703 replies to this topic

[Redslur]

Can't wait to see this one finished.

[notna]

A small update. Not huge progress, but worthy of a mention.

Still working in the engine bay. The previous owner has cut out rust from where the bonnet hinges mount to the inner guard (why do they rust here anyway?). I had to cut some nice flat metal to weld in here.

For this, I took an old Mini door that I had down the side of my house. This was to be my metal donor.

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I marked out templates from the holes in the inner guards, and transfered those to my Mini door, then cut out.

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Before welding these into the inner guards, I slapped a bit of POR15 over the back of both sides, to prevent the same thing happening years down the track.

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And after tacking the plates in place, I welded them in good 'n propper!

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The welds look horrid unfortunately, because my MIG is out of gas and I'm having to use gasless wire. Once I grind the welds flush I will post a pic of the finished product.

As always, much more to come.........

[notna]

Yea I was going to run a bead of sikaflex around the back to stop anything getting in there.

Lee.... rad support on Sunday I think. I wanna see yours done the following weekend

[notna]

I will quote you now if you don't!!

[notna]

Thanks for the link Lee... that's neat work from Ryan! Nice idea too. Will have a think about that.

Little more progress this morning. Ran out of gasless MIG wire (thank god!), so no more progress until I get my MIG gas bottle refilled (that's my father-in-law's job, it's his MIG afterall... hehehe)
, then I can weld the nice way.

Before....

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After....

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Might give it a lick of filler to smooth it off. This afternoon maybe

[notna]

A day off work today, and well spent in the garage.

Finally got my MIG gas bottle refilled and planned on doing some welding today, but I got sidetracked. I'm a prefectionist at heart, and if something bugs me, I just can't live with it until I make it right.....

First up, the completion of the rust repairs behind the bonnet hinges.

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I'm very pleased with this repair, given that the previous owner hacked out the rust and left it unfinished, and didn't state that in the ad for the car.

Next up today I wanted to finish repairs to the panel that contains the chassis number. The previous owner had attacked it and removed the charcoal canister bracket, plus it was very bent from a previous front ender. I welded up and ground flush where the previous owner had hacked holes in it.

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Then I took a step back and thought long and hard about what I wanted when the car was finished. Yep, I'm a perfectionist and that panel is FAR from perfect. It's rough and the previous owner had shaved the chassis rail and stupidly touched the chassis number. That's been bugging me from the day I bought the car. Out it comes!

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Now I am left with a front end that looks like this!

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....however, it gives me nice access now to both chassis rails, to ensure they are perfectly straight. I love perfect! =)

Then as the day wore on, I thought about my rad support and welding in the lower rust repair section. I wanted it to be super clean before welding, so I wire wheeled the lot.

Before.....

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And after some serious wire wheeling (next time I paint strip!)....

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...and that was it for today. My neck is stuffed from an injury a couple of weeks ago playing indoor cricket, so I had to go to the docs and get x-rays. Damn injuries getting in the way of FUN!

As always...... more to come!

[notna]

Yea.... not a fan of the shaved chassis rails. Looks great, don't get me wrong, but this resto is to be an ORIGINAL resto, so they can't stay like that. Not sure yet how I will right that wrong.

[notna]

Couldn't help myself. Snuck in a little more work today.

Finished cleaning up the rad support.

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Trial fitted it on the car, with bonnet catch and front apron bolten on, and marked out the correct position for the lower rust repair section.

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Clamped it and welded it flat on the garage floor.

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The clamped it back onto the car and test fitted panels.

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Because I didn't cut out the rusted section, I was a little unsure of how the replacement piece should fit. Using the bonnet catch and front apron helped a lot, but like with any reproduction replacement section, it required a little manipulation to sit correctly.

I'm now going to clean up the entire rad support panel, dress the welds, and hit it with some etch primer. I will then get back to my chassis rails, battery tray, etc, and finish off my engine bay nicely, before reattaching the rad support.

[notna]

A mini update to keep the progress pictured.

I scored a UC roller that was freakishly rust free, and have taken someof its best bits for my SL/R resto.

My plenum chamber is somewhat holy.... as shown:



So I butchered the MINT plenum from the UC.... Nice huh?

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I will do that repair soon.

My donor UC also had 4 MINT doors in original 1978 paint too. All 4 doors on the 'ol SL/R were absolutely rooted! They even had cardboard stuffed in them to reinforce the bog all the way along the bottom of each. Those went ot SIMS scrap metal with the UC shell, and my skillfull son helped with removing the old and attaching the new.

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So now my once complete Papaya SL/R starts to look worse, before it eventually gets better. This is often a period where restos get abandoned, because people lose sight of the completed picture and get turned off by how crap they look mid-resto. I have a long way to go, but no quitting!!

More to come......

[notna]

Had a month off to please the family and do some dad things over Xmas...... got stuck back into the big piece of fruit today.

Time to finally repair these bloody awfull forward chassis rail sections. My donor UC donated it's mint ones, as well as the other 2 bits you see here. Chassis rail lips? Not sure what to call them really. The previous owner of my SL/R wanted the shaved chassis rail look, and did a half assed job of it. Now don't get me wrong here.... on certain restos and street machine builds, its a TOP look to have clean chassis rails, but for me and this big ripe Papaya SL/R, it's gotta be 100% original, so I will be replacing the chassis rail lips that have been removed. More on that later.

The new rails and bits...

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I was worried about trimming off the bent rail section and then not trimming the new piece to the same length. The best way I could see to ensure both cuts were equal was to bolt the new rail under the bent rail, using the bumper bar bracket holes. You can clearly see the bent rail Vs straight one here.

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Time to mark and cut. Using a big mofo grinder helped with cutting it in one go and making sure it was straight.

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Oh crap..... what have I done!! I never imagined going this far when I set off to buy this car site unseen last year o.O

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Clamped the replacement rail section in place and checked all my measurements that I took before chopping off the old.

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Welded it up nicely, and did exactly the same on the other side, ensuring the welds were penetrating well enough, although this part of the chassis rail is only good for hanging forward panels off, and doesn't effect the integrity of the car.

Nice weld huh?

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And finally, the front of my SL/R with both rails returned, nice and straight.

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By this stage I was spent.... it was a damn humid day in Sydney and i had already sweated a truckload.

Next time...... welding on the chassis rail lips, returnign them to factory original......

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Attached Files

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[notna]

Last pic there is supposed to be at the top.... lol... thats the front cut which I took the rails from.... can't edit it to make it right but yuou get the drift....

[notna]

Lee.... you made me paraniod to the point where I had to remeasure today, even though I measured and then meadured again before cutting and after welding!! All good in that regard

Matt, I was actually going to PM you for advice before I took on this repair, so I would love your input now and if you want to mock something for a demo, it would be appreciated!

[Mort]

Anton, don't mean to be a jobes comforter but when you say you have measured and remeasured, is that your own car or have you measured another car to make sure they are both the same length, the reason i ask is that in the 2nd and 4th pic your old rails still don't look fully straight, then again it could just be the angle of the photo but it's something to think about if you haven't already done so.