Bodgetastic

Post by **AndrewSkinner** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 11:07 pm

Who passed this car through the MOT??

Surley all that structural rust could not of happened between the last MOT and you getting in.

Anyway good luck with the restoration

your a brave man!

Post by **alex_holden** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 11:16 pm

The worst bit (the floor above the crossmember) isn't obvious without pulling the carpets up, and I don't think they normally do that on the test. Where it's now holed through to the outside is right above the arm on the end of the torsion bar, so they'd have had to get their testing tool (pointy hammer) into that small gap to poke at the undersealed rust.

Post by **Spag** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:43 am

I think the main difficulty with this resto is going to be gettingthe car back off the huge pile of rusty flages, filler and newspaper - after tapping around the floor and chassis for half an hour...

2nd problem will be getting rid of said huge pile!

Get the shell supported on several stands to keep things straight then get in there with the air needle gun - the big bundle of 'magic spaghetti' that soon shows where the good steel is !

Post by **Orkney** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:07 am

Whats really interesting there is the way the repair patches have gone so badly.
Whats the reason for this ? poor quality steel or just plain laziness not treating them after they were welded in?

Whe you do those Alex will you remove the old patch welds as well? As one would assume it will go upto or at the welds sometime in the future?

Post by **alex_holden** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:36 am

Orkney wrote:Whats really interesting there is the way the repair patches have gone so badly.
Whats the reason for this ? poor quality steel or just plain laziness not treating them after they were welded in?

It's because the patches have been welded over the rusted-through original floor, leaving a sandwich that salty road spray was able to soak into through capillary action and stay there. In several places they've done the same on the underside, giving three layers to soak up water and rust from the inside out. The ends of the crossmembers are the same (see earlier pictures) so they will be merrily rotting away right now - I noticed when I got her back from Liverpool that there was rusty water dripping out of the patches.

When you do those Alex will you remove the old patch welds as well? As one would assume it will go upto or at the welds sometime in the future?

When I do it properly I'll get rid of all the old bodges and probably replace the whole crossmember. But for the time being I'm just going to chop out the worst of it and then do some slightly neater bodging of my own so as to get the car back on the road until next winter.

Post by **Orkney** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:40 am

Ah right, all becomes clear now, couldnt see it was the dreaded sandwich bodge.

Looks like you might be better off investing a plasma cutter now then?

Post by **paulhumphries** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:00 am

I must say I emailed saying I was interested in this when first offered.
I said I wanted something to drive around in for a while and vowed to sell / give total proceeds to the person who was offering it in first place or give away again when my Minor was back on the road.
I'm now glad you got in before me as I wouldn't have been happy driving that even as a short term run around

Paul Humphries

Post by **alex_holden** » Mon May 26, 2008 5:13 pm

Starting to make a bit of progress: http://alex-holden.livejournal.com/136228.html

On the downside, I was poking around at the loose underseal and discovered a rather nasty rust hole in the nearside chassis leg near the eyebolt that really should have been picked up on the last MOT!

Post by **youngun** » Mon May 26, 2008 8:06 pm

Looking very neat alex!

Cross member ends is next on my list of jobs to tackle, then its the nearside chassis leg, but only a small section needs doing so ill hopefully be able to lop that bit out and graft in a new piece. Then after that is a mega cleanathon over the whole underside of the car......and then dare i say it thats the welding over!!!

Post by **chickenjohn** » Tue May 27, 2008 12:12 pm

Good work! Thats a lot better than a bodge!

Grind the welds smooth, seam seal and paint and its a repair!

Looks like the inner sill step of Lintilla is sound, which is good news for lining up new floors/ sills etc.

Post by **alex_holden** » Tue May 27, 2008 12:21 pm

chickenjohn wrote:Looks like the inner sill step of Lintilla is sound, which is good news for lining up new floors/ sills etc.

Yes, it was only badly rusted where the lip was spot-welded to the rotten floor section above the crossmember-end.

Post by **chickenjohn** » Tue May 27, 2008 12:37 pm

I've heard some folk say that as long as the inner sill step is usable, then the car is worth saving.

Post by **Spag** » Tue May 27, 2008 2:30 pm

Hey Alex, the repairs (not bodges) are looking good.

Nice cuts all the way to decent metal and solid 'battleship' welding. As long as there's good penetration through both bits, the don't worry how ugly it is.

And as John says a tickle with Mr Grinder soon cleans things up, then all gets hidden under a little smear of sealer anyway.

Keep it up !!!

Post by **chickenjohn** » Tue May 27, 2008 6:20 pm

BTW, ALex, your blog page on the repairs loads fine in Camino but has difficulty in Safari. I am on OSX 10.2 though so Safari doesnt allways work these days.

Post by **alex_holden** » Tue May 27, 2008 9:01 pm

I use the latest version of Safari myself and it works fine. Probably a browser bug that Apple has since fixed.

Post by **youngun** » Tue May 27, 2008 9:54 pm

What are you two on about??!

Looking good alex, Ill be tackling those bits of floor myself tomorrow. Pics to follow...............

Post by **alex_holden** » Tue May 27, 2008 10:00 pm

youngun wrote:What are you two on about??!

http://www.apple.com/safari/

I cleaned up the welds tonight with one of those silicone carbide angle grinder discs with the rubber backing pad. I'm not sure I'm doing the seam-sealing step right because it always seems to end up a right mess. Maybe the brushable stuff would be easier to apply neatly than the stuff that comes in a gun.

Post by **246gts** » Wed May 28, 2008 9:13 am

Nice work Alex
I use the brushable seam sealer and put masking tape either side of the weld leaving about a one inch gap, this leaves a nice neat finish when the tape is removed
Dave

Post by **chickenjohn** » Wed May 28, 2008 9:38 am

youngun wrote:What are you two on about??!

Looking good alex, Ill be tackling those bits of floor myself tomorrow. Pics to follow...............

Its Apple operating systems and browser versions! Basically, my laptop is 5 1/2 years old and has the old Operating System, I'm too tight to spend £100 on the newest OS when I can spend it on Minor parts.

Yes, Alex, brushable seam sealer is better. I used 3M stuff they have at college and it spreads really nicely and sets fast. Also U pol polyurethane is good too out of a tube.

Youngun, I'd be keen to see your pics too!

Post by **nslocomotive2** » Wed May 28, 2008 9:56 am

Can I ask is seam sealer used only for the under side welds? should I be using it, I have been welding in a new boot floor and the lower section of the back end and I am unsure weather to use this stuff on the parts of the body that will be seen, can it be painted over ok?