Chris - Please tell us it needs new carpets!!! The perfect thing for the re-trim thread (no pun intented). I really need some new carpets (to hide my 'restoration' work), and need Sharon's tutorial when she gets home, assuming that Boris will let her back into the country before Christmas.
Carpets are fine and will be refitted - its not really worth making new ones from scratch either when a fully tailored set is available for £186 from Rimmers - As for Boris (who couldn't find his way out of a room with more than one door fitted to it - but I'm not supposed to get into politics on this shiny new forum)
Post by grumpynorthener on Oct 31, 2020 20:17:59 GMT
I could now remove the outer sill again
I wanted to leave the door on for now so to allow me to keep a check on the gapping's - but on convertibles that have no supporting roof structure its a good idea to brace under / support the A post that the door is hung from - needn't be anything fancy - it could just be a piece of timber with some suitable wedges
Its also a good idea to take some datums from the floor to the bottom of the door too
Floorpan cleaned back & weld through primer applied
Rest of the panels prepped ready for welding in
And a few tacks applied to the floor pan - then I ran out of time and needed to be somewhere else
Post by grumpynorthener on Nov 2, 2020 22:25:24 GMT
I could now start to make the floorpan welding a little more permanent
And the inner sill could start to go in
The I had top alter the point of where I could support the A pillar / bulkhead return panel whilst the outer sill was fitted
Outer sill & closing plate in position
And then could start to be made permanent too - a mix of spotwelds where access allows & plugwelds where spotwelder access is not achievable
With the outer sill fully welded the temporary support for the A post can be removed
Door is fitting & latching but is way too tight against the rear wing
The floorpan could now be fully welded prior to fitting the floor cross member
Cross member fitted & welded insitu
Adjustment on the forward edge of the rear wing - then the door reduced on the rearward edge - currently the gapping is overwide but this is to allow the edge of the door skin to be welded & dressed back
Same as the nearside the bottom of door running out of alignment with the new sill
Hence some remedial action required
Top edge of sill slit and an initial infill spacer tacked in to achieve alignment with the door
Looking more in line
I will need to complete the rewelding of the sill step infill in the morning but well on the way to completing the structural works
Post by grumpynorthener on Nov 4, 2020 20:37:08 GMT
Trial fitting of the offside rear wing repair section
Now nicely aligns with the sill & door
Sill / door alignment from the frontal view
Sill step infill welded & dressed back
Wing repair section welded in & dressed back
Now the edge of the door skin / frame can be welded up & dressed back
Sill alignment still works now that the infill has been fully welded
Along with the floorpan / inner sill / outer sill flange spot welded
So that's all the welding now complete on the offside too with exception of the sill flange edge with the A post - this shall be undertaken when I remove the door at a later stage
Welded seams on the nearside have been sealed
I always like to seam seal the sill flange edges on both faces - once water gets into this flange it just continues to create problems that go largely sight unseen until its too late other than to start replacing panels - hence prevention is always better than having to undertake the cure
I had do some running around in order to ensure that I have everything to hand and I don't fall foul of lockdown - I'm ok and the business can just keep running but then it just needs one of my regular suppliers to run into problems and everything could come to a halt which I would rather avoid - so 5 new Dunlops later plus all the fluids required for the servicing etc
Made a start on the panel preparation on the offside too so these can start to be progressed tomorrow
Along with a clean up of the offside floorpan in preparation of primer / seam sealer applications - more tomorrow
Asking because I’ve got to seam seal all the joints on the underside of my Herald.
Karl
Karl - There's loads on the market and I would avoid 95% of them - the vast majority are supplied in a 1 litre tin - some are pure rubbish and others are pretty good - the problem however lies in extracting the product from the tin with a small brush and applying it to the seam - it strings all over the place and by the time you have it applied & brushed into the seam it looks a proper mess / over wide & stringy - I avoid it all costs - far better is a seam sealer that is supplied by the cartridge which is then applied by a skeleton gun - this you can apply it far neater then just brush in as required
The good ones are Silane Modified Polymer based which retains elastic rubberised properties in order to take into account any minor flexing of the vehicles seams - at all costs avoid pure silicone based products along with any PU based products (such as Tigerseal etc) - these have their uses but not as a automotive seam sealer
I use a product supplied by Kent Europe - unfortunately its trade only and you have to hold an account / minimum spend with them which rules that one out - 3M 50740 does the job and is available on E Bay but its a hell of a price - like £25+ a tube !
