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Polar White and Rust - a restoration epic, can it even be done?


IanMc
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It sounds like you are a lucky chappie.swapping doors on these cars is not always straightforward.

doors that lined up perfectly on one car are often a mile out on another.obviously hinges can be adjusted but sometimes they take an age to get right so that the panel gaps,swage line and edges all line up. Then theres the glass adjustment to play with. A bit too far in with the glass seems forgiving but a fraction too far out and it wont always pop into the top rubber when closing door or winding up window.

there are a few adjustment pointsif needs be but if yours fits well then best leave alone for now .

good luck with the op and  hopefully you will be back playing out sgain soon.

 

 

 

 

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Well the operation did go ahead on Friday morning.

So I have gone from this:

 

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To this:

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Who needs a bat to play cricket anyway  :lol:

To be honest, I wasn't going to post any of those photos, but then I thought that I suppose that they are actually part of this project, well in a way, you know what I mean.

No idea at the moment when I will be able to defend myself properly, this thing is on for at least a week... That is a little worrying as I am off to the US in 2 weeks yesterday to man the stand at an exhibition - that might prove to be a little tricky too.

Oh and if anyone wants to fill a few spare hours, try using a mouse and typing with one finger using the other / 'wrong' hand  :lol:  :rolleyes:

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9 hours ago, IanMc said:

Oh and if anyone wants to fill a few spare hours, try using a mouse and typing with one finger using the other / 'wrong' hand  

You'd be surprised how many on here would be adept at one handed computer use. ;) :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all, I'm back in action - albeit somewhat restricted and slow for a while...

After having the wound re-dressed again and a second session with the physio I am being encouraged to take on light duties/things I think I can manage.

With that encouragement, I decided to see if I could make up a small patch panel to go behind the OS headlight in the engine bay.

This is what I started with:

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And how things progressed:

 

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And what I have now, after some more weld dressing this morning and a smear of filler on a few low spots:

 

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I must admit that there were times when my hand felt uncomfortable, but I feel pretty pleased with the results and very pleased to be be back in some kind of action again.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

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2 hours ago, cam.in.head said:

Hey.we knew you couldn’t rest for long !

hope the description about the upper arm washers made sense. Cos that’s this afternoons job ! Haha

Lol, thanks Chris.

I'm not quite up to that level of strenuous activity yet I am afraid.  

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Last update for today as my hand is starting to hurt now, need to rest it.

Made up three repair panels for the OS boot floor to quarter area, here:

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These patches are now ready to be welded in:

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Oh, I actually drilled several holes in the 'flange' of the largest panel after taking that photo. Those holes will allow me to puddle weld it to the flange of boot floor plate that comes towards it, if that makes any sense at all?! lol

Not sure when the welding will be done though, will have to see how the hand feels tomorrow...

 

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Got a little bit done tonight before my hand started to hurt again, causing me to pack up.

I got the bottom of the boot to floor vertical strengthener welded in, then added the right hand section of floor (complete with flange):

 

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Then I roughly tacked in place at the top edge only the outer rear quarter to floor patch panel:

 

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Have a good evening everyone.

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On 9/8/2018 at 06:34, IanMc said:

Hi all, I'm back in action - albeit somewhat restricted and slow for a while...

After having the wound re-dressed again and a second session with the physio I am being encouraged to take on light duties/things I think I can manage.

With that encouragement, I decided to see if I could make up a small patch panel to go behind the OS headlight in the engine bay.

This is what I started with:

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.


And how things progressed:

 

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.

 

And what I have now, after some more weld dressing this morning and a smear of filler on a few low spots:

 

Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member.


I must admit that there were times when my hand felt uncomfortable, but I feel pretty pleased with the results and very pleased to be be back in some kind of action again.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

Looks really good Ian, is there a photo of the outside? I have to tackle that exact spot on my Cav;

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Small update tonight, before pain ended play again  :lol:  :rolleyes:

Managed to get the outer patch plate welded in. Amazing, everything seemed to line up without much trouble - maybe I am getting better at this!

Even my puddle welds along the bottom flange seemed better than usual...

 

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There is a couple of small pin holes to weld over and of course the welds will need more dressing, but all in all I'm quite happy with that so far. Another section of rot well and truly vanquished!

