Found Object

[Errol62]

That's how I interpereted it when installing on my ute.

Nice work on the floor. I have a rear passenger pan from RS. Only goes up 60mm from memory.

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[ardiesse]

A weekend's delay while I bought tyres in Yass.

It had to do with the "blank look index".  And when you want to buy 165/80R15 tyres, and with tubes, oh and also with TR13-to-TR15 valve stem ferrules, it got a little too much for my local tyre place.  More for a chuckle than anything else, I called the tyre shop in Yass, asked three questions and got three immediate replies in the affirmative.  So they got my business.

Meanwhile, back at the rough-as-guts bodyworks, I tried something new: trace around the replacement section, subtract a couple of sheet thicknesses, slice along the dotted line, and commence tack-welding.  It worked quite well.



I stitched it up three-quarters of the way around, leaving the future join with the Rare Spares floor as tack-welds, but it got too dark for a decent photo.

But once you factor in stretch from the panel-pressing, and the inevitable rust, the metal on the tunnel is thin.  Even with the welder at minimum current, I blew holes and had to make "detours" to fill them in.  The "stack-the-dots" technique seems to work the best with metal this thin.

Rob

[zulu]

Rob,

recently had the same blank look / response re the ferruls, good luck trying to find any in the metro area, or even anyone who knows what they are or what you're talking about, even with an old sample!

Looks like found object is receiving deserved treatment, keep up the good work

[ardiesse]

Transmission tunnel repair section is now in place, with all the seams (bar one) stitched up, and the seat belt anchor plate installed.



I can now get the engineer out to inspect the anchor plate installation.

Rob

[Errol62]

You’ve been busy. It looks like the car was left parked on the camber with the rear drivers window open.


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[ardiesse]

On Friday, "w.f.h.", I started to reconstruct the driver's B-pillar.  First was to put the "roof" back on the outer sill: one fabricated patch, and then some postage-stamp repairs, and finally some rust holes to colour in with the welder.



That was a day's work (fabricating repair section not included).  Next: join the B-pillar to the reconstructed sill.  The part inside the RHR door opening was two small repair sections, cut, bent, butt-welded and plug-welded.



That was a day's work.  Similarly for the part inside the driver's door opening.



The possibility now exists to spend fourteen more days straight on my aptly-named coronavirus project.  Maybe, just maybe, I'll get the B-pillars completed.

Rob

[Errol62]

Pity I can’t pop around for a look see 8 (


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[ardiesse]

Two weeks' worth of "working from home" was a forlorn hope.  On Monday I was informed that I am an essential worker, so (delicious irony) I had to fill in "working from work" forms and submit them to HR.

No, I am not making this up.  And I was one of three people in the corridor working from work.

Progress (of sorts) closing up the driver's side B-pillar:



And then, one more piece cut to shape, bent to fit, and stitched into place:



I'll wait until after the outer sill is replaced before re-fitting the division strip.

Rob

[ardiesse]

Today's effort: some tidying up around the base of the B-pillar, a small repair to the inner sill, removal of the diseased part of the inner skin, and some paint inside the pillar.



Then I fabricated the repair to the B-pillar's inner skin.  Here it is, complete with holes for plug welds.



Rob

[fcwrangler]

Good progress Rob, a word of warning though. If you are fitting a centre seat belt you will need to have separate plates as the rules now state one bolt per plate. I had to change mine on the tunnel front and rear.
Jim

[fcwrangler]

Oops, that should be one belt anchor  per plate.

[ardiesse]

Thanks Jim - but I'm only fitting two seat belts to the front.

Rob

[ardiesse]

I spent the weekend dodging raindrops.  The sky cleared.  I started work.  It rained.  I packed everything away.
 The sky cleared.  Repeat.  But this was a looong time coming -



The driver's side B-pillar is closed up.

And yea verily, there was much rejoicing.

I poured some fishoil into the pillar, tipped the shell onto its side, then wadded paper towel into the base of the B-pillar to sop the fishoil up, and welded the last repair piece in place.  Nothing caught fire.  (And yes, I removed the paper towel before welding.)

The inner sill repair piece needed about 3 mm trimmed off the top return, and it went into place easily.

Next task: plug-weld the passenger's side B-pillar.  Rear door jamb: easy as.  Front door jamb: the welds spat and carried on.  And of course, in chipping away at the base of the B-pillar, a few pinholes became thumbnail-size.  Nowhere near as bad as the driver's side (fortunately), so I could get away with colouring-in and grinding back.  I fixed a few little holes in the top of the outer sill, and then called it quits for the weekend.



