St.Jude

Michael Winner would regularly drive in bus lanes and park outside the place he was going to on double yellows. The money he'd get in a fine was offset for getting to where he needed to get to on time and less of a walk for him.
People say when they win the lottery they wouldn't tell anyone but there would be noticeable changes. For me, if I won the lottery or a load of money, I would do exactly what Winner did.

Sorry... Not sorry! 

Show off.

Show off.

Really clever work - most ingenious 

The best car Ford has ever made has been the Transit van. The rest are fucking dogshite, or rot away before they have chance to turn white like the dogshit of old used to do.
Can’t agree with @twosmoke300 enough. Reliable does not mean maintenance free.
The Rover K Series was 20 years ahead of its time. Any engine can (and does) suffer OMGHGF at any age. The materials and techniques at the time though, along with garages treating all aluminium engines the same as old cast iron ones, gave it a bad name. Power to weight etc, along with the techniques used, didn’t get matched for 20 years after its introduction.
The most fun anyone can have driving is driving a Peugeot 107 at 60mph down twisting B roads.
Colin McRae is more famous for crashing than driving ability.
on that note: Anyone with a “If in doubt flat out” or “Dude I almost had you” sticker from McRae or Paul Walker on their car deserves having it crushed. Along with their testicles.

Very impressive mate.
Fairly sure you've just lost 10hp not keeping the Subaru name on the cap though!

The filler saga is pretty much over and its going to be a while before it meets its first real challenge - a petrol pump! 
Petrol cap no longer has the word Subaru on it, very important obviously!

The filler neck now looks the part, mind you I did rush this a bit and didn't let the paint dry for long enough and have a few scratches to touch in......

Got to be better than the original though!

Next task is probably fix the horn as that is definitely an MOT fail.
 

Took at it with a hammer and a screwdriver today. I managed to put a hole in it and nearly put it through two other places. So I’m taking most of the pan out.

Yes, that’s a baby monitor. My wife decided to go out and said if he cried I had to go in. I’m covered in muck and oil, by the time I cleaned to go and pick him up she’d be back. But he slept all the way through.

There is the floor gone. You can tell at the bottom where I did my best to drill out the spot welds, but further along it was harder to find them amongst the pitting. So I just chiselled them from underneath in the end.

Some bits of the floor were thicker than others. The jacking point and arm were totally gone, but we knew this anyway.

Ran out of time today to make a panel. It’s a large piece of lining paper here. I couldn’t just cut holes in the floor and do it patchwork but I am better than that now. I’m 100% going to do the drivers side floor again like this.
On the passenger side, I’ve no photo, but there are two holes where the tar a previous owner used for cavity wax is seeping out. Next to that, under the chair rail, there is a hole. I only found this out on tidying up. So I think next job is to remove the seat bracket and cut out the steel under it, and clean and inspect the sill. I have an outer sill repair panel for this anyway so not too alarmed.

I have been well lucky* today. It stayed dry for most of the morning and early afternoon, which is just as well because the garage thing was a total prick to put up. It’s not even a 2 man job, it’s a 3 man I think. But there was only me. So it is what it is.

Today though really is just tidying up so I can get cracking. The tarp I had on the car, again, wasn’t fully waterproof. The passenger floor is very wet. 


Right now it looks worse than it is. It’s not thin, and it’s mostly detritus I think. So this needs cleaning to assess it. If I need to do the pan I need to do the pan. I’ve enough steel to do that.
I am also taking the front wing off now. I’d like to take the doors off too.

Great thread revival.


Put it on stands today as I’m spending Friday and Saturday welding on it. The front wing is coming off and I’m setting to the hole in the passenger floor. I’ve gone around it and marked down areas of concern. There’s nothing new, and it’s pretty much as I remember it to be. I just need a magnet to ascertain how much filler is on the arches, as if they’re just filler I need to buy repair panels.
I also thought, for a laugh, that I’ll start it. I’ve never known it run, albeit it was bought as not running with no brakes or clutch (clutch pedal is rock hard down). I’ve no petrol but I thought fuck it, let’s see if it runs on vodka. I have no vodka. But I have poitin. I turns, but no spark. There endeth the experiment as it’s neither here nor there if it starts. It turns which is good. As either way an engine will need to be rebuilt, and it’ll either be a K Series or a Lada lump.
That said I found a thread on another site where someone has the same idea of using these Mazda MX5 boxes for other applications due to cost (as the boxes are like £40). I’ve done rough calculations, think I’ve mentioned them, the MX5 clutch is the same diameter as what the Rover uses. Only issue is the spigot bearing placement. But that’s at least towards the end of the year problem.

