfortunately I'm not going to make it."

"Oh, why?"

"Erm, well I'm not sure I should really tell you this but ...well, my wheel has just fallen off."

If it didn't signal the end of my dreams, it would all have been surreally comic. 

I called MyColleague out who bought a car-jack and tools and we put the spare on, Working quickly so as not to be caught redhanded at the end of the huge gash in the road. Amazingly, despite grinding along on the brake hub, TheSuperCamp showed no signs of damage whatsoever. Good old German engineering.

So barely a mile down the road, she had come to a grinding halt. We had been defeated by the cold and cruel world outside my fantasy of vehicle playmaking. As dramatic as ever, I felt it as a cold slap in the face. 

Once the (almost flat) spare was on, we made a hasty exit with My-FullyComp-Colleague driving The SuperCamp with MyGirlfriend. I followed in the work van, where a sad realisation dawned on me. Up until that point my perspective of the SuperCamp was always of her looming over me as I worked in her corners. Now, watching from behind as she limped along I saw just how strange, cumbersome and fragile she actually looked. She didn't dominate the road, she wobbled along it, ungraceful and out of place.

And as that entered my head, I glanced in the rear mirror and noticed a small dark shape on the side of the road where we'd been. We'd left something behind. And as I saw his outstretched hand drop to the road I imagined his last little polio-ridden breath...

The 0.000002%

There are many reasons for the lengthy absence from this blog. There have been ups and there have been downs, but fear not! The SuperCamp is still here. What follows is one of the big Downs since my last entry.....

The Supercamp is fine as a project in my head. The only arbiter to it's success, failure or possibility is me. I can dream a dream, bounce it off this blog and everything is possible. The problem is that if I want this dream to ever leave storage and actually sail the highways, there are quite a few hoops to jump through. Hoops that care not for vehicular romanticism or overblown sentiment.  

These hoops only care for hard facts.

"Do the wheels stay on?"
"What are wheels, but the waves upon which my dream sails?"

"Is there more than 25% difference in braking power between the two front brakes?"

"How can you quantify love?"

"Your current employment makes you ineligible for insurance"

"But my exact employment isn't in your drop down menu"

"Your current employment makes you ineligible for insurance"

"You're not listening..."

"Your current employment makes you ineligible for insurance"

These hoops are anti-dreams and buzz-killers.

My main gripe is with insurance companies. I have spent an inordinate amount of time entering my details into online quote forms; waiting on hold on the phone; repeating my details to the next operator I am passed to; re-entering my details into online quote forms. There are a number of factors that determine your risk factor and eligibility for insurance-

AGE

SEX

ADDRESS

EMPLOYMENT

DRIVING HISTORY

PREVIOUS POLICIES

There is a wonderfully mysterious equation which will take these factors, chew them up and give out a price- down to the penny- that reflects the probability of you being involved in an accident, causing an accident or having your vehicle stolen. Nothing is outside the realm of possibility for the all powerful QuoteForm. She is a despotic queen that rules with a silicon fist; it's her way or no highway.

She allows no explanation, no individual circumstance and no exceptions. Everything in her court is black and white, quantifiable and can be reduced down to cold, binary form. In her presence, you are also reduced down to this. Flattened out and spread across the boxes of the QuoteForm you see yourself 'on paper.' You are now formatted, system-compliant and ready to be posted through the 'Submit' portal. 

This is where my problems begin. The actual me-

27 year old Male living in a low crime street, working as a sound engineer with 9 points from 4 years ago. Has 3 years No Claims Bonus on a motorbike, a Cat C HGV licence, and 10 years on 5 different company car insurance policies with no accidents. 

The QuoteForm reduces this down to the On-Paper-Bridge-Williams-

27 year old Male living in a High Crime Area, working in Entertainment with 9 points and NO previous insurance history.

WARNING- What follows is an attempt to break down the machinations of this court. What are the exact cogs that turn me into a factor of probability? I warn you that upon reading it over, it is quite boring, wildly presumptuous and overly reductive....perfectly apt for it's subject.

I am 27 and I am male- that I cannot help. However my sex immediately puts me at a disadvantage. Straightaway we see the probability machine slice 65 million UK people into two camps. Male and Female; Probably reckless, Probably safe. Me and my 32.5 million dangerous brothers are herded through the same door.

I live in Birmingham, which at the last census claims to have a population of 1,016,800. So I'll crudely deduce that we are 508, 400 Males that are split from the group and herded through the Birmingham door. Now unfortunately for me, some of my 508, 399 brummy brothers are up to no good, as the probability machine has deemed the whole of Birmingham a high crime area.  Again the probability machine comes down and writes off 103 square miles as non-differential, crime-ridden hell.

