Project #2...Nissan Figaro

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I think this is as far as I can get on the passenger side arch....I managed to sort out the lower corner so it's more original. I can't really go any further without fitting the rear bumper. If anything needs tweaking it needs to be done at this stage as the rear bumper sits quite snug along that recess by the lower flange so it's critical this bit is correct otherwise I'll have a nightmare getting the bumper to fit.

I've therefore decided to leave the arch for now and to work on getting the drivers side to the same stage. Then I can refit the rear bumper (if I can find it!!) and get any tweaks out of the way.

I will also need to work on the area where the sills meet the arch to make sure it all comes together nicely before I start any welding.....it would be a shame to weld the arch in only to realise it needs a bit of work with the shrinker!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Looks pretty good to me.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Cheers Slim...yea it's definitely moving forwards but I just have to be careful not to get ahead of myself. The bumpers are a real feature on these little cars so they'd really stand out if they are in the wrong place. Am back to having fun again with it though...it all started getting on top of me and I kept thinking about all the stuff that needs to be done instead of just focusing on the task at hand and enjoyment!

 

[fixedfixer]

The word awesome is somewhat over used but totally justified with your work. Great thread btw. Thanks

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Cheers FF...very much appreciated....I was a bit down the last week. I think there is a limit to how much rot I can take!! It's terrible when I'm bashing a repair piece on the car and I can see other bits of rust falling off it!

Here is where I got to on the drivers side before SWMBO decided I'd spent enough time in the garage! Again I'm very happy with the fit of the lights...I'm less happy with the 2 plug welds that I forgot...it will also need a little filler to finish it off!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Rear lower quarter was a shokingly bad mess...patch repair...double skin...probably why there is now more rot than the other side. The plan here was to make a surgical extraction, recover the rotten piece to the bench then make a new one. Well it almost went to plan...I ended up making the base twice but otherwise it went very well. Tool of choice was the oscillating saw...it's a precision tool and much cleaner than the grinder.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Here is the repair piece....I did it in 2 parts because there is little access and I wanted an easier life. It took quite some time to get this piece to line up inside and also onto the outer panel that will be going over the top. All in all I think it came out well...still some twiddling to do of course but it's close. I even remembered to open up the drain too!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Next job is to cut the arch out and fix the inner arch....this one actually looks better than the passenger side.

 

[Onoff]

What make of blades do you use in that multi tool?

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Hi Onoff...they are just regular Bosch wood/metal...the half moon/segment blade seem to last a lot longer than the flat blades. When I repaired my MR2 I used them to cut the chassis as it was the only tool that could get into the tight space.

I tent to save the blade for just the jobs that can't be done with the grinder....the blade is £9 a pop so gets reserved for special occasions only

 

[Onoff]

Hi Onoff...they are just regular Bosch wood/metal...the half moon/segment blade seem to last a lot longer than the flat blades. When I repaired my MR2 I used them to cut the chassis as it was the only tool that could get into the tight space.

I tent to save the blade for just the jobs that can't be done with the grinder....the blade is £9 a pop so gets reserved for special occasions only

I usually get my blades from Saxton, they're really good, at least for wood. Tried some bi-metal ones from I think Lidl and they were absolute Shiite!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Yea the cheap ones are just rubbish...been three done that. I just stick to the standard Bosch because I know they work on mild steel...for wood I have a bag of cheap blades. Once I got really stuck and welded a bit of hack saw on the end of a flat blade...got me out of a bind.

The scrap bits box is coming along very nicely indeed...

 

[jpmillermatic]

I cant believe the state that former "repair" was in....how much welding wire did they go through?.....looks like metallic popcorn!

anyway...that was a big job, congrats on getting to the other side of that portion....

hopefully Ill get some time in today on my land yacht....



JP

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Cheers JP...it's surprising such a mess can pass our annual safety check!

