Replacing the dented boiler

Blimey, this was a job that took longer than expected, but the end result was worth it. A Super D doesn't actually have a lot of bodywork to worry about so the stuff there is needs to be right.

When we left the story, the dented boiler had been removed. I'd also taken off the smokebox. I had a replacement bent bit of nickel silver that just needed to drop in. First up I soldered the tube to be the right size. On the front of the firebox there was a nice whitemetal stub to guide me. A couple of tack solder joints to ascertain the basic position and then working away from the whitemetal, seam soldered the bottom along its length.

With the smokebox loose, I could see that it had only been tacked together. Not brilliantly either but after a few burnt fingers and a bit of poking with wooden lolly stick, this was sorted out. I even remembered to clean this part up before fixing it to the footplate. I must have been on a roll at this point because I also realised that it had been in the wrong place earlier. 6mm from the front of the buffer beam is correct, not 8. And to carry on with the theme, the body retaining nut went in before I blocked access with the tube. Mind you, I did bung it up with solder so I suppose normal service was being resumed.

To fill the gap between boiler and smokebox wrapper, a quick wrap spare etch part bent around a small metal torch was made up. Lots more tack soldering and fiddling until everything lined up properly. The footplate, the one part I'd planned to keep because it was right, was wonky. Strapping a steel rule to this sorted it out and now the whole thing is locked together solid.