Isopon by the truckload, what to do?

[don58van]

More on my repairs:

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Here, I have already welded in a new section of the inner sill (to the right) and a have another repair piece sitting in position, ready for welding. As I explained earlier, the reason for two repair pieces here is because I didn't cut away enough metal originally so I had to make an extra repair section.

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I made this part to replace the front of the outer sill. I made a cardboard template from another car to get the shape close, then a lot of fiddling to make it fit the body.

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And here it is sitting in position. Note that the inner sill repair section is welded in now.

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Here I am trial fitting the forward section of the boxing plate. In this case, the repair section continued rearward of the A-pillar (see the next picture).

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This is the door-hinge side of the A-pillar. You can see the end of the repair panel protruding to the rear of the pillar.

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Here, I have formed the rear of the boxing plate to make the leading edge of the rectangular hole. I have cut out a section of the boxing plate below the rectangular hole that was badly rusted and made a replacement section. Finally, I have made a replacement section for the bottom of the inner A-pillar (which is the end of the flitch panel).

That's all for today.

Don

[Mark Wilson]

Hmm. It sounds like a recommendation rather than standard factory practice, so both options would be "original". I think I'll bend mine when I do the final pre-paint prep in a couple of months. Thanks for the info.

My standard of work has improved as I've worked around the car, to the extent that I've gone back and unpicked some of my early welds! Your work looks at least as good as mine, so nice words much appreciated. Thanks also to Martin - and I hope we haven't gone too far from the OP's questions!

[don58van]

I hope we haven't gone too far from the OP's questions

Well, SVMinor did say that he wanted to see my photos. This is his punishment . Its a bit like when you agree to look at your uncle's holiday snaps and then have to sit through hundreds of them .

But seriously, the discussion of whether the flange should be turned over or not is relevant to SVMinor's restoration.

I think I'll bend mine when I do the final pre-paint prep in a couple of months

If you are turning over the flanges, I think it will go better if you at least partly turn them over before welding them.

Don

[millerman]

Don, very good photos showing how how panels go together and very tidy work.

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Very nice neat work Don!

[SvMinor]

Thanks for the replys, pictures are great Don!

[don58van]

More pix of my repair

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Here is my secret weapon. I borrowed this from a friend. I think if you can borrow or hire one of these, it will be well worth it. As my MIG welding isn't great, this is easier and neater for me. Used in the right locations, it can also give a much more 'original factory' look.

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Here are some spot welds where the factory would have put them.

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Some more spot welds and some MIG welding that has been ground back.

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We are back in front of the A-pillar now. You see that I have painted the inner cavity with zinc spray.

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I now need to fill the irregular gap in the flitch panel. I used a cardboard template to get the general shape, then did lots of fettling to make it fit properly.

I feel I made a few mistake here. At the top of the repair area, I retained the flange part of the flitch panel because I thought it might be easier than turning it over and making good, even contact with the flange of the wheel-well. I'm not so sure about that now. Also, I tried to make and weld in quite a complex shape in one piece. That made it very difficult and slow to make the repair piece fit properly. I had problems with the repair section buckling when I welded it in -- I might have been able to control the buckling better if I welded in two parts -- upper and lower.

Finally, while I am criticising my own work, I have read that it is best to avoid sharp corners in repair sections. This is because the sharp corners are more likely than a curve or less sharp corner to introduce stresses in the metalwork. This is obviously more important in areas of metal that are subject to significant loads.

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This is the back of the flitch panel repair piece.

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The repair section MIG and spot welded in. Note that I have ground my dodgy MIG welding down so you can't see how bad it is.

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I fabricated a repair section for the bottom of the A-pillar cover plate which has been MIG and spot welded into position. The cover plates that I bought from one of the popular UK suppliers were worse than useless. They came nowhere near the required shape. I would take a lot of skilled work with the right tools to make them fit. So I cut them up to fabricate repair sections.

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Job done except for external painting.

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A lick of paint and it looks fairly close to original.

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Finally, here are some of the cardboard templates I used to make the repair sections (the ones on the upper left were for an eye-bolt mounting repair--that is a different story).

I hope others have found something useful in this series. Once again, I am happy to hear advice/criticism/suggestions -- this repair was really a learning exercise me as I have many other Minor repairs lined up.

Don

[irmscher]

Great fabrication and spot welding The car is coming on really well

[Mark Wilson]

Absolutely brilliant - but the spot welder is definitely cheating in my book, far too professional!

Mark

[don58van]

the spot welder is definitely cheating in my book

Perhaps so. Plug welding gives the same result, but is more work (punching or drilling holes, grinding down). And I like to give the work 'original factory' appearance, even if it will be hidden.

My father had lots of hobbies such as carpentry, silversmithing, french polishing and many more. He did them all to a very high standard. One thing I learned from him is to use the very best tools you can get your hands on.

BTW, the spot welder I was using is a decent quality medium-duty professional standard one. But there are many reasonably priced ones on the market now (usually from China) that put them in reach of the hobby car restorer.

I hope we haven't scared the OP (SVMinor) off.

Don

[SvMinor]

Thanks Don, what you have done seems alot of work, I'll not know what I've to do until I start cutting out the rot. Thanks for taking the time to reply, and I will definitely refer back to your great workmanship when I need to. Thanks, Mark.

[don58van]

Hi Mark

I was surprised how complicated and time-consuming the repairs were (similar both sides). As I mentioned earlier, it is tempting to think that all that really needs to be done is to close over the external rust holes. Certainly, this is an option. But a better approach in my opinion is to repair all the rust damage found in this area (there is always much more that it appears from the outside).

As an example of why this is important, I bought oversize hinge pins for the front doors of my Traveller. I was convinced that wear in the hinges was causing the doors to slump. The area of around the A-pillars had some rust but nevertheless looked quite solid. I tried lifting the doors and couldn't see even the slightest movement in the metal work. So I thought it had to be the hinges.

After doing repairs at the bottom of the A-pillars and backs of the wheel arches similar to what you see above, the doors no longer slumped and the hinges don't need to be overhauled.

Don

[Mark Wilson]

I had exactly the same experience on the door slumping, after I'd replaced the flitch and pillar (rh side, not the one in my pictures on this thread). What made the difference was when I plug welded the new flitch to the kidney panel (the original had rusted so much I hadn't realised that there had ever been spot welds between the two). Hey presto - a completely rigid pillar structure!

Mark (the other one...)