New member. Old bodges.

[cliffjockey]

Aye. It looks like that's where mine started....
Well, that particular bit. The whole car is rotten. Way beyond economical repair but I'm nuts deep in it now and still enjoying it so I'll keep going....lol

 

[Andy_Mk3]

That's the main thing! Will be worth it once done, they're getting rarer than ever now these mk3s.

 

[cliffjockey]

Absolutely! It makes me feel old. I was doing PDI's on these when they were new.....
Now they're "classics".....Lol...so it's also a bit of a sentimental thing too. Takes me back to my apprenticeship days....lol

 

[cliffjockey]

Might as well start at the beginning.
A few photos to show the damage and the progress so far.....

It all started after I removed the front bumper....

My first crack at manufacturing parts myself...

Some CAD (cardboard aided design)

Sheet metal from an old shelf...

Bit of bending and welding....



Some paint and it looks fine....


Welded back on and looks a lot better....

 

[cliffjockey]

Took the wing off and saw the horror that lurked beneath.....


Had to do some cutting and more of the old shelf.....

And more shelf....

Not a bad match....

And the finished product.....

 

[cliffjockey]

Spotted a small patch at the back of the wheel arch. Curiosity got the better of me and I pulled it off..... good thing I did...

It was huge....
More shelf action.....

Sorted....

 

[cliffjockey]

While I was poking about in behind the wheel arch I discovered yet more bodges repairs and rust related carnage. The gloves were off and the grinder was out......
Discovered that the inner sill had a great big hole in it and was like Swiss cheese. Busted out some heavier sheet steel........
And the welder.....

 

[cliffjockey]

While poking about inside the sill I discovered the state of the outrigger......
More steel.....
And welding....

And more welding....

Then some holes and a bit of a polish.....

And the finished article...

 

[cliffjockey]

Had a look underneath and the story wasn't any better......more bodges crap repairs....

More grinder action needed...

Cut out the rot.....

Getting better at this stitch welding lark...



Good thing too.....

Lots of holes.....

Looking better, and no more drain holes to let in more water.....

 

[Todd100]

Good work on this, what do you do for a living?

 

[cliffjockey]

Thank you.....
I'm a Vauxhall Tech to trade but left the motor industry 13 years ago. I work in Aeronautics now, mainly jet engine nacelle repair, maintenance and overhaul.....

 

[Todd100]

Ash fairly hands on job then, I'm a design engineer but get my hands dirty whenever I can, some of your fabrication looks brilliant though

 

[cliffjockey]

Next I had to sort out the sill I'd cut off.....or lack thereof..... Again.....down to more botched repairs...

Or was rotten all the way along the bottom and patches of the inner sill.....
More welding, paint and some sealer...all good to go.....

The back end however was a different story..

The inner sill and the outer frame was crumbling away to nothing...

So more sheet metal and coffee......

And more welding.....( yeah, this weld is really untidy. I ended up grinding it out and doing it again).

The jacking point was non existent so some 1/4" plate steel and a bit of ingenuity got that sorted out. Followed by more paint and underseal.

 

[Andy_Mk3]

Jesus, some serious rot there. Don't see many quite that bad spread over the whole car.

 

[Kev_mk3]

Did you ever think WTF am I doing? amazing work

 

[cliffjockey]

Aye, the rust is pretty widespread but it seems worse on the drivers side. The passenger side hasn't been touched but at a glance it looks considerably better.
Do I ever think WTF?? Yeah..... all the time but I'm a sucker for a neglected motor. Not normally this neglected though....lol. Until I got this is never done any bodywork or welding so with a lot of reading and YouTubeing I've been figuring it out as I go...
I'm actually really enjoying it.....

 

[cliffjockey]

The story gets worse at the back of the sill.....

And no better from the inside.....

Which is even more disturbing as this car had a valid MOT at the time.....
More sheet steel and it was looking better. The wheel well had to be made up from several hand made sections as I don't have an English wheel (or the first clue how to use one) so with a double curvature I had to make do with smaller patches and hand beat it in to shape.


With more grinding and paint it looks almost acceptable.

And even more so from the inside.


Ignore the scrappy tack welds at the bottom of the wheel well. They were just to hold it in place till I located it properly.

 

[cliffjockey]

So the sill had to be put back on.....
First time I've ever done this so must've measured it 20 times before firing up the MIG.

Must admit, it wasn't a bad fit even before doing the plug welds.

Even the butt welds turned out ok. A wee bit scratched looking as I only had 60 grit belts for the linisher but not bad.

That's when I noticed the deliberate mistake. The pattern sill didn't have a joggle at the front to allow the wing to sit in place so it ran off under the door and made the wing look like it was sticking out. So had to cut the top, bottom and front of the outer skin and profile it correctly.

Sits nicely now.

 

[cliffjockey]

Decided to tackle the rear wheel arch, petrol flap and wheel well....
Turns out it was nearly £100 for parts and a shed load of welding to put that right, also the inner arch looked a little like this.....

So...I found a brand new 1/4 panel for £34 and it was a no brainer, the panel was coming off. I'm glad I did....

It was rotten in there too.....shock horror.

Unfortunately as far as I know you can't buy the whole inner arch, only the outer lip repair.

So I had to get creative....

Set the position using the only bit of metal left and started filling the gaps from there.....

Cut the sheet steel and hand bent the ridges by using 2 bits of angle iron screwed together and measured with the "eyecrometer" they came out not too bad.

Then had to get rid of the last scraps...

Then just a matter of building a flange and stitching it together...

Then seam welding the whole thing..

Still sitting on the roof unfitted for the moment but I'll be back on to it as soon as the new garage is up...

 

[cliffjockey]

While I was on my down time I did decide to build myself an engine gantry. More scrap metal and welding but it turned out quite nice.
Already lifted a 3.5L V8 on it and it's solid as a rock.


I also got some goodies too.....
These being my favourites so far....

They're a bit manky and they look greyish blue but they're actually a charcoal colour and look black inside the car. They cleaned up lovely and all the electrics are in perfect working order. Well chuffed with them...