A little research brings up a product manufactured by HB Body that will do the job for you - TDS below
Amazing attention to detail Chris, I love threads like this, such a help to people like myself. I'll put my questions in my mini thread rather than clutter your thread.
Chris many thanks for the feedback and particularly the link.
I need to lay a couple of these in as most of the rot I have cut out of the Herald so far is as a result of poor or non-existent seam sealing from the factory.
Post by grumpynorthener on Nov 6, 2020 22:06:55 GMT
Latest progress
I have had the door lock apart has it wont open the door externally - the internal one is fine - the external handle has some wear but new ones are silly priced (£300 ish) hence I spent some time sorting the old one - managed to reduce some of the wear then reduce the amount of filler on the door skin that was in turn packing the handle off the catch mechanism - once sorted - it was back working again
Profiling works on the offside advanced and seams primed in preparation for seam sealer
Likewise with the door, sill, rear wing
Sealer applied
Final fine polyester filler skimming on the offside
Post by grumpynorthener on Nov 9, 2020 22:10:00 GMT
Next on my list was to rehang the nearside door - and I know that I had a door window issue to deal with before I cracked on with with getting some paint on the new & reworked panels
Before commencing work on the car I noticed that the nearside door window was overlapping the windscreen pillar at the top rather than fitting on the inside edge face of it - the window regulator was also very stiff and it soon became obvious someone had been here before me
All the regulator mountings had been redrilled / elongated to achieve further adjustment
And the holes for the window guide channels had received the same treatment
Even the large washers were pulling the through the over enlarged holes in the door frame
The job of taking everything apart from inside the door shell was made far worse by the fact that inner shell / door skin had literally been caked in grease - I was covered in the stuff to the length of my arms
Eventually I managed to remove the door glass - someone had bonded the glass to the regulator channel - nothing wrong in that other than they had not bonded it parallel so the glass was sat forward at a angle - I managed to separate them and shall rebond them but inline with each other
Post by grumpynorthener on Nov 9, 2020 22:52:49 GMT
Slowly getting there but not perfect - then again I don't think that they ever were that perfect when new
Something didn't look right with the windscreen pillar and sure enough as I investigated further I found a load of filler packed in to the side face of the pillar that was partly fouling the window
I reached a point where I sort of reached a happy medium - its far from perfect but its probably the best I'm going to get it given the amount of wear in the regulator and the way that other components had been altered / strained & messed around with - I will need to rebond the glass to the channel but I will leave this until I fit the car back up
Checked against the offside which is slightly better fitting - next is to complete the body profiles and prepare the new / reworked panels for primer - more tomorrow
Regarding prepping the surface, what is the order of play, degrease, flat down with soap and water, panel wipe tack rag......none of the above?
It all depends on what type of job its - in this case its more a tidy up + paint onto the new & reworked panels - I'm using a direct to gloss paint rather than a base coat & lacquer system - so degrease with panel wipe - flat the existing paint dry with P320 on the DA sander - prime & guide coat - flat back again with sander - panel wipe - tac off - then apply the paint - I use a different method when I'm doing a bare metal paint job / full restoration
Post by grumpynorthener on Nov 12, 2020 21:33:33 GMT
Latest progress
Both doors removed - and the final welding job was just to weld the base of the A post to the sill now I had clear access - followed by a little profiling
Prepped the paint work on the offside for priming
Not really on the list but the paint on the rear panel is awful - literally growing legs & jumping off
I will give the panel a quick scrub off and put a coat of paint on it whilst the paint is in the spraygun
Then a good mask up
Doors hung to the panel stands
And everything prepared for priming
Primer & guide coat applied
Then off to the paint supplier to find that the car is painted a non stock / non standard colour - essentially whoever painted the car last took various tins of paint and mixed them together to come up with this colour - we used a mass spectrometer to get has close as we possibly could
So a flat back of the primer in the morning and some paint can be applied
