395 replies to this topic

[stuart bowes]

ah good luck to you as well in that case! 

 

I have to be honest I got pretty lucky with a somewhat forgiving girlfriend lol either that or she's not too interested really in spending time with me best not to investigate too deeply into that 

 

the others are 8 and 6 so we were past the constantly requiring attention stage for a while there,  back to it again now though 

 

I see you updated your footer there I was wondering when you'd do that

Edited by stuart bowes, 13 May 2023 - 09:14 PM.

[stuart bowes]

turns out I did manage to get one last go on it before going back to work, kids were having dinner and playing with their switches so I got an early evening break

 

marked up and cut out a more sensible easy to replace piece (so the bends are all straight, makes things a lot easier)

 

 

and then cut and bent a piece to shape, which annoyingly I forgot to take a picture of.. it was a really good fit as well, took a few tries to get the bends right then I just ploughed on with the welding

 

 

 

mostly pretty decent penetration, happy with that 

 

you can probably tell I blew out the edge and had to build that back up a bit with weld, so annoying when that happens

 

anyway, tidied up to 90% done for now and chucked on some primer

 

 

 

the back side will be covered over with the corner reinforcement, so I'm not fussed about the finish really other than to take the worst of it off

 

lined up the backs of the panels and plug welded the seam

 

 

hammered away at it until I was happy that it's near enough straight

 

 

 

close enough for filler now, that'll do

 

I'll leave that now and get the other corner to the same point.  that one should be a lot easier, it's already straight just needs stripping back and rust cleaning up

Edited by stuart bowes, 21 May 2023 - 06:53 PM.

[sonscar]

Next time you need a flange edge welding cut the repair longer and weld into the edge rather than away from it,then trim the longer piece off.Lke your dedication,Steve..

[stuart bowes]

good call, you know what's annoying is the edge WAS longer, and I tacked it all in, then cut that down to size before I finished the welding

 

just got a bit carried away really I think, wanted to see it being the right shape and looking like it fitted 

[stuart bowes]

other side:

 

drilled out the spot welds and got the plate out, not terrible in terms of rust, there was also that 'reinforcement plate' which was welded with 3 tacks along the top edge, tacked in two places to the rear window lip, and just a folded edge pushed into the seam (to level with the outside edge) but not welded at all other than that.. quite what they expected that to achieve I'm not sure

 

 

 

in prising the seam apart to pull that plate out I also realised that whole section there has not one single spot weld along it, it was just pushed together and presumably just relying on the seam capping make it look complete (or they forgot?) 20 something years of being driven around like that ? blimey

 

anyway it's not like im any sort of metal work genius myself lol so pressing on..

 

wire brushed in and out back to bare metal, nothing to worry about (pic taken halfway through I did get more off than that)

 

 

 

kurusted, making sure to get a load inside that seam, and primered 

 

 

 

next job I think I'll drill some holes, clamp and plug weld the seam tight as it should be, then I'm thinking i'm gonna stitch weld along the inside of the seam as well both sides for added strength, seeing as so much work has been / is being done

 

those holes are quite big, i know, in all honesty I struggled a bit getting the plate off the inside, I have a couple of competing ideas for dealing with that when it comes to it

 

depending how the new plates match up with the pressing of the old ones I might also have to remove the remaining pieces currently still attached to the parcel shelf.. in fact thinking about it that's probably easier in the long run than trying to match up the edges and do a long seam weld

Edited by stuart bowes, 17 May 2023 - 08:09 AM.

[stuart bowes]

snapping up every chance I get at the moment to get a little more progress, getting some time in after work now it's lighter in the evenings

 

drilled holes, clamped seam up tight (checking level from behind) and plug welded

 

 

 

then just to be on the safe side I did decide to stitch it up a bit on the inside as well.  not the prettiest but I'll flat that back a bit just as a matter of pride in my work before I put the corner piece in which totally hides it all anyway 

 

I just want as much strength as I can in this section being an important structural area and also a seatbelt fixing point

 

 

good penetration from outside 

 

 

did the same the other side as well, didn't bother with pictures of exactly the same thing twice

 

while I had the tools out I also removed the final bottom pieces of the corner brace which I'm glad of due to the grot found underneath

 

I'm gonna go over that quarter panel join from the inside as well at some point just to make that nice and solid for when I get it flat on the outside

 

 

 

Gave all of that a really good wirebrushing (sorry again neighbours) and kurusted / primered

 

another thing that will need addressing in this area is the rear part of the parcel shelf, drivers side, definite repair section required there which is a bit of an awkward shape AND and awkward place to weld, excellent

 

 

passenger side not so bad

 

Edited by stuart bowes, 17 May 2023 - 07:34 PM.

