- Thread starter Grrrmachine
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Grrrmachine
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Yeah. The trouble is getting all the old bitumen-based sound-deadening off too, but once all the repairs to the floor are done, the whole floorpan will be coated in new sound-deadening.
I always thought the E30 was loud, but that was before I realised there were gaping holes in the footwell!
I always thought the E30 was loud, but that was before I realised there were gaping holes in the footwell!
DaveM-sport
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Fair play for tackling all this!!! There's alot of people that would have weighed it in unless it was an M3 or something with that much rot.
Keep it up
Keep it up
Grrrmachine
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To bring the bodywork repairs to a close, it was necessary to seal everything up with a variety of chemicals and coatings.
After welding, the floor was in a right old state. Surface rust, greasy fingerprints, weld spatter, left-over bitumen sound insulation and melted underseal. It wasn't a pretty sight.
What's worse, the rear floor wasn't looking too pretty either. I hadn't stretched my repairs this far back and hadn't anticipated this...
That's the drainage bung hole. I won't show you what the actual bung looks like, but it's not pretty.
So, toget this all scrubbed up nicely, I use an etcher. This is a very primitive method, and there are more sophisticated products on the market for this, but not in Poland. So it's out with the Phosphoric Acid, in an atomiser bottle
and the wire wool to rub it down with
A bit of elbow grease, a go-over with the vacuum cleaner and a wipe-down with panel wipe (or white spirit), and you're ready for an anti rust treatment.
I've picked up plenty of these over the years, but they all work in essentially the same way, converting surface rust into a stable oxide, and sealing the whole layer under a membrane. It doesn't cure rust, but it's an added layer of protection. There's also zinc paint which is good if you've just drilled a hole in a panel (for fitting body kits to sills, for example.) This time around, I used Dinitrol RC900, which sprays out like WD40. Spray it on, let it fizz, then give it a tiny drop of water on some tissue paper to stop the reaction process, in case it eats too far into the metal.
Once it's sprayed on, it should look like this:
And that's the new bung plate from BMW, ready to be fitted in. There's one on each side of the rear footwell, and although I haven't looked under the carpet yet, I bought a second just in case.
To fit them, they just drop into the slot and twist, which isn't much of a seal, so to give them all the help they can get we'll use a brushable seam sealer.
You can use U-Pol or 3m, I'll use my local brand. It goes on smoothly, and application is even better if you cut the bristles down on a normal paintbrush by an inch. This was liberally daubed and smeared over every single area of the resto, including the inner wing, the floorpan welding and the bulkhead. I was too filthy afterwards to hold a camera, so there's no photos, which I'm sure you're gutted about.
Although seam sealer is soft AND strong, a more durable layer needs to go under the car, and with all the floorpan and wheelarch repairs I had to look at my options. There's no Waxoyl or POR-15 over here, and I didn't want to mix engine oil with pig fat and paraffin like your grandad used to, so I bought this:
It's a 2-in-1 seam sealer and underbody spray. The upside is it makes a good spatter pattern of thick rubbery sealant which is similar to the original BMW stuff, but the downside is that it needs a compressor and a special gun to be used. I had the compressor already, and the gun was about five quid, complete with a special tube for injecting the sealant into cavities. This tube turned out to be utterly useless, but the gun itself sprayed a good controllable mist which left the arch like this:
After that, it was just a matter of covering the interior repairs in a good coat of hammerite. You can also use cheap spray paint if the repair is not going to be visible, but make sure it's acrylic so that you have a plastic layer of protection. I'll be covering my repairs in bitumen sheets for soundproofing, so no-one will see them anyway.
With all that taken care of, I can go back to what I wanted to be doing, which is sanding down the doors ready for spray-painting.
After welding, the floor was in a right old state. Surface rust, greasy fingerprints, weld spatter, left-over bitumen sound insulation and melted underseal. It wasn't a pretty sight.
What's worse, the rear floor wasn't looking too pretty either. I hadn't stretched my repairs this far back and hadn't anticipated this...
That's the drainage bung hole. I won't show you what the actual bung looks like, but it's not pretty.
So, toget this all scrubbed up nicely, I use an etcher. This is a very primitive method, and there are more sophisticated products on the market for this, but not in Poland. So it's out with the Phosphoric Acid, in an atomiser bottle
and the wire wool to rub it down with
A bit of elbow grease, a go-over with the vacuum cleaner and a wipe-down with panel wipe (or white spirit), and you're ready for an anti rust treatment.
