It's a while since we did any serious meanderings. This year we've barely covered 1200 miles so far, and most of that is on shorter drives of maybe 30 miles or so. But today, in "life's too short" mode, I set off and completed a 195 mile round trip for work; entirely on roads I've covered many times before, but in great weather and beautiful scenery. In fact, about half of this run was on sections on the NC500 tourist trail, and the majority of traffic I encountered, which included a lot of fancy sports cars and luxury motorhomes, was from mainland Europe, and from The Netherlands in particular. I still managed to do some long, remote sections in complete isolation.

He's back....
Ohh how I have miss those pictures of the beaches in the Caribbean, I am just amazed that you can ship the 500 there to take those pics, and how the similarity of those little cottages to ones in the UK.... And I never realised there was so much grass, I thought there would be more palm trees

Bigvtwin996 said:

He's back....
Ohh how I have miss those pictures of the beaches in the Caribbean, I am just amazed that you can ship the 500 there to take those pics, and how the similarity of those little cottages to ones in the UK.... And I never realised there was so much grass, I thought there would be more palm trees.

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I must look out my pictures from Plockton....there's palm trees there.
We're on a roll....another 180 miles today to a place called Pitullie which is new to me. On the way back, we stopped at one of our favourite places, called Gardenstown and took in the view. Murf's showing a slightly tatty back end but one that is slightly improved by asserting his nationality as an adopted Scot. The nearside wheelarches and that lower bit on the driver's side, are getting a thorough makeover this winter.
The odometer passed 72,364 today, which means me and Murf have now covered 40,000 miles together in a bit under eight years.

It's just over fourteen years since Murf landed on my doorstep. So, even though for a time he was patched-up almost as good as new, he's now a very used, used car. At the beginning of 2020, when the world closed down for a while, I patched up some wheelarch rust as best I could with the materials that I had to hand. But now is the time to do a proper job. I don't want him immobilised for too long, so this is going to be a job done in installments.
The rear, nearside was worst. Years ago I put on a partial wheelarch repair pressing and patched up the dodgy edges of the inner. I expected my welding to be the weak point but it was actually the parts of the inner lip that probably should have been fully replaced that have caused this. I have cut out the rot just about one centimetre beyond where I welded in last time. That means I won't need the full extent of the repair panel, which means that the next restorer (it won't be me!) will still be able to make a decent repair.



I considered replacing the entire inner arch, but it's only the very edge that needed removing. The new panel is very thin and fairly inaccurately made, particularly at the front end where there is insufficient flange and a terrible fit and at the rear end where I will have to do some folding of edges and shrinking of the flange. When you look at the way all the panels interact with each other at the joint in the image below you can see that it's far better to maintain the strength and integrity of the shell by just replacing the bad bits. I wonder how many 500s are left with this part "as factory" like this?





Most people will realise that when welding panels in properly, the preparation is about 85% of the job. So far I think I've removed all the rot and I'm now starting to trial-fit the panels, which involves a lot of clamping and unclamping and banging of hammers.



On and off over the next few days I'll fiddle about until its fits as well as possible and then upload the next report. I don't want to rush in the same way as I did at time when first restoring the car; this time it has to last for at least twenty years.

I've previouisly replaced the bottom 60mm of the reinforcement plate that connects the jacking-point and the stand support, but it's rusted away again. It's a really important component but the aftermarket replacements have inferior strengthening pressings. This is still the original and the deep swaging makes it extremely strong despite only being made from 1mm steel. So I've upgraded to 2mm steel and plan to butt-joint it to the original, the holes already being drilled ready to imitate the spot-welds to the tabs on the jacking-point etc.

As I don't use the original jack I'm planning to weld it closed at the ends. I've spotted that the obscured part of the floor that's betrween the inner and outer sill above the jack point can develop a rust hole that channels water thrown up from the road directly into these areas where you really don't want it!

Over a month since I started this and I've finally gone on to Stage 2. The first thing was to align the outer repair panel to get the best fit. After a lot of indecisiveness I settled on this:




There is a lot to trim away bfore I weld it on, but this trial fit was needed to work out the inner wheelarch alignment. You can see the strip of additional metal that I need to weld on to the inner where it is attached to the back of the jacking support; as supplied the panel is wrong in this area.
I had ro remake the edge flange of the closing panel under the back of the arch. That can be seen as the galvanise metal showing under the black.