[stuart bowes]

Also I found a local company who quoted me £120 to sandblast both subframes which to be honest I think is money well spent

 

there may be others to get a lower price I suppose but it seems reasonable and it's very close so not much faffing about.  Gonna get that done over the next couple of months or so and have those going on as a little side project to repair if necessary / additional welding where required / painted 

[Steve220]

Your fabrication skills are next level!

[stuart bowes]

lol thanks for the vote of confidence :)  I'm slowly getting there cheers 

 

the welding still leaves something to be desired but what it is they say, grinders and paint makes me the welder I ain't

[stuart bowes]

Todays job, cutting out that grotty rear piece of parcel shelf and starting the job of replacing it

 

 

 

clean up on the outside, metal looks ok 

 

 

clamped in a bit of RHS to try and keep it as flat as possible 

 

 

Started with the hardest bit, that piece right in the corner - used the curve finder on the outside to get the initial shape

 

 

 

 

cut that out of card and hold in place to mark the inner curve

 

 

 

cut from steel and check fit, needs a bit of fettling but pretty much right 

 

 

taped another bit of card to it, and marked out the window hole / lip shape

 

 

 

cut that out of steel and weld the two together on the bench

 

 

 

punch some plug welding holes and weld to the window lip

 

 

 

 

much swearing and hole-blowing later, managed to get it welded in (I've run out of 0.6 wire and trying to make do with 0.8 at the moment, gonna get some more during the week)

 

 

 

it needs a bit of cosmetics definitely but it's all solid steel no rust, definitely an improvement and pretty much the right shape give or take

 

am thinking now might as well just do that whole rear edge right across, at least I'll get a chance to get in there and give it a good clean out and replace with good metal all the way.  you can see the edges starting to seperate pretty much all the way across so its only a matter of time I guess

 

---------------

 

Then seeing as I already had all the tools out I quickly sorted out the right hand side window lip that got badly drilled out when removing the corner plate

 

 

 

 

 

decent penetration, seems solid.  blowing holes again as you can see

 

I can live with welding in the one remaining hole at the bottom but seeing as this holds a seatbelt anchor plate I wanted it to be as solid as possible

 

to be honest I really wanted to replace the whole back panel and put in a new shelf but where do you stop, we just don't have the budget and the car won't ever be valuable enough to pay for itself 

Edited by stuart bowes, 20 May 2023 - 07:59 PM.

[sonscar]

I like your approach to repairs,patching corroded parts of an expensive largely good panel.this nowadays is often disregarded,even looked upon as bodging whereas it, when carefully executed is a sound economic approach.
I like 0.8 wire,counterintuitively I find turning up the power slightly and using shorter bursts is less likely to burn holes.If you try this practice first.Good progress.Steve..

[stuart bowes]

Cheers I don't see anything wrong with a decent bit of patchwork I guess the only time it's bodge is if you leave the old stuff in (or don't clean right back to bare metal) and then just stick it over the top which structurally 'will do' I suppose as a short term solution but that's not really what I'm going for

Our welder is one of those invertor based things and I'm using the auto mode so 'turning it up' basically means setting it to thicker metal, i.e more power and more wire speed. Really I need to have an afternoon fiddling with the manual settings to find the right balance i suppose

Edited by stuart bowes, 21 May 2023 - 09:19 AM.

[stuart bowes]

cleaned up the backside of that rear window lip repair and punched a bunch of holes for the plug welding (now thinking might add a few more holes looking at it again but that's easy enough)

 

also took the top off those stitch welds along the main panel join

 

 

and turned attention to this repair

 

 

 

 

which I decided to make nice and simple and easiest possible for looking good on the outside, by welding it in this way

 

 

clamp to make sure level with existing lip

 

 

and go mental with the welder lol (probably overdid that a bit, signs of penetration outside were very strong so I was happy, again this is a seatbelt anchor point don't forget)

 

 

tidy up outside, mark and cut edge

 

 

 

a little streak of filler later will fill out that inner corner nicely I'm sure

 

inside isn't so pretty but it will be completely hidden by the corner plate when fitted, still I did the best I could to get the worst off (very awkward angle for power tools)

 

 

 

 

Maybe I'll have a bit of a go with the die grinder before closing that off

 

anyway then I drilled holes there for plug welding as well

 

 

minimal effort today only had a couple of hours in the late afternoon

 

at some point later in the build I will go over all the visible parts of all these jobs to tidy up the mess, it's not being left like that

Edited by stuart bowes, 21 May 2023 - 06:51 PM.

[colinf1]

At this rate you'll be done with the welding before baby appears!

Keep it up!

[stuart bowes]

I can do my best lol but probably not, should be within the next week or two we hope

 

she already commented yesterday 'I know what you'll be doing during paternity leave' haha

 

Ordered the two C pillar plates and the seatbelt reel fixing points for on the wheel arches, another £130  ouch  still though it's better than those little lap belts

Edited by stuart bowes, 22 May 2023 - 09:59 AM.