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!

All cleaned up.


Did more cleaning on the scuttle(?) area. The hoover got blocked up several times, flakes of metal and remnants of Quality Street wrappers from the mouse who called it home.



Under the wiper motor though…



 
It’s a bit holy. On Good Friday of all days!
It was to be expected. It’s cleaned up enough, wing removal tomorrow and I would imagine the start of the floor.

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.

Nikita is finally in its “home” for the duration of the work that’s needed.

My plan has always been to work clockwise around the car, which is just as well because the car cover (are related thread) wasn’t waterproof and it’s suffered from it. More photos during the week.
Need to get my welding cart built now!

The great thread resurrection of 2023.
Nothing to report. You all know (or should know) the craic. The Lada has been sat outside while the extension was built, it’s now waiting for the Land Cruiser to earn its keep and work a bit so I can scab some slabs to put in front of the garage in order to be worked on.
In the meantime I got the bits of video together about the process. 
 

Spent today knocking back the last bit of welding I did so I could see what I missed before. I missed two spots, so welded those, knocked it back, then vactan.

No idea why it’s upside down, it’s the right way up on my phone. You get the idea.

Slapped some Bilt Hamber Zinc primer (which weighs a tonne!) and left it to dry. 
Next weekend is the big move out, but given the weather we’ve been having I would think that I could do a bit more welding on the passenger side before the weather ruins it all for me.
At least the first thing I need to do is remove the driver door to take the rest of the drivers wing off!

Day spent re-welding what I welded before.

Obviously the photo is upside down. It’s a much neater job than before, so it is all good.

This didn’t go as well. Wife was moaning at me, I rushed, and it’s not great in places. Im going to die grind it out and redo it. 2mm steel here, the other part was all 1.2mm.
Think next weekend, after redoing the weld, it’ll be a case of epoxy primer on all the welding I’ve done in order to move the car out of the garage.

Managed to get a little bit done today, on the hottest day of the year! But wasn’t really too bad in the shade of the garage, until I realised I hadn’t restocked my Dremel wheels and finger sander sheets. So couldn’t really prep anything.

Most of my old welding has been removed. Wasn’t as easy to take off in some places but couldn’t wait to come off in others. No matter, new steel with my RAV4 learnt skillz will see this right again.
I also managed to (sort of) get the trailer working. Meaning I could shift the engine to storage.

The engine didn’t stay that way for very long, and it wasn’t until the oil pooled in the trailer did I realise I hadn’t drained it like I thought I had. A pure mess.

Eee by gum, I didn’t realise it had been this long since anything happened to this Lada.
It’s still there, not one iota of work been done to it. Until yesterday. Sort of.

The engine from the MG has been liberated, along with the seats, wiring look, various other bits and pieces that I might need.
Why this? Why now? 
Well the garage this Lada is in is being torn down in August. And feck all has happened since January 2021 (when I got balls deep in to that RAV4). Fatherhood has also, surprisingly, taken up a lot of time and energy, and a few weekends sorting out the Land Cruiser, means I am woefully short of weekends to get any meaningful work done again. But part of this work means the MG has to go, and then I want to at least get the rot sorted on the Lada before August. Yes, I am aware we are in July. I just want the rot removed from the Lada and epoxy primered so I can roll it out for however long the building work takes.
So, the plan as of Sunday, is to get the K Series on a pallet ready to be stored in the unit. More about the K Series in a moment.
Then I will be removing the engine and gearbox from the Lada, along with the driveshaft. This is just to make it easier to move when the time comes for eviction. It also gives me an opportunity to measure everything off the car so I can work out if the engine conversion is good to go or not.
Then remedy the welding I last done to it, and then weld the other bits that need doing. At which point I will run out of time regardless and it gets rolled out.
The K Series is rather oily. That’s what a long time of sitting there doing nothing will do to you. However, on removal of the sports cat manifold (nice, ish) my mate pointed out that the head gasket has gone on cylinder 1. It is rather wet. But no matter, it was always going to be rebuilt etc if it fits. 
So that is where it’s at. 

Day spent re-welding what I welded before.

Obviously the photo is upside down. It’s a much neater job than before, so it is all good.

This didn’t go as well. Wife was moaning at me, I rushed, and it’s not great in places. Im going to die grind it out and redo it. 2mm steel here, the other part was all 1.2mm.
Think next weekend, after redoing the weld, it’ll be a case of epoxy primer on all the welding I’ve done in order to move the car out of the garage.

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.

I have experienced that diesel dissolve asphalt/wax but it is flammable. So how about heating the inside of the sills with for example, a heat gun and get them really hot, will it then flow out?

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?

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?

£36 spent. Fight me, you crusty Longship of shite!

Not this Saturday, no Sir. Will keep you in mind next time we have a session on it.

Want to support this hopeless cause? We’ve got expensive brakes, suspension, fire system and roll cage to pay for. Oh, and shipping this crap-heap to America. Wildly optimistic link below. Thanks;
 
https://pay.collctiv.com/out-on-a-slim-9218

Yea mate that’s very helpful thank you!

Not sure if this will help but.....
The red circles are definite attachment points.


It gets a little vague at the dash end, red circles are clearly attachment points - green circles are a case of I cannot remember but there is something going on there! 


 
Hope this helps.....
 

I cannot remember it being particularly challenging but it was at least a year ago (time can help heal painful memories!) .  I will dig it out and have a look at it for you when I get a 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!

TL:DR; - It is, but not quite either.
With setting up the Lada I thought it would be beneficial to me to at least try and plan what I need to do and what I can do with it, along with trying to plan ahead for any parts I would need to buy. From that, and looking at the calendar, there will be weekends where I can't work on the Lada as I'll be waiting for something to move on. I then have this car in my head and the help shown here to get it running. So I want to get this working, and at least get it to an MOT. With the plans I have for the Lada I could do with an investment, and I think I could do with that investment coming from the Rover.
But then I just need one bad day and I'm on Car Take Back again.

Not had half the opportunity to do anything like I thought I would today as my mom had a list of pressing issues. I didn’t have the jump leads with me though, forgot those.
I threw the battery back on it as I thought maybe a wiggle of the gear stick would result in life. It didn’t.
But…

The light for saying what gear it’s in is temperamental. I had put it in park but there was no light. Wiggled it and the light came on, then off etc. I think I am going to take this out and clean it properly.
I did also hear a click from the engine bay. 

Is it today yet?