Spent the afternoon welding up the pin holes in the boot floor using a bit of flattened copper water pipe on the underside held up with a trolley jack. Trimmed the remains of the old bulkhead bottom off and offered up the modified Hookys panel: Seems to fit OK on the drivers side: But the passengers side not so well due to a previous repair done (badly) to the suspension mount: Its like a bloody patchwork quilt. Really could do with a body cut to fill it.
Wire brushed, rust cured and etch primed the inside of the bumper mounts too. Came out OK. The bottom captive nut for the lower wing bolt is missing from one side but they aren't too bad. Theres a tiny hole a few mm long in the passengers side one which i'll zip up when i weld the bulkhead bottom in. Tried an engine lid i had lying around on. First time its had one fitted in quite a while.
Cheers. I hope to get the back end welding finished today, though the weather is scorchio up here and i don't fancy wearing overalls and my leather welders apron incase i melt. Theres a couple of wee holes in the passengers side window surround and a small one in the bottom corner of the rear one too to weld up but then i can say the welding on the body is done. The doors need some repairs to the bottoms and hinges and pins plus a front wing needs a headlight bowl welding in but the majority is done.
Didn't get it finished today as i got roped into mowing and strimming the garden as it was apparently starting to look like a jungle. The grass was only knee deep FFS. Got some of the welds in the boot floor ground down, welded on a captive nut for the lower rear wing bolt and drilled some holes to plug weld the bulkhead bottom on though.
Gave some of the ground down welds a quick skim of filler to smoothe them off before i give the boot floor a coat of bonda primer. Not got the rest of the engine bay sorted yet but its getting there.
The to do list is slowly getting shorter. Not as quickly as i like though, unless you count the one i wrote on the bugs door which i accidentally wiped off with my overalls. I seem to spend nearly as much time clearing my workspace of clutter and moving it outside so i can work on the bug than actually doing the work.
Finally got the bulkhead bottom welded on. Ground down the plug welds and gave them a quick coat of filler. Will give it a sand and paint the whole boot floor in bonda primer.
Tried the rear valance on for size. It'll need a bit of trimming to make it fit easier as a bolt on panel but its pretty well aligned. Engine lid checked for fit.
Lower corners of the rear window now finished. Finished sanding the boot floor and gave it a coat of bonda primer. Painted the engine bay bulkhead corners too.
Drivers side is solid and just requires a little bit welding back in where i chopped some metal out removing the rear valance. Passengers side not so solid.
Keep up the good work zeb I must of been through ur resto dozens of times to try to get mine to look like a car Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Glad its been of some use to you. I'll have owned it 20 years this September so it would be nice if it was finished by then. Don't know how likely that is though. I've got the replacement metal cut out now ready to be welded in. Found this piccy on google showing how it should look on the ends that are usually under the valance. I got given a side window surround off a mate who was cutting up a bug shell so will use that to patch these holes that were hiding under the window rubber. Hopefully i'll be able to pick up some bits from the bus stop over next weekend, though most of the traders just look like they sell festival tat.
you could save time an effort and slip a piece of fresh metal under the holes and weld up , will save time and a lot of effort
