First attempt at Crossover Resto

[Mags]

gninam, just looked at your site, looks good, great to see the work being done well.

Mags

 

[gninnam]

gninam, just looked at your site, looks good, great to see the work being done well.

Mags

Thanks, but ooh soo sloow

 

[Mags]

Long overdue an update here, rubbish progress over christmas, I didnt get down to van from early Dec through to about 2 weeks ago. Still, at least I'm getting faster with practise now!

So, after attacking the offside, heres the pile of remnants

all the rusty crap gone, ready for new parts

Watched closely by the pigs and dog

New front outrigger and repair to cross section

New rear outriggers and inner sill

Middle sill on

Patched the N/S floor from a few months ago

New inner B post

Finally, outer B post on today

Next update will be the inner arch repair going on, probably not for a few weeks now.

Mags

 

[gninnam]

Looking very good the work you are doing 8)

Keep the momentum up

 

[Mags]

Long overdue an update, been using the Easter break to get some work done.
Outer B post on

Looks like I've forgotton to take some photo's here as its skips to all the inner arch complete now

Hacking the drivers side floor for a new panel but came across chassis rot which I hadn't seen before, bummer!

Never mind, got the new arch on anyway

Had to make up the flange that the carpet hooks onto

Cut out the rot that seems to be caused by the ariel allowing water to drip directly onto the edge of the front panel, the other side is spotless

and testing the new metal fit

Welded up and slapped with zinc paint

Test fitting the lower repair panel on the non-slider side. Bit of a ball ache with this panel as I couldn't use a sill only because the rot went up too far so had to go for the repair panel and the fake swage line, only problem is it doesn't have any end shape to meet the back of the B post so I had to improvise to keep the vertical swage line, it doesn't look too great in the pictures but with some seam sealer etc I reckon it will be spot on.

Seems like a load of work summarised in a few piccies but also trimmed up the lower front panel ready to go on and pulled the engine and 'box with the help of a mate today who needed a little patch welded on. Pulled the windscreen and dash out to assess the frame damage but no pics yet, not pretty though, filler and ally mesh on the lower edge so expecting some horrors once I get the wire brush out!

 

[gninnam]

Looks like a busy Easter

Amazing how these busses rot and then the repairs the PO's make... :evil:

 

[Mags]

Bit of progress today but had bit of a crap day to be honest.
In another post I think I was asking about the bottom of the nearside B post and in the end it was ballsed up, I left it alone as going back to cut out fresh welding and panels wasn't high on my list to do.
So, thought I'd better get it done today, didn't take any photo's in progress (D'oh!) but here was the problem before, B post too low for the inner sills, all done because the low edge of the wing was too low.

So I cut out the bottom few inches of the B post, seperated the bottom of the arch from the inner wing and put a new B post on, reshaped the arch and welded all back up, looks much better and means I can get the outer sill on at last.

I pulled the windscreen out a couple of weeks ago to tackle the surround, it had been bodged before by a PO, I'd seen some filler and gauze sticking out inside but it was way worse than I had expected, someone had gone to the trouble of making all neat 'L' shaped ally sections to allow them to stick the gauze and filler to, to reproduce the surround shape, there was so much ally, filler and gauze it would have been quicker to have cut the rot out and weld a patch in I'm sure. Repairs like that really piss me off as I now have to cut the whole upper bulge off the front just so I can get to the mess they have made of the inner panel. Fortunatley I can repair the inner panel as it seems fairly flat but the repair pieces I had bought for the screen are now useless, can I buy just an upper front panel repair section?
Some pics of the mess, althought they haven't come out too great.

Anyway, thats it for today, I managed to take a lump out of my thumb with the grinder as well, that'll teach me not to wear the welding gaunlets when grinding

Mags

 

[gninnam]

Excellent work dude - coming on nicely and looking forward to what you do next :mrgreen:

 

[Nugsy]

Lot of good work going on there. i did the same thing with the b-post repair. Put it on first thinking everything will line up fine. Then when i come to put the sills/wing on realised the curve was incorrect and it was to low down. Bought a new one and started again as being the first bit i did my welding skills were still rusty at the time.

 

[Zcat7]

Jeez Mags, that didn't look THAT bad when we pulled the screen out!! As you say, the amount of time it must have taken to do that bodge... I wonder if it was repaired years ago before spare panels were readily available?

Neil

 

[Mags]

Long overdue an update, not been getting to work on the old girl as much as I'd like but progress is being made, had a good day yesterday so heres a few updates.....

After fixing my nearside B post I managed to get the sill on under the slider, not very happy with the fit, bit I think a bit of filler will help tidy it up, the quality of the panel was ropey anyway ( I bought 2 and they were both the same)

With a lick of my favorite paint

I moved onto the front lower repair section, I didn't want to butt weld only as I thought I'd struggle to get a decent finish and I thought if I tried to put a flange on the repair panel I'd have the same problem, so I decided to weld a band behind the panel joins that I could get some decent plug weld onto, both for a clean finish and a bit of added strength so the panel doesn't warp, it actually worked really well so pleased I did this.

