azzurro

Id think its probably far enough from the outer skin yould probably be fine there. A good fitment for your patch will be key! big gaps = more weld = more heat Just take it slow (tack, wait, tack cool, tack..) so the wider area doesnt heat up, and make sure any paint you care about is protected, not just direct weld but also from splatter and wire hedgehogs incl from the inside - accidentally zapping the outer skin from the inside would grind my gears! I dunno about leaving a damp rag in there while welding or having water touching the actual weld, but have it on hand for cooling the metal around the area in case you forget rule 1 (take it slow!), but imo a air line would be safter/better. some copper (or aluminium) backing for belts and braces esp if your fitment isnt good.

Aaaaaaand the other side We had long ago removed the bog covering up this old repair Keep on digging till reach solid bedrock Then start building it back up bit by bit Then the rare spares patch panel to cover it all up, Unofortunately had to make a trade off between the lip of the screen opening lining up with the trim, or the edge of the plenum lining up with the door. I chose the screen, and put a small sliver in to widen the panel to also match the door. Turned out pretty good but that much weld is always gonna warp a bit. I reckon a little filler over solid metal is better than a lot of filler over a rusty hole! And then after a little filler, prime Black the dash and surround and a bit of colour on the plenum its ready for the dash and screen to go back in And another small step completed where a little more rusty nonsense is moved from the car to the scrap bin

Looks like new parts, and hard to tell from the photo but is there a scratch or wire in the seat? did you take the seat and banjo out and blow that passage out? (heh) Float height reset? (i use a drill bit to measure) do ThePogs blow test? (heheheh) only takes a tiny grain of something (or a scratch?) to stop those brass needles from sealing. Best case is its washed through and came out with your oil change and youll never know what did it.

id suspect if it was fine then suddenly not fine, you have something happen that prevented the needle from closing off the fuel supply like - schmutz in the needle/seat or damage preventing a good seal (remove & inspect) - the float has got a hole (remove and see if it floats - it it still has air in it it will slosh so a shake can sometime tell but might be totally full, so float test is best) - the float has gone out of adjustment (unlikley but may as well check while its in your face and before you put it back, esp if there was somethign in the seat) the needle is tiny and is only held closed by the float pushing on it, so doesnt take much. motor not turning over was probalby hydrolocked with fuel so def want to change the oil as Valiant said. Id also check the screen behind the big nut on the fuel supply banjo to see if its even there, or has a hole in it, and if there is any more stuff waiting there to ruin your day. Depending on what you find, if there is some crud in there be worth going though the carbs to make sure there isnt other stuff in the fuel that has got in there, like crap in the tank, debris in the fuel, rust form the lines or even small chunks of rubber from the soft lines (this has got me before, new lines but making a hack of cutting them little bits of hose blocked one of the jets)

Guess what? More rust! Back up the front this time making a start on the plenum area. We cut the windscreen out easily enough using welding wire and a couple blocks of wood and soapy water. Once removed the butyl or whatever it is very sticky but also wants to stay as one piece and rolls off ok once you get it started so long as theres lot of soapy water stopping it from sticking to everything else!. Aside from the two bottom corners which are toast, the rest of the surround is absolutely minty Yum, crunchy! You can make out an old patch too. Nothing for it but to start chopping. Of course therese always more and its always worse than it looks... Chopping up some paper for templates And starting to chop up some sheet Bits of the puzzle coming together all seam sealed etc before being buried forever and then the final bit to cover it all up the outer patch panel Pretty happy with how this turned out, it will need some filler to get the levels and gaps perfect better the other side is more or less the same which will be the next exciting installment!

more seriously probalby depends what you wanna do, Lots of old buildings and cafes museums and galleries etc in Dunedin itself if you like that sort of thing, lots of cool natures and stuff very close by around it. Catlins is definitly worth driving through, again nature type stuff, more coastal bush etc than most of the rest of the east coast of the South Island then you are in invergiggle so you may as well turn around. Have you looked up if you can take a Thermette on as carry on yet?

I went back and looked at the drivers side dgleg/sill area. Not sure why i didnt keep going down the arch when i was working on this side before, but its in need of some screwed up newspaper chicken wire expanding foam and bog new metal. This car was rode hard and put away wet that mess gets the chop chop wheel tub and inner arch patch before and in progress Cant buy this bit as a patch panel, and well beyond me to form it, so needed to fix it and back in its spot - rear half will be replaced by the dog leg repair panel when i get it on I cut the dogleg panel at the same cutline to install it as two pieces as the upper only needed about 3mm inside the door, the lower bit needed tbasically he whole of the provided panel to replace the rear 2 inches of the lower closing panel i just put back on I overlapped the repair panel on the remains of the original dogleg which made it much easier to weld than a butt, but also and mainly, to correct some of the big door gap/poor panel alignment/fitment this area had before where the dog leg sat inboard relative to the door and sill which also visually exaggerated the gap as well I also took this side a bit further along than the other side, and have made the rear most portion of the inner sill and a flange for the outer sill to be plug welded onto in due course once the plenum and a-pillar at the front of it is done - this area has a rebate for a body jig (often referred to as a jacking point - but it aint) and a small drain (blocked on both sides) and are the only bit of the sills that are not straight - the (cheap) repair panels don't have these bits typically including the ones we have. Also, the sill panels themselves will be easier and result in a better job to both remove and fit as one long piece and will be done last to join up the two ends. bit more filler to come but not bad first pass some spoils of the war on rust, also showing the sill details

And of course the gunk at the top of the arch also gets into the bottom of it as well. For some reason i didnt do this area on the drivers side, and its not becasue its good! Drilled the dog leg out to reuse, its been patched (with braze) already, but i need to reuse it Doesnt look too bad but all these panels had sections with pitting and pinholes Didnt take many photos of the process of making patch panels and etc, but there is a lot of new metal here it was just easier to cut it out and remake than try to patch the rustholes. this is just after installing the lower third of the dog leg patch panel. Now the new sills will have something decent to join to. and cleaned up - ive left the original brazed patch in as it was still good, and i think cutting it out and letting in a new bit would have made it worse. Also for some weird reason it makes me smile to think that someone in the future restoring this might think this has only been repaired the once, way back in the day The back of it all got rust trated and primed etc before going back on, whcih is way better than it was so it should last another 40 years. and then a pic of round 27 of 58 fill 'n sands, still a few wobbles to smooth out... Apart from the drivers side rear dog leg that will need more or less the same work as this side, we are pretty much at the point now where the next step is to have the (bonded) windscreen removed to make a start on working my way down the A-pillars starting with the plenum corners, which i have patches for the outer - the inner will need some work too but ill make those. Anyway I dont think the rust has got up behind the windscreen and the surround and inside the door jambs looks good, but having the screen out will make it much easier to both know for sure and make a proper job of the repairs i already know i need to do. One bite at a time...

moving down a bit, more classic HQ rust, (and some dents). You can tell its classic rust, because the outline of the patch panel lines up pretty good with where i need to patch... yum! Gunk and dirt from the boot, wheel arches and door vents just collects in there and rusts from the inside out cleaning up good, no patches needed on the inner arch on this side, but the rear of the wheel arch panel did need replacing Just underlapped this patch as the outer will cover it and there is meant to be a factory leaded seam there too Patch panels are missing some details, the arch patch panel joins to it but its not quite right either Not that pretty but it is brazed from factory and hidden by the door, and many more rounds to weld 'n grind to go (and then many rounds of fill 'n sand after that) and in.

I took a break from this for a few months, but eventually got some motivation for it and turned around to do pretty much the exact same again but mirrored on the passenger side: Classic chop chop Back to clean metal, this thing is pretty mint except where it isnt... Then start building it back up again I have picked up a cheap set of shrinker stretchers whcih makes this much easier and neater, but i could never build these bits as one piece Note the recreation of the factory weirdness where the main structural bit is overlapped by a filler piece to fit the weird door shape and done, unfortunately it distorted the c pillar skin where i got too impatient chasing pin holes around the upper butt weld but ill just tap it back down and fill over it. Main thing is its now solid and not made of this:

Stink re your jerb bro, but since it wasn't in the bad column i spose you're no too cut up about it I guess they don't need no stupid research if they already know whats best.

Some quality work going into this!

Really nice work mang!

Hey bro, i have a few EJ25 (SOHC) engine bits left over from my old forester if you want them - i think there is a water pump and some mounts etc, a few gaskets and what not as well (i have a ej203 XT now) The engine crane is here anytime if you need it