Restoring Mollie (69 Bay) 500+ Photos

[Nick-Rackham]

Looking good!!!
Would be cool if you could get it ready for Alive & Veedubbin, a nice local show for Mollie to show her new look off.

Cheers Bud On a scale of 1 to 10 there's no chance of getting her ready for Alive and Veedubbin this year! Would be nice, but realistically, no chance!

 

[Nick-Rackham]

Not too many photo's today, started off bad, got better, got worse, and then got better typical day really!

Started off with this!

Why can't they make them square and true! I know it only took 10-15 minutes or so to sort, but that's not the point!

sorted!

and on

Oops! must have had the shakes!

Took a break and scored a NOS front arch off fleabay!

Got a little more done on the rear crossmember, adding in the extended piece

Then as I'd got a couple of flashes from the welder today I was about to head out when Grazy popped over for a coffee after a quick catch up, and measuring his rear wheel wells for reference I wandered off to Focus, picked up a plastic container, then to Tesco for some Soda crystals, and I'm now trying this

Electrolytic rust removal! got to be worth giving it a go! cost a couple of quid and if parts are getting de rusted while I'm welding, got to be a bonus!

James is coming over tomorrow, so hopefully will be a good day again and hopefully lots more done! I'm hoping that the centre section, all tophats, outriggers jacking points, inner and middle sills will be done by the end of Monday!! Welded, cleaned up, etched and primed!!!! :shock:

Maybe Alive and VeeDubbin 2011 is possible! :lol:

 

[snow_pikey]

Big project! I covert your spot welder

Make the most of the long weekend looking good

 

[Nick-Rackham]

Big project! I covert your spot welder

Make the most of the long weekend looking good

Cheers Dude The spot welder is a god send, scored it off ebay for not a lot but the time it saves is paying for itself

Your project is looking good, had a quick nosey last night! Keep at it

 

[Nick-Rackham]

A quick update from today. Not so many pictures unfortunately!

Another quality repro panel!

NOT!!!!

Remember the sliding door cover that refused to move! Cut it off

Guess it's passed WD40 to free it off! Will be looking for replacement panels later!

James got stuck into a couple of small chassis repairs behind the rear outrigger, Cheers Bud, really appreciate the help

Unfortunately pics didn't come out of the finished article so I'll take some tomorrow

Did a bit of work on the nearside battery tray, but again no pics yet! Hopefully more to come from tomorrow

 

[Nick-Rackham]

Where did I get to! Oh, spent most of the last week or so either touching up some welds I wasn't happy with and or grinding off welds!

Couple of pics as an update...

Outrigger in place

and again

another quality panel! not!!!

and again! crap aren't they and meant to be genuine! Fook knows how they put these together in Brazil!!!!

Inner and middle sill now on

cut a closing plate for under the last top hat, and spot welding together before it goes in. Not enough space to get to it once its in with the welder arms I have

The postie has also been busy this week

Thanks Guy I grinned when these arrived

Pair of these

with the adapter plate, cheers Mr Schofield

Courtesy of FBI

Courtesy of eBay

and finished off by cleaning up the heater pipe until noise curfew

Looking at my ambitious plan, better get some kip and up early tomorrow!

 

[gninnam]

Coming along nicely - and agree about some of those parts which are 'genuine' :evil:

Wish I'd got my floors from Schofield, look at lot better than the JK one's.

So looking forward to see how you progress mate :mrgreen:

 

[Nick-Rackham]

Cheers Bud. The Schofield panels feel the same thickness as the original (I know the original is probably a bit thinner now due to being 40+ years old) and the conversion plate is very well made, crisp folds, good fit, really good quality

When are you aiming to have yours on the road, which shows are you doing? Be good to get a beer this year

 

[gninnam]

When are you aiming to have yours on the road, which shows are you doing? Be good to get a beer this year

Was hoping this summer, but still finding surprises so who knows
Defo meet up for a beer at one of the shows if and when it is legally rolling

 

[Robby]

Your the fella that outbid me for the nos arch on eBay! Wondered if I was someone on here :lol:

 

[Nick-Rackham]

Your the fella that outbid me for the nos arch on eBay! Wondered if I was someone on here :lol:

Sorry Bud and cheaper than a body cut too!

 

[555dale555]

looking good fella im just starting a very similar resto on another blue & white 69 devon just been looking at your thread preparing for whats coming my way keep up with the good work mate !!

 

[Nick-Rackham]

Cheers Bud left a post on your resto thread! Good luck

 

[Nick-Rackham]

Todays update! Sorry, forgot to take pics

Raided Halfords

I love U-Pol 8)

Been working on the underneath of the centre section, still cleaning up a few welds, and metal readying cleaned up bits, so while I was waiting for the metal ready to dry off thought I'd have a look at the bodged B Post repair on the near side! I know, it wasn't on the plan for this week, but.... Progress is progress!

Cleaned up inner B Post, a fair bit of corrosion at the bottom and chopped out previous patch. wasn't a bad bit of welding, unfortunately hadn't cleaned up and prepped underneath so was rotting inside!

Chopped out the outer, was not so good under multiple repairs, mastic, ali plate and rivets etc

And finally laid the cargo floor

What do you reckon? a bit of seam sealer and a few Mad Mattz tiles?

Got a day at home tomorrow so hopefully will get some more done! Cheers for all the replies, keeps the motivation up

 

[gninnam]

I think whoever sold you that floor as a repro VW one saw you coming :lol:

Starts to get boring when you pull metal off to find bodge after bodge doesn't it :evil:

Keep up the good work

 

[Mickey Sam]

Nick, have you booked your MOT yet :lol:

Seriously, great progress mate, particularly with some of the bodges you've had to sort out !

 

[Nick-Rackham]

Cheers Guys

I'm definitely convinced that this was going to be a proper resto for someone in the past, it's had some professionalish repairs done, but then looking at it, I think all the stripping down, prep cutting out crap was undertaken, and then whoever decided to just bodge it, patch it, fill it and move it on! Which is a shame as it's really not too bad once you get through all the layers of crap that have been slopped on!

Mickey, MOT booked for 5 July

Andy, yep, I bought the floor blind! liking the wood effect though

Got some more goodies coming too...... I'll leave you in suspense! :msn4:

 

[Nick-Rackham]

A quick update on progress from today. Not as much as I'd hoped, and nowhere near my target!!

Rewelded the front outrigger as I wasn't happy with what I'd done previously, got jacking point lined up, measured and welded up

Ground down and pleased with that. Just a little more tidying!!

Then cut down the repair panel. Been reading the Camper and Bus article over and over, but there's something not quite right. In the article it mentions the closing plate being sandwiched between the inner and outer B Posts, but the Outer B Post comes with two cavity inspection holes, i.e. waxoil holes etc. But the closing plate covers these on the inside!! so decided to have a look at my body cut for the offside from FBI and it looks like the closing plate has a step (Joggle) in it and just sits between the joint of the Inner and Outer B Posts. hmmmm.....

A bit more thought needed, anyway, cut the panel down so I could weld part of it in and get some strength back into the shell. Was a little too much flex for my liking!

Not bad penetration

Need to get the Inner Sill in before I can tie it all together so chopped out the old one and started cleaning back the remnants of the belly pan and multiple patches the passed as an excuse for the inner sill!!

Not sure if you can see in this last pic that the middle sill has been patched twice before! GREAT!

Think I'm going to get it all cleaned up as much as possible and rust treated, then chop the small damaged areas out and replace, treat, etch and paint as much as I can, then slide the Inner Sill in and tack along the bottom. Once that's in I can then whip off the outer Sill and then spot weld it properly, clean up any other areas that look bad, and treat etc. before getting the Outer Sill on? Hopefully that makes sense! :?

Still a way to go and with Kid stuff and work not going to be much of an update over the next few days! Looks like my timetable just went tits up!!

 

[sonylr]

Wish I'd got my floors from Schofield, look at lot better than the JK one's.
pls guide me

 

[gninnam]

You feel like you have not moved forward much but I would say that you have

Good work as usual :mrgreen: