It is a long time since the mishap to my daughter's car involving an articulated truck but I am finally making a bit of progress.
I posted some pictures at the time showing how the bumper valance and boot floor had been pushed forward and the boot lid reshaped.
I have managed to push out most of the damage with an hydraulic ram and then I replaced the rear boot floor and the bottom of the boot surround. The worst job of all was getting rid of the underseal in the boot!!
I managed to get it off and have sprayed a coat of etch primer.
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As a break from stripping underseal I decided to strip a supposed "perfect" s/h boot lid for painting. Unfortunately this had also been hit by tin worm. I made up a repair section and welded it in as per pictures below. Unfortunately my mig welding is still not as neat as I would like but it dressed up quite well.
I took a sequence of photos to show the repair.
Dave
Really nice work! Your mig welding is actually pretty good. I'm impressed you made the repair panel yourself and put the joddle in the right way (in the bootlid not the repair).
I'm doing a boot repair at the moment too- but cheated and bought the repair piece. I'm going to punch holes in the repair piece and plug weld to the joddled boot lid.
What are the small panel clamps you used to hold the repair piece to the boot lid?
[quote
What are the small panel clamps you used to hold the repair piece to the boot lid?[/quote]
John
The clips are called aviation clips or cleco clips. They are always advertised on eBay and you need a small plier type tool to insert them and remove them, this is shown on one of the pictures.
I think the problem with my mig welding is that as a project progresses I get a bit better with practice but then during the period between projects the knack disappears!
Dave
"think the problem with my mig welding is that as a project progresses I get a bit better with practice but then during the period between projects the knack disappears!
<quote>Dave"
Same with me but I would say in your case the knack has not dissapeared!! To be honest, most of us weld then grind to tidy it up.
Ta for the cleco tip, i'd heard of then but not sure what they are or where to get them.
Keep up the good work and post more progress pics!
How did you get rid of all the underseal in the boot? As thats a job ill be facing in the next few months!
cheers,
YG
I tried thinners, petrol, paint stripper, wire brush on grinder, heated blower and a flap disc on the grinder. They all work but it is a terrible job and very slow. I kept changing my method not so much because one was better than the other but at least it was a change!
Perhaps the best is the heated blower followed by a flap disc on the grinder.
Good Luck and keep up your good work.
Dave
Hot air gun with a scraper. Heat the underseal just enough to soften then scrape off, once you get the scraper blade hot enough (direct the hot ait just infront of where you are scraping) it works fairly quickly and you can get "into a rhythm"- if you know what I mean. Can strip a rear wheel arch in 10 mins or so. Also works well for removing horrid old 2-pack or acrylic.
chickenjohn wrote:Hot air gun with a scraper. Heat the underseal just enough to soften then scrape off, once you get the scraper blade hot enough (direct the hot ait just infront of where you are scraping) it works fairly quickly and you can get "into a rhythm"- if you know what I mean. Can strip a rear wheel arch in 10 mins or so. Also works well for removing horrid old 2-pack or acrylic.
I think that is right on flattish panels, but the problems are on narrow corners etc where it is difficult to get the scraper in and it is there where other methods help
Dave
Not too much done this weekend but one wheel arch is primed up, as John says the underseal removal from these flattish panels is easy with a heat blower and scraper.
This leads to a few questions:-
I want the underarch to be body coloured but stone chipped, what is the correct paint for this.
Where do you make the join between old and new paint on the body? I was planning on keeping the raised body line and coach stripe as is and making the "join" below the rear window pillar, is this correct?
" want the underarch to be body coloured but stone chipped, what is the correct paint for this. "
You can get 1l canisters of stonechip paint from your local auto paint factor. You can get a Schutz gun from the likes of Machine Mart for £12 or so, it runs off your compressor. (Can then use it for applying underbody wax). Then leave it a day to dry after stone chipping, then prime and paint top coat. Is your workshop heated?? Its not the best time of year ATM to be spraying cellulose.
Yes, good idea using the body mouldings to hide the join between old paint and new.
I would also seam seal before stone chipping- seam seal any body seams or welds etc.
Well this weekend has allowed a bit more time to get some work done. I sprayed everywhere with etch primer and then stone chipped inner wheel arches and inside wings.
I then put a coay of high build primer on body and inner wheelarches etc
Ran out of time with painting primer on boot lid and outer wings!!
So how many coats of primer should I be putting on outer panels and how many coats of colour. I am using two pack and dont worry I do have a air fed face mask!!
I think two-pack colour just goes on in one good thick coat ? Followed by clear top coat if you wish. Primer - just keep spraying - and rubbing down - and spraying etc until a 'dusting' coat of black from an aerosol when gently flatted off leaves no witness dips!
[quote]I think the problem with my mig welding is that as a project progresses I get a bit better with practice but then during the period between projects the knack disappears!
Dave[quote]
you don't have to be a good welder; you just have to be a good grinder :p
