Porsche 924 white

[inconsistant]

Back to the headlight covers and after 2 or 3 attempts to get a decent top coat (why does the can always run out half way through the final coat!?) I've managed to get a finish I can live with.

 

 

 

 

 

I've learned a lot by doing these. I haven't sprayed finished anything for ages so it's been helpful. I went in too aggressively with the flap wheel and created some shallow gouges where I caught the edge a couple of times and that needed several layers of filler primer and sanding before they were gone. Much time wasted. I’ve since found out about knot wheels and I'd have been much better off using one of those to get the paint off. Still, that was the point of doing the light covers first.

[inconsistant]

The headlight covers are a bit of a distraction really, the priority job that needs sorting now is the welding the hole in the drivers inner wing, because that's what it will fail it's MOT on. Everything else is tidying up and needs doing but isn't a priority.  I really needed to sort the inner wing hole out this time last year but since it was only an MOT advisory I made a poor decision to not do anything about it then. Another instance of fear of starting something I don’t know how to do I suppose. I stuffed a supermarket poly bag into the hole to keep the worst of the winter out and left it.

 

The front of the car is generally quite tatty. I plan to deal with some of this at the same time, thus turning a smallish job into a big one and inevitably missing the MOT in mid September. The wing, bumper and valance all need to come off. They don't need to, but I reckon the wing will be easier to sort with them off. Bumper first. All that's holding the bumper on is the two big bolts hidden behind the overriders, accessed from underneath. Sounds like a simple two bolt removal then… just like the rear shocks. The left one, although tight, I managed to undo fairly easily but the right hand one started tight, then suddenly moved freely after making a breaking noise, as if I'd sheered it. When I removed the socket spanner from the hole the bolt didn't drop out, which I'd have expected if it had sheered. 

No matter how much I turned it with the spanner it just span and nothing happened. I didn't know what to do because I couldn't get at it any other way, and I couldn't tell from the PET (parts catalogue that has some very useful exploded drawings of bits of the car... really useful for trying to work out how to take things apart) what the bolt goes into.

 

 

 

When you've seen a bumper bracket it's obvious what no5 is, but if you've no idea what's behind the bumper it just looks like an unhelpful sketchy squiggle.

 

The indicators and driving lights had come out fairly easily, just a set of unmatched rusty (and definitely non original) screws with a mixture of flat, cross and allen key heads to contend with. I spent easily an hour and a half trying to reach, grab, and hold the nut through the light aperture. Because I couldn't see the nut I had to work out what size (17mm AF) and shape (square) it was by feel, and there was only a very limited access gap at an odd angle. I tried spanners, pliers, grips, grabbers and adjustable everythings but to no avail. I found a pair of angled grips that were the only thing that would actually hold the nut (in photos below with red handles) but when I turned the bolt the handles opened and wouldn't keep it gripped. I even tried clamping the handles together with my smallest g clamp (also in photo) but it kept pinging off.

 

 

In the end I resorted to a plan B: The left side bolt had come out OK so I pulled that side of the bumper as far forward as I could, took the grill off and just barely had enough room to get my hand up between the bumper and the valance to undo the nuts on the right hand bumper bracket to take it off the car while still connected to the bumper.

 

 

 

Thankfully a bit of plusgas and they undid with relative ease. Bumper came off, and the problem was diagnosed as the nut had sheered off the top of the bracket it was welded to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even with the bumper off and easy access to both nut and bolt it took masses of effort to undo it, so I'm not surprised it sheered off. It will either need to be welded back on or a new bracket found.

 

 

 

I broke one of the headlamp washer nozzles too trying to pull the pipe off of it. I think/hope the spare bumper still has one attached. I don't think it's caked in overspray though so it might look out of place a bit (!)

 

 

 

Plenty of signs of overspray on everything. Rolls eyes.

 

 

I'll put the blue one on while I sort out the paint job on my white one.

 

 

Took the naughty bracket in to work, got a colleague to weld the nut back on and I sandblasted off the white overspray and sprayed it matt black. Did the other one too so they matched.