I've picked up plenty of these over the years, but they all work in essentially the same way, converting surface rust into a stable oxide, and sealing the whole layer under a membrane. It doesn't cure rust, but it's an added layer of protection. There's also zinc paint which is good if you've just drilled a hole in a panel (for fitting body kits to sills, for example.) This time around, I used Dinitrol RC900, which sprays out like WD40. Spray it on, let it fizz, then give it a tiny drop of water on some tissue paper to stop the reaction process, in case it eats too far into the metal.
Once it's sprayed on, it should look like this:
And that's the new bung plate from BMW, ready to be fitted in. There's one on each side of the rear footwell, and although I haven't looked under the carpet yet, I bought a second just in case.
To fit them, they just drop into the slot and twist, which isn't much of a seal, so to give them all the help they can get we'll use a brushable seam sealer.
You can use U-Pol or 3m, I'll use my local brand. It goes on smoothly, and application is even better if you cut the bristles down on a normal paintbrush by an inch. This was liberally daubed and smeared over every single area of the resto, including the inner wing, the floorpan welding and the bulkhead. I was too filthy afterwards to hold a camera, so there's no photos, which I'm sure you're gutted about.
Although seam sealer is soft AND strong, a more durable layer needs to go under the car, and with all the floorpan and wheelarch repairs I had to look at my options. There's no Waxoyl or POR-15 over here, and I didn't want to mix engine oil with pig fat and paraffin like your grandad used to, so I bought this:
It's a 2-in-1 seam sealer and underbody spray. The upside is it makes a good spatter pattern of thick rubbery sealant which is similar to the original BMW stuff, but the downside is that it needs a compressor and a special gun to be used. I had the compressor already, and the gun was about five quid, complete with a special tube for injecting the sealant into cavities. This tube turned out to be utterly useless, but the gun itself sprayed a good controllable mist which left the arch like this:
After that, it was just a matter of covering the interior repairs in a good coat of hammerite. You can also use cheap spray paint if the repair is not going to be visible, but make sure it's acrylic so that you have a plastic layer of protection. I'll be covering my repairs in bitumen sheets for soundproofing, so no-one will see them anyway.
With all that taken care of, I can go back to what I wanted to be doing, which is sanding down the doors ready for spray-painting.
Grrrmachine
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and here's the inner wing, fully seam-sealed and painted over with Hammerite:
and a side-by-side comparison from two months ago:
and a side-by-side comparison from two months ago:
Grrrmachine
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- 199
So now it's time to move onto the panels.
When I bought the car, the two front wings were in shocking condition. The driver's side was a red replacement, brush-painted silver, while the passenger side was original and rusting under the bodykit. The bonnet was dented on its leading edge, the driver's door was a rusting blue replacement, the passenger rear had a big dent in it and overall the car was crusty and scabby. Even the clearcoat was peeling from the sunroof panel, although thankfully the roof itself wasn't rotten.
With that in mind, I spend some time sourcing replacements, making sure they were as rust free as possible. Then I converted the garage into a bodyshop:
From here, panels were stripped to bare metal with a grinder and a flap-disc (in the case of the brush-painted wing)
or otherwise flatted back and resprayed:
Even a new front valance was sourced. For this I didn't worry too much about getting it perfectly straight, since the lower part is covered in a stonechip and then painted over, so it doesn't need a mirror finish:
I then spent a day comparing the 8 doors I had, fitting the most rusty to the car and getting the best four ready for paint. Because they're vertical panels they needed to be sprayed vertically, so I mounted hooks on the walls and hung the doors from their top edge for painting:
It worked well, with three of the four turning out useable. Stupidly, in my eagerness I put the base on too wet with one door leading to runs, so that will have to be stripped and redone. I've also done a bonnet and another sunroof panel, which means only the car itself remains.
When I bought the car, the two front wings were in shocking condition. The driver's side was a red replacement, brush-painted silver, while the passenger side was original and rusting under the bodykit. The bonnet was dented on its leading edge, the driver's door was a rusting blue replacement, the passenger rear had a big dent in it and overall the car was crusty and scabby. Even the clearcoat was peeling from the sunroof panel, although thankfully the roof itself wasn't rotten.
