Benno

I decided that if I bogged up the rear quarter and sills, it would always annoy me. Planning on keeping this car, so wanted to get it right. After I'd finished stripping the car I took it to a panelbeater, who is doing an awesome job so far. Getting a repair cert done at the same time to try to make re-vin as easy as possible. So far so good, but covid has put a bit of a handbrake on getting it finished off and back.

Got a container of bolts, nuts and brackets vapour blasted and zinc plated. Really happy with the result, certainly beats manually cleaning them with a wire brush and painting.

Got the brake MC rebuilt by Undercar.

Been busy with the strip disc removing all the paint from the boot and body. Found a few less than ideal repairs, covered with lots of bog. Considered just bogging it back up, but decided it would always annoy me if I did so going to get it fixed by a panelbeater. Will get the crushed sills fixed properly at the same time.

Got the fuel tank painted in 2K black.

Took the front and rear windscreens out and doors off. Fortunately no rust around the window frames which I was a bit worried about.

Now working on the boot area. While I'm removing paint, sound deadening and rust I've got some of the diff mounts in the electrolysis bath to clean up.

Got the fuel tank back. First pic is before it went to the radiator shop. Had the remainder of an existing liner in there, so he had to split it and sandblast to get the new liner to stick. He also knocked out the worst of the old dents, so I am happy with the outcome. Stuck some brunox on there and have got into epoxy.

Found some denting on the sills which is a bit annoying. Guessing it has fallen off a jack at some stage, unfortunately it's got similar damage on both sides. Not sure what I will do here yet, I think it is within the VIRM spec so I might see if I can just get signoff for it, then bog it up later on. 

Finished removing the underseal. What a shit job, lying under the car scraping with a chisel. Only a bit of surface rust, cleaned up no worries with a strip disc and wire brush.

Gave it a coat of Brunox, scuffed up with scotchbrite and brush painted with epoxy primer. Not mint, but good enough for the underside. Just need to move the stands and do the same for the jacking points now. 

Getting the fuel tank dipped and lined, rear brake cylinders sleeved at the moment. Next, I will tidy up and paint the diff and fuel tank.

Slowly but surely getting on top of the rust. Got the boot floor patches all welded in and painted with epoxy.

Been working on getting the outer edge sorted.

Wasn't keen to section the whole length to get the curve right. Got myself a shrinker/stretcher which made things much easier. My first attempt was to make a jig which had the right curve, bend a right angle then hammer to form a profile. Results weren't great, so back to square one.

Cut, bent and welded some box tubing to get a curve the same as the boot. Welded and clamped on the bent and stretched angle, hammered flat.

I butt and plug welded it on.

Now just working through smoothing out the welds with a flap disc and power file.

Got the boot floor repair patch sorted, made a wooden template and hammered the side to suit.

Cleaned off as much rust as I could in the boot strengthening crossmember, treated with Brunox. I will paint the areas I can with some epoxy primer, will get some cavity wax down to the areas I can't before I weld the floor path in.

Started making a patch for the boot edge. Started off with my high quality sheet metal brake

Clamped and welded to some SHS, hammered to get the right profile

Fairly happy with the end result, will still need some minor shaping before I weld it in

Got the spare tyre well sorted.

Working on making up a patch for the boot floor. Made a template out of some rebar and plywood, used my hydraulic press to form the steel.

Came up fairly well. Next step was to bend up the edge, I used two bits of EA welded together to make the basic shape, then hammered using a bit of flat bar.

Kept going until I had chopped out most of the rust, got a few holes now.

Also slowly been working through scraping off the underseal. Slow, shitty job but starting to make some good progress. A multi-tool with a scraper attachment makes the flat bits a lot faster and easier.