So, what else sets me aside from my male herd, wandering our 103 square miles of danger? According to the QuoteForm, I work in 'Entertainment' which is a high risk sector. So -by my calculation*- 8,850 entertaining, male, victims of crime are herded through the next door.

Now, 3% of drivers are on 9 points. Half the population drives so...132 of us go through the next door.

Okay, so we've been narrowed down to 132 male, entertaining, speeding, victims of crime. This is an odd demographic to be in, the 0.000002% 

Maybe we should start a union.

*1.8 million employed in entertainment. I estimate at least the 0.8 million are in London. So that leaves the rest of us with 1 million people in entertainment. 

((Birmingham pop. (1,016,800)) / (UK pop.- London (57,443,100))) x 1 million=17,700,995 / 2 (male/female) =8,850

So we are some of the least liked subjects of Her Majesty the QuoteForm. We are an embarrassment to the court, a stain on it's flag. She wants nothing to do with us. We are politely asked to leave by one of her phone operators 

"I'm afraid you're ineligible for insurance with any of our brokers (you're dead to us, leave now....on foot)" 

The 0.000002%

 

The First Click

WARNING: The following entry has substituted all humour for dry, hard to follow, step by step instructions. If you are easily bored then you may want to sit this one out.

When I first went to view the SuperCamp, 21st January

Today, 6th March

My first target for Project SuperCamp was to have it Secure, Watertight and MOT'd. Today, I made big steps towards this goal. Short of a window in the back door, the SuperCamp is now secure and watertight; a single, yellow box. Both wheel arches are done and through some impressive balancing and metalwork skills I have fitted the back door.

What follows is an exhaustive journey through the mechanics of fitting the door. If you like revolving 3D CAD models, convoluted explanations of X and Y planes and over-enthusiastic metalwork sentiment then read on and enjoy. However, if you are one of those strange people who are not at all turned on by hinges, angle iron and relative positioning then I shall see you next time.

Two doors, one hole

Problem:  

a. I have two doors. One has glass in but has rusted beyond repair. The other is a bit rotten, but salvageable and has no glass and only one hinge...which will NOT come off.

b. The door frame has the old hinges attached, but they are rotten, seized and need replacing. The bolts attaching them are also seized.

This model shows the original design of how the hinges attach to the frame. 

The hinge does not bolt straight onto the frame. Instead, the bolts go through the frame into a plate. This clamps the frame between the hinge and the plate. All this is invisible from the outside as the frame is a double layer box section. There is no way of getting into the frame to the clamping plate. As the bolts were seized, my only choice was to cut away the whole section of the frame to remove the hinge and clamp plate together.

 Hinge removed, but must still chop away frame to remove clamping plate

Now there is effectively a hole in the frame where the hinges used to attach.

Solution:  

 The next model is my plan for attaching the the new hinges.

I will use a piece of Angle that will weld to the the frame, bridging the gap. Angle will have better strength and more welding area than a plate. This will compensate for any loss in strength through cutting into the frame.

Method: 

Drill holes in the Angle-

1. With relative positions matching up to the holes in the hinge. 

2.That correctly position the hinge (and the door) in relation to the frame once the Angle is welded on. 

Number 2. was done by precariously holding the door- with hinge attached - in the frame with the Angle sandwiched in position and then marking the position of hinge on the Angle.

Number 1. could not be done in this position as the hinge is closed and so the holes could not be reached.

Correct 1. and 2. positioning

Drilling the holes in the Angle

Once the Angle is welded into position, there will be no way to get to the nuts to secure the bolts, as they will be in the frame. Therefore I must weld the nuts onto the Angle in the correct position.

Nuts welded onto Angle

The door is then held in the position with both the hinge and Angle attached. This allows the Angle to be spot welded assuring it is in the correct position.

The door - and hinge - are then unattached, leaving the Angle in place. I have to remove the door in order to fully weld the Angle in position. 

Angle spot welded into position

Problem:In order the access the bolts for the hinge, the door must be in the open position. This door hinges from the top, which means undoing bolts whilst in the open position is rather difficult.

Solution:

The door-levitation-jig

The Angle is then welded onto the frame and the door attached permanently. Apart from some slight adjustments it worked pretty much first time. The first click shut once the handle and lock were attached was truly momentous. It was one of those moments when you don't quite know how you've pulled it off and one of the highlights of the project so far.