Lining up the new panel

Plug welded on and a squirt of paint as I ran out of time for the day

Then ground down the welds, looking a bit neater

Next plug welded all along the bottom, ground down ready for paint

Finally with a link of paint to protect it (my camera battery went flat so the crap pictures are from my phone)

So switched attention back to the windscreen inner and outer that were much worse than expected, I bought a genuine full inner panel but decided to trim it as replacing the whole panel would have been much more work with no real benefit. The rust had only killed the top couple of inches so I cut out a neat section in two parts to keep a reference to the aperture size.
So here's the full extent of the damage

I have no idea what all the drilling is about, I can only assume it had a problem in the past with the wiper spindles or something, the bodges on the frame were epic, maybe related.

Cut out ready for fresh metal.

Using the cut section as a template

Welding in the new section

Annoyingly the new panel doesn't have the dash mounting bracket, so had to pick this off the section I cut out and weld back onto the new piece. I drilled alignment holes and put those little aircraft fixings widgets in that a mate lent me to keep the bracket lined up correctly, I won't know if I've done it well until the dash goes back in I guess?

Finally, all in with a lick of paint, ran out of time so will do the same on the passenger side next time.

Thats it for now, will be ordering an outer repair panel next so I can finish thet front off.

Mags

 

[gninnam]

Hats off to you - all the hard work looks to be paying off now 8)

 

[Rob b]

I'm liking all the work your doin dude just a couple of questions I wanted to ask
Are you goin to seam weld that lower front panel repair section? An were you have tacked the sections that are normally spot welded have you cut a v in one of the lip then welded it



Cheers rob

 

[Mags]

I'm liking all the work your doin dude just a couple of questions I wanted to ask
Are you goin to seam weld that lower front panel repair section? An were you have tacked the sections that are normally spot welded have you cut a v in one of the lip then welded it



Cheers rob

Hi Rob, No, I'm not going to seam weld it, just plenty of plugs welds. I don't think its a problem unless anyone can tell me otherwise?
Not sure what you mean on the 2nd question, I've either butt welded the two edges or plug welded when panels overlap (so cut an 8mm hole in the top panel to weld through) is that what you were asking?

Mags

 

[Rob b]

Yo man the problem you will come across if you dont seam weld them is when you fill over them a line will appear after time because of the panel flexing an the 2nd thing I was on about was where you have done the sill it looks like you just welded the edge of the seam an didn't plug it or v it

Other then that the work you have done looks spot on

This is what I do for a living so you dont just think I'm a key board warrior
http://www.butlinclassiccars.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Rob

 

[Mags]

Yo man the problem you will come across if you dont seam weld them is when you fill over them a line will appear after time because of the panel flexing an the 2nd thing I was on about was where you have done the sill it looks like you just welded the edge of the seam an didn't plug it or v it

Other then that the work you have done looks spot on

This is what I do for a living so you dont just think I'm a key board warrior
http://www.butlinclassiccars.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Rob

Thanks for the enlightenment! I wasn't aware it would do this but it makes sense that it would. I'll clean up the joint and go back and seam weld it, I'll have to do the same on the o/s sill panel as well.

On the n/s sill, yes I have only welded the edge, I was following a great write up from here:
http://www.specialpatrolgroup.co.uk/spooky/sills/ns/ns.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
where it mentions the n/s sill has no structural qualities so didn't do anything more than this, do you think otherwise?

Thanks for pointing out the problems, constuctive critisism always welcolmed.

Mags

 

[Rob b]

Hello again I just looked at that link an yeah guess your right I think it's just habit that I do it the way I do an e types have big old sills so do it like how I said but not to worry

An seam welding is a pain but it's doin the job right just take your time an work from the centre out an don't do more that an inch at a time

That section you plugged behind will help you out an help it not to warp


Rob keep up the good work

 

[Mags]

Cool, thanks again.
Forgot to mention the E-Type resto's on your site look gorgeous, nice work.

Mags

 

[Rob b]

No worries dude can't wait to see it done



Rob

 

[Nugsy]

Superb job going on their and all looks oh to familiar

I agree with the seam welding bit but if things start to look bad (as an amatuer welder even doing a few inches started warping things) you can always just do 'pearl' welding where you basically do like plug welding but just keep moving all over so it ends up just looking like a row of spots, as long as you get good penetration it should be fine.

With my slider sill i basically lined it up slightly out as the panels are crap anyway and seam welded along the length of the over lap. gound down afterwards it looked fine to me

keep up the good work, and keep working away and it will all come together fine