Finally welding. This is a replacement part of the bottom of the A pillar.

And it’s a hard reminder of how easy it is to blow holes in existing steel. It’s not too bad really though. I also added a plate on the back (seen above, the strip with three holes in). This plate goes behind it, so it’s like a “C” going around the pillar. That’s welded behind too, as well in the front (as per how the original was put on). But the strip on the right didn’t exist, so I’ve added that.
Anyway, onward.

Finally welding. This is a replacement part of the bottom of the A pillar.

And it’s a hard reminder of how easy it is to blow holes in existing steel. It’s not too bad really though. I also added a plate on the back (seen above, the strip with three holes in). This plate goes behind it, so it’s like a “C” going around the pillar. That’s welded behind too, as well in the front (as per how the original was put on). But the strip on the right didn’t exist, so I’ve added that.
Anyway, onward.

Well its very nearly Rover and out on the filler...... St jude..... The final little details just need sorting. Firstly the end of the filler were it meets the main rubbery hose. The end is completely smooth and which means it wont take much for the hose to pop off, which is a bit undesirable! I cannot flange the end out as the hose only just fits so the next option is to kind of Christmas cracker the end... Basically narrow the section just behind the end by cutting and welding (how else) create a waist if you see what I mean so the hose clamp has something to grip.  Sort of like this .......

Not exactly pretty (or very well in focus!) but it appears to work, well it past the yank test! 
Post yank test picture.....

Next stage the extra mysterious pipe work is rather lose and rattly (on the original pipe its all in steel and welded together, cant do this as I am using copper for the extra), I don't think that is a great idea. I decided to create a bracket that I could fit P clips to, so that I can secure the extra pipeage.   

Final bit of chopping was caused by the Subaru filler cap. The cap actually catches slightly on the hinge of the filler door. Fortunately the hinge area has some excess plasticky sections, which I duly trimmed down. Now it all fits. 
So what does it need to finish this part of the project? Well some paint on the filler neck, careful deletion of the  word Subaru from the cap and a couple of new rubber hoses and then I can decide which bit of the car to sort next as I have now decided to try and get it through or at least to an MOT.
 

That’s a user setting on the video - you can choose whether or not to allow embedding.
He may have turned it off inadvertently  — I’ll drop him a message.

Finished for the day.
Door is off, had to drill the two screws I fucked earlier. The stumps are still there but I can deal with that later. Somehow.
Replaced the arch and the panel that the A pillar welds to.

I think I’ve been told a porky that the Lada uses 1.2mm steel. I think it’s closer to 1.0mm. But it is what it is. 
I need to put in the chassis arm/jacking point, floor, inner sill which hopefully is next weekend. Then I need to take the outer sill off.
And my smashed phone got even more smashed at the end. So that’s annoying as I liked using it for filming. But it’s dead now.

Finally welding. This is a replacement part of the bottom of the A pillar.

And it’s a hard reminder of how easy it is to blow holes in existing steel. It’s not too bad really though. I also added a plate on the back (seen above, the strip with three holes in). This plate goes behind it, so it’s like a “C” going around the pillar. That’s welded behind too, as well in the front (as per how the original was put on). But the strip on the right didn’t exist, so I’ve added that.
Anyway, onward.

Could be there all week doing that but it’s worth a shot.
Tried to drill out the welds I could see but mostly took the chisel to it.

And the angle grinder to get it off properly.


Will cut the bit of floor out from under where the seat rail was tomorrow. Then going to attack the hole in the sill tomorrow.

