217 replies to this topic

[Brams96]

Subframe is now 90% done, I just finished a small bit of grinding to some welds & will final coat it with black then a couple of clear coats. One thing I forgot about was the handbrake quadrants as they were removed with the old rusty metal. I will have to splash out on some ally ones I guess.
Fern has until the end of the month until her tax & insurance runs out at which time she will be getting stripped down (not fully though) to fix the rust patches in the boot, A-panels & sills. I will also be doing a little tidying up in the engine bay & to the engine as well (stg 3 head & new carb mmmmm). I guess I will have to get the most out of her until then as it's only a week away.

[Brams96]

Fern is now SORN'd & sitting on the drive while I give the garage floor a couple of coats of paint in preperation of her getting stripped prior to all the work she is going to need. I will definitely be taking pics & updating her progress.

[Brams96]

Ok so the floor is all painted & makes it a lot brighter in the garage being a light grey. Fern is now in the garage drying out a bit before I start the strip down. I just need to find somewhere to put all the bits as at the moment I have about 10% of the room I need to store everything that will be coming off her!! I have also 95% finished my stands for the car rotiserie, I just need to weld on the nuts that will clamp onto the pole. A BIG thanks to Carlos_W for giving me the scaffold pole Cheers.
I have 2 weeks off coming up next week so I will be starting to strip her down & labelling everything. I had a general idea of what I needed to repair before making the decission to take her off the road but I actually sat down & wrote a list of all that needs doing, I was a bit shocked at the length! I'm listing this mainly for myself as much as anyone actually reading my blog (if anyone still is):

Bodywork
- Front panel & engine bay derust/tidy up
- Front Wing OS replace
- A-Panel OS & NS replace (alrready got)
- Footwell panel NS repairs
- Hinge panel OS & NS replace (already got)
- Flitch Panel OS & NS repairs
- Outter Sill OS & NS replace
- Inner Sill OS & NS repair
- Rear wheel arch corner repair
- Rear wheel arch OS & NS repair
- Rear panel lower corner repair
- Rear window lip repair
- Boot floor repairs
- Valance (already got) & closers replace
- Boot lid replace (already got)
- Bonnet replace (already got)
- Doors: Repair bottom part of frame, Repair a-pilar frame, Reskin
- Roof paintless dent removal repairs

Repaint & reassemble everything

On top of all this I still have to replace parts on the rear & front subframes, a lot of parts I've got already, tidy up the engine, fit the SPi wiring loom. The big one I've wanted to do for a while is build a custom all metal dash. None of these flat dashes from top to bottom rail type things, I'm talking curved like a modern cars dash with the speedo binicle peak & everything. Also I have to rethink my sounds install as I will probably upgrade the 10" sub to a 12" & I want to display mount the amps & add a processor for future comps. Whew! A lot more than I originally thought.

Edited by Brams96, 13 November 2011 - 01:28 PM.

[Brams96]

Yesterday I started stripping the car down & I've got the boot & rear windows out & all the seats & stereo equipment. Tonight I will start on the rest of the interior & dash plus front windows.
One thing I did notice was the rear passenger arch that started as a little hole (see post 89 pg 6) I can now get my whole fist through! Plus it has migrated towards the shock mount so is going to be a right pain in the arse to fix. I recently discovered the boot floor had been repaired but didn't realise it had had a boot hinge panel repair before. I also discovered the rust under the fuel tank is worse than I originally thought and the lower corner on that side will need repairs too. DOH!
It's true what they say about rust, 'it's just the tip of the iceberg'

[Brams96]

Almost completed stripping the shell now, the engine & subframe came out in one piece. Slight clearance issue with the alternator so as suggested by helpful TMF members I removed the alternator, starter & radiator. I think it was only caused by the whole thing moving forward but managed to brace it with some axle stands. I found it easier to lift the shell with the engine crane attached to the slam panel by some rope, once it was high enough I used axle stands & some wood across the footwells to hold it up then removed the crans & pulled the whole lot out.
The whole interior is out so the only things left to remove are the doors, front window, dash rails & speedo cluster, I'll be leaving the steering rack & wheel in for now but they may come out later.

I knew there were previous repairs to the flitch panels & inner sills but as the front window seal seemed to be leaking the carpet has been damp causing them to rust so I will be adding them to the (long) list of things to do. I will really be on the clock to complete all these repairs as soon as possible as we are planning to knock the garage & workshop down so we can build a new house over the site. No pressure then!

Pictures of everything will be posted as soon as I get my new hard drive back from the friend recovering all my info.

[Brams96]

Managed to only shear off 3 bolts & round off 1 nut trying to take the rear subframe out. I have to either cut the rounded one off or grip it somehow to undo it, cutting's probably quicker. Lucky I'm scrapping the subframe & replacing all the bolts with stainless ones when it all goes back in. Once the rear subframe is out I just have to cut the hole in the back seat, fabricate the brackets for the mounts (got all materials) & put it all on the spit. Sweet.

