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!