 

 

 

 

 

Then the valance came off, a surprisingly straightforward job. 

 

 

This wing/valance support bracket will probably need to come off for a tidy up:

 

 

And I finally got the washer bottle out and retrieved the spanner that fell down the back of it about a year ago. Hurrah, that's a job crossed off the to do list. The bottom half of the washer bottle, unsurprisingly, is covered in overspray too.

 

 

 

 

[inconsistant]

This is a bit chronologically out of order because I started taking the wing off before I tackled the bumper. after taking out all the bolts I could find I thought I'd remove the bumper and valance to make access to the wing easier. That's why the first couple of pix have the bumper still on.

 

Pulled out side repeater:

 

 

and reconnected inside the wing:

 

 

jacked up and wheel off to make it a bit easier:

 

 

Loosened the bolts along the top of the wing, then undid the 3 bolts at the rear of the wing... but had to chisel of a lot of protective gunk away before I could get a spanner anywhere near it first.

 

 

 

First sign of what I'm dealing with:

 

 

and out pops this, the biggest and nastiest looking bit of body filler I've ever seen. This was wedged into the bottom along where the inner and outer wing meet. Now this is out of the way the small narrow hole reveals itself as a big double fist sized gaping wound. I get the feeling this is going to be more bother than I thought:

 

 

 

I moved my attention to the bolts between the wing and the valance/hanging bracket:

 

 

Fortunately it was easy to see inside the front of the wing as there was plenty of daylight getting through:

 

 

 

 

 

I then turned my attention to removing the bumper, which you already know because that was in the previous post.

[inconsistant]

Found the cheeky little bolt behind the headlight rubber trim and undid that, and the wing just popped off easily. 

 

 

 

 

 

No, of course it didn't... it was a fight trying to trim and remove the sealant stuff that holds it against the inner wing. It took brute force and a good couple of hours to finally get it off, and the bodge at the bottom of the wing by the drivers door didn't help as I think it had been spot welded to the sill flange as I had to whack it off with a chisel.

 

 

 

Worse than I'd hoped, but as bad as I'd expected:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, plenty to be getting on with! MOT just run out so planning to get a local mobile welding person to come and sort it, otherwise mechanic neighbour has offered to have a go, as he can get hold of a mig welder from a chum.

 

I've got a spare wing which I picked up earlier in the year. It's in pretty good condition but unfortunately it's a very rare early wing with no side repeater hole. So I'm torn... I can't just bolt it on after fixing the welding for a quick MOT as I assume it won't pass without a side repeater, and I don't really want to drill holes in this early wing if I can avoid it, especially as a short term fix. I offered it up:

 

 

 

 

 

I think I'm going to see if I can find a way of repairing my wing before I commit to turning this into a late wing. Ideally a nicely finished white, late wing will crop up on eBay cheap and close by. I wish!

 

So on the day the MOT was due it looked like this:

 

[danthecapriman]

Great reading this is! Brilliant progress on it, things always end up far worse than they look or you expect when you start poking around rust.

Looking forward to more updates.

[320touring]

I second that!

 

Informative (and occasionally witty!) Posts with plenty content and pictures.

 

Would read again , if Author was not so Inconsistent..

[inconsistant]

 

At about this time, a photo popped up on Facebook from Karl the bloke I'd helped at the beginning of the year, he's had a racing incident and commented that the wing had been binned. I managed to convince him to retrieve it from the skip and cut off the front half for me in the hope that I could cut it off below the bumper line and repair mine, so the early wing I have would remain unused:

 

 

Steve the owner of the Shonky Rocket  had welded two drivers side wings together so maybe I could do it...

 

In the meantime back to the inner wing repair...

 

With the wing off I could see what I was dealing with. I cleaned up around the hole to see what was good and what needed replacing. I aim to do a better job than the last person who attempted to deal with it. I bought a knot wheel, flap wheels and metal cutting disc for my grinder. 

 

 

 

Beyond the hole it wasn’t too bad. Much of it was just surface rust. I cleaned all the way up the vertical seam to the bonnet to make sure there was nothing else naughty lurking. 

