Well I've moved a little closer to welding in new metal...
There was a couple of nasty rust holes, one was immediately under the door hinge post which required me to cut the bottom of the post off (it was rusted out also, and I need to fabricate a rather complex repair there...). The metal from the dodgy old rockers has provided a good source for patches
The second bit of bad rust was in the layer at the jack post. This area is three layers with the body unit and the inner rocker overlapping; a third layer is provided by the jack plate - this was a relatively easy patch to make.
This weekend I removed the rusty kidney bowl which supports the outer rocker - its a tricky job as there's no room to get in to the spot welds at the top, so I had to cut another section of the fender and door shut away to get it off.
Today was good weather, so I spent it stripping the black paint from the Dansk repair panels. I found most of the parts were coated in a black enamel which is unsuitable to provide long-term corrosion protection - it's only there to protect the metal from flash rust after production and transport. One or two pieces were coated in a better epoxy paint, but I didn't want to take the chance and everything went back to bare metal. I also gave the whole repair area a clean up with the sand blaster and a coat of 2k epoxy prior to the welding work which will take place.
As you can see, everything ended up in a nice coat of white 2k epoxy (A lot of people prefer black or grey... I prefer
free regardless of colour ;-)
So now I will spend a few hours cleaning up and fitting the new panels with sheet metal screws, hammer and dolly, and finally spot welding things in place. The door will go on and come off several times to get panel lines all lined up before final welding. Then I get to do it all over again on the passenger side!
The final photos show how it will hopefully go back together...
