After a break (due to a derelict farm shop project) I'm now focused on my traveller again.
I've decided to have the blasting done after all the repairs, but I need your help please.
The car needs repairs to front, middle and back. In my opinion it's the front that needs the most help including chassis legs and I think this is the most obvious place to start. However, some of you may look at the following pics and suggest that I need to start on a certain area first.
Could you advise please?
Firstly, for me at least blasting the shell should be done first. The idea is that blasting will get into the crevices that you may not notice while they still have the remains of paint and under seal covering them.
With the car in it's current condition i would start by taking some measurements to ensure what you have is square and within factory spec. Then start with the structural stuff.
If making your own repair panels you should ideally match the gauge of steel with what the factory used. I believe mostly 18 gauge but could stand to be corrected.
There are many ways you could attack it, It actually does not look too bad.
Given the amount of surface corrosion you really need to get this cleaned up to see how deep the corrosion is, blasting is the best way but cup wire brushes etc also do a reasonable job.
It looks like you the floors / inner sills are only suffering surface corrosion, this makes life much easier, I would start with the boxing plates / sill / door posts/ centre X member and front spring hangers this will give you a sound core of a vehicle to work around. Make sure it is supported in as many places as possble before you cut anything out and only do a small area at a time.
Once the above is done I would then move onto the front and rear, the front needs some carefull measurements or a jig. I set the vehcicle square and level then dropped marks to the floor for the suspension attachment points then put them back in the same place making sure they were level side to side with a spirit level.
For the rear spring hangers I made a jig which bolted to the floor to locate them but in the end I found out one side was 10mm further back than the other from the factory so I tweaked them to be square.
I have no experince of the rear of a traveller but froom what I have seen it seems a good idea to use the new wood frame to make sure everything is in the correct place before welding to much.
My advice is to start with the door gaps, then the door gaps and finally the door gaps!
Seriously though, follow the advice given so far and put a temporary brace in the door apertures before doing the sills. Then when you do the door hinge pillar you need to be absolutely fastidious about being able to get the door in the right position. Check gap sizes, as well as squareness and very important panel flush. The point here is that the one thing that cannot be adjusted afterwards is the door aperture. You have the opportunity during the rebuild to get it right, possibly even better than the factory. There is nothing worse than poorly fitting doors on an otherwise great restoration. The same holds true for the front wings and bonnet when you do the front end. Definitely avoid the Taiwan front wings unless you really like panel working!
The wood is actually the (relatively) easy bit, although it does still take patience and quite a lot of work to get it to fit properly. The secret there is to concentrate on the rear door fit.
Just make sure that you keep the body straight throughout the rebuild. keep checking that the front and back panels are parallel horizontally. Most other things are controlled by the parts themselves and nice even fits and gaps.
Did I mention panel gaps...
1956 Morris Minor Series II
1959 MGA 1600 Roadster
1966 Jaguar Mk2 3.8 MOD
To carry on from what Neil said about doors. If you are in a position to repair any worn hinges and re hang the doors now would be a good time to do so. You can then adjust the shell for a good fit before bracing everything up.
Redmoggy wrote:To carry on from what Neil said about doors. If you are in a position to repair any worn hinges and re hang the doors now would be a good time to do so. You can then adjust the shell for a good fit before bracing everything up.
Rod
Looking at the picture at the top of the page I don't think there is much left of the pillar to bolt it to!