 

 

 

I cut out the bad stuff around the hole back to shiny metal and made it as square as I could, except for an extra bit out the left side where the rust had made its way further across. That was quite exciting. I haven’t cut away bits of my car with a grinder before. I then ground off (what’s left of) the zinc galvanising around the hole. 

 

 

 

 

 

I like the knot wheel, very satisfying to use. I had to stop myself from going over the whole car with it. I did whip off some rusty bits around the front corner where the wing/valance support bracket is and around the tow hook that’s riddled with surface rust and looks really ugly. I couldn't get the bracket off to clean up so I'll come back to it. I brushed all exposed metal with Kurust and a couple of coats of red oxide primer. 

 

 

 

Feeling more confident with the knot wheel I started to go over the drivers side sill weld from two years ago to see how easy it would be to smooth out. I found a cheeky little hole just next to the front end of the weld. 

 

 

My neighbour suggested to run the knot wheel along the sill to remove the thick coat of filler as it might be a bigger hole. I did, and it was. Someone somewhere in the history of my car was massively into filler as an appropriate means of repairing problems. More evidence of that later…

 

 

 

So I cut out around the sill hole too and made it into a nice simple rectangle slot shape. 

 

 

Couldn’t do much more that weekend so I brushed on some kurust and later slapped a coat of red oxide primer on the bare metal to protect it until I made up the repair panels and there was a weekend when my neighbour could borrow a welder and give me a hand/do it for me/show me how to weld. 

 

 

 

Helpfully I had a photo of Karl’s car without the wing on to look at and compare with mine and I noticed my bottom wing sill fixing point was missing, so I would have to make up a new one as part of the repair. I made up a cardboard template to copy from new metal. And another one for the sill hole.

 

 

 

 

I made up the repair panels for the inner wing and sill from the sheet of 0.9mm galvanised steel that I bought from here:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/600-x-600mm-Galvanised-Zintec-Steel-Sheet-Plate-0-9-1-2-1-5-2-0-3-0-mm/290992852240?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=590166743090&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

 

 

and ground off the zinc from the edges, masked the edges and did a couple of coats of acid etch primer, then masked the middle and did a couple of coats on the edges of weld through primer. The car, and I, were ready for some welding action.

 

 

 

 

Next weekend came and the neighbour had the welder (a Snap-On 2135 mig welder) and some spare time to help. Unfortunately he only had one welding mask and no gloves so I couldn’t watch/help/be shown what to do. Also when I did have a go I had to put gardening gloves on which I wasn’t comfortable with. I’m generally quite risk averse so I happily let him get on with it and just helped out with grinding back duties.

 

 

 

 

 

It didn’t go that well. There was lots of spitting and splattering, and what seemed like hours of grinding, for very little welding. The sound of the welder wasn’t right, it didn’t have that consistent noise that you get when doing a nice constant weld. The results weren’t as tidy as I’d hoped, and we were losing decent light so had to stop. 

 

It then rained all day Sunday so we couldn’t do any more to it. I ended the weekend feeling irritated that I was so dependent on others to get the car sorted. Because the car’s out of MOT my options are limited, and it’s my own fault for not sorting sooner. I really hate not being able to stuff myself. I slapped some kurust on the metal to keep it nice.

 

 

 

 

 

We also broke the grinder. It was an old Power Devil one from the late 20th Century, so I wasn’t too gutted except that it wasted a good hour of welding time replacing it. I got a new Makita one from Toolstation (£5 cheaper than Screwfix and next door) and it’s great. What a difference!

 

https://www.toolstation.com/shop/p52935?table=no

 

I also realised that we didn’t build up the bottom of the hole to be flush with the repair panel before welding it on so there was a gap along the bottom of about 5mm that would need filling from underneath.

 

I decided I was going to learn to mig weld before next weekend. Or at least just be able to work out why the welding isn’t going well. We have some decent mig welding kit and knowledge at work and I did some oxy/acetylene welding about 10  years ago so it’s not quite as far fetched as it sounds. Probably...

