A wing and a prayer

Dave3066

Dave3066

Well-Known Member
I was driving to work the other day and drove over a rock on the road. It was dark and I'd just come round a bend so there was no time to avoid it. Anyway, the rock got thrown up into the wing, rattled around a bit and came to rest inside the wing under the sidelight/indicator assembly. Damage to the wing was pretty bad but the wing was my most corroded one and due for replacement anyway.

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It hit the wing here, here, here and here.....

The replacement wing is in the paint shop just now so that gave me an opportunity to do some much needed work around the front jacking tubes and splash panels. I knew they were pretty badly corroded but I never realised just how bad until I had a good look.

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I've set about cutting out the rot, including a section of the floor pan in the driver's footwell

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This will all have new metal welded in before I move onto the other side.

Can someone perhaps clarify for me if the floor pan is single thickness metal? The section that I cut out had this many.....

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Yes that's 4 layers of pretty rotten steel. I suspect that previous repairs have been patched over rotten bits and it has been slowly rotting away from within. More pics to follow as the work commences. Mainly chipping out rotten steel and cleaning up for now.

Dave
 
Dave,

I am not surprise your sills are like that. bit of de ja vu from my recent Project AR J.

The floor is single sheet of steel no the multi-layer you have there. you will get a bit of overlap where the floor meets the sill.

You will be able to make repairs out of sheet steel, i bought outer sills for AR J but that was much worse than your car.

Colin
 
So Rock is not only bad for your Teeth but your P6 as well :LOL:

Hi dave,
at least your it looks like your catching it before its too bad :)
 
arthuy said:
The floor is single sheet of steel no the multi-layer you have there. you will get a bit of overlap where the floor meets the sill.
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That's what I thought. It was quite comical peeling back one layer and finding another, then another.....

So it all had to come out. It was quite therapeutic having the angle grinder in hand and cutting out all the rot. The inner sill is sound so just some plate steel panels to rebuild it all. the bottom of the B post is a bit thin too so that will be getting done while I'm in there. I've bought a couple of front splash panels complete to give me a definite reference to build back from but it'll be a slow time repair as the painter is busy and probably won't get around to painting my wing for a couple or three weeks.

The hockey sticks are fine. I had a good look under the wings last year when I renewed all the underseal at the front end just before last winter.

The old girl needs a bit of tlc after all the miles she's done this year.

Dave
 
Bad news :(

P6 sill covers, just like Pringles eh? Once you pop you can't stop :|

Be sorted before the salt though :wink:
 
Hope you get it sorted. It's great cutting away rotten metal - only problem is the time it takes to rebuild it!
 
If its any help I found it easiest doing the box section and welding that together then welding the floor back in afterwards...

Rich
 
Eeeek :shock:

Oh dear, but you will find that they look a great deal better and a lot easier to handle, just by cutting the rusty bits out. Then it all comes together in no time at all.

Well, that's my memory of it :)

Looking forward to seeing this thread progress.

Richard
 
chrisyork said:
What are you using as daily driver in the meantime, Dave?
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The Lady Charlotte is on the road as my daily just now. Thankfully the weather is holding out and we've had no salt yet but the clock is ticking :?

GrimV8 said:
P6 sill covers, just like Pringles eh? Once you pop you can't stop
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I like that :LOL:

rockdemon said:
If its any help I found it easiest doing the box section and welding that together then welding the floor back in afterwards...
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Every little helps Rich. The inner sill is ok so I just need to cut away the floor to inner sill and then rebuild the outer sill.

Dave
 
If anything like pae you're likely to discover that inner sill is very thin.... Fingers crossed it isn't but forewarned is forearmed or something like that!
 
Not a pretty sight for you Dave...but maybe that rock was a blessing in disguise if it means you've caught it early enough.

And from all your previous work, I know it'll get sorted properly!

Good luck with it mate, look forward to seeing how it goes.

Cheers,
 
vaultsman said:
Not a pretty sight for you Dave...but maybe that rock was a blessing in disguise if it means you've caught it early enough.
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I reckon so Stan. The car will be a bit quicker too when I finished as it won't have multiple layers of steel to carry around :D

DaveHerns said:
How big was the rock?
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About large fist sized Dave

Today has seen more underseal come off, the rear door come off and more metal coming out

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rockdemon said:
If anything like pae you're likely to discover that inner sill is very thin.... Fingers crossed it isn't but forewarned is forearmed or something like that!
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Thin in places Rich. I don't want to start cutting out too much further back now until I've rebuilt the front so I'll rebuild up to the B pillar and then do the back. There's a particularly tricky bit just under the rear seat front box section. More welding upside down then.....

This could turn into a major restoration a-la Sparky :roll:

Dave
 
The upside down welding is a right pain. If you have got one treat your self to a leather welding jacket and hood. saves you arms getting burnt and flying bits of molten metal going in your hair and ear.

Colin
 
I guess the trick is to no let it grow beyond what you can do now... after all you can always do other bits when you have time!

Rich
 
rockdemon said:
I guess the trick is to no let it grow beyond what you can do now... after all you can always do other bits when you have time!
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Wise words oh great welding sage :wink:

You know what it's like though when your lying underneath having a good look around.....

Dave
 
Getting stuck in as usual Dave. I'm glad you posted those pictures of the rust and holes as I was about to bid on a car :shock:
 
Stone me! (did you see what I did there :D)

Seriously, in the long run that rock has probably done you a favour; well, you might see it that way once it's all repaired, even if you don't now :).
 
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