Cheers all.

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Tonight's job was to cut the rust out of the OS sill and rear jacking point area. Lets just say there was plenty, as you can see by the contents of the bag at the end lol  :lol:

Oh well, it has to get worse, before it can get better.

 

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Have a good evening everyone.  :thumbup

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On 11/9/2018 at 20:42, IanMc said:

Managed to get the outer patch plate welded in. Amazing, everything seemed to line up without much trouble - maybe I am getting better at this!

Even my puddle welds along the bottom flange seemed better than usual..

Yep sure are....... practice makes perfect, sometimes a badly cut patch makes a balls of a weld repair, cant say that here, think a well thought out patch makes the repair, welding is the easy part, fair play for getting stuck in, you can now repair very well one handed, have you tried blindfolded! 

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Small update this evening.

I simply made up four cardboard templates so that I can make up the associated patch panels to join the back of the inner wheel arch to the boot floor again.

One of the panels will also repair a short section of the outer arch and it’s return.

Making those out of Steel and getting them welded in should keep me out of trouble this weekend lol
 

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Look what I found on Facebook Marketplace - it was only £8.00 !!

 

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That's going to save me loads of time and effort over the next couple of weeks. You might recall the NS outer sill panels I fabricated myself from sheet Steel.

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Some good progress this morning.

I managed to get my three inner arch to boot floor patch panels cut out of Steel and welded in:

 

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Then after that, the outer arch lower section repair panel - sorry forgot to photograph that...

And after a quick bit of weld dressing with an angle grinder and flap disc. I quick skim of filler and it should look pretty good.

 

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This means that the whole boot floor and the lower part of both rear quarter panels are now completely rust free. That feels like a big step forward to me.  

All I need to do here is to get some panel seal, primer, stone chip and underseal over this lot and I can move forward to the sill area.

 

But now I am off to cut the grass again - BOOORRRRIIIINNNGGGG!, its definitively making up for lost time isn't it lol  :lol:

Have a nice weekend everyone  :thumbup

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Managed to sneak a few little time windows during the afternoon and evening. This enabled me to add POR15, panel sealer and primer to various places.

Tomorrow morning, once everything has dried out, I will add underseal the bottom of the boot floor and the rear half of the wheel arch. Then White Smoothrite will go on the (inside) of the boot floor.

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13 hours ago, IanMc said:

 

Tomorrow morning, once everything has dried out, I will add underseal the bottom of the boot floor and the rear half of the wheel arch. Then White Smoothrite will go on the (inside) of the boot floor.

All done, taking the rest of the day off!

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Tonight I cut out the rot from the front of the OSR wheel arch.

Then I made up one large cardboard template and transferred it to sheet Steel.

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I'm off to the garage now to get that cut out, then hopefully I can get that welded in tomorrow evening.

There are two or three much small patches to be made up in the area of the ISO fixing point, but they can wait until the sill and arch repair have been done.

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Have a nice evening all.

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Small update tonight. I managed to get my OSR inner arch (front) patch plates welded in. I say plates, because I found that one whole piece was too difficult to 'manipulate' around the profile. So in the end I opted to chop it in half and weld it in as two separate plates.

Seems to be OK.

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Made up three very small patch plates this evening. These will go in the general area of the floor to ISO fix point.

To be honest, after cutting it out I realised that I probably could have just treated the rust in these areas - but oh well, too late now...

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Got my three little patch plates welded in tonight. All three were in the area of the ISO fix point/inner arch/floor.

This means that the rear quarter to boot floor and the inner arch (front and rear) is now rot free so I can move forward to the sill and jacking point area.

Making progress - slow but sure...

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Designed and fabricated some repair plates for the OS inner and outer sill area this morning, plus a patch plate for the front jacking point support.


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As you will see from the next photo, my plan is to add strengthening plates between the top of the inner and outer sills, these will be drilled for drainage after they have been welded in place.

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There will be additional gusset plates added to tie the lower parts of the inner and outer sills together after the back plate has been welded into position (the large plate is the first photo).

I might be able to get everything welded in later, if not tomorrow.

Have a good weekend!  :thumbup

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