Having only covered 18k when I bought it in May this year, I was amazed to see how quick the sill lips had corroded away and shocked to see how little paint had been applied by Rover during its manufacture, every area that is unseen has no protection other than the primer, luckily due to lack of use and the fact it sat 95% of it's life garaged these areas were mint.
I decided to keep what original steel was possible and simply formed a couple of new lips and butt welded them on to the existing steps then linished off the welds and finished with solder prior to painting:
I had already sourced two genuine Rover A panels as the originals were just starting to bubble so these were removed to allow easy access to the inner door post area, common issue as we all know when the A panels start showing signs of rust.
So here is the job done, any corrosion was cut well back and new steel butt welded in prior to dressing off.
The outer sills were also removed as the lips had gone and having repaired a few in the past suspected that tin worm may well be harbouring under the sill on the floor:
As expected there was a small amount of corrosion under there, two small sections of the floor had to be cut out of both sides and sorted prior to fitting a pair of genuine rover sills:
Rust gone
I decided to uses a spot welder along the seams to retain it's original look then gave it a coat of base coat followed by a few coats of laquer, this ended in tears though after applying the paint I decided to go for some lunch, when I returned I found someone had been in to turn the compressor off and never shut the door properly.
Here it is prior to popping out for some munchies:
And when I returned:
There was all kinds of crap stuck to the laquer, most has been flattened off and polished back but I'm far from happy with it, the car is now back in the shop awaiting me to complete it.
Over the winter I've been collecting parts, my plan is to try and complete it over the next four weeks (hopefully).
Heres a list of the crap I've been getting:
Genuine new Rover sportspack arches and trim
Genuine Hi Lo's
Rover le decals (sold originally as the motorsport decal kit by Rover)
Genuine Spotlights and 2 pair of covers
Burr walnut handles etc
Leather upper dash rail
7x13 Supalights from Huddlesfield MS.
Pair of RS Turbo recaros (to be retrimmed in black leather with cream piping)
Looking for a spare MPI bonnet to de-lip as I plan to fit a a mk1 morris grille and some MPI alloy door furniture (JCG or genuine Rover).
I do plan to keep everything I remove just incase I fancy reverting back to the classic look over time, it is currenty sitting on new 5x10" GB's and S discs (soon be for sale).