So here is a 10 minute video of the mistake I made leaving it under that sheet and the work I did last week:
 
This evening I decided to get a head start on tomorrow. I spotted a hole under where the the seat rail is last week, and decided the best thing to do is to take the rail out altogether. For now anyway.


Some spot welds are easy to find…

But I can’t really see where the main spot welds are…

And fucked if I know how to get my drill in to this gap!

 
However, this gaping hole passed me by last week.

Hiding above the jacking point.

View from the inside:

So I’m going to go ahead with the removal of the seat rail tonight. I will drill what I can see but the rest I’ll just hammer with a chisel. Tomorrow I’ll remedy that hole in the sill before I cut the rest of the floor and make a panel.
Also a question to the hive mind: the sills on this are full of a bituminous substance. If it gets hot in the summer it drips out, and I never really could get it clean before. What can I use to remove it? I’m guessing the bulk will come off with a scraper but it’s difficult to get inside the sill. What else could I use?

Finished for the day.
Door is off, had to drill the two screws I fucked earlier. The stumps are still there but I can deal with that later. Somehow.
Replaced the arch and the panel that the A pillar welds to.

I think I’ve been told a porky that the Lada uses 1.2mm steel. I think it’s closer to 1.0mm. But it is what it is. 
I need to put in the chassis arm/jacking point, floor, inner sill which hopefully is next weekend. Then I need to take the outer sill off.
And my smashed phone got even more smashed at the end. So that’s annoying as I liked using it for filming. But it’s dead now.

Finally welding. This is a replacement part of the bottom of the A pillar.

And it’s a hard reminder of how easy it is to blow holes in existing steel. It’s not too bad really though. I also added a plate on the back (seen above, the strip with three holes in). This plate goes behind it, so it’s like a “C” going around the pillar. That’s welded behind too, as well in the front (as per how the original was put on). But the strip on the right didn’t exist, so I’ve added that.
Anyway, onward.

Finished for the day.
Door is off, had to drill the two screws I fucked earlier. The stumps are still there but I can deal with that later. Somehow.
Replaced the arch and the panel that the A pillar welds to.

I think I’ve been told a porky that the Lada uses 1.2mm steel. I think it’s closer to 1.0mm. But it is what it is. 
I need to put in the chassis arm/jacking point, floor, inner sill which hopefully is next weekend. Then I need to take the outer sill off.
And my smashed phone got even more smashed at the end. So that’s annoying as I liked using it for filming. But it’s dead now.

Finally welding. This is a replacement part of the bottom of the A pillar.

And it’s a hard reminder of how easy it is to blow holes in existing steel. It’s not too bad really though. I also added a plate on the back (seen above, the strip with three holes in). This plate goes behind it, so it’s like a “C” going around the pillar. That’s welded behind too, as well in the front (as per how the original was put on). But the strip on the right didn’t exist, so I’ve added that.
Anyway, onward.

Finally welding. This is a replacement part of the bottom of the A pillar.

And it’s a hard reminder of how easy it is to blow holes in existing steel. It’s not too bad really though. I also added a plate on the back (seen above, the strip with three holes in). This plate goes behind it, so it’s like a “C” going around the pillar. That’s welded behind too, as well in the front (as per how the original was put on). But the strip on the right didn’t exist, so I’ve added that.
Anyway, onward.

So finally got the order of rust remover, and realised something.

I am a full kit wanker for Bilt Hamber. But I like what I’ve used, and the primer stood up well to being outside.
The Deox-Gel has been applied to the bottom of the A pillar, I’ve no cling film so relying on a sandwich bag and gaffer tape to keep the gel from drying out.
In the mean time, this came today.

Only place I could find one of these was the US Amazon site. All the others were Beta ones with a chrome fitment at the base which I didn’t want. But why would I want this?
Well unbeknownst to you all I started to remove the door. One screw, eventually, came undone. The second screw was a proper bitch, to the point this happened:

The bit twisted, then slipped, and I ended up chewing the screw. So it needs drilling out. That’s for another time.
Tomorrow I’m working from home for the rest of the week. So I will be cutting the steel to make a replacement panel.