70 replies to this topic

[johnR]

Nice work - and very envious of your sunshine!

[gaspen]

Re-fabricated the inner wing end repair panel because i wasn't satisfied with the 1st one. This time I bent the flange with my shrinker tool for a nice curve and welded to the other piece. Much better shape 

 

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I drew my plans where to cut the toe-board but not sure what to do... This piece has more rust inside than outside 

 

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And I purchased a pair of aftermarket wings. They fit suprisingly good for the heritage front panel, just some little adjusments will need

 

The wings made my RHIBO ( or MAXICAR) 

 

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[Viktor]

Ummm, interesting Gaspen. Doing my front panel and wings now, so I was thinking on doing the same as you; welding the wings and front panel together and get them in one go into the car. I will be following...

 

Victor.

[gaspen]

Ummm, interesting Gaspen. Doing my front panel and wings now, so I was thinking on doing the same as you; welding the wings and front panel together and get them in one go into the car. I will be following...

 

Victor.

 

They are not welded yet. Just test fitted with some clamps.

 

But when I've made my Authi I welded them into one piece after carefully aligned them on the car. Then I marked the postions with adhesive tape.

 

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[Viktor]

Cheers Gaspen, that's helpful.

[gaspen]

I am working in slow motion on this car 

 

I've made the patch panel for the left side of the toe board. It's a good ide to keep the original pieces for copy or template

 

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On the holidays I have to be quite so I tried if I can make a lift bracket. Yes I can 

 

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The door frame and the stiffener spot-welded into one assembly

 

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And I got some experience with M-Machine panels. They are "heavy" , I mean made from pretty strong and thick steel but here I had some issues.

 

It is the front quarter piece of the floor. I trial fitted it but it did not fit very well. So I started to measure.

 

The vertical part is 9 cm high at the front (as the original floor) but only 8.4 at the end. It came out that the bending is on the wrong place. 

 

I draw the correct bending with a pencil. After some hammering it's much better.

 

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[gaspen]

Could anybody confirm that the bottom edge of the toe-board must be a straight line ?  And the toe-board is basically a flat surface ?

 

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[gaspen]

Everyday I give myself an achievable task. Today I repaired the upper corner of the inner wing - from one piece. It was easier than I thought.

 

 

 

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Edited by gaspen, 08 April 2024 - 01:52 PM.

[gaspen]

I decided to make a new floor instead of patching. As I already have the tunnel and outer sills I ordered two half floors from M-Machine.

 

Some tension remained in the floor panels, I hope it will be straight after welding

 

Similar to the upper corner I repaired the front of the inner wings. 

 

Using the old pieces as templates I fabricated the rear valance closing pieces and the subframe mount stiffener

 

And finally I can not dance on the floor for a while...

 

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[gaspen]

Patchwork continued....

 

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[gaspen]

Found some worms here and there....

 

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...fortunately it comes off easily with strip disc

 

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Test fit of the tunnek proofs that I am not out of alignment 

 

I was not forehande enough and I drilled the front of the tunnel from outside - the bracing didn't allow it form inside. Now it looks like a sieve

 

Should I weld up the holes and drill new ones ? Or use them for the tunnel welding ? I prefer a nice pattern of holes, but weld up will harden the material...

 

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[gaspen]

Well.... finally I removed the boot floor from its place and I faced with days of grindig and still "some" rust.  Fast decision made : ordered a new one 

 

So I focused to the floor. First I cleaned the crossmember to see where to cut. Then I made the repair sections. Some adjustment was needed as the M-Machine floor panels are a little bit different. Using lower settings on the welder and with the help of air gun I can avoid distortion 

 

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The tunnel needed some care also 

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After finished the crossmember I assembled the floor and cut the welding line

 

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[gaspen]

I've made lots of (some) small steps forward. While I am waiting for the new wings I started repair of the rear end because I would like to install the boot floor first. 

 

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Left door step welded up. The gaps looks fine.

 

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One day the wind blew the rain into the bare floor panel so I decided to spray it with epoxy primer

 

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[gaspen]

Everyone make mistakes, now it's my turn  

 

I was too lazy when aligned the floor panels for welding. I wanted to fit the floor but it won't fit very well. Then I noticed my mistake : the left side of the floor is  ~1cm narrower

 

I had no choice : cut the left hand side of the floor and weld a widening piece on the full length...

 

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[gaspen]

After some "tweaking" on the floor I can move on slowly.

 

I've stripped the paint from the doors and fortunately they are in very good shape because somebody sprayed cavity protection inside in the past. Blessed be his name !  LH side has a little bump, I hope I can straighten it

 

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With less fortune I have these rust worms on the panels. With cleaning disc it's easy to remove them but they 'live' there under the paint.

 

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After cleaning and a good degrease I sprayed 2K epoxy on some areas. The roof and the rain gutter are in good condition also, did not

 

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And the not-so-accurate pressings on the floor panels gave me some headache. I've just searched 2 hours what I f...ed up with the outer sills. Finally I founf that these pressing are 10 mm closer to the edge on one side then on the other 

 

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