Craig,

I have many taillight housings.

Front quarter windows are a world unto themselves.  If you want a top-class job, it's best to separate the top hinge brackets from the frames, and also the lock pivot from the frame (many rivets to drill) and get each component rechromed separately.  Be aware also that the replacement Rare Spares rivets are oversize.  I had to turn them down before I could use them.  Also, chroming reduces hole diameters.

Rob

Craig,

It depends what you want to achieve with the hubcaps, but Electroplating Technology in Queanbeyan does a good thing with steel hubcaps.

Rob

And today I re-installed the (repaired) floor of the rear box member -



Couldn't plug-weld to save my life today.  But they look sort-of OK when dressed.  And on the boot pan side there are nice melt marks, so they can't be all that bad . . .

Rob

- and yet again.

I fishoiled the inside of the RH chassis member, and as I was wiping up the leaks I noticed a few on the inside (of the boot).  The fish oil unerringly found some spots to the rear of last week's repair that had rusted through the boot floor.

Grinder, wire brush (and chalk to mark the oozy locations), and the hot metal glue-gun yet again.

By the way, welding a freshly fish-oiled body part is definitely not recommended procedure.  But you gotta do what you gotta do . . .

Rob

Well done!

Rob

Glenn,

The front seat squab cover on Standards has no side opening.  The seams have piping (if that's the right word) starting at the bottom of the sides, going up, continuing across the top of the seat and down the other side.

I can send you a photo or two of my FC's front seat, if that'd help.

Rob

- and it happened again.  As I was sanding the area I wanted to paint, I noticed a couple of rust stains.  Couldn't help myself.  Got a centre punch and hammer and hit in the middle of the stains.  Ping!  A couple more holes.  Out with the Hot Metal Glue-Gun^TM yet again.

Now, it's beginning to sound like Swamp Castle: "But the fourth one, son, stayed oop."

The inside of the rear box section is red-oxide primed.

And I started repairing the "floor" of the rear box section.

Rob

It keeps on giving.  I went to paint the inside of the rear box section today, and as I was cleaning the inside, I pinged off some rust scale, and . . .



As they say, it's only sheet metal.

Rob

Rain Stops Play.  This is, of course, because there's a cricket match at the SCG.  This is as far as I got -



Scope-creep yet again.  A few little rust holes became five repairs, of which three here.  The others tomorrow (fingers crossed).

Rob

Fuel tank flange and part of rear box section repaired.



The spot-welded seam between the boot floor and bottom part of the box member hadn't been sealed, and mud got in underneath through the gap at the tank corner, leading to the inevitable.

Rob

Trevor,

I should have a usable first-reverse sliding gear, and I have reverse idler gears.  Cluster gears (aka counter gears) in good condition are like hens' teeth.

I have to ask - why do you want to replace them?  Chipped teeth?  Chipped teeth hardly ever happens to reverse idler gears, but more commonly to the first/reverse gear and the cluster gear.  Gears that have been in service for a while tend to round off the "pointing" where the teeth engage.  This isn't a problem, and even minor chipping around the points is tolerable.  Chipped teeth become a problem when, say, more than a third of the tooth's missing.

The things to watch out for are -

Pitting of the gear teeth, usually in a line along the base of the base of the cluster gear teeth where first gear engages, but also on the first/reverse sliding gear.  This condition makes for noisy first gear.

Pitting of the needle roller bearing bores at each end of the cluster gear.  It isn't a show-stopper if the rest of the gear's in good condition, it just makes for a slightly noisier gearbox in first and second.

If the gearbox is out of the car, and you've taken the bottom cover off, take photos of the sliding gear, cluster gear and reverse idler gear.  Post them up here and I'll tell you what I think based on their condition.

Rob

From floor level down, not much.  Most of the LH sill is original, though.

Roof, subframe skirts, firewall, pillars, swinging panels, rear quarters from bumper level upwards.

. . . and today I zipped in the remaining weld on yesterday's repair, and found a couple of pinholes close by, which I filled in.  Then I drilled a couple of rows of spot-welds and removed the bottom of the rear box-section to gain access to some rusted-out parts of the rear boot floor pressing.



Rob

I snuck in a couple of hours late this afternoon, and here's what happened -



Rob

I guesstimated the dimensions of the repair piece, cut it to size, folded it, hammered in the drain slot (the one which got spot-welded shut at the factory) and made a first attempt at the curve up.



Because the top side was rusty, I couldn't see where the spot welds were.  I worked from the underside with a pair of outside calipers to mark the welds' locations, and drilled them.  Then made my best guess at the cut lines.  The short transverse cuts at front and rear I perforated with an 1/8" drill (yes, slow and laborious).  After some trimming, the repair sat in position, well enough form the profile of the curve and put in some tack welds.



I welded up the drain slot and curve, dressed the welds and painted the under- and inside.  Meanwhile I swept a layer of fine dust out of the box member and breathed some paint into the inside while it was open.  Then drilled the repair section for plug welds.  Final trimming, clamps to hold the section in place, and the serious action started with Mister MIG -



There's still about a 4" section not welded.  I need to cut out and replace a rusted-out section just to the left of it.

And I even beat the afternoon thunderstorm today.

Rob

Rain Stops Play.

That's just about a given.  But it held off long enough so that I could go in with a MAP gas torch, wire brush and dental pick on the front right part of the boot pan, revealing -



Confirming my suspicions really.  The car spent too long outdoors with the driver's front corner facing downhill.

But hey, it's only sheet metal, and I have a welder.

Rob

LHR inner quarter panel, second repair -



And third repair -



Strange.  No afternoon thunderstorm (yet).

Rob

This is the LH inner rear quarter panel, the one which I thought was sound.  But after scraping off body sealer, and a lot of wire-brush work, this is what it looks like:



It's cratered from this side.  So it rusted out, not because water got in from the boot, but because of layers of mud on the underneath.  Did I say "postage-stamp repairs"?  Well, they are now going to be Post-It Note repairs.



The first of (probably) three repairs.  Donor piece: an offcut of an unused part of a Rare Spares floorpan.

And now the afternoon thunderstorm with optional hail has rolled in, right on cue . . .

Rob

One step back and two forward (part LXXVII) -

I discovered rust holes in the lower part of the LHR wheel arch.  Of course, they didn't look all that big when I stuck a screwdriver through, but then as I pinged rust scale off, and chased holes, it all grew a bit.  To the point where it would have been wise to cut the return off the wheel arch, slice out the rotten bit and replace it.

I chose the way of folly.  But with persistence and a few thumbnail-size pieces -



- and it cleaned up OK with the die grinder.

Rob

. . . and the inner RHR quarter panel is repaired.



Am I relieved or what . . .

There's no substitute for fitting the parts carefully before you fit them.  Because when you fit them prior to fitting them, they fit, and only take minimal adjustment when you're welding them in place.  But the inner wheel arch repair got me.  It was too big, so I trimmed it, and then there was some form of hiccup in the spatio-temporal continuum, and the part which was too big a minute earlier fell through the hole, and had gaps a couple of mm wide.  No great problem, though.  I could bridge the gaps with weld.

Next: holes in the inner LHR quarter panel.  I am seriously considering postage-stamp repairs for these.  Fabricating the complete inner quarter panel repair was worthwhile, but time-consuming nonetheless.

Rob