Today I got on with the drivers side...it isn't as bad as the other side so was planning on doing it in one go. Bit silly...I should just have spread it over 2 garage sessions. The first pic shows part of the inner arch that fell out when I started cutting...it's made of more "two part instant inner arch" material which comes in a tin market filler!

Started with hacking out the rust and rot....parts of the arch looked ok but I could see the rust was inside the seam so it had to all come out in the end.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I decided to use this as a trial run for the main arch repair...the repair piece could be made on the shrinker which was great...I compensate for this good fortune by making a mess of my first attempt and ended up doing it twice!

I set the repair very tight with hardly any gap....usually I leave a 1mm ish gap. I wanted to check whether it would pull in after being tacked....sure enough that's exactly what happened so I'm going to have to think carefully about the outer sill gapping.

I noticed that the lower right hand corner of the inner arch was quite a bit out of line...made a start on correcting it by cutting the inner arch to move the flange to match my outer arch. Then I suddenly had a though that I don't really know whether its the right or left hand edge thats out....or for that matter whether the top edge is in the right place!

The solution I came up with was to ignore the issue for now....I will take some measurements from Chung Lee (figaro number 2) in the morning. I want to be sure that the arch is actually correct relative to the doors/boot etc...just happy I haven't started cutting it up to fit!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I managed to slip the repair arch under the existing panel...I thought this was quite cunning as it will make it easy to mark for cutting.

There is still plenty of fiddling to be done I think...here I can see there is a clear gap which I think is due to the car having a nice curve but the repair arch being straight. I'll correct this by shrinking the lip on the arch...the car panels are so thin I think the fit needs to be spot on to prevent the shape of the whole rear quarter being messed up...that would basically end in a bucket of filler which is a route I would really like to avoid!

All in all a good day....I even managed to find the rear bumper and also the nuts and bolts to fit it....they were neatly packed in a bag labeled up as bumper bits :-)

 

[jpmillermatic]

wonderful work....its not easy getting all this stuff to line up.....and even more difficult to step back from the the microscope to, in your case, see if the bumper will fit right....

I have heard of folks using those panel clamps for butt joints without the metal square stock piece behind them to keep a consistent gap while you tack up...(and I have done this too with great success).

I hope to get some time in tomorrow on mine, but SWMBO wants the garage door openers put back in....and for that, I have to finish the sheetrocking so I can install the opener...and for that, I need to move tons of stuff out of the way, and for that.......

JP

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Yea I know what you mean...I got to the point where I just wanted to whack it in and then I realised that I'd reached a delicate point that needed some proper thinking. I'm lucky to have the second car...just a case of going to the drive and cutting a template. I find templates much easier than taking measurements as they either look right or wrong immediately.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Just wasted 2 hours trying to get the arches to match Chung Lee...just couldn't understand why they wouldn't work no matter how much I played with the alignment of the replacement arch panel.

Eventually the penny dropped...it seems Chung Lee has had her arches repaired in the past. Thats basically why my arch won't match. In the end I dug around on the net for some stock Figaro pictures from the original marketing material....very subtle but the chrome strip behind the doors should meet the arch...and the rear bumper should meet on the rear side...on Chung Lee it stops short!

In fact on Chung Lee the arches aren't even the same shape...the arch on the Figaro isn't symmetrical....it's kind of egg shaped with a steeper curve on the door side and then a taper towards the rear bumper!

Me thinks there is hours more fun to be had here....best of all I've worked this out after welding in the inner arch repair....I feel that the grinder is going to be making an appearance. But before I decide to hack things apart I'm going to do some more thinking. I would really like things to be factory correct...or as close as possible.
Update: Going to spend the rest of my day looking at pics of Figaro arches...I reckon the first pic is actually an "artists impression" of how they "should" look. All the pics I see have a gap between the chrome and the front edge of the arch...grrrr this is annoying!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Ok this is about the clearest indication that I can find anywhere. It looks like there should be a gap between the chrome strip and the arch. It also looks like it's symmetrical at the front and the back. I think this is what I'm going to go with...unless someone out there knows better?