I now need to remove the outer panel so that I can trim the inner and get it welded on. So I've marked the bodywork ith the current alignment and used temporary rivets to secure the inner arch, which would otherwise just drop off with all alignment lost.



This is avery fiddly job to get right and maybe I could have made it eaier by just fitting entire new panels, but it feels good to retain the original metal as much as possible.

Peter, What about the wide wheel arch mod you've been promising yourself ????
Ian.

Bleeding Knuckles said:

Peter, What about the wide wheel arch mod you've been promising yourself ????
Ian.

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.......there is a "danger" of them ending up like that anyway Ian. It's a boringly recurrent theme, but when you compare these items with the originals on a car with as much of the key tinwork still in place as you find on this car, the fit of the panels in some places is way out. Wider arches might be easier because they can go wherever the person fitting them wants them to be.

Ah I remember this stage well…

It’s a shame none of the new panels seem to line up right, it would make life so much easier if they could be made the right shape!

That said, by the end of the process on mine I felt that it was better to line the panels up where they should be and stretch / force them into shape than it was to add extra sections or cut bits away. I felt it ultimately ended up in a better alignment, to force a seam to meet with various clamps than it did to otherwise alter the panel.

I think every car is different, and just like the panels themselves, once the car has been repairs several times before it can get a bit Chinese whispers as to where the panel should line up!

Good work though, won’t be long now till you can zap it all together and the worst bit will be done.

Also yes, crazy Italian hill climb style wide arches, good plan!

Goldnrust said:

Ah I remember this stage well…

It’s a shame none of the new panels seem to line up right, it would make life so much easier if they could be made the right shape!

That said, by the end of the process on mine I felt that it was better to line the panels up where they should be and stretch / force them into shape than it was to add extra sections or cut bits away. I felt it ultimately ended up in a better alignment, to force a seam to meet with various clamps than it did to otherwise alter the panel.

I think every car is different, and just like the panels themselves, once the car has been repairs several times before it can get a bit Chinese whispers as to where the panel should line up!

Good work though, won’t be long now till you can zap it all together and the worst bit will be done.

Also yes, crazy Italian hill climb style wide arches, good plan!

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I used a Sharpie pen to mark up the point of overlap on the panels and then moved the temporary rivets near to that line, as in the photo. I used a lot of clamps to squeeze out the misalignment to force it into shape as you suggested. Having removed the repair panel I then trimmed it to leave about 1cm of overlapping steel . I suspect it will fit better now that the remaining section is much narrower.

I'm concentrating on cleaning up to completely shiny metal on the car and then welding commences.

...and that's how it has stood for all the time since then. But I got to grips with it a few days ago Firstly, I had to patch up the reinforcing panel over the jacking point. This simply meant cutting metal to fit the space that I had previously filled with new metal fourteen years ago.; the main part of the original panel still remains.




Back to the inner wheelarch; I added clamps to the temporary rivets in order to squeeze the ripples of the edges of the panels into contact with each other.




Afer a lot of trimming and adding a bit of modification I committed to welding the arch in. It is marginally lapped under the original, which makes welding easier and helps to avoid distortion. The blobs of weld are where I had drilled holes for temporary rivets at the initial roughing out of the alignment.




Meantime I had repaired the flange of the closing panel at the base of the arch and more trial fitting of the outer arch followed. Then followed a repeated process of measuring, marking and trimming.




After all the trial fitting It shouldn't have surprised me that the flange that meets the inner arch was an almost perfect fit. I was about to do a final cut for butt-welding the outer wing to the body when I realised that I was going to have to force the panels to align. This might have made any potential for distortion even worse. But when I slid the arch under the existing bodywork, everything miraculously fell into place. So from this stage I changed plan and trimmed things to give the merest amount of underlap of the new arch. Where the arch merges into the sill under the door, things looked better set up for butt-welding.






The next stage will follow swiftly and involves cleaning off all the paint on the weld surfaces and a painstaking weldathon over several hours, allowing the metal plenty of time to cool between sections of weld. I've taken great care with the welding so far, and I'm using primer for hidden areas and weld-thru on the flanges. This time it may last longer than fourteen years.