With that in mind, I spend some time sourcing replacements, making sure they were as rust free as possible. Then I converted the garage into a bodyshop:
From here, panels were stripped to bare metal with a grinder and a flap-disc (in the case of the brush-painted wing)
or otherwise flatted back and resprayed:
Even a new front valance was sourced. For this I didn't worry too much about getting it perfectly straight, since the lower part is covered in a stonechip and then painted over, so it doesn't need a mirror finish:
I then spent a day comparing the 8 doors I had, fitting the most rusty to the car and getting the best four ready for paint. Because they're vertical panels they needed to be sprayed vertically, so I mounted hooks on the walls and hung the doors from their top edge for painting:
It worked well, with three of the four turning out useable. Stupidly, in my eagerness I put the base on too wet with one door leading to runs, so that will have to be stripped and redone. I've also done a bonnet and another sunroof panel, which means only the car itself remains.
Grrrmachine
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With all the removable panels painted and stored, it was time to get the car into the garage and stripped down. The bumpers and trim were taken off and the windscreen removed so that the rust hunting could begin.
The sunroof was the first panel off. I could tell from the blisters poking through that it was rusty, but I wasn't expecting to be this bad...
From there I moved onto the scuttle rust around the windscreen
A quick zap with the welder and a smooth-down with the flappy disc got it back to how it should be
But it was as I moved lower down, and removed the side skirts, the the real horrors started showing. The driver's side sill was replaced last year, and I'd had that skirt off to make last month's floor repairs, but the passenger side had been left unattended, until now:
This metal support inside the sill is the rear jacking point. A thick metal plate pushes into a hole in the sill at this point, and it had rotted away the sill around it. I was running low on metal supplies at this point, and really didn't need another serious welding job, but I cracked on with it as best I could. There are also two bolts on the bottom edge that hold the rear subframe mount, and these were rusted solid too. One had to be drilled out, which made a messy job of the inner sill too.
Remember the rusty sunroof? It lovingly donated its skin to make not one but three sill repair pieces, to mimic exactly the sill, the rear support section and a piece of the inner arch.
The desire to grind the welds completely smooth was offset by the need to keep the metal thick. The area will be primed and stonechipped soon, so it doesn't have to be perfect anyway.
But there's more welding to do in other areas, so I'll be tackling that ASAP. The paint needs to go on before winter properly sets in...
The sunroof was the first panel off. I could tell from the blisters poking through that it was rusty, but I wasn't expecting to be this bad...
From there I moved onto the scuttle rust around the windscreen
A quick zap with the welder and a smooth-down with the flappy disc got it back to how it should be
But it was as I moved lower down, and removed the side skirts, the the real horrors started showing. The driver's side sill was replaced last year, and I'd had that skirt off to make last month's floor repairs, but the passenger side had been left unattended, until now:
This metal support inside the sill is the rear jacking point. A thick metal plate pushes into a hole in the sill at this point, and it had rotted away the sill around it. I was running low on metal supplies at this point, and really didn't need another serious welding job, but I cracked on with it as best I could. There are also two bolts on the bottom edge that hold the rear subframe mount, and these were rusted solid too. One had to be drilled out, which made a messy job of the inner sill too.
Remember the rusty sunroof? It lovingly donated its skin to make not one but three sill repair pieces, to mimic exactly the sill, the rear support section and a piece of the inner arch.
The desire to grind the welds completely smooth was offset by the need to keep the metal thick. The area will be primed and stonechipped soon, so it doesn't have to be perfect anyway.
But there's more welding to do in other areas, so I'll be tackling that ASAP. The paint needs to go on before winter properly sets in...
Grrrmachine
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Moving around the car, there was very clear rust around the seams holding on the rear valance.
These welds trap moisture, which then bubbles up underneath the underseal. By the time the underseal peels off, you'll have a gaping wound in the metal which looks a bit like... well, I don't need to say.
You can try and be OEM and cut two pieces to restore the rear quarter panel and the valance, but then you'll be recreating the weld that caused all the problems in the first place. I took the more direct approach cutting the entire weld out, letting in a fresh plate (more sunroof) and using a flappy disc to polish the whole thing flat
The seamsealer and stonechip will cover any little flaws I've left.
The other side was even worse, as this is a deeper pocket for the rear battery (if fitted) on these cars. The rot went all the way down to the floor this time, so two pieces were cut in the valance and a third in the floorpan to rebuild the back quarter. All tacked in place..
filled in and ground back
These welds trap moisture, which then bubbles up underneath the underseal. By the time the underseal peels off, you'll have a gaping wound in the metal which looks a bit like... well, I don't need to say.
You can try and be OEM and cut two pieces to restore the rear quarter panel and the valance, but then you'll be recreating the weld that caused all the problems in the first place. I took the more direct approach cutting the entire weld out, letting in a fresh plate (more sunroof) and using a flappy disc to polish the whole thing flat
The seamsealer and stonechip will cover any little flaws I've left.
The other side was even worse, as this is a deeper pocket for the rear battery (if fitted) on these cars. The rot went all the way down to the floor this time, so two pieces were cut in the valance and a third in the floorpan to rebuild the back quarter. All tacked in place..
filled in and ground back
Grrrmachine
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Between the sill and the valance, there is still the frustrating task of the rear quarter panel. On these cars the fuel filler goes through here to the tank, and years of petrol splash down the inside of the panel, softening and stripping away the underseal until you get this:
It's only surface rust at the top, but further down it allows all the road elements to start eating away at the bottom of the wheel arch, which means cutting out fiddly curves of the inner arch:
This hole backs into the battery-in-boot box I mentioned earlier; with rust at both ends, it's amazing the floor of the box was still in there. E30s also have a tendancy to rot out half-way up the rear inner arch at exactly the location where the plastic inner arch liner stops, so more holes had to be cut out from here:
Getting your helmeted head into the wheel arch with the welding torch is more than a little tricky. Getting steady welds without blowing holes is an absolute nightmare. So I apologise for the blobiness of the welds here, but at least all that metal is keeping the water out. And to make you that little bit jealous, that's a one piece repair, hand-curved
And with the repairs to the rear valance done as well, there's a whole load of new metal in the rear floorpan
With all this chopping out of rust, my welding has definitely improved in the last six months, so that each new bit of brown doesn't make my heart sink as much as it did in the first post. Still, with these repairs done there's very few locations left where rust can hide itself. Fingers crossed!
It's only surface rust at the top, but further down it allows all the road elements to start eating away at the bottom of the wheel arch, which means cutting out fiddly curves of the inner arch:
This hole backs into the battery-in-boot box I mentioned earlier; with rust at both ends, it's amazing the floor of the box was still in there. E30s also have a tendancy to rot out half-way up the rear inner arch at exactly the location where the plastic inner arch liner stops, so more holes had to be cut out from here:
Getting your helmeted head into the wheel arch with the welding torch is more than a little tricky. Getting steady welds without blowing holes is an absolute nightmare. So I apologise for the blobiness of the welds here, but at least all that metal is keeping the water out. And to make you that little bit jealous, that's a one piece repair, hand-curved
And with the repairs to the rear valance done as well, there's a whole load of new metal in the rear floorpan
With all this chopping out of rust, my welding has definitely improved in the last six months, so that each new bit of brown doesn't make my heart sink as much as it did in the first post. Still, with these repairs done there's very few locations left where rust can hide itself. Fingers crossed!
Springerdinger
memoirs of the mediocre diy mechanic
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Hi Grrrr
I know what you mean about getting into tight spots to see what your doing.
I was trying to squeeze into the rear wheel arch of my mg on Saturday
It funny how confidence grows over time and each job looks a little less scary.
The inner wing looks really tidy compared to what you started with.
Keep posting your definately winning
Cheers
I know what you mean about getting into tight spots to see what your doing.
I was trying to squeeze into the rear wheel arch of my mg on Saturday
It funny how confidence grows over time and each job looks a little less scary.
The inner wing looks really tidy compared to what you started with.
Keep posting your definately winning
Cheers
Grrrmachine
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Cheers for that, it gives me confidence to go back out there. Trouble is, the garage is getting colder and colder with every weekend...
Springerdinger
memoirs of the mediocre diy mechanic
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- 435
- Location
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Oh for a garage. I have the great outdoors and a pond liner for when it rains
why do we do it. That said it was nice this weekend I did get a few jobs done
why do we do it. That said it was nice this weekend I did get a few jobs done
Grrrmachine
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I've not been letting the car rust in the garage, but now that winter's kicking in I don't relish spending too many hours laying on the -5 concrete.