[Guest Hooli]

That looks like my welding & is why I let others do it.

 

I'd like to learn one day.

[Tickman]

The bit on the front doesn't look too bad for outside welding, the sill does look a bit horrid in the pictures. 

Was there any gas flowing with the sill weld (because little bottles can last 5 minutes)

 

Some great stuff going on in here.

 

Any pictures I have ever taken of the welds I have done always make them look rubbish, even the ones I am quite proud of!

[DodgeRover]

Enjoying updates. Looks like the gas ran out on the cill welding? Get some practise in at work with a decent welder and you'll be fine doing it yourself. Would it be possible to take a mig & bottle home at the weekend?

[inconsistant]

With my new found confidence with the metal cutting disc on my fab new grinder I decided to have a go at the bracket bolts that I couldn't shift. It came off a treat and I took it to work to sand blast/flapwheel and then acid etch primer and a couple of coats of white hammerite for the time being.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll spray a coat of Alpine white on it before fixing back onto the car. Also with the bracket off I spotted a tiny little hole through the bodywork close to the bottom hole. I'm not going to ignore it, but I'd really like to. I'll come back to it shortly. At the moment everything I do is causing more work. Probably for the best in the long run but a bit frustrating at the moment.

[inconsistant]

While I was making a mess of my car and enjoying the knot wheel I thought I'd take the drastic action of removing all the bubbling paint on the passengers side above the sills from the old =PORSCHE= decal. The paint came off in massive flakes, obviously not attached to the metal below it at all. Another case of making the car look worse to make it better. 

 

I really, really hope!

 

 

 

[inconsistant]

In the meantime a bit more loose paint removal, and some knot wheeling back of the rubbish touch ups that I did last year on the badge panel. Back to bare metal or good paint which ever comes first:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[inconsistant]

I went to work with the 2x valances tucked under my arm (odd looks from the commuters on the train) and again I really want to avoid using the spare one so I can sell it on afterwards… so my aim is to refurbish mine using the spare to compare against, put the spare on the car while I get mine resprayed and sorted and then swap it back on

 

 

^^^ Mine is on the left, the spare one is on the right. I cut off the rusty end flanges that bolt onto the front of the wings with tinsnips and our notcher then made L & R templates from the other one and cut out the new ends from the sheet of 0.9mm galvanised steel. It's always nice to be able to legitimately use the word 'flanges'. Now I'm wondering if they are actually flanges or not.

 

 

 

 

 

After drilling the holes I ground off the zinc along the edge to be welded and then masked the edge and did a couple of coats of acid etch primer, then masked the rest and did a couple of coats of weld through primer along the edge to be welded. 

 

 

 

I ground off the paint, the rusty bits and the zinc galvanising on the ends of the valance too. My valance was in a bit of a state generally so I took the opportunity to give it a bit of a hammer, bend, fold and grind to try to get it back into better shape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then checked the new end bits would line up and fit OK before further baffling commuters by taking the valances back home.

 

 

 

 

So, unlike me, they're now ready for welding.

[inconsistant]

One evening last week I managed to convince a colleague to show me how to set up our mig welder at work. I was taking to him about the problems we were having welding the repair panels so we tried to create the same issues butt jointing a couple of bits of mild steel. We tried to emulate the results I got at home. We think the wire feed and/or the power were too high. I then did a couple of hours of mig welding over a couple of evenings trying to understand what effect changing power and wire feed have on the results and I feel like I was starting to get the hang of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I laid a few beads and even managed to join together some bits of mild steel. I think I was beginning to understand the relationship between wire feed speed, power and speed of welding and I think I did OK. I’m sure dirty old metal will be a different matter though. They weren't pretty but they held together OK. I can work on the pretty over time. Or get used to grinding.

[inconsistant]

It’s the weekend and it’s time to do some actual proper welding... I thought I'd start on the valance so that if I messed it up I could bin it. I borrowed an auto dimming mask, welding gloves and a jacket from work and held the FLANGE in place with a magnet.

