A sort of barn find

[Matthew Barnes]

Originally Posted by fanaudical

An excellent example of a true labor of love. I applaud your tenacity and fabrication skills, sir!

Labour of love is right!
Thanks for the compliments.
In truth, I had never welded when I started.
But reading through the threads here and watching every youtube video on welding and fabricating is about all the education you need.
Patience also helps.
Cheers.

[Matthew Barnes]

A month or two and I have made some progress.....
Stripped and etched the patches.



Glaciers move faster.

[Matthew Barnes]

The jigsaw puzzle comes together.











Aside from the lip on the rain channels in the corners (RD corner patches have no lip), I'm done with the $%^&* parcel shelf / corners repair!

[Matthew Barnes]

The dreaded LHD sill / door slam post.
This side looked worse than the other.
Appearances were not deceiving.







The floorpan directly under the seat rail support is not good.



Properly rotten inside



Seat rail support will have to be patched. Hopes of a quick patch fade away....

[Matthew Barnes]

Jack support tube is rotten.
Unfortunately the steel of the floorpan all along the sill looks like its too far gone.





The inside edge of the kidney area is also beyond repair....mainly thanks to previous repairs. This will have to all come out. Another tricky repair.





Enough of that. Decided to make a tactical retreat and save what little optimism I have left. I needed to take my frustration out on something, so I decided to cut!

The utterly rotten and equally appallingly repaired front slam panel.







The sense of purpose that comes with committing to a cut line often fades with realities of the patch that has to be hand made, with hand tools, and half a brain.

[Matthew Barnes]

Here we go.

[Matthew Barnes]

Here we go.
Step One:
Hand bend a piece to the vertical shape of the panel.



Make relief cuts along the horizontal curve lines and bend in the bottom.







45 cuts seems to line up well. Sometime you get a little lucky.





Weld up and clean.





Now to bend and shape the flanges, and the battery support plate.

[Matthew Barnes]

Onwards with the front suspension pan.
The patch under the battery tray doesn't line up exactly, so I'll have to add a lip to mate with the suspension pan lip.





The rhd side is pretty good and solid....luckily. Just the front section needs to be patched. At least my welding is getting better!



Now the tricky bit.
My octisserie is mounted to the front suspension tube bolt holes, so the front of the frame has to come off....
And the bracing has to come out to test fit the petrol tank.



Cue balancing, cursing, a jack balanced on old wheels etc etc.

Additional lower patch and flange welded in.



The test fitting and removing the pan with multiple clamps and stubborn flanges, and taking the a-arms in and out is exhausting. Luckily I had a set of new bushes so everything was tight. But hell on the lower back for a 6'2" frame.

And then it was in!
Some alignment along the front lip height to be done, but a major job ticked off the list.

[Matthew Barnes]

And now for the rhd fuel tank support patch.

Start with the old one.



Mark up all the flanges and cuts.



Cut and bend.



Trace the curve of the forward part of the support, and then weld in the vertical section. I have found that leaving the excess helps control heat. Once it's all welded, I grind back the excess.



With a bit of hammering the fit isn't too bad. (As Gary Player said "The more I practise, the luckier I get")



Considering that the outer flange was pretty tired, I laid a bead between the two panels to add strength. Then hit the cavity with etch primer and the bead with seam sealer. I'll most likely drill a hole in the top of the support so I can get in there with cavity wax.



Test fit and align the edges of the patch. Tack weld and ready tho go.



All done. Looks pretty good. Quite proud of that!



Tank gap is exactly to spec (to the mm).....even a blind squirrel finds a nut!
And the tank support aligns perfectly (although the edges are going to need some persuading)



Next step, the LHD side.

[Bear911]

That ALMOST looks like fun!

[Matthew Barnes]

.....almost!
When it all goes to plan then it is fun.

[Matthew Barnes]

On to the lhd tank support.
Had to cut out more rot on this side so getting the patches all aligned with the fuel tank support was a bit trickier.

Start with a cardboard template.



Cut, bend and drill. (Top tip: drill the holes before you bend the flanges)



Same procedure with the lower half of the patch.
Took a lot of time to get the two pieces aligned.
Cut a relief cut in the top of the patch to get the flanges to sit in and tightly against the inner fender.



Tack weld and check for fit.



The fuel tank support panel is needs a few relief cuts to fit...don't they all.

[Matthew Barnes]

Finish the welds.



Just to be sure I played a bead on the other side.



Cleans up pretty well.
So much easier to weld when you can weld on a bench!
Clean steel, good earth and no more than 50 amps with 1mm wire in an old MIG. Not bad.



Etch primer and in she goes.
Pretty good fit.



Need to stitch in the lower suspension pan, seam seal and prime before i weld this patch in. Also need to find a suitable pipe to weld in for the headlights / indicator harness.

By the time I'm done with all these patches, I'll hopefully have enough cash for the new front slam panel.

One weekend at a time.

[Matthew Barnes]

Decided to leave the front slam panel for a while.
Lots of little patches to be made on the lhd boot lip.






Amazing how many little corners have rust in them.
Replacing the bigger rusty panels is easier than all these little patches.






And the lip along the front of the scuttle was badly repaired.
So that will have to be done as well.
Going to try and weld the patches from underneath to minimise grinding in a tight spot.
That'll have to wait until the car is on its side.

[Matthew Barnes]

And again, a change of scenery.
The driver's side footwell.



Helps to have a later targa pan. Unfortunately it was cut out short of the rockers. So I'll have to be a 2 part patch.











Decided to to plug and lap weld the new section into the old steel. Some of the old steel is pretty tired and I can't face fabricating the footwell. It won't be as pretty as I'd like but it will be strong.

[Matthew Barnes]

Fit and shape.



Getting there.
Plug and stitch.
I'll weld the lower lip of the lap weld when the car is on it's back.

[ducatisti]

Looking good Barnes

Just noticed how much it looks like swiss cheese in that colour

Keep the momentum!!

[Matthew Barnes]

Thanks Ducatisti.
A good Parmesan. God knows it costs about as much!

[Matthew Barnes]

The rear floorpan on the rhd side is toast. Thin with loads of holes.
Must have had wet carpets under the seat for years.

The donor floorpan to the rescue once again.



By using the lhd side, and flipping it, I could get the whole patch in one piece.
I cut it much bigger than I needed just in case.





After lots of test fitting and double checking the fit, I cut the galvanised patch to size.




Tack weld, bliksem (Afrikaans for 'hammer'), repeat.
Slow going.



Welding is pretty good these days.
More good than bad.
Consistent penetration and a neat bead.
Another few years and I'll be half decent.




Clean up and etch prime topside and underside.
No plan to grind the welds down, but they'll get seam sealer and a fresh coat of satin something...still not sure what colour to eventually paint it....oxblood red is starting to grow on me.

[Matthew Barnes]

The Octisserie is a marvellous thing.
I had a spare set of castors lying around and welded them to the one side.
Means I can flip the LO over and still move it about.
The minimum amount of effort to get set up and put away is important when you are stealing hours.



Can now do a whole bunch of jobs.
Like lay a bead along the lower edge of the outer rocker.



And reinforce the plates on the bottom of the front suspension pan...but then the MIG packed up. So while I wait for spares I'll do some patch fabrication.

The bottom of the smugglers box is pretty rotten. Inside and out.



I had to cut out a lot more than the rot to make room to get in there with a grinder.



The underside was also toast.



A couple of places here where two skins come together. Going to have to plan the welding carefully.

All the rot. Including the brace for the steering column inside the smuggler's box.