But with the rust tackled and slathered in underseal, I decided to tackle some of the mechanical issues, so that the car could get a fresh przeglad (Polish MOT) when it's finished. So I decided to drop the rear subframe and refresh all the decaying and perished components at the back end.
Getting the subframe off these cars is simple in theory; the whole rear end is held on via two bushes, held in with a bolt each. The bolt is easy enough to undo, but the aluminium centre of the bush welds itself to the car over time. Still, if came off eventually...
and it wasn't very pretty back there. The bushes are completely shot and are on order, but the brake lines... oh, those brake lines. They were mullered:
I had a go at undoing the nuts with spanners but it just wasn't happening so I unbolted the entire T-piece, ripped the brake lines with my bare hands (they were that bad).
Then I went indoors to warm up, bringing with me copper tube, brake fittings and my flaring kit. A cuppa later, and I had...
two long lengths for the trailing arms, two short lengths to go from the t-piece to the flexi hoses, and a long coil to repair the front-to-rear brake line.
A little bending, a little tweaking, and cleaning the T-piece up with a brass brush on the drill, and it all came together:
But with the rust tackled and slathered in underseal, I decided to tackle some of the mechanical issues, so that the car could get a fresh przeglad (Polish MOT) when it's finished. So I decided to drop the rear subframe and refresh all the decaying and perished components at the back end.
Getting the subframe off these cars is simple in theory; the whole rear end is held on via two bushes, held in with a bolt each. The bolt is easy enough to undo, but the aluminium centre of the bush welds itself to the car over time. Still, if came off eventually...
and it wasn't very pretty back there. The bushes are completely shot and are on order, but the brake lines... oh, those brake lines. They were mullered:
I had a go at undoing the nuts with spanners but it just wasn't happening so I unbolted the entire T-piece, ripped the brake lines with my bare hands (they were that bad).
Then I went indoors to warm up, bringing with me copper tube, brake fittings and my flaring kit. A cuppa later, and I had...
two long lengths for the trailing arms, two short lengths to go from the t-piece to the flexi hoses, and a long coil to repair the front-to-rear brake line.
A little bending, a little tweaking, and cleaning the T-piece up with a brass brush on the drill, and it all came together:
the snooper
getting older by the day
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what no rust removal of brackets before fitting new pipes ?
Grrrmachine
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Oh, it all got attacked with an angle grinder, dinitrol and brushable rust enamel afterwards, but it needed to be test fitted first and that's when I had my camera handy
Grrrmachine
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A year before I took the car off the road, I had a new sill put on one side. So I wasn't expecting there to be any rust in the area.
But laying on my back, smacking out the remains of the subframe bush I was replacing, the glimmer of orange rust caught my eye around the mounting point. So I started prodding around the copious amounts of underseal slathered around the inside of the wheel arch, to see how bad this surface flaking was...
Very bad! The bodyshop last year must have discovered the rotting wheel arch while they had the sill off. Rather than put in a small plate for me, or even tell me, they'd just slapped abrushable seam sealer all over it and left it, so that it could fester and spread to the inner sill too. ********.
So chop chop chop, and spray spray spray with the phosphorous to see where the rust is...
and in with the new metal. The inner seal wasn't too bad, so I just filled up the pinholes. The cavity will be injected with wax soon enough.
The other end was rotten too. This is the pocket with the washer bottle in for the touring rear wash/wipe, so with all that fluid sloshing around I expected it to be completely shot. It wasn't too bad, but it had pinholed in a few places so out it came:
and in went the repair patch
The smell of burning underseal is properly choking.
I got the wire brush on the angle grinder to clean it all up, and decided to take a little swipe inside the arch to see how bad those little rust blisters were. Oh dear.
The underseal and paint flaked off in sheets. It had obviously been loose for a while, and I'm lucky I'd caught it now; that could have become terminal in quite a short time. As it was, I was able to polish it all up and cover it with anti-rust (Dinitrol) to preserve it. The whole repair will be seamsealed in due course, but for now my **** is too numb from sitting on minus-15 concrete, so that'll be tomorrow's job.
But laying on my back, smacking out the remains of the subframe bush I was replacing, the glimmer of orange rust caught my eye around the mounting point. So I started prodding around the copious amounts of underseal slathered around the inside of the wheel arch, to see how bad this surface flaking was...
