Getting into some more rust work, cut another section out of the lower window cavity and found more rust below it...



The new bit was a bitch to weld in, I had to get into the boot and weld above, I also couldnt get my helmet on in the position I was in (had to do the old close your eyes and spot weld, naughty naughty). Needless to say I ended up with a few burns on my chest from dripping weld and a bit of a sunburn from the weld arc. Got it in solid though.



The top skin had alot of 'oil canning' from a previous repair (must have done it too hot) and because I don't have an oxy or a shrinking disc I employed a technique I learnt somewhere else. Take one of your buggered flap discs and mount it back-to-front on the grinder and use that to heat up the metal, then using a wet rag, quench the steel, easy. And we got the new bit in.





Other side with the old repair was a bit of a mess







Going through the motions...

Cheers, we have a pretty mint view from out house (and from outside the garage door) sadly it's only just a rental (buying my own in about 12 months)

Finished the repair around the rear screen (sorry but no photos, they're not that interesting anyway) and thought it would be a good idea to dig into the rear haunches and see what repairs need to be had. Well, I must have digged out about 5 tins of bog! The stuff was half an inch thick in places (example below)



All of the bare metal areas you see had bog of varying thickness covering it



Stupid thing is that half of it didn't even need to be there, 5min of hammer and dolly work would have most of the dents out and whoever did the bog-work didnt follow the contours of the panels but tried to 'straighten' all of the curves out



Being such long panels it would be almost impossible to get them dead straight but I but I can make them a hell of alot better than this, there are a heap of dents across this panel (ex wife with a golf club?) which should come out with a hammer and dolly.

It's about this time that I wished they'd just fill the holes with bog rather than play with the mig..

(some old lead loading in this repair, a rust hole at the edge)



This car would have originally had a chrome strip running down the side, the mig repairs of the holes the chrome fitted into are less than impressive...















This dent in the rear had about an inch of fibreglass filler in it, I'll replace this section, it has began rusting at the bottom.

Soon after I bought this car it needed some rust repair to get a WOF, this is the result





They've brazed small sections in (which is good) but I'm less than impressed with how they line up with the roof section. I'm inclined to leave them there are smooth the area with fibreglass filler rather than mig new sections in since they are right in the area where the roof seam is and there is alot of lead loading around this region (anyone out there recken I should dig out the lead, fix it new and smooth it over in fibreglass?)

So this will definately keep me busy, at least I have a decent amount of time off over xmas/NYs to fix it up.

Right, fixed some previous poor repairs further up the panel (remains of where the edge of where the vinyl roof would have been) now to take a look at this less than impressive wheel arch...



Yummy


Much better


Here's some of the previous crap I've cut out




Backed her out of the shed to remove a bit more bog


this is why it is so crap lapping steel behind the hole is not a repair




Passenger sill isn't too bad, drivers is a bit worse for wear, reckon this is worth saving or best to replace the entire sill?

Yea just a mig, using co2 gas, heard too many bad things about gasless. You can weld panelsteel with co2 it just takes a fair bit of practise. Cheers.

Can't say I've tried gasless, just heard its harder to work with and with the smoke it creates

Back to some more work, fixed the poor repair on the rear of the passenger sill.









Now to sort that rear 1/4, after cutting it out the whole thing looked pretty nasty...



Had to rebuild the support & fit an inner section







And I better fix its bum while I'm at it...

Edited by user Friday, 24 December 2010 2:57:14 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Cheers, be good to see some photos of how you are getting on with yours

Rightoh, I have been doing work, honest.

Fixed up the top of the guard (repairs look like crap in the light



Now need to fix up the lower quarter (the old repair was probably the worse one on the car)
Out with the old...



In with the new... I also had to repair the inner part of the quarter as a fair bit of it had rotted away



Then I decided to have some fun. Off to a stag party in a few weeks (going to take the whole weekend) and decided to make something suitable to bring along.

Take one stuffed HQ disc rotor



Do a bit of welding and add a bit of chain...



Didnt have a heavy ball lying around but this should do nicely. Its not sumthing we're going to let him drag around and the chain is short enough that you have to stoop over to carry it, hehehe

Onto a bit more, fixed up a small area in the rear of the parcel tray that was annoying me. I have no idea what I have done to my welder but it is running way better than before, zaps through the welds like soft butter and bugger all splatter, any who...



Decided to strip the rear doors as I want to have them hung when I go to line up the rear quarters.



Here's a few good examples of the crap repairs I have been dealing with over the last few months





The bottom area of the inner frame is pretty poor too, poor repairs and they went to the hassle of using filler on the lot to hide the repairs





Heres where they spread some bog over some surface rust, I dont understand some people...



Its a really bad job, they used a curved piece to do the bottom (should have used a flat piece) and really caked on the bog. Now I'm going to have to fix this (cant buy replacements) for two reasons. 1) In UNZUD HQ doors with no rust in them are almost impossible to find and cost their weight in gold (even doors in any reasonable condition are expensive) 2)statesman rear doors are unique to that model so any chance of finding them in reasonable condition quickly is a no show.

Wish me luck

Rightoh rightoh, I have been doing some work on this, just been away a bit lately which has stalled things somewhat.

Got one of the rear doors finished up, patched the skin and with some minor beating should only need a small bit of filler (skin is straight as an arrow except for the bottom repairs)





Been spending a bit of time stripping the remaining doors, all of which have issues...



Both passenger side doors had bog across the entire skin, thats right, the entire F**kn thing. Rear will be fixable but both of the front doors are really stuffed.

RHR door is fairly well dented, plus has this crummy repair along the bodyline which has warped the skin (fun fun)





Here's the drivers door, what a way to fix the lower skin eh.



The frame has been repaired previously but is pretty well toast

So what am I going to do? Well, in my mind, both of the rear doors are fixable, just a fair bit of hammer and dolly work is needed. Front ones are really bad, passenger is dented to buggery with a fair bit of surface rust and drivers is full of holes. 6 months ago I bought a couple of front doors locally because it was a good deal and I thought I could fix them up and sell them off for a profit, well it looks like I'll be needing them myself now. They are more or less rust free (still need some minor repairs) and I've spend a bit of time already trying to get a massive dent out of the drivers door so this looks like to be the most sensible way forward. Stay tuned...

Holy crap! You're going to have to change the thread title to "A young fullas nightmare" soon. You've persisted way past where a lesser man would have given up and sold it off as parts though. Good on ya.

This threads also making the missus Valiant look not so bad as well.

May I be so bold as to suggest that while you've got them in this state, you fix the cause of the rust in this section. That stupid little pocket that catches all the leaves, mud and crap. Maybe box it somehow?

Love your work by the way.