Well it's definitely more crumple zone than anything else right now so I guess objective achieved... and I thought I needed brave pills
It looks a worse job than it is really, its far easier fitting complete panels rather than patching/repairing plus the body cuts I have are a factory assembled leg and inner wing which saves me a lot of alignment issues, if I were to use a new wing and leg there would be a bit more scope for error and new panels arent exactly east to find!
Unfortunately I lost me old dad a month ago so its been a bit chaotic and ive definitely been lacking in enthusiasm but today I achieved! The drivers side wheel arch area, chop chop
Thats definitely past it!
Got some nice repair panels from the body cuts I got, while not perfect its a good start
Which kind of fits here, I need to add more metal to the top where they all rot out, its for the wiring harness grommet but its a good start
This flangy bit covers the joint once its all welded but thats a ways off yet
Thanks for all the kind words, he was 98 so had a jolly good innings!
Bit more bashing today, needed to try and sort the repair section for the top of the panel where the harness comes through, its not just a hole as it has a raised edge, a little bit of a practice using a piece of scrap, some MDF off cuts and hole saws of various sizes using one for a punch got me this
Which actually came out perfect and there is enough metal to use it as the patch, a bit more bashing and its getting somewhere near, all the edges need tidying/cutting to size
Still struggling to get the time on this but a bit more done, the body cut had lost the very end of the chassis leg so measure, cut, grind, weld and grind!
and a bit of rattle can primer to see how it looks
The leg/wing assembly needs a lot of tidying, stated to scrape some of the underseal and other goop off and it looks like moisture has got underneath, that means I really need to strip the lot off now
Done! other side as well while im in the mood and the cross member wanted tidying up
Okay so I cheated! I couldnt face all the work scraping/sanding/cleaning so dropped them off for dipping! really pleased and I can see what repairs need doing now, even the inside of the leg is sparkly clean!
A question for Chris, can I used Hydrate 80 straight on the clean panels and then use epoxy primer over the Hydrate 80??
Been a bit slack but its moving forward, even if its slowly! driver side inner sill needed a small patch, the rest cleaned up really well, this needs doing before I can fill the big hole in
Taped all the holes up in the leg so I could pour some 2k epoxy down the box section which seemed to work ok and painted the open end of the chassis leg
Which means the assembly is almost ready to go back on, using the crossmember to help locate it the fixings are 2no M14 bolts in each leg but the holes in the crossmember are 18.5mm which was too much wiggle room I thought, a few top hat washers turned up to help locate it all a bit better which will eventually be removed
Ok so perhaps I lied about the wing being fully welded, still got the joint between the inner wing and bulkhead to do
Its an odd set up as the dash is all built up and fitted to the upper part of the bulkhead which is then dropped into a channel and stuck in with some sort of goop, this flangy bit forms part of the channel
Cleaned up and poked in leaving the channel to be sealed from both sides when ive decided what goop to use
Run a load of tacks along the underside of the bulkhead/flangy thing/inner wing and also plug welds done inside in the foot well, time to get creative with the seam sealer!
Not had a lot of time on this but its soon going to be time to chop the passenger side leg/wing assembly off, before the replacement goes on it needs a few minor repairs one of which is where the battery tray welds on which is a usual rot spot, so choppy choppy
Make a bit of metal the right size
Weldy weldy, still struggling getting my welds dialled in nicely
But it ground back nicely, just got to knock the backside welds down and tap a couple of the seams back up, none of which you will see when the trays welded back on!
All looking pretty good. It is easy to become disheartened when doing a big job like that as it takes so long but you are progressing well. I have taken a break from my car for the past few weeks and enjoyed working in the garden getting it looking nice for summer while at the same time spending some time cleaning, painting and rebuilding lots of small components so they are ready to refit to the car once it is painted. The weather is getting warmer and now that the idea of getting someone to paint my car has failed I am ready to tackle it again myself. Third time lucky but I am sure that previous failed attempts was due to the cow shed being like an ice box.
All looking pretty good. It is easy to become disheartened when doing a big job like that as it takes so long but you are progressing well. I have taken a break from my car for the past few weeks and enjoyed working in the garden getting it looking nice for summer while at the same time spending some time cleaning, painting and rebuilding lots of small components so they are ready to refit to the car once it is painted. The weather is getting warmer and now that the idea of getting someone to paint my car has failed I am ready to tackle it again myself. Third time lucky but I am sure that previous failed attempts was due to the cow shed being like an ice box.
Luckily there is no rush so it can take as long as it takes within reason! The weather has been hopeless this year so all the outside stuff just isnt getting done so a bit more progress has been made
Paint is something im not looking forward too, its a long time since ive done any and there is so much choice in materials and kit, you also need so much kit! and it makes a mess! I dont know how Chris does it day in day out
