Murf has earned a bit of "me" time after all his long journeys this year. So first he got a thorough clean and polish (the second this year

). After that I had decided to sort out a few dodgy areas of paintwork on the sills and a front wheelarch. These have been meticulously scratched back to find the rust and this was etched with phosphoric acid until I had bare steel. Finally, after painting with epoxy-primer I sprayed with three coats of colour.
But before this, a very rusty spanner was found in the works when I realised that we had a few holes in the bottom of the sill.

The welder was going to have to be summoned, which despite my tendency to self-harm by taking the car out in all weathers, at all times of the years, through rivers and roads full of salt, I really did not expect. :nutter:
The sills were brand new and fitted back in 2009. The bodyshell had a damp and chilly four years in an open-fronted shed and was finally taken out, on a day when the roads were flooded, to be MOT'd in 2014. So technically, this level of rust has happened in slightly more than three years of continuous use.

The sills had been painted inside using zinc-primer and loads of Waxoyl had been sprayed inside on a very hot day prior to the car going on the road.
It looks like the cause of the corrosion was probably due mainly to the unstoppable seepage of water through the windcreen seal and under the rubber floor-covering. I decided to do a wholesale chop of the run of small holes and formed a repair from some 20 gauge steel, which I am sure is thicker than the original. There was even a small section of the floor edge that needed replacing. I'm such an expert now



that it didn't take long and here's Murf with the damage repainted and awaiting fitment of the stainless-steel strip which will cover the welded joint that I couldn't be bothered to spend days filling over. He's also sporting a nice, patinated pair of door-mirrors supplied by Tom
the hobbler.
I don't see any moral to the story other than to say, you have to be dedicated to keep one of these monsters on the road full-time.:bang:
LIS_9976 by
Peter Thompson, on Flickr