217 replies to this topic

[liam_italian]

Your doing a brilliant job of tackling the rot, keep it up!

[Brams96]

Thanks for the positive comments. Progress is a lot slower than I want it to be with juggling work, fitness, house work & lifes other duties but small steps still get you there in the end, I just need to keep it ticking over. I've got 3 nights & 4 days off so hopefully will get some done & post some more pics soon!

[Brams96]

Just picked up a tasty pair of black 1/2 leather Recaros from a Rover 800 Vitese for £50. Leather conditioner & a light re-colour & they'll be perfect.

[Brams96]

Reference for the future when it comes time to paint:

Toyota Gunmetal, code is 6N0

[Brams96]

Here are the new seats. I bought these Recaro's from ebay for £50, Bargin!! I've got some leather dye/reconditioner so that should take care of the drivers bolster, I'll get them cleaned up & post an after shot soon.
Drivers Before:


Passengers Before:


Drivers bolster:


Once I'm ready to reinstall the interior I'll make up some new brackets to fit the mini seat runners to them so they'll fit straight in.

[Brams96]

Slowly going at the moment. I have had a few things round the house to do which take priority like rebuild part of the chimney wall!



Previous owner had done a bad job & a brick started pushing it's way out through the plaster. All rebricked properly now, just needs a skimm of plaster & then we can wall paper.

Back to the car then . . . I managed to get the repair section to the front moved on, I made the panel longer than it needs to be so I can cut & bend it to the right shape once I have the inner sill repaired & know where everything goes again. Lesson learned, don't cut too much out at once or I won't have a decent reference point. It was a bit difficult to get inside the crossmember but I gave it a quick wire brush then pumped it with zinc primer, which I will cover with Rustoleum direct to rust metal paint with a brush next session. I also managed to borrow a joggler so now I dont have to drill the holes for spot welding, it's brilliant & quick! I used it on the new tab I created for the crossmember as the old one was cut out with the rust. So next time I will be tacking in the inner sill & making sure it, the outer sill & flitch all match up correctly before more welding.

[Brams96]

Striped the petrol tank back to metal & used Rustoleum Galv-coat, a cold galvanising paint, so it should be rust free for years to come. Just waiting on the gloss black rattle cans I've ordered to turn up then it will get a generous colour & lacquer finish. 3 days off soon (love shift work) so should get more on the inner sill done.

[Brams96]

Inside of the cross member painted & ready for the inner sill to be welded on now so small progress at the moment. I decided I would get a bit creative instead of doing patchwork so started on the boot mods (shhh don't tell the wife ) .
The idea is to recess the panel where the number plate goes enough to be able to put lights in (from a VW golf) & also to have them hidden under a lip whilst still keeping a fairly smooth look to the boot lid. I've welded up the old number plate light mounting holes too.
First I measured it all up & marked centerlines etc then figured out where everything will go. I made relief cuts down the sides & removed the bracing in the way at the back.



I then cut the center piece in two, this will have a section added in once I have it all bent to the angles I need.


Final pic is as it stands at the moment where I just need to panel beat the bottom section enough to bend it inwards & flatten it out to meet the top section. I'll have to take my time welding so I don't distort the panels

The sides of the number plate recess will be getting smoothed off as well but will probably cut them out & replate with flat metal.

Edited by Brams96, 02 March 2012 - 06:45 AM.

[Carlos W]

Your fabricating skills are amazing! And for some reason I really like the photo down the cross member!

[Brams96]

Cheers Carlos, I think I've got the basics down but I'm still learning about how to manipulate metal like shrinking, stretching & bending. Nothing like learning as you go aye!

[Brams96]

Well after lots of bashing, swearing, beating, cursing & bending I have managed to get quite close to the shape I was envisaging. Just after I got the new strip of metal in & was about to weld it I realised I was out of gas!! Hate it when that happens! Anyway I'll pop down to Adams gas tomorrow & pick up another bottle so I can start to weld it all back together.
I plan on making the side repair pieces bend down the side so will try making them out of 1 piece, which again will be a pain as they will need to have a slight curve to follow the boot line. More bashing & swearing. Once this piece is welded in I'll finish the side pieces then put the lip accross the top of the recess. I will need to weld everything really slowly so I dont warp the panels with the heat from welding. I might also get some lead so I can try lead loading on the boot to get the hang of it before I attempt the car itself. There are a few small dents from panel beating I'd like to smooth out without filler if I can help it & the lip will need doing too.

Pics time. . .

Edited by Brams96, 07 March 2012 - 06:40 PM.

[Brams96]

Finished welding the strip on the boot now.



Then had to make this fit



Problem was the anlged part needed to curve along the black line while the other part stayed straight & after about an hour of trying to shrink & stretch the metal to get the right shape it just wouldn't work so it went in the bin! I will attempt the next piece by making relief cuts along the edge & welding them up, a bit of a longer process but will give better results in the end.

Edited by Brams96, 12 March 2012 - 07:00 AM.

[Brams96]

One side done, one to go!
Got out to the garage for a couple of hours last night & fabricated a piece for the repair to one side. I started by cutting out the piece from cardboard then transfered it to metal slightly wider than I needed & then made 5 cuts to the bend line, bent each piece over & then trimmed off the extra metal. After this I made sure everything fit & welded it together by clamping 2 pieces together at a time until it was all done, making sure I checked the fit after each section was completed. It's a lot of welding, changing masks, grinding & rechecking but I think it'll be worth it in the end, also it takes time to let the metal cool so nothing warps (lots of tack welds).
I still need to flatten off the welds & tidy the front up, trim the excess metal at the back then I can make up the other side. Once it's all done I can try lead loading all the edges/joints. The hard part is welding in the corners of the right angles as the weld tends to lump up before you can reach in there, I'll have to tidy it up with the dremel I guess.

As it stands at the mo...

Edited by Brams96, 13 March 2012 - 06:20 AM.

[Brams96]

I've done all the welding on the boot now & have been trying to get it smooth with filler. It's taking a while with a few thin layers as there was some small high spots & dips I hadn't seen before. I dont really want to remove all the filler I've added to try & shrink the metal so filler will have to do. I made a couple of ribs & spot welded them to the back of the plate area to give it some strength to stop flexing.





I've also seam sealed it as much as I can & where I can reach & those I can't I'll be Waxoyling them. Still to do is cut & mount the lights & then make the hinges, I'm still in 2 minds about this so I haven't filled the hinge or boot lock holes yet.

[Brams96]

Finally! After trying to make the inner sill repair panel fit I decided to cut my losses & make my own. Not having a bending machine or even bench type bender I had to improvise. Two lengths of unistrut, 4 pairs of vice grips, 2 lengths of steel bar & lots of brute force & job done. The best part is the metal I've used is from an old ACU blower so already galvanised, so as long as I protect the welded parts well it should be rust free for years!



I also had to weld the small repair section I'd already made to it & now the whole thing fits as one & a lot better than the 3 pieces I would have had to use.



After a bit of proding, I also got round to stripping the rear subframe which has been sitting on our deck since I stripped the car. It's a complete write off with holes & more rust than good metal. I stripped down the radius arms too & found both brake cylinders had 1 seized piston, hand brake quadrants & adjuster nuts. Nothing a bit of heat, penetrating spray & persuasion didn't fix!

Edited by Brams96, 30 March 2012 - 05:16 AM.