Very bad! The bodyshop last year must have discovered the rotting wheel arch while they had the sill off. Rather than put in a small plate for me, or even tell me, they'd just slapped abrushable seam sealer all over it and left it, so that it could fester and spread to the inner sill too. ********.
So chop chop chop, and spray spray spray with the phosphorous to see where the rust is...
and in with the new metal. The inner seal wasn't too bad, so I just filled up the pinholes. The cavity will be injected with wax soon enough.
The other end was rotten too. This is the pocket with the washer bottle in for the touring rear wash/wipe, so with all that fluid sloshing around I expected it to be completely shot. It wasn't too bad, but it had pinholed in a few places so out it came:
and in went the repair patch
The smell of burning underseal is properly choking.
I got the wire brush on the angle grinder to clean it all up, and decided to take a little swipe inside the arch to see how bad those little rust blisters were. Oh dear.
The underseal and paint flaked off in sheets. It had obviously been loose for a while, and I'm lucky I'd caught it now; that could have become terminal in quite a short time. As it was, I was able to polish it all up and cover it with anti-rust (Dinitrol) to preserve it. The whole repair will be seamsealed in due course, but for now my **** is too numb from sitting on minus-15 concrete, so that'll be tomorrow's job.
Grrrmachine
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With the orange crusty stuff finally dealt with at the back end, it's time to make sure they don't return. Spray-on Dinitrol, brush-on seam sealer and a thick coat of stone chip got one side sorted...
But the other had its own form of crustiness, in the form of a rotten vent pipe. It crumbled away in my hands.
So I ripped it off with my fingers, and got to work cleaning things up. The wire brush on the angle grinder removed the surface rust, the three-layer chemicals did their trick, and then a restored (not new) pipe cover was fitted to get the wheel arch back to how it should be. The top mounts were also changed to remove any embarrassing rusty leftovers.
And with all that tidying, fingers are crossed that the back end is finished. The rear beam is bolted back on, new brake pipes are installed, all bushes have been replaced and some new springs were installed. Even the anti-roll bar has been sanded back, repainted and refitted with fresh drop links. All it needs is the big beefy diff fitted.
And a quick shot of the ruined components removed from the back end, to remind us all why these things need changing occasionally.
But the other had its own form of crustiness, in the form of a rotten vent pipe. It crumbled away in my hands.
So I ripped it off with my fingers, and got to work cleaning things up. The wire brush on the angle grinder removed the surface rust, the three-layer chemicals did their trick, and then a restored (not new) pipe cover was fitted to get the wheel arch back to how it should be. The top mounts were also changed to remove any embarrassing rusty leftovers.
And with all that tidying, fingers are crossed that the back end is finished. The rear beam is bolted back on, new brake pipes are installed, all bushes have been replaced and some new springs were installed. Even the anti-roll bar has been sanded back, repainted and refitted with fresh drop links. All it needs is the big beefy diff fitted.
And a quick shot of the ruined components removed from the back end, to remind us all why these things need changing occasionally.
Grrrmachine
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Slowly working my way around the car, it was time to return to the front wing, but the other side this time. I knew there was a bit of rot under there, but fortunately not on the same scale as the driver's side.
Rather than a mass of orange rust, I was treated to lots of little holes that needed to be dealt with individually. The first was the "jacking point", which someone had tried to use as such:
so out came the angle grinder:
and in went the repair patches, expertly crafted this time since I'd had the practice on the other side:
there was also the depressing sight of the brake hose mounting tab, which had started rotting away around the mount. This is where the inner wing skin meets the chassis rail, so it had to be cut out in two parts:
and two small panels let in with an overlap. They'll be spot-welded together in due course (well, plug welded) when the bracket is clean and ready to go back on.