Blimey Peter you're a brave man - what a job! Your welding is better than my 'hack it and stick it' efforts, Murf will look so much better without the "tatty back end" cutting out the bad metal must be a challenge it looks as if you have used a bread knife??????
Ian.

Bleeding Knuckles said:

Blimey Peter you're a brave man - what a job! Your welding is better than my 'hack it and stick it' efforts, Murf will look so much better without the "tatty back end" cutting out the bad metal must be a challenge it looks as if you have used a bread knife??????
Ian.

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It's only a fraction of the job I did originally. But I'm taking my time more than when the car was originally restored, and of course, I have since had lots of practice at welding. I hack and hack the metal until I'm at good steel; I used to be caught out with bits that I could make look shiny, but which were wasted away. I'm not too precious about neat edges because the welding blurs everything in any case!

I'm not sure about "brave"......in my fast approaching dotage I just wanted to avoid becoming the subject of a future Classic Car Rescue. I can imagine the voiceover, "Peter used to drive this little car thousands of miles a year, all over Scotland. But sadly, after the car was laid up in the garage twenty years ago for a minor rust repair, his new hobby of beekeeping meant that he had little spare time and the car was abandoned. Now, with his faculties fading and in his eighty-fourth year, his family want it restored so that they can sell it when he croaks to bring back that smile on his face."

I have a busy week next week, but in between times I hope to have the repair finished and the car back on the road just in case we actually get a summer this year.

It's shaping up to née a nice tidy repair!

fiat500 said:

I can imagine the voiceover, "Peter used to drive this little car thousands of miles a year, all over Scotland. But sadly, after the car was laid up in the garage twenty years ago for a minor rust repair, his new hobby of beekeeping meant that he had little spare time and the car was abandoned. Now, with his faculties fading and in his eighty-fourth year, his family want it restored so that they can sell it when he croaks to bring back that smile on his face."

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haha.

After a few tweaks I was finally happy (ish) with the fit and committed to welding.
First I tacked it (very slowly) and using a damp cloth after each weld.




Then I just kept going to and fro, adding a couple more spots of weld to each tack.



It took a long time to finish the welding as I also had the various connections at the wheelarch flange, the sill and the rear closure plate to attach. I'm now on the home straight and part way through grinding down the welds. There is very on one small area of warping of the panels as well as a bit of a shrinkage crease under the rear light opening. But overall, it's a nice, solid repait just waiting for a bit more sanding down and then the paint preparation.

I thought that I had given an update after filling and then priming. I got as far as the primer and then had to sand it all off again because of fine cracks due to using thinners and paint that had been lying about too long.

Just to be certain, I put on a couple of coats of epoxy primer as a sealer, followed by three coats of a new, high-build primer and then three coats of cellulose topcoat. I got this from the same suppliers as before, but the colour is looking a shade darker. I'm hoping it will be a closer match after polishing with Farecla. Originally, I flatted the whole car with 800 paper after the first coats and then put on another three coats. But I'm getting too old to waste time on that sort of mullarkey....the rest of the paintwork is rusting at the edges,so I guess the entire car will need a unifying respray in the next year or two; the orange-peel will tone-down after polishing.
For now, I'm just delighted that Murf is back on his feet and look forward to getting back on the road later this week.

Barn find Fiat 500 anyone? The engine started as soon as the six month old petrol reached the cylinders.

I was forced into using Murf today as my modern 500 has sprung a leak in the notorious steel coolant tube under the manifold.
I didn't have time to clean off the garage dust but he still got some very enthusiastic"thumbs-up" from other drivers.
A 60 mile round trip without missing a beat. And a new first for him as he carried part of a beehive for me. (the yellow thing on the back seat).

Good to hear that Murf is back out adventuring! Wouldn’t worry about not cleaning it… I’m yet to clean mine since getting it thrown together either!

How did the Bee’s feel about their ride in the 500? Haha.

Goldnrust said:

Good to hear that Murf is back out adventuring! Wouldn’t worry about not cleaning it… I’m yet to clean mine since getting it thrown together either!

How did the Bee’s feel about their ride in the 500? Haha.

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It gave them a bit of a buzz.