I'm now in the home stretch with the brooder portion of the Mustang Chicken Coupe. I have what I've deemed the waste chute to put together, as well as welding up a cover for the rusted and cut out area over the firewall where the wiper motor and linkages used to be. First is the waste chute. To start this I measured and cut a piece of sheet metal from one of the raw scrap pieces to serve as the actual waste chute. An appliance panel, probably an old washer, supplied a piece of sheet metal with lipped sides that actually worked to my advantage. By cutting a section from the panel, I had a lip on either side to serve as the guide for when waste is swept from the brooder. The third lip was pounded flat to serve as a spot to weld the panel to the front pipe at the radiator support panel. I did have to cut an opening in the middle to accommodate the hood latch brace as well. With those few things done I had my waste chute ready to weld in place. I arranged the panel where the back lip overlapped on the front pipe as mentioned, welding it in place. After doing that weld I bent the panel at a downward angle to where the panel was touching the front valance and went ahead and welded the panel at the middle groove where it went around the hood latch support. This way the panel retained its downward angle and the overall rigidity was enough to keep the panel from being moved easily. With the waste chute done the next thing was to set up the radiator opening to accommodate a removable door. For the tracks/guides I cut two pieces of sheet metal that were an inch wide and the length of the height of the opening in the radiator support panel. With these pieces cut I welded them in place as straight as possible. With those in place I then put the power tools to the top of the radiator support panel to cut an opening approximately an inch wide that ran the span of the opening in the middle of the radiator support panel. This opening will allow for the sheet metal panel that will be the removable door to be able to be easily removed from the top. The next thing was the actual removable door. Just like with the waste chute, I found a nice piece of sheet metal that could be cut to the measurements needed to make the door. After finding a piece that needed minimal cutting due to one of the dimensions already meeting the criteria for my door, I cut the piece and bent the last few inches of both corners on one end of the panel, to serve as tabs for easier removal. With this being raw sheet metal, until I get some kind of protective covering over the top, the tabs will at least allow for a somewhat safe removal without cutting one's hands. I will probably epoxy some fuel hose over the edges, cutting the hose lengthwise to slide them over the top of the panel. Anyway, the panel slide right in, no problem. The opening was covered pretty nicely and in turn, has the waste removal portion of the brooder finished (minus the protective coverings mentioned). Lastly I wanted to cover up the large opening that was left above the firewall after cutting out the rusted metal and removing the wiper motor and its associated wiper linkages and blade bushings. This was somewhat easily accomplished as all that was really needed was to just cut and weld in a few large pieces of sheet metal. It really didn't have to be neat, just effectively cover the openings since this will cover the opening that can allow baby birds to make it into the main coop area, plus it would just be neater to cover these jagged shitty areas. I started with a good sized panel on the passenger side. After getting it welded in I cut another panel for the driver's side. The driver's side was slightly different where the inner fenders terminated at the firewall so I ended up welding one large piece of sheet metal in that was at the top, then cutting another piece of sheet metal that I actually had to cut in half partway after welding one side of the metal to the firewall. After some more cutting and welding of the edges of the sheet metal I was able to get the whole area covered up pretty good. The only thing left to do with regard to finishing up the places where metal joined metal is to seal those small and difficult to reach places with some roofing repair tar that is applied from a caulk tube. With the brooder section done as far as welding is concerned, the next move, as mentioned in a previous post, will be the installation of the electrical box for the heater outlet as well as a light fixture. I will check on my plumbing supply stocks and see if I can get the plumbing installed in the brooder section, complete with the automatic watering cups. I will also apply the caulk tar after getting some from the store.
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