There are a few more repairs to do on the top of the LH sill, but in the scheme of things, they're quite straightforward.

Rob

[ardiesse]

I spent the weekend chipping away at rust, then filling holes, either with the welder alone, or with pieces of sheet.



Honourable mention to the angle grinder, too.

It doesn't look like much, but there are now no holes in the top of the passenger's side sill.

Rob

[ardiesse]

The major part of this weekend's effort was to repair the . . . if it was a plane I'd call it a longeron . . . the longitudinal member that goes under the floor pans.  This is where the famous sill reinforcement/jacking point sits.  The challenge was in working out what features to put in when.  The lengthwise "joddle" was first, followed by the profiles at each end of the repair piece.  Then there was a gentle bend, which I gauged with the old jacking point.

Here are the old and new:



Then I welded the repair in place, along with another postage-stamp repair -



Bending the final return, at the outside edge, waited until now.  I figured it was easier to do it with the piece held firmly in place.  A few short welds to finish off, and -



(Photo taken lying down, with camera upside-down.  Note relative positions of body and ground.)

Other than that, I patched a few holes in the top of the RH sill, and cut a foot or so off the RH outer sill at the rear, just to get an idea of the state of the inner sill.  The rear fifteen inches are about half air and half metal.

Rob

[Errol62]

I am very familiar with the aspect you speak of Rob. I hope it was warmer in Sydney than Willunga today, for lying under cars on concrete. Good progress.


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[ardiesse]

Yeah (I hope).  It was 15, windy, but sunny.  Welder doesn't like wind.

[Roybeth]

Yeah (I hope).  It was 15, windy, but sunny.  Welder doesn't like wind.

Wow so warm - topped out at 9.3o here yesterday  - and the wind I'm sure made it much colder - I spent a bit of time rummaging around for parts but was just toooo cold to do anything - brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[ardiesse]

This is the rearmost part of the driver's side inner sill, or to be pedantic, what remains of it.



I found an offcut of 1.6 in the sheet-metal shop, and using the section I cut out of the inner sill below the B-pillar as a template, the sheetie made up an 18" section of inner sill.  This time, I thought I'd have a shot at pressing the dimples into the inner sill.  One of the guys on FB-EK described how he did it with a home-made die, a socket, and a vice.

Peering inside the sill for a good place to cut, and guessing where the inner sill would have ended gave me 14-1/2" in length.  The dimples are 2" dia at the base, and 1-1/2" dia at the top.  They're 4 mm deep (units, sorry).  On this part of the sill, the dimples are spaced at 3-1/4" intervals, and are centred 1-1/2" below the top return of the inner sill.

I found one of my father's bowl blanks - a piece of hardwood with a 2" dia recess turned into the base.  I put a big Jubilee clip around it so it wouldn't split, and measured up my sockets.  The 1-1/8" socket was 1-1/2" OD.  So far so good.

Mark up inner sill section.  Check marking-up, only to discover that my reference was at the wrong end.  Remove markings.  Mark section again, with arrows indicating top and front.  Compare marked-up repair section with the inner sill again.  Go to work with the home-made press tooling . . .

OK, but - the metal bows in every direction, requiring straightening work with vice, hammer and dolly.  Once that's done, it looks satisfactory.



Now to remove the inner sill section, while keeping as much as possible of the floor and the box-section just in front of the rear wheel arch.  The floor and the flange of the box section will locate the inner sill repair.  I sliced off another few inches of the outer sill to give me room to swing the angle grinder and drill.  From the inside of the sill, I could see where the spot-welds were.  I drilled through them with a 1/8" drill, and then got out with the spot weld drill from on top.  I cut half-way up the inner sill with the angle grinder, and finished the cut off with a hacksaw.  I tried to pull the inner sill piece out, but it didn't want to move.  Found another spot weld and drilled it.  Ping!  And out came what was left of the inner sill (bottom half sliced off so I could get the drill in).



The astute observer will notice an "oops" here.  The return isn't wide enough for most of its length.  I just blindly used the section I cut out at the base of the B-pillar.  Didn't think that the return is of different width here.  I'll fix that with Mister MIG.

But now that the inner sill's out, I can get into the U-section at the front of the rear wheel arch.  It's complicated by the ribs, and also because none of the fold lines are straight lines.  I'm going to repair it in three pieces (which I'll have to do on the passenger's side too).

Rob

[Errol62]

Very good progress Rob 👍

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