But the worst part was the leading edge of the wing, where it joins the tray that sits under the windscreen washer fluid tank. The tank had obviously leaked many times in the past, and the fluid pooled in the tray, rotting it out from the inside. It's barely noticeable from the engine bay and invisible with the wheel arch liners in place, but once the plastic liners are removed, the extent of the rot becomes apparent:
and once the metal was cut away, you could see that the tray itself was suffering around the lip:
Now, I could do this the proper way and cut out all of the spot-welds and let in a new tray for the princely sum of 20 quid, but a) I didn't want to wait b) it's really fiddly cutting out all of those welds and c) I'm a pikey. So I cut out the rotten bits and made up some more repair patches:
Add into that a small repair to the side of the chassis rail, and it was time to re-skin the bottom of the wheel arch with fresh steel. That should keep the orange devils at bay for a little while longer:
Rather than a mass of orange rust, I was treated to lots of little holes that needed to be dealt with individually. The first was the "jacking point", which someone had tried to use as such:
so out came the angle grinder:
and in went the repair patches, expertly crafted this time since I'd had the practice on the other side:
there was also the depressing sight of the brake hose mounting tab, which had started rotting away around the mount. This is where the inner wing skin meets the chassis rail, so it had to be cut out in two parts:
and two small panels let in with an overlap. They'll be spot-welded together in due course (well, plug welded) when the bracket is clean and ready to go back on.
But the worst part was the leading edge of the wing, where it joins the tray that sits under the windscreen washer fluid tank. The tank had obviously leaked many times in the past, and the fluid pooled in the tray, rotting it out from the inside. It's barely noticeable from the engine bay and invisible with the wheel arch liners in place, but once the plastic liners are removed, the extent of the rot becomes apparent:
and once the metal was cut away, you could see that the tray itself was suffering around the lip:
Now, I could do this the proper way and cut out all of the spot-welds and let in a new tray for the princely sum of 20 quid, but a) I didn't want to wait b) it's really fiddly cutting out all of those welds and c) I'm a pikey. So I cut out the rotten bits and made up some more repair patches:
Add into that a small repair to the side of the chassis rail, and it was time to re-skin the bottom of the wheel arch with fresh steel. That should keep the orange devils at bay for a little while longer:
Grrrmachine
Member
- Messages
- 199
Just one more spot of rust!
It seems like I've spent the entire winter sitting on my **** on the cold concrete garage floor. On the plus side, I haven't got piles but on the down side, I keep finding more and more rust. This final bit is the PROPER jacking point on the passenger sill:
Unfortunately the complex shape just attracts rust, and it starts crustifying over time. A wire cup on the angle grinder showed how thin the metal was, so it was time to chop it all out.
Fortunately, the inner wing and the sill reinforcement were rust-free, so I wouldn't have to go about fabricating any special bits. But since this is also the seam where the A-piller section meets the proper sill, I decided to do the repair justice and put in two overlapping pieces, just like the original. This will make future repairs easier if I need another sill in, say, ten years' time.
So in went the first piece, with a step joddled (who am I kidding; smashed in with a chisel) for the overlap. The technique I used was to then spot-weld the next section to that step first, then push it in to line up with the sill on the right-hand side. This means that I know the spot welds are strong, the overlap is tight, and that the repair won't be so sunken from having to push the two parts together afterwards.
Then a rub-down with the flappy disc to show up any parts that didn't get proper penetration (there were a few), deal with them, and coat the whole stuff in anti-rust!
SUMMARY: Seven months of welding, one month of bush and brake repairs, 45 new pieces of metal in 19 different places, and no more sunroof:
It seems like I've spent the entire winter sitting on my **** on the cold concrete garage floor. On the plus side, I haven't got piles but on the down side, I keep finding more and more rust. This final bit is the PROPER jacking point on the passenger sill:
Unfortunately the complex shape just attracts rust, and it starts crustifying over time. A wire cup on the angle grinder showed how thin the metal was, so it was time to chop it all out.
Fortunately, the inner wing and the sill reinforcement were rust-free, so I wouldn't have to go about fabricating any special bits. But since this is also the seam where the A-piller section meets the proper sill, I decided to do the repair justice and put in two overlapping pieces, just like the original. This will make future repairs easier if I need another sill in, say, ten years' time.
So in went the first piece, with a step joddled (who am I kidding; smashed in with a chisel) for the overlap. The technique I used was to then spot-weld the next section to that step first, then push it in to line up with the sill on the right-hand side. This means that I know the spot welds are strong, the overlap is tight, and that the repair won't be so sunken from having to push the two parts together afterwards.
Then a rub-down with the flappy disc to show up any parts that didn't get proper penetration (there were a few), deal with them, and coat the whole stuff in anti-rust!
SUMMARY: Seven months of welding, one month of bush and brake repairs, 45 new pieces of metal in 19 different places, and no more sunroof:
