General Murphio's Meanderings

Currently reading:
General Murphio's Meanderings

With a fair wind behind me I ploughed on with making some repair patches and I've primed the bare steel that will be hidden once they're welded in. One of them has slipped in this image, but I do leave a good gap that can be filled with weld.

20231104_151337.jpg



Then it was on to investigate what horrors lay beneath the base of the front wing.

20231104_152901.jpg


A couple of years ago I did some emergency repairs to the floor under here. When I originally restored the base of the wing I know I could have done a better job. But beyond the area that this image covers, zinc-rich primer has kept the rust at bay.

20231104_162007.jpg


I've since cleaned off most of the recoverable steel and applied a lot of phosphoric acid. I need to remake the lower part of the inner wheelarch and the sill end as well as its upward curve inside the door-pillar. I bought a bodge-repair panel that would just cover the mess if used as intended. But some surgery to this panel will give me the basis for constructing a proper repair.

20231104_152934.jpg
 
From new the sills aren't a separate item but merge into the "A"-post. That bottom few centimetres of the construction which consists of the visible part of the door-frame and encapsulates the heavy-gauge part that has the door mounting nuts has disappeared to rust. I used the stretcher tool to make a piece that follows the curve and then folded another piece, rounding it at bottom and making a flange. This is all tacked together in the image and will need to be removed, dismantled and reworked a bit before being welded on the bench. Before putting it all in permanently it will need to be primed. There is also a bit of work needed to the inner wheelarch and I might tidy up a patch in the footwell that I previously bodged. This construction is mainly hidden by the bottom of the wing and on the left-hand side will be trimmed to join nicely to the sill.

I'm finding that I can only concentrate properly on this for a couple of hours at a time these days...too many other things to do and maybe a little tiny bit of old-age. ;)
20231106_152337.jpg
 
I have found when doing things like this it is better to do a bit then walk away or the "get it done" aproach sets in and corners are cut
I am currently dismantling the front end of my Peugeotengined mini to change the release bearing (gearbox out the wheel arch job).. 4-5 hr job according to BMW ...
so far 1 week and I have removed the headlights, and a lot of the under bonnet plastic bits that conceal the actual engine and almost detached the front panel etc - its called putting the car in service mode (remove teh whole of the front to do anything) no rush...
 
After a lot of fettling and more fabrication I got the "A"-pillar connected to the sill.

20231111_155350.jpg


In the intervening time there's been a lot of small infill pieces put into the bottom of the inner wheelarch and a complicated piece to make with the inner flange that meets the wing. Much trial fitting of the repair panel was needed. It could finally be trimmed to replicate the way that the wing overlaps the sill.
With the door temporarily fitted I was able to check that the panels will align fairly well and be in the same plane.

20231111_155259.jpg


I now just need to butt weld this small panel to the wing and tack it to the sill. The sill has some ugly, but strong, strong repairs from a few years ago. It's tempting to replace it but I'll tidy it up and live with it for as long as it lasts. I have my sights on a few more areas of rust and also have a lot of filling and painting to do. But it feels that this area of the car is stronger than it's ever been in my ownership.
 
It occurred to me that the repair panel I bought, which is really a bodge-up if used as is, could be adapted to make a tidy and original-style repair. I cut the panel at the fake, overlap seam, and used the short piece of sill section to replace the same amount on the car. This allowed me a bit more access into the inner sections for rust removal and priming.

20231209_145135.jpg


I now have a piece that comprises just the bottom of the wing. I'm going to weld this in using some sealant under the area where it overlaps the sill. As it appears to have been originally done, it won't need to be welded directly to the sill.

20231212_194222.jpg


It's going to be strong and tidy for the first time in years.
 
The repairs successfully blended in to the car.

20231213_140901.jpg
20231213_155320.jpg


There was an unsightly area of the door pillar where the multiple layers of steel had caused rust to pop through in blisters. It was nice to find the thick steel of the underlying frame was OK after a bit of sanding. I've since painted on some Kurust and made a patch for weldng in. I've never had any success using weld-through primer...it always reacts with mig-welding just like it does normal paint. Does anyone have any suggestions of a paint that really can be welded through?

20231213_140919.jpg
 
The door-pillar was welded up a couple of weeks ago, and I still haven't ground it flat; hence the surface rust where the degreaser and heat has removed all protection. Considering it was impossible to clean the back of the steel on the car and that primer had been sprayed underneath, most of the metal mig-welded with a reassuring sound, even if the appearance is none too smooth.

DSC_7500.JPG


As a Christmas present from the car, when poking around at the back of the otherwise, uncharacteristically, non-corroded sill, this quickly revealed itself.....

DSC_7504.JPG



Fourteen years ago, this area was one of many that had repairs. I can see that I used to be a bit overgenerous with the filler, and after my newer repairs I have got better at welding and filling, but worse at photography. See below from 2009 ;)

DSC_8008.JPG


Here we go again.......
 
Back
Top