Week One

This week, Tuesday only involved half a day’s work as it was our annual Christmas lunch (always held in January) at The Star pub in Rolvenden and, as usual, it was excellent even though they had suffered a flooding of their cellar that morning due to the heavy rain.  However, we still managed to make more cladding bits for around 4253’s firebox 

and many of the panels for the 5164 bunker had their edges weld prepped followed by fitting some of the joining plates and reaming as necessary 

before bolting on the rear corner pieces.  As the joins in the water space are all to be seam welded on the inside, the joining plates were bolted on the outside so as to align the panels while allowing access to the inside for the actual welding.

On Sunday. the welds were completed and dressed back which involved ensuring plates at the first section of the join were perfectly level, placing a tack and then moving to the next section to repeat the process.

This often involved bolting joining strips across the panels or levering the ends of the corner pieces.

Once completed. The upper rear panel was lifted into place 

and bolted up after which the long process of getting the panels level along the bend radius began.  This shot shows various bits of plate being bolted across the join to make sure its level before the two are seam welded on the inside.

Here, the side joins are having the weld dressed flush while the rear panels are being welded

and this shows all the welds joining the upper rear panel prior to dressing.  

Once completed, it was back to riveting with the front of the side panel on the driver’s side being completed,