- Remains of side rubbing strips
- Lower front O/S wing, only this area was replaced to save the complete wing
- Front valence
- Trail fit of the rear spoiler, the car is a LS, so didn't come with one from the factory
- Rear lower quarter, this was the worst part on the car, once all rust was cut away to good metal started rebuilding.
- Although it was the worst part minimal metal was need to be removed
- All the rest of the metal was treated and zinc'd before building back up
- Rear Valence, minor scab, but a botched job by previous owner
- New sils - blending in - later decided to keep the shut line
- Rear lower quarter
- Rear valence
- Rear valence
- Work on the front leading edge of the bonnet
- Rear valence, treated, filled and primered to see how much of a bad job I'd done.
- New sils blended in and primered
- My new best friend
- treated the inside of the door and started to zinc primer it
- Stripped back the sill to bodywork shutline, neatened everything up and treated metal
- Primered to see imperfections
- Quite a few imperfections, more work needed
- Petrol door flap, rusty
- Ground out as much of the crap as I could and flooded it in Zinc primer
- It did blast a hole in the outside face
- Primered and rubbed down ready for top coat - at least something is!
- Rear lower quater, this had some bubbles of rust, so I striped it back to bare metal to see the damage - not a lot really
- slightly worse around the side bumper mounts, thats foam within the hole, not more rust.
- As I strated to dig further and further I found more and more tin worm, so I got drastic with the angle grinder...
- Most of the bent metal removed
- Treating the rust
- Removing more trim and more rust
- The new pattern wing and original door arn't a perfect match, I'm just raising the top crease line and lowering the bottom crease line on the wing to match the door, not a lot mind.
- This is the biggest pain, the wing fits perfectly everywhere else (bar the crease lines), except here. Suggested to me weld a bead to close the gap then grind to shape. This is the before shot.
- Half way through sorting the shut line
- The shoulder line now lines up perfectly
- Closed the gap between the door and wing
- Sorted, this gap is now the same size as all the others
- Front wing now finished and lines up correctly now.
- Starting work on the rear quarter, the lower sil will be next once I've welded it in place.
- Rear lower
- Flatted half the bonnet and sorted out some dents
- New welder for the last few jobs
- A new year and a new camera!, this winters been a bit chilly for rolling around the garage floor, it still bloody cold, but if I'm going to have half a chance of finishing it for summer I best get cracking.
- The following few pictures are a visuals of the main areas I need to fix. The replacement sill was fitting baddly and bucked out, so I've taken the top edge off from the C pillar backwards, I'll weld this to the original sill underneath and profile the top part to make it look seamless.
- N/S door, a bit crusty this one, also need to watch surface rust on sill, built up over winter
- A BIG hole, easy fixed, I also want to sort out the drain hole (read rust collector), and the parts leading onto the rear arch.
- The rear lower quarter, just some final profiling and preping for paint.
- Hole in the bonnet, now time to put my newly aquired welding skills to the task...
- ...yep, maybe a need to practise a little more..! However, there is no longer a hole!
- Filler ready for sanding
- what a mess.
- sanded smooth
- flapping rear sill
- welded in place, still need more practice before I let myself loose and any other part of the bodywork
- door off to gain access to lower parts, don't have massive amounts of space down there!
- A-Post in top condition, minor scab to fix
- door with glass and frame removed.
- the hidden rust on the underside...
- Glass is now out of the door, ready to butcher it, the dark line to the left is a build up of crap over 25 years.
- I've knocked through all the small side rubbing mouting holes, these were filled with filler, but I'll weld them up now, as well as sort bottom corner and other rust areas
- This door has had a lot of filler in the past, I'm probably going to have to spend a whole day sanding, worried what it might be hiding underneath.
- Stripped back the door today, man there was a ridiculous amount of filler on it.
- welded the holes up (instead of filler), starting to get some results with welding now
- fully stripped and welded, now sat in primer
- took all the grot back to bare metal, treated then primered
- After digging out a large hole at the bottom of the passengers door; and cleaning all the rust. I welded in a new sheet of metal, this is a picture of my beautiful welding (!)
- After grinding back, bit of paint then more grinding, ready for filler to smooth.
- Started making up a plate to fill the hole at the rear n/s wheel, then something caught my eye.....
- ....a crack in some filler on the arch, so i started chipping away at it and started to reveal this!!! Eeeek
- It looks fairly rusty under all the filler!! You can see 4 drilled holes, as the surface is rockier than the rocky road to dublin, I'm assuming these are pull holes to pull out a dent in the arch. Next job, strip back the whole arch, I've ordered an arch repair panel to fix this lot, wasn't expecting this, gulp!
- Taken the arch back to bare metal, it's not had a repair here before, which is a bonus
- However the arch lip is in a pretty awful mess with rust, the plan is to fit half of the arch repair panel, to solve all these messy bits.
- Passengers sill now sorted
- Rear Wiper removed, welded off and skimmed
- Passengers door finally smooth and a lot lighter due to the amount of filler removed
- cut back the arch lip to see what lies beneath....
- ...hmmm, that would be rust then??!
- ground back all the rust to bare metal
- them krust'd it to catch any bits i might have missed
- finally zinc 182 to cover, next is cutting the arch repair to fit, welding then smothing, and also removing a large amount of filler from the rear panel (just behind the passengers door).
- wheels the old girl out and removed the drivers door
- to find a big hole and an even bigger hole! In the foot well you can see the large chuck of gobo removed
- put my wheels on for a perv
