St.Jude

I did no welding today. Not for the want of trying. In a quest to tidy the area up and sort out the rust I found yesterday - well I found more.

 
At the foot of the A pillar it was thick with muck. A good 3” block of it. 
Given I have to put a new outer sill on, I thought I would just take the whole bottom of the wing off.

I was cleaning up the inside sill stuff and I gave that rusty bit a tap with the chisel. No hammer, just me…

Oh dear.

Yeah all of this needs to go.

Not all finished with rust discovery though. The bottom of the A pillar was equally rotten.

Thankfully, this covered more steel which was rusted BUT only rusted where you see it. I cut more of the skin off to see.

As you can see in Australia, this is how it looks. But the inside part is strong.

I have cut back more of the interior sill because I suspected the inner sill was rotten. It was, but only really where the A pillar meets it.
Remember kids - this car is MOT exempt!
I had intended to use rust remover on the A pillar before painting it and putting things back together. I don’t have any, and couldn’t find any, so I’m going to order some online. When it comes I’ll give it another go with the wire brush (already did it once) and will paint it with weld through primer. Which I may need to buy some of!
It’s a jigsaw now really. Love it!

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?

Had 20 minutes this evening so decided to investigate the hole under the wiper motor.
It’s a devil to remove if you’ve not read the instructions. But I got the motor out.


That hole goes straight in to the cabin, right over the steering column. I can imagine that this scuttle will need a good bit of attention when I get round to it.

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.

I did no welding today. Not for the want of trying. In a quest to tidy the area up and sort out the rust I found yesterday - well I found more.

 
At the foot of the A pillar it was thick with muck. A good 3” block of it. 
Given I have to put a new outer sill on, I thought I would just take the whole bottom of the wing off.

I was cleaning up the inside sill stuff and I gave that rusty bit a tap with the chisel. No hammer, just me…

Oh dear.

Yeah all of this needs to go.

Not all finished with rust discovery though. The bottom of the A pillar was equally rotten.

Thankfully, this covered more steel which was rusted BUT only rusted where you see it. I cut more of the skin off to see.

As you can see in Australia, this is how it looks. But the inside part is strong.

I have cut back more of the interior sill because I suspected the inner sill was rotten. It was, but only really where the A pillar meets it.
Remember kids - this car is MOT exempt!
I had intended to use rust remover on the A pillar before painting it and putting things back together. I don’t have any, and couldn’t find any, so I’m going to order some online. When it comes I’ll give it another go with the wire brush (already did it once) and will paint it with weld through primer. Which I may need to buy some of!
It’s a jigsaw now really. Love it!

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?

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.

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.

Rover and out.

A very literal interpretation of the question.

The car depicted is a Ferrari 365 GTC/4.

The Black Keys - El Camino 

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.

I did no welding today. Not for the want of trying. In a quest to tidy the area up and sort out the rust I found yesterday - well I found more.

 
At the foot of the A pillar it was thick with muck. A good 3” block of it. 
Given I have to put a new outer sill on, I thought I would just take the whole bottom of the wing off.

I was cleaning up the inside sill stuff and I gave that rusty bit a tap with the chisel. No hammer, just me…

Oh dear.

Yeah all of this needs to go.

Not all finished with rust discovery though. The bottom of the A pillar was equally rotten.

Thankfully, this covered more steel which was rusted BUT only rusted where you see it. I cut more of the skin off to see.

As you can see in Australia, this is how it looks. But the inside part is strong.

I have cut back more of the interior sill because I suspected the inner sill was rotten. It was, but only really where the A pillar meets it.
Remember kids - this car is MOT exempt!
I had intended to use rust remover on the A pillar before painting it and putting things back together. I don’t have any, and couldn’t find any, so I’m going to order some online. When it comes I’ll give it another go with the wire brush (already did it once) and will paint it with weld through primer. Which I may need to buy some of!
It’s a jigsaw now really. Love it!

Rover and out.

Has anyone said this is sterling work yet? If not, I will. 
Your patience with the filler neck is incredible, well done. I think when the time comes on the Maestro I'll be using some combination of aluminium tube and fuel-friendly silicone/rubber hoses. 

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.

I did no welding today. Not for the want of trying. In a quest to tidy the area up and sort out the rust I found yesterday - well I found more.

 
At the foot of the A pillar it was thick with muck. A good 3” block of it. 
Given I have to put a new outer sill on, I thought I would just take the whole bottom of the wing off.

I was cleaning up the inside sill stuff and I gave that rusty bit a tap with the chisel. No hammer, just me…

Oh dear.

Yeah all of this needs to go.

Not all finished with rust discovery though. The bottom of the A pillar was equally rotten.

Thankfully, this covered more steel which was rusted BUT only rusted where you see it. I cut more of the skin off to see.

As you can see in Australia, this is how it looks. But the inside part is strong.

