My 3500s project - future daily drive

Mate, I sympathise, that's a really nice looking car, it's such a downer when one discovers a bodge like you've described. Don't get too disheartened, as has been documented on here more than a few times these hurdles can be overcome! We'll all provide the moral support, you provide the elbow grease, and you'll get it sorted properly if you persevere. 8)
 
Time for an update:

Both wings off:



Some poking found this (Passenger splash panel):


The first of many slabs of body filler:


More:


Chased it back, oh ohhhhh... I thought:


This ended up being a 3ft long piece of steel that was glued to the bottom of the sill with body filler and fibreglass.

Once I removed that and got to the see the real situation it looked pretty bad:



See the bodyfiller/fibreglass goo inside:


Out came Mr Angle Grinder, chop!


First piece of new Steel:


After reading on mig-welding.co.uk I decided to make myself a Copper "Spoon" to help prevent blowing holes,just a piece of domestic pipe hammered flat. It was invaluable at times!


Used:


Next patch on its way in:


Three more bits:


Weather not always helpful so a tarp was purchased and the Landrover put to good use as an object to tie it to:


Another patch:


First outer/bottom repair piece:


Seamed up:


Next piece:


Welded up:


Shot of my upside down welding - it is *slowly* improving :shock:


Bit of zinc primer and seam sealer to protect in between work sessions:


Holes cut in B-Post as bottom corners were rusted - I cut them large so I could have a proper poke about - it was solid enough behind there:




Next chunk cut out (bad photo)


After more poking I cut another hole on the underside of the sill:


Floor cleaned up and etch primed:


Patch fitted into underside of sill:




CAD - Cardboard Aided Design:




Grinder injury, 'Tis but a fleshwound...:



Next section of outer welded in:






More solid than when I started:


First B-post patch welded in:


Second:




Ground back the patches on B-post but just skimmed over the ones on the sill to take off any rough edges, then primed and seam sealed:






Cracked out the black Tractol "Traffic black" to be exact.



and inside:





That was Saturday just gone. Since then I have got the swivel pillars off this evening, as I am going to replace the balljoints. The drivers side lower is knackered, the boot was loose and the balljoint has about 1/2mm of up-down play in it:



Pillars cleaned and degreased, bearing surfaces greased and protected, then upended and i have left white spirit soaking into them to hopefully aid their removal later this week:




I need to get the front end back together so I can turn the car around and get cracking on the rear end, which looks in a properly bad state - again hidden under bodyfiller, paint and underseal.

Trying to find metal - all the slots I cut were bodyfiller!




Watch this space for the next installment, thank goodness I can use my wife's car for work! :mrgreen:
 
I must be particularly thick today as I still dont know what you use the copper spoon for :oops:

Graeme
 
Nice work, quick too. It takes me ages to do this sort of thing. One thing I've done which you might be interested in is make drainage holes at the base of the B pillar where you put those two patches. It also allows you to spray cavity wax inside easily

ghce said:
I must be particularly thick today as I still dont know what you use the copper spoon for :oops:

Graeme

You basically hold it behind where you're welding if the job is particularly thin of the gap a bit wide. It acts as a heat sink, but also supports the molten weld bead to stop it dripping off the join. You can also use it where a join runs off the edge of a panel to make a neat edge instead of it burning back.
 
Graeme, Mr Testrider beat me to it! As for being quick, it doesn't feel quick, the car must have been off the road for about 6-8 weeks now.. :| :cry:

Yep the spoon helps a lot, but I found once I got back into the swing of it and got the welder dialled in, it wasn't needed so much. Also, quite often you cant use it anyway because you cant get to the back of what you are welding...

I have ordered a can of Bilt Hamber Dynax S-50 cavity wax and will be drilling drainage holes and spraying all the voids when it arrives, I'll let you know how that goes!
 
Update from last week and a bit:

Clutch Master fitted - I went for a Series Landrover one, which looks identical:







In its new home:



Squirted some of this stuff in the sills, left it in the kitchen sink bathing in hot water for about half an hour before applying - nice and runny, easy to get into all the nooks and crannies:



Swivel Pillars were cleaned up with a cup brush in the angle grinder:





Edge of the wing was rotten, I poked a few holes in it and then decided to just cut it out and replace:





Back to the swivel pillars and they were welded up and removed using a lovely tool my parents neighbour made for us:



Removed:



Then new joint pressed in:



Some tooling changes were made along the way for pressing in (neighbour at the lathe, my Dad lurking in the foreground):



Top joint was started off with long bolts inserted into the pillar with some nuts on. the joint then wound home using the nuts, then transferred to the press to finish off.

Leg all done:


Back home and I primed the legs (Tractol Primer and then Enamel):



And upper link:



Then coated in black, along with anti-roll bar:



And disc brake shields too:



Hmmm... Shiny!





All hanging from ceiling to dry...



Suspension whilst it was going back on yesterday -





Spring compressed to go on, next to an uncompressed one:



Today, I finished up with welding on drivers side wing and closed up the splash panel. The oval press mark was (sort of :oops: ) replicated by bashing the steel plate over some aluminium bar and a large socket until it looked vaguely right. The PK screw was to allow me to tweak it into position whilst tacking:





Welds all ground down, all primed again:






Next up I need to get the Drivers side hub and caliper on (Passenger is done, no pics though :( ), then bleed everything, including the clutch. Wheels on and turn it around so I can get cracking on the rear end...
 
Thanks - I will! :)

Tonight I moved things along a little further. All balljoints are now torqued, both disc shields and hubs are fitted, calipers on. Pads fitted. Just need to bleed everything now, then it can sit back down on its wheels for the first time in weeks :D
 
Thanks! I have actually been reading your thread on HOT a fair bit to give me some ideas on how the construction at the rear end should look when done. I have a feeling that on mine there's not going to be much left to go on lurking beneath the underseal :( . Your pictures have been invaluable, and great inspiration! :)
 
When I started rebuilding the sills on HOT a lot of the pictures I found were either from the wrong angle or just of plated over boxed in repairs so it was difficult to try to replicate the factory shapes, but I think I've done a reasonable job. I'm glad my photos have been of some use.
 
The exorcism of rust, bodyfiller, mesh and fibreglass continues...

On Wednesday night I managed to get the last few bits done and get the wheels on to turn it around. This included bleeding the brakes and clutch my myself using one of those "One man bleed kits" you can buy on ebay etc with the one-way valve. Worked very well!

Wheels on:



A shot of the detritus left behind after I pulled off the drive and swept up a bit. I plan to weigh this lot when finished...



Turned around:



I then set about jacking up the rear end and removing the road wheel, and that was me done for the night, heres how things looked in the morning:



On Fridays I leave the office early and so got cracking again. First job was to get the wing off:





Then I set to it with the cupped brush in the angle grinder, my heart sank when I saw this much white stuff:





A lot of it had been applied over the original underseal!



More mesh:



This plate was pop-riveted to the bottom of the wheelarch/sill:





So I kept on chiselling:



And then out came the cutting disc:



Mountain of crap removed from the car:



Chop:


I am busy this weekend so quickly blasted some primer on all the bare bits when finished- makes it easier to see the holes in the pictures too...







Does anyone know where I can get the seal channel from? The section near the front literally crumbled away so I chopped that bit out.



When I am done it make look more welded than it did before, but at least it will be an honest car! Another thing that I am going to have to look into rectifying is the rear top link. A patch has been welded from the inside, but the bodgers who did the work did not cut any of the old metal out - simply put filler around the area to cover the hole. I have removed this to reveal:



Am debating whether to chop the whole lot out (after the sill/arch/d-post repairs are done) and replace with a new panel. If I do that what is the best way to keep the geometry correct?

Also, any tips on the best way to replace/rebuild the jacking point? I think I may need to cut the outer d-post bit off and maybe some door tread for access, probably looking at needing a new #22 panel from Wadhams, as well as the Jacking point itself, and a new tread...
 
Nice work to a high standard! It is scary to see how much rot there is on such a overall nice looking car. I think you did the right thing to do it properly and it should give you a good feeling that you have a solid car and honest when finished and ready for many years of pleasure.

Keep up the good work!

Peter
 
It's a good job you've found this now, it looks bad but it's all repairable.

That seal channel is available from Wadhams in metre (or yard) lengths.

Your jacking tubes look OK in the pics so you can just build up the steel around them to secure the lower part to the car. Cut the outer curved section off just below the seal channel and you'll have space to fix the jacking tube securely to each part of the sill. You can see here how I added a gusset under the end of the jacking tube where it meets the inner sill.



Originally the tubes weren't weld to the sill in the middle, but I'd advise putting a fillet around as far as you can like this.

 
Thanks for the kind words everyone - its a pain but its got to be done, and I do try to do things right if I can! Having the support of the forum is a great little morale booster.

Thanks Paul - your guidance is really appreciated, and the pictures are a massive help too in understanding what is attached to what. :D I might see what if I can get some more done this evening, with the clock change and the extra daylight I should be able to move a bit more quickly.
 
Excellent work - you'll be seeing light at the end of the tunnel now :D

There were some truly bodged 'repairs' that you've sorted & you will have a car that you know is solid to enjoy this summer!

I bet your heart sank when you saw some of the work you had to do, but no surprises for many of the forum users. How many P6s have had those particular sections replaced I wonder?
 
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