 

 

 

I made a bit of a mess. I decided to practice and have a fiddle with the settings on the welder. I ended up at power 1 and wire speed 1, pretty much the lowest settings. The main problem though was that I'd forgotten to turn the gas on, and when I did that (the top left one without the brown around it in the pic below) it was a bit more successful. I still made a mess though, but then it was my first day as a welder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then had a go at grinding the front welds down to see how much I could tidy them up. I was quite pleasantly surprised

 

 

[inconsistant]

There were still a few holes and some very thin bits of metal so I went back over them:

 

 

 

I then started to get a bit brave and decided I'd strengthen these little tabs that sit on the top edge:

 

 

I tried adding weld to them but it just melted them so I cut some new bits and welded them on.

 

 

 

 

 

Not great but I'm sure after a bit of tidying up they'll be better than before. I'm quite enjoying this welding lark.

[inconsistant]

I did the valance on Saturday to get some practice, and on Sunday I decided to man up and tackle the actual car. A bit scary as I could end up melting or setting fire to the car, or doing a really bad job of the welding. I started with the hole by the corner bracket. I filed the thin metal to a square then cut out a patch and went for it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That all went OK so I moved on to the other repairs. Started with a blob here:

 

 

And after a bit of welding and grinding and blobbing in bits to fill the holes and crevices from last weekend I managed to get it looking fairly decent. I also built up along the bottom of the sill level with the bottom of the repair patch to leave a clean straight edge which looked a lot better than before:

 

 

Then I had a go at the sill, which was a bit more tricky because it was low down and a bit of a mess. My welding across the top, last weekend's welding along the bottom:

 

 

Then the tricky bit, having to fill the gap along the bottom behind the repair panel. I was dreading it because it needed to be done well and it meant being upside down, which as a beginner I'd have loved someone else to do. I took the wheel off to give me a bit more space and started slowly to see how it went. Not bad in the end:

 

 

I ground back the repairs to make them as tidy as I could and brushed some kurust onto the repairs:

 

 

 

Then some red oxide primer onto the inner wing (the sill hole will need more welding next weekend, which I'm really looking forward to!):

 

 

I was very pleased with this repair for a first go. With the inner wing hole sorted (I'll probably brush some white hammerite on to until I can do a proper job of spraying it in the spring) it felt like I'd turned a corner and I could tick one job off the list. Up until now there's been more and more to do with everything I touch or remove. And while I had the primer out I went over a couple of other bits:

 

 

 

 

Now I need to tackle the wing, which will probably mean a temporary but MOTable bodge on my white one.

 

[inconsistant]

On to the wing repair. To recap: I have a spare wing but I want to avoid using it. This is because it's a wing for an early pre 1980 924 without a hole for the side repeater indicator, and these are getting  very rare compared to the post '80 wings with the hole which were used up to 1988 in the 924 and 924S, so I'd like to keep it as a last resort as I know a couple of owners with early ones who could make good use of it if I don't. It will make my life more difficult but will also be an opportunity to have a go at some welding repairs on my white wing. 

 

My priority is to get the car MOT’d again, as it’s about a month overdue, and I miss driving it. I’m happy to bodge something unsightly for the MOT and then have a bit more time to sort out a decent permanent repair. 

 

It’s the front bit that connects to the valance that’s the big problem. If I’d sorted this a couple of years ago it would have been a small problem but I didn’t really know what to do so now it’s a big problem. You can see how bad it’s got when compared to the other solid wing:

 

 

 

 

So the plan is to make up a temporary front bit, weld it on, smooth it over and get an MOT. Out of the 0.9mm galvanised steel sheet I bought I made another end flange, yes flange, and spot welded it to another bit I’d roughly bent into shape. 

 

 

 

 

I then hammered that over some stakes to create, using memory, photos and cunning, something like what I remembered the front of a 924 wing looks like.

 

 

 

 

[inconsistant]

Time to have a closer look at my wing. on the inside there was some rust in the front corner but it flap wheeled off to leave clean metal underneath so much have been surface rust.

 

 

This edge looks bad but once all the sealant was pulled off it cleaned up ok.