I have cut back more of the interior sill because I suspected the inner sill was rotten. It was, but only really where the A pillar meets it.
Remember kids - this car is MOT exempt!
I had intended to use rust remover on the A pillar before painting it and putting things back together. I don’t have any, and couldn’t find any, so I’m going to order some online. When it comes I’ll give it another go with the wire brush (already did it once) and will paint it with weld through primer. Which I may need to buy some of!
It’s a jigsaw now really. Love it!

I did no welding today. Not for the want of trying. In a quest to tidy the area up and sort out the rust I found yesterday - well I found more.

 
At the foot of the A pillar it was thick with muck. A good 3” block of it. 
Given I have to put a new outer sill on, I thought I would just take the whole bottom of the wing off.

I was cleaning up the inside sill stuff and I gave that rusty bit a tap with the chisel. No hammer, just me…

Oh dear.

Yeah all of this needs to go.

Not all finished with rust discovery though. The bottom of the A pillar was equally rotten.

Thankfully, this covered more steel which was rusted BUT only rusted where you see it. I cut more of the skin off to see.

As you can see in Australia, this is how it looks. But the inside part is strong.

I have cut back more of the interior sill because I suspected the inner sill was rotten. It was, but only really where the A pillar meets it.
Remember kids - this car is MOT exempt!
I had intended to use rust remover on the A pillar before painting it and putting things back together. I don’t have any, and couldn’t find any, so I’m going to order some online. When it comes I’ll give it another go with the wire brush (already did it once) and will paint it with weld through primer. Which I may need to buy some of!
It’s a jigsaw now really. Love it!

Another day off so more work on the filler, well after an exciting morning trip to the tip, yep I know how to party! 
Firstly I smoothed off the end of the breather pipe were I had created a kind of flange.

Used the bench grinder and the finger sander, as I need to keep it flanged so it wont pull off the hose easily but it needs to be smooth for obvious reasons.

Next job was to fit the flange/collar that bolts to the body of the car, inside the filler flap area. This was a pain in the arse! Turns out that the filler is a very tight fit and fitting the collar and pipe lose is easy, getting them into place when attached is very difficult. This part took a lot of trial and error. Initially cable tied it all together but this gave a bit of a false impression as it allowed a lot of movement.  Next up I started tacking it together.

Not pretty but it works. After much faff I found that the best way was to just secure it on 2 sides so it can flex a bit.

Finally for today - another trial fit, it feels like I am actually getting some were! 

Sadly it will be painted black, I quite like it in red but that is just primer and I only have black top coat at the moment! 
 

I hate you. You’re inspirational.
Joking aside, that’s great work with the Subaru filler. There has been someone on the Rover 800 Faceache page selling “new” ones and they just simply don’t fit, especially as they rub on the wheel.
Its good to know that alternatives exist!

Subaru neck - mainly luck I had one lying around and the top half is roughly the right shape and size. Clearance is a concern I am testing this by re fitting a wheel and jumping up and down on the sill at each stage of the build.  Its all a bit trial and error. The other thing to consider is my car is a Sterling and is on relatively small wheels, later models may have come on wider wheel and tyre combos. 

Back on the fuel filler, some metal pipe arrived a straight length and a curved bit, time to make the breather....
Firstly I used an old bit of brake pipe to rough out were I wanted it to go then, copied it on the bench with steel tube, I haven't followed this through step by step so here is a rough before and after. 
Before.... And no those bits of copper pipe are not the breather, they will be in the final build as they are part of the other bit of the fuel system.

Trial fit with the main sections of breather tacked in place...

Welding the main sections properly.


Adding the end part and creating a flange to hold the hose in place...

Paint with primer but never mind focusing properly.......

Jobs left are to clean up the welded flange to make it nice and smooth, re check fit and possibly run some water through it to find pin holes in the welding. Then this part will be done. 
 
 

I did no welding today. Not for the want of trying. In a quest to tidy the area up and sort out the rust I found yesterday - well I found more.

 
At the foot of the A pillar it was thick with muck. A good 3” block of it. 
Given I have to put a new outer sill on, I thought I would just take the whole bottom of the wing off.

I was cleaning up the inside sill stuff and I gave that rusty bit a tap with the chisel. No hammer, just me…

Oh dear.

Yeah all of this needs to go.

Not all finished with rust discovery though. The bottom of the A pillar was equally rotten.

Thankfully, this covered more steel which was rusted BUT only rusted where you see it. I cut more of the skin off to see.

As you can see in Australia, this is how it looks. But the inside part is strong.

I have cut back more of the interior sill because I suspected the inner sill was rotten. It was, but only really where the A pillar meets it.
Remember kids - this car is MOT exempt!
I had intended to use rust remover on the A pillar before painting it and putting things back together. I don’t have any, and couldn’t find any, so I’m going to order some online. When it comes I’ll give it another go with the wire brush (already did it once) and will paint it with weld through primer. Which I may need to buy some of!
It’s a jigsaw now really. Love it!