217 replies to this topic

[Brams96]

Hey Tony, no updates yet as I'm back to work on days but I will try to get out to the garage during the week. Have you still got your car? Missed you guys at the Xmas do last week too.

[tony13]

hi scott, yeah ive decided to keep it for a little while now, and i will have to pop down soon to catch up with you all

[Brams96]

This post should be titled 'Why you should NEVER use oversills!'

I decided to leave the boot for now & take a look under the drivers sill to see what I'm dealing with. My first reaction was 'holy c'#p'! followed by why would they do that?! This, kids, is why you dont play with a welder if you dont know what you're doing!

Looks like no prep has gone into the outer sill what so ever as it still has the sticker on it. All they did was slap the sill over the old rusty one & then to top that off they then plated straight over the rust holes on the inner sill too. Rust sandwich anyone?



Once I had the outer sill off I took as much of the old sill off as I could, it was difficult as there were 3 patches on that as well.
inside one of the patches on the inner sill




Front part (or whats left of it) of the drivers sill(s)



Chopped most of it straight out, still need to remove some more metal but I need to tidy up around it first to see how far back to go. Notice the jacking point rust & the hole which literally fell apart as I touched it straight inside the cross beam.


Another untidy 'repair' made by the cough 'professionals' cough

Edited by Brams96, 22 December 2011 - 07:07 AM.

[Brams96]

Cant wait to see whats under the other sill! Any suggestions on how far back to take everything are welcome. If I'm chopping out the inner sill to repair the cross member, floor & the corner in the last pic but leaving in the bottom of the door step (which looks ok) will I need to brace the door frame? I'm just a bit unsure how much I can chop out at one time without compromising the structural integrity of the frame/body.

[Brams96]

Just ordered £95 worth of panels from Mini Preservation so I can get on with the repairs, mainly the boot floor end repair & sills, I can fabricate the rest. Aldo checked out some awesome skills by a guy on Retro Rides (1962 Vauxhall Victor FB) which was provided as a link by a member on here. That man has some skills & made me feel more confident about what I can achieve.

Stay tuned . . .

[Brams96]

I decided to brace accross the door frame & down to the door step just in case things moved. I used pieces of angle iron & just tacked them to the car. Then I got to chopping! I cut back as far as where the old outer sill was welded to as it was rusty under there. Getting all the metal off around the cross member was a mission as i was trying to keep the tabs on it intact.
I had to slowly grind down the metal & peel it away once thin enough, but in the end I managed it. I also drilled out all the spot welds on the inner sill to door step & had to grind away & peel off the remaing sills from the door step too, that took ages!
Next I cut out the rot from around the front flitch panel & floor pan & decided I will fabricate a new piece with no drain holes. I am a little concerned about the rust inside the cross member as I didn't count on having to remove it completely, de-rust, paint & reweld the whole thing! Any suggestions about how to tackle this are very welcome.

So anyway, here are a few pics to show what I have done.

Bracing


Nice big hole in the floor


Inside the cross member & floor



As it is at the moment


The other part I'm not sure how to tackle is at the front, it's hard to tell but it's the corner seams where the inner guard meets the floor & the fire wall (near the shock mount) Should I chop out the whole section then rebuild it a layer at a time? Again any suggestions?



I hope to start on some welding early next week so stay tuned (if anyone's reading this )

[lawrence]

Looks like youv got a grand looking build there my man, ill be watching this progress!
If i was you i would have gone for the two half floors with the sill attached, thats the one thing i regret not getting when i repaired mine, plus i worked out afterwards that its only a little bit more when you have to buy the front floors, inner sill repair panels and outer sills! good luck!
Lawrence

[Brams96]

Cheers lawrence, the floors are good overall just a couple of niggly little bits to deal with & as I have a few sheets of steel I've collected in preperation for this project I will be fabricating the panel & repairs as much as I can myself. At least I'll be saving money & at the end of it all I can say I made that.

[Brams96]

Started on some of the little repairs firstly with the front foot well floor. I took a piece of flat sheet then beat & hammered it into this shape & welded it all in. I then used a hammer & dolly to give it a bit of a lip & will weld the next repair section to this, which I've started making.






Then I repaired part of the door step in the corner. I started off making a template from cardboard, trimmed it & transfered it to sheet then cut & welded it all in, it's all sanded back flat with one of those multi layer discs for a grinder. It will just need a tiny skim of filler & paint.





I'm still waiting on my new panels to arrive so will carry on with the smaller repairs then do the inner sill before moving to the heal board & boot. One thing I'm not quite sure on is how to remove the hinge panel as there are 3 layers of metal there. Do I just drill the spot welds on the door frame & pull it out from under that? or do I cut back the whole flitch panel & remove the spot welds from the back that way?

Edited by Brams96, 05 January 2012 - 06:38 AM.

[Brams96]

My panels arrived today!
- rear boot section
- heal board repair ends (both)
- boot hinge rail
- both 4" sills
- LHS complete arch
I forgot to order the repair sections for below the rear lights so might just make them instead.
I also made a start on the repairs to the bottom corner of the foot well/flitch panel. Man trying to simultaneously make 3 panels at 3 different angles only using your eye & measurements from the other side takes ages!! It might be quicker to just buy new flitch panels & go from there. But, still ticking over.

Edited by Brams96, 10 January 2012 - 10:44 PM.

[Brams96]

No real updates as such, just thought I'd post a photo of Fern I had a play around with. Debumpered, smoothed front wing & deseamed lower half with RX8 style wing vent. I used white alloys because I couln't see my normal black ones :)

[Brams96]

I got some new inner sills (Cheers CarlosW) but they had the cut out around the tunnel so I had to weld in a plate, it's really hard to get a decent weld with the thin repair panels.



I also decided to remove the section around the lower hinge hole & made up a patch for it, had to wait till the kurust to dry though so haven't put it on yet. I've also put a patch on the foot board.





This is the other side of the sill/flitch panel, notice the holes in the sill, also the old weld that has small holes in it which was letting in water.

Edited by Brams96, 25 January 2012 - 12:07 AM.

[SAL 821X]

Looking good dude.

[Brams96]

Went to Bingley on the weekend to pick up a few small repair panels & came home with grinding/sanding wheels, carbide burs, scuttle & valance closing panels & 2 genuine wings! Wasn't expecting to get new wings just yet but it made sense as they were on sale at the 2011 price & heritage are putting up there prices 10-15% this year!
Just have to get my A into G & brave the freezing temps in the unheated garage!

[lawrence]

good bit of work going on here still :) keep it up!