 

 

The bottom bit by where I did the inner wing repair was a bit worse. This is more than surface rust, but I couldn't work out why the metal had rusted in layers.

 

 

So I gave it a flap to see what was under all that rust and just how bad it was:

 

 

Yep, not great.

 

On the front side I cleaned up the grotty bits that I had touched up in the past to get them back to clean metal:

 

 

I thought I would tidy up the bottom sill flange as I thought I could weld some replacement sheet onto it. Uh Oh! This was the point where I started to realise just what a mess was hiding underneath:

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, a huge repair patch tacked on over what was obviously a massive rusty hole. At this point my whole work area was covered in white filler powder, as it had been slapped on super thickly. Yes, I had a decent dust mask on. But just look at that gap, and all covered with lovely filler:

 

 

So knot wheeled off all the filler I could to reveal all and kurusted the bare metal while I considered my options.

 

 

 

 

I had just picked up the front bit of Karl's wing, but now I'm wondering if it's even worth salvaging any of my wing as it's such a mess. And I can't see anyone having the sill bit between the wheel and door to make up a proper repair panel for the bottom, because they're always the bit to rust first. Maybe I could bribe some of the other 924 racing drivers to aim for Karl's front corner in the next race…

[inconsistant]

Back to the sill. Here’s what it looked like before grinding back (my weld along the top, neighbour's along the bottom):

 

 

Here’s what it looked like afterwards:

 

 

Yeah, not great. I had a go at the top weld again and then realised there was so little left of the bottom that it made sense to cut my losses, cut out a bigger hole and make a new repair panel to weld back in. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a lot easer doing it from scratch than having to go back over a previously not-done-that-well weld. And lots quicker.

 

 

Looked OK. I didn’t fancy grinding it at that point so I turned my attention to the wing...

[Stanky]

Nice progress - and well done on the welding, that looks pretty good. I still have TEH FEAR over welding anything so well done getting stuck in.

 

Might it be possible to offer a straight swap of your early wing for an equally good, but later wing so someone gets what they need and you get the one you need and no early, rare panels get butchered?

[inconsistant]

At work I made up a repair panel for the sill behind the wheel. I cut off what was left on the bottom lip/flange so that would need replacing anyway. This would be temporary like the front bottom repair panel, just to get it MOT’d and back on the road.

 

 

 

 

I reattached the wing/valance bracket which I'd hammerited white. I realised I hadn't heard from the Porsche dealer parts people about the order of fixings I'd made. I ordered new nuts bolts and fixings for everything I'd taken off because most were in a rusty state or were a mixture of random fixings. I used what I had for the time being.

 

 

The wing went back on using only 2 or 3 fixings to get it in the right position. I bolted the repair panel to the bracket so that the two overlapped. I cut off the grotty bit from the wing and clamped them both together before tacking them in place and then running a weld along the joint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was quite pleased, for an amateur temporary bodge anyway. I like welding, welding is fun.

[inconsistant]

Nice progress - and well done on the welding, that looks pretty good. I still have TEH FEAR over welding anything so well done getting stuck in.

 

 

Thanks! I've picked it up quite quickly but there's been lots of fear, adrenalin and holes blown in steel on the way that I've glossed over! I think theres a big difference between 'being able to weld' and 'being a good welder'. Ive got a long way to go but it's nice to have made a start There's definitely an aura of mystery and fascination around welding and its been good to get over that initial hurdle of knowing how to make a start.

 

Might it be possible to offer a straight swap of your early wing for an equally good, but later wing so someone gets what they need and you get the one you need and no early, rare panels get butchered?

 

 

Nice idea but trouble is all front wings in decent condition are quite rare. New ones from Porsche are about £600 Most owners that want an early wing have an early car so won't have a late wing for it because of the side repeater hole. It's not as straight forward as it might be!

[inconsistant]

 

I ground back the sill welding and could see that I needed to go back over it a bit as it hadn't fused together in a few places as I could see a hairline crack around the edge of the panel. I think I need to be a bit braver and let the weld heat for a bit longer. It's a fine line though between not enough heat to fuse it together and blowing a hole in it. 

