Grinding and rust treating - rear arch

Wk 25 - 27/01/13

Last week I only spent a couple of hours on the car. We finished of the welding for the rear passenger side quarter but with it 6 inches deep in snow outside it was freezing so called it a short day

Today I cleaned up the welds. I took most of them back with the angle grinder and they are starting to look good. I am awaiting a nifty tool to turn up to be able to get into the corners and difficult bits and to make it easier to grind upside down. I'm not the bravest with the angle grinder.

All welded up last week. Looking good.

Started to grind back the welds

 I didn't fancy starting the next big bit of body work with cutting and welding. It has been a long week at work so i fancied something a little easier and relaxing.

I cleaned up the last of the bits of rust in the rear inner arch getting into the tight spaces with a thin wire brush on the drill. Then a couple of coats of rust treatment and next week i'll get it painted to protect it. I got in all the seams to treat them and will put seam sealer on when done.

Moved onto the bottom of the heater channels. They look really clean with only a little surface rust. Started to remove all the underseal that has been protecting it.

Before

After

Then I cleaned up a few spots of rust that are on the side of the heater channel. Nothing major just wire brushed it back and then rust treated

Continued - the big weld

Wk 23 - 13/01/13 - 1day

So we continued to weld on the rear arch. Its taking quite a while as we are making up the pieces to fit rather then just patch. Today we managed to get the inside all sorted and welded in. Made a start on grinding down the welds but still more to do, especially to get in the corners.

The outside still needs some work. Fabricated the replacement piece for the wing to go on and sprayed up the back ready to go in next week. There isn't much to write about this week as it is quite a time consuming bit. Rich did all the welding and I have been doing some preparing and making the metal part, some grinding and more cleaning up the underseal in the inner arch ready for when we get in there.

All the welds still need further cleaning up but it is coming along.

Rear arch - start of the big weld

Wk 22 - 06/01/13 -1 day

So today I started on the big patch of rust on the rear wheel arch. First was assessing what needed doing. There was a lot of rust and a MOT job repair done on it. First was the standard prodding with a screw driver.

View from the outside with heater channel patch taken off

View from the inside with some prodding done

Then I came to take of the inside patch. I decided to preserve as much original metal work that was good so ground back the welds to get the patch off.

Original patch removed

Original patch removed - outside view

The last of the bad metal was cut out and then Rich started his work on getting the new metal cut and shaped to go in. This isn't going to be a patch job but a good repair. One it is painted up and seam sealer on it should look great and won't look like a patch repair.

So Rich got the first 2 pieces of metal in and then i ground the welds back were they needed. A quick coat of paint to keep the metal good ready for part two next week

First stage of repair done.

I also managed to get a bit more painting done on a couple of piece that i had cleaned up. They look really smart now that they are painted up.

Splitting body from chassis and cleaning up parts

Wk 21 - 30-31/12/12 - 12hrs

This week we finally split the body from the chassis and have raised the body up.

The body was welded to the chassis in the back corners and at the front were patches had been put on to get it through MOTs. So first was cutting off the body from the chassis

Cutting the4 body of the chassis.

We then took off the front suspension and dropped the front of the chassis down onto the trolly dollys. This means that with the body seperated we should be able to roll the chassis out from underneath when needed.

Front suspension taken off

Then we lifted the body off the chassis and put it up on wood with axle stands

This was a long days work just to get the two parts split and ready for more work.
Then the next day I did some cleaning up of some parts that have come off the car so far.

Cleaning up the track rod ends, the really greasy steering box and some of the front suspension. Still deciding what colours to got for but with these clean they will be ready to paint.

Cleaning up the front suspension

Cleaned up steering box

Cleaning up engine bay

  wk20 - 28/12/12- 5 hours

Got another day on the car this week but was a bit of a slow day. Cleaned up the grease in the engine bay with some white spirit. There are a few spots of rust in the engine bay to clean up, made a start but need to get a smaller wire brush for the drill to get into the corners.

In the grill above the back of the engine lid i started to clean up the grime under the grill. When i started to clean i realised there was a lot of loose paint. Turns out to be a whole layer paint but it is really flaky, i am guessing because it was never keyed being so hard to get to. So with some little hand held wire brushes and a screw driver I have started to clean off the loose paint. It is going to take a while but i have made a start.
There is also a couple of spots of rust that need to be cleaned and treated.

The dark parts are where there is still loose paint to clean off.

Couple of rust spots to clean and treat.

Rear arch cont.. - Wk 20 - 23/12/12

This week was working on the rear arch, sorting out the section that the wing bolts onto. First I cleaned up all the bits of rust with the angle grinder to see what state they were in. There were 2 patches to cut out and replace

Sections marked up to cut out.

These were cut out with the angle grinder and then new pieces made. I did my first bit of welding on the car welding the nut onto the back of the plate for the wing. Then Rich welded in the patches and i cleaned up all the welds.

My first bit of welding for the car

Patches welded in and cleaned up

 As with all the bits of welding that we are doing at the moment I put a coat of zinc primer on to keep them protected and then when we have been around all the car will concertrate on making the body work A*

Rear arch metalwork - Wk 19 - 16/12/12

This week was back on with the body work on the rear arches now the valence is in.

First was quite a bit of work on grinding down the welds form the rear valance and cleaning up the last of the stonechip from the rear arches. The wire brush worked well on the stone chip. There has been a bit of repair work done at some point on the back. The good things is that it looks like the job was done really well. No dodgy filing or anything.

Rear arch cleaned up

On the passenger inner rear arch there was a little bit of welding needed. I cut it out and then Richard welding in the patch. I ground it back and it looks great. With all the welds cleaned back you can't even see where it was. I don't understand why you would want a patch welded on the outside when you can make it look like it was never there. It looks great

Weld in place ready for grinding

Weld ground down looks great

All the paintwork at the back was cleaned up, wiped down and then kurust applied. With this dry a coat of Zinc primer was applied to keep it all clean and rust free while the rest of the work was done. Everything is looked good and the last couple of blemishes from my first attempt at grinding will be covered once the stone chip and paint is on.

Zinc primer on, can't even see where the weld was

All cleaned up and zinc primer on.