[Brams96]

Ok so I have now got the front window out, engine bay completely stripped of all the little bits & wiring, the instrument cluster, bottom dash rail, drivers door off, steering column removed & even the drivers front arch removed.
The thing i'm having trouble with is the screws for the side vents, they are rusted soldi & no amount of penetrating spray has helped. Even with a large X-head screwdriver I cant budge them & have managed to round off two screws, doh! I will probably resort to drilling them out & welding on new nuts once I've removed the wing, which now I can see under it properly is totally shot & will need replacing.
The other PITA is trying to remove the steering column bracket. Drilling out the sheered off bolts/screws is a right pain but there isn't any other way really, I even had to go buy some new drill bits as my old set were all blunt! Anyway onwards & upwards as they say.

[Brams96]

Finally got round to getting some pics but first what I found. I knew the car has had repairs before as I have reciepts from a garage so they are 'professionally' done. I use that term loosly as from what you can see in the pics they weren't very good repairs. First thing I noticed is the welding isn't that great but I can only tell that because they didn't even use any seam sealant over the welds! It also looks to have just been primed & not top coated. Secondly I have no idea what the hell that black stuff is over the inner drivers sill? Some sort of sound deadening? It was self adhesive but had some sort plastic film on the top side & came off fairly easily. The worst thing about it is it wasn't stuck down properly so the gaps behind it retained water resulting in more rust, I put my screw driver through the sill several times chipping it all off!
Anyway enough rambling, I'll let the pics do the talking . . .

In the garage



Mostly surface rust in the engine bay





The main reason I start the rebuild was the rusty drivers A-Panel



and the inside



Inside the drivers wing - going to replace this too as it's rusted through.



That 'small' hole I found a while ago, I haven't even taken a wire brush to this either it's just been pulled off by hand!



Drivers inner sill, god knows what they were thinking?!



And after removal of said black crud! A few extra holes from proding with a screwdriver. I'll have to re-do all the 'repairs'



Haha, there's a surprise the other sides not much better, just some sort of mastic instead & again no seam sealer!

[Brams96]

A few more photo's of the rust I've found

Rear window lip on passenger side


Looking up inside the boot


Passenger side boot lip & floor




Drivers side boot floor


Rear passenger arch inside boot



& from the other side (I can fit my fist through that!)


Inside of drivers side subframe panel


Passenger side


Inside passenger rear bin


Drivers shock mount


Inside front panel to inner wing join


& finally everything piled up

[Brams96]

In the last couple of days I have removed the rear subframe which is lucky I did as it is shot! parts of it just crumbling in my fingers so it'll go straight to the scrap pile. Yesterday I managed to fabricate the front & rear brace for the spit & get the tubing welded to the rear one & bolted in place. I've just used some unistrut & M10 bolts with a couple of bits of wood as a spacer under it. Should be strong enough to hold everything, if not I can always bolt another piece to it as reinforcment.

Had a power cut all day today so I couldn't do anything, quite frustrating. Tomorrow I will be welding the front one up in situ as it needs to be at a slight angle to be straight through the car. Then it'll be a matter of hoiking the car up & putting it on the spit properly then I can start tackling all this rust that has appeared. As I know everyone love a picture I will be taking lots as I go & posting them when I can.

[Brams96]

Welded the final bracket for the spit so it's all finished now. I had to use the engine crane & my trusty piece of rope to lift the car high enough to get the scaffold pole through the end stand then move it round the back & do the same there but as of now the car is fully on the spit, & the garage door ecen shuts! I turned it over to make sure I have enough clearance & there is plenty. So from tomorrow I can start cutting!!

Here's a few pics of the car & more of rust. Enjoy.

Horrible over sills


Inside passenger wing




Bubbly Floor


On the Spit




More progress as it happens

[Lewis-142]

Wow nice project them arches remind me of mine owner before decided fiberglass should solve the problem with layers and layers going on! but your arches look way worse than mine haha keep it up!

[Brams96]

After talking with a couple of people I will be chopping out the whole arch & replacing it. First on the list though is the boot floor & rear panels.

[Brams96]

So a bit of progress today, I started on the rear of the car & chopped off the rear valance. Oh no more rust! (there's a surprise) Half of the valance wasn't even welded on properly with a few bits I was able to pull off by hand. Also the back of the boot surprised me, as I couldn't see any of it with the valance or subframe in place. I mean who welds up a boot like that. The funny thing is some of the welds have been dressed back smooth so if they went to the trouble of doing that then why not just do the job properly in the first place?! Anyway here are some more pics.

Inside passenger side valance


& drivers side


Here's what i mean about the boot, notice the weld line


Both subframe mounts & the closing plates by them need replacing



9" over sill welded straight over the factory mount at the back of the floor, & the front (bodge)




A few spot welds to drill out, so I decided as I'm replacing that part of the boot floor why not just use a standard drill & go right through!


Removed part of the floor


Discovered the bottom part of the back of the arch had already been plated over , again without the rusty bit being removed!



And finally the boot hinge panel that had previously been replaced will need replacing again as nothing was done properly or prep'd properly!



Looks like I will be replacing the whole bottom section of the rear panel & back part of the boot floor, oh & the entire passenger arch, half the drivers arch & both closing panels!! I think it's true what they say about the tip of the iceberg is you can only see 10% of what is there!!!!

Stay tuned

[tony13]

looks good any more updates?