 

 

I went back over it and blew lots of holes in it. Then the gas ran out. I tried to finish the last couple of bits without gas but made it worse instead of better. I also ran out of decent light, and ran out of time.

 

Welding is frustrating. And expensive. The disposable gas bottles are £14 and I've done about 45mins welding with it. I used a bottle last weekend in about an hour. I've still got quite a bit more to do, so easily another bottle, maybe two. I'm suddenly less excited about the opportunities welding allows me to sort stuff out, and am thinking about why I'm throwing so much money on CO2 at my sh1te wing that I'm going to bin anyway. Time for a re-think, which will involve searching for 924 wings on eBay.

 

Tuck the car away for another week...

 

[inconsistant]

Hurrah, I just won a drivers wing on eBay. A bit tatty in places so will need paint but rust free and being alpine white I can bolt it on and tidy it up in the spring and it won't look like too much of a shed in the meantime. Bit of a bargain too at just under £100.

 

[inconsistant]

Seller had a matching passengers wing so I bid on that and won it too. This feels like a much better solution, and should mean sinking less hours into sorting the car out. Plus these wings are very good, so I'll have a better more solid and less bodged car at the end. They've even got the drainage slots in the sill between the wheel and door that I didn't even know were there as mine on both sides had been welded shut and bunged up with masses of filler. No wonder that bit rusted inside the wing.

 

 

Late wings too with the side repeater hole, so I can sell on the other wing.

 

Just have to finish the sill now I have decent wings. That's quite a lot of work saved so I've very happy. I'll take my passenger wing off I the spring and expect the same sort of grief, but not have to waste loads of time, just tidy up the inner wing and bolt this wing on.

 

I'm getting a disposable bottle of CO2 from MachineMart 600g instead of 390g in the same sized bottle for the same price (£14 ish) so that should last a bit longer.

[Parky]

Full of admiration for your work here Mr I, very impressive first time out.

 

Like many I am terrified of welding but seeing someone get results like that without the benefit of years of experience is an encouragement to all of us. Particularly impressed with that inner wing repair panel, nice work!

[inconsistant]

Lost track of months, probably October 2017

 

Had another go at trying to finish the sill repair. Too a few sessions of welding blobs to cover in holes, then grinding back, then welding, etc. finally got it looking OK and doused with Kurust. It's finally run out so I've ordered some Jenolite Rust Converter on good advice.

 

 

 

Yay! I have fixed a rusty hole in the sill! Well proud! 

 

 

Covered all the bare metal that I'd Kurusted with a couple of coats of Red Oxide Primer to protect it over the winter. I wish they did Alpine White Oxide Primer, it's not a red/white two tone effect that looks good.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully this is an aesthetic low point in the life of the car. Slapped a bit more primer on the hidden stuff for good measure, and a couple of coats on the sill repair:

 

 

 

 

And just in time my order of incredibly expensive nuts, bolts and washers arrived:

 

 

Got the (old) toothbrush out and gave the bit behind the bumper a really good clean and jet wash to remove all the gunk and loose overspray.

 

 

Cleaned up the washer bottle too, inside and out. Looks pretty good now. plugged the headlight washer plumbing back in and refitted it all.

 

 

 

 

Fitted the spare valance back on, and reattached the grill too, which I'd given a really good clean with the toothbrush.

 

 

Bolted the 'new' wing on. It's a different white but it's probably the white that the rest of the car should be.

 

 

 

And tried but failed to get the blue bumper back on before I'd had enough of the cold and damp and retreated indoors for a well earned several glasses of red in the bath to warm up. Before that I put the car back on 4 wheels, replaced the battery and checked it started, which it did. Hurrah!

 

Jobs for next Saturday... 

Fit bumper & lights

Fill washer bottle

Wash car

Organise MOT ready for trip to NEC the weekend after.

[Ian_Fearn]

Have you considered getting a bottle of gas from Hobbyweld? Saves a lot of time and money.

 

 

EDIT: Really enjoyed reading this over the last couple of hours, thanks!