Vitesse said:

You scared me at first as I scrolled through this thread, I thought you'd rolled Murf for a minute!!!!!!

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Quite possible if I had been out in the last few days.
We had a minus 7 the night before last and frost hung over everything.
I am quite cruel to Murf but I do spare hime the worst of the winter.

fiat500 said:

Quite possible if I had been out in the last few days.
We had a minus 7 the night before last and frost hung over everything.
I am quite cruel to Murf but I do spare hime the worst of the winter.

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Yeah I saw the weather forecast for tomorrow, they say it's going to be positively tropical in the Highlands tomorrow but you probably only get an hour of daylight that far norf!

hi guys..
new update, and request for some criticism on what you'll see here..
last thursday i welded the 'patch' in place, but guess what? was so excited about it that didn't even check if it was properly aligned - dumb! it wasn't! it was all straight, but wouldn't align with the sill properly (the bottom border of this patch was sitting about 3~4 mm below the sill..
of course i cut it out again (not easy at all, considering i didn't want to make it worse, nor lose the patch used). so, today i was able to shorten it, spot weld, make sure it was reaaally well aligned, weld it all in place, grind, and zinc prime..
needless to say: it's obvious where the welds were done, but my question to you: would you bother to make it reaaaally smooth, considering it's out of sight when the sill goes in place?
photos:



can you see that alignment on the bottom of the sill?

That is pure genius and you know it.
The future looks promising for your car.
Personally I only ever smooth down hidden welding when I've made an embarrassing mess or when it gets in the way of fitting other panels or internal fittings.
Also, in my opinion, the odd pinhole doesn't really matter as long as the main welding is good and ther real rust is removed.

fiat500 said:

That is pure genius and you know it.
The future looks promising for your car.
Personally I only ever smooth down hidden welding when I've made an embarrassing mess or when it gets in the way of fitting other panels or internal fittings.
Also, in my opinion, the odd pinhole doesn't really matter as long as the main welding is good and ther real rust is removed.

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:worship::worship: thanks a lot. i definitely understand the concept of making 'an embarrassing mess' while welding.. that's why i had to clean all this before consider it done.. the spot welds gave me some hard time to have properly done (it was my first time doing spots), but the final ones are strong.

the other side (where visible) the weld is pretty clean - i'm impressed myself, as i just went there to look at it - didn't look before because i was somehow afraid of it. but it isn't clean around it (meaning rust and what not) so, won't be posting pic yet. i probably won't be touching that weld from under the car, as it looks just fine as is, and would be unnecessary to hurt the weld.
the floor, on the corner behind this patch got a cut of about 10x15 cms, just to have enough clearance while welding this in place.

next two days i'll be spending more time in the garage, so, if everything goes right, i might be able to have the inner sill patched, outter sill in place and at least half outter front wheel arch in.

There are some good pictures on the link below showing repairs in the same sort of area you are currently working on. You never know they may give you some pointers. Look in their timeline photos.

https://www.facebook.com/Motobambino-Classic-Fiat-500-Spares-1397790330483540/?ref=page_internal

Tony

I've just been looking at that before you posted, in fact I left a positive comment as I was so impressed that they did it whilst retaining the OK metal instead of wholesale removal of panels.
The work they do is excellent and now they've moved that bit closer to Scotland i will have to pop by one day.

Vitesse said:

There are some good pictures on the link below showing repairs in the same sort of area you are currently working on. You never know they may give you some pointers. Look in their timeline photos.

https://www.facebook.com/Motobambino-Classic-Fiat-500-Spares-1397790330483540/?ref=page_internal

Tony

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just saw it on my feed about 5~10 mins ago..
they do have great stuff, but also machinery that i don't have..

today i was in the garage quite a while, and i'm now on another overthinking loop.. - the usual: where to cut, to keep the most original panel possible.

this time around the rear left fender (?).. i thought that massive amount of filler they had used on that panel was basically to cover the miserable welding work when replacing the outter sill, but as i was getting really close to be able to put the new outter sill in, i thought it would be good to get rid of that filler just to make sure i was going to do the right thing. and guess what's under it.. yeah, nothing good.. pics:



so.. the metal has a few bumps all over the middle section, the outter sill and the panel don't quite match (near the door) and the sill doesn't match really well on the wheel arch either.. i'm thinking of cutting a section of that sill off, and use a section of the new rear fender to make that half arch section look much smoother, as well as doing a better match near the door (as the original panel is bent and cut). ideas please.. (i hope the text is making any sense, otherwise, pls, just look at the pics above)

and now the sill part which was done in the morning. now i have already cleaned all the rust from the inside of the inner sill, and applied zinc primer. - don't look at that weld on the inner support to the sills. i didn't have enough light (excuses) and couldn't really see what i was doing. but it was such a strong weld, that i didn't dare to grind it. it's hidden anyway: