Napoleon fix-up (part 2)

Using a strip of gaffer tape and spray paint, I marked up a suitable recess for my fabricated replacement flanges, ensuring that all the pitted metal on the inner side would be removed:

All cut and squared up:

I made some 90 degree flanges out of 2mm sheet. Took me a couple of attempts to get it right. Matching the curve radius was a challenge as it is gentle and not sharp. The solution was to bend them around a curved section of the left-over scraps of the repro Naps Hat:

I then finessed them to fit using my bench grinder. Trim, check, trim, check. One side aligned with the help of the trusty jig:

Fully welded and the weld dressed:

Same process repeated on the other side:

I got pretty good penetration for the most part, but there were small areas inside the naps hat that the weld had not reached. For piece of mind I added some reinforcing welds on the inside. These will not be seen and just add a little bit more strength: 

Here is the flange trimmed up and the welds ground level:

To get the correct placement of the hole(s) for the brake pipe to pass through, I cut out the corresponding sections from the repro panel to use as a template:

I then clamped them into place, aligning the master cylinder holes (which did not match up at all well, so I am glad that I have retained the original factory holes!):

I then drilled the holes out to just below the required size. I then used a cylindrical grinding stone mounted in the Dremmel tool to neatly widen the hole to the correct size using the repro section template to guide me:

And finally (drum roll please), the drivers side of Naps Hat completed and given a lick of primer:

It looks pretty sweet but is not totally perfect. There are a few areas where it appears that the alignment is slightly skewed (minor heat warping perhaps?), but I am optimistic that this will straighten up once the frame head bottom plate and floorpans have been welded into place. 

Coming up in Part 3: I repeat the whole process on the passengers side...