yes it's my "daily drive" although it's been off the orad for a week!
Arches wise - yes I'll be doing them meself - see below...
Printable View
yes it's my "daily drive" although it's been off the orad for a week!
Arches wise - yes I'll be doing them meself - see below...
Thursday 10/07/2008
Today I are mostly fixing my rear arches. Decided to start with the worst one - the drivers side. The filler neck is shagged and needs repairing but thats only the start!
Heres some pics of the state of the arch -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0002-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0004-4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0013-1.jpg
Started by stripping the interior out of the car and removing the rear bumper. Discovered whilst doing so theres several rust patched in the boot area. I knew about a couple but discovered a couple more which is a pain in the bum. More excuses to practice my welding!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0009.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0010.jpg
Once that was done I decided to drain the petrol tank. I need to replace the fuel sender and return pipes as theyre all cracked. Undid the jubilee clips and let it pour out. It was supposed to be just above the red line however it kept coming out!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0012-2.jpg
Once that was done I removed the filler neck. Found half a field in soil around it too!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0014-1.jpg
The next task was to find clean metal. I knew from peeking under the arch that the inner one was shot sho needed to cut about 3" back. I also needed to take into account the filler area. Thankfully my new panel has 1/2 a filler on it. I measured out approx cutting area -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0016-1.jpg
new panel
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0017-1.jpg
sanded back the paint to ensure good metal beneath -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0018-3.jpg
continued...
continued...
removed spot welds -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0019-3.jpg
cut the old panel out including some of the filler neck -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0020-2.jpg
had a bit of a paff with the bottom of the arch - had to cut most of it away -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0021-2.jpg
a bit annoyed as the inner lining around the filler nexk was shagged so need to cut that away and patch up -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0022-2.jpg
The inner arch was pretty poor and in several areas totally missing. I decided to cut away the same amount of material from the inner arch matching the exterior one -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0025-3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0026-2.jpg
This can now be layed up against the new panel and a replacement made.
Here's a shot of the filler area fron inside -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0027-1.jpg
The rusty bits will get cut away.
Next task was to remove the so called rust proofing all round the arch. this will stop it burning when welding
Back edge
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0028-2.jpg
Top
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0029-2.jpg
filler area with rusty bits a bit cleaner...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0030-1.jpg
continued...
continued...
I then clamped the new outer skin to the body -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0032-3.jpg
The idea is to draw a line from the inside so that the panel can be cut to fit accurately. masking tape was used to show up the line -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0035.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0036.jpg
Before cutting the external skin, I needed to make an internal one.
Here's the old inner arch skin against the new panel. you can see how much is missing -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0038.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0039.jpg
Making a replacement could have been time consuming however I decided to buy another set of external arches and modify these to act as inner ones. Some modification is needed to ensure they fit the outsode skin snuggly) but that's much eacier than trying to make a skin from scratch. So I knew how much material to cut away, I drew around the old inner arch using tape to see the line -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0040.jpg
This was then checked for fit -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0041.jpg
Which was pretty good.
Before tacking in place I needed to sort out the inner filler skin. I made a replacement part -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0042.jpg
And welded it in place (welds only half ground back) -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0044.jpg
I repeated the process for the outside -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0043.jpg
Once the arch is complete they will be cut to fit the round of the hole.
continued...
continued...
I then started to weld the inner arch. I started by lining it up. because it's a awkward area to work in I'd purchased some special clamps to secure the panel in place - pics show the back of the clamp bar. once tack welded a fly nut is undone and the bar removed allowing the clamp to be extracted. Clever -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0047-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0046.jpg
Welding the inner arch was a real pain in the anus. I started by welding the outside edge 1st and then started to weld the inside just to be 100% sure of full penetration. My welding skills are a bit patchy and getting a steady full penetration weld isnt easy, but I was pleased with what I'd accomplished right up to my fecking gas running out half was along the inside edge! I thought I'd bought an extra bottle too but didn't!
And welding inside is fecking impossible - you cant get a helmet in there so you end up sitting outside and pre guessing the area based on the reg blob that shows on the outside!
Anyway - heres the outside with the welds half ground back.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0050.jpg
I'll finish the rest tomorrow once I get more gas (and wire!)
After I'd tidied up I decided to shutz the front area of the car I'd replaced the other day. I'd applied a couple of coats of chassis black to the light housing area and this had cured so the shutz was sinply applied all over the most rust prone areas including the radiator bottom area and the lower alsm palen. I also welt over the inner spach arches and down the sides beneath the drain plugs from the skuttle panel...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...DSCF0048-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/DSCF0049.jpg
Should last a few more years!
:thumb:
looks very snazzy ade.. good skills there too
exactly what i was doing on work experience last week lol :thumb:
ps.. did you find that pic? and are you going to put the model pics on your website? :thumb:
Nice... This really made me not be quite so scared of repairing my passenger arch! Daily drivers are never daily, they always need somthing doing!
Dave - nah - god knows what happened to it! And the modelnoavs site is painfully out of date - another project that needs updating...although I'm considering an overhaul of that too...
good effort ade - wish i had room to do stuff like this :(
Body Schutz is the game like
Good work Ade :)