new stuff and old stuff

Went to the local autojumble last saturday with some birthday money in my pocket... and i didn't come away empty handed, wey hey new tools, going to come in handy when i eventually get round to welding stuff together.

 

Here are the cardboard templates for the sill / wheel arch repair..

 

and transferred, to sheet metal, and roughly bent to shape.

 

I then got to use this, hmmm, power tools, angle grinders are scary things but absolutely great fun at the same time, one stupid slip and this thing will be attempting to sever digits.

 

chop chop

as you can see the area to be chopped was expertly and very accurately marked out, yeah yeah get on with the cutting.

 

voila...

 

the repair piece needed some more 'expert' trimming to get it to sort of line up

 

hmmmm, getting the curve to match the wheel arch is going to be tricky, i should really shrink the metal to for the curve, but i don't have time to get myself a lifetimes worth of panel beating experience in a couple of hours play time so out came the tin snips again.

 

rust, no no

started the evening by whipping the number plate off the pasta wagon again to finish what i'd started a couple of weeks ago, quick lick of paint, left to dry whilst i chopped the austin. Managed to find some grommets in my pile of bits and pieces too, just to finish the job.

 

snip snip

attacked using the snips to enable me to form the curve, all will be welded up again later (if i ever get around to buying a welder)

 

all in all i must say that i'm pretty pleased with my first attempt at body work so far, but i'm a loooong way from done yet, plenty of opportunity for spectacular and catastrophic error yet.

 

 

started the evening by whipping the number plate off the pasta wagon again to finish what i'd started a couple of weeks ago, quick lick of paint, left to dry whilst i chopped the austin. Managed to find some grommets in my pile of bits and pieces too, just to finish the job.

 

the forgotten project

Been a barren year for the Austin, not one drive out this year at all. Never got round to getting its MOT renewed summer one year ago when i had other things to be worrying about, this year was full of many false starts and i eventually decided in August that i just wasn't going to get it back on the road this year. So out came the axle stands and angle grinder so i could finally get to grips with what little rust there is. I took a welding course earlier this year but could do with getting myself an actual welder so i can get started properly.

Still as you all know already, preparation is almost important as the actual fix, right?

Many hours spent scraping off the old underseal, which has done a wonderful job it has to be said, revealed the lots of nice shiny metal and a few bits of grot, and once you start there is no turning back, keep cutting until all the rust is gone, it's the only way.

Don't build them like they used to thats for sure, lots of lovely mud traps in old cars like this. But they did actually have some idea. Here is what may be described as the forerunner to a plastic wheel arch liner. A steel plate tack welded over the end of the sill stopping the worst of 45 years worth or road muck getting where it shouldn't be....anyway, it needed to come off so i could reach the real rust.

voila!

revealing the end of the sill and what needed to be cut out.

and this is what i'm left with.
I have made cardboard templates to fill the gaps and have cut out the patterns from sheet steel and started forming the bits i need, pics to follow, just got to remember to charge the camera up, doh.

Go faster stripes II

As you would expect and as i'd hoped there hasn't been much to report in the world of The Pasta Wagon, until i put some go faster strips down the side. Doh!
As you probably remember i did this before with TFW, the difference this time, i did it going backwards. The concrete pillar just crept up and jumped out behind me. Luckily not as bad as first appearances and it all polished out without too much drama. No after photo you'll just have to take my word for it.

A couple of things that have been bothering me since i bought the car, firstly is the rear number plate, it was hanging on with one bolt something which i temporarily remedied with good old stickybacked velcro for the summer. Somebody had previously bodged the fixings and indeed attempted to drill one of them out so the mounting points were mangled, useless and more annoyingly rusty. Something had to be done. I'd been putting it off a bit as i knew it would be time consuming as the tailgate trim needed to come off first. I removed the remains of the the previous fixings and sanded down around the mounting hole, rummaged through my box of nuts, bolts and washers and came up with something better and more permanent than velcro.
I'll have to give it a top coat in a few days as the rust killer had to dry for 6 hours or so. So it's all still in pieces for now.

The second thing that has been bugging me is a bit of plastic trim by the wheel arch not quite sitting right and removal did indeed reveal a broken clip, an email to the local VW dealer and two are on order for next week.