My 3500s project - future daily drive

Update time, posting from my phone so forgive any typos!

New metal starts going in:





Closed up:





Jacking point was cut off of the piece of sill it was attached to as rust had got between the layers and blown them apart. It was rewelded to a new piece of steel:



The supports for the jacking point were fairly shot so I removed them, hammered one flat and used it as a basis for my cardboard template. This was transferred to steel:



And folded and zinc primed.





Then the bottom of the door post bit was cut off and a suitably curvy replacement had to be made, its OK not perfect, but better than the crumbly mess that was there previously. Annoyingly when cleaning it up after welding on I made a hole just above, so should have made it a bit taller and replaced a bit more in one go:







More CAD:



Jacking point welded in, shouldn't go anywhere I hope!



And primed:



And then I transferred my weetabix template to steel, went to tack it in and on the first one realised I had run out of gas! Doh!



So that's where things stand currently...
 
Haha! No fear, I'm not daft! The brake cleaner was for my push bike discs (changed calipers and pads, same discs) , no welding was done in the presence of the can and I would never weld anything cleaned with brake cleaner....
 
Good work there. Before you weld the jacking point support on put a nice big fillet around the jacking tube to fix it to the outer sill too.

Have you saved the D post section to weld back in or have you bought a new one?
 
Thanks Paul, will make sure I do as you say with the jacking tube to outer sill.

I have kept the D Post section, although it did get a little bit gnarled up when separating some of the spot welds - I will need to repair it before I refit. :|

Having re-read my reply to Unstable load I think that perhaps it came across as a little harsh - which was not my intention. He rightly points out that brake cleaner is dangerous stuff when used incorrectly, and just because I know this doesn't mean that everyone else on this forum does. You can never be too careful.

I have booked in some car time with the wife for this evening so hopefully will make some more progress.
 
Quagmire said:
Having re-read my reply to Unstable load I think that perhaps it came across as a little harsh - which was not my intention. He rightly points out that brake cleaner is dangerous stuff when used incorrectly, and just because I know this doesn't mean that everyone else on this forum does. You can never be too careful.
Not really harsh at all, sir.
There is no easy way to pass on safety messages without sounding scary at times.
 
Update:

Sill bottom was welded in, and brackets for Jacking point attached:



Then stuff was chopped out of the wheelarch and more CAD was performed:







Metal was then fitted:





And the end of the sill was closed and more stuff started getting added to jacking point brackets- tying them to the tube and to each other:





Bit of primer to protect:







More CAD and the last fiddly bit was filled in:



Then switched to the front to repair the edge of the wing/gutter (forgot to take pics along the way :oops: ):





Oh and closed up front of the sill at last. This now means that the whole of the passenger side sill is steel! Yes! :D

Just need to sort the bodgery on the rear suspension top link mount now. Not looking forward to that! Then I will be revisiting the Drivers side to check everything.
 
Update:










Bit of gloss blasted on to seal the primer until i can get some red made up:


New Splash seals and retaining plates:


Wings on:


Bumper and grill on:


Interior back in!:




Chucked some black on everything:




Then today onto looking at the rear top links, i had previously chiselled away some of the underseal and filler:


Cleaned off the tar-like goo that had been used to cover this patch, welding on it was poor, zero penetration:






The patch was removed:



Leaving this:




I decided I couldnt progress without repair panels so turned my eye (and grinder) to the drivers side. Sill cover off to reveal:











More filler and steel rivetted on...


Apart from the drivers side rear top link, which I have yet to investigate I now believe the car to be filler free! :D
 
Thanks Paul!

It'll need a rub back and a touch of filler before I make it red again, but its finally back on the car which is good :) I wouldn't have got as far as I have without threads like yours to refer to, so thanks again for taking the time to post it all - invaluable :D
 
Update time:

So I got home from work on Friday around 3pm and so I got cracking. Started with this:



Which became this:



After this photo I ground off the square bits left on the crush tube so I was left just with the tube itself...





Got it all to fit and it looked like this:







Zapped with the welder it looked like this:



I tacked the panel in position with the top link fitted and it all held with intergrips. I also welded the crush tube to the panel so the whole thing is rigid now. Then it was seam welded slowly to avoid distortion.

Today I turned my attention to the drivers side. I scraped off the tar-like sealer to be left with this. Pretty poor welds, sitting on top of the metal with no penetration at all:







I did as before and carefully sliced the bad repair off with a thin cutting disc, a hammer and a chisel. It then looked like this:



So I started chopping:



And then the same as the other side, drill a hole for the link bolt, position with intergrips and weld. After this was in I also had to cut out a slim strip to the rear of the panel as it was rotten:




Then as I had already etch primed the passenger side I chucked some black on it, and the drivers side just got a quick blast of zinc to hold it over until tomorrow.





Tomorrow the plan is to crack on with the drivers side sill, get some more paint on the inside of the boot and the passenger side exterior - all works on that side of the car are now complete (for now anyway!) :D
 
Nice quality work!. I use a Makita powerfile to clean up the weld. You can get in small corners better than a angle grinder amd welds become more or less invisible. The sanding belts are expensive but i buy wide sanding belts for big sanding machines with the same length and with a scissor cut these to the right width (into 8-10 belts) which makes it more affordable. I first bought Black and Decker ones but these don't last very long.

9032-makita-13mm-power-file.jpg


Keep up the good work!

Peter
 
Thanks chaps!

I have been thinking about a powerfile for a while now, probably should have bought one 6 months ago! :shock: I am too not bothered about flushing any welds under the car or in the boot, so generally I just lightly skim over with a flap wheel to remove any spatter or random high spots before paint and seam seal.

However... It would be perfect on the d-post and the lips of the front wing, I had to use my dremel with the sanding drum attachment. Did the job but was sloooowwwww... :?

Off back outside now to do a few quiet jobs before I crack out the grinder and start on the sill. Don't want to annoy the neighbours too much, but as my wife is away at the moment I need to make the most of it! :oops:
 
Time for an update, apologies if some of this makes no sense, I am posting from my phone as everything fun is blocked at work...

Little bit of chassis rail welded back in:



And some sill:



Then as we were getting the house valued for our new mortgage I thought I'd better make things look presentable on a temporary basis... Back on its wheels for first time in months!


Valuation done, back to welding:













Little bit of rust in b/c post:



Chop!





Crumbly bump stop sorted:



Just lots of painting, seam sealing, underbody waxing and reassembly to do now!
 
There are some top quality repairs going on there sir, it's looking great...

I do hope to see this brute rumbling round the Kingston one-way system some time very soon!!!
 
Thanks! I am hoping to get everything finished off and be using it again in the next week or two. We'll see... :